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The primary motivation behind the advocated use of plain language in legal documents is to increase comprehension among non-experts. We report empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of three kinds of simplification of standard legal contracts for increasing comprehension among naive readers. A set of legal contracts was redrafted in three stages to produce three modified versions. In the first stage we removed or replaced archaic and redundant terms; in the next stage simplified words and sentence structure were introduced; in the final stage legal terms were defined or replaced with simpler terms. Comprehension, as measured by paraphrasing and question-answering tasks, ...

Attempts to quantify lexical variation have produced a large number of theoretical and empirical constructs, such as Word Frequency, Concreteness, and Ambiguity, which have been claimed to predict between-word differences in lexical processing behavior. Models of word recognition that have been developed to account for the effects of these variables have typically lacked adequate semantic representations, and have dealt with words as if they exist in isolation from their environment. We present a new dimension of lexical variation that is addressed to this concern. Contextual Distinctiveness (CD), a corpus-derived summary measure of the frequency distribution of the contexts in which ...

This study was designed to determine if simplification of smoking literature improved patient comprehension. Subjects (N = 129) were randomized in three groups: to receive no smoking booklet, receive one written at the 5th grade, or the 10th grade reading level. Subjects receiving the 5th grade booklet showed 13 percent better comprehension than those receiving the 10th grade booklet, and 18 percent better than the controls. Comprehension of written smoking materials can be improved by adjustment of the reading grade level. ...

We investigated whether printed or videotaped information is more effective in enhancing colon cancer knowledge. Subjects (n = 1100) were randomized into three groups: to receive a booklet, view a videotape, or receive no intervention. Subjects receiving the intervention showed increased knowledge compared with control subjects (booklet = 23% and videotape = 26% vs no intervention = 3%). Findings suggest that personalized educational materials are effective in enhancing colon cancer knowledge. ...

Readers′ comprehension and eye-fixations are monitored as they read descriptions of simple machines, pulley systems. The comprehension data indicate that readers′ comprehension depends on both the medium of instruction and the ability of the reader. The conjunction of text and diagrams particularly facilitated the understanding of how the pulley system moved, whereas either medium alone was sufficient for conveying the system configuration. The eye-fixation data indicate that subjects integrate the information in the text and diagram at the level of individual pulley-system components or groups of connected components. They read the text in increments, often rereading the information about a ...

The importance of causal structure has been well documented in text comprehension research. This study investigates how both easy & difficult texts can be improved by repairing the causal structure & how causal structure repairs can differentially affect comprehension for more- & less-skilled readers. Following causal network theories of comprehension, principled & replicable types of repairs were made. Causal repairs consisted of (1) arranging text events in temporal order; (2) making implicit goals explicit; & (3) repairing coherence breaks caused by inadequate explanation, multiple causality, or distant causal relations. More- & less-skilled readers read revised & original versions of easy ...

The utility of disclosure supers in television commercials in providing consumers with useful information is investigated. First the role of the various regulatory agencies in monitoring disclosure supers is reviewed. Next we review the role of consumer behavior theory in explaining how consumers process disclosure information. Then we develop and test hypotheses relating to four format aspects of disclosure supers. The findings supported the hypotheses. Viewers demonstrated lower levels of comprehension for disclosure information relative to information in the body copy of the commercials. Comprehension of disclosure information increased when typeface of disclosure was larger and when a voice-over accompanied ...

Readers′ comprehension and eye-fixations are monitored as they read descriptions of simple machines, pulley systems. The comprehension data indicate that readers′ comprehension depends on both the medium of instruction and the ability of the reader. The conjunction of text and diagrams particularly facilitated the understanding of how the pulley system moved, whereas either medium alone was sufficient for conveying the system configuration. The eye-fixation data indicate that subjects integrate the information in the text and diagram at the level of individual pulley-system components or groups of connected components. They read the text in increments, often rereading the information about a ...

This study examined how Flesch Reading Ease and text cohesion affect older adults' comprehension of common health texts. All older adults benefited when high Flesh Reading Ease was combined with high cohesion. Older adults with small working memories had more difficulty understanding texts high in Flesch Reading Ease. Additionally, older adults with low verbal ability or older than 77 years of age had difficulty understanding texts high in text cohesion but low in Flesch Reading Ease. These results imply that writers must increase Flesch Reading Ease without disrupting text cohesion to ensure comprehension of health-related texts. ...

Pictures help people to comprehend and remember texts. We report two experiments designed to test among several accounts of this facilitation. Students read texts describing four-step procedures in which the middle steps were described as occurring at the same time, although the verbal description of the steps was sequential. A mental representation of the procedure would have the middle steps equally strongly related to the preceding and succeeding steps (because the middle steps are performed simultaneously), whereas a mental representation of the text would have the middle step that was described first more closely related to the preceding step than ...