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A summarization task was used to study whether headings influence readers' representations of the topic structure of a text. College students (Experiments 1-3) and sixth- and eighth-graders (Experiment 3) summarized a multiple topic text that (a) included headings introducing every new subtopic, (b) included headings introducing half of the new subtopics, or (c) included no headings. In all experiments, topics were more likely to be included in a summary if they were signaled than if they were not signaled. This effect was magnified when the text was only half signaled: Signaled topics were more likely to appear in a summary ...

A summarization task was used to study whether headings influence readers' representations of the topic structure of a text. College students (Experiments 1-3) and sixth- and eighth-graders (Experiment 3) summarized a multiple topic text that (a) included headings introducing every new subtopic, (b) included headings introducing half of the new subtopics, or (c) included no headings. In all experiments, topics were more likely to be included in a summary if they were signaled than if they were not signaled. This effect was magnified when the text was only half signaled: Signaled topics were more likely to appear in a summary ...

Two experiments examined how headings influence text recall and summarization. In a free recall task (Experiment 1), the presence of headings facilitated recall of unfamiliar topics but not familiar topics. In a summarization task (Experiment 2), headings and familiarity had independent effects, whereas headings interacted with the amount of discussion of a topic, such that headings had a greater influence on the likelihood that a topic would be included in a summary only when the topic was briefly discussed. Findings are interpreted as indicating that headings and the amount of discussion of a topic jointly influence readers' representation of a ...

Two hypotheses about how organizational signals influence text recall were tested: (a) that signals cause readers to change their text-processing strategies and (b) that signals facilitate readers' attempts to encode topic structure information but do not cause a shift in strategies. College students read and recalled a text that contained either no signals or contained headings, overviews, or summaries emphasizing the text's topic structure. At recall, students either received no cues or were reminded of the text's topics. Providing cues facilitated recall much more in the 3 conditions involving signaling than in the no-signals condition. The results are consistent with ...

Two hypotheses about how organizational signals influence text recal1 were tested: (a) that signals cause readers to change their text-processing strategies and (b) that signals facilitate readers' attempts to encode topic structure information but do not cause a shift in strategies. College students read and recalled a text that contained either no signals or contained headings, overviews, or summaries emphasizing the text's topic structure. At recall, students either received no cues or were reminded of the text's topics. Providing cues facilitated recall much more in the 3 conditions involving signaling than in the no-signals condition. The results are consistent with ...

We contrasted four possible views of how causal connectives function during reading short texts: an end-of-clause reactivation view, a connective-elicited inference view, a resource-saving view, and a no-connective stimulating view. In Experiment 1, participants read a series of popular scientific texts joined by because or separated by a full stop. The on-line word-completion task used to measure inference activation revealed that although causal inferences are activated during reading, they are not enhanced by the presence of a connective. In Experiment 2, second-clause reading times data and memory data (prompted delayed recall test) revealed specific patterns of results according to the ...

We contrasted four possible views of how causal connectives function during reading short texts: an end-of-clause reactivation view, a connective-elicited inference view, a resource-saving view, and a no-connective stimulating view. In Experiment 1, participants read a series of popular scientific texts joined by because or separated by a full stop. The on-line word-completion task used to measure inference activation revealed that although causal inferences are activated during reading, they are not enhanced by the presence of a connective. In Experiment 2, second-clause reading times data and memory data (prompted delayed recall test) revealed specific patterns of results according to the ...

Previous research suggests that older adults derive interpretations of unfamiliar words that are less precise than those of young adults (D. McGinnis & E. M. Zelinski, 2000). Thirty-one adults aged 18-37, 27 aged 65-74, and 28 aged 75-87 read passages containing unfamiliar words (1 per passage) and were asked to think aloud during reading. After reading each passage, participants selected meaning-relevant cues and rated the quality of 4 definition options. Compared with the 2 younger groups, the oldest group rated thematic and irrelevant definitions significantly higher, and their think-aloud protocols included more generalized inferences. Results pertaining to cue selection were ...

From the perspective of the Fuzzy Trace Theory, this study investigated the impacts of concept maps with two strategic orientations (comprehensive and thematic representations) on readers’ performance of cognitive operations (such as perception, verbatim memory, gist reasoning and syntheses) while the readers were reading two history articles that argue from different perspectives about a historical incident that had a profound impact on Taiwan. The results show that the design and focus of the concept maps may influence the formation of mental representations, and that this may be facilitative or constraining in regard to the readers’ memory formation and reasoning about ...

Examined whether placing important words in boldface affects comprehension. In 2 experiments, a total of 120 college students read passages and timed themselves, answered multiple-choice comprehension questions, and produced recall summaries. Highlighting important words produced worse performance on comprehension questions, reading times, meaningful units recalled, and meaningful units recalled per unit reading time than did highlighting all words or no words. Similar patterns of results were found when participants were specifically instructed that the highlighted words were important as when they were not so instructed. These results are explained by the proposal that providing important words leads Ss to do ...