Lorch, R. F., Lorch, E. P., & Inman, W. E. (1993). Effects of signaling topic structure on text recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(2), 281-290.

Lorch, R.; Lorch, E.; Inman, W.

1993

Lorch, R. F., Lorch, E. P., & Inman, W. E. (1993). Effects of signaling topic structure on text recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(2), 281-290.

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Two experiments studied effects of signaling devices (headings, overviews, and summaries) on text memory. In Exp 1, Ss read a text with or without signals, then recalled the topics of the text. Signaling produced better memory for the topics and their organization. In Exp 2, Ss recalled the content of the text they read, and recalls were scored for the number of accurately recalled ideas. Signals produced recalls that were better organized by text topics. Signals also influenced the distribution of recall of ideas: Ss remembered more topics but recalled less about each accessed topic if the text they read contained signals than if it did not. The results are interpreted as supporting a model in which signals influence readers' representations of a text's topic structure, which, in turn, is used to guide the recall of text content.

In the absence of signaling, subordinate information was more poorly recalled when the topics were briefly discussed than when the topics were discussed at length. When signaling was present, however, there was no significant difference in recall of topics that were briefly discusses versus topics that were discussed at length. In sum, when the topic structure of a text is clearly signaled as opposed to unsignaled, subjects recall information about more of the topics and the organization of their recalls adheres more closely to the organization of topics in the text. These results support the central hypothesis of the top-down search model that adult readers recall text information by retrieving and searching their topic structure representations to access subordinate information.

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