Britt, M. A., & Larson, A. A. (2003). Constructing representations of arguments. Journal of Memory and Language, 48(4), 794-810.

Britt, M.;Larson, A.

2003

Britt, M. A., & Larson, A. A. (2003). Constructing representations of arguments. Journal of Memory and Language, 48(4), 794-810.

studie 1

Three experiments were conducted to test whether presentation order affects the reading and later recall of simple two-clause arguments. Participants read arguments in a claim-first order or in a reason-first order. Three experiments found that arguments were read faster when claims preceded reasons and this effect was independent of whether the reason began with a subordinating conjunction. Shorter reading times were observed for claims when they occurred in the initial position. Claims were also recalled better than reasons and claim-first arguments were recalled more accurately than reason-first arguments. Experiments 3a and 3b showed that readers identified claims by the presence of markers (e.g., modals and qualifiers) and that arguments with modals are read more quickly and recalled better in a claim-first order. These results suggest that readers use a claim centered argument schema to guide the processing of persuasive prose.

The order in which argument information is presented has an immediate effect on the processing of that argument: arguments were read faster when the claim preceded the reason.

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