Dixon, P. (1987). The processing of organizational and component step information in written directions. Journal of Memory and Language, 26(1), 24-35.

Dixon, P.

1987

Dixon, P. (1987). The processing of organizational and component step information in written directions. Journal of Memory and Language, 26(1), 24-35.

studie 1

Procedural directions are read faster when general organizational information is found at the beginning rather than at the end of the directions. Two possible explanations for this effect are investigated in the present research. In the guessing account, readers need extra time to guess the relationships of component steps when the organizational information is not found at the beginning. In the buffering account, readers buffer the component step information until the organizational information is found, and only then incorporate the component steps into their mental representation. The two accounts were tested by measuring reading time separately for organizational and component step information. Most of the information-order effect occurred while subjects were reading the component step information. Moreover, the magnitude of the effect was related to how difficult it was to guess the relationships among component steps when read in isolation. Together the results support the guessing explanation, and suggest that readers attempt to interpret component steps immediately, even if that initial interpretation might be incorrect.

There were significantly more object errors when the object information was presented second. Subjects made almost twice as many mistakes when the components sentence was presented first.

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