Schultz, L. D., & Spyridakis, J. H. (2002). The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of online information. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (pp. 513-518).

Schultz, L.; Spyridakis, J.

2002

Schultz, L. D., & Spyridakis, J. H. (2002). The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of online information. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (pp. 513-518).

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This paper describes a Web-based study that examines the effect of heading frequency on comprehension, anxiety levels of patients, and perceptions of ease of use of an educational medical Web site. The study focuses on arthritis patients using content from a naturally occurring Web site that was adapted for this study. We expect that more headings will result in higher comprehension and that as comprehension increases, anxiety will decrease. Data are still being collected; results are presented.

The comprehension results did not confirm the hypothesis that frequent headings would lead to higher comprehension scores. The lack of significant differences between any of the heading conditions may relate to participants' ratings of the text. Readers who were more interested and less familiar with the text comprehended more, and participants who were more interested believed they had gained more new knowledge.

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