Ritchey, K., Schuster, J., & Allen, J. (2008). How the relationship between text and headings influences readers’ memory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33(4), 859-874.

Ritchey, K.; Schuster, J.; Allen, J.

2008

Ritchey, K., Schuster, J., & Allen, J. (2008). How the relationship between text and headings influences readers’ memory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33(4), 859-874.

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Two questions regarding signals' influence on memory were examined. First, the relationship between headings and text was manipulated to determine whether headings serve as visual cues, directing readers to recall all subsequent information, or content-specific cues, directing readers to recall only to certain information. Second, distance between headings and signaled information was manipulated to determine the extent to which headings focus readers' recall. College students read a multiple-topic expository text. Free recall for main topics was facilitated by being related to headings and being close to headings and inhibited by being unrelated to headings and distant from headings. Conditional recall (recall of subordinate information pertaining to a main topic) was not affected by either relatedness of heading or distance. Results are consistent with research showing signals' mixed influence on recall and suggest relation and distance as factors to consider when writing and reading exposition.

Topics that were related to headings were recalled more than topics that were unrelated to headings. There was no effect of relatedness of heading on conditional recall. There was a significant effect of distance on topic recall, with topics closer to a heading being recalled more than topics distant from a heading. There was no effect of distance on conditional recall. Overall recall was influenced by distance, with information discussed in the first in the paragraph being recalled more than information discussed second. There were no interactions between relatedness of heading and distance for topic recall.

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