Effects of headings and familiarity with a text on strategies for searching a text

Klusewitz, Madeline A.; Lorch, Robert F.

doi:10.3758/bf03201256

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…They have been shown to aid performance on reading tasks that focus on the identification of major text topics and their organization, such as summarization (Lorch & Lorch, 1996a; and outlining (Brooks, Dansereau, Spurlin, & Holley, 1983;Lorch et al, 2011a;Lorch et al, 2012). They have also been shown to influence eye movements during reading (Cauchard et al, 2010a(Cauchard et al, , 2010bHyönä & Lorch, 2004), text search (Klusewitz & Lorch, 2000;Lorch et al, 2011aLorch et al, , 2011b and memory for informational text 1996b;Ritchey et al, 2008) even when the reading task does not directly implicate topic structure information (e.g., reading for understanding and/or free recall).…”

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confidence: 94%

Signaling topic structure via headings or preview sentences

Lorch¹,

Lemarié²,

Chen³

2013

Psicol. educ.

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A B S T R A C TTwo experiments compared the effects on text processing of headings and preview sentences that were designed to communicate the same information about the texts' topics and their organization. In Experiment 1, college students read a text for understanding then were tested on memory for the subtopics and memory for simple facts presented in the text. Memory for subtopics was better for the text with headings; there was no difference between headings and preview sentences on memory for facts. In Experiment 2, participants read a text in order to outline it. Outlining was better if the text contained signals to topic structure than if the text did not contain signals, but there were no reliable differences between previews and headings. The findings show that previews function similarly to headings in a task that emphasizes the relevance of topic structure information, but they do not elicit readers' attention to topic information as readily as headings do. These results have implications for textbook design and instruction of comprehension strategies. La estructura temática señalizada vía títulos u oraciones previas R E S U M E NEn dos experimentos se compararon los efectos que sobre el procesamiento de textos ejercen los títulos y oraciones previas, ambos diseñados para transmitir la misma información sobre los tópicos del texto y sobre su organización. En el experimento 1, estudiantes universitarios leyeron un texto con el objeto de comprenderlo y a los que se les evaluó mediante dos pruebas de memoria, una centrada sobre los subtópicos y otra sobre hechos aislados descritos en el texto. La prueba de memoria sobre los subtemas fue superior para la versión del texto con títulos; sin embargo, no hubo diferencias en la prueba de memoria sobre hechos aislados entre ambas versiones del texto. En el experimento 2, los participantes leyeron un texto, pero en este caso con el objeto de dar una visión general sobre su contenido. En este caso la versión del texto señalizado sobre la estructura del texto fue mejor que la no señalizada, pero no se detectaron diferencias entre las oraciones previas y los títulos. Los resultados muestran que la función de las oraciones previas son similares a los títulos en tareas que enfatizan la relevancia de la información de la estructura del tema, pero no elicitan la atención de los lectores hacia la información del tópico como lo hacen fácilmente los títulos. Estos resultados tienen implicaciones educativas para el diseño de libros de texto y también para la instrucción de estrategias de comprensión.

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confidence: 94%

Signaling topic structure via headings or preview sentences

Lorch¹,

Lemarié²,

Chen³

2013

Psicol. educ.

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“…Two expository texts were adapted from a previous study (Klusewitz & Lorch, 2000) and translated into French. One text was about energy use, the other about fire‐fighting.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical perceptual span and the processing of visual signals in reading

et al. 2009

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A previous study by Pollatsek et al. ( 1993 ) claims that the perceptual span in reading is restricted to the fixated line, i.e. readers typically focus their visual attention on the line of text being read. The present study investigated whether readers make use of content structure signals (paragraph indentations and topic headings) present several lines away from the currently fixated line. We reasoned that as these signals are low-resolution visual objects (as opposed to letter and word identity), readers may attend to them even if they are located some distance away from the fixated line. Participants read a hierarchically organized multi-topic expository text containing structure signals in either a normal condition or a window condition, where the text disappeared above and below a vertical 3° gaze-contingent region. After reading, participants were asked to produce a written recall of the text. The results showed that the overall reading rate was not affected by the window. Nevertheless, the headings were reread more in the normal condition than in the window one. In addition, more topics were recalled in the normal than in the window condition. We interpret the results as indicating that the readers visually attend to useful text layout features while considering bigger units than single text lines. The perception of topic headings located away from the fixated line may favour long-range regressions towards them, which in turn may favour text comprehension. This claim is consistent with previous studies that showed that look-back fixations to headings are performed with an integrative intent.

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“…They also help the reader to locate information within the text (Hartley and Trueman, 1985). More specifically, these effects concern the time needed to find information, response accuracy (Haladi et al, 2002) and the strategies used to scan pages (Kluzewitz and Lorch, 2000). Titles help the reader to carry out instructions, as they contribute to the building of the initial cognitive representation (Heurley, 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%