The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of print versus online information

Technical Communication

Volumn 53, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 416-425

  Bartell, Alexandra L ^a,b   Schultz, Laura D ^a,b   Spyridakis, Jan H ^c,d  

^a BOEING COMPANY   (United States)

^b Society for Technical Communication

^c UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

^d STC ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33845333043     PISSN: 00493155     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Anderson, R. C., and P. D. Pearson. 1984. A schematheoretic view of basic processes in reading comprehension. In Handbook of reading research, ed. P. Mosenthal, 255-291. New York, NY: Longman, Inc.
2. Bannert, M. 2002. Managing cognitive load-Recent trends in cognitive load theory. Learning and instruction 12 (1): 139-146.
3. Bartlett, F. C. 1932. Remembering. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
4. Blasko, D. G., and C. M. Connine. 1993. Effects of familiarity and aptness on metaphor processing. Journal of experimental psychology: Learning, memory, and cognition 19 (2): 295-306.
5. Britton, B. K., B. J. Meyer, M. H. Hodge, and S. M. Glynn. 1980. Effects of the organization of text on memory: Tests of retrieval and response criterion hypotheses. Journal of experimental psychology 6 (5): 620-629.
6. Brooks, L. W., and D. F. Dansereau. 1983. Effects of structural schema training and text organization on expository prose processing. Journal of educational psychology 75:811-820.
7. Brünken, R., J. L. Plass, and D. Leutner. 2003. Direct measurement of cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational psychologist 38 (1): 53-61.
8. Conway, M. A., and S. A. Dewhurst. 1995. Remembering, familiarity, and source monitoring. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology 48 (1): 125-140.
9. Dee-Lucas, D., and J. H. Larkin. 1995. Learning from electronic texts: Effects of interactive overviews for information access. Cognition and instruction 13 (3): 431-468.
10. Dillon, A. 1992. Reading from paper versus screens: A critical review of the empirical literature. Ergonomics 35 (10): 1297-1326.
11. Eveland, W. P., Jr., and S. Dunwoody. 2001. User control and structural isomorphism or disorientation and cognitive load? Learning from the Web versus print. Communication research 28 (1): 48-78.
12. Eysenck, M. W., and M. T. Keanne. 1990. Cognitive psychology: A student's handbook. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
13. Gould, J. D., L. Alfaro, R. Finn, B. Haupt, and A. Minute. 1987. Why reading was slower from CRT displays than from paper. Proceedings of the SIGCHI/GI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and Graphics Interface, 7-11. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
14. Haladyna, T. M. 1997. Writing test items to evaluate higher order thinking. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
15. Hartley, J. 1987. Designing electronic text: The role of printbased research. Educational communication and technology 34 (1): 3-17.
16. Hartley, J., J. Kenely, G. Owen, and M. Trueman. 1980. The effect of headings on children's recall from prose text. British journal of educational psychology 40:304-307.
17. Ho, J., and R. Tang. 2001. Towards an optimal resolution to information overload: An infomediary approach. In Proceedings of the 2001 International ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Support Group Work, 91-96. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
18. Huhmann, B. A., D. L. Mothersbaugh, and G. R. Franke. 2002. Rhetorical figures in headings and their effect on text processing: The moderating roles of information relevance and text length. IEEE transactions on professional communication 45:157-169.
19. Hyona, J., and R. F. Lorch. 2004. Effects of topic headings on text processing: Evidence from adult readers' eye fixation patterns. Learning and instruction 14:131-152.
20. Kintsch, W., and T. A. van Dijk. 1978. Toward a model of text comprehension and production. Psychological review 85:363-394.
21. _, and J. S. Yarbrough. 1982. Role of rhetorical structure in text comprehension. Journal of educational psychology 74:828-834.
22. Lorch, R. F., and E. P. Lorch. 1996a. Effects of organizational signals on free recall of expository text. Journal of educational psychology 88 (1): 38-48.
23. _. 1996b. Effects of headings on text recall and summarization. Contemporary educational psychology 21: 261-278.
24. Lorch, R. F., E. P. Lorch, L. McGovern, and D. Coleman. 2001. Effects of headings on text summarization. Contemporary educational psychology 26:171-191.
25. McAdams, M. 1996. The editorial eye 19 (6): 1-3.
26. McDaniel, M. A., G. O. Einstein, and T. Lollis. 1988. Qualitative and quantitative considerations in encoding difficulty effects. Memory and cognition 16 (1): 8-14.
27. Meyer, B. J. F. 1984. Text dimensions and cognitive processing. In Learning and comprehension of text, ed. H. Mandl, N. L. Stein, and T. Trabasso, 3-52. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
28. Mills, C. B., and L. J. Weldon. 1987. Reading text from computer screens. ACM computer surveys 19 (4): 329-358.
29. Moore, L. Headings: More important than ever. http://www.gr-lakes.com/ ~lmoore/heading.htm.
30. Mullen, D., and A. Koester. 1975. LaREC; language through recreation. A handbook for program developers. Prince Albert, SK: Information Canada.
31. Niederhauser, D. S., R. E. Reynolds, D. J. Salmen, and P. Skolmoski. 2000. The influence of cognitive load on learning from hypertext. Journal of educational computing research 23 (3): 237-255.
32. Nielsen, J. 1997. Concise, scannable, and objective: How to write for the Web. Useit.com. http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.
33. Nielsen, J. 2000. Designing Web usability. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing.
34. Oborne, D. J., and D. Holton. 1988. Reading from screen versus paper: There is no difference. International journal of man-machine studies 28 (1): 1-9.
35. Olhausen, M. M., and C. M. Roller. 1988. The operation of text structure and content schemata in isolation and in interaction. Reading research quarterly 23 (1): 70-87.
36. Redish, J. 1989. Reading to learn to do. IEEE transactions on professional communication 32:289-293.
37. Redish, J. 2003. Focusing on content: Writing for information-rich Web sites. http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:n5Svz7qtSgAJ: www.stc-psc.org/PDFs/ RedishWritingForWeb_403. pdf+lots+of+headings&hl=en&gl=us&ct= clnk&cd= 9.
38. Sadoski, M., E. T. Goetz, and J. B. Fritz. 1993. A causal model of sentence recall: Effects of familiarity, concreteness, comprehensibility, and interestingness. Journal of reading behavior 25 (1): 4-16.
39. Salmeron, L., J. J. Canas, W. Kintsch, and I. Fajardo. 2005. Reading strategies and hypertext comprehension. Discourse processes 40 (3): 171-191.
40. Sanchez, R. P., E. P. Lorch, and R. F. Lorch. 2001. Effects of headings on text processing strategies. Contemporary educational psychology 26:418-428.
41. Schmar-Dober, E. 2003. Reading on the Internet: The link between literacy and technology. Journal of adolescent & adult literacy 47 (1): 80-85.
42. Schultz, L. D., and J. H. Spyridakis. 2004. The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of online information: A study of two populations. Technical communication 51:504-516.
43. Sticht, T. 1985. Understanding readers and their uses of text. In Designing usable texts, ed. T. M. Duffy and R. Waller, 315-340. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
44. Spyridakis, J. H. 1989a. Signaling effects: A review of the research, part I. Journal of technical writing and communication 19:227-240.
45. _. 1989b. Signaling effects: A review of the research, part II. Journal of technical writing and communication 19: 395-415.
46. _. 1991. An emerging model of signaling effects. Technical communication 38:600-603.
47. _. 1996. Effects of headings on text recall and summarization. Contemporary educational psychology 21: 261-278.
48. Sweller, J. 1988. Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive science 12:257-285.
49. Waller, R. 1982. Text as diagram: Using typography to improve access and understanding. In The technology of text: Principles for structuring, designing and displaying text, ed. D. H. Jonassen, 137-166. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Ed Tech Publications.
50. Wenger, M. J., and D. G. Payne. 1996. Comprehension and retention of nonlinear text: Considerations of working memory and material-appropriate processing. The American journal of psychology 109 (1): 93-130.
51. Williams, T. 1994. Schema theory. In Technical communication frontiers: Essays in theory, ed. C. H. Sides, 81-102. St. Paul, MN: Association of Teachers in Technical Writing.