EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SIGNALS ON TEXT-PROCESSING STRATEGIES

Two hypotheses about how organizational signals influence text recall were tested: (a) that signals cause readers to change their text-proce ssing strategies and (b) that signals facilitate readers' attempts to encode topic structure information but do not cause a shift in strateg ies. College students read and recalled a text that contained either n o signals or contained headings, overviews, or summaries emphasizing t he text's topic structure. At recall, students either received no cues or were reminded of the text's topics. Providing cues facilitated rec all much more in the 3 conditions involving signaling than in the no-s ignals condition. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that organizational signals induce readers to change their text-processing strategies.