L. Lagerwerf

Advance Organizers in Advisory Reports: Selective Reading, Recall, and Perception.

According to research in educational psychology, advance organizers lead to better learning and recall of information. In this research, the authors explored advance organizers from a business perspective, where larger documents are read under time pressure. Graphic and verbal advance organizers were manipulated into six versions of an advisory report, read by 159 experienced professional readers in a between-subjects design. Their reading time was limited to encourage selective reading. The results show that graphic advance organizers facilitate selective reading, but they do not enhance recall. Verbal advance organizers introducing a problem enhance recall, and graphic advance organizers moderate the effects on both selective reading and recall.

Verbal redundancy in a procedural animation

Multimedia learning research has shown that presenting the same words as spoken text and as written text to accompany graphical information hinders learning (i.e., redundancy effect). However, recent work showed that a condensed form of written text (i.e., on-screen labels) that overlaps with the spoken text, and thus is only partially redundant, can actually foster learning. This study extends this line of research by focusing on the usefulness of on-screen labels in an animation explaining a procedural task (i.e., first-aid procedure). The experiment had a 222 between-subject design (N=129) with the factors spoken text (yes vs. no), written text (yes vs. no), and on-screen labels (yes vs. no). Learning outcomes were measured as retention accuracy and behavioral performance accuracy. Results showed that on-screen labels improved retention accuracy (but not behavioral performance accuracy) of the procedure, especially when presented together with spoken text. So, on-screen labels appear to be promising for learning from procedural animations. Recent research shows that on-screen labels improve learning of multimedia material.This study aimed to extend this to learning from procedural animations.We also applied a behavioral performance measure next to a cognitive outcome measure.On-screen labels improved retention but not behavioral performance of the procedure.On-screen labels appear to be promising for learning from procedural animations.

Immediate attention for public speech: Differential effects of rhetorical schemes and valence framing in political radio speeches

Political campaign speeches are deemed influential in winning people’s minds and votes. While the language used in such speeches has often been credited with their impact, empirical research in this area is scarce. We report on two experiments investigating how language variables such as rhetorical schemes (e.g., contrast, list of three) and valence framing (using positive vs. negative words) affect immediate attention and consecutive information processing of political radio speeches. Experiment 1 measured immediate attention for radio speeches measured through moment-to-moment, self-report measures. Negative framing, compared with positive framing, increased immediate attention. Rhetorical schemes only increased attention in positively (but not in negatively) framed speeches. No effects on recall were found. In Experiment 2, immediate attention for similar radio speeches was measured through secondary task reaction times. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment’s effects on attention, and also yielded recall effects. A multiple-mediator model showed that comprehensibility mediated effects of rhetorical schemes and framing on recall.

Incongruity in news headings. Readers’ choices and resulting cognitions

In the rapidly changing news market, quality newspapers are searching for ways to combine established journalistic practices with attractive presentation of their newsprint. On internet news sites, attention-getting headlines are even more important in obtaining readership. This paper investigates the role of incongruity in selection of headings, and recall, recognition, and appreciation of selected news items. In Experiment 1, headlines were written on three incongruity levels: straightforward, ambiguous (trope), or stylistically deviant (scheme). In Experiment 2, news headlines were accompanied by either consistent or inconsistent photographs. Results of both experiments showed that heading incongruity enhanced information processing of news items.

Surface cues of content and tenor in text

This special issue of Discourse Processes contains a selection of articles from the workshop Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse (MAD03)—a biennial workshop bringing together researchers from various disciplines and with a mutual interest in the study of discourse. The 2003 edition’s aim was to tackle the issue of how to analyze content and tenor of texts. This topic has a background in various disciplines, which were all represented at the workshop: content analysis, discourse psychology, and computational and cognitive–functional linguistics. A number of articles addressed questions concerning the cues signaling a text’s content and tenor and the kind of information or effect that is conveyed this way. Four manuscripts evolving from these articles were selected for this issue. They are examples of the various approachesofdiscourseanalysismakinguseof textcorpora.Different statisticaland computational techniques are used to analyze surface cues that signal content or tenor in texts. In this introduction, we present a short overview of current topics in corpus analysis as a tool for discourse analysis. We will show how the four contributions to this special issue represent recent developments.