Brooks, L. W., Dansereau, D. F., Spurlin, J. E., & Holley, C. D. (1983). Effects of headings on text processing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(2), 292.

Effects of headings on text processing

  Common Characteristics of headings
- headings separate subsections of text
- distinguished from the text by using different typeface and placement
- are always placed before the chunk of text it clarifies
- the relation between headings and the subsections could be strong or weak
- could indicate organization and placement of subsections 
  
  Headings could be
- a single word
- a short phrase of the main topic 
- a question about the theme


Characteristics of Headings

- appear before the content
- distinguished from the text by having different typeface and placement
- often defines the major topic of the text 
- often its “scope” covers the entire text 

Characteristics of a Title

Schneider, S., Beege, M., Nebel, S., & Rey, G. D. (2018). A meta-analysis of how signaling affects learning with media. Educational Research Review, 23, 1-24.

A meta-analysis of how signaling affects learning with media

Signaling or Cueing principle is used to explain the impact of headings on reading comprehension.
- Signaling can be of two type: Textual signaling and Graphical
-Textual signaling can have five subgroups 
 - organizational signals (e.g., headings or summaries), 
 -colors (e.g., font colors), 
- text-picture references (e.g., “see the picture”), 
- intonation (e.g., in auditory texts), 
- a mixture of types (e.g., coloring and text-picture referencing)."

Theories about Headings and reading comprehension

- Both have a facilitative effect on readers’ recall
- Headings and outlines accompanied text resulted in the greatest overall levels of recall
- Outlines promote the recording task better among all conditions
- The explanation for the effect of headings
     - A schema activation process activates content schemata
     - The signaling effect (function as retrieval cues)
- Special explanation for the effect of outlines
     - Knowledge of text organization


The effect of outlines and headings on readers' recall of text

Three sets of operations
- the meaning elements of the text are organized into a coherent whole, a process that results in multiple processing of certain elements resulting in different retention
- condenses the full meaning of the text into its main points
- generates new texts from the results of the comprehension process

A model for text comprehension

(a) Acting as cues for prior knowledge relevant to a given topic 
(b) Emphasize the relationship between concepts and facts in a given text 
(c) Provide retrieval cues for subsequent recall.

Headings influence cognitive processing

- 577 Secondary 6 students
- three performance groups: High, Medium, and Low
- Version 1 was a non-signaled passage
- Version 2 was embedded with logical connectives
- Version 3 titled with paragraph headings
- Version 4 contained both (logical connectives & paragraph headings)
- Version 3, paragraph headings as signals, facilitates both microstructure and microstructure of text understanding.

Signals and reading comprehension - theory and practice

In our design each node includes a summary of a text with headings. Incorporating headings in each node is aligned with previous findings on the positive impact of heading on free recall [brooks1983effects]

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

1. Concept maps improve reading comprehension
2. Text summaries are superior to text
3. Headings help comprehension
4. Left-to-right orientation improves readability
5. Pictorial 2D representation of text improves comprehension (DCT)
6. Insufficient detail and richness in Novakian concept maps

Hybrid map design rational

1. knowledge maps to deliver new information to students (Dansereau)
2. Studying CMs are advantages regardless of grade levels and the study subject both STEM and non-STEM subjects [nesbit2006learning]
3.  Studying CMs can enhance meaningful learning due to the reduction in Extraneous Cognitive Load [schroeder2018studying]. 
4. Concept maps in comparison to texts have fewer contextual details. This invokes meta-cognitive prompts to some extent as constructing a concept map [schroeder2018studying].


Concept maps improve reading comprehension

Benefits of text summaries in comparison to text on learning are discussed by other researchers [reder1980comparison,reder1982effects]

Text summaries are superior to text

Headings help comprehension

- In Hybrid map the most general notions are located on the left-middle corner. readers focus more on the left corner when beginning to read a concept map [nesbit2007students]
- Hierarchical left-to-right concept maps are superior to top-down network concept maps [amadieu2009effects].

Left-to-right orientation improves readability

As advised by Piavio’s dual coding theory [clark1991dual Page164,171] in Hybrid map text summaries are represented in a pictorial node- link format which reduces verbal channel overload and enhances learning and information retention 
[kalhor2012teaching page 730].


Pictorial 2D representation of text improves comprehension (DCT)

Previously [dansereau2005nodepage 76] showed that using few words in a node may “Contain insufficient detail and richness for expressing complex and ambiguous relationships” 

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