the experiment shows that participants recall better if received training on forming mental outlines of the text

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- The authors designed an experiment to directly test which hypothesis is correct by manipulating which mechanism (linear or structure) participants use to encode text
- The result shows that the participants encode text linearly when no headings are present, so headings improve recall by changing their text processing mechanism to structure strategy 

The experiment shows that strategy selection hypothesis is more reliable

Sanchez, R. P., Lorch, E. P., & Lorch, R. F. (2001). Effects of Headings on Text Processing Strategies. Contemporary Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.2000.1056

Effects of Headings on Text Processing Strategies

- 140 college students from psychology classes at the University of Kentucky 
- Passages used in the experiment are expository 
4 experiment conditions: 
- text with headings and with training 
- text with headings and without training 
- text without headings and with training 
- text without headings and without training 

Experiment design

- Text was divided into “idea units” matching the main clauses in the 12 subsections/topics of the text 
- More than 1 idea could be expressed by one sentence in the passage
- Free recall response was scored if it correctly paraphrases any of the “idea units”

- Participants were asked to write their free recall answers as completely as possible without listing or summarizing 
- This is because the experiment aims to investigate participants’ text encoding and recalling process 

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