No abstract

Expository hypertexts may contain specific types of signals such as navigable topical overviews and hyperlinks that map conceptual relationships between text contents. Two experiments with German university students (N ϭ 130, 75% female, mean age 25 years) were conducted to test the hypothesis that hypertext-specific signals particularly support learners with badly routinized reading skills in organizing and integrating complex learning materials. The experiments were based on naturalistic texts and essay-writing tasks typical for exam preparation. Learning outcomes were measured by characteristics of participants' essays (amount of knowledge, knowledge focusing, knowledge integration). In both experiments, a hypertext with a high amount of signaling yielded better learning outcomes than did a linear text for readers with a low level of skill, whereas there were no differences for readers with a high level of skill (⌬R 2 from .03 to .08 for the interaction). In Experiment 2, the same interaction pattern was found for hypertext with a high versus a low amount of hypertext-specific signals (⌬R 2 from .04 to .10). Moreover, a lack of signals led to less efficient navigation behavior. These results demonstrate that hypertexts equipped with hypertext-specific signals may compensate for deficits in reading skill.

No abstract

Abstract. In experiments by Gibbs, Kushner, and Mills (1991) , sentences were supposedly either authored by poets or by a computer. Gibbs et al. (1991) concluded from their results that the assumed source of the text influences speed of processing, with a higher speed for metaphorical sentences in the Poet condition. However, the dependent variables used (e.g., mean RTs) do not allow clear conclusions regarding processing speed. It is also possible that participants had prior biases before the presentation of the stimuli. We conducted a conceptual replication and applied the diffusion model ( Ratcliff, 1978 ) to disentangle a possible effect on processing speed from a prior bias. Our results are in accordance with the interpretation by Gibbs et al. (1991) : The context information affected processing speed, not a priori decision settings. Additionally, analyses of model fit revealed that the diffusion model provided a good account of the data of this complex verbal task.

Previous research has shown that in different languages ironic speech is acoustically modulated compared to literal speech,and these modulations are assumed to aid the listener in the comprehension process by acting as cues that mark utterances as ironic. The present study was conducted to identify paraverbal features of German 'ironic criticism' that may possibly act as irony cues by comparing acoustic measures of ironic and literal speech. For this purpose, samples of scripted ironic and literal target utterances produced by 14 female speakers were recorded and acoustically analyzed. Results showed that in contrast to literal remarks, ironic criticism was characterized by a decreased mean fundamental frequency (F0), raised energy levels and increased vowel duration, whereas F0-contours differed only marginally between both speech types. Furthermore, we found ironic speech to be characterized by vowel hyperarticulation,an acoustic feature which has so far not been considered as a possible irony cue. Contrary to our expectations, voice modulations in ironic speech were applied independently from the availability of additional, visual irony cues.The results are discussed in light of previous findings on acoustic features of irony yielded for other languages.