Feeding the information eaters: Suggestions for integrating pure and applied research on language comprehension

Abstract

This paper examines the current relation between pure and applied research on the comprehension of written information. It finds few points of contact. The suggestion is put forward that greater interaction could be mutually profitable. An information flow among researchers is proposed that starts with applied solutions to practical problems, continues through pure explanations of why these solutions are successful, and so enables the refinement of the original applied solutions. Because such an information flow begins with applied solutions, some of the problems of systematizing the findings of applied research are discussed. There can never be an applied theory of communication that specifies precisely how to design written information. Therefore a proposal is put forward for applying "quality-control" procedures to the preparation of documents. Such procedures indicate that several different kinds of research are necessary for determining the content, optimising the format and evaluating the effectiveness of written communications. The desirability of interactions among those who carry out these different kinds of research is discussed. Finally, the criteria for evaluating research in general are considered. The categorisation of particular studies as either useful or useless is found to be inappropriate. mmm * Thanks are due to Drs John Morton and John Marshall both for providing the incentive to put these thoughts in writing and for their advice and encouragement during the preparation of the paper. Many helpful comments on an earlier draft were received from

Enhancing older adults' reading comprehension

“…Complexity metrics have been theoretically derived from specific linguistic theories, experimentally devised from models of syntactic processing, and empirically developed from research on language acquisition and sentence processing (Cheung & Kemper, 1992). Complexity metrics are typically combined with a "redesign-test" procedure (Wright, 1978) in order to validate the metric as a guide for enhancing reading Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 05:16 03 January 2015 speed and/or accuracy. Alternatively, reading researchers have commonly developed readability formulas to measure the overall difficulty, or the grade level suitability, of reading materials (Bruce & Rubin, 1988;Duffy, 1985).…”

Some Observations on Producing and Measuring Readable Writing

“…Our results showed that in nine out of these 11 cases the readers judged the active sentences to be more readable. Wright (1978) pointed out that a useful procedure to use to assess the readability of text was to ask readers to point out those places where they thought that other readers might have difficulties. (This procedure gets around the problem of people being unwilling to say that they themselves cannot understand parts of the material.…”

Developments and growth in information design

“…Elsewhere in a discussion of the value of pooling the skills of those working on different aspects of human communication I explored the analogy of 'feeding the information eaters' and suggested the need for 'greater co-operation between those studying the digestibility of information (psychologists), those training people to eat more wisely (educationists) and those who select and blend the ingredients of written communications (writers and information designers)' (Wright, 1978). This was not intended as an exhaustive list, but serves to illustrate that these disciplines cannot be substituted for each other, nor does it make much sense to argue about their relative importance.…”