Signaling, notetaking, and field independence–dependence in text comprehension and recall.

Abstract

Experiment 1 involved having undergraduates take or not take notes while listening to two passages with or without signals (structural cues). When notetaking on signaled text, recall was maximized; on nonsignaled text, recall was minimized. Because notetakers appeared to rely on signals in processing text, it seemed that notetaking produced a structure-search process. Regression analyses suggested that notetaking in the presence of signals enhanced recall of field-dependent (FDs) but not field-independent learners (FIs). Experiment 2 directly examined this issue in a reading context. Increased high-level recall across passages of the same overall structure (a transfer of structure effect) was found for FIs only in the non-notetaking conditions and for the FDs only in the notetaking conditions. Thus, FIs seemed to spontaneously use a tacit structure strategy when left to their own devices and FDs appeared to immediately display powerful structuring skills when induced to do so via notetaking.The standard view of text (Britton & Glaesser, 1996) is that it is organized in hierarchical fashion with varying degrees of interconnectedness among the basic elements of meaning in the text. At the most general level, expository text poses some form of argument. For example, a problem may be presented with specific issues and some explanation of points, then a solution offered involving, perhaps, a description of the attributes of the proposal, the manner of performing it, and so on. The form of the argument and the key content elements can be explicitly pointed out by means of signaling words, such as the solution is or therefore, contained in the text.Signals, then, serve to cue the learner to the important text content and its organizational structure (

Cognitive effort during note taking

“…When taking notes from written documents, typographic and linguistics marks present in the text (title and headings, summarized statements, connectives, etc.) are used for selecting and structuring the information (Rickards, Fajen, Sullivan, & Gillespie, 1997;Sanchez, Lorch, & Lorch, 2001).…”

Towards a Framework for Attention Cueing in Instructional Animations: Guidelines for Research and Design

“…Consequently, at each transition between topics, the overall organizational structure will be updated . However, discerning the topic structure from text passages often fails if learners are not adequately supported with cues that emphasize the text's global topic structure (Loman and Mayer 1983;Rickards et al 1997). Therefore, a second function of cueing is to emphasize the organization of instructions to help learners to accurately represent the structure of the presented information.…”

Authenticity of Discourse Signaling Cues in Second Language Lecture Comprehension Tasks

“…[5] compared native-speaker and international teaching assistant's use of pitch and pause cues to create "intonational paragraphs' in their classes. Rickards, et al [6] conducted a research concerning the role of discourse signaling cues in L1 listening comprehension. They did find that the presence of signaling cues in the text resulted in a significance increase in the quantity of listeners' notes on both the overall content and major points.…”