Signaling Effects: Increased Content Retention and New Answers—Part II

Abstract

This study investigated the role of signaling in helping good readers comprehend expository text. As the existing literature on signaling, reviewed in the last issue of this Journal, pointed to deficiencies in previous studies' methodologies, one goal of this study was to refine prose research methods. Two passages were designed in one of eight signaled versions each. The design was constructed to assess the individual and combined effects of headings, previews, and logical connectives. The study also assessed the effect of passage length, familiarity, and difficulty. The results showed that signals do improve a reader's comprehension, particularly comprehension two weeks after the reading of a passage and comprehension of superordinate and superordinate inferential information. This study supports the hypothesis that signals can influence retention of text-based information, particularly with long, unfamiliar, or difficult passages.