CONTROL OF PROSE PROCESSING VIA INSTRUCTIONAL AND TYPOGRAPHICAL CUES

176 undergraduates studied an informative text about an imaginary solar system. Two cuing systems, 1 instructional and 1 typographical, were manipulated to induce a single or double set of cues consistent with 1 or 2 sets of text propositions, respectively, or no cues, a treatment in which target propositions were unspecified. The main findings are that (a) a single set of cues elevated recall of cue-related propositions at the expense of cue-unrelated propositions; (b) the presence of 2 sets of conflicting cues attenuated recall of target information; (c) in the absence of cues, recall was best for propositions that were designated as important by the learners; and (d) recall was enhanced when propositions were located in neighborhoods of topically related information. These findings support the notion that cuing systems guide the construction and implementation of learners' prose-processing decision criteria. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.