GOAL-GUIDED LEARNING FROM TEXT - INFERRING A DESCRIPTIVE PROCESSING MODEL FROM INSPECTION TIMES AND EYE-MOVEMENTS

221 high school and college students studied a 1,481-word passage to achieve prememorized goals in 3 experiments. Inspection times and eye movements were recorded in goal-relevant and nonrelevant text neighborhoods. Averaged group data indicated 2 inspection modes: (a) relatively rapid inspection of incidental text, and (b) slow goal processing. Goal-relevant sentences resulted in over twice as many fixations, each 15 msec longer than incidental sentences. Relative goal-processing time and goal achievements were positively correlated. Contrary to previous conjecture, the obtained descriptive model suggests that goal-guided reading is time-efficient when density of goal-relevant information in text is low. Qualitative differences were observed in style of Ss' responses to task demands. General processing models of goal-guided learning may have to be elaborated to accommodate inspection style differences among readers. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.