Communicating printed headings to the ear.

Two experiments compared three methods of translating printed headings into an auditory format. In both experiments, college students listened to a text with instructions to stop the recording whenever they heard a heading and type the hierarchical level and exact wording of the heading. Listeners were poor at identifying headings and their levels if the headings were not distinguished from the rest of the text. However, listeners were very good at identifying headings if any method of signalling was used to distinguish headings and communicate their hierarchical level. The methods included: (1) tones preceding headings, (2) changes of speaker to indicate headings or (3) verbal labels preceding headings. Although all three signalling methods improved identification of a heading's hierarchical level, the labelling method was the most effective means of communicating hierarchical level. Thus, the study identifies a simple method of effectively communicating headings in spoken text. Practitioner Summary: The study attempted to identify effective ways of communicating heading information in spoken text. College students listened to texts in order to detect headings and record their wording and hierarchical level. Performance was excellent when headings were preceded by verbal phrases that signalled the upcoming headings and their levels.

Position of Correct Option and Distractors Impacts Responses to Multiple-Choice Items: Evidence From a National Test.

Even though the impact of the position of response options on answers to multiple-choice items has been investigated for decades, it remains debated. Research on this topic is inconclusive, perhaps because too few studies have obtained experimental data from large-sized samples in a real-world context and have manipulated the position of both correct response and distractors. Since multiple-choice tests' outcomes can be strikingly consequential and option position effects constitute a potential source of measurement error, these effects should be clarified. In this study, two experiments in which the position of correct response and distractors was carefully manipulated were performed within a Chilean national high-stakes standardized test, responded by 195,715 examinees. Results show small but clear and systematic effects of options position on examinees' responses in both experiments. They consistently indicate that a five-option item is slightly easier when the correct response is in A rather than E and when the most attractive distractor is after and far away from the correct response. They clarify and extend previous findings, showing that the appeal of all options is influenced by position. The existence and nature of a potential interference phenomenon between the options' processing are discussed, and implications for test development are considered.

Impact of incomplete correspondence between document titles and texts on users' representations: a cognitive and linguistic analysis based on 25 technical documents.

Based on previous research in the field of cognitive psychology, highlighting the facilitatory effects of titles on several text-related activities, this paper looks at the extent to which titles reflect text content. An exploratory study of real-life technical documents investigated the content of their Subject lines, which linguistic analyses had led us to regard as titles. The study showed that most of the titles supplied by the writers failed to represent the documents' contents and that most users failed to detect this lack of validity.

Learning flight procedures by enacting and receiving feedback.

Learning flight procedures is part of any pilot training. The conventional learning method consists in learning and practicing the procedure written on a sheet of paper along with printed images of the cockpit. The purpose of the present paper was to test the efficiency of a tactile interactive multimedia training tool designed to foster the self-regulated learning of flight procedures, especially through enacting relevant gestures and providing feedback. Results showed that learning with this tool did not lead to significant shorter learning times than with the conventional learning. However, on a delayed retention test in a real A320 cockpit simulator, learners of the experimental group performed the procedure more rapidly than those of the control group. Results suggested that a training tool that incites learners to perform similar gestures than those in the real environment and that provides feedback, helped learners to transform declarative into procedural knowledge.

Communicating headings and preview sentences in text and speech.

Two experiments tested the effects of preview sentences and headings on the quality of college students' outlines of informational texts. Experiment 1 found that performance was much better in the preview sentences condition than in a no-signals condition for both printed text and text-to-speech (TTS) audio rendering of the printed text. In contrast, performance in the headings condition was good for the printed text but poor for the auditory presentation because the TTS software failed to communicate nonverbal information carried by the visual headings. Experiment 2 compared outlining performance for five headings conditions during TTS presentation. Using a theoretical framework, "signaling available, relevant, accessible" (SARA) information, to provide an analysis of the information content of headings in the printed text, the manipulation of the headings systematically restored information that was omitted by the TTS application in Experiment 1. The result was that outlining performance improved to levels similar to the visual headings condition of Experiment 1. It is argued that SARA is a useful framework for guiding future development of TTS software for a wide variety of text signaling devices, not just headings.