The Effects of Interesting Examples and Topic Familiarity on Text Comprehension, Attention, and Reading Speed

Abstract

Abstract The subjects were college students, 16 recruited from senior-level psychology classes and 8 from senior-level civil engineering classes. Each subject read two short excerpts from psychology texts and two from civil engineering. Each excerpt was about a concept and its attributes and was rewritten in two ways: one with generic examples and one with interesting examples. Generic examples were written without unnecessary detail and emphasized parallel semantic relationships. Interesting examples had dimensions of narrativity, vividness, and important life themes. Comprehension was measured with 12 true/false questions per excerpt, and attention was measured as secondary task reaction time. The subjects also answered questions about their familiarity with the concepts and the interestingness of the excerpts. Interesting examples increased attention, reading speed, and reported interest. Familiar topics increased comprehension, reading speed, and reported interest and topic familiarity. The results supported schema-based comprehension theory.