Effects of top‐level comparison‐contrast text structures on reading comprehension performance

Abstract

This study examined the effects of two types of comparison‐contrast discourse structures on the initial learning and retention of unfamiliar scientific information by mature readers. Specifically, divided [A‐B] patterns (in which all of the information about one topic is presented in its entirety before corresponding information about the second topic occurs) were matched against alternating [A‐B, A‐B, A‐B] patterns (whereby features of the two topics are compared and/or contrasted in a point‐by‐point fashion). Topics centered on the brain versus a computer, the eye versus a camera, the phonograph versus compact disc players, and dot‐matrix versus daisy wheel computer printers. Despite a host of pattern‐related factors that could have contributed to performance differences, subjects learned and remembered key data equally well regardless of the type of comparison‐contrast pattern used. These findings were interpreted as a demonstration of the mature reader's versatility in accommodating unfamiliar information, especially when it is presented in well‐structured, patterned texts.