The Representation and Comprehension of Place-on-the-Page and Text-Sequence Memory

Abstract

Readers' memories for the physical location and sequence of information in a text were measured to further explore how they are represented in memory and their relation to comprehension. Participants read a biography or an expository essay and were tested on their comprehension of the text, memory for the location of information on a page of text (place on the page), and temporal memory for the sequence of information in a text (text sequencing). Results suggest that (a) readers store a substantial amount of text-sequencing information, (b) memory for text-sequencing information is strongly related to comprehension, (c) memory for place on the page is very weak, and (d) memory for place-on-the-page and text-sequencing information appear to be distinct. Our results indicate that text-sequence information is part of the textbase or situation model, whereas place-on-the-page information is a surface-level memory.