Effects of Organizational Signals on Free Recall of Expository Text

How is text memory influenced by organizational signaling devices? In Experiments 1 and 2, college students read a text with or without headings, overviews, and summaries; then they did a free recall. When the text's topic structure was simple (Experiment 1), signaling had no effect. When the structure was complex (Experiment 2), signaling affected the distribution of recall of text content and recall organization. Experiment 3 compared recall for texts in which all, half, or none of the topics were signaled. Signaled content was recalled equally well for the half-signaled and fully signaled texts. However, unsignaled content was recalled more poorly for the half-signaled text than for the unsignaled text, suggesting that signals direct processing of text content.