Colour cues as location aids in lengthy texts on screen and paper

Abstract Readers of documents on CRT displays report difficulties in remembering whereabouts in a lengthy text they previously read something. Four experiments explore whether subdividing such texts, at appropriate thematic boundaries, into five successive coloured sections can aid readers' retrieval of information. Experiment 1, using texts presented on coloured paper, showed that this use of colour helped readers relocate information. Experiment 2 presented the same texts on a CRT, but variation in the colour of the characters on the screen did not help readers relocate information. Experiment 3 replicated the findings of experiment 2, with texts differing in both content and structure from those used previously. Experiment 4, again using coloured text on a CRT display, showed that giving readers a visible guide to the ordering of the coloured sections was not sufficient to restore the advantage that coloured pages had for texts presented on paper. The implications of these findings for variation in the...

[1]  D. Bauer,et al.  Improving VDT workplaces in offices by use of a physiologically optimized screen with black symbols on a light background: basic considerations , 1984 .

[2]  A. Lickorish,et al.  Investigating Referees' Requirements in an Electronic Medium. , 1984 .

[3]  Paul Lefrere,et al.  Do you need that second color? , 1982, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

[4]  William C. Treurniet,et al.  Extended Reading of Continuous Text on Television Screens , 1982 .

[5]  Patricia Wright,et al.  Multi-Window Displays for Readers of Lengthy Texts , 1987, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[6]  E. Lovelace,et al.  Memory for words in prose and their locations on the page , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[7]  D. Norman,et al.  Psychological Issues in Support of Multiple Activities , 1986 .

[8]  Brian Shackel,et al.  The BLEND System: Programme for the Study of Some 'Electronic Journals' , 1982, Comput. J..

[9]  Stephen A. Weyer,et al.  The design of a dynamic book for information search , 1982 .

[10]  J. Hartley.  The role of colleagues and text-editing programs in improving text , 1984, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

[11]  D. J. Pullinger,et al.  Enhancing NOTEPAD teleconferencing for the BLEND electronic journal , 1984 .

[12]  E. Rothkopf.  Incidental memory for location of information in text , 1971 .

[13]  E. C. Poulton,et al.  Influential companions: Effects of one strategy on another in the within-subjects designs of cognitive psychology. , 1982 .

[14]  A. Lickorish,et al.  Ease of annotation in proof-reading tasks , 1984 .

[15]  Carl Rollenhagen,et al.  Reading Text from Visual Display Units (VDUs) , 1983, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..