The effects of epistemic beliefs and text structure on cognitive processes during comprehension of scientific texts were investigated. On-line processes were measured using think-aloud (Experiment 1) and reading time (Experiment 2) methodologies. Measures of off-line comprehension, prior knowledge and epistemic beliefs were obtained. Results…

Argues that the accidents of reading a hypertext (changing your destination, forgetting your point of departure, or getting lost along the way) are not the effects of inappropriate cues, misinterpreted reference or poor design, but the general condition of the hypertext as text, amplified by the narrative turns of the link. (SR)

Argues that those who would create a rhetoric for hypertext must be prepared to thoroughly reconsider their subject and that the rhetoric of hypertext may turn out to be inseparable from the constructive process that motivates hypertext. (SR)

Compares the effectiveness of two approaches to decreasing user navigation problems in hypertext: providing maps, and constraining the hypertext structure. Finds that for learning details, linear formats should be retained; whereas for more global overall learning, a constrained structure is a good alternative. (SR)

Focuses on diagrams giving overviews of complex technical information as facilitators for adult subjects using computers to learn about the business activities of a fictitious family. Finds that features of the author's control over the reader's encounter with the diagram influences whether readers will interrupt their reading to study the…

Finds that a graphical browser (a graphical representation of the structure of a hypertext document) had no effect on recall, comprehension, or recall of text structure but that it did increase the amount of text read by users and reduced the number of nodes repeated during reading. (SR)

The fundamental differences between traditional print and hypertext are likely to cause a shift in pedagogy. Hypertext radically alters traditional hierarchical structures both within writing systems and between author and reader. Hypertext engages users in qualitatively different activities than traditional print. Also, hypertext has been called…

The article examines the potential impact of computer-based text technologies, called hypermedia, on disabled readers. Discussed are hypertext, the hypercard, and implications of metacognitive research (such as author versus user control over text manipulations), instructional implications, and instructional text engineering. (DB)

Describes a model procedure for integrating direct instruction in story structure with reader response to literature in two settings: traditional storybook read-aloud sessions and nontraditional HyperCard computer sessions. (SR)

Current electronic text formats can hinder the acquisition of main ideas or the central representation of a text unless some structural cues are embedded in the reading environment. This principle is based on the premise of cognitive psychology that learning is a reorganization of cognitive structure and that readers are most likely incapable of…

Academic theory about hypertext indicates that hypertext use makes concrete postmodern and post-structuralist theories of text. When it is said that hypertext offers a new type of freedom and power for readers and writers, what are some of the things that are signaled implicitly? In conservative hypertexts, "choice" means being able to…

This paper examines some of the theoretical and practical problems associated with the use of hypertext as a medium for teaching, and explores the positive role that it may be able to play in teaching materials. Hypertext is conventionally described as non-linear, and this aspect of non-linearity is interpreted as endowing it with many attractive…

Elaborating on Emile Durkheim's claim that major debates about pedagogy are always an indicator of underlying social change, this book charts the enormous impact computers are having on how people read and write, how reading and writing are taught, and how literacy is defined. The larger concern of the book is how technology generally affects not…

Revealing something of the vast changes in intellectual life that are likely to follow the rapid expansion in the power and availability of computers, the essays in this book represent a serious effort to redefine the parameters of literacy debates of the 1980s. Discussions at the end of each of the five sections of the book represent an attempt…