An observational study examined computer writers' use of hard copy for reading. The study begins with a description, based on interviews, of four kinds of reading problems encountered by writers using word processing; formatting, proofreading, reorganizing, and critical reading ("getting a sense of the text"). Subjects, six freshmen…

Relates how 16 "computer writers" felt about how they use the computer for writing tasks and reports on three experimental studies that compared the performance of college students reading texts displayed on a computer terminal screen and on a printed hard copy. Findings showed that visual/spatial factors influenced locational recall,…

Sentences are understood by outlining associative relations between the concepts representing the meanings of the words. When the words are received the activation spreads from their conceptual counterparts to the other concepts in memory, so that some implicit thoughts are often added to the mental representation of a sentence. As sentences are…