Typographic Cueing on Screen

Abstract

The effects of typographic cues, such as bold, underline, italic and capitals have been studied in print. The indications are that typographic cueing can improve the recall of material and this is most evident if recall immediately follows reading. This study investigates whether cueing on screen facilitates recall and introduces factors that have been explored when cueing content in printed material. A series of documents was read on screen followed by a set of multiple-choice questions, which covered a range of question types. Cued material was either a phrase or sentence in red type, and these related to either main facts or incidental details. A control condition contained no red. Instruction regarding cueing was also varied. We found a difference in overall recall between the cueing conditions and the control. The difference was attributable to better recall of cued phrases than cued sentences. However, this difference was found only for incidental material. These results suggest that cueing a whole sentence containing detail can hinder overall recall, but cueing the specific detail is helpful.