The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of text-based (text structure) and reader-based (prior knowledge) factors on judgments of importance of information in expository text. The effects were measured by (a) importance ratings and (b) written summaries. The study was a partial replication of Roller’s (1985) study, controlling for confounding effects of list order in the rating task, insufficient sample size, and possible copying effects in the written summary task. Roller’s materials about imaginary insects were administered to 132 undergraduate students assigned to prior knowledge (schema trained versus schema untrained) and text structure (elaborated versus unelaborated) conditions in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Significant main effects for both variables were found on the rating task; no significant effects were found for either variable on the written summary task. The results suggest that ratings may be the more sensitive measure of importance judgments.
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Swoope et al. (1988) studied this question.