Abstract
Conditions of low and high knowledge about the topic of a writing task were compared in terms of the time and cognitive effort allocated to writing processes. These processes were planning ideas, translating ideas into text, and reviewing ideas and text during document composition. Directed retrospection provided estimates of the time devoted to each process, and secondary task reaction times indexed the cognitive effort expended. Topic knowledge was manipulated by selecting subjects in Experiment 1 and by selecting topics in Experiment 2. The retrospection results indicated that both low- and high-knowledge writers intermixed planning, translating, and reviewing during all phases of composing. There was no evidence that low- and high-knowledge writers adopt different strategies for allocating processing time. About 50% of writing time was devoted to translating throughout composition. From early to later phases of composing, the percentage of time devoted to planning decreased and that devoted to reviewing increased. The secondary task results showed that the degree of cognitive effort devoted to planning, translating, and reviewing depended on the task. Also, the high-knowledge writers expended less effort overall than did the low-knowledge writers; there was no difference in allocation strategy across planning, translating, and reviewing. © 1987 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Recommended Citation
Kellogg, R. T. (1987). Effects Of Topic Knowledge On The Allocation Of Processing Time And Cognitive Effort To Writing Processes. Memory & Cognition, 15(3), pp. 256-266. Springer; Psychonomic Society.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197724
Department(s)
Psychological Science
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1532-5946; 0090-502X
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2023 Springer; Psychonomic Society, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 May 1987
PubMed ID
3600266
