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I DOCAMERT RESUME

ED 2099 fi 71 CS 206 635

AUTHOR Dean, Mortis TITLE Using ExperimentalPtchdlogyin Technical f Writing.

NIB DATE * May $1 - 'NOTE 5p.; Papdr presented At the Annual Meet g of tae 7riterhational Technical Copmunication aference -

- (21th; ,Pitts 'burgh, PA, May 20-23, 1981

EDRS-PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cogaitivrrocesses; *Experimental ; Models; Reinforcement; *ahort Term tZmory; *Techhical Writing; Writing Skills IDENTIFIERS *Gestalt Psychology

ABSTRACT $ tA psychological model can show the technicallwrite.* how topresent informdtion for effective communication bi ex laiping;: how readers perceive, understand, learn; and remember. The. underlying the model are' the reader's psycholOgical set, the mind's. pattern-fording tendencies, the span off short-term , add the mind's need for reinforce0ent. The psychological set explaiAs'the disposition of readers to think or act in, a particular way, and interference occuri when a communication does not match tae neadeils mind set. Th'e main people pead technical `literature is toknoi how to!do something, so technical publications should be task oriented.-Gestalt psychology suggests that the mind tends,to seek 'meaningful 'patterns in perceiving, , , awl rememberilig. Therefor d, the technical writer's objective should be to c supply cues for forming helpful patternS'and to avoid cues'that may form misleading patterns. The that the capacity of saortfterte .memory is 7 plus Or-minus 2 items hasnumerous implications' for presenting : sentence leng36411mber of ite*s to include,. on-a chart, and the number of patts in hick to divide a comprehensible whole. Information is gimpletwhen the number of items

presented does not exceed thia span of shortterm memory. . Reinforcement helps the reader review matvriAl,'verify 1'

interpretation, and see-efformatiOn in alternative ways. Technical ' writers should organize information so it will be(easy for the reader to review. (HOD)

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At- - Reproductionssup-Plied by EDRS'are the best twat can be made from' the original ddCumeit. '1;0*****************************0c*********ic******************************* U.S. DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITLSI OF 0: I EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) The document has been reProducedas 44, f received horn the Person or drganIzation 1 ongeraung it . e Minor changes have been made to Improve r. . . reproductron puaIdy *IPERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS-BEEN GRANTED BYAJ S IN GEXPEFRMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IN TECHNICAL WRITING Pornts ofyrew or opinions stated m thrs d . . Ment do not necessarily represent official Morris 'Dean NIE posmon or poky Morris Dean International Business Machines CorpOration

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RtSOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERICi-

Moms Dean By explaining how readers perceive, understand, learn, and remember, the model shows us how to present information for 41; IBM Programming Publications effective communication 555 Bailey Averm N-' San Jose, CA 93110 Teaches, edits user publications HOW IS THE READER SET? B.A , yale.1144 C) Publications "TechniqUes of-Creative The of psychological set is the readiness of an organ- Technical 'Writing anEditing Pro- ism to make a particular response, the disposition of readers to 'N ceedings. 23rd lirC 1976. "Invoking think or act irr a particular way 3 Readers' set is determined by th'e Muse of Technical Writing Tech- their prior expenence and by their needs Prior experience ob- nical Communication. 4th Quarter 1973 viously refers to the past- how has their past determined their your won the journal's "Award for Distin- set' What has happened to them before they what guished Technical Communicatio'n" writing?flowmuchexperience,if any- and what kind have they had with the subject? Less dbviously, needs refer to the how does their desired future determine their set' What has to happen aNa result of their reading your writing, The psychology of learning is the fogneratiim for the human in order for their needs to be satisfied" factors of technical "publications. This paper describes that foundation. whose five pillar are the principfts of psychologi- If you fail to take account of readers' setthe set that exists cal set. pattern formation (Gestalt). short-term memory span when they first come to your writing, before they've read a meaningfulness, and reinforcementThese principles define their response may be different from what you information ease of use by forming a model of the wan the word of it hope for 'sou may get puzzlement over technical details you reader s mind. works, the rcader can barer understand. learn would enlighten th'em hunger from omitted details and remember informationThatis presented to fi4the model you left out to avoid stuffing'them irritation over humor you provided to entertain them

When what you sayor how you say itdoesn't match your In their classic manual, The Elements of Style. Squid. readers' set, there's interference Some is unavoidable, you and White refer only once to reader psychology when they can't know perfectly your audience's past or desired future ' give the following (113, favor of putting statements in But what ydu write becomes their past. it will influence their positive form) set for what they read next Interference here is avoidable

Consciously or unconslaoUsly the reader is dissatisfied witii 4 If you've used one term for an . they'll expect you to old o ly what is not, he wants to be told what is continue to use it. when you slip in an "elegant varia- Hence ,katile, Itis better to express even a negative in tion,"they'll wonder whether you're referring to the positive form' same idea, or to something else

The psychology here may be weak, but the method of appeal- When you use an -trig verb for the first three'items in a ing to psychology for support is not list, they'll bxpect the same in Ole fourth item, switching to a -tion noun causes interference. An instructor needs such support even more than an author doesfor responding face-to-face inthe classroom To de- By their prominence,- headings, labels, captions, and lead- velop a course on "Writing for Reader Understanding."I insentences determine the reader's resp-onse to what wanted to know the pSychological pnnciples underlying effee.- follows. Meaningful ones will either lead or mislead, de- tive communication. So) turned to books on the psychology pending on whether they're consistent with what follows of , , learning, memory, and problem Garbled ones fail to lead at all, but they,too set the read- solving,I found there such a coherent for whj er up- to gruMble and to expect the worst. good writing is good that I decided to ufe psychology as the Very foundation of the course Y When an illustration must read from right to left, or from bottom to top, say so! By alerting your readers, you es- In this paper I construct a psychological model of the reade tablish a inSinental set to replace their well-established that includes disposition to read from left to right. top to bottom

The reader's psychological set ' The most Important need of the reader is to know how to do The mihck's pattern-forming tendencies somethini, to accomplish a necessary task: tht's the' main rea- the span of short-term memory son people read technical literatup W here I work, we say our What is meaningful to the reader readers ere "task4Trienier and recognize that our publi- The mind's need for reinforcement cations have to she task-onented too. We must thorbuglily . At; 2 ' 0, A a

understand the particular tasks we're writing about. Bit, in construction. When ,our expectations are disappointed, we general, we know that when roaders are dominated by the tend to become confused.6 . need to'do a task. Similar things. or similarly presented things, tend to be per- They consider the technical magual Co be a necessary evil ceived as parts of a single pattern We cause conflict when we they'd like to get the job, done without it, but they present similar Or related -things indissiMilar or unrelated way s: we're giffling contradictory cues for forming a pattern know they can't "lie reader's They want to find quickly-the specific information they The introductory part of a passage is crucial for seek: they want immediate relevance to what they 'have pattern forma tion, as in this example-from Jacdbi to do-an} preliminary information provided must be with essential The method of conveying information by starting out isthe aconclusioniscalledthe deductive method. it and it They expect information to bepresent in the order and *method used in everyday learning and thinking, his in the form it's needed for doing the to should be used every writer who cares about reaching reader's mind When what you say"and how you say it match the reader's de- set, there'll be no interference in the communication Given the conclusion, readers can proceed by relating the tails to it. But given the details first. They'll have tolook for something to relate emto.Finding no pattern will frustrate WHAT PATTERN' WILL THE READER FORM? them. finding a Wrd onewill mislead Given an outline of the wholethatfollows readtrs are less likely to get lost in the them occasionally. "You Are here (an Gestalt psychology says that the mind' tends to seek meaningful parts, especially if we to patternsin perception, in understandulg and learning. in re- relation to tlfe whole) membering. It says that people learn best wheii they can relate new infomiation to something they already know."A person Readers seek, patterns. that's the way the mind works Writers The communi- who has learned with understanding learns new task mug, -i can either cooperate with the fact, or resist it supply cues for forming helpful more readily than a person who learned by rote"4 cator's objective shouldbe to patterns and withhold cues for forming misleading ones The mind seeks one meaningful pattern ("Gestalt") at a . For example. tfieres more than one orientation for the hox in this figure, but you can see only one of them at a time WILL THE READERS SHORT-TERM MEMORY BURST? Short-term memory is what we use when we hold an unfamiliar telephone number temporarily in mind while we dial it. or when. we listen to a speaker, or read a sentence. The capacity of short-term memory, is 7±2 itemsit This fact has numerous .0'implications for presenting information sentence length. num- ber of items to include on a chart, number of parts into which the num-,1 he figure, all else in the field is the to divide a.. comprehensible. memorable whole and The pattern is called ber of psychological principles to teach in a class, or talk about ground The figure-ground pnnciple has implications for the purely visual-aspects pf page layoutHeadings, highlighted paper.at the ITCC phrases in -text, and other devices that visually emphasize par- believe, by its ticular information on a page fail when overused, because the The "length" of a `sentence is determined, I distinction between figure and ground is lost. When eyerything demands pn the reader's short -term memory Says Jacobi is important, nothinx is important "Long sentences may become troublesome not because they contain too many words but because they contain too many The mind seeks a good Gestalt -a pattern thatis regular ."9 The difficulty of defining "idea" may be one reason that expOnents of short sentences for readable writing (such ass,, (predictable,harmonious),stable(unambiguous the box above isn't stable), simple (having the smallest practical num- Rudolf Flesch) recommend we count words we can du that ber of parts), and complete (accounting for as much of the in- formation as possible). Gestalt psychologists formulated But the following pair of sentences demonstrates the over- simplicity of word counting. One sentence has three as of organization by which the mind forms a good Gestalt4 many words as the other, yet I've found that people cankecite One of those laws is implit ti in this statement frym a book by them about equally well Ernst Jacobi (who often appel implicitly, to Gestalt psy- . theegreen umbrella in its trunk chology)"The major reason thing is important to any- The White. elephant with body is the of a prob em, and the best way, for a trotted happily along the rock wall of the small village in writer to stimulate, his reader's interest is by defining and stat- the Indian jungle ing his problem."' This is the of clusurethe mind seeks to complete sonietht4 that is incomplete. It adds missing Light small., rough, silently bounding green cubes disap- :parts to a spatial configuration. "n v rth Is." It seeks a solu- peared tion to close out a problem. The tension aroused by incom- pleteness is the source of the "hook" in writing of many kinds Clearly, the elephant sentence breaks up into phrases People form onelmage (one "idea") of "the white elephant," or even The law of similarity underlies what Jacobi says aboutpearallel of "the white elephant with the green umbrella in Its trunk construction Obviously ideas can be made up of numerous smaller ideas In fact, people whO need to hear these sentences several times , to Mixed constructions- also called nonparallel or shifted con- r* Use the repetitions to build up larger and larger units (I e is within the structions are among the most common faults that block r, "recode" them), until the number ar units understanding. Out minds are trained to expect parallel , capacity of short-term memory, And people who can repeat ' a . The greater the familianty, concretenesaldrelatedness of' either sentence the first tune don'tnecessarily have a greater . better able to putUre, Igormation,Lthe more readily reader's can do therecoding capacity. they may be better recoilers .. for ex ampl themselves What is janypar is easily associated with information in Contnion nience patterns (such as subject-verb-ohiecl) re- can be used in re- quire less_xecoding, and thus are easier to remember, than un- long-term lmemqry.--and theassociation coding, Such association is possible with nonsensesylla- usual constructions. The green -cubes sentence isbackhanded bles only to the extent that momentary sense canbe the mind has to pigeonhble all the modifiers untilthe subject ., imapned Tor them is revealed. - What is picturable can be represented pictorially,and a 4.4 Of course, we're concerned in reading, not with remembering mental picture can economically portray severalobiqcts sentences verbatim, but, as Jacobi says, with the sentences not holding a "!'bgcoming troublesome." But I think that exceeding the span (though not a thousand) a white elephant green umbrella in its trunk Qfshort -term memory causes most of the trouble. to under- stand a sentence. readers must, hold all of it in short-term The relationship among items evidently related canbe Memory ,used in recoding car, wheel, road . "going for a dnve

into few enough FilDW MUCH MEANING WILL flit READER FIND? When readers can easily recodeinforms units for short-term.Themo.ryinforma the'wn has probably been ,..4 To demonstrate the capacity of short-term memory,I enter- simple enough ... "uncontrolled expenments "I° tain my students with a few the reader's ' I have them recite sentences and simple lists of varyinglength We've been considenng cognitive meaningfulness But mean- and content For example, compare these lists being able to understand and process infOrmation. ingfulness also Includes being interesting, motivating the read- "Clanty isn't kol, naz. san, Os, cav, yeg er That, in fact, is the theme 'of Jacobi's book' to be effective your communication has to be . fiiiance..'charm, work, health. division enough . . . information lucidly is. ball. flower, mirror, package, hau, rock interesting "" But presenting relevant awake car, wheel, road, map,,station, gas the first thing writers should do to keep their readers and alert The lists are short enough that most people can reciteeach of them after one hearing. But as items are added,there comes a IS THE READER REINFORCED' point where-one hearing is insufficient.That pOint comes later in subsequent lists -as 'I move fromnonsense syllables to ab- words Perhaps programmed-instruction (PI) texts are wnting's most stract words. to concrete words.to'related concrete thorough applicatibn of the pnnciple of reinforcementPls exploit the idea that the reader should immediately respond to These exercises demonstrate that a long list offamiliar. con- instruction, end that correct responses should beacknowl- crete, or related Items is as easy to remember as ashorter list of unfamiliar. abstract. or unrelated ttems. Or,generally, the edged and incorrect responses remedied more meaningful the material. the -easier itIS to remember But in what ways can we use reinforcement in morestandard and to understand and Isarn. TM's, of course. is acentral theme technicalwriting to improve understanding, learning,and of Gestalt psychology- / memory? Reinforcement includes Information is meaningful whey itis familiar, It can be plc.- Repetitiona certain amount is essential tOnfastering tured, and its parts are related % new matenal. Theconsolidatton_of_nawinformation into, . long-term memory .takes time minutes at 'least." The You improve the chance that information isfamiliar to vocabulary they use, writer can't economically provide all therepetitraactu- your audience when you use the but when you ,minimize new terminology and define it in'I' ally required (anyway. readers wouldn't stand for Ric structure of intloduction-body-summary terms of the-old, when you explain new ideas interms of theelassict.il gives the writer a cliance to repeat main' ideasat least ideas they already understand threequnes You help your audience picture information when you Verification -- checking whetier the matenal has been un- use, concrete language languagethatappealsto the 14 Verification ulti- senses. Show an actual McRae, if possible,if not possi- derstood or interpreted correctly mately depends on doing something, whose result;, the ble, draw a picture in wordsgiveexampli..5, provide an reader can observe and judge for success or failure. The analogy to a situation the audience can imagine. writer should judiciously indicate things forreaders to do You show your audience the relationshipcif'the parts and ways for them to judge results when you select them, first, becausethey really are re- lated, then organize them to reveal the relattonihip in a Appgaling to more thanlihe sense is Showing reinforces telling; an example reinforces a definition, a side-view rr- single Gestalt Inforces a view froin the front. a motor action reinforces Information is simple when . the number of items presented passive cognition doesn't exceed the span of short-term Memory. andall the There's a limit Jo how rauch reinforcement We can give.Read items are meaningfulMore than about seven itemseven initially swamp the ers are re,gponsible forireviewing the material. for doing an familiar ones that c e piciured But we can help by orga- too many t6 form a Gestalt. You exercise, for Imagining alternatives reader's mind,Therlirairbe nizing the information so iPs easy to review,by providing assist the reader by recoiling the items Into asmaller number )of groups " Receding must be doneeither by you orby the examples to serve as exercD6s, by indicating some alternatives reader- before the reader can comprehend the whole r 4 4 t 1'

SUMMARY SKETCH OF READER PSYCHOLOGY Hilgard.r-Ernest R., and Bowelt, Gordon H., Theories of , Learn:1w. Appleton-Century-CrOfts, Is *W York, 1966, Psychology' gives us ,a coherent set ofpnnciPlls'.thai explain p.256 - generally why good writing is good, arid that can guide' our attempts to write well. From these. pnnciples we can shape a 5.Jacobi, Ernst, Writing at Work Dos. Don'ts: and How model of the reader Tos; Hayden, Rochelle Park, NJ, 1976, p. 39 .'' Readers have a mental set, determined by prior expen- 6.lacobi, p. 75. enue and future needs. There's in terferenco when what , we say, or how we say' it, doesn't match that "set. 7.Jacobi, p 47. i --, t..; .. . Readerrmust form one meaningfii pattern at a time. Our 8.Miller, George A., Psychology of Communication, Pen-4. job is to ensure they form the patterrKwe intend guin. Baltimore. 1967, p. 32

'i, Readers have a short-term rht ry span of 7±2 9 Jacobi, p. 96 shouldrecode complexi rmanon intomindsiz portions , ly 10,Many such expenments are cl9t

REFERENCES AND NOTES 13.Hergenhahri, B. Rtin Introduction to Theories of -Learning.Prentice-Hall,' EnglewoodCliffs, NJ, 1976, 1.Strunk, W.. and White, E. B., Elements of Style,Nfl- p. 329 millan, New Fork, 2nd edition, 197; p 14 '14.Hilgard, p. 559 2. A book about that is particularly useful for communication is-McKim, Robert IL, Experiences in 15.Weinland$ James D.. How to Improve You; Memory Visual Thinking. Brooks/Cole, Monterey. CA, 1972 . Barnes and Noble, New York, 1957, p. 75

3 Krech. David, and Crutchfield, Richard S.. Ekments of Psychology, Alfred A: Knopf. Nep York, 1962, p 96

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