Spatial Cues in Text: Some Comments on the Paper by Frase & Schwartz

Abstract

Frase and Schwartz (1979) found that meaningfully segmented technical prose was searched significantly faster than the same text typed in a standard format. In this paper the rationale and methodology of Frase and Schwartz are criticised and two studies are decribed which attempted to replicate and extend their findings using a different methodology. Frase and Schwartz's original materials were used and standard layouts were compared with meaningfully indented texts and vertically spaced texts. In both of these studies, however, no significant differences were found between the times taken to retrieve information from the different layouts. Finally these results and their implications are discussed in a more general framework than that provided by Frase and Schwartz.