[Effects of signals on memory and comprehension of history text: insertion of signals that relate the main text with corresponding information in the margins].

History texts for elementary school children have unique discourse structures that involve variety of information and style. This study investigated the effects of signals that relate the main text with corresponding information in the margins on memory and comprehension of the text. One hundred thirty-five undergraduate students were assigned to read the text being divided into two groups: texts with signals, and texts without signals. The text with signals contained four signals, for example, "look at the picture above". After reading the text, subjects recalled the text content (written information only) and took a comprehension test. The result of recall task suggested that students who read the text with signals remembered more information in the margins than those who read the text without signals. In the comprehension test, those in the former group indicated integrated comprehension of the two parts of the text.