a Psychology Research Centre, School of Psychology , University of Minho , Braga , Portugal.
b School of Psychology , University of Minho , Braga , Portugal.
Memory. 2019 Apr;27(4):555-560. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2018.1529797. Epub 2018 Oct 7.
Words presented in larger font size are considered more memorable and rated with higher judgments of learning (JOLs). One explanation for this phenomenon is that people believe that font size affects memory. However, it is not clear why people hold this belief. One alternative is that font size represents importance, with larger fonts implying more relevant information. More important information is judged as more memorable and is, in fact, better remembered. In Experiments 1 and 2 we presented words in small (18 points) and extra-large font (250 points) and found higher JOLs and higher judgments of importance with extra-large fonts. A mediation analysis showed that importance accounted for 21-23% of the effect of font size on JOLs. In Experiment 3, we tested whether processing fluency was higher with the extra-large font. In a lexical decision task, participants were slower at detecting words and non-words with extra-large than small font, which is the opposite of what the processing fluency hypothesis predicts. This result shows that the font-size effect persists even in conditions in which perceived fluency should be lower. In sum, this research explained the belief that font size affects memory because words in larger fonts are considered more important.
字体较大的单词被认为更具记忆性，并且学习判断（JOL）更高。这种现象的一种解释是，人们认为字体大小会影响记忆。然而，人们为什么持有这种信念尚不清楚。另一种解释是，字体大小代表重要性，较大的字体意味着更相关的信息。更重要的信息被判断为更具记忆性，实际上也更容易记住。在实验 1 和实验 2 中，我们使用小字体（18 磅）和特大字体（250 磅）呈现单词，发现特大字体的 JOL 和重要性判断更高。中介分析表明，重要性占字体大小对 JOL 影响的 21-23%。在实验 3 中，我们测试了特大字体是否会提高处理流畅度。在词汇判断任务中，参与者用特大字体识别单词和非单词的速度比用小字体慢，这与处理流畅性假设的预测相反。这一结果表明，即使在感知流畅度应该较低的情况下，字体大小效应仍然存在。总之，这项研究解释了人们认为字体大小会影响记忆的信念，因为较大字体的单词被认为更重要。
