Nine experiments involving fourth-year British comprehensive school pupils revealed that (1) text headings aided information recall, search, and retrieval from texts; (2) the position of the heading (marginal or embedded) had no effect; and (3) the kind of heading (question or statement) had no differential effects on readers of different ability.…

The results of the nine experiments summarized indicate that (1) headings aid recall, search, and retrieval from both familiar and unfamiliar text; (2) position of heading (marginal, embedded) has no effect; and (3) low-ability subjects appear to do better when headings are questions on the recall task rather than statements. (EAO)

Pupils studied a short passage in one of four conditions: control, passage with title, passage with headings written as statements, and passage with headings written as questions. Passages with headings were recalled significantly better, both in immediate and delayed conditions. Low ability students profited most from the "question" headings.…