What makes a skilled writer? Working memory and audience awareness during text composition

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Abstract

This study investigated the role of working memory capacity as a factor for individual differences in the ability to compose a text with communicative efficiency based on audience awareness. We analyzed its differential effects on the dynamics of the writing processes, as well as on the content of the finished product. Twenty-five graduate students composed a procedural text explaining how to assemble a model turbine. They were free to consult a documentary source, featuring captioned pictures of turbine parts and assembly steps, at any time. Graphomotor and eye movements were recorded using ‘Eye and Pen’ software with an eye-tracker and digitizing tablet. Results showed that high WM capacity writers used a different strategy to explore the visual source, making longer writing pauses and producing more detailed procedures, and achieved the communicative goal more efficiently, by introducing more reader supports. In conclusion, we discuss the feasibility of audience awareness training.

Research highlights

► We studied the role of working memory in the ability to write with audience awareness. ► The dynamics of processing and the insertion of reader supports were assessed. ► Graphomotor and eye movements were recorded using ‘Eye and Pen’ software. ► High WM capacity writers make longer pauses but communicate more efficiently. ► WM capacity is responsible for maintaining audience awareness during text writing.

Section snippets

Writing Expertise

In cognitive psychology, text production is conceived of as a problem-solving activity, consisting in transforming domain knowledge into a linguistic form in order to achieve a communicative goal (Alamargot & Chanquoy, 2001). From this perspective, learning to compose a text is a never-ending, lifelong process. Gradually acquired and mastered at school, writing can always be improved, even in adults. With practice, low-level processes (graphomotor execution, linguistic formulation) are

Participants and preliminary tasks

Twenty-five graduate students (19 women and 6 men) enrolled in a two-year master's degree program at the University of Poitiers (mean age: 24.6 years; range: 21–31 years; SD = 2.75) took part in this experiment. They were selected from a larger sample of 35 participants on the basis of their results on five preliminary tasks designed to measure efficiency of planning (domain knowledge and visuospatial abilities; Kellogg, 1996), formulating (lexical fluency in writing), graphomotor execution

General parameters

Regarding the general parameters (Table 2), a comparison of the two groups of writers revealed that more time was spent on the task by HS (M = 12.64 min; SD = 3.21) than by LS (M = 9.53 min; SD = 3.52; t(23) = 2.3, p < .04). Pause frequency per minute (ppm) was significantly higher for LS (M = 31.24 ppm; SD = 8.37) than for HS (M = 24.26 ppm; SD = 6.52; t(23) = 2.31, p < .03). Compositional fluency (words per minute; wpm) was marginally lower for HS (M = 14.39 wpm; SD = 2.70) than for LS (M = 17.66 wpm; SD = 6.06; t(23) = 1.71, p < 

Interpretation–discussion

This study sought to investigate the influence of an adult writer's WM capacity on his or her ability to compose a text with communicative efficiency (audience awareness), on the dynamics of the writing processes and on the resulting text content. Results confirmed that the ability of graduates to take the audience into account while composing depended on their WM capacity, and showed that individual differences induced variations in the time course of writing process implementation and the

Conclusion

This study can be regarded as an encouraging step towards a better understanding of audience awareness in text composition and the role of WM capacity as one of the factors responsible for individual differences in taking the reader representation into account. If being able to adapt the text to the needs of the reader is one of the signs of expertise, it seems that the ability to maintain an audience representation in memory while composing is determined by the writer's WM capacity. This

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a grant from the ACI-MSHS program of the French Ministry of Research. The authors would like to thank Christophe Dansac, Patrice Terrier and Jean-Marie Cellier (University of Toulouse, France) for their input and advice during the implementation of this research, and Elizabeth Portier for the English translation of the manuscript.

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