Relevance and goal-focusing in text processing

This article reviews the role of relevance in text processing. It argues that relevance instructions provided by instructors and texts help readers identify text segments that are germane to a reading goal. A taxonomy of relevance instructions is presented and four basic types of relevance manipulations are considered (i.e., targeted segments, elaborative interrogation, perspective, and purpose). This article also describes a four-stage goal-focusing model to explain how relevance affects attention allocation and text understanding. Directions for future research and educational implications are also discussed.