Information typing: how a unit of writing is given a type derived from a base

Question: how is a unit of writing given a type, so that a reader who knows the base form can read every form derived from it? And what does the evidence say about typed units and how types derive from a base?

Files

File Role
protocol how the pool was built: questions, strings, counts, stopping rule, scoring
sources the flow of the pool, and one row per source with its quality
frame step 1: the problem in one sentence, and what research and practice call it
review step 2: existing reviews, seminal theory, Information Mapping first-hand, DITA, reader studies, transfer, cost, models, practice
state of the art step 3: most adopted against best evidence, per question; upper and lower bounds
position step 4: known, not known, where practice runs ahead of the evidence
against null results, a failed replication, critiques, costs
baseline step 5: the baseline the topic template must beat, and how to measure it
bibliography every cited work: key, citation, link
flow.json the flow as data, drawn in the figure of sources

Claims

Claim Grade Where
Readers hold schemata of conventional text types: categories plus rules of order, sometimes recursive, that decide what reaches the gist supported with caveat (theory, read first-hand) review.md 1
Typed units with a base were already in use in 1969: eight map types, some taking every block of the concept map convention, described in one report (read first-hand) review.md 2
The same content with or without the typed format gave no significant difference in learning (19.56 against 17.65, 41 students) measured: one controlled test, 41 students, in a report not peer-reviewed review.md 2; against.md
Headings help search in an information-mapped text; more headings and the method's order do not measured, one study (abstract) review.md 4
Information-mapped text matched programmed instruction on recall and beat it on retrieving information measured, one study (abstract, secondary) review.md 2
Conventional form with cues helps comprehension; the effect depended on whether the test was global or local, in a direction the abstract does not give measured, one study (abstract, secondary) review.md 4
Teaching readers text types helps comprehension at once (g = 0.25 to 0.57); at a delay the advantage is gone, except with individual practice measured, meta-analysis of 44 studies (secondary) review.md 0
Text structure instruction transfers to untaught structures; far transfer is small and inconsistent measured, meta-analysis of 45 studies (secondary) review.md 0, 5
A genre label changed processing in 1994 and not in three online experiments in 2021 measured, contested (the 2021 study read by abstract, secondary) review.md 4; against.md
DITA declares one base topic, derives concept, task and reference from it, and lets a program read any derived unit as its base convention, standardised (read first-hand) review.md 3
802 firms are listed as using DITA (2026-04-24) measured, descriptive (informal list) state-of-the-art.md
Schema.org HowTo is used on 100K to 1M domains measured, descriptive (the vocabulary's own band, 2026-08) state-of-the-art.md
Story grammars were judged formally inadequate and no better than content models supported with caveat (critique, abstract) review.md 1; against.md
Typed chunk boundaries help a model retrieve, in one domain measured, preprint (abstract) review.md 7
A reader who knows a base type reads a derived type better convention, untested (no study found) position.md; baseline.md
A derived type keeps every part of its base and the type is announced to the reader convention, untested (a hypothesis to test) position.md

Named baseline

  • To beat: the DITA 1.3 base topic (OASIS 2015) with the concept, task and reference specializations of its technical content edition (OASIS 2015b).
  • Historical anchor and control: Information Mapping's typed maps and the same content as untyped prose, as in Horn 1969.
  • Comparison: find, understand (global against local), recall at delay, transfer to an unseen derived type, and a program check at every depth; crossover with a delayed session, Hedges' g per outcome (baseline.md).

General principles linked, not reviewed again