Effects of Cuing Familiar and Unfamiliar Acronyms in Newspaper Stories, An Experiment
Jack Nolan · Journalism Quarterly · 1991
An experiment with college students found that, as hypothesized, familiarity with acronyms (such as CIA or FBI) was a predictor of whether or not acronyms needed explanation, but also found that those with a high need for cognition were more likely to recognize acronyms including unfamiliar acronyms (which were also tested). The study offers suggestions for editors.