Declarative Information in Software Manuals: What's the Use?
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/263367.263403
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Ummelen, Nicole
ACM SIGDOC
2000

Abstract:

Declarative information is often considered to be of little value to software manual users, for two reasons: some research results state that it is consistently skipped by users, and other research results show that declarative information does not enhance task performance. This study puts these conclusions to the test, because the research underlying them does not support such general conclusions. Two experiments are conducted to collect quantitative data about the selection and use of procedural and declarative information and to investigate whether or not the use of declarative information affects task performance and knowledge. A new technique for measuring information selection was developed for this purpose: the click and read method.