What predicts adult readers’ understanding of STEM texts?

The current study examined the relations among key variables that underlie reading comprehension of expository science texts in a diverse population of adult native English readers. Using Mechanical Turk to sample a range of adult readers, the study also examined the effect of text presentation on readers’ comprehension and knowledge structure established after reading. In Study 1, ratings of situational interest, select reading background variables, and select measures of readers’ knowledge structure accounted for significant variance in comprehension. In Study 2, the knowledge structure metrics of primacy, recency, and node degree as well as several text ratings were found to be comparable across text presentation formats. Participants who read the text sentence-by-sentence obtained higher scores on measures of comprehension and provided higher ratings of situational interest than those who received the whole paragraph text at once. Knowledge structure measures for the sentence-by-sentence and paragraph formats were similar (68% overlap). We discuss implications for future research examining factors that underlie the successful comprehension of science texts.     

The impact of reading material’s lexical accessibility on text fading effects in children’s reading performance

The acceleration phenomenon (AP) is defined by improvements in reading speed and reading comprehension, induced by an artificial text fading procedure corresponding to the previously determined fastest individual reading rate. Recent results, however, indicated that fading that is slower than the self-paced reading rate can produce comparable reading enhancements. As reading performance can be strongly influenced by the reading material, this study aimed at investigating to which extent reading enhancements induced by text fading depend on the reading material’s characteristics. We confronted 39 German third graders with a previously utilized text fading procedure, which was slower than their self-paced reading rate. Included text varied regarding to the lexical accessibility (LA), representing how well information can be accessed from the mental lexicon. Children’s reading rates increased statistically significant due to text fading for all LA levels. However, reading comprehension was sensitive to the text material’s characteristics: Reading comprehension enhancements were observable for easily accessible reading material, but not for material with intermediate or difficult levels of LA. Material that was difficult to retrieve from the mental lexicon even resulted in reduced reading comprehension in the fading condition. Possible influences on immediate lexical access, the impact of working memory capacity and implications for future AP research are discussed.     

The origin of centrality deficit in text memory and comprehension by poor comprehenders: a think-aloud study

The present study employed a think-aloud method to explore the origin of a centrality deficit (i.e., poor recall of central ideas) found in poor comprehenders (PC). Moreover, utilizing the diverse think-aloud responses, we examined the overall quality of text processing employed by PC during reading, in order to shed more light on the cognitive underpinnings underlying their poor comprehension and memory after reading. To address these goals, adolescents with good and poor comprehension, matched on reading (decoding) skills, were asked to state aloud whatever comes to their mind during the reading of two expository texts. After reading, the participants freely recalled text ideas and answered multiple-choice questions on the texts. Results indicated that PC exhibited lower performance than good comprehenders (GC) on the recall and comprehension tasks. The think-aloud protocols indicated that PC generated fewer responses than GC that reflect high-level, deep text processing, and more responses that reflect low-level, surface text processing. Furthermore, compared to GC, PC reinstated fewer prior text ideas, with this reduction being significantly greater for central than for peripheral ideas. Finally, the proportions of deep processing responses in general were positively associated with participants’ performance on recall and comprehension tasks. These findings suggest that PC exhibit poor text comprehension and memory, particularly of central ideas, because they construct a low-quality, poorly-connected text representation during reading, and produce fewer, less-elaborated retrieval cues for subsequent text comprehension and memory. This explanation is further illuminated in the context of previous findings and theoretical accounts.

     

Impact of question-answering tasks on search processes and reading comprehension

This study examined the effect of (a) high- and low-level questions and (b) reading the text before the questions asked on performance, delayed text recall, and deep text comprehension, as well as on specific text-inspection patterns. Participants were 37 undergraduate students who answered either high- or low-level questions using the software Read&Answer to read and answer questions on the computer screen. Additionally, half of the sample read first a text and then answered the questions (reading-first condition), whereas the other half answered the questions without having read the text in advance (no-reading-first condition). All participants had the text available to search for the answer. Results indicated that high-level questions facilitated deep comprehension but not immediate performance or delayed recall of text, independently of the reading condition, and that high- and low-level questions differentially affected text-inspection patterns.     

Redundancy in foreign language reading comprehension instruction: Concurrent written and spoken presentations

In an example of the redundancy effect, learning is inhibited when written and spoken text containing the same information is presented simultaneously rather than in written or spoken form alone. The current research was designed to investigate whether the redundancy effect applied to reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) by comparing two instructional formats, written presentation only and written presentation concurrent with verbatim spoken presentation. Participants were in their first year of tertiary education. Examination of translation scores, subjective mental load ratings, and free recall performance indicated that simultaneous presentations rendered text comprehension less effective both at a lexical level and at the level of text comprehension compared with written presentation only.     

2009年NMET阅读理解试题内容效度分析

文章依据高中英语教学大纲、课程标准和考试大纲,结合Bachman＆Palmer（1996）的任务特征框架,从语篇输入、预期回答和题项设计三个方面对2009年高考英语全国卷与各省市自主命题卷（NMET）（19套）阅读理解试题的内容效度进行分析。其结果表明,2009年NMET阅读理解试题总体符合两纲要求,并呈现体裁多样,覆盖面广,但篇章分布不均衡;文章题材涉及范围广,其中社会与文化类所占比例最大,其次是科普;阅读量多数符合大纲要求,但个别卷篇阅读量与大纲要求相比偏高或偏低;生词量符合大纲要求;篇章难度以中等题为主,但有些篇章选择缺乏梯度;考查技能全面,但集中于对理解文章具体信息的考查;题项设计合理,但还存在一些问题等特征。据此作者尝试为今后NMET阅读理解试题命制的改进提出意见与建议。     

Interest,inferences, and learning from texts

Topic interest and learning from texts have been found to be positively associated with each other. However, the reason for this positive association is not well understood. The purpose of this study is to examine a cognitive process, inference generation, that could explain the positive association between interest and learning from texts. In Study 1, sixty undergraduate students participated by reading two science texts, which differed in coherence levels, silently. The results replicated previous findings that topic interest is positively associated with recall and accurate answers to comprehension questions for both texts. In Study 2, sixty-nine undergraduate students participated by reading the same two science texts while thinking aloud. The results indicated that topic interest was positively associated with inference generation while reading for the more coherently-written text. Subsequent analyses indicated inference generation partly explained the positive association between topic interest and accurate answers to comprehension questions for the more coherently-written text. The findings from Study 2 were independent of the effects of reading comprehension skill. Theoretical implications of the findings, in regard to standards of coherence and depth of processing while reading, are discussed.     

Designating reader perspective to increase comprehension and interest

In three experiments we examined whether reader perspective on a long expository text could be manipulated such that increased text interest and enhancement of two comprehension outcomes would result. In Experiment 1 we verified the viability of a new text for experimental purposes. We then assigned readers a perspective before reading in Experiment 2 and after reading in Experiment 3. One primary research question addressed whether interest in a long expository text could be manipulated by assigning readers a perspective. We considered this to be an examination of purpose-driven interest ( Schraw & Dennison, 1994). As hypothesized, participants rated text segments as more interesting when the segments corresponded to their assigned perspective. In support of our second hypothesis, that recall would increase as a function of reader perspective, low to medium effects were found for both total number and depth of ideas recalled. We discuss implications of this work for understanding of the role of relevance in increasing recall. Implications for practice and future research are also discussed.     

The Role of Executive Functions in Reading Comprehension

Our goal in this paper is to understand the extent to which, and under what conditions, executive functions (EFs) play a role in reading comprehension processes. We begin with a brief review of core components of EF (inhibition, shifting, and updating) and reading comprehension. We then discuss the status of EFs in process models of reading comprehension. Next, we review and synthesize empirical evidence in the extant literature for the involvement of core components of EF in reading comprehension processes under different reading conditions and across different populations. In conclusion, we propose that EFs may help explain complex interactions between the reader, the text, and the discourse situation, and call for both existing and future models of reading comprehension to include EFs as explicit components.     

The Role of Surface Text Processing in Centrality Deficit and Poor Text Comprehension of Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Think‐Aloud Study

The present study employed a think‐aloud method to explore the origin of centrality deficit (i.e., poor recall of central ideas) in individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Moreover, utilizing the diverse think‐aloud responses, we examined the overall quality of text processing employed by individuals with ADHD during reading, in order to shed more light on text‐level deficiencies underlying their poor comprehension after reading. To address these goals, adolescents with and without ADHD were asked to state aloud whatever comes to their minds during the reading of two expository texts. After reading, the participants freely recalled text ideas and answered multiple‐choice questions on the texts. Compared to controls, participants with ADHD generated fewer responses that reflect deep, efficient text processing, and reinstated fewer prior text ideas, particularly central ones, during reading. Moreover, the proportions of deep processing responses positively associated with participants’ performance on recall and comprehension tasks. These findings suggest that individuals with ADHD exhibit poor text comprehension and memory, particularly of central ideas, because they construct a low‐quality, less‐connected text representation during reading, and produce fewer, less‐elaborated retrieval cues for subsequent tasks after reading.     

Reading argumentative texts: comprehension and evaluation goals and outcomes

The study is situated at the interface between reading comprehension and critical thinking research. Its purpose was to examine the influence of reading goals and argument quality on the comprehension and critical evaluation of argumentative texts. Young adult readers read to comprehend or evaluate texts on two different controversial issues. Argument quality was varied across text versions on the basis of the hasty generalization fallacy. Text versions varied with respect to the quality of the arguments included, but not in terms of argument content. Measures of comprehension included main claim recall, overall recall and inferences in recall. Text evaluation was measured with a rating task. The sample’s familiarity with the text topics was low, and prior beliefs were relatively neutral. The results indicated that an evaluation goal had a consistent positive effect on main claim and text recall when compared to comprehension goal. Argument quality, however, had no main or interactive effects on text evaluation. The findings indicate that reading to evaluate argumentative text facilitates the representation of its content and critical argument elements, such as the claim it promotes. However, this representation is not sufficient for analyzing and critically evaluating the text’s argument line. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to current efforts to promote critical-analytic thinking skills in the context of reading and writing.     

Transfer of a Listening Comprehension Strategy to Independent Reading in First-Grade Students

Instruction in narrative text structure on first graders' listening and reading comprehension was examined with a view to documenting strategy instruction and transfer of learning in beginning readers. Of interest was whether or not first-grade students (n=35) would, following instruction within the context of listening to stories, gain in listening comprehension and transfer this knowledge to support reading comprehension. A comparison group (n=31) received basal activities including listening to and reading stories. Results support teaching text structure concepts to beginning readers. At post-test, the intervention group demonstrated significantly higher listening comprehension, but not free recall, than the comparison group. Persistent group differences were found for reading comprehension. Intervention group students demonstrated superior comprehension in relation to all story elements and more frequently displayed metalinguistic awareness of text structure by labeling and giving examples of story structure concepts.     

The Effects of Retelling Upon Reading Comprehension and Recall of Text Information

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of retelling (free recall) upon the comprehension and recall of text information for 93 fourth-grade students. Subjects were assigned randomly to one of two generative learning strategy treatment conditions: retelling or illustrating. Subjects participated in four training sessions and one test session. For each of the four training sessions subjects silently read a passage and then, according to treatment condition, either retold the important parts of the passage or illustrated the important parts of the passage. For the test passage all subjects silently read the passage, and then rendered a free recall. Two days later all subjects rendered a delayed free recall and answered 10 literal and 10 inferential questions about the test passage. Statistically significant differences were found on all measures of reading comprehension and recall (immediate free recall, two-day delayed free recall, and responses to literal and inferential questions) in favor of the subjects who received practice in retelling. The results suggest that retelling is a highly potent generative learning strategy and that retelling has direct, beneficial consequences for children's processing of subsequent text.     

Context Strengthens Initial Misinterpretations of Text

Three self-paced reading experiments examined the effect of context on interpreting subsequent sentences and in the difficulty of revising initial misinterpretations of subsequent temporarily ambiguous sentences. Target sentences containing noun phrase/sentence (NP/S) coordination ambiguities were preceded by contexts that either did or did not support the preferred, incorrect “NP and NP” interpretation. Online reading times and offline comprehension question responses were the dependent variables. Results suggest that when propositional content of incoming text is consistent with propositional content of the context, readers often hang on to the resulting coherent interpretation even when subsequent input contradicts it. Results also suggest that (a) context affects reading times and final interpretation; (b) when context and comprehension questions bias readers toward the incorrect interpretation, even unambiguous sentences are regularly misinterpreted; and (c) both semantic content and syntactic form of context influence how the context and subsequent text are integrated in memory.     

Assessing Reading Comprehension: The Effects of Text-Based Interest,Gender, and Ability

Previous research has established that interest in a text is related to better comprehension and recall, but the impact of interest on comprehension in testing situations has not been widely investigated. This study used Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) to examine the relationship between students' interest in reading passages and their performance on reading comprehension test items over those passages. The study involved 19,735 students in Grades 4 through 8. Stimuli consisted of 98 different reading passages. A small but significant relationship between interest and test performance was found, which was stronger for girls and for students of higher ability levels. A second HLM analysis was employed to explore whether certain passage characteristics were associated with higher or lower interest. The implications for test construction are discussed.     

文本阅读中的图式理论

图式理论是语篇理解的一个重要理论。文本阅读与图式理论息息相关。本文从文本意义的多元性出发,探讨了图式对文本阅读的影响、读者变量以及文本对图式的反作用,以期运用图式理论更好地为文本阅读服务。     

The reading rate and comprehension of adults with impaired reading skills or visual discomfort

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of impaired reading skills and visual discomfort on the reading rate and comprehension of university students when reading texts presented at a high school (Grade 9) or university (Grade 12) level of difficulty. Groups included impaired readers (n=18) and normal readers with (n=13) or without visual discomfort (n=19). Regardless of text difficulty the impaired reader group had a significantly slower reading rate and poorer comprehension than the normal reader control group. However, when reading rate and comprehension were compared at the assessed reading level of each group, no group differences were found. The normal reading visual discomfort group had poorer reading comprehension than other normal readers with presentation of university‐level text only. It was concluded that poor word decoding skills may exacerbate comprehension difficulties in impaired readers. In contrast, the comprehension difficulties found for normal readers with visual discomfort occurred because of the somatic and perceptual difficulties induced with exposure to the repetitive striped patterns found on text pages. The types of strategy needed to increase the reading efficiency and produce greater academic success in university students with impaired reader skills or visual discomfort are discussed.     

Self-generated questions and reading recall: Does training help?

Several authors have recommended that reading teachers encourage students to ask questions while reading to improve comprehension and recall. This improvement seems to be influenced by the quality of the questions generated, and therefore it has been suggested that poor comprehenders be trained how to construct good questions before using this technique. Trained junior high school students were compared with untrained students on comprehension and recall after both were told to construct questions while reading text passages. Results indicate that training improved the question quality only for those students who had above average pretest free recall scores, although improvements in the question quality were directly related to improvements in reading recall. The implications of these results for teachers and for theories of the development of comprehension strategies are discussed.     

Impact of text availability and question format on reading comprehension processes

We conducted two experiments to analyze how text availability and question format affect readers’ processes and performance on measures of expository text reading comprehension. Junior high school students read expository texts and answered both multiple choice and open-ended questions on a computer that recorded reading times and readers’ actions with Read&Answer software. The results showed that readers reread prior text segments during initial reading of the text more often when they knew that the text would be unavailable when answering questions than when they knew that the text would be available. In addition, readers made more search decisions in the text- available condition when answering open-ended questions than when answering multiple-choice questions. Regarding performance, we repeatedly found an interaction effect between availability and question format: text availability benefited the open-ended but not the multiple-choice format. We concluded that the two availability conditions are useful in assessing different discourse processes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for the development of models of reading and new ways to assess reading literacy skills that emphasize purposeful reading.     

Computerized Presentation of Text: Effects on Children’s Reading of Informational Material

This study examined whether children’s reading rate, comprehension, and recall are affected by computer presentation of text. Participants were 60 grade five students, who each read two expository texts, one in a traditional print format and the other from a computer monitor, which used a common scrolling text interface. After reading each text, participants were asked to recall as much as they could from what they had read and then answered questions that measured text recall and comprehension. Children took more time to read the passage and recalled more of the text material that they had read from the computer monitor. The benefit of computer presentation disappeared when efficiency variables, which take time into account, were examined. Children were, however, more efficient at comprehending text when reading from paper. The results suggest that children may take more time to read text on computer screens and that they are more efficient when reading text on paper.