Effects of epistemological beliefs and topic-specific beliefs on undergraduates' cognitive and strategic processing of dual-positional text.

The effects of epistemological beliefs and topic-specific beliefs on undergraduates' cognitive and strategic processing of a dual-positional text were investigated. Forty undergraduates thought aloud while reading a text that presented information both consistent and inconsistent with their prior beliefs about the HIV–AIDS relationship. Epistemological beliefs about the speed of learning affected the overall number of cognitive processes exhibited, whereas topic-specific beliefs interacted with the nature of the information read to influence the specific type of cognitive processing used. Strategies for accepting or resolving apparent ambiguities in text were related positively to delayed recall; cognitive processes for developing awareness were related negatively to the number of distortions produced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effects of Readers' Misconceptions on Comprehension of Scientific Text.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of readers' misconceptions on text comprehension. College students with misconceptions in science were asked to read and recall a text that contradicted their misconceptions. Students with no misconceptions served as the control group. Both online (think-aloud, reading times) and offline (recall) measures were obtained. The results suggest that readers' misconceptions often do not affect the online processes themselves but do influence the content of those processes and, consequently, the offline memory representation for the text after reading is completed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation among error detection, sentence verification, and low-level reading skills of fourth graders.

The author explored the relation among low-level reading skills, sentence verification, and error detection in 4th graders. Literal text comprehension was measured with the Sentence Verification Technique (J. M. Royer, in press) procedure. A higher (strategic) level of text comprehension was assessed with the error detection paradigm. Thus low- and high-level text comprehension were correlated with low-level reading skill: decoding, lexical access, verbal working memory span, and each other. Although literal text comprehension and low-level reading measures were correlated, both were uncorrelated with error detection. A second study deomonstrated that 4th graders' error detection was best predicted by their tendency to generate inferences while reading. These data suggest that although literal text comprehension is dependent on low-level reading processes, strategic reading competence reflects the 4th grader's tendency to go beyond literal information in a text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The double-deficit hypothesis for the developmental dyslexias.

The authors propose an alternative conceptualization of the developmental dyslexias, the double-deficit hypothesis (i.e., phonological deficits and processes underlying naming-speed deficits represent 2 separable sources of reading dysfunction). Data from cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-linguistic studies are reviewed supporting the presence of 2 single-deficit subtypes with more limited reading impairments and 1 double-deficit subtype with more pervasive and severe impairments. Naming-speed and phonological-awareness variables contribute uniquely to different aspects of reading according to this conception, with a model of visual letter naming illustrating both the multicomponential nature of naming speed and why naming speed should not be subsumed under phonological processes. Two hypotheses concerning relationships between naming-speed processes and reading are considered. The implications of processing speed as a second core deficit in dyslexia are described for diagnosis and intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A 'landscape' model of reading comprehension: Inferential processes and the construction of a stable memory representation.

The theoretical model of reading proposed in this paper captures the processes that take place during reading and specifies how these processes result in a stable memory representation of the text. The model is based on the premise that, during reading, the ideas and concepts associated with the text fluctuate in their activation. The result is a dynamically shifting landscape of activations. Two factors contribute to the shape of this landscape: readers' limited attentional resources and their attempts to maintain standards for coherence. As a result, at any point during reading the following concepts are most likely to be activated: information described in or associated to the current sentence, information retained from the prior reading cycle, and information that is reinstated from prior text or drawn from background knowledge in order to maintain coherence. Readers' standards for coherence vary between as well as within individuals (e.g., as a function of reading goal), but here the focus is on two types of coherence that seem to be employed by the modal reader: anaphoric/referential and causal coherence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of reading purpose and working memory capacity on the processing of expository text.

The extent to which low- and high-WMC (working memory capacity) readers adjust cognitive processes to fit the reading purpose was examined. Participants performed a verbal protocol task as they read an expository text under 1 of 2 reading purpose conditions, entertainment or study, and then completed a free-recall task. When reading to study, low-WMC readers emphasized less demanding processes over more demanding processes to a greater extent than high-WMC readers and recalled less. When reading for entertainment, patterns of processes and recall were similar across readers. Thus, all readers adjusted processing to fit the reading purpose; however, when reading for study, low-WMC readers emphasized processes that were the least demanding on their resources but not necessarily beneficial for recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Relevance Instructions on Reading Time and Learning.

The authors examined the effect of prereading relevance instructions on reading time and learning for 2 types of text. Experiment 1 found that relevance instructions increased learning for relevant segments without increasing reading time when reading a scientific text sentence by sentence on a computer. In contrast, the same segments were learned less well and took longer to read when nonrelevant. Experiment 2 replicated the findings when individuals read an informational narrative text. These findings supported the no increased effort hypothesis, which states that relevant information is learned better without additional effort when readers are told what is relevant prior to reading. In contrast, nonrelevant information is learned less well. The authors attribute these effects to the goal-focusing nature of relevance instructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recalling oral and written discourse.

We prescribed an expository text in two versions that varied in difficulty. The text was presented either orally or under one of two reading conditions, a normal reading or a moving window condition. The subjects were business trainees whose main communication experience was in either written or spoken communication. Immediately after presentation of the text, we asked the subjects to answer questions about it. The answers given after reading in the moving-window mode were in every respect the same as those given after self-controlled reading. There were differences between the listening condition and the two reading conditions, depending on the nature of the subjects' main communication experience and the difficulty of the text. We concluded from these results that the differences between the processing of oral and written discourse are caused neither by the difference of processing control nor by structural factors but by factors related to the communication experience of the subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinctions between reading comprehension and locating information in text.

Reading comprehension is usually operationalized as text recall. However, locating information such as facts, names, or numbers in text is a reading task requiring comprehension that is distinct from text recall in two respects: (1) cognitive processes that control reading comprehension and locating information are expected to be different; (2) the frequency of engagement in comprehension and locating are expected to be independent. We examined these expectations by identifying 4 reading tasks frequently performed by 45 electronics engineers and technicians. Real world reading tasks were simulated with sets of test items in the following domains: (a) comprehending articles, (b) locating information in schematics, (c) locating information in articles, and (d) locating information in manuals. Factor analyses for both the engineers and technicians resulted in two factors, one for comprehension (a) and one for locating information (b, c, d), with a correlation of less than .20. Factor analyses of reading engagement for both groups resulted in factors of (a) comprehending articles, (b) locating information in articles, (c) reading schematics, and (d) reading manuals. Canonical correlations for both groups showed no association between reading engagement variables and reading competence (comprehending and locating) variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Component processes in text comprehension and some of their interactions.

58 college students read 12 passages word by word in the moving-window method. Word reading times (WRTs) were analyzed in multiple-regression analyses. 16 attributes of the stimulus materials were quantified as measures of specific component processes. WRTs were predicted by most of the 16 attributes. There were significant effects for such word-level attributes as length, frequency, and repetition, presumed to reflect processes involved in word identification. Such sentence-level (SL) attributes as sentence imagery and the number of new concepts in the sentence, considered indicators of integration and abstraction of the sentence gist, had a significant effect on WRTs, particularly at the sentence-final word. In addition, WRTs of sentence-final words increased linearly with the number of new concepts in the sentence. The text-level attributes that significantly influenced WRTs were the serial position of the sentence in the passage and the genre of the passage. These attributes were considered indicators of topic identification and intersentence integration, respectively. Word-level variables, word length and word frequency, interacted with the load or complexity of processes at the SL and at the text level. Similarly, SL variables interacted with the complexity of text-level variables. These interactions are consistent with models of reading that assume that lower-level processes interact with higher-level processes. (97 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading rate, readability, and variations in task-induced processing.

Tested the hypothesis that task variables account for previous findings that reading rate is unaffected by readability. In a study with 68 high school students, variations in a reading task were used to induce different processes during reading. When the S had to inspect a text to remember enough for a subsequent word match, easy texts were read faster than difficult texts. When word matching was attempted as the S read, easy texts were read no faster than difficult texts. Findings suggest that when appropriate reading tasks are chosen, reading rate can be used to infer underlying processes in reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depending on my mood: Mood-driven influences on text comprehension.

Reading comprehension is a critical component of success in educational settings. To date, research on text processing in educational and cognitive psychological domains has focused predominantly on cognitive influences on comprehension and, in particular, those influences that might be derived from particular tasks or strategies. However, there is growing interest in documenting the influences of emotional factors on the processes and products of text comprehension, because these factors are less likely to be associated with explicit reading strategies. The present study examines this issue by evaluating the degree to which mood can influence readers' processing of text. Participants in control, happy-induced, or sad-induced groups thought aloud while reading expository texts. Happy, sad, and neutral moods influenced the degree to which readers engaged in particular types of coherence-building processes in the service of comprehension. Although reading strategies clearly influence processing, understudied factors that are less explicitly goal-driven, such as mood, can similarly impact comprehension activity. These findings have important implications for the role of mood on reading instruction and evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An eye movement analysis of topic-shift effect during repeated reading.

This study replicated previous reading time studies that have observed increased reading times for sentences introducing a new subtopic in a text, compared with sentences that are continuations of a subtopic. This topic-shift effect was obtained for the initial reading but not when the same text was reread. The absence of topic-shift effect was taken to suggest that readers construct a mental representation of the text's topic structure during the initial reading. The topic-shift effect was primarily due to regressive fixations, which tended to land in the first half of sentences. Regressions were typically launched at the end of sentences, with topic-shift sentences also well before the sentence end was reached. These findings are interpreted as evidence for the integrative nature of regressive fixations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of interpretive and inference processes during text comprehension: A comparison of gaze durations and word reading times.

Investigated the locus of interpretive and inference processes during text comprehension. Two positions were contrasted: the buffer-integrate-purge position, which assumes that text-level interpretive and inference processes operate at sentence or clause boundaries, and the immediacy position, which assumes that interpretive and inference processes operate as soon as possible. Two methods of collecting word reading times were contrasted: gaze durations and self-paced word reading times. In simple narrative passages, there was an increase in word reading times for end-of-clause words when self-paced reading times were collected, but there was a decrease when gaze durations were measured with eye tracking equipment. The data indicate that interpretive and inference processes operate immediately and that buffering is to some extent an artifact of the self-paced moving window method. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reprocessing text: Contributions from conceptually driven processes.

Recent claims that reprocessing benefits observed during rereading are mediated by abstract word-level representations (T. H. Carr et al; see record 1989-38877-001) were countered in 4 experiments with a total of 100 undergraduates. In these experiments, the amount of text context that was repeated between original and rereading tasks was varied. For reprocessing normal text, there was a systematic involvement of conceptually driven processes in the text reprocessing transfer observed across reading repetitions. This reprocessing advantage was consistent across reading modality. Unlike normal texts, the scrambled texts became more and more scrambled across studies. It is argued that the processing orientation is critical to transfer effects in scrambled reading conditions. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working memory and individual differences in comprehension and memory of text.

Attempted to determine whether working memory processes measured by the Reading Span Test would be strongly associated with the ability to integrate information from different parts of a passage to infer an idea not explicitly stated in the passage. The study also assessed the influence of working memory processes on ability to encode explicitly stated and inferred information into long-term memory. 29 undergraduates were administered a letter span test and a reading span test. The ability to store and process information in working memory was shown to be positively related to (a) scores on a standardized reading comprehension test, (b) long-term memory encoding and retrieval of explicitly stated text information, and (c) integration of text information for the purpose of drawing inferences. Variations in only the storage capacity of working memory were not related to these measures. It is concluded that the ability to coordinate storage and process functions in working memory may be an important determinant of text processing skill, especially with respect to encoding information into long-term memory. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of semantic and phonological codes during reading.

Examined coding processes involved in reading connected text in 3 experiments with 54 Ss who read text passages and occasionally responded to lexical-decision probes. Exp I focused on semantic and surface codes. Results suggest that the activation of semantic codes increased over time, whereas surface codes did not. In addition, Ss who were instructed to remember the exact wording of the passages showed stronger activation of surface codes than did Ss who read for comprehension. Exps II and III explored the role of phonological codes in reading. Results from Exp II indicate that phonological codes were activated by specific words in a passage; however, Exp III results fail to demonstrate that phonological codes were activated by the more general passage context. Combined results suggest that reading involves several coding systems that are activated according to time and reading instruction constraints. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)