Embedding reading comprehension training in content-area instruction.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of comprehension training embedded in a program that taught science content to 2nd graders. The program included instruction about the structure of compare-contrast expository text, emphasizing clue words, generic questions, graphic organizers, and the close analysis of well-structured text exemplars. This program was compared with a program that focused on the science content but included no compare-contrast training as well as with a no-instruction control. Regular classroom teachers (14 from 4 schools), randomly assigned to treatment, provided the instruction; 215 students (7-8 years old) participated. The study replicated acquisition and transfer effects found in an earlier study, that is, transfer to compare-contrast text with content related and unrelated to the instructional content (with no loss in the amount of science content acquired). The program also led to better performance on written and oral response measures and on 1 of the 2 measures involving authentic (less well-structured) compare-contrast text. These findings support and extend previous findings that explicit instruction in comprehension is effective as early as the primary-grade level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of print exposure quality and inference construction on syllogistic reasoning.

This study extended the work of S. Siddiqui, R. F. West, and K. E. Stanovich (1998), who studied the link between general print exposure and syllogistic reasoning. It was hypothesized that exposure to certain text structures that contain well-delineated logical forms, such as popularized scientific texts, would be a better predictor of deductive reasoning skill than general print exposure, which is not sensitive to the quality of an individual's reading activity. Furthermore, it was predicted that the ability to generate explanatory bridging inferences while reading would also be predictive of syllogistic reasoning. Undergraduate students (N = 112) were tested for vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability, exposure to general print, exposure to popularized scientific literature, and the ability to comprehend texts distinguished by the number of inferences that must be generated to support comprehension. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that a combined measure of exposure to general and scientific literature was a significant predictor of syllogistic reasoning ability. Additionally, the ability to comprehend high-inference-load texts was related to solving syllogisms that were inconsistent with world knowledge, indicating an overlap in deductive reasoning skill and text comprehension processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individualizing a web-based structure strategy intervention for fifth graders' comprehension of nonfiction.

In the study, we investigated effects of 2 different versions of a web-based tutoring system to provide 5th-grade students with strategy instruction about text structure, which was an intervention to improve reading comprehension. The design feature assessed varied in individualization of instruction (individualized or standard). The more individually tailored version was developed to provide remediation or enrichment lessons matched to the individual needs of each student. Stratified random assignment was used to compare the effects of 2 versions of the 6-month web-based intervention. Students in the individualized condition made greater improvements from pretest to posttest on a standardized reading comprehension test (d = 0.55) than did students in the standard condition (d = 0.30). Students receiving more individualized instruction demonstrated higher mastery achievement goals when working in the lessons than did students receiving the standard instruction (d = 0.53). Students receiving more individualized instruction showed greater improvement in using signaling, better work in lessons, and more positive posttest attitudes toward computers than did students receiving standard instruction. Students in both conditions improved their recall of ideas from texts and their use of the text structure strategy and comparison signaling words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Text structure and children's comprehension and memory for expository material.

Investigated the effects of instruction focusing on text structure on 90 5th graders' comprehension and memory for expository material. In 2 experiments, instruction in a hierarchical summarization study strategy focusing on the organization of ideas in text was compared with the more conventional classroom procedure of answering questions after reading. In Exp I, the experimental instruction group had short-answer test scores as high as the conventional instruction group and recall and organization scores that were higher. Similar results were not found in Exp II, an attempt to replicate Exp I. Further analyses revealed that the differences between the studies may have been due to differences in Ss' ability to master the study strategy. It is concluded that even though instruction in a study strategy focusing on text structure can enhance elementary school students' memory for expository material, as is typically found in their content area textbooks, it seems that students must be able to perform the study strategy reasonably well before it will markedly improve their recall. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why are some texts good and others not? Relationship between text quality and management of the writing processes.

Two experiments examined whether text quality is related to online management of the writing processes. Experiment 1 focused on the relationship between online management and text quality in narrative and argumentative texts. Experiment 2 investigated how this relationship might be affected by a goal emphasizing text quality. In both experiments, psychology students were instructed to think aloud while composing their texts. Reaction times to auditory probes were also collected to reflect writers' cognitive effort. Two sets of variables were measured: general temporal indicators (fluency, prewriting pause) and online management of writing processes (number, mean length of episodes). Finally, text quality was assessed. As expected, results confirmed that narrative and argumentative texts are composed using different strategies. Students also composed better texts when a quality-based goal had been set. The main reliable indicator of text quality was an increase of the prewriting pause and of planning processes. These findings indicate that writers tailor their writing behavior to match the type and quality of the text they are asked to produce. These results are discussed in the light of interventions and recommendations in the classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resilient readers? University students who are poor recoders but sometimes good text comprehenders.

The authors screened 194 university students to determine whether some could comprehend text well despite very poor recoding skills, measured by pseudoword reading. Most of the 17 poorest recoders had never been identified as reading disabled. We classified 6 poor recoders as "resilient readers" because their text comprehension scores were average or above, relative to the sample as a whole. They were indistinguishable from 6 matched typical readers on measures of text comprehension derived from oral-reading think-aloud protocols. There was no evidence that the resilient readers relied on superior verbal ability or working memory to compensate for poor recoding. The resilient readers were poor at spelling, reading isolated words, and reading text rapidly, but they showed adequate phonemic awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Walter Kintsch.

Walter Kintsch is cited for his contributions to the analysis of text memory. His seminal research led a generational change from the field of verbal learning and memory to the complex questions of text comprehension and memory. The research proposed a theoretical model that was supported by a spectrum of innovative empirical results and was further developed to illuminate important applications in education and instruction. Kintsch developed the methodological tools for analyzing text content that have been pivotal in allowing other investigators to follow his lead into the area. A biography of Kintsch is provided, along with a selected bibliography of his work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching high school students to use heuristics while reading historical texts.

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of different types of instruction and texts on high schools students' learning of (a) history content and (b) a set of heuristics that historians use to think critically about texts. Participants for the study were 128 male and 118 female students, ages 16 and 17 years, from 2 high schools in the western United States. Eight history classrooms were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 interventions: (a) traditional textbooks and content instruction, (b) traditional textbooks and heuristic instruction, (c) multiple texts and content instruction, or (d) multiple texts and heuristic instruction. The heuristic instruction explicitly taught sourcing, corroboration, and contextualization. Students were administered pretests on their content knowledge and their use of heuristics. After an intervention of 3 weeks, students were readministered the content knowledge and heuristics posttests. A mixed-model analysis of covariance indicated that across all conditions, students who read multiple texts scored higher on history content and used sourcing and corroboration more often than students who read traditional textbook material. Findings highlight the importance of reading multiple texts to deepen content knowledge and facilitate the use of heuristics that historians typically use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship.

Although influences of interest on learning are well documented, mediating processes have not been clarified. The authors investigated how individual and situational interest factors contribute to topic interest and text learning. Traditional self-report measures were combined with novel interactive computerized methods of recording cognitive and affective reactions to science and popular culture texts, monitoring their development in real time. Australian and Canadian students read 4 expository texts. Both individual interest variables and specific text titles influenced topic interest. Examination of processes predictive of text learning indicated that topic interest was related to affective response, affect to persistence, and persistence to learning. Combining self-rating scales with dynamic measures of student activities provided new insight into how interest influences learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of organizational signals on free recall of expository text.

How is text memory influenced by organizational signaling devices? In Experiments 1 and 2, college students read a text with or without headings, overviews, and summaries; then they did a free recall. When the text's topic structure was simple (Experiment 1), signaling had no effect. When the structure was complex (Experiment 2), signaling affected the distribution of recall of text content and recall organization. Experiment 3 compared recall for texts in which all, half, or none of the topics were signaled. Signaled content was recalled equally well for the half-signaled and fully signaled texts. However, unsignaled content was recalled more poorly for the half-signaled text than for the unsignaled text, suggesting that signals direct processing of text content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of fluency across repetitions and across texts.

Three experiments examined transfer of reading fluency across repeated readings of the same text and across related but different texts with a total of 102 college students. In Exp 1, it was found that a paraphrase that altered the syntactic structure of sentences but not the lexical identity of main concepts or the unfolding of the message was reprocessed as an unchanged repetition. However, when the paraphrase altered the lexical identity of main concepts, there was a loss in the repetition benefit. In Exps 2 and 3, there was transfer from a representation of 1 text to the reading of a 2nd text only if the messages were continuous. Results are discussed in terms of the influence of episodic text representations on reading fluency. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are performance predictions for text based on ease of processing?

In 4 experiments, the authors evaluated the hypothesis that performance predictions for text are based on ease of processing. In each experiment, participants read texts, predicted their performance for each one, and then were tested. Ease of processing was manipulated by having participants read texts that varied in coherence. Coherence was varied by manipulating causal relatedness across sentence pairs (Experiments 1 and 2) and by altering the structure of sentences within paragraphs (Experiment 3). In these experiments, prediction magnitudes increased as coherence increased, suggesting that predictions were based on processing ease. In Experiment 4, prediction magnitudes were greater for intact paragraphs than for paragraphs with letters deleted from some of the words. Discussion focuses on resolving apparent inconsistencies in the literature concerning whether processing ease influences performance predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension of texts with unfamiliar versus recently taught words: Assessment of alternative models.

Used modeling data from a study of M. G. McKeown et al (1983) in which approximately 160 4th graders recalled texts containing words that were either unfamiliar or recently taught to them through an intensive vocabulary instruction program. A suppression model, in which incomplete representations of propositions containing unfamiliar words were used during processing, predicted the pattern of recall of texts containing 11% unfamiliar words better than did a substitution model, in which propositions that contained only familiar words were substituted for those that contained unfamiliar words. A remind model, in which instructed words received additional processing, predicted the pattern of recall of texts containing 11% instructed words better than did a normal model, in which propositions that contained instructed words were processed in the same way as were propositions containing only familiar words. It is suggested that learning words through well-designed, direct instruction makes the instructed words salient and results in a greater ability to use the instructed rather than familiar words during comprehension. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual Differences in Absolute and Relative Metacomprehension Accuracy.

The authors investigated absolute and relative metacomprehension accuracy as a function of verbal ability in college students. Students read hard texts, revised texts, or a mixed set of texts. They then predicted their performance, took a multiple-choice test on the texts, and made posttest judgments about their performance. With hard texts, students with lower verbal abilities were overconfident in predictions of future performance, and students with higher verbal abilities were underconfident in judging past performance. Revised texts produced overconfidence for predictions. Thus, absolute accuracy of predictions and confidence judgments depended on students' abilities and text difficulty. In contrast, relative metacomprehension accuracy as measured by gamma correlations did not depend on verbal ability or on text difficulty. Absolute metacomprehension accuracy was much more dependent on types of materials and verbal skills than was relative accuracy, suggesting that they may tap different aspects of metacomprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in reading to summarize expository text: Evidence from eye fixation patterns.

Eye fixation patterns were used to identify reading strategies of adults as they read multiple-topic expository texts. A clustering technique distinguished 4 strategies that differed with respect to the ways in which readers reprocessed text. The processing of fast linear readers was characterized by the absence of fixations returning to previous text. Slow linear readers made lots of forward fixations and reinspected each sentence before moving to the next. The reading of nonselective reviewers was characterized by look backs to previous sentences. The distinctive feature of topic structure processors was that they paid close attention to headings. They also had the largest working-memory capacity and wrote the most accurate text summaries. Thus, qualitatively distinct reading strategies are observable among competent, adult readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity and the language of the classroom: Investigating the impact of heritage versus second language instruction on personal and collective self-esteem.

The connection between heritage language instruction and self-esteem was investigated. Participants were Inuit, White, and mixed-heritage (Inuit-White) children living in a subarctic community. Testing occurred before and after their 1st year in a heritage language or a 2nd language program. Children from all 3 groups who were educated in their heritage language showed a substantial increase in their personal self-esteem, whereas Inuit and mixed-heritage children educated in a 2nd language did not. Among the Inuit, Inuttitut instruction was associated with positive regard for the ingroup, whereas English or French instruction was associated with preference for the White outgroup. The present findings support claims that early heritage language education can have a positive effect on the personal and collective self-esteem of minority language students—a benefit not provided by 2nd language instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for Narrative and Expository Text: Independent Influences of Semantic Associations and Text Organization.

The author examined memory for text in terms of the independent influences of semantic knowledge associations and text organization. Semantic associations were operationalized as the semantic relatedness between individual text concepts and the text as a whole and assessed with latent semantic analysis. The author assessed text organization by simulating comprehension with the construction integration model. Text organization consistently accounted for unique variance in recall. Semantic associations strongly predicted expository recall and predicted narrative recall significantly but to a lesser extent, even when the familiarity of the narrative content was manipulated. Results suggest that prior semantic associations and novel associations in the text structure influence memory independently, and that these influences can be affected by text genre. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching elementary school students to identify story themes.

An instructional program focused on story theme was administered to 2nd and 3rd graders (high-, average-, and low-achieving students, including some with disabilities) in a high-poverty school. Compared with more traditional instruction, the program improved theme comprehension and the identification of instructed themes when they appeared in new stories. However, the program did not help students apply a theme to real-life situations or identify and apply noninstructed themes. Findings indicated that at-risk children (at all achievement levels, including those with disabilities) were able to achieve some degree of abstract, higher order comprehension when given instruction that combined structured lessons, a strategy, and discussion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tracking conceptual and semantic processing in the comprehension and production of text and discourse.

Current research on text and discourse processing has focussed on the nature of conceptual and semantic representation and processing, and the relationship between conceptual knowledge and the structure and processing of text or discourse. It is now generally recognized that discourse comprehension involves the construction of a conceptual "situation model" by a listener or reader, that is, a conceptual representation that is appropriate to the content and context of a text or discourse. Current psychological models of discourse production view discourse processing as a process of translating conceptual knowledge structures into "rhetorical" discourse structures that are appropriate to a communicative situation and setting. One important component of such translation is the construction of a conceptual situation model to be communicated to a listener or reader. A second is the construction of a propositional text base to specify precisely the semantic content to be expressed through segments of text or discourse. A third is to define a discourse organization that appropriately guides the reader in constructing a conceptual situation model from the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive Dimensions in the Construction of Mental Representations for Text.

To detail the structure and format of memory for texts, researchers have examined whether readers monitor separate text dimensions for space, time, and characters. The authors proposed that the interactivity between these individual dimensions may be as critical to the construction of complex mental models as the discrete dimensions themselves. In the present experiments, participants read stories in which characters were described as traveling from a start to a final location. During movement between locations, characters engaged in activities that could take either a long or short amount of time to complete. Results indicate that accessibility for the spatial locations was a function of the passage of time. The authors interpret this as evidence that the interactive nature of text dimensions affects the structure of representations in memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)