Overcoming inefficient reading skills.

Although experienced readers vary considerably in reading skill, skill measures often are uncorrelated with literal comprehension. According to the Compensatory-Encoding Model of reading, less automated reading skills and a small verbal working-memory capacity can be surmounted by slowing reading rate, pausing, looking back, and by other means. This important prediction is largely untested. In the present study, 76 readers were assessed on their levels of verbal efficiency. They were also recorded thinking aloud while reading text. Protocols were analyzed for evidence of compensation deployment. Analyses revealed that those with less automated reading skills deployed them more often. As expected, verbal efficiency was uncorrelated with literal comprehension but verbal working-memory capacity was positively correlated with inferential comprehension. Educational implications are derived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual Differences in the Inference of Word Meanings From Context: The Influence of Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Knowledge, and Memory Capacity.

Two studies investigated the ability to use contextual information in stories to infer the meanings of novel vocabulary by 9-10-year-olds with good and poor reading comprehension. Across studies, children with poor reading comprehension were impaired when the processing demands of the task were greatest. In Study 2, working memory capacity was related to performance, but short-term memory span and memory for the literal content of the text were not. Children with poor reading comprehension were not impaired in learning novel vocabulary taught through direct instruction, but children with both weak reading comprehension and vocabulary were. Implications for the relation between vocabulary development and text comprehension are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding Chinese prose: Effects of number of ideas, metaphor, and advance organizer on comprehension.

Examined the degree to which student performance in constructing macrostructures in Chinese prose is affected by 3 text structures—number of ideas, metaphoric expressions, and advance organizers. 485 Hong Kong Chinese students in the 7th grade and 514 in the 10th grade were randomly assigned to 88 groups, with each group reading 4 texts of the same version and then completing an idea-ordering test for each text. When texts with more and fewer ideas were compared, results favored the latter, thus confirming the prediction that coherent structure would facilitate macroprocessing. Replacement of literal expressions with metaphoric ones did not influence idea organization. Text with an advance organizer resulted in distracting effects for both good and poor readers. Interaction effects were not significant among the 3 factors. Findings suggest that T. A. van Dijk and W. Kintsch's (1983) model of text comprehension is applicable in cross-language research. Sample texts and the idea-ordering test are appended. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of reading purpose on inference generation and comprehension in reading.

There are variations in the extent to which particular types of inferences or activations are made during reading (G. McKoon & R. Ratcliff, 1992; M. Singer, 1994). In this study, the authors investigated the influence of reading purpose (for entertainment or study) on inference generation. Participants read 2 texts aloud and 2 texts for comprehension measures. Reading purpose did not influence off-line behavior (comprehension) but did influence on-line reader behavior (thinking aloud). Readers with a study purpose more often repeated the text, acknowledged a lack of background knowledge, and evaluated the text content and writing than did readers with an entertainment purpose. This pattern was stronger for the expository text than for the narrative text. Reading purpose, and possibly text type, affects the kinds of inferences that readers generate. Hence, inferential activities are at least partially under the reader's strategic control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in literal and inferential comprehension after reading orally and silently.

Investigated whether (1) there are differences in reading comprehension related to test format (oral vs silent reading of a passage), (2) differences occur equally with literal and inferential questions, and (3) the differences occur equally for good and poor readers. 94 children in Grades 2–5 were asked to read, orally and silently, grade-appropriate passages from the Analytic Reading Inventory. Questions were classified as literal or inferential. A repeated measures ANOVA showed no direct effects attributable to test format (whether the S read orally or silently) or kinds of comprehension (whether the S answered literal or inferential questions) but did show several interaction effects at different levels of competence. Results fail to support common assumptions regarding the greater ease of silent over oral reading or literal over inferential comprehension for poor readers but do support contentions of deficits in automaticity and attentional focus in poor readers. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing first graders' reading accuracy and comprehension by accelerating their reading rates.

I carried out four experiments to determine the effects on decoding mistakes and comprehension of test passages at fastest and slowest reading rates. The subjects of the first three studies were 161 Israeli first graders, and those of the last experiment were 61 American first graders reading English. Analysis of reading rates obtained during a self-paced condition provided the base rates for each subject. I hypothesized that because of the constraints of short-term memory, requiring subjects to maintain their own maximal oral reading rates would result in improvements in both reading accuracy and comprehension. When presented with the text at their maximal normal reading rates, subjects averaged fewer reading errors and higher comprehension scores than in the self-paced conditions. By contrast, when the text was presented at the slowest reading rates, subjects' decoding accuracy improved, but their comprehension decreased significantly. In one of the experiments, the text contained deliberate letter-substitution errors. Increased reading rate once more reduced the overall errors and increased comprehension. In addition, the deliberate mistakes were more frequently corrected to normal words than in the self-paced condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the effects of classroom discussion on students’ comprehension of text: A meta-analysis.

The role of classroom discussions in comprehension and learning has been the focus of investigations since the early 1960s. Despite this long history, no syntheses have quantitatively reviewed the vast body of literature on classroom discussions for their effects on students’ comprehension and learning. This comprehensive meta-analysis of empirical studies was conducted to examine evidence of the effects of classroom discussion on measures of teacher and student talk and on individual student comprehension and critical-thinking and reasoning outcomes. Results revealed that several discussion approaches produced strong increases in the amount of student talk and concomitant reductions in teacher talk, as well as substantial improvements in text comprehension. Few approaches to discussion were effective at increasing students’ literal or inferential comprehension and critical thinking and reasoning. Effects were moderated by study design, the nature of the outcome measure, and student academic ability. While the range of ages of participants in the reviewed studies was large, a majority of studies were conducted with students in 4th through 6th grades. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Windows on comprehension: Reading comprehension processes as revealed by two think-aloud procedures.

To address methodological questions regarding use of the think-aloud (TA) procedure and theoretical questions regarding the roles of prior knowledge and strategy use in reading comprehension, 24 college students each read 3 passages in 3 different presentation modes (marked TA, unmarked TA, and control) and answered essay comprehension questions. There was no effect of presentation mode on essay scores. TA comments were coded into 4 categories, 2 of which were significantly correlated with comprehension scores for marked but not unmarked passages. The authors conclude that the marked procedure elicited more veridical protocols. A second coding and analysis of the marked protocols showed that students who scored high on the comprehension test were more likely to have made many TA comments reflecting a "knowledge-transforming" approach to the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Text comprehension in Chinese children: Relative contribution of verbal working memory, pseudoword reading, rapid automated naming, and onset-rime phonological segmentation.

The present study examined the role of verbal working memory (memory span, tongue twister), 2-character Chinese pseudoword reading, rapid automatized naming (letters, numbers), and phonological segmentation (deletion of rimes and onsets) in inferential text comprehension in Chinese in 518 Chinese children in Hong Kong in Grades 3 to 5. It was hypothesized that verbal working memory, together with a small contribution from the other constructs, would explain individual variation in the children's text comprehension. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression analyses generally upheld the hypotheses. Though Chinese pseudoword reading did not play an important mediating role in the effect of verbal working memory on text comprehension, verbal working memory had strong effects on pseudoword reading and text comprehension. The findings on the Chinese language support current Western literature as well as display the differential role of the constructs in Chinese reading comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognitive differences between skilled and less skilled readers: Remediating deficits through story grammar and attribution training.

Designed a metacognitive intervention program to remediate the failures of 42 4th-grade boys in using metacognitive skills to aid their reading comprehension. The program consisted of 2 components: story grammar training, designed to increase comprehension monitoring; and attribution training, designed to increase awareness of effort in efficient reading. Ss were assigned to 3 groups: 1 group received both components and the other 2 groups each received one component alone. 14 skilled 4th-grade male readers served as a contrast group. Maintenance was assessed through free and probed recall; generalization was assessed through a metareading test and an error detection and correction task. Results indicate that strategy training produced dramatic gains in comprehension. Only Ss receiving attribution training alone showed poorer performance than skilled readers. Partial support was obtained for generalization on the metareading assessment. It is concluded that strategy training improved poor readers' comprehension by providing them with metacognitive skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Categorization, macrostructure, and finding the main idea.

Evaluated an inductive concept-identification model of expository text processing, consonant with current theories of macrostructure development, which was proposed as part of the basis of a model for instruction in reading comprehension, in a study of 24 4th graders (mean age 9.64 yrs) and 24 6th graders (mean age 11.81 yrs). It was found that the ability to identify sentences as appropriate for inclusion in short paragraphs depended on the number of detail sentences (category exemplars) in paragraphs that had no topic sentences (i.e., no explicit statement of the category) but not in paragraphs with topic sentences. Results support the model. (18 ref) (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)     

Developing fluent text processing with practice: Memorial influences on fluency and comprehension.

A great deal of research has examined predictors related to the development of reading fluency and reading comprehension. Whilst a number of studies support the relationship between the development of reading fluency and subsequent improvements in reading comprehension, many studies have shown faster and more accurate decoding does not automatically lead to better comprehension. Often overlooked is the role of the text representation that is encoded in memory during reading and its influence on skilled reading comprehension. In this article, the authors review literature that explores the relationship between text representation and fluent reading. Based upon the results of this review, the authors suggest that the type of representation formed during reading is closely related to the development of both skilled reading comprehension and fluent reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improvement in reading rate under independent and difficult text levels: Influences on word and comprehension skills.

Improving reading rate can be difficult for poor readers. In this experiment, we investigated the impact of improvement in reading rate on other aspects of reading, including word recognition, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension. Poor readers in Grades 2 or 4 (N = 123) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: practice reading text at their independent reading level (92%–100% word reading accuracy), practice reading text at a difficult reading level (80%–90% accuracy), or an untreated control. Students in practice conditions read aloud to an adult listener who assisted with difficult words. Before, midway, and following 20 weeks of treatment, we assessed improvement in reading rate, word recognition, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension across conditions and determined the impact of improved rate on comprehension. We found significant differences favoring the treatment groups in rate, word recognition, and comprehension, but not in decoding or vocabulary. We found no significant differences in growth between levels of text difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Readers' social desirability and text that violates social values: Evidence of an interaction.

Seventy-two 9th graders read paragraphs and predicted the probable course of action for the main character. In some paragraphs, the character's preferred course of action violated social values; in others, it did not. The students were given V. C. Crandall, V. J. Crandall, and W. A. Katkovsky's (1965) Social Desirability Questionnaire; school records provided reading comprehension scores. Prediction scores increased with reading level, and they were lower on paragraphs that violated social values than on paragraphs that did not. Students with higher social desirability concerns had relatively more difficulty with paragraphs that violated social values than with paragraphs that did not; this effect was independent of reading level. Thus, affective characteristics of text can strongly influence comprehension, and such characteristics do not influence all students to the same degree. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of resource allocation are reliable among younger and older readers.

Younger and older adults read short expository passages across 2 times of measurement for subsequent comprehension or recall. Regression analysis was used to decompose word-by-word reading times into resources allocated to word- and textbase-level processes. Readers were more sensitive to these demands when reading for recall than when reading for comprehension. Patterns of resource allocation showed good test-retest reliabilities and were predictive of memory performance. Within age group, resource allocation parameters were not systematically correlated with other individual-difference measures, suggesting that strategies of on-line resource allocation may be a unique source of individual differences in determining comprehension of and memory for text. Age differences in allocation patterns appeared to reflect general slowing among the older adults. Because older adults showed equivalent memory performance to that of younger readers, the reading time data may represent the on-line resource allocation needed for comparable outcomes among older and younger readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)