Strategic processing during comprehension.

This study addresses 3 questions: How flexible are readers when reading strategically? How is strategic processing affected by properties of the text? and Do some strategies lead to better text retention than others? Participants read short narratives and thought aloud with an instruction to either explain, predict, associate, or understand. The think-aloud protocols were used to predict sentence reading times for other participants who read silently with the same strategies. The results indicated that readers are capable of strategically controlling the inferences that they generate. However, strategic control comes at some cost in that it limits the resources devoted to other inferences. Furthermore, strategic processing is heavily constrained by a text. Text-based explanations occurred when there was an identifiable causal antecedent in the prior text. Knowledge-based inferences occurred when there were no antecedents and when new characters and objects were introduced. These effects occurred across reading strategies. Reading to explain led to better memory, but only when reading silently. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inferential questioning: Effects on comprehension of narrative texts as a function of grade and timing.

In this study, we investigated the effects of inferential questioning, and of the timing of such questioning, on narrative comprehension by 4th-, 7th-, and 10th-grade students and college students. Students received questions either during or after reading simple narrative texts. Control groups read the texts without questions. Questioning, particularly during reading, interfered with the youngest students' recall both of text information in general and of information specifically targeted by the questions. Questioning facilitated college students' memory but only for information specifically targeted by the questions and only when questioning occurred during reading. As reading and language skills become more proficient and automatic, inferential questioning increasingly directs readers' attention during reading to the information targeted by the questions. In addition, inferential questioning challenges the processing capacities of younger or less skilled readers and, hence, may interfere with comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fluent rereading: Repetition, automaticity, and discrepancy.

Six experiments examined readers' sensitivity to discrepancies introduced into familiar texts. Across 4 or 5 trials, Ss crossed out misspellings as they read. Reading times decreased across repeated readings, and even though misspellings differed on every reading, their detection remained constant or improved across readings. Thus, reading became fluent but remained accurate across experiences. On the final reading, small discrepancies were unexpectedly introduced into the familiar texts. Results showed clear sensitivity to discrepancies in visual features (Exps 1, 2, and 5) and in lexical and semantic characteristics (Exps 3, 4, and 6) of familiar texts. Exps 5 and 6 showed that this sensitivity was on-line, occurring in the interval in which the discrepancy was encountered. The findings are discussed in terms of episodic transfer across repetitions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, memory load, and resource allocation during reading.

To test the notion that aging brings an inability to self-initiate processing, the authors investigated the effects of memory load on online sentence understanding. Younger and older adults read a series of short passages with or without a simultaneous updating task, which would be expected to deplete resources by consuming memory capacity. Regression analyses of word-by-word reading times onto text variables within each condition were used to decompose reading times into resources allocated to the array of word-level and textbase-level processes needed for comprehension. Among neither the young nor the old were word-level processes disrupted by a simultaneous memory load. However, older readers showed relatively greater levels of resource allocation to conceptual integration than the younger adults when under load, regardless of working-memory span or task priority. These results suggest that the ability to self-initiate the allocation of processing resources during reading is preserved among older readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reprocessing text: Indirect measures of word and message level processes.

In three experiments we examined word- and text-level transfer after different reading experiences. Experiment 1 showed that facilitation in the later perceptual identification of a word occurs when that word was orginally read as part of a word set, but not when it was read as part of a meaningful text. Further, the word-to-word transfer effect exhibited the hallmarks of data-driven processing. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that transfer at the text level occurs when the reprocessing measure involves the entire text, rather than words taken from the text. This text reprocessing effect also exhibited data-driven indicators and was indifferent to the subjects' reading strategies. It was specific to the text originally read, with no generalization to texts of the same structure. The results, discussed in terms of P. A. Kolers' (see record 1976-00491-001) views of skilled reading, suggest caution in interpreting transfer measures when the original and reprocessing tasks are at different linguistic levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of levels of processing on recall from working memory and delayed recall tasks.

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading span task (Experiment 1) and an operation span task (Experiment 2) in order to assess the role of retrieval from secondary memory during complex span tasks. Immediate recall from both span tasks was greater for items studied under deep processing instructions compared with items studied under shallow processing instructions regardless of trial length. Recall was better for deep than for shallow levels of processing on delayed recall tests as well. These data are consistent with the primary-secondary memory framework, which suggests that to-be-remembered items are displaced from primary memory (i.e., the focus of attention) during the processing phases of complex span tasks and therefore must be retrieved from secondary memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

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)     

Cognitive capacity engagement during and following interspersed mathemagenic questions.

Investigated the effects of 2 types of interspersed "mathemagenic" postquestions (superordinate and subordinate) on cognitive capacity engagement during reading and subsequent performance on a recall posttest, using the secondary task paradigm. (Mathemagenic influence refers to the generally facilitative effect of postquestions on learning.) 120 undergraduates served in 1 of 4 conditions by reading the prose passages developed by R. Bruning (1968): mathemagenic questions only, secondary task only, mathemagenic questions and secondary task, or neither. Interspersed, superordinate postquestions were associated with higher levels of cognitive capacity engagement than subordinate postquestions both during the processing of the question and during subsequent reading. On a cued recall achievement test, more main ideas were recalled than details, and the group that received neither secondary task probes nor questions performed more poorly than the other groups on both types of questions. An effect of the secondary task probe itself, especially on recall of main ideas, is interpreted as a task-demand component of the orienting response. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual abstraction and interactivity in repeated oral reading: Where do things stand?

B. W. A. Whittlesea (see record 1990-27520-001) reports context specificity in oral rereading. Repetition benefit is larger when a random scrambling of a text is read twice than when two different scramblings are read, indicating an "episodic" or "text-level" contribution to repetition benefit. We examine Whittlesea's data by focusing on variability across stimulus materials in the magnitude of context specificity, which ranges from –0.1% to 694.7% of the repetition benefit attributable solely to lexical overlap. We describe similar variability in other recent research, including new work of our own. The central question in the episodic–abstractionist debate is no longer whether context specificity can or cannot be found in rereading but what factors govern the relative contributions of text-level and lexical-level repetition. We offer a "level of focal attention" hypothesis to supplant the "task change" hypothesis of T. H. Carr et al (see record 1989-38877-001). The new hypothesis is a strategy-oriented version of transfer-appropriate processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of analogical reasoning in the induction of problem categories.

In 3 experiments, novices were required to answer questions while reading a series of problems. The questions required them either to analyze individual problem structures (intraproblem processing) or compare problem structures (analogical comparison processing) to derive answers. Ss who engaged in problem comparison processing were found to categorize and describe problems on the basis of problem structure, whereas those who engaged in intraproblem processing, or simply read the problems, categorized and described them on the basis of surface features. Analogical comparisons also facilitated selection and construction of equations relative to intraproblem processing. These results suggest that analogical comparison is an important component in the induction of problem categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading both high-coherence and low-coherence texts: Effects of text sequence and prior knowledge.

Determined if (1) the advantage for the low-coherence text is due to inferences made while reading, or alternatively, due to inferences generated during testing as a result of less information being available from the low-coherence text; (2) the inferences must rely on prior knowledge, or if inferences based on the text (or recently presented information) are sufficient; and (3) reading 2 different text versions is advantageous for readers. Ss were 80 university students who were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions representing if the Ss read the high-coherence text followed by either the high- or low-coherence text, or the low-coherence text followed by either the high-or the low-coherence text. Methodology involved reading the texts, answering questions about the text, and answering prior knowledge questions. The results indicate that high-knowledge readers benefited from the low-coherence only text when it was read first. Further, low-knowledge readers benefited from the high-coherence text, regardless of whether it was read first, second, or twice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of connectives on young readers' processing and comprehension of text.

Connectives are cohesive devices that signal the relations between clauses and are critical to the construction of a coherent representation of a text's meaning. The authors investigated young readers' knowledge, processing, and comprehension of temporal, causal, and adversative connectives using offline and online tasks. In a cloze task, 10-year-olds were more accurate than 8-year-olds on temporal and adversative connectives, but both age groups differed from adult levels of performance (Experiment 1). When required to rate the “sense” of 2-clause sentences linked by connectives, 10-year-olds and adults were better at discriminating between clauses linked by appropriate and inappropriate connectives than were 8-year-olds. The 10-year-olds differed from adults only on the temporal connectives (Experiment 2). In contrast, online reading time measures indicated that 8-year-olds' processing of text is influenced by connectives as they read, in much the same way as 10-year-olds'. Both age groups read text more quickly when target 2-clause sentences were linked by an appropriate connective compared with texts in which a connective was neutral (and), inappropriate to the meaning conveyed by the 2 clauses, or not present (Experiments 3 and 4). These findings indicate that although knowledge and comprehension of connectives is still developing in young readers, connectives aid text processing in typically developing readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The tongue-twister effect in reading Chinese.

Two studies demonstrate a visual tongue-twister effect (TTE) in Chinese and add support to the assumption that reading in any writing system engages a phonological memory system. Exp 1 showed that for both oral and silent reading, Ss took longer to read texts with repeated initial phonemes (IPs) than to read control stories with mixed IPs. Exp 2 verified the phonemic nature of the TTE in a dual task situation in which Ss had to retain a string of digits while reading a sentence. The results showed a specific-phoneme interference such that Ss took longer to read the texts when digits and words had the same IPs than when they had different phonemes. Both studies provide evidence that the source of the TTE in both Chinese and English is phonological interference rather than visual confusion. They confirm the highly general nature of phonological involvement in skilled sentence reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning Facts From Fiction: Effects of Healthy Aging and Early-Stage Dementia of the Alzheimer Type.

Healthy younger and older adults and individuals with very mild or mild dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) listened to and read fictional stories containing correct and incorrect facts about the world. Of interest was their use of this story information to answer questions on a later test of general world knowledge. Prior exposure to relatively well-known facts boosted all subjects' ability to correctly answer general knowledge questions. Reading incorrect facts in the stories led to misinformation effects in healthy older adults (although these effects were smaller than those observed in younger adults). DAT individuals showed reduced effects of story exposure; effects were greatest in a situation that reminded DAT individuals that the stories might provide the answers to the questions. Benefits of story reading depended on activation of the semantic network, whereas costs of story reading were more dependent on episodic memory processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reaading fluency: Episodic integration across texts.

Seven experiments examined the influence of a memorial text representation on the later reading of a different text (across-text transfer). The texts were related by overlap in vocabulary only, in content only, in both vocabulary and content, or in neither vocabulary nor content. Results indicate that there was facilitation in reading the second text when the two passages were thematically continuous, irrespective of overlap in vocabulary. This facilitation was undiminished over a 15-min delay between the readings of members of the story pair. Overlap in vocabulary between unrelated stories resulted in slower reading of the second story, but this negative transfer was transient. Experiments 5–7 provide a finer grained analysis of the text relatedness effects. The benefits of a memorial representation are interpreted in terms of episodic text representations, rather than abstract schema. Meaning overlap is necessary for such reading facilitation, but context-free word representations play little part in the across-text transfer observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence level and feeling of knowing for episodic and semantic memory: an investigation of lorazepam effects on metamemory

The effects of lorazepam (0.026 or 0.038 mg/kg), a benzodiazepine, and of a placebo on metamemory, i.e. knowledge about one's own memory capabilities, were investigated in 36 healthy volunteers. Accuracy of confidence levels (CL) in the correctness of recalled answers and accuracy of feeling of knowing (FOK) the answers when recall fails were measured using a sentence memory task assessing episodic memory and a task consisting of general information questions and assessing semantic memory. Lorazepam impaired episodic memory. Unexpectedly, it also impaired performance in both the recall and recognition phases of the task assessing semantic memory, suggesting that it decreased the ability to distinguish between correct and incorrect information. In episodic memory, lorazepam 0.038 mg/kg-treated subjects exhibited an impaired CL accuracy, compared to placebo-treated subjects, and their FOK accuracy was at chance. In semantic memory, their overall CL and FOK accuracy was apparently spared. However, these subjects selectively overestimated their CL judgements for incorrect answers; moreover, secondary analyses showed that FOK accuracy for a subset of low-accuracy items was virtually nil. These results suggest that lorazepam impairs metamemory for both episodic and semantic memory.     

Predictors of word decoding and reading fluency across languages varying in orthographic consistency.

Very few studies have directly compared reading acquisition across different orthographies. The authors examined the concurrent and longitudinal predictors of word decoding and reading fluency in children learning to read in an orthographically inconsistent language (English) and in an orthographically consistent language (Greek). One hundred ten English-speaking children and 70 Greek-speaking children attending Grade 1 were examined in measures of phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid naming speed, orthographic processing, word decoding, and reading fluency. The same children were reassessed on word decoding and reading fluency measures when they were in Grade 2. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that both phonological and orthographic processing contributed uniquely to reading ability in Grades 1 and 2. However, the importance of these predictors was different in the two languages, particularly with respect to their effect on word decoding. The authors argue that the orthography that children are learning to read is an important factor that needs to be taken into account when models of reading development are being generalized across languages. (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)