Young writers' use of text structure in expository text generation.

Although few studies have examined children's use of text structure in writing, knowledge of text structure is presumed to be an important strategy underlying effective expository text generation. The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of writers at two ages and three ability levels in generating textually consistent superordinate main ideas and subordinate details for three types of text structures. Analyses revealed significant main effects for grade, ability, and text type. More proficient writers seemed to possess a more generalized knowledge of text structure that they applied at both the superordinate and subordinate levels, whereas less proficient writers seemed to perform best in writing subordinate details. The findings supported the conclusion that knowledge of text structure was developmentally acquired, and that text structures varied in their saliency to young writers, although the majority of writers at both grade levels remained largely insensitive to text structure in composition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's knowledge of structural properties of expository text.

Examined children's knowledge of 3 structural properties of expository text—topical relatedness, superordination, and cohesion. 15 children each in Grades 3, 5, and 7 completed a series of paragraph-construction tasks. Nearly all the Ss were able to identify paragraphs in text and to group topically related sentences together to make short texts. Only the 7th-grade Ss were adept at describing what makes a paragraph a paragraph, at excluding topically unrelated sentences from short texts, and at arranging sentences into cohesive wholes. Even the oldest Ss experienced some difficulty in placing main-idea statements in the modal structural position. (19 ref) (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)     

Explanatory analogies can help children acquire information from expository text.

In this experiment, we investigated whether children can profit from the use of explanatory analogies to acquire information from expository text. Five-year-old (n?=?24) and seven-year-old (n?=?34) children listened to four texts describing relatively unfamiliar topics with or without explanatory analogies. The children were asked to recall the information described in the texts and to communicate this information to another child. They were also asked a number of inferential questions about the topics. The children in the analogy condition recalled and communicated more of the information contained in the texts and were more likely to remember the content units shared by the analogous concepts than were the children in the no-analogy condition. This effect was stronger for the older children than for the younger children. Although the children made a number of erroneous inferences about the topic, these inferences were not related to the presence of the analogies. These results show that analogies can help children acquire information from expository text, presumably because they make it possible for the children to transfer an explanatory structure from a familiar domain to an unfamiliar one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowledge of text coherence and expository writing: A developmental study.

Attempted to relate coherence in the expository writing of 4th graders, 8th graders, and college students to their knowledge of the requirements of global coherence in expository texts. Ss performed a sentence-identification task designed to assess such knowledge and wrote 2 expository essays. Significant positive correlations were found between sentence identification and 3 measures of the rated coherence of the Ss' essays. With 1 exception, these correlations remained significant when grade was partialed out. Morever, performance on the sentence-identification and essay tasks improved from 4th to 8th grade. Scores on a holistic measure of essay coherence also improved through college age. Thus, it is likely that over a wide age range, knowledge of the requirements of global coherence in expository essays is a factor in one's ability to produce a coherent essay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orienting tasks as moderators of narrative and expository text recall in adulthood.

Incidental narrative and expository prose memory of 60 older adults (mean age 71.6 yrs) and 60 younger adults (mean age 23.6 yrs) was assessed following orienting tasks that emphasized either relational (sentence scrambling) or individual proposition (letter deletion) information or following a control condition. Orienting tasks were done capably, but older adults took longer and made more errors on the letter-deletion task than did younger adults. Age differences in recall were observed consistently for expository texts, but for narrative texts, age differences in recall were observed only when letters were deleted. If orienting tasks overtax older adults' processing resources or emphasize shallow information, recall gains may be minimal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of structural schema training and text organization on expository prose processing.

Two experiments, with 157 undergraduates, assessed the effects of structural schema training and text organization on the comprehension and recall of scientific prose. As a preliminary step, a structural schema specifying the categories of knowledge important to understanding a scientific theory was developed. This schema was subsequently used as a prose processing aid in the 2 experiments. Results indicate that training Ss in the use of this schema significantly facilitated recall of scientific text. It was found in the 2nd experiment that organizing the presentation sequence of the major concepts of a passage according to this structural schema significantly improved subsequent recall for main ideas on free- and cued-recall measures in comparison to an alternative presentation sequence. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension.

Describes a constructionist theory that accounts for the knowledge-based inferences that are constructed when readers comprehend narrative text. Readers potentially generate a rich variety of inferences when they construct a referential situation model of what the text is about. The proposed constructionist theory specifies that some, but not all, of this information is constructed under most conditions of comprehension. The distinctive assumptions of the constructionist theory embrace a principle of search (or effort) after meaning. According to this principle, readers attempt to construct a meaning representation that addresses the reader's goals, that is coherent at both local and global levels, and that explains why actions, events, and states are mentioned in the text. This study reviews empirical evidence that addresses this theory and contrasts it with alternative theoretical frameworks. (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)     

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)     

How prior knowledge, WMC, and relevance of information affect eye fixations in expository text.

This study examined how prior knowledge and working memory capacity (WMC) influence the effect of a reading perspective on online text processing. In Experiment 1, 47 participants read and recalled 2 texts of different familiarity from a given perspective while their eye movements were recorded. The participants' WMC was assessed with the reading span test. The results suggest that if the reader has prior knowledge related to text contents and a high WMC, relevant text information can be encoded into memory without extra processing time. In Experiment 2, baseline processing times showed whether readers slow down their processing of relevant information or read faster through the irrelevant information. The results are discussed in the light of different working memory theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mnemonic facilitation of learning disabled students' memory for expository prose.

In two experiments, learning disabled adolescents read passages that described North American minerals, using materials that incorporated either mnemonic or nonmnemonic illustrations. In Experiment 1, the students were instructed to remember attribute dichotomies (e.g., hard vs. soft minerals), whereas in Experiment 2, the students had to remember specific attribute values (e.g., Hardness Levels 1–20). In both experiments, students learned significantly more when they studied passages with mnemonic pictures. This was true both on immediate performance tests (Experiments 1 and 2) and following a 1-week delay (Experiment 2). Moreover, in Experiment 2, mnemonic instruction facilitated student's ability to make correct inferences about attribute dichotomies—even though such information was never explicitly presented in the lesson. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signaling in expository hypertexts compensates for deficits in reading skill.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 101(2) of Journal of Educational Psychology (see record 2009-04640-014). The URL published for the supplemental material was incorrect. The correct URL is provided in the erratum.] Expository hypertexts may contain specific types of signals such as navigable topical overviews and hyperlinks that map conceptual relationships between text contents. Two experiments with German university students (N = 130, 75% female, mean age 25 years) were conducted to test the hypothesis that hypertext-specific signals particularly support learners with badly routinized reading skills in organizing and integrating complex learning materials. The experiments were based on naturalistic texts and essay-writing tasks typical for exam preparation. Learning outcomes were measured by characteristics of participants' essays (amount of knowledge, knowledge focusing, knowledge integration). In both experiments, a hypertext with a high amount of signaling yielded better learning outcomes than did a linear text for readers with a low level of skill, whereas there were no differences for readers with a high level of skill (ΔR2 from .03 to .08 for the interaction). In Experiment 2, the same interaction pattern was found for hypertext with a high versus a low amount of hypertext-specific signals (ΔR2 from .04 to .10). Moreover, a lack of signals led to less efficient navigation behavior. These results demonstrate that hypertexts equipped with hypertext-specific signals may compensate for deficits in reading skill. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 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)     

Constructing arguments from multiple sources: Tasks that promote understanding and not just memory for text.

In 2 experiments, understanding of historical subject matter was enhanced when students acted as historians and constructed their own models of an historical event. Providing students with information in a web site with multiple sources instead of a textbook chapter, and instructing them to write arguments instead of narratives, summaries, or explanations, produced the most integrated and causal essays with the most transformation from the original sources. Better performance on inference and analogy tasks provided converging evidence that students who wrote arguments from the web sources gained a better understanding than other students. A second experiment replicated the advantage of argument writing even when information was presented as an argument. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pictures facilitate children's recall of unillustrated expository prose.

Four experiments investigated the effect of pictures on the recall of expository prose by 1st and 3rd graders. Exp 1 investigated whether pictures would facilitate recall of information presented both in the prose and in the picture (illustrated information) as well as information presented only in the prose (unillustrated information). Results showed that pictures facilitated children's recall of both illustrated and unillustrated information. Exp 2 replicated the effect for 1st graders with 2 types of unillustrated information: behavioral and physical attributes of unusual animals. Exp 3 again demonstrated that pictures facilitated recall of unillustrated information. This effect was not due to heightened or selective attention. Exp 4 examined whether the effect was restricted to unfamiliar topics. However, the facilitatory effect of pictures for unillustrated information occurred for passages about familiar and unfamiliar animals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signaling techniques that increase the understandability of expository prose.

In 2 experiments, 102 15–17 yr old high school students read and listened to either a signaled or nonsignaled expository passage. The signals consisted of preview sentences, underlined headings, and logical connective phrases. The results show a pattern in which the signaled groups performed better on recall of conceptual information and on generating high quality problem solutions, whereas the nonsignaled groups excelled on recall of information from the beginning and end of the passage and on generating low quality problem solutions. These results suggest that signaling is effective in modifying students' reading strategies. (14 ref) (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)     

Regulating the macrostructure of continuous-cast billet

The macrostructure of 10, 20, 09Γ2C, and дб steel billet (diameter 150 and 220 mm) is investigated. Regardless of the casting parameters and grade of steel, the metal in the continuous-cast billet studied contains sections distributed randomly over the length that are characterized by impermissible central porosity in tests. The nonuniform distribution of this defect over the length of the billet is due to unstable solidification of the central zone and is not eliminated in continuous casting of the steel. The research permits the adoption of a new edition of Technical Specifications TU 14-159-324-2012 for continuous-cast billet, with requirements on the extent of the central porosity.