Social influences on metacognition: Effects of colearner questioning on comprehension monitoring.

Four experiments examined social influences on metacognition, testing whether learners' knowledge that colearners have questions about material they are simultaneously viewing affects learners' own judged levels of comprehension. In Experiment 1 (n?=?88), the frequency with which learners indicated they were confused increased with the number of questions they believed colearners had about the material. Experiment 2 (n?=?38) determined that the effect of colearner questioning on self-judged comprehension was not due to distraction or social facilitation. Experiment 3 (n?=?100) replicated the results of Experiment 1 and found that the social impact on learners' judgments of comprehension was less when questions were believed to have come from 3 colearners rather than 1. Experiment 4 (n?=?60) suggested that the number of questions per colearner determines their impact on others' comprehension judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Icons improve older and younger adults' comprehension of medication information

We examined whether timeline icons improved older and younger adults' comprehension of medication information. In Experiment 1, comprehension of instructions with the icon (icon/text format) and without the icon (text-only format) was assessed by questions about information that was (a) implicit in the text but depicted explicitly by the icon (total dose in a 24 hour period), (b) stated and depicted in the icon/text condition (medication dose and times), and (c) stated but not depicted by the icon (e.g., side effects). In a separate task, participants also recalled medication instructions (with or without the icon) after a study period. We found that questions about dose and time information were answered more quickly and accurately when the icon was present in the instructions. Notably, icon benefits were greater for information that was implicit rather than stated in the text. This finding suggests that icons can improve older and younger adults' comprehension by reducing the need to draw some inferences. The icon also reduced effective study time (study time per item recalled). In Experiment 2, icon benefits did not occur for a less integrated version of the timeline icon that, like the text, required participants to integrate dose and time information in order to identify the total daily dose. The integrated version of the icon again improved comprehension, as in Experiment 1, as well as drawing inferences from memory. These findings show that integrated timeline icons improved comprehension primarily by aiding the integration of dose and time information. These findings are discussed in terms of a situation model approach to comprehension.     

A comparison of study strategies for passages: Rereading, answering questions, and generating questions.

Students are often encouraged to generate and answer their own questions on to-be-remembered material, because this interactive process is thought to enhance memory. But does this strategy actually work? In three experiments, all participants read the same passage, answered questions, and took a test to get accustomed to the materials in a practice phase. They then read three passages and did one of three tasks on each passage: reread the passage, answered questions set by the experimenter, or generated and answered their own questions. Passages were 575-word (Experiments 1 and 2) or 350-word (Experiment 3) texts on topics such as Venice, the Taj Mahal, and the singer Cesaria Evora. After each task, participants predicted their performance on a later test, which followed the same format as the practice phase test (a short-answer test in Experiments 1 and 2, and a free recall test in Experiment 3). In all experiments, best performance was predicted after generating and answering questions. We show, however, that generating questions led to no improvement over answering comprehension questions, but that both of these tasks were more beneficial than rereading. This was the case on an immediate short-answer test (Experiment 1), a short-answer test taken 2 days after study (Experiment 2), and an immediate free recall test (Experiment 3). Generating questions took at least twice as long as answering questions in all three experiments, so although it is a viable alternative to answering questions in the absence of materials, it is less time-efficient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decoding and comprehension skills in Turkish and English: Effects of the regularity of grapheme-phoneme correspondences.

Assesses decoding and comprehension skills for Turkish and American 1st and 3rd graders. 20 Ss in each group were tested on a pseudoword vocalization task and on a paragraph comprehension task. Latency and accuracy data indexed decoding proficiency and percentage correct comprehension skill. Turkish Ss were faster and more accurate on the decoding task than Americans at the 1st-grade level and equally accurate but faster at the 3rd-grade level. In 1st but not 3rd grade, Turkish Ss were superior to Americans on the comprehension task. Significant relationships between decoding and comprehension were found for all but American 3rd graders. Data suggest that languages with more regular letter–sound correspondences lead to faster acquisition of decoding skills. Findings also support a decreased relationship between decoding and comprehension once learners are beyond initial reading. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching readers about the structure of scientific text.

Adults may have difficulty in reading and retaining scientific text because they are unaware of the text's top-level structure. Experiment 1 revealed that college students had difficulty in sorting passages into categories on the basis of text structures, such as generalization, enumeration, sequence, classification, and compare/contrast. In Experiment 2, junior college chemistry students either received approximately 8 hr of training in how to discriminate among and use text structures found in their chemistry textbook (trained group) or engaged in unrelated activities (control group). All students took matched pretests and posttests in which they read biology passages and then freely recalled the passages and answered comprehension questions. On the recall test, the trained group showed a substantial pretest-to-posttest gain in recall of high conceptual information but not in recall of low conceptual information, whereas the control group showed no substantial gains. On the comprehension test, the trained group showed a substantial pretest-to-posttest gain in answering application questions and a lesser gain in answering literal questions, whereas the control group showed no substantial gains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in conversational source monitoring.

The present investigation simulated a group conversation in which participants asked (inquirer) and answered (responder) questions, as well as listened to others exchange information. Source (inquirer; responder) identification accuracy was evaluated immediately or after 1 week. Older adults were less adept at source identification, although this difference was reduced with personal (Experiment 2) rather than categorical (Experiment 1) topics. The age difference was independent of explicit memory (cued recall and recognition), suggesting that memory for source and information are separable. Older adults were comparable to younger adults in responder identification but worse at inquirer identification. Responder identification was better than inquirer identification, with the latter dropping to chance at 1 week. Source identification was most accurate when participants were in the responder role; there was little difference between the inquirer and listener roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in the relationship between reading comprehension and hemispheric alpha patterns: An EEG study.

Boys 6–8 and 10–12 years of age read short passages at their instructional level and were subsequently asked questions on these passages. EEG measures were obtained during silent reading of each passage. There were age differences in the relationship between hemisphere activation during silent reading and reading comprehension. Left-hemispheric activation was significantly associated with comprehension for the younger children. Bilateral processing was related to comprehension for the older children. These findings, integrated with other relevant findings, suggest a developmental difference in the use of hemispheric-mediated processes during reading acquisition. During beginning reading, children use simpler and fewer strategies, and (at any given point in time) rely more on the processing of one hemisphere. The particular hemisphere that any given child relies on depends on the strategy used. During a later stage of reading acquisition, children use a more dynamic flow of complex strategies, which involves greater interhemispheric integration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' miscomprehension of relational statements in arithmetic word problems.

In Experiment 1, students were asked to write their complete solution processes for arithmetic word problems containing relational statements. Students were more likely to miscomprehend a relational statement when the required arithmetic operation was inconsistent with the statement's relational term, such as having to subtract when the relational term was more than. This effect was magnified when the relational term was marked (e.g., less than) rather than unmarked (e.g., more than). In Experiment 2, students were given information about two variables and asked to generate a statement expressing the relation between them. Students tended to produce relational statements by using unmarked rather than marked comparative terms. Finally, we present a model of word problem comprehension processes that uses schemata as guides to comprehension. (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)     

Effects of inference necessity and reading goal on children's inferential generation.

Examined inferential processing during reading. Adults and 3rd, 5th, and 8th graders read stories implying a consequence and answered questions. Some of the inferences were more necessary than others for comprehension according to T. Trabasso and P. Van den Broek's (see record 1987-18271-001) causal criteria, and the readers engaged in either superficial or integrative reading. Results showed that elaborative inferences were not as likely to be generated as those more necessary for comprehension. The necessity manipulation also produced a similar pattern of responding among the 4 groups, suggesting that even the young children were sensitive to the causal criteria. In addition, the integrative reading condition prompted a general slowdown for the 2 younger groups, whereas the 2 older groups were not as affected by reading condition. This pattern was interpreted in terms of differences in attention demands and working memory capacity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A question of compensation: The social life of the fundamental dimensions of social perception.

This research examines the impact of the compensation effect between the fundamental dimensions of warmth and competence on behavioral confirmation. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with 2 groups that varied on 1 of the 2 dimensions and asked to select the questions that they wanted to pose to learn more about the groups. Participants preferred to ask negative (positive) questions about the unmanipulated dimension to the high (low) group. In Experiment 2, participants rated the 2 groups on the basis of na?ve people answers to those questions. As predicted, compensation emerged. Experiment 3 involved interactions among 3 participants, 1 interviewing the other 2 using the questions selected in Experiment 1. Ratings of targets' reactions again showed compensation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Superior speech comprehension in schizophrenics under monaural versus binaural listening conditions.

20 schizophrenics, 10 nurses, and 10 psychiatric controls (all under age 60) listened to stories and answered the corresponding questions in 3 conditions. All task information was provided either binaurally or exclusively to the left or right ear, and scores were derived from the number of questions answered correctly in each condition. It was hypothesized that schizophrenics would display significant deficits in left ear speech comprehension on the assumption that the patients suffered from poor interhemispheric transfer, which had been observed on manual and visual tasks. Significant left ear deficits were observed in the schizophrenics but not in the controls. An unexpected effect, which may also reflect defective interhemispheric transfer, was that the schizophrenics, but not the controls, displayed significant deficits in binaural relative to right ear speech comprehension. It may be possible to increase the speech comprehension of schizophrenics who show this effect by a simple method that takes advantage of the observed right ear superiority. (30 ref) (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)     

Effect of question production and answering on prose recall.

Studied the recall consequences of generating questions about prose in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 48 high school students cooperated in a tutorial situation. At different times, an S asked questions, answered questions, or merely studied. In Exp II, 64 college students worked alone constructing 5 or 10 questions which were free to vary in difficulty or which all were to be difficult. In both studies, questioning activities produced higher overall recall than just studying. Recall effects were confined to content that was directly related to Ss' questions, and recall level was the same whether questioning or answering. Directions about the number and type of questions to be constructed altered characteristics of questions, but recall was not strongly affected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forward transfer of different reading strategies evoked by testlike events in mathematics text.

80 undergraduates read 6 passages that were supplemented by questions asking for formal definitions (Definition), calculating a value (Calculating), applying a conceptual model to a problem (Model), all 3 (All), or no questions (None). Results on tests containing all 3 question types given after Passages 7 and 8 indicate an overall superiority of Group All over Group None; a Treatment * Question Type interaction in which Group Model excelled on all questions, but Groups Calculating and Definition did not; and no difference between Ss who had answered questions and those who simply read them in earlier passages. Implications for the acquisition processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical ambiguity resolution in good and poor comprehenders: An eye fixation and self-paced reading study in primary school children.

To investigate the use of context and monitoring of comprehension in lexical ambiguity resolution in children, the authors asked 10- to 12-year-old good and poor comprehenders to read sentences consisting of 2 clauses, 1 containing the ambiguous word and the other the disambiguating information. The order of the clauses was reversed so that disambiguating information either preceded or followed the ambiguous word. Context use and comprehension monitoring were examined by measuring eye fixations (Experiment 1) and self-paced reading times (Experiment 2) on the ambiguous word and disambiguating region. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 showed that poor comprehenders made use of prior context to facilitate lexical ambiguity resolution as effectively as good comprehenders but that they monitored their comprehension less effectively than good comprehenders. Good comprehenders corrected an initial interpretation error on an ambiguous word and restored comprehension once they encountered the disambiguating region. Poor comprehenders failed to deal with this type of comprehension failure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standard and nonstandard Hawaiian English-speaking children: Comprehension of both dialects and teacher's evaluations.

28 5th graders, who were standard English and nonstandard Hawaiian English speakers, listened to stories in both standard English and nonstandard Hawaiian English and answered questions about the stories. Processing effort for comprehension in both dialects was assessed by a subsidiary reaction time (RT) task performed while listening to stories; slower RT was taken to indicate greater processing demands of comprehension. Teachers' evaluations of the Ss' language behaviors, academic performance, classroom behaviors, and future endeavors were also collected. The nonstandard Hawaiian English speakers' comprehension was easier and more accurate with the nonstandard than the standard English stories, and the standard English speakers' comprehension was easier and more accurate with the standard than the nonstandard English stories. Teachers' evaluations and expectations for the nonstandard Hawaiian English speakers were consistently worse than those for the standard English speakers. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The artful dodger: Answering the wrong question the right way.

What happens when speakers try to “dodge” a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar—but objectively incorrect—questions (the “artful dodge”), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more negatively. We propose that dodges go undetected because listeners' attention is not usually directed toward a goal of dodge detection (i.e., Is this person answering the question?) but rather toward a goal of social evaluation (i.e., Do I like this person?). Listeners were not blind to all dodge attempts, however. Dodge detection increased when listeners' attention was diverted from social goals toward determining the relevance of the speaker's answers (Study 1), when speakers answered a question egregiously dissimilar to the one asked (Study 2), and when listeners' attention was directed to the question asked by keeping it visible during speakers' answers (Study 4). We also examined the interpersonal consequences of dodge attempts: When listeners were guided to detect dodges, they rated speakers more negatively (Study 2), and listeners rated speakers who answered a similar question in a fluent manner more positively than speakers who answered the actual question but disfluently (Study 3). These results add to the literatures on both Gricean conversational norms and goal-directed attention. We discuss the practical implications of our findings in the contexts of interpersonal communication and public debates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increased processing enhances calibration of comprehension.

Two experiments investigated whether increased processing increases the relation between test performance predictions and test performance, i.e., increases calibration of comprehension. The amount of processing of text was manipulated by having subjects read intact text or text with deleted letters. In Experiment 1, intact versus deleted letters were manipulated within subjects, and subjects made either comprehension ease or test prediction ratings. Paragraphs with deleted letters produced higher correlations between predictions and test performance than did intact paragraphs. Better calibration with more processing was not observed for ratings of comprehension ease. In Experiment 2, in a between-subjects design, the prediction results were replicated; calibration was better for text with deleted letters than for intact text. The results show that subjects can predict performance on text material with greater than chance accuracy and that these predictions are better when subjects do more active processing during reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of drawing on memory performance in young children.

In Experiment 1, 32 5- to 6-year-old boys and girls participated in a unique event and were interviewed about that event 1 day later. Half of the children were asked to draw what happened during the event and half were asked to tell what happened. In both conditions, only children's verbal behavior was scored. Children in the draw group were as accurate and reported more information than children in the tell group, especially in response to direct questions. In Experiment 2, 32 5- to 6-year-olds and 32 3- to 4-year-olds participated in the same event used in Experiment 1 and were interviewed 1 month later. The 5- to 6-year-olds in the draw group reported more information than the 5- to 6-year-olds in the tell group after the 1-month delay. Drawing did not, however, increase the amount of information reported by 3- to 4-year-olds. These findings have important theoretical implications for memory development and important practical implications for children's eyewitness testimony. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)