Search results for " Comprehension"
showing 10 items of 243 documents
Selecting students for medical school: What predicts success during basic science studies? A cognitive approach
1996
This study focuses on differences between multiple-choice science tests and a learning-from-text (LFT) test, and how these tests predict success in basic medical studies. The subjects (N = 503) were applicants to the Helsinki University Medical Faculty. All of them had to take an entrance examination in order to be considered for admission to a 6-year study programme combining medical school and graduate studies. The entrance examination consisted of three traditional multiple-choice science tests and one LFT test, the latter designed to measure deep-level processing of text. A follow-up study was conducted in order to see how the different tasks were related to the grades and pace of study…
Metaphor comprehension in children with and without autism spectrum disorder
2020
Abstract Metaphor comprehension was studied in three groups of children from 6 to 12 years old: a group with autism spectrum disorder with level 2 severity (ASD, n = 22) and two comparison groups with typical development: one matched with the ASD group on chronological age (TCD group, n = 22) and the other matched on linguistic age (TLD group, n = 22). The TCD group performed better than the TLD group, which performed better than the ASD group, on the comprehension of both conventional and novel metaphors, with better performance found on conventional metaphors than on novel ones. We suggest that both linguistic and extralinguistic competencies (usually limited in level 2 ASD) would be nece…
Literacy programs efficacy for developing children’s early reading skills in familiar language in Zambia
2018
This study investigated the comparative efficacy of a phonics-based reading program and a language experience approach based literacy program to develop reading skills among Zambian early childhood school learners. The learners (n = 1 986; Grade 2 level; females = 50.1%) took either the phonics-based reading program (n = 1 593) or the alternative language experience approach based program (n = 393). They were all assessed for reading skills utilising the Early Grade Reading Assessment test (EGRA) in four languages (Cinyanja, Icibemba, Kiikaonde, and Silozi). Results suggest that learners in phonics-based literacy program were significantly better in letter-sound knowledge in all the four la…
Preditores de compreensão de leitura em adultos Europeus
2021
Research on the predictors of reading comprehension has been largely focused on school-aged children and mainly in opaque orthographies, hindering the generalization of the results to adult populations and more transparent orthographies. In the present study, we aim to test two versions of the Simple View of Reading (SVR): the original model and an extended version, including reading fluency and vocabulary. Additional mediation models were analyzed to verify if other reading comprehension predictors (rapid automatized naming, phonological decoding, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and working memory) have direct effects or if they are mediated through word reading and readin…
Think globally: Cross-linguistic variation in electrophysiological activity during sentence comprehension
2011
This paper demonstrates systematic cross-linguistic differences in the electrophysiological correlates of conflicts between form and meaning (“semantic reversal anomalies”). These engender P600 effects in English and Dutch (e.g. Kolk et al., 2003 ; Kuperberg et al., 2003), but a biphasic N400 – late positivity pattern in German (Schlesewsky and Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2009), and monophasic N400 effects in Turkish (Experiment 1) and Mandarin Chinese (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 revealed that, in Icelandic, semantic reversal anomalies show the English pattern with verbs requiring a position-based identification of argument roles, but the German pattern with verbs requiring a case-based identi…
Cognitive and non-cognitive factors in educational and occupational outcomes-Specific to reading disability?
2020
Low education and unemployment are common adult-age outcomes associated with childhood RD (c-RD). However, adult-age cognitive and non-cognitive factors associated with different outcomes remain unknown. We studied whether these outcomes are equally common among individuals with c-RD and controls and whether these outcomes are related to adult-age literacy skills or cognitive and non-cognitive factors or their interaction with c-RD. We examined adult participants with c-RD (n = 48) and their matched controls (n = 37). Low education was more common among c-RD than the controls, whereas long-term unemployment was equally common in both groups. Moreover, adult-age literacy skills, cognitive sk…
Erratum to typical asymmetry in the hemispheric activation during an fMRI verbal comprehension paradigm is related to better performance in verbal an…
2019
Chronic exposure to seizures in patients with left hemisphere (LH) epileptic focus could favor higher activation in the contralateral hemisphere during language processing, but the cognitive effects of this remain unclear. This study assesses the relationship between asymmetry in hemispheric activation during language fMRI and performance in verbal and non-verbal tasks. Whereas prior studies primarily used fMRI paradigms that favor frontal lobe activation and less prominent activation of the medial or superior temporal lobes, we used a verbal comprehension paradigm previously demonstrated to activate reliably receptive language areas. Forty-seven patients with drug-resistant epilepsy candid…
Safety signs on agricultural machinery: Pictorials do not always successfully convey their messages to target users.
2015
This study investigated the extent to which a sample of Italian users comprehended safety pictorials used on agricultural machinery. A questionnaire with 12 safety pictorials was administered to 248 users of agricultural machinery. For each of the pictorials, the participants were asked to select the most appropriate description of four written choices. The investigated safety pictorials were, in general, not well comprehended. Two different classes of participants were identified, each with a different level of comprehension. The participants with better comprehension were characterized by the regular use of agricultural machinery and frequent previous exposure to pictorials. The need for …
Easy-to-read Texts for Students with Intellectual Disability: Linguistic Factors Affecting Comprehension
2013
Background: The use of ‘easy-to-read’ materials for people with intellectual disabilities has become very widespread but their effectiveness has scarcely been evaluated. In this study, the framework provided by Kintsch's Construction–Integration Model (1988) is used to examine (i) the reading comprehension levels of different passages of the Spanish text that have been designed following easy-to-read guidelines and (ii) the relationships between reading comprehension (literal and inferential) and various linguistic features of these texts. Method: Sixteen students with mild intellectual disability and low levels of reading skills were asked to read easy-to-read texts and then complete a rea…
Lexical prediction via forward models: N400 evidence from German Sign Language
2013
Models of language processing in the human brain often emphasize the prediction of upcoming input for example in order to explain the rapidity of language understanding. However,the precise mechanisms of prediction are still poorly understood. Forward models,which draw upon the language production system to setup expectations during comprehension, provide a promising approach in this regard. Here, we present an event- related potential (ERP) study on German Sign Language (DGS) which tested the hypotheses of a forward model perspective on prediction. Sign languages involve relatively long transition phases between one sign and the next, which should be anticipated as part of a forward model-…