Search results for " Comprehension"
showing 10 items of 243 documents
Prediction of the difficulty level in a standardized reading comprehension test: contributions from cognitive psychology and psychometrics
2013
This research seeks to identify possible predictors of the difficulty level of reading comprehension items used in a standardized psychometric test for university admission. Several potential predictors of difficulty were proposed, namely, propositional density, negations, grammatical structure, vocabulary difficulty, presence of enhancement elements (words highlighted typographically), item abstraction level and degree of similarity between correct option and relevant text to resolve the item. By Linear Logistic Test Model (Fisher, 1973) it was found that the number of propositions, the syntactic structure, and fundamentally, the presence of difficult words contributed to the prediction of…
An alternative perspective on “semantic P600” effects in language comprehension
2008
Abstract The literature on the electrophysiology of language comprehension has recently seen a very prominent discussion of “semantic P600” effects, which have been observed, for example, in sentences involving an implausible thematic role assignment to an argument that would be a highly plausible filler for a different thematic role of the same verb. These findings have sparked a discussion about underlying properties of the language comprehension architecture, as they have generally been viewed as a challenge to established models of language processing and specifically to the notion that syntax precedes semantics in the comprehension process. In this paper, we review the literature on se…
Understanding and Integrating Multiple Science Texts: Summary Tasks are Sometimes Better Than Argument Tasks
2010
One of the major challenges of a knowledge society is that students as well as other citizens must learn to understand and integrate information from multiple textual sources. Still, task and reader characteristics that may facilitate or constrain such intertextual processes are not well understood by researchers. In this study, we compare the effects of summary and argument essay tasks when undergraduates read seven different texts on a particular scientific topic, finding that an instruction to write summaries may lead to better understanding and integration than an instruction to write argument essays. We discuss several possible explanations for this result. We also found that beliefs a…
The Argument Dependency Model
2015
This chapter summarizes the architecture of the extended Argument Dependency Model (eADM), a model of language comprehension that aspires toward neurobiological plausibility. It combines design principles from neurobiology with insights on cross-linguistic diversity. Like other current models, the eADM posits that auditory language processing proceeds along two distinct streams in the brain emanating from auditory cortex: the antero-ventral and postero-dorsal streams. Both streams are organized hierarchically and information processing takes place in a cascaded fashion. Each stream has functionally unified computational properties congruent with its role in primate audition. While the dorsa…
Down Syndrome and Referential Communication: Understanding and Production
2012
Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the ability of referential communication in subjects with Down Syndrome (DS). We evaluated the possibility that the referential communication is the result of a set of cognitive factors, verbal and nonverbal through the evaluation of relationship between cognitive abilities in individuals with DS and typically developing. In particular, we have identified some critical dimensions of communicative function, such as the referential communication, which means the subject's ability to produce o the listener or messages “referentially oriented”, ie messages that are characterized by “clarity or ambiguity referential”. The referential communication skills, in…
Anaphor Processing During Reading Comprehension in Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder
2021
With the purpose of promoting academic inclusion, it is essential for educators to understand the nature underlying poor reading comprehension in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In th...
Influence of Background Knowledge and Language Proficiency on Comprehension of Domain-Specific Texts by University Students
2019
This paper presents the results of a quantitative study that explores two factors contributing to reading comprehension of domain specific texts, namely level of language proficiency and background knowledge. Overall, 32 students participated in the study by taking two custom-designed reading comprehension tests. The test scores were further analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The results of statistical tests revealed the differences between study groups as well as the effects of compensation. More precisely, the most proficient group scored higher on almost all tests and completed the tests more quickly than the remaining groups. The statistical tools used to test the data showed th…
Teaching strategies to create visual representations of key ideas in content area text materials: A longterm intervention inserted in school curricul…
1995
This paper describes a long-term research in which middle-grade school children were taught how to represent visually text key ideas through idea-mapping techniques. It consists of three studies, one for each year of our research. Children were at sixth grade when the instruction began, and they were at eighth grade when it finished. Another group of children from a different public school served as control group. Instruction was very close to the real school conditions: instructors were ordinary teachers, instruction was inserted in the content area curriculum, and ordinary textbooks were regularly employed, though combined with specially elaborated materials. Results were positive in the …
Levels of comprehension of scientific prose: the role of text variables
1998
Abstract This research investigates the role played on shallow and deep levels of comprehension by textual changes that are aimed at: (a) improving the relationships within text ideas, and (b) producing better links between text ideas and the reader's knowledge. Four versions of a long physics passage were elaborated combining both kinds of textual changes. Four groups of tenth graders were each given one of the four versions. Different measures representative of these levels of comprehension were taken: getting main ideas, recall, and problem solving. The results indicated that: (a) main idea performance was affected by improving the relationships within text ideas, (b) both textual change…
Attention Switching and Multimedia Learning: The Impact of Executive Resources on the Integrative Comprehension of Texts and Pictures
2014
The ability to flexibly allocate attention to goal-relevant information is pivotal for the completion of high-level cognitive processes. For instance, in comprehending illustrated texts, the reader permanently has to switch the attentional focus between the text and the corresponding picture in order to extract relevant information from both sources. Thus, the hypothesis was tested that individuals with a lower switching capacity exhibit a decreased performance in tasks that require the flexible switch of attention between two external representations. Participants read an illustrated text and answered questions that either required the extraction of information from the text alone or from …