Search results for "Comprehension"

Information structure and practice as facilitators of deaf users' navigation in textual websites

2009

Deaf users might find it difficult to navigate through websites with textual content which, for many of them, constitutes the written representation of a non-native oral language. With the aim of testing how the information structure could compensate for this difficulty, 27 prelingual deaf users of sign language were asked to search a set of headlines in a web newspaper where information structure and practice were manipulated. While practice did not affect deep structures (web content distributed through four layers of nodes), wide structures (web content concentrated in two layers) did facilitate users' performance in the last trial block and compromised it in the first trial block. It is…

Reading skills and children’s navigation strategies in hypertext

2011

Prior research has identified two important navigation strategies that have a clear impact on hypertext comprehension: link selection and overview processing strategies. The first relate to the order in which students select hyperlinks while trying to comprehend a hypertext, whereas the second relate to when and for how long students process navigation overviews, a text device that conveys the text structure by displaying sections, titles and their relations. Most prior research in navigation strategies has been conducted with undergraduate students. We extend prior research by exploring the navigation strategies used by sixth-graders while reading a hypermedia system. We also investigate h…

Static and animated presentations in learning dynamic mechanical systems

2009

Abstract In two experiments, we investigated how learners comprehend the functioning of a three-pulley system from a presentation on a computer screen. In the first experiment (N = 62) we tested the effect of static vs. animated presentations on comprehension. In the second experiment (N = 45), we tested the effect of user-control of an animated presentation on comprehension. In both experiments the participants were university students. Comprehension was measured with a test including three comprehension indicators. The first experiment indicated that an animation as well as integrated sequential static frames enhanced comprehension. The second experiment showed that a controllable animati…

Children's Reading of Printed Text and Hypertext with Navigation Overviews: The Role of Comprehension, Sustained Attention, and Visuo-Spatial Abiliti…

2012

Hypertexts include new structural features, such as navigable graphical overviews, that dramatically change the way students interact with texts. Nevertheless, at school students traditionally practice literacy skills appropriate for reading and comprehending printed texts. We explored the possibility that those skills might not be the same as the ones required to master hypertext reading. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that hypertext structural features, such as navigable graphical overviews, might scaffold students with low comprehension and sustained-attention abilities, but demand higher involvement of visuo-spatial skills. Results from a group of 6th-grade students only partia…

Processing and learning from multiple sources: A comparative case study of students with dyslexia working in a multiple source multimedia context

2019

This study investigated how four 10th-grade students with dyslexia processed and integrated information across web pages and representations when learning in a multiple source multimedia context. Eye movement data showed that participants’ processing of the materials varied with respect to their initial exploration of the web pages, their overall processing time, and the linearity of their processing patterns, with post-learning interviews indicating the deliberate, strategic considerations underlying each participant’s processing pattern. Eye movement data in terms of fixation duration and percentage of regressions also corroborated the findings of formal, diagnostic assessments. Finally, …

Supramodal neural processing of abstract information conveyed by speech and gesture

2013

Abstractness and modality of interpersonal communication have a considerable impact on comprehension. They are relevant for determining thoughts and constituting internal models of the environment. Whereas concrete object-related information can be represented in mind irrespective of language, abstract concepts require a representation in speech. Consequently, modality-independent processing of abstract information can be expected. Here we investigated the neural correlates of abstractness (abstract vs. concrete) and modality (speech vs. gestures), to identify an abstractness-specific supramodal neural network. During fMRI data acquisition 20 participants were presented with videos of an ac…

Designing Classroom Practices for Teaching Online Inquiry : Experiences from the Field

2021

Students face several challenges when asked to locate relevant and credible information from the internet. This article introduces three principles for designing online inquiry lessons and documents what we learned from five language arts teachers from Finland who implemented and provided feedback on a learning unit framed in those design principles. Teachers implemented a researcher-designed online inquiry unit in nine upper secondary school classrooms. The unit included four 75-minute lessons sequenced to support the location, evaluation, and synthesis of information students encountered in an online inquiry task. Teachers’ diaries revealed their impressions of the unit, problems encounte…

Fostering teenagers' assessment of information reliability: Effects of a classroom intervention focused on critical source dimensions

2018

International audience; Increased amounts of information available from the Internet have triggered new demands for students to evaluate information quality. Our study presents an instructional intervention aimed at fostering ninth grade students' critical evaluation of source reliability. The intervention was grounded into theories of multiple text comprehension and used an analytic framework that defines the core source dimensions of author position (competence), author motivation (intention), and media quality (pre-publication validation). Compared to controls, trained students 1) reduced the score assigned to links containing less reliable information in the three critical source dimens…

2020

This study examined the stability of reading difficulties (RD) from grades 2 to 6 and focused on the effects of measurement error and cut-off selection in the identification of RD and its stability with the use of simulations. It addressed methodological limitations of prior studies by (a) applying a model-based simulation analysis to examine the effects of measurement error and cut-offs in the identification of RD, (b) analyzing a non-English and larger sample, and (c) examining RD in both reading fluency and reading comprehension. Reading fluency and reading comprehension of 1,432 Finnish-speaking children were assessed in grades 2 and 6. In addition to the use of single cut-off points on…

Étude expérimentale de l'usage des organisateurs para-linguistiques de mise en retrait dans les documents électroniques

1997

This paper deals with what is called here paralinguistic organizers i.e. textual devices like underlining, brackets, footnotes, and, on screen, pop up fields,... In the frame of the theory of discourse comprehension (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983) it is proposed to view technical texts as tools, more or less efficient, that readers use to build their representation (situation model). It is known that the schematic superstructure of a text can significantly enhance its comprehension and memorization. It is assumed here that another kind of text structure could play a similar role i.e. the structure based on the main points / secondary points distinction. More generally a text can be viewed as a s…