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Olkoniemi H, Halonen S, Pexman PM, Häikiö T. Children's processing of written irony: An eye-tracking study. Cognition 2023; 238:105508. [PMID: 37321036 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 05/31/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Ironic language is challenging for many people to understand, and particularly for children. Comprehending irony is considered a major milestone in children's development, as it requires inferring the intentions of the person who is being ironic. However, the theories of irony comprehension generally do not address developmental changes, and there are limited data on children's processing of verbal irony. In the present pre-registered study, we examined, for the first time, how children process and comprehend written irony in comparison to adults. Seventy participants took part in the study (35 10-year-old children and 35 adults). In the experiment, participants read ironic and literal sentences embedded in story contexts while their eye movements were recorded. They also responded to a text memory question and an inference question after each story, and children's levels of reading skills were measured. Results showed that for both children and adults comprehending written irony was more difficult than for literal texts (the "irony effect") and was more challenging for children than for adults. Moreover, although children showed longer overall reading times than adults, processing of ironic stories was largely similar between children and adults. One group difference was that for children, more accurate irony comprehension was qualified by faster reading times whereas for adults more accurate irony comprehension involved slower reading times. Interestingly, both age groups were able to adapt to task context and improve their irony processing across trials. These results provide new insights about the costs of irony and development of the ability to overcome them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henri Olkoniemi
- Division of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Oulu, Finland; Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Finland.
| | - Sohvi Halonen
- Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Finland
| | | | - Tuomo Häikiö
- Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Finland
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2
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Cognitive predictors of oral reading miscues in the text reading process in a transparent orthography: Working memory and visual retention. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-04144-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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3
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Joseph H, Wonnacott E, Nation K. Online inference making and comprehension monitoring in children during reading: Evidence from eye movements. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2021; 74:1202-1224. [PMID: 33586535 PMCID: PMC8189006 DOI: 10.1177/1747021821999007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Inference generation and comprehension monitoring are essential elements of successful reading comprehension. While both improve with age and reading development, little is known about when and how children make inferences and monitor their comprehension during the reading process itself. Over two experiments, we monitored the eye movements of two groups of children (age 8–13 years) as they read short passages and answered questions that tapped local (Experiment 1) and global (Experiment 2) inferences. To tap comprehension monitoring, the passages contained target words which were consistent or inconsistent with the context. Comprehension question location was also manipulated with the question appearing before or after the passage. Children made local inferences during reading, but the evidence was less clear for global inferences. Children were sensitive to inconsistencies that relied on the generation of an inference, consistent with successful comprehension monitoring, although this was seen only very late in the eye movement record. Although question location had a large effect on reading times, it had no effect on global comprehension in one experiment and reading the question first had a detrimental effect in the other. We conclude that children appear to prioritise efficiency over completeness when reading, generating inferences spontaneously only when they are necessary for establishing a coherent representation of the text.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly Joseph
- Institute of Education, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | | | - Kate Nation
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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4
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Vaughan-Evans A, Liversedge SP, Fitzsimmons G, Jones MW. Syntactic co-activation in natural reading. VISUAL COGNITION 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2020.1841866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Simon P. Liversedge
- School of Psychology and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England, UK
| | | | - Manon W. Jones
- School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, UK
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Hessel AK, Schroeder S. Interactions Between Lower- and Higher-Level Processing When Reading in a Second Language: An Eye-Tracking Study. DISCOURSE PROCESSES 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/0163853x.2020.1833673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Annina K. Hessel
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Sascha Schroeder
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
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6
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Nguyen TQ, Pickren SE, Saha NM, Cutting LE. Executive functions and components of oral reading fluency through the lens of text complexity. READING AND WRITING 2020; 33:1037-1073. [PMID: 32831478 PMCID: PMC7437995 DOI: 10.1007/s11145-020-10020-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
As readers struggle to coordinate various reading- and language-related skills during oral reading fluency (ORF), miscues can emerge, especially when processing complex texts. Following a miscue, students often self-correct as a strategy to potentially restore ORF and online linguistic comprehension. Executive functions (EF) are hypothesized to play an interactive role during ORF. Yet, the role of EF in self-corrections while reading complex texts remains elusive. To this end, we evaluated the relation between students' probability of self-correcting miscues-or P(SC)-and their EF profile in a cohort of 143 participants (aged 9-15) who represented a diverse spectrum of reading abilities. Moreover, we used experimentally-manipulated passages (decoding, vocabulary, syntax, and cohesion) and employed a fully cross-classified mixed-effects multilevel regression strategy to evaluate the interplay between components of ORF, EF, and text complexity. Our results revealed that, after controlling for reading and language abilities, increased production of miscues across different passage conditions was explained by worse EF. We also found that students with better EF exhibited greater P(SC) when reading complex texts. While text complexity taxes students' EF and influences their production of miscues, findings suggest that EF may be interactively recruited to restore ORF via self-correcting oral reading errors. Overall, our results suggest that domain-general processes (e.g., EF) are associated with production of miscues and may underlie students' behavior of self-corrections, especially when reading complex texts. Further understanding of the relation between different components of ORF and cognitive processes may inform intervention strategies to improve reading proficiency and overall academic performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tin Q. Nguyen
- Vanderbilt University, 1400 18th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
| | - Sage E. Pickren
- Vanderbilt University, 1400 18th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
| | - Neena M. Saha
- Vanderbilt University, 1400 18th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
| | - Laurie E. Cutting
- Vanderbilt University, 1400 18th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
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Pérez A, Schmidt E, Kourtzi Z, Tsimpli I. Multimodal semantic revision during inferential processing: The role of inhibitory control in text and picture comprehension. Neuropsychologia 2020; 138:107313. [PMID: 31904356 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Revised: 12/08/2019] [Accepted: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Although language comprehension usually requires multimodal information, no study to date has investigated how comprehenders deal with the revision of a text's interpretation when different modalities are involved. Twenty-four young adults listened to a story prompting an inference (e.g., polar bear), and then saw a picture that was either consistent (polar bear) or inconsistent but still plausible (penguin). Larger negativity (N400) in the inconsistent picture indicated successful inferential monitoring. Subsequently, a sentence carried the disambiguating word which was either expected ("bear") or unexpected ("penguin") in relation to the auditory-verbal information. Larger negativity in the unexpected word coming from the consistent picture suggested that comprehenders had difficulties selecting the unexpected concept when previous information was contradictory. More importantly, this effect was modulated by inhibitory control, where a higher resistance to distractor interference (flanker task) was associated with a better ability to suppress pictorial information, therefore preventing semantic competition. Similarly, accuracy measured in a final comprehension question demonstrated that higher inhibitory control was related to a more efficient ability to revise the situation model across modalities. Our findings speak to a relationship between story comprehension and mental flexibility during multimodal processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Pérez
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, UK; Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Spain.
| | - E Schmidt
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, UK; Cambridge Assessment English, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Z Kourtzi
- Dept. of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - I Tsimpli
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, UK
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Miller B, O'Donnell C. Opening a Window Into Reading Development: Eye Movements' Role Within a Broader Literacy Research Framework. SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/02796015.2013.12087480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Brett Miller
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Services
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Ardoin SP, Binder KS, Zawoyski AM, Foster TE, Blevins LA. Using Eye-Tracking Procedures to Evaluate Generalization Effects: Practicing Target Words During Repeated Readings Within Versus Across Texts. SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/02796015.2013.12087467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Kim YSG, Petscher Y, Vorstius C. Unpacking eye movements during oral and silent reading and their relations to reading proficiency in beginning readers. CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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12
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Grzeschik R, Conroy-Dalton R, Innes A, Shanker S, Wiener JM. The contribution of visual attention and declining verbal memory abilities to age-related route learning deficits. Cognition 2019; 187:50-61. [PMID: 30826535 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.02.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2018] [Revised: 02/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Our ability to learn unfamiliar routes declines in typical and atypical ageing. The reasons for this decline, however, are not well understood. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate how ageing affects people's ability to attend to navigationally relevant information and to select unique objects as landmarks. We created short routes through a virtual environment, each comprised of four intersections with two objects each, and we systematically manipulated the saliency and uniqueness of these objects. While salient objects might be easier to memorise than non-salient objects, they cannot be used as reliable landmarks if they appear more than once along the route. As cognitive ageing affects executive functions and control of attention, we hypothesised that the process of selecting navigationally relevant objects as landmarks might be affected as well. The behavioural data showed that younger participants outperformed the older participants and the eye-movement data revealed some systematic differences between age groups. Specifically, older adults spent less time looking at the unique, and therefore navigationally relevant, landmark objects. Both young and older participants, however, effectively directed gaze towards the unique and away from the non-unique objects, even if these were more salient. These findings highlight specific age-related differences in the control of attention that could contribute to declining route learning abilities in older age. Interestingly, route-learning performance in the older age group was more variable than in the young age group with some older adults showing performance similar to the young group. These individual differences in route learning performance were strongly associated with verbal and episodic memory abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona Grzeschik
- Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | | | - Anthea Innes
- Salford Institute for Dementia, University of Salford, UK
| | - Shanti Shanker
- Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK
| | - Jan M Wiener
- Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK
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Kim YSG, Vorstius C, Radach R. Does Online Comprehension Monitoring Make a Unique Contribution to Reading Comprehension in Beginning Readers? Evidence from Eye Movements. SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF READING : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF READING 2018; 22:367-383. [PMID: 30078981 PMCID: PMC6071415 DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2018.1457680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
The goal was to investigate the nature of online comprehension monitoring, its predictors, and its relation to reading comprehension. Questions were concerned with (1) beginning readers' sensitivity to inconsistencies, (2) predictors of online comprehension monitoring, and (3) the relation of online comprehension monitoring to reading comprehension over and above word reading and listening comprehension. Using eye-tracking technology, online comprehension monitoring was measured as the amount of time spent rereading target implausible words and looking back at surrounding contexts. Results from 319 second graders revealed that children spent greater time fixating on inconsistent than consistent words and engaged in more frequent lookbacks. Comprehension monitoring was explained by both word reading and listening comprehension. However, comprehension monitoring did not uniquely predict reading comprehension after accounting for word reading and listening comprehension. These results provide insight into the nature of comprehension monitoring and its role in reading comprehension for beginning readers.
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Joseph H, Nation K. Examining incidental word learning during reading in children: The role of context. J Exp Child Psychol 2017; 166:190-211. [PMID: 28942127 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2016] [Revised: 07/17/2017] [Accepted: 08/18/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
From mid-childhood onward, children learn hundreds of new words every year incidentally through reading. Yet little is known about this process and the circumstances in which vocabulary acquisition is maximized. We examined whether encountering novel words in semantically diverse, rather than semantically uniform, contexts led to better learning. Children aged 10 and 11years read sentences containing novel words while their eye movements were monitored. Results showed a reduction in reading times over exposure for all children, but especially for those with good reading comprehension. There was no difference in reading times or in offline post-test performance for words encountered in semantically diverse and uniform contexts, but diversity did interact with reading comprehension skill. Contextual informativeness also affected reading behavior. We conclude that children acquire word knowledge from incidental reading, that children with better comprehension skills are more efficient and competent learners, and that although varying the semantic diversity of the reading episodes did not improve learning per se in our laboratory manipulation of diversity, diversity does affect reading behavior in less direct ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly Joseph
- Institute of Education, University of Reading, Reading RG1 5EX, UK.
| | - Kate Nation
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK
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15
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Barnes AE, Kim YS, Tighe EL, Vorstius C. Readers in Adult Basic Education. JOURNAL OF LEARNING DISABILITIES 2016; 50:180-194. [PMID: 26506842 DOI: 10.1177/0022219415609187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
The present study explored the reading skills of a sample of 48 adults enrolled in a basic education program in northern Florida, United States. Previous research has reported on reading component skills for students in adult education settings, but little is known about eye movement patterns or their relation to reading skills for this population. In this study, reading component skills including decoding, language comprehension, and reading fluency are reported, as are eye movement variables for connected-text oral reading. Eye movement comparisons between individuals with higher and lower oral reading fluency revealed within- and between-subject effects for word frequency and word length as well as group and word frequency interactions. Bivariate correlations indicated strong relations between component skills of reading, eye movement measures, and both the Test of Adult Basic Education ( Reading subtest) and the Woodcock-Johnson III Diagnostic Reading Battery Passage Comprehension assessments. Regression analyses revealed the utility of decoding, language comprehension, and lexical activation time for predicting achievement on both the Woodcock Johnson III Passage Comprehension and the Test of Adult Basic Education Reading Comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Young-Suk Kim
- 2 Florida Center for Reading Research, Tallahassee, USA
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16
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Joseph HSSL, Bremner G, Liversedge SP, Nation K. Working memory, reading ability and the effects of distance and typicality on anaphor resolution in children. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2015; 27:622-639. [PMID: 26246891 PMCID: PMC4487586 DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2015.1005095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
We investigated the time course of anaphor resolution in children and whether this is modulated by individual differences in working memory and reading skill. The eye movements of 30 children (10–11 years) were monitored as they read short paragraphs in which (1) the semantic typicality of an antecedent and (2) its distance in relation to an anaphor were orthogonally manipulated. Children showed effects of distance and typicality on the anaphor itself and also on the word to the right of the anaphor, suggesting that anaphoric processing begins immediately but continues after the eyes have left the anaphor. Furthermore, children showed no evidence of resolving anaphors in the most difficult condition (distant atypical antecedent), suggesting that anaphoric processing that is demanding may not occur online in children of this age. Finally, working memory capacity and reading comprehension skill affect the magnitude and time course of typicality and distance effects during anaphoric processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly S S L Joseph
- Department of Psychology, Social Work and Public Health, Oxford Brookes University , Gipsy Lane Campus, Headington , Oxford OX3 0BP , UK ; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford , OX1 3UD , UK
| | - Georgina Bremner
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford , OX1 3UD , UK
| | - Simon P Liversedge
- Department of Psychology, University of Southampton , Highfield Campus, Southampton , SO17 1BJ , UK
| | - Kate Nation
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford , OX1 3UD , UK
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Schroeder S, Hyönä J, Liversedge SP. Developmental eye-tracking research in reading: Introduction to the special issue. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2015.1046877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sascha Schroeder
- Max Planck Institute for Human Development, MPRG Reading Education and Development (REaD) , Berlin, Germany
| | - Jukka Hyönä
- Department of Psychology, University of Turku , Turku, Finland
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Connor CM, Radach R, Vorstius C, Day SL, McLean L, Morrison FJ. Individual differences in fifth graders' reading and language predict their comprehension monitoring development: An eye-movement study. SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF READING : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF READING 2015; 19:114-134. [PMID: 27065721 PMCID: PMC4824948 DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2014.943905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
In this study, we investigated fifth-graders' (n=52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation, and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children read two sentences; the second included either a plausible or implausible word in the context of the first sentence. Stronger readers had shorter reading times overall suggesting faster processing of text. Generally fifth-graders reacted to the implausible word (i.e., longer gaze duration on the implausible v. the plausible word, which reflects lexical access). Students with stronger academic language, compared to those with weaker academic language, generally spent more time re-reading the implausible target compared to the plausible target. This difference increased from fall to spring. Results support the centrality of academic language for meaning integration, setting standards of coherence, and utilizing comprehension repair strategies.
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The Progress and Promise of the Reading for Understanding Research Initiative. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s10648-014-9278-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Vorstius C, Radach R, Lonigan CJ. Eye movements in developing readers: A comparison of silent and oral sentence reading. VISUAL COGNITION 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2014.881445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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