ABSTRACT. We examined monolingual (N=92) sixth graders’ ability to monitor their comprehension when reading narrative and expository texts. Text were either fully consistent or contained two contradicting sentences separated by between 1 and 5 filler sentences. Reading time and accuracy data both revealed an effect of the inconsistency manipulation, stronger for narrative than expository texts. Relations with decoding, strategy knowledge, and working memory will be explored.

ABSTRACT. Readers do not typically approach the text from the protagonist’s perspective, but both explicit instructions and the first-person point of view result in perspective-taking. The current study investigates whether perspective-taking arises due to a quantitative shift in attention or a qualitative shift in reading. The results indicate that in order to adopt the perspective of the protagonist, readers engage in a strategic shift in reading, such that readers are foregrounding perspective-relevant information.

ABSTRACT. In two experiments, we examined if emphasizing story-protagonists' goals affects 8-year-olds’ ability to establish local and global coherence of auditory and audiovisual texts. The participants listened to neutral and goal-emphasis versions of short narrative texts and afterwards completed a word-recognition task by determining if words associated with protagonists’ goals occurred in the text or not. The results indicate that emphasizing protagonists’ goals promotes the process of establishing global coherence in auditory but not audiovisual texts.

ABSTRACT. Readers slow down to read story outcomes that are inconsistent with what they prefer to happen. This project examined whether readers’ preferences also affect their memories for story events. Participants took longer to read story outcomes that were inconsistent versus consistent with their preferences, replicating previous findings. Additionally, participants’ memory for story outcomes were also influence by preferences. These results indicate preferences influence moment-by-moment reading processes, and the products of people’s narrative experiences.

ABSTRACT. In this study, we distinguished two components of psychological perspective in narrative fiction: Evaluative stance is the extent to which a character is seen as reasonable and rational; experiential stance is the extent to which the readers understands and sympathizes with the character. We found that evaluative stance was affected by mental access to the character, while experiential stance was affected by first- vs. third-person narrative mode.

ABSTRACT. Working memory (WM) often is argued to play an important role in reading comprehension, but evidence concerning this role is ambiguous. Here, we examine whether and how WM affects coherence monitoring, a central component of comprehension, by manipulating WM-load during reading and observing the effect on inconsistency detection across varying text distances. Restricting WM-load indeed interfered with coherence monitoring. Importantly, this interference pertained to the integration/validation but not the availability of information.

ABSTRACT. We used eye-tracking measures to provide a more detailed picture of the time course of validation processes involved in coherence monitoring and whether, when, and how these are influenced by contextual information and prior knowledge. Results suggest initial validation processes (i.e., detection of inconsistencies) are predominantly knowledge-driven, although both sources of information interact when incoming information is inconsistent with prior knowledge. In contrast, re-analyses and repair processes for text-based and knowledge-based inconsistencies operate relatively independently.

ABSTRACT. We examined whether readers’ revised knowledge from reading a refutation text transfers to a subsequent text that either (a) re-activates the misconception or (b) re-activates and backgrounds the misconception. Participants read texts that addressed socio-scientific and psychological misconceptions. In two experiments, reading time data show that reading a refutation text facilitates readers’ comprehension of the correct idea in the following transfer text, suggesting that transfer of the revised knowledge from refutation texts does occur.

ABSTRACT. Evidence for validation as an integral part of text comprehension accumulates, yet the role source information plays in this process is unclear. Two self-paced reading experiments investigated combined effects of source information and plausibility (truth value or text-belief consistency). Participants read short messages (tweets) from different sources with varying credibility or associated beliefs. Interaction effects on reading times were found in both experiments, suggesting that source information is considered in the validation of textual information.

ABSTRACT. Using a combination of eye-tracking and an adaption of the narrative misinformation paradigm, we examined the online processing of accurate and inaccurate information presented in a social media format. Results show that participants spent about a third of their browsing on text-based statuses when naturally browsing social media. Experimental results suggest that participants also spend longer on statuses that contain inaccuracies than on statuses that were neutral or accurate.

ABSTRACT. Emotional shifts are typical for narratives and experiencing emotional shifts during narrative reception might be crucial for narrative persuasion. Study 1 (N=117) used the e-marking method to test whether experiencing emotional shifts during story reading mediates narrative persuasion. Study 2 (N=30) explores the utility of subjective, behavioral and physiological measures (mimic displays, electrodermal, cardiovascular, and respiratory measures) to track changes in emotional reactions while listening to a happy-end story, a tragedy and a thriller.

ABSTRACT. Across 4 experiments (N = 230), we explored participants’ reading processes, memory products, emotional reactions, and physiological responses for seductive and non-seductive scientific texts. This presentation will summarize results from a multi-year research project focused on triangulating the detrimental effects of seductive details on reading times, free recalls, emotional responses (i.e., the Epistemically-Related Emotion Scale; Pekrun, et. al, 2017), and physiological arousal (i.e., electrodermal activity; heart-rate variability) during scientific text comprehension.

ABSTRACT. In our project we examine the role that dispositional emotion regulation and executive functions play in modulating the effects of reading goals (to know more or to gain the highest scores) on conceptual learning from science text in 7th graders. Dispositional emotion regulation is measured at psychophysiological level as indexed by heart rate variability. Executive functions are measured using computerized tasks. Results will show the interplay between reading goals and cognitive and affective reader characteristics.

ABSTRACT. This study examined whether emotions influence processing of dual-position texts. Participants provided emotion and belief ratings and focused on a particular position while reading or thinking-aloud about a dual-position text. Higher positive affect reduced the relevance effect for reading times, amplified evaluations, and facilitated recall for belief-consistent information. Lower positive affect increased reading times and recall rates for relevant and belief-inconsistent text. Hence, readers’ emotions moderated the effects of relevance instructions on processing and memory.

ABSTRACT. Despite the potential for refutation text to support conceptual change, sometimes this approach can backfire. Under what conditions do refutation texts elicit backfire in attitudes? In this experimental study, we presented undergraduate students with refutation texts about genetically modified foods (GMFs) and showed that the emotions about GMFs are as (if not more) important predictors of backfire than text structure. We found that attitudinal backfire is mediated by hope, fear, confusion, surprise, and frustration.

ABSTRACT. Refutation texts identify and refute common misconceptions and explain the correct information that often lead to successful learning. However, under certain conditions, refutations have unintended outcomes, wherein misconceptions persist or even increase. The present study examined negative emotions as one hypothesized factor why refutations may occasionally fail. Results show that the combination of surprise, confusion, and anxiety experienced while reading refutation texts about immigration resulted in poorer learning after controlling for prior knowledge and attitudes.

ABSTRACT. Is it important to hear opposing positions from others who genuinely believe them (J.S. Mill, 1859)? Young adolescents were provided relevant evidence and engaged in dialogs on gas vs solar energy in preparation for a class debate. Individual final essays favored the group whose dialogs were with peers holding an opposing view, compared to same-side peers. Differences appeared also in essays on a new topic, suggesting the superior group made gains in understanding argumentation itself.

ABSTRACT. Evidence use is a key component determining the quality of students’ argument writing. We examine students’ evidence-related processing strategies while reading, evidence use in writing and their association. Students mostly restated text-based evidence while processing and performed poorly both on evidence in writing. Evidence-related processing strategies were associated with students’ use of common evidence use in writing.

ABSTRACT. This study used a prompt manipulation to examine the linguistic characteristics of different types of source-based writing. We manipulated essay prompts to bias writers (n=368) toward either a descriptive or argumentative source-based essay. NLP techniques were then used to explore how these prompts affected the characteristics of students’ writing in terms of word-level and document-level linguistic features. Results indicated that argumentative prompts were associated with more lexically sophisticated essays, but less overlap with source texts.

ABSTRACT. In fanfiction, amateur writers transform characters and relationships in original stories. Trends and tropes in fanfiction are well-known from qualitative work; in this work we analyze characterization in fanfiction on a large scale. We use recent lexical-semantic techniques from natural language processing to capture representations for characters. Plotting these representations in the Harry Potter fandom, we compare with representations from the original book series and validate differences we see against known characterization differences in fanfiction.

ABSTRACT. Natural language processing tools were used to examine relations between individual differences in participants’ knowledge (i.e., world and vocabulary) and linguistic properties (i.e., descriptive and lexical) of their source-based essays. Participants(n=106) wrote argumentative essays and completed multiple individual difference measures. The results revealed that prior world knowledge and vocabulary knowledge were significantly related to the lexical properties of the essays, which accounted for 23% and 33% of the variance in world and vocabulary knowledge respectively.

ABSTRACT. It is generally accepted that computational analyses of discourse can complement other analytical approaches including think-alouds, code and count, and experimental methods. I suggest that their utility extends beyond a mere complementary role. They serve a necessary role when data is too large for manual analysis, an opportunistic role by addressing questions that are beyond the purview of traditional methods, and a promissory role in facilitating change when fully-automated models drive real-time interventions and/or reflective review. Multimodal computational approaches provide further benefits by affording analysis of disparate constructs emerging across multiple types of discourse in diverse contexts. To illustrate, I discuss studies that use linguistic, paralinguistic, behavioral, and physiological signals for the analysis of rhetorical, expository, pedagogical, dialogic, and collaborative discourse collected in individual, small group, multi-party, and human-computer interactions in the lab and in the wild with the goal of understanding and/or facilitating cognitive, noncognitive, socio-affective-cognitive, and life outcomes.

ABSTRACT. This study used data from a large-scale reading assessment to examine the application of a cognitive model of reading comprehension to an existing data-set .The data-set comprised of responses from sixth-grade students who completed the National Assessment (Ireland). Comprehension questions were reclassified according to cognitive theory, to reflect the inference type needed. Selected questions built a Latent Class model of inference skill. The results reveal the potential of large-scale assessments to examine cognitive reading skills.

ABSTRACT. The study analyzed differential effects of (a) item format and (b) text type for children with different SES-levels based on the data of PIRLS (N = 7.899 elementary students; 125 reading test items) in a Differential Item Functioning (DIF) framework. Although no DIF was found in open-ended item or factual text type was found, the combination of both aspects showed DIF to an advantage of children with higher SES.

ABSTRACT. PIRLS and PISA showed that throughout school girls outperform boys in reading. However, PIAAC showed that there were no substantial gender differences in adults’ reading competencies. This study examines gender differences in reading in a longitudinal study with three measurement points (15, 17, and 21 years) with data from the German National Educational Panel Study. Latent growth curve models were conducted. The results will be discussed based on previous results from large-scale assessments.

ABSTRACT. The study examines aspects of the critical evaluation and selection of online information from search engine results in adults and focuses on the role of literacy. Particular attention is paid to interindividual differences in the processing of web information tasks between different age groups and countries, using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Further analyses will examine the task performance of adults on the basis of process data.

ABSTRACT. After reporting initial beliefs, subjects read a belief consistent or inconsistent text about gun control effectiveness. They reported beliefs again, recollected prescreen beliefs, then completed an open-ended task in which they read as many or few articles as they wished about gun control and other topics. Accuracy of prior belief recollections varied, suggesting variation in awareness of belief change. Greater awareness of belief change predicted more reading of gun control texts, but not other texts.

ABSTRACT. We examine students’ ratings and justification for perceptions of task difficulty and associate these with self-efficacy and performance on a multiple text task. Students generally considered multiple text tasks to be easy/difficult with justifications including factors related to the individual, task, the sources provided, and associated writing demands. While students’ perceptions of task difficulty and self-efficacy were found to be associated, task performance was not directly associated with students’ self-efficacy and perceptions of task difficulty.

ABSTRACT. We examined how online search strategies predict learning and in turn are predicted by metacognitive knowledge and skills. We quantified information location strategies used by adolescents when researching a socio-scientific issue. Visiting more relevant sites and fewer irrelevant sites predicted content-knowledge learning and student-authored critical question quality. Meanwhile, the ability to monitor content understanding predicted number of sites visited. These findings suggest assimilation of information across sites and metacognitive monitoring are vital digital literacy skills.

ABSTRACT. We compared the roles of basic reading skills, general academic knowledge, and topical knowledge on reading comprehension (RC) performance in two types of tests: a traditional RC test in which students read isolated passages and answered multiple-choice questions, and a scenario-based assessment (SBA) RC test that demanded multiple text comprehension in a digital environment. Results showed that while traditional RC was more dependent on academic knowledge, SBA RC was more dependent on topical knowledge.

ABSTRACT. This study investigated the effects of prior knowledge and text availability on multiple document comprehension and integration. Participants (n = 147) read four related texts that were either available or unavailable during a comprehension assessment. Results indicated that prior knowledge was associated with higher response accuracy but that availability reduced inter-textual integration. These results suggest that prior knowledge strongly supports comprehension but that the opportunity to refer back to texts may decrease integration across texts.