ABSTRACT. Comprehension involves the creation of a meaningful mental representation, called a situation model, which represents a state of affairs either in the real world or within a fictional realm. Throughout my research, I have explored comprehension across various levels of abstraction. These levels range from how we process clauses to uncover the underlying structure of events to how we (some of us at least) integrate information from multiple sources to form conspiracy theories. In this overview, I will tie together the key findings of my research and offer insights into potential future avenues of investigation.

ABSTRACT. Emotional shifts are assumed to facilitate narrative transportation and thereby persuasion. This effect might depend on the congruence of audiences’ emotions to the emotions implied by the story. In our study, we compared the persuasive effect of a story with valence shifts to a continuously positive story and examined moderating influences of subjective valence and transportation. The persuasive effect of the shifting story, but not the non-shifting story, was moderated by event-congruent valence and transportation.

ABSTRACT. The current study examined how participants’ ratings of their thought characteristics (i.e., visualizing, hearing their own voice, characters’ voices and/or narrator’s voice in their mind) during reading related to transportation into the text. Participants (n=238) read a narrative silently while being periodically asked to rate their thought characteristics. Results indicated that thought ratings predicted 43% of their transportation reports; visual imagery and character’s voices were positively and significantly predictive of transportation.

ABSTRACT. We examined differences in how reflective language is expressed over the course of nonfiction (n=10) and fiction (n=10) books. We used a dictionary-based approach to code words in each text as being reflective or not. The overall presence of reflective language and their dynamic temporal patterns were calculated for each book using recurrence quantification analysis. Results suggest that dynamic measures of linguistic indices may provide more fine-grained insights into text-related characteristics.

ABSTRACT. In 2 experiments, participants memorized the locations of objects in building layouts. Then, while reading stories about a moving protagonist, via texts or comics, they responded to probes about whether objects came from same or different rooms. In Experiment 1 (but not 2) participants were instructed to attend to spatial relations. Participants monitored spatial shifts with texts and comics. However, with comics, participants monitored shifts even without instructions to attend to spatial relations.

ABSTRACT. Psycholinguistic accounts of pronoun resolution have emphasized the influence of certain discourse-level and lexical cues (e.g., order-of-mention/coherence relations/implicit causality). Less work considers situation-specific pragmatic reasoning effects, which we explore here using communicative perspective-taking in sentences like “Molly [asked Ana if]/[told Anna that] she remembers when lecture starts”. Results from a series of antecedent judgment and self-paced reading tasks show that participants choose “perspectivally-congruent” antecedents 99.8% of the time and do not show an order-of-mention bias.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of text genre on tenth graders’ multiple text comprehension about an historical event, assessed through an argumentative writing task. The study sample comprised 166 students, who were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions based on text genre (expositive-expositive; narrative-narrative; expositive-narrative; narrative-expository). The results showed that students included a significantly greater number of arguments in their essays when the historical event was addressed in narrative texts.

ABSTRACT. We examined whether generating summaries after reading multiple documents fosters the accuracy of readers’ metacognitive judgments. Young adults read multiple texts on a historical controversy and either (a) generated twitter-based summaries after a delay, (b) generated twitter-based summaries immediately, or (c) generated no tweets. Producing summaries after a delay, but not immediately after reading enhanced metacognitive accuracy for factual knowledge, but not for intertextual components of multiple text comprehension.

ABSTRACT. We investigated whether and how reading instructions affect text-based and knowledge-based validation processes and the resulting memory representation using a self-paced sentence-by-sentence contradiction paradigm. Participants were instructed to evaluate either the accuracy (fact-checking) or the congruency of text information (coherence-checking). Memory for text information was assessed the next day. Results show that instructions influence knowledge-based and text-based validation processes, but they had no differential effects on readers’ memory for false or incongruent text information.

ABSTRACT. In a quasi-experimental study with 137 9th grade students, we examined the contribution of strategic and metacognitive epistemic scaffolds to growth in epistemic aims, criteria, and processes for evaluating and drawing conclusions from multiple documents. Learning with a document mapping scaffold that supported strategic processing led to growth in epistemic aims, criteria, and processes compared to a "business-as-usual" control. Supplementing the document mapping scaffold with metacognitive discussions about epistemic criteria enhanced some of these effects.

ABSTRACT. Much is assumed about students’ ability to reason based on evidence in the form of their written essays. However, relatively little research has sought to understand the extent to which students’ essays are an accurate approximation of their historical knowledge and reasoning. This study explores the differences among these forms of production through an investigation of the historical reasoning that students engage in during the composing process relative to what is inferable from the essay.

ABSTRACT. We sought to determine whether dialogic feedback production depends on theory of mind (ToM) and perspective-taking (PT). An experiment was conducted in which pairs of participants played a collaborative puzzle game together. The main finding was that participants with higher PT scores produced more feedback markers, especially when their partner had a low PT score. This sheds light on how one’s partner’s dialogic needs are taken into account to improve interpersonal collaboration during dialogue.

ABSTRACT. Online Communities of Practice (CoPs) are promising space for teachers to exchange about their teaching practices with colleagues. We developed an online CoP for teaching dialogue and argumentation and investigated the aspects of transactivity and dialogue functions as indicators of the extent of collaboration between teachers and the nature of their reflective activities. Almost half of the communications were transactive and teachers mainly used the CoP for informing about their own teaching experiences.

ABSTRACT. This study explores classroom ecologies as sites for student discussion, argumentation, and intellectual engagement in literary interpretation. Classroom discussions from two student cohorts taught by a teacher early (Year 1) and later (Year 3) in her efforts to engage students in literary interpretation were coded to capture agency and authority relations. Findings indicate how differences in texts, tasks, and teacher facilitation promote or discourage students taking agentive and authoritative ownership of the interpretive process.

ABSTRACT. In the present work we examined the effect of the form in which information is made available – questions and answers (Q&A) vs. text – on promoting argument skill. 112 middle-school students engaged in a dialog-based intervention. Results showed that the Q&A condition was superior in gains in argument skills, in weakening others position. In a second study, we extend the findings to a humanistic topic, and to different forms of presentation of information.

ABSTRACT. Critical Discourse Analysis is primarily used to understand how power is (re)produced through discourse. We adopt Gee’s (2014) approach to discourse analysis to examine the underlying discursive functions of language and identity development among first and second generation Latinx youth literacy activists. We found these young Latinx activists used writing as a tool to counter dominant narratives and recognized their power in not only challenging institutional racism theoretically but through action.

ABSTRACT. In four experiments, subjects read text information that was consistent or inconsistent with beliefs about contentious topics. Comprehension measures included sentence recognition, short answer questions, and argument memory. In all experiments, there were no significant differences in performance as a function of belief consistency. These results call into question whether beliefs serve as schema that facilitate comprehension under normal reading circumstances.

ABSTRACT. We evaluated the effectiveness of two training programs to improve students’ argument comprehension (identification of argument structure) and evaluation (distinguishing good vs. bad arguments) in higher education. The training programs were implemented as a voluntary online add-on to a regular course at a university. Results show that the trainings were generally effective. However, it is further indicated that students had problems integrating the different skills targeted in the two training interventions.

ABSTRACT. This on-going study explored whether adolescents with autism adapt their reading strategies to task goals and text structure as their normative-developing peers do. A sample of both populations participated in two experiments in which they read to understand a statement or to answer a question (Experiment 1) and read several texts with or without headings (Experiment 2). Their eye movements were tracked. Differences in strategic reading (eye movements) and comprehension outcomes are currently under analysis.

ABSTRACT. This pre-registered study assessed the effects of a college intervention on sourcing skills using an experimental design. Participants were 266 Latin American students who received either the intervention or regular classes and completed a website-rating task before, after, and 6-8 weeks post- intervention. Trained students gave lower ratings to websites with bad quality sources in both post-intervention assessments; good quality links had similar ratings across all testing phases. Therefore, the intervention improved student’s sourcing skills.

ABSTRACT. We examine if the reader’s situation model (i.e., event structures) can overrule lexical-retrieval effects at the word level, by measuring ERPs. A recent study showed that the N400 reflects meaning priming, not integration. We test whether the N400 can reflect integration processing beyond meaning priming when more engaging texts are used, and priming is reduced. First results show the N400 is dominated by priming, but with two ongoing experiments we may finetune that conclusion.

ABSTRACT. This ongoing study investigates critical reading skills (credibility evaluation of online texts and argument evaluation) among Finnish upper secondary school students representing three grade levels. Argument evaluation skills and questioning the credibility of less credible texts seem to differ between grade levels but confirming the credibility does not. Critical reading skills were positively associated with analytic thinking styles. These findings can be applied to develop instruction supporting critical reading skills.

ABSTRACT. The presentation explores readers’ experiences of the origin of passion for reading, summoned in the research question: How do readers reason about becoming and being a reader? In the era of diminishing attention spans and worries about the reading capabilities, it is essential to bring forward new knowledge on the driving forces behind long form reading. The analysis builds on a qualitative study of adult leisure readers, scrutinized in the perspective of Bourdieu’s habitus theory.

ABSTRACT. This on-going study examined whether deaf readers’ strategic reading differs from that of their hearing peers. A sample of both populations completed two experimental tasks in which they read a set of texts varying in task instructions (Experiment 1) and a set of texts varying in the presence/absence of headings (Experiment 2) while getting their eye movements tracked. Possible differences in reading behavior (eye movements) and text comprehension outcomes are being analyzed.

ABSTRACT. This study explored the retention of psychological principles from narrative anecdotes, as compared to expository descriptions of research studies. In general, readers more accurately identified the principles presented in expository texts, as compared to anecdotes. Additionally, prior knowledge had a stronger relationship with performance for the anecdotes, as compared to expository texts. Learning information from anecdotal texts seems to present different challenges than learning from other narratives, including different patterns of prior knowledge effects.

ABSTRACT. This study investigated the differences in the effects of text-highlighting when reading on print and digitally. Lower-secondary school students read two long scientific texts, one on paper and the other one on-screen. Half participants read and highlighted the texts, whereas the others just read. Significant interactions between medium and highlighting emerged for processing time, comprehension, and metacognitive calibration. That is, beneficial effects of highlighting were reduce when younger students read digitally, compared to paper.

ABSTRACT. Misinformation spreads rapidly online, making it difficult for public health officials to respond fast enough to prevent the proliferation of harmful misconceptions. This research sets out to determine whether misconceptions can be debunked through an interactive refutation text delivered via a chatbot. If found to be effective, this approach has the potential for more targeted and scalable responses to misinformation.

ABSTRACT. The current study investigates whether task-related standards of coherence influence inferential processes when coherence gaps between sentences are present versus absent. To manipulate standards of coherence, participants answered deep/shallow comprehension questions about short narratives (inferential, neutral). Participants also completed a lexical-decision task. Results from Experiment 1 indicate the task did not influence inferential processing. Activities in Experiment 2 (replication, exploration) are ongoing. Findings from this study inform theories of cognitive processing during reading comprehension.

ABSTRACT. The present study examines reasons people give for feeling discomfort answering a sensitive question in live video relative to other modes (in person, phone, web, prerecorded video) in a hypothetical standardized survey interview. Coding of open-ended explanations shows that different participants can report the very same features to lead to greater discomfort OR greater comfort, and that there are more nuanced distinctions between modes that have not been highlighted in prior featural analyses.

ABSTRACT. Reading comprehension is influenced not only by cognitive abilities, but also by non-cognitive skills. In this study, we explore the role of adaptability, curiosity, initiative, perseverance, social and cultural awareness and leadership in predicting the performance in two reading comprehension tasks (a narrative and an expository text). A group of 333 secondary school students was involved. Results show that social and cultural awareness significantly predicts comprehension performance, after accounting for cognitive abilities.

ABSTRACT. Research suggests that people often believe information they have seen before, regardless of its source’s credibility. This might be because people are equally likely to remember information from credible and non-credible sources. We examined the effect of source attribution and credibility on recognition memory for information. We found that source attribution improves recognition accuracy and that people might not encode negation tags when reading explanations from sources varying in credibility.

ABSTRACT. Participants generated emotion inferences for text message senders of strongly-constrained, weakly-constrained, or neutral messages with or without an emoji. Results showed an interaction between constraint and emoji. Emojis facilitated emotion inferences in the neutral and weakly-constrained texts, but not strongly-constrained texts. This pattern suggests emojis aid discourse processing by supplementing missing or ambiguous details in text messages. To examine this effect further, a second experiment will be conducted including a free-response format for emotion inferences.

ABSTRACT. This mixed-methods study explored reading self-concept and reading value in 75 students with poor and typical reading skills, who completed an interview and word reading test. Most students valued reading activities, had a low reading self-concept, and reported difficulties in word reading. Poor readers valued reading more, thought of themselves as worse readers, and stated more general difficulties. Findings are discussed regarding the differences in reading motivation of students with poor reading skills.

ABSTRACT. Dialogue tasks are a valuable tool for the experimental investigation of conversation by allowing researchers to manage the natural variability of dialogue for hypothesis testing. Increasing interest in the experimental investigation of human interaction has led to an expansion of the range of dialogue tasks in the literature. To guide task choice and identify gaps in coverage, a first overview of the principle dimensions of variation structuring the space of contemporary dialogue tasks is proposed.

ABSTRACT. Peer feedback presents learning opportunities for both the learner receiving feedback and the learner providing feedback. Despite its utility, it can be difficult for students to learn what constitutes “good” feedback. To address this gap, we explore the eventual possibility of real-time “feedback on feedback” by using natural language processing to develop an automated detector of feedback quality. We show that the detector is accurate and explore key features in the decision process.

ABSTRACT. Learning a sign language as a second language is challenging for individuals whose first language is a spoken language. We explored situation model construction when processing stories in a signed language or a spoken language in individuals that are learning a signed language. The results of the present studies show differences in sensitivity to changes situational information across a spoken and signed language. Implications for theory and practice will be discussed.