ABSTRACT. The study investigated the effects of highlighting in digital reading. College students were assigned to a condition of reader-generated highlighting, experimenter-provided highlighted text, or control. No effect of condition emerged for immediate and delayed text comprehension that were only predicted by cognitive reflection and reading self-efficacy. However, an interactive effect of cognitive reflection and highlighted text condition emerged favoring readers with higher ability to think rationally. Readers’ highlighting quality predicted immediate and delayed text comprehension.

ABSTRACT. We will present a theory describing that students’ adoption of intellectual humility (IH) would foster greater engagement in learning-supportive practices during Internet reading. People must recognize inherent limitations in knowledge states, and be willing to own and address them through considerations of new and compelling information provided by others. Degree of IH endorsement may guide processes including: generating a reading goal, locating and selecting relevant resources, and evaluating and integrating information from multiple diverse texts.

ABSTRACT. Little is known about how different linguistic forms of headlines affect the spread of misinformation. We examined the effects of three different linguistic forms—assertive, interrogative, and combined—on clicking and sharing intentions of real and false news headlines. Results showed that people were less inclined to click and share interrogative and combined headlines than assertive headlines. This suggests that linguistic forms are significant predictors of clicking and sharing intentions, and should be considered in misinformation research.

ABSTRACT. The present contribution explores the impact of different presentation formats (print vs. digital), and text types (linear vs. hierarchical text) on reading comprehension. The experiment has a mixed design, combining a within-subject factor (text type) and a between-subject factor (format). Reading comprehension is measured by multiple-choice questions, and reading fluency, vocabulary, print and digital exposure are assessed. Preliminary analyses (n=74 out of 120 preregistered) indicate that reading comprehension differs between the print and digital format.

ABSTRACT. We conducted a systematic review was to examine the methodological and theoretical traditions that informed digital literacy research from 2017-2022. Specifically, we evaluated researchers’ conceptualizations of digital literacy, research design, data source, research context, analysis methods, operationalization of digital literacy skills, and the theoretical traditions underlying digital literacy research. In analyzing the current literature, we identified several limitations and provided some methodological and theoretical recommendations for future studies in digital literacy.

ABSTRACT. The experimental study investigates if text cohesion promotes students’ listening comprehension. 140 ninth-grade students listened an informational listening text differing in its’ degree of global cohesion (low vs. high). Listening comprehension was assessed with a written comprehension test. Regressions show that global cohesion promotes listening comprehension and that the effect of cohesion remains significant when controlling for topic-related prior knowledge. Further, low-performing students profit more from cohesion than high-performing students.

ABSTRACT. How much does a reader’s native language matter in a second language? We compared word-by-word English reading of authentic texts across four L1 groups (English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese). Special focus was on prediction and integration processes, indexed by surprisal effects. Linear mixed effect models assessed multiple determinants of reading on a single word. ERPs and behavioral measures suggest that all language groups showed integrative/prediction processes and use of syntactic knowledge with some language background differences.

ABSTRACT. Fundamental to discourse comprehension is constructing and updating mental representations of linguistic input. Prominent theories of discourse processing describe how text base factors influence the activation of information. However, we know very little about how surface features guide language comprehension. Using ERP, a sentence completion task, and a sensibility judgment task (preregistered), we investigated how two such features (adverbs and grammatical aspect) influence the comprehension of temporal information and the activation of concepts over time.

ABSTRACT. Research on whether the development of language comprehension is led by top-down or bottom-up processes has resulted in opposing theories. The present study examined the co-development of the retrieval of word meanings and semantic integration in sentences during listening comprehension. Elementary school children participated in a longitudinal study with five time points throughout Grades 1-4. Results show that both processes predict each other in differing ways over the course of elementary school.

ABSTRACT. Two studies investigated whether pictures reduce the influence of outdated information (i.e., information believed to be true but then revised). Illustrating the updated information via pictures may increase the activation of that information while decreasing the reactivation of outdated information. Our results are partly in line with this hypothesis: we found longer reading times for texts requiring knowledge revision in both studies. Pictures seemed to reduce this prolongation, but the effect was small.

ABSTRACT. Perceptual simulations are considered crucial for text comprehension. We present two experiments, in which short videos, taxing visuo-spatial working memory, were used to interfere with visual-perceptual simulations during reading. Outcomes were measured on two levels of comprehension, the propositional textbase and visuo-spatial mental models. Comprehension was specifically impaired for questions tapping into visuo-spatial models after interference (in contrast to propositional questions), suggesting a causal role of visuo-perceptual simulations for comprehension.

ABSTRACT. This study will examine the effect of delivery methods of a web-based think-aloud (iterative vs. consecutive) on the type and amount of utterances among elementary students. Participants will complete a web-based think-aloud while reading texts. Responses will be coded and compared to archival data from a previous study of elementary students who completed a paper-based think-aloud. The results will be used to understand the influence of technology and presentation modes on on-line processing during reading.

ABSTRACT. Complex legislative language makes it difficult for people to participate in the civic process. In this study, we examined how different types of text simplification might reduce voter roll-off (i.e., skipping items on a ballot). Participants (n = 101) read 16 ballot measures in their original or simplified form using one of three techniques (simple/surface, Plain Language, or deep/cohesion). Analyses revealed that simplification of the ballot measures improved perceived comprehension and decreased roll-off.

ABSTRACT. Writing research focuses on low-level transcription skills (e.g. handwriting) and cognitive components of writing, but neglects higher-level subskills that produce coherence and lexical diversity in texts. We established and tested a model considering both low- and high-level subskills. Results showed that cognitive components and low-level subskills had primarily indirect effects on writing competence mediated by high-level subskills, which mainly accounted for the variance in writing competence.

ABSTRACT. This study examines links between writing behaviors manifested by keystroke analytics (e.g., production rates, pauses, and revisions) and the argument elements (i.e., position, claim, and data) formulated in L1 and L2 adult writers' writing processes. The keystroke patterns revealed in the study suggest that L1 and L2 adult writers' challenges in formulating positions and claims seem to be more related to linguistic constraints in comparison to their data construction.

ABSTRACT. A common thread across studies of multiple text learning is their recognition that students construct cognitive representations of texts as an outcome of reading. These representations are taxonomized here. Students reported prior knowledge in an open-ended fashion, read and critiqued three texts, and described what they learned. Descriptions were coded for how these integrated text-based information, prior knowledge, and generated critiques. The Documents Model Framework and Goldman’s Cognitive Aspects of Reading Construction served as guides.

ABSTRACT. Multiple document (MD) comprehension tasks are often challenging for students in the context of a variety of tasks. We have examined various interventions with demonstrated success in improving comprehension of single documents (e.g., summarization, self-explanation) in concert with examining the impact of individual differences (e.g., prior knowledge, literacy skills). These studies suggest the need for interventions that address the unique nature of MD integration as well as challenges associated with composing MD essays.

ABSTRACT. Recent research has emphasized that interpretation of task instructions, goals, and purposes for reading are critical for comprehension from multiple documents and expository texts. We will discuss contexts that can help students to understand the need to engage in integration across different concepts when the goal is to be able to answer inference questions, and how individual differences in epistemology help students to recognize when test questions require inferencing beyond mere memory for the text.

ABSTRACT. To help students understand multiple documents and articulate their understandings, we have investigated the uses of visual document maps for instruction and assessment. In this poster, we will illustrate how mapping can support the evaluation and integration of multiple documents and reflect on the strengths and limitations of this scaffolding approach. We will also demonstrate how document maps can be assessed, and what they can reveal about students' multiple document literacy.

ABSTRACT. We designed a measure targeting the extent to which students are confident they can write an academic text that integrates content from several different sources. This measure, called the Multiple-Source Based Academic Writing Self-Efficacy Scale (MAWSES) was validated by means of confirmatory factor analysis and the correlations of the resulting unitary construct with other relevant constructs. The findings provided evidence concerning the reliability and validity of the MAWSES. Potential applications of the measure were discussed

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the real-time resolution of demonstrative and personal pronouns in narrative texts. For this purpose, two corpus studies were conducted, based on excerpts from two German novels, investigating the referential behavior of demonstrative and personal pronouns. Subsequently, audio books of each excerpt were presented in two ERP experiments. By using narratives as more naturalistic stimuli, we obtain a new perspective on the implementation of language processing in the brain during authentic language comprehension.

ABSTRACT. This study assessed whether children are sensitive to the event structure of narrative texts during reading. Sixty-one children (aged 9-11) and 42 adults read short stories while their eye movements were tracked. The event structure of the stories was established in two rating studies. Eye movement data revealed that both children’s and adults’ reading slowed at narrative event boundaries, suggesting increased cognitive effort. Children thus appear to perceive and process event boundaries during reading.

ABSTRACT. Previous eye-tracking studies suggest that readers engage in re-reading behavior when processing meaning of irony in text, and that this is affected by working memory capacity (WMC). In the present study, we combined data from two previous eye-tracking studies (N=120) and used scanpath analysis to examine individual differences in reading and comprehending ironic and literal texts. The results showed that WMC and successful comprehension of irony are reflected in eye-movement patterns during reading.

ABSTRACT. We used ERP recordings in a RSVP experiment where participants read highly constraining sentences in Spanish language. The preceding context biased either the literal or figurative interpretation of ambiguous idiomatic expressions. A congruency manipulation was created to measure meaning integration during idiom processing. N400-congruency effects were smaller for the idiomatic than the literal context. Context integration in figurative sentences leads to reduced semantic processing of words within idioms.

ABSTRACT. Event-related potentials were used to examine the neural responses of expert Python programmers when reading well-formed code vs. ill-formed code with two violation types: 1) meaning (semantically implausible) or 2) form (structurally invalid). Semantic implausibility elicited an N400 effect compared to well-formed code, whereas structural violations elicited a P600 effect compared to well-formed code. These patterns suggest that expert programmers show distinct brain responses to meaning and form violations when reading Python code.

ABSTRACT. While reading four partly conflicting texts, half of the participants received and read authentic social media messages, whereas the other half read the texts without being sent any messages. Further, half of the participants summarized the main idea of each paragraph in writing, whereas the other half just reread each paragraph. Negative effects of multitasking on intertextual processing and integrated comprehension were examined, along with main idea summaries as a moderator mitigating these negative effects.

ABSTRACT. Undergraduates evaluated the usefulness of conflicting journal articles stating that CogMed is or is not effective in promoting WM functioning. Students who believed that WM can be improved with skill training evaluated articles questioning CogMed’s effectiveness as less useful, and did not question the quality of methods used in pro-CogMed articles. Students believing that WM is a stable trait evaluated belief-inconsistent articles more critically as being task-irrelevant, having poorer-quality argumentation, and less trustworthy authors.

ABSTRACT. Multiple document writing tasks require students to both comprehend and integrate multiple-documents. We examined summarization as a strategy to enhance participants’ comprehension and integration of multiple documents. Participants were assigned to either summarize or reread five texts, wrote an essay based on the texts that they read, and completed three knowledge assessments. Summarization had a negative effect on essay quality compared to rereading. However, within summary group, summary quality was positively correlated with essay quality.

ABSTRACT. The ability to integrate conflicting information across multiple documents is key to understand socio-scientific controversies. Such complex process demands that adolescents attend to the conflicting claims and reflect about the rhetorical relations between them. Accordingly, conflict detection may be hampered in conditions that promote a rather shallow processing (tablets vs. paper) or that induce off-task distraction (text messaging). We are testing those hypotheses in a study with a sample of approximately 180 adolescents (8-10th grade).

ABSTRACT. Primary school children read four short texts and wrote an essay on becoming vegetarian. They received an academic instruction, to read and summarize the information from the texts or a personalized instruction, with emphasis on giving advice to a relative. They also completed a recall and a memory for ideas task. Significant effects were found in post-learning. Students reading for an academic purpose included a higher number of inferences and against vegetarianism ideas.

ABSTRACT. The current study examined relations amongst individual differences, memory for source texts, and source-based essays in a multiple-document context. Participants (n=93) completed two study sessions. In session 1, they read texts about meat consumption and wrote a source-based essay. In session 2, they completed cued recalls and a persuasive essay to measure writing skill. Natural language processing indices revealed insights into the relations amongst source text memory, source-based essay content, and key individual differences.

ABSTRACT. We examined the impact of self-explanation on multiple-document comprehension. Participants (n=139) read a multiple document text set, while either self-explaining or thinking aloud; they then completed verification questions, an essay, and a prior knowledge measure. Prior knowledge was positively associated with scores on all measures. Additionally, self-explanation improved performance on across-text inference verification items. Computational measures of cohesion additionally revealed that self-explanation instructions encouraged readers to engage in more integrative processing.

ABSTRACT. Self-explanation and source evaluation instruction may improve students’ multiple document comprehension. However, teachers may not implement interventions due to minimal or ineffective training. Therefore, we seek to produce an effective professional development program for technology-supported intervention using both instructional approaches. We employ the participatory design framework (Kuhn & Muller, 1993) to work collaboratively with high school science teachers. We share findings from five focus group sessions that address designing professional development in partnership with teachers.

ABSTRACT. Undergraduate students (n = 73) were randomly assigned to one of three prompt conditions (i.e., self-explanation, source-evaluation, or think aloud) to write constructed responses while reading four texts. We tested prompt effects on multiple comprehension performance measures, as well as potential moderating individual difference variables (i.e., reading, vocabulary, and prior knowledge). Analyses revealed little effects of the constructed response prompts, but we did find effects of prior knowledge on different types of comprehension items.

ABSTRACT. Some psycholinguistic frameworks argue for a connection between semantic association-based memory processes and higher-level language processing such as discourse inferencing. In three experiments, we explored the link between instrument inference, measured via self-paced reading, and memory-based processes involving semantic priming, measured via the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. The results showed no relationship between instrument inference and priming. The results highlight the indirectness of the link between language processing and domain-general cognition, even for superficially similar phenomena.

ABSTRACT. Some emotions guide problem solving (e.g. curiosity), while others impede it (e.g. frustration). To test the efficacy of a cognitive-emotional strategy training intervention for college students, we use a think-emote aloud protocol to measure such emotions. In this context, interactions between researchers and participants may also elicit emotions that influence problem solving. Our research examines these researcher-participant interactions not currently accounted for in understanding emotions experienced during problem-solving.

ABSTRACT. Laypeople are prone to overestimating their evaluative abilities when confronted with easy scientific information. This phenomenon is called the easiness effect. In this experiment, adults read health-related texts that differed in their comprehensibility and were presented with an instructional video. They either (a) received an elaboration prompt to counteract said effect or (b) did not. We found that the elaboration prompt partly increased skepticism towards simplified scientific information but did not mitigate the easiness effect.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to identify variations in reading comprehension instruction associated with reading media: on-paper vs. on-screen reading. Data from 86 self-reported questionnaires answered by primary education teachers and 30 semi-structured interviews will be analyzed to investigate to what extent the inclusion of digital reading devices in their classrooms could modify some fundamental aspects of their instruction, such as instructional reading time and the comprehension reading strategies taught to students.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the contribution of morphological analysis to reading comprehension. We compared 6th graders in defining morphologically simple and complex words with a high or low base frequency. Then, we measured their ability to generalize morphological knowledge to morphologically related words. Finally, we examined the relationship between morphological analysis, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Results showed that morphological analysis contributes directly and indirectly to reading comprehension, through morphological generalization and vocabulary.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the study is to explore if reading a refutation text has positive effects on metacognitive calibration. To this aim, seventh graders read a text in its standard or refutation version and then assessed if they were correct or not and how confident they were about it. Results showed that refutation text led to better conceptual knowledge; in addition, students reading refutation text were more accurate in discriminating correct from incorrect answers.

ABSTRACT. The study examined the processing of social situation narratives by adolescents varying in aggression level. Texts describing characters and their reactions in social situations varied in content (mild vs. hostile) and consistency between character descriptions and reactions. Reading times indicated slower processing of hostile content regardless of aggression level and faster processing of character reactions regardless of consistency. Findings are discussed considering aggression-related hypotheses and contradiction effects in narrative processing.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study was to examine age-related development in the use of mental state language in 9- to 14-year-old children’s narrative writing. We examined how both participant and text characteristics predicted the amount and type of mental state language in the narratives and how this was related to broader lexical development. Our results show the importance of considering complexity alongside frequency when examining mental state language in middle childhood and early adolescence.

ABSTRACT. Reading and writing are crucial abilities to achieve successful academic studies. However, some individuals present persistent difficulties in their mastering. The aim was to describe the written abilities network common in individuals with and without dyslexia. We used a data-driven graph modelling approach to describe the network of written abilities with their supporting abilities. The dimensional network confirms the crucial role of vocabulary and suggest new hypotheses that will be discussed in the educational framework.

ABSTRACT. Here we compare eye movements of children and adults reading short narrative texts and analyse the individual effects of imageability and emotional variables on early and late measures of reading. We show that readers draw on imagery information during early reading processes and rely on emotional information in later stages only. We further show that children are already able to use semantic information early in their development but become more efficient over time.

ABSTRACT. Little is known about how deaf adults read idioms. In this study, we asked 38 adults with and without deafness to read literally plausible idioms embedded in literal vs. figurative context while their eye movements were monitored. Both groups showed a facilitative idiomacity effect since the post-target area was fixated shorter when preceded by idiomatic than by literal contexts. Both groups seem to rely more on direct retrieval of idioms than on compositional analysis.

ABSTRACT. Previous research found that epistemic perspectives—absolutism, multiplism, and evaluativism—predicted jurors' verdict justifications. The alternative AIR model of epistemic cognition suggests that such reasoning processes would be a function of achieving situated epistemic aims rather than being rooted in broad epistemic understandings. In two studies, epistemic aims were manipulated in a juror reasoning task. The manipulated aims had no effect, but participants' self-reported aims along with epistemic perspectives were related to justification processes.

ABSTRACT. Cross-corpora mixed-methods analysis of graduate-students’ academic discourses and texts in the educational psychology context reveal, among other findings, that epistemology marking in speaking centered around personal/sensory access to epistemic basis for referential material. Cross-gender analysis reveal males’ stronger modality in speaking and writing, and epistemic marking in the spoken corpus. Cross-ethnic findings unraveled Caucasian and Other-ethnicity evidentials in writing, while Hispanics’ edge in inferencing-structures. Hispanics’ and African-Americans’ spoken discourse shows ample hedging (public face-saving).

ABSTRACT. We analyzed how students’ previous beliefs on a controversial topic and the assessment stakes influence what type of arguments were included in a written essay. Pre-service teachers were measured on previous beliefs about homework and wrote an essay based in four short conflicting texts, under a high and low-stakes condition. Moderation analysis revealed a significant interaction effect between prior beliefs and task stakes. Likewise, both participants’ prior beliefs and task stakes predicted the essay score.

ABSTRACT. The current paper investigated relationships between intellectual humility and perceptions of learning and information sharing, and inclusion of ideas from multiple texts in essays. Those who felt less attacked by opposing views had higher perceptions of learning; those who respected others’ views and were open-minded towards changing their own views were more amenable to sharing belief-consistent ideas. Additional natural language processing analyses will be conducted to examine how these relations manifest in students’ essays.

ABSTRACT. Undergraduates (n=92) either read principles of natural selection before exemplars, after exemplars, or only read exemplars. Then, they read a text about a species that experienced natural selection. We assessed cognitive processing with think-alouds. The principles supported bridging inferences between the principles and exemplars, but only when the principles appeared before the exemplars. The principles supported learning about principles and comprehension of the exemplars but did not affect processing and learning of the target text.

ABSTRACT. We examined whether the explicit task purpose and reading place may impact multiple document comprehension processes and outcomes. 171 university students wrote a short message based on four online documents either on campus or at home, within an academic or a personal task scenario (purpose). Online and offline indicators suggested a strong impact of the task purpose and marginal interactions with reading place. We discuss implications for a contextual model of reading strategies.