PROGRAM
Days: Wednesday, July 29th Thursday, July 30th Friday, July 31st
Wednesday, July 29th
View this program: with abstractssession overviewtalk overview
11:00-12:00 Session 1: (online and asynchronous) Remote Poster Session
1. Situational Uncertainty as a Predictor of Source Use and Memory During Evaluative Reading (abstract) PRESENTER: Gaston Saux |
2. The effect of direct, explicit instruction of text-sourced vocabulary words for secondary students with reading difficulties, including MLLs, when delivered by paraprofessionals (abstract) PRESENTER: Sarah Kocherhans |
3. Note-taking and the Establishment of Causal Connections in Note-Review, and Comprehension of Spoken and Written Spontaneous Discourse by Argentine College Students (abstract) PRESENTER: Jazmin Cevasco |
4. Text-to-Speech as a Digital Reading Affordance: Reducing Mind-Wandering and Improving Processing Efficiency and Comprehension in School-Age Students (abstract) PRESENTER: Elisabetta Lombardo |
5. Constructing a Predictive Scientific Reading Framework (abstract) PRESENTER: Emily Hall |
6. The Language of Likes: A Corpus Study on Linguistic Predictors of Message Acceptance (abstract) PRESENTER: Ronja van Zijverden |
7. The Functions of Floating and Empty Signifiers in Multimodal Discourse Analysis: Insights from a Student Digital Video Composition (abstract) |
8. To pair or not to pair? Testing for differences in learning from small group discussions due to group size (abstract) PRESENTER: Jennifer Wiley |
9. Beyond Spoken Interaction: Discourse Markers, Stance, and Dialogicality in Fiction (abstract) |
12:00-13:30Mentoring Lunch (for ST&D mentorship program participants)
14:00-15:00 Session 3: Keynote Presentation: Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award
Dr. Susan Brennan is the winner of the 2026 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the Society's highest honor.
Susan Brennan is SUNY Distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in Cognitive Science within the Department of Psychology, with affiliations in Computer Science and Linguistics.
Chair:
Location: Auditorium
| 14:00 | Searching for Common Ground in Generative AI (abstract) |
15:15-16:55 Session 4A: Symposium 1: Adult Literacy: It is not just about reading words.
The United States includes many adults who struggle with literacy skills (PIAAC Results, 2023). There is a paucity of research on these individuals, and there is especially extraordinarily little rigorous research on any topic other than word reading or comprehension in the most general sense. The Adult Literacy Research Center (ALRC) at Georgia State University (USA), includes faculty members, postdocs, and students who specialize in research on this low performing population. Their research focuses on a diverse range of populations who struggle with some kind of literacy related challenge in various contexts. This symposium shares some of the “cutting edge” research of ALRC members and their collaborators. Presenters will describe studies on lexical ambiguity, engagement of metacognitive strategies, intellectual humility, AI-supported learning as well as digital writing in adult literacy learners as well as underprepared college students. All presentations will end with implications for future research, as well as implications for instruction.
Chair:
Location: Lecture Hall
| 15:15 | Lexical Ambiguity and Sentence Comprehension in Adult Literacy Learners: The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge (abstract) PRESENTER: Ellie Hong |
| 15:35 | Understanding the strengths and challenges of adults comprehending texts (abstract) PRESENTER: Christine Doan Sun |
| 15:55 | Indirect Effects of Intellectual Humility on Relationships between Metacognitive Awareness and Judgments and Reading Comprehension Performance (abstract) PRESENTER: Jason Braasch |
| 16:15 | Generative AI for Generative Learning: Investigating AI-Supported Learning-By-Explaining in Introductory Biology (abstract) PRESENTER: Kathryn McCarthy |
| 16:35 | Writing in the Digital Age: The Unexplored but Critical Skill Needed by Adults (abstract) PRESENTER: Daphne Greenberg |
15:15-16:55 Session 4B: Time, Space, & Events
Chair:
Location: Room 601
| 15:15 | Critically Examining the Perceptual Decoupling – Mind Wandering Link: Implications for Comprehension (abstract) PRESENTER: Vishal Kuvar |
| 15:35 | (REMOTE) Toward A Dynamic Framework for Formalizing Situation-Model Updating in Text Comprehension (abstract) PRESENTER: Lisa Zacharski |
| 15:55 | Mind the Gap: A Meta-Analysis of Spatial-Computational Representation in Educational interventions (abstract) PRESENTER: Mark Brady |
| 16:15 | Prediction Over Postdiction: Directional Asymmetry in Event Schema Activation (abstract) PRESENTER: Shu Hu |
| 16:35 | How Writers Make Events Mean: Predicates at the Interface of Cognition and Narrative Discourse (abstract) PRESENTER: Liat Hershkovitz |
15:15-16:55 Session 4C: Difficulty & Complexity
Chair:
Location: Room 602
| 15:15 | LLMs Are Not the Same: AI Tools Differ When Adapting Texts for Struggling Readers (abstract) PRESENTER: Jamie Smith Levitan |
| 15:35 | GPT Readability and Non-Standard English Dialects (abstract) PRESENTER: Abubakir Siedahmed |
| 15:55 | Revising a psychology textbook to improve discipline-specific learning (abstract) PRESENTER: Kaya Easley |
| 16:15 | The Lingering Effects of Difficulty: Perceived Difficulty and Task-Unrelated Thought During Learning (abstract) PRESENTER: Christopher Steadman |
| 16:35 | Using Eye Gaze Data to Track Changes in Reading Behaviors with Parallel Texts (abstract) PRESENTER: Amanda Jensen |
17:30-19:00 Session 5: Poster Session I and Reception
Location: Atrium (2nd level)
Understanding Persuasive Routes in AI-powered Misinformation Revision (abstract) PRESENTER: Wei Zhang |
From Offloading to Engagement: Toward Effective Use of an AI Chatbot in an Explanation Writing Task (abstract) PRESENTER: Kyra McNaughton |
Public Information, Misinformation, and Disinformation Discourse in Generative Artificial Intelligence Narratives (abstract) |
The Ed-AI literacy model in higher education: insights from scenario analysis (abstract) PRESENTER: Juliana do Amaral |
Defensive Writing in the Age of AI: Writing to Prove Your Humanity (abstract) PRESENTER: Stephen Hutt |
Understanding the Overlapping Impacts of Socioeconomic Challenges and Family Structure on Literacy *AWARD WINNER* (abstract) PRESENTER: Nicole Houston |
Unpacking Self-Regulated Learning from Multiple Digital Resources: What are Key Processes? (abstract) |
Supporting Discourse Among Learners with Disability Labels in a Middle School Science Classroom (abstract) PRESENTER: Janelle M. Bailey |
The shortcomings of demographic discourse: comparing students’ self-described identity variables to institutional labels (abstract) PRESENTER: Maria Goldshtein |
The Contributions of Intellectual Humility to Metamemory for Sources of Multiple Conflicting Claims on the Internet (abstract) PRESENTER: Taylor Clark |
Topic Importance and Accuracy-Directed Reasoning Across Scientific Contexts (abstract) PRESENTER: Doug Lombardi |
Beliefs and Overconfidence for Learning Science Misconceptions in College Students (abstract) PRESENTER: Mike Mensink |
Understanding the Relationship Between Growth Mindset and Feedback-seeking: The Role of Academic Self-Efficacy (abstract) PRESENTER: Ryan Hall |
Task roles and task goals jointly shape gaze and linguistic alignment during collaboration (abstract) PRESENTER: Martyna Wasilewska |
Who’s got the floor? Successful interruptions in dyadic conversations (abstract) PRESENTER: Roger Kreuz |
How does the order of performance levels in rubrics influence student engagement and achievement in digital tasks? (abstract) PRESENTER: Ignacio Máñez |
The Effect of Polarized Partisanship on Adolescents’ Scientific Reasoning (abstract) PRESENTER: Jenna Alton |
Thursday, July 30th
View this program: with abstractssession overviewtalk overview
09:00-10:20 Session 6A: Anaphor & Reference
Chair:
Location: Lecture Hall
| 09:00 | (REMOTE) An experimental study of pronouns in self-talk: When “you” is “I” (abstract) |
| 09:20 | Understanding singular they becomes easier with exposure (abstract) PRESENTER: Jennifer Arnold |
| 09:40 | Human-Like Anaphor Resolution in Large Language Models (abstract) PRESENTER: Sashank Varma |
| 10:00 | Psycholinguistic Predictors of Engagement in Brand Discourse on TikTok (abstract) PRESENTER: John Hollander |
09:00-10:20 Session 6B: Feedback & Metacognition
Chair:
Location: Room 601
| 09:00 | Does the presence and position of Knowledge-of-Correct-Response feedback affect students’ engagement with and memory for digital Elaborative Feedback? (abstract) PRESENTER: Mariola Giménez-Salvador |
| 09:20 | Metacognitive Judgment Accuracy Under Different Exposures to Worked Examples (abstract) PRESENTER: Sepideh Jafarizaveh |
| 09:40 | Watching Experts Succeed Makes Novices Overconfident, but Watching Failures Increases Caution (abstract) PRESENTER: Sara E. Neuner |
| 10:00 | Does Sycophancy Build Trust? The Role of Confirmatory Feedback in the Perceived Credibility of Uncertain Feedback Sources (abstract) |
09:00-10:20 Session 6C: Bilingualism
Chair:
Location: Room 602
| 09:00 | Mental Simulation in L1 and L2: The Role of Shape Typicality in Japanese–English Bilinguals (abstract) PRESENTER: Chikako Tagashira-Nakagawa |
| 09:20 | Language-Dependent Modality Effects on Discourse Updating in Heritage Spanish English Bilinguals *AWARD WINNER* (abstract) PRESENTER: Diana Uribe |
| 09:40 | Bilingual Inconsistency Effect (abstract) PRESENTER: Colin Scholl |
| 10:00 | Do Bilingual Switching Patterns Shape Memory for Topics and Speakers? (abstract) PRESENTER: Aj Cruz |
10:20-11:00Coffee Break
11:00-12:00 Session 7: Keynote Presentation: Tom Trabasso Young Investigator Award
Dr. Nia Nixon is the winner of the 2025 Tom Trabasso Young Investigator Award.
Dr. Nia Nixon, a Jacobs Foundation Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the School of Education and Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, Irvine, is a leading researcher in learning analytics and human–AI collaboration. She also holds a Distinguished International Professorship at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Hector Research Institute for Education Sciences and Psychology at the University of Tübingen.
Chair:
Location: Auditorium
| 11:00 | From Tutor to Teammate: What Team Discourse Reveals When the AI Joins the Group (abstract) |
12:00-13:15Lunch Break
13:30-14:50 Session 8A: Reading Comprehension: Processes and Assessment
Chair:
Location: Lecture Hall
| 13:30 | Tracing the Pathway to Proficient Reading: Effects of a Year-Long Targeted Intervention on Reading Subskills (abstract) PRESENTER: Christopher Steadman |
| 13:50 | How Does Semantic-Phonological Bridging Contribute to Adults’ Expository Reading Comprehension? An Empirical Test of The Active View of Reading (abstract) |
| 14:10 | Parsing for Meaning: Gender Differences in Response to Sentence-Level Instruction (abstract) PRESENTER: Eleanor Fang Yan |
| 14:30 | Methods for Automated Generation of Cloze Tests for Discourse Comprehension Assessment (abstract) PRESENTER: Langdon Holmes |
13:30-14:50 Session 8B: Disciplinary Comprehension
Chair:
Location: Room 601
| 13:30 | Disciplinary Literacy Disconnects: The Case of Nurse Education and Practice (abstract) PRESENTER: Malinie Roopchan |
| 13:50 | Comics in education: A Meta-Analysis of Comics vs Text Interventions in STEM vs Non-STEM learning (abstract) PRESENTER: Marianna Pagkratidou |
| 14:10 | The Impact of Text Genre on Visual and Verbal Thought During Reading (abstract) PRESENTER: Püren Öncel |
| 14:30 | Reading for Models: Reconceptualizing the Product of Deep Reading Comprehension (abstract) |
13:30-14:50 Session 8C: Communication & Perspective Taking
Chair:
Location: Room 602
| 13:30 | Audience design influences referential choice: A study of perspective-taking during self-communication (abstract) PRESENTER: Casey M. Riedmann |
| 13:50 | Producing verbal irony reduces the intensity of felt negative emotion (abstract) |
| 14:10 | Compensatory Alignment in Natural Conversation (abstract) PRESENTER: David Heath |
| 14:30 | Understanding Verbal Irony: A contrastive Analysis of Personal and Informational Common Ground (abstract) PRESENTER: Ruhan Çoban |
15:00-16:00 Session 9: Keynote: Invited Speaker
Chair:
Location: Auditorium
| 15:00 | Irreplaceable: The Essentiality of People, Agency, and Literacy in the GenAI Era (abstract) |
16:00-16:30Coffee Break
16:30-18:00 Session 10: Poster Session II
Location: Atrium (2nd level)
Advancing a Taxonomy to Explain How Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction Works (abstract) PRESENTER: Dennis Davis |
The use of a think aloud procedure to examine reading strategy use in adolescent readers (abstract) PRESENTER: Mindy Bridges |
Interactive digital reading features and comprehension outcomes in secondary and postsecondary learners: A scoping review. (abstract) |
Reader-test interactions in reading comprehension: Linking reader characteristics, text complexity, and question types aligned with the Common Core (abstract) PRESENTER: Hongcui Du |
Characterizing How Adults with Varying Literacy Skills Interpret Narrative Symbolism (abstract) PRESENTER: Sarah Miller |
How can summary writing support readers' understanding of information from multiple texts? (abstract) PRESENTER: Monique Harrel |
Reconsidering D-ISC Assumptions for Younger Adolescents Through Comprehension Monitoring Research (abstract) PRESENTER: Burcu Demir |
Dimensionality of Inference Processes in Young Children: Insights from Latent Space Item Response Modeling (abstract) PRESENTER: Seohyeon Choi |
Eye-Movement Indices of Structure Building: How Ambient-to-Focal Dynamics Track Mapping and Shifting Processes (abstract) PRESENTER: Virginia Troemel |
Measuring reading comprehension from retell with network science: A proof-of-concept evaluation *AWARD WINNER* (abstract) PRESENTER: Armaan Parikh |
Executive Function and Fluency: The Role of Graphophonological-Semantic Cognitive Flexibility in Oral Reading Fluency Rate and Expressiveness (abstract) PRESENTER: Amira Khalile |
A Meta-Analysis on the Relation Between Executive Functioning and Second-Language (L2) Reading (abstract) PRESENTER: Joanna Li |
Socioeconomic context, executive function, and expository discourse comprehension in adolescence (abstract) PRESENTER: Tin Nguyen |
When Adaptation Doesn't Transfer: Visual World Paradigm Limits in Pronoun Processing (abstract) PRESENTER: Simantika Roy |
Statistical learning defines which discourse biases guide pronoun interpretation (abstract) PRESENTER: Jennifer Arnold |
Revisiting Common Ground in Verbal Irony: Evidence from Response Times (abstract) |
Observing Meaning Activation and Selection in Puns: A Cross-modal Lexical Decision Paradigm (abstract) PRESENTER: Alissa Desmond |
18:00-19:30 Activities in the Inside NASCAR / Heritage Speedway space (included with conference dinner registration)
We will walk together to the NASCAR hall of fame for the ticketed conference dinner, including 1 hour of access to the Inside NASCAR and Heritage Speedway interactive exhibits, including the racing simulators and pit crew challenge.
- 6:00 PM — Poster session concludes at the Dubois Center; Walk to NASCAR Hall of Fame (about 20 mins)
- 6:30–7:30 PM — Activities in the Inside NASCAR / Heritage Speedway space (included with conference dinner registration)
- 7:30 PM — Dinner begins in the Hall of Honor
Friday, July 31st
View this program: with abstractssession overviewtalk overview
09:00-10:40 Session 11A: Learning from text
Chair:
Location: Lecture Hall
| 09:00 | Reading at home or at school ? Contextual effects on multiple documents comprehension strategies (abstract) PRESENTER: M. Anne Britt |
| 09:20 | A multidimensional approach to investigate the association between prior knowledge and learning from texts (abstract) PRESENTER: Christian Tarchi |
| 09:40 | Topic Familiarity and Strategic Processing in Learning from Multiple Texts (abstract) PRESENTER: Seongyeup Kim |
| 10:00 | Effects of Seductive Scientific Refutation Texts on Low and High Knowledge Readers (abstract) PRESENTER: Mike Mensink |
| 10:20 | Focusing on the Big Picture: How Scaffolding Impacts Attention During Expository Text Comprehension (abstract) PRESENTER: Püren Öncel |
09:00-10:40 Session 11B: Sourcing
Chair:
Location: Room 601
| 09:00 | Clarifying the construct of sourcing: A scoping review and secondary analysis of process data (abstract) PRESENTER: Ali Fulsher |
| 09:20 | (REMOTE) Sourcing and Corroboration Across Adolescence and AI: A Comparative Study of Human Evaluators and ChatGPT Models (abstract) PRESENTER: Philipp Marten |
| 09:40 | Sourcing, Standards, and Skill Levels (abstract) |
| 10:00 | A MASRL-Aligned Codebook for Identifying Metacognitive Processes in Think-Alouds During Multiple-Document Reading (abstract) PRESENTER: Miranda Moe |
09:00-10:40 Session 11C: Learning with AI
Chair:
Location: Room 602
| 09:00 | Correcting Artificial Intelligence Misconceptions Through Chatbot–Based Refutations (abstract) PRESENTER: Luan Chau |
| 09:20 | The Effect of AI Generated Explanations on Students Judgments of Learning (abstract) PRESENTER: Allison Jaeger |
| 09:40 | Using AI To Summarize Texts: Effects on Metacognitive Awareness and Test Performance (abstract) PRESENTER: Sam Agnoli |
| 10:00 | Beliefs and Epistemic Calibration in AI-Augmented Inquiry (abstract) PRESENTER: John Rolfe Robertson |
| 10:20 | GenAI powered Socratic chatbots for learning STEM topics – a pilot study (abstract) PRESENTER: Maria Goldshtein |
10:40-11:20Coffee Break
11:20-12:40 Session 12A: Trust
Chair:
Location: Lecture Hall
| 11:20 | (REMOTE) Trust and media perception: Exploring sociodemographic and attitudinal determinants of perceived exposure to fake news (abstract) PRESENTER: Eva Bei |
| 11:40 | (REMOTE) Effects of Document Source Trustworthiness and Prior Beliefs About Embedded Sources on the Evaluation and Sharing of Political Information (abstract) PRESENTER: Franco Londra |
| 12:00 | Explanation Evaluation based on Source Expertise and Explanation Simplicity (abstract) PRESENTER: Rina Miyata Harsch |
| 12:20 | Conceptualizing Trust in Science across Discourse, Epistemic, and Science Communication Perspectives (abstract) PRESENTER: Victoria Johnson |
11:20-12:40 Session 12B: Reasoning & Argumentation
Chair:
Location: Room 601
| 11:20 | Reading to Reason: Comprehension, Epistemic Cognition, and Critical Thinking in Adolescents’ Multidimensional Sourcing *AWARD WINNER* (abstract) PRESENTER: Haolan Wang |
| 11:40 | A Review of Materials Used in Multiple Source Use Tasks Through the Lens of Epistemic Cognition (abstract) PRESENTER: Varun Athilat |
| 12:00 | Evaluative Orientations in Students’ Evidentiary Reasoning: A Natural Language Processing Approach (abstract) PRESENTER: Hongcui Du |
| 12:20 | Impacts on Argumentative Writing in a Discussion-and-Debate-Based Deep Reading Program (abstract) PRESENTER: Lisa B. Hsin |
11:20-12:40 Session 12C: Bilingualism & Culture
Chair:
Location: Room 602
| 11:20 | The critical impact of language of schooling on discourse updating for bilinguals (abstract) PRESENTER: Ana Schwartz |
| 11:40 | Causal and Concessive Connectives in ESL Reading Comprehension: Evidence Across Educational Levels and Individual Differences (abstract) PRESENTER: Jessica Sishi Fei |
| 12:00 | Direct and indirect effects of inferencing on reading comprehension in adult literacy learners: A path analysis of group differences in native and non-native English speakers (abstract) PRESENTER: Eleanor Fang Yan |
| 12:20 | Cultural knowledge as a resource for reading: Elementary students’ comprehension processes and connections with culturally tailored text (abstract) PRESENTER: Miranda Fitzgerald |
12:40-13:50Lunch Break
13:50-15:30 Session 13A: Symposium 2: Supporting multimedia comprehension and evaluation in K-5 education.
This symposium brings together five empirical studies to explore a developmental trajectory of multimedia comprehension, spanning kindergarten to fifth grade. Taking a multi-pronged approach to assessment — from cognitive process modeling to qualitative analyses of digital search and credibility evaluations — this session highlights how different forms of data can inform targeted feedback and instructional scaffolding
Chair:
Location: Lecture Hall
| 13:50 | Leveraging Technology for Inference-making Instruction in Emerging Readers (abstract) PRESENTER: Susan Slater |
| 14:10 | Understanding Individual and Media Differences in Kindergarteners’ Video-Based Inference-Making (abstract) PRESENTER: Seohyeon Choi |
| 14:30 | Differences in fiction vs non-fiction video-based inference generation among elementary students (abstract) PRESENTER: Ali Fulsher |
| 14:50 | Profile Changes of Kindergarteners Based on Item-Level Inference-Making Response Time Data (abstract) PRESENTER: Katie Grabeel |
| 15:10 | The Effect of Lateral Reading on Elementary Students' Evaluation of Credibility on Digital Information (abstract) PRESENTER: Yoojeong Son |
13:50-15:30 Session 13B: Social Media
Chair:
Location: Room 601
| 13:50 | Mothers in an online songwriting group who see what happened more similarly feel more connected (abstract) PRESENTER: Michael F. Schober |
| 14:10 | (REMOTE) Different kinds of misinterpretations of social media posts’ intended stance and what predicts them (abstract) PRESENTER: Rebecca Dolgin |
| 14:30 | Positivity-Induced Mind Wandering in Reading: Insights from Reward Devaluation Theory (abstract) PRESENTER: Mya Urena |
| 14:50 | The Language of Successful Persuasion on r/ChangeMyView (abstract) PRESENTER: Varun Athilat |
13:50-15:30 Session 13C: Text Analysis
Chair:
Location: Room 602
| 13:50 | Text Segmentation by Paragraphs and Chapters: a Temporal Sequence Revealing a Textual Rhythm (abstract) |
| 14:10 | A World Court for Whom? Machine Learning Evidence of Bias in Legal Discourse (abstract) |
| 14:30 | Cohesion Alignment between LLM and Human Evaluations (abstract) PRESENTER: Scott Crossley |
| 14:50 | The Statistical Structure of the Lexicon Guides Novel Word Reading (abstract) PRESENTER: Robert Wiley |
| 15:10 | Explanatory Many-Facet Rasch Measurement as a Psychometric Approach to LLM Interpretability in Student Discourse (abstract) PRESENTER: Wesley Morris |
15:30-15:50Coffee Break
16:00-17:00 Session 14: VISION Panel: The History of ST&D and the Future of Theory Development
This is the first annual president's VISION Panel (Voices and Insights Shaping Innovation and Our Next-gen)
Moderated by Pani Kendeou, a panel of past governing board chairs will discuss The History of ST&D and the Future of Theory Development.
Discussants will include past chairs Morton Ann Gernsbacher (1994-2000), Susan Goldman (2000-2007), Art Graesser (2007-2010), Danielle McNamara, (2013-2019), and Joe Magliano (2019-2025)
Chair:
Location: Auditorium
Vision Panel PRESENTER: Joseph Magliano |
18:15-18:30 Closing Remarks
Location: Auditorium