Our aim in the present paper is to discuss a "cognitive view" of reading comprehension, with particular attention to research findings that have the potential to improve our understanding of difficulties in reading comprehension. We provide an overview of how specific sources of difficulties in inference making, executive functions, and attention allocation influence reading comprehension processes and outcomes and may lead to reading comprehension problems. Finally, we discuss how the consideration of these potential sources of difficulty have practical implications for the design and selection of instructional materials.

As readers move through a text, they engage in various types of processes that, if all goes well, result in a mental representation that captures their interpretation of the text. With each new text segment the reader engages in passive and, at times, reader-initiated processes. These processes are strongly influenced by the readers' representation of the preceding text and, in turn, update this very same representation. This updated representation forms the backdrop for the processing of the next text segment, and so on. Thus, passive and reader-initiated processes and the evolving representation engage in a continual, intricate interaction as the reader moves through the text. We provide a framework for conceptualizing the interplay between these three components of comprehension and propose that (1) passive and reader-initiated processes interact during reading; (2) a reader's standards of coherence moderate what kind and to what extent readerinitiated processes take place; (3) reader-initiated processes lie along a continuum from close-to-the-text, coherence-building processes to farfrom-the-text, interpretive processes; and (4) the moment-to-moment processes and the evolving mental representation interact in a reciprocal fashion. We present results from recent experiments on key aspects of the framework, and identify questions the framework raises. We conclude with implications from this conceptualization for theoretical models of reading comprehension.

Physicians have many and various barriers to discussing STIs with their patients. Features of contemporary STI counselling and solutions to its problems are discussed. Education of health care providers should be given priority.

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