The Relation of Knowledge-Text Integration Processes and Reading Comprehension in 7th- to 12th-Grade Students

Abstract

The integration of knowledge during reading was tested in 1,109 secondary school students. Reading times for the second sentence in a pair (Jane’s headache went away) were compared in conditions where the first sentence was either causally or temporally related to the first sentence (Jane took an aspirin vs. Jane looked for an aspirin). Mixed-effects explanatory item response models revealed that at higher comprehension levels, sentences were read more quickly in the causal condition. There were no condition-related reading time differences at lower comprehension levels. This interaction held with comprehension- and inference-related factors (working memory, word and world knowledge, and word reading efficiency) in the models. Less skilled comprehenders have difficulty in knowledge-text integration processes that facilitate sentence processing during reading.

Impact of Literacy Interventions on Reading Skills in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Meta‐Analysis

“…Emergent literacy skills such as phonological awareness and knowledge of orthographic symbols (letter name and sound knowledge) are essential to lexical-level literacy skills such as word reading and spelling development (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008;National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000), and considered constrained skills because the amount of learning in these areas is finite (Snow & Matthews, 2016). In contrast, reading comprehension is a higher order skill that requires all the other skills (emergent literacy skills, word reading, reading fluency, oral language) as well as higher order cognitive skills such as inference, perspective taking, and comprehension monitoring; Barnes, Ahmed, Barth, & Francis, 2015;Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2004;Cromley & Azevedo, 2007;Kim, 2017;Oakhill, Cain, & Bryant, 2003;Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2005). Therefore, improving reading comprehension requires concerted and sustained efforts to a greater extent compared to constrained skills such as emergent literacy skills.…”

Cognitive Difficulties in Struggling Comprehenders and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension: A Comparison of Group Selection and Regression-Based Models

“…It is relevant for models of comprehension and to educational practice to understand which of the many proposed comprehension-related variables in the literature are pressure points for comprehension (Perfetti & Adlof, 2012); that is which comprehension-related abilities are integral and importantly related to comprehension. To generate knowledge in basic research studies about reading for understanding in adolescents, we have modeled hypothesized sources of direct and indirect influences on reading comprehension (Ahmed et al, 2015; Barnes et al, 2015; Barth et al, 2015; Denton et al, 2015). Based on cognitive process models of reading comprehension (e.g., Landscape Model, van den Broek et al, 2005 and the Structure Building Framework, Gernsbacher, 1996) we have also considered whether and to what extent several general cognitive abilities - memory, attention, response inhibition, and suppression – are related to comprehension (e.g., Arrington et al, 2014; current study).…”

Comprehension and Processing of Paired Sentences in Second Language Reading: A Comparison of Causal and Semantic Relatedness

“…Additionally, participants could better recall highly related sentences than less related sentences. 1 The effect of causal relatedness on comprehension of paired sentences has been replicated in more recent studies with both children (Barnes et al, 2015) and adult readers (Todaro et al, 2010;Wolfe, Magliano, & Larsen, 2005). Some of these studies further indicated that causal relatedness is more likely to influence text processing of skilled readers than less skilled readers (Barnes et al, 2015;Todaro et al, 2010).…”