Understanding the centrality deficit: Insight from foreign language learners

Miller, Amanda C.; Keenan, Janice M.

doi:10.3758/s13421-010-0062-z

Cited by 19 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This finding holds for both narrative and expository texts (Miller and Keenan, 2011). van den Broek et al (2013) propose that a reader's ability to distinguish a text's central and peripheral ideas, or their sensitivity to structural centrality , is an important indicator of their comprehension ability.…”

Section: Sensitivity To Structural Centralitymentioning

confidence: 76%

Comprehending expository texts: the dynamic neurobiological correlates of building a coherent text representation

Swett

Miller

Burns

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Little is known about the neural correlates of expository text comprehension. In this study, we sought to identify neural networks underlying expository text comprehension, how those networks change over the course of comprehension, and whether information central to the overall meaning of the text is functionally distinct from peripheral information. Seventeen adult subjects read expository passages while being scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By convolving phrase onsets with the hemodynamic response function (HRF), we were able to identify regions that increase and decrease in activation over the course of passage comprehension. We found that expository text comprehension relies on the co-activation of the semantic control network and regions in the posterior midline previously associated with mental model updating and integration [posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and precuneus (PCU)]. When compared to single word comprehension, left PCC and left Angular Gyrus (AG) were activated only for discourse-level comprehension. Over the course of comprehension, reliance on the same regions in the semantic control network increased, while a parietal region associated with attention [intraparietal sulcus (IPS)] decreased. These results parallel previous findings in narrative comprehension that the initial stages of mental model building require greater visuospatial attention processes, while maintenance of the model increasingly relies on semantic integration regions. Additionally, we used an event-related analysis to examine phrases central to the text's overall meaning vs. peripheral phrases. It was found that central ideas are functionally distinct from peripheral ideas, showing greater activation in the PCC and PCU, while over the course of passage comprehension, central and peripheral ideas increasingly recruit different parts of the semantic control network. The finding that central information elicits greater response in mental model updating regions than peripheral ideas supports previous behavioral models on the cognitive importance of distinguishing textual centrality.

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Section: Sensitivity To Structural Centralitymentioning

confidence: 76%

Comprehending expository texts: the dynamic neurobiological correlates of building a coherent text representation

Swett

Miller

Burns

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…Support for this theoretical explanation of the centrality deficit comes from the recall patterns of two other groups: children with reading disability (RD) (Miller & Keenan, 2009) and adult foreign language learners (Miller & Keenan, 2011). Like children with ADHD, these groups have limited cognitive resources for comprehension, and show a centrality deficit because their resources are being allocated to other processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Miller & Keenan (2009, 2011) found that when word identification processes are not automatic, such as in the case of children with word decoding deficits or individuals reading in a foreign language, readers redirect cognitive resources away from forming connections among the text’s ideas in order to cope with their word identification problems. As a result, their mental representation of the text is less coherent, and they show what Miller & Keenan labeled the centrality deficit .…”

Section: Centrality Deficitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reading Comprehension in Children with ADHD: Cognitive Underpinnings of the Centrality Deficit

Miller

Keenan

Betjemann

et al. 2012

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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101

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We examined reading comprehension in children with ADHD by assessing their ability to build a coherent mental representation that allows them to recall central and peripheral information. We compared children with ADHD (mean age 9.78) to word reading-matched controls (mean age 9.89) on their ability to retell a passage. We found that even though children with ADHD recalled more central than peripheral information, they showed their greatest deficit, relative to controls, on central information – a centrality deficit (Miller & Keenan, 2009). We explored the cognitive underpinnings of this deficit using regressions to compare how well cognitive factors (working memory, inhibition, processing speed, and IQ) predicted the ability to recall central information, after controlling for word reading ability, and whether these cognitive factors interacted with ADHD symptoms. Working memory accounted for the most unique variance. Although previous evidence for reading comprehension difficulties in children with ADHD have been mixed, this study suggests that even when word reading ability is controlled, children with ADHD have difficulty building a coherent mental representation, and this difficulty is likely related to deficits in working memory.

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“…In reading, the central exec utive is particularly important for processing texts at the situation model level of representation. For those who lack the necessary skills to fluently decode text into representations at the surface and text-base levels, it becomes even more difficult to integrate mate rial from long-term memory to construct the appropriate situation model, and thus, they are unable to focus on the central informa tion and theme of the text (Miller & Keenan, 2011). This lack of fluency can come from various sources, including limited word recognition ability, poor syntactic parsing skills, or difficulty in maintaining local text coherence.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Rai et al (2011) found that stress affected efficiency of drawing complex infer ences while reading extended text in a nonfluent L2, a task that involves updating of the situation model level of representation. Similarly, Miller and Keenan (2011) compared participants' recall of extended text read in their LI versus in their L2 and found a greater deficit in the L2 for information central to the theme of the text, which requires a coherent situation model, than for informa tion peripheral to the theme of the text. However, to our knowl edge, no one has directly compared the effects of stress or anxiety specifically on updating text representations in LI versus L2 reading.…”

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confidence: 99%

The effects of stress on reading: A comparison of first-language versus intermediate second-language reading comprehension.

Manpreet¹,

Loschky²,

Harris³

2015

Journal of Educational Psychology

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This study investigated how resource-demanding reading tasks and stressful conditions affect lstlanguage (LI) and intermediate 2nd-language (L2) reading comprehension. Using the attentional control theory framework (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), we investigated the roles of central executive working memory (WM) resources, reading task difficulty, trait reading anxiety, and social evaluative stress on LI and L2 readers' comprehension. Eighty-six L2 Spanish readers and 70 LI English readers were tested for comprehension using noninference (fact), bridging inference, and pragmatic inference questions under either no-stress or social-evaluative stress conditions. Stress reduced process ing efficiency (producing longer reaction times) for L2 readers who were high in reading anxiety and increased processing efficiency for LI readers who were high in WM capacity. Stress did not affect reading effectiveness (accuracy). Thus, stress only impaired reading efficiency when task difficulty was high due to high inferential complexity or reading in an L2 and when anxious thoughts competed for limited central executive WM resources. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Understanding the centrality deficit: Insight from foreign language learners

Cited by 19 publications

References 36 publications

Comprehending expository texts: the dynamic neurobiological correlates of building a coherent text representation

Comprehending expository texts: the dynamic neurobiological correlates of building a coherent text representation

Reading Comprehension in Children with ADHD: Cognitive Underpinnings of the Centrality Deficit

The effects of stress on reading: A comparison of first-language versus intermediate second-language reading comprehension.

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