Student Thinking Processes While Constructing Graphic Representations of Textbook Content: What Insights Do Think-Alouds Provide?

This study examined the thinking processes students engage in while constructing graphic representations of textbook content. Twenty-eight students who either used graphic representations in a routine manner during social studies instruction or learned to construct graphic representations based on the rhetorical patterns used to organize textbook content produced think-aloud responses while constructing graphic representations. Responses indicated that both groups of students needed to restate text while writing, but knowledge of rhetorical patterns appeared to facilitate students' ability to discriminate between main ideas and details, understand relationships between ideas, and, generally, engage the text more deeply. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

Why do delayed summaries improve metacomprehension accuracy?

We showed that metacomprehension accuracy improved when participants (N = 87 college students) wrote summaries of texts prior to judging their comprehension; however, accuracy only improved when summaries were written after a delay, not when written immediately after reading. We evaluated two hypotheses proposed to account for this delayed-summarization effect (the accessibility hypothesis and the situation model hypothesis). The data suggest that participants based metacomprehension judgments more on the gist of texts when they generated summaries after a delay; whereas, they based judgments more on details when they generated summaries immediately after reading. Focusing on information relevant to the situation model of a text (the gist of a text) produced higher levels of metacomprehension accuracy, which is consistent with situation model hypothesis.     

Applications of Carl Rogers' theory and practice to couple and family therapy: a response to Harlene Anderson and David Bott

Recent articles by Harlene Anderson and David Bott in the Journal of Family Therapy (Volume 23) are a gratifying examination of the contribution of Carl Rogers' philosophy and practice to family therapy. However, in my view, an already existing highly effective application of Rogers' approach to couple and family therapy was omitted from Bott's review of the literature. My reading of the two articles has inspired the following response given in the spirit of dialogue with the hope of furthering a conversation on this subject.     

The effect of task relevance instructions on memory for text with seductive details

Seductive details in text are interesting but unimportant text segments. Although seductive details can make expository text more interesting, they do not necessarily promote learning of main ideas. This study investigated whether task relevance instructions that targeted main ideas would promote memory for main ideas when students read a text with seductive details. Undergraduates (n = 102) read a text with seductive detail sentences and then did a free recall task. Before reading, participants received pre‐reading questions that either targeted main ideas or seductive details, or they read for understanding. The main finding was that students in the main idea relevance instruction condition recalled main ideas better than students in the control or seductive detail relevance instruction conditions. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed, and directions for future research are provided.     

The fan effect: a tale of two theories.

This article addresses J. R. Anderson and L. M. Reder's (1999) account of the differential fan effect reported by G. A. Radvansky, D. H. Spieler, and R. T. Zacks (1993). The differential fan effect is the finding of greater interference with an increased number of associations under some conditions, but not others, in a within-subjects mixed-list recognition test. Anderson and Reder concluded that the differential fan effects can be adequately explained by assuming differences in the weights given to concepts in long-term memory. When a broader range of data is considered, this account is less well supported. Instead, it is better to assume that the organization of information into referential representations, such as situation models, has a meaningful influence on long-term memory retrieval.     

Recognition failure of words with a single meaning

Recognition failure of recallable words was demonstrated with single-meaning target words after a 7-day retention interval. When overall levels of recognition were equated, the magnitude of the effect was the same as that observed with high-frequency words of multiple meanings in other experiments. It was concluded that, contrary to suggestions of Reder, Anderson, and Bjork (1974), encoding specificity is not limited to words that have several semantic senses. The experiment also provided evidence contrary to the hypothesis that recall of unrecognized items comes about because of additional learning opportunities afforded by the recognition test.     

Turning up the noise or turning down the volume? On the nature of the impairment of episodic recognition memory by midazolam

E. Hirshman, J. Fisher, T. Henthom, J. Amdt, and A. Passanname (2002) found that Midazolam disrupts the mirror-patterned word-frequency effect for recognition memory by reversing the typical hit-rate advantage for low-frequency words. They noted that this result is consistent with dual-process accounts (e.g., R. C. Atkinson & J. F. Juola, 1974; G. Mandler, 1980; A. P. Yonelinas, 1994) of the word frequency effect for recognition memory (S. Joordens & W. E. Hockley. 2000; L. M. Reder et al. 2000). The present authors show that this finding is also consistent with a variety of single-process, retrieving effectively- from-memory (REM) models (R. M. Shiffrin & M. Steyvers, 1997), the simplest of which assumes that Midazolam decreases the accuracy with which memory traces are stored. These findings therefore do not discriminate between single- and dual-process models of recognition memory.     

Maîtrise de l’oral et de l’écrit en français et en tahitien : une étude longitudinale du CP au CM2 en Polynésie française

Many international scientific studies underline the advantage of bilingual children in oral language. This is especially evident in their meta-linguistic skills, as well as their writing, reading and written expression. Bilingualism could facilitate meta-linguistic development by allowing the child to differentiate early formal and semantic aspects of the code, perceive the arbitrary relationship between “ signified ” and “ significant ” and develop greater cognitive flexibility. This study, conducted in French Polynesia, had examined the specific effect of bilingual program on the morphological awareness and the cross-lingual effects of Tahitian-French transfers via the written word. A group of 128 Polynesian students were followed longitudinally from the end of First Grade to the end of Fifth Grade. Of these 128 students, 59 were part of an experimental group involved beginning in the First Grade, in two successive educational programs with five hours per week of Polynesian language and culture, which included systematic learning of reading and writing in Tahitian. A selection of 69 other students, who had never participated in these programs, constituted the control group. All students were tested each year on their oral language skills in French and Tahitian. At the end of Third Grade, a morphological awareness assessment in French was introduced (Reder et al., 2013), as well as a task of word recognition (TIME3 of Ecalle, 2006), a reading-comprehension (Lobrot, 1980) and spelling tasks (ECS3, Khomsi, 1998). These standardized assessments have been adapted in Tahitian. The first results acknowledged a positive effect of the bilingual education curriculum on Tahitian oral skills and on cross-lingual links between written skills and morphological awareness. In addition, the Tahitian word recognition greatly helped to explain the French written skills, after controlling the level of French morphological awareness.     

Scented memories of literature

This study examined the effects on recall of story details of congruity or incongruity between the hedonic valence of literary texts and odours inhaled while reading them. During the reading session, 24 undergraduates (12 males and 12 females) read two passages involving positive subject matter and two with negative subject matter while sniffing pleasant or unpleasant odours in a within‐subject fully counterbalanced design. Subjects rated their experience of each text on eleven 7‐point scales. During the test session 48 hours later, subjects read a two‐word title associated with each of the passages and inhaled the odour that was paired with it in the reading session. They also rated their experience on six of the scales that had been used during the reading session. Results showed that hedonic congruence between the passage and the odour fostered enhanced recall during the test session. The combination of positive subject matter and positive odour was reflected in more accurate recall of character details, while pairing negative subject matter and negative odour resulted in more accurate recall of setting details. Regression analysis showed that overall recall accuracy was increased by identifying with the characters in the stories and for passages that were found pleasing and personally meaningful. Consistent with the literature on implicit learning involving odours, recall accuracy varied inversely with perceived odour intensity. Implicit learning involving odours and literary passages is therefore fostered by unity in the reading experience.     

Understanding the delayed-keyword effect on metacomprehension accuracy

The typical finding from research on metacomprehension is that accuracy is quite low. However, recent studies have shown robust accuracy improvements when judgments follow certain generation tasks (summarizing or keyword listing) but only when these tasks are performed at a delay rather than immediately after reading (K. W. Thiede & M. C. M. Anderson, 2003; K. W. Thiede, M. C. M. Anderson, & D. Therriault, 2003). The delayed and immediate conditions in these studies confounded the delay between reading and generation tasks with other task lags, including the lag between multiple generation tasks and the lag between generation tasks and judgments. The first 2 experiments disentangle these confounded manipulations and provide clear evidence that the delay between reading and keyword generation is the only lag critical to improving metacomprehension accuracy. The 3rd and 4th experiments show that not all delayed tasks produce improvements and suggest that delayed generative tasks provide necessary diagnostic cues about comprehension for improving metacomprehension accuracy.     

Scented memories of literature

This study examined the effects on recall of story details of congruity or incongruity between the hedonic valence of literary texts and odours inhaled while reading them. During the reading session, 24 undergraduates (12 males and 12 females) read two passages involving positive subject matter and two with negative subject matter while sniffing pleasant or unpleasant odours in a within-subject fully counterbalanced design. Subjects rated their experience of each text on eleven 7-point scales. During the test session 48 hours later, subjects read a two-word title associated with each of the passages and inhaled the odour that was paired with it in the reading session. They also rated their experience on six of the scales that had been used during the reading session. Results showed that hedonic congruence between the passage and the odour fostered enhanced recall during the test session. The combination of positive subject matter and positive odour was reflected in more accurate recall of character details, while pairing negative subject matter and negative odour resulted in more accurate recall of setting details. Regression analysis showed that overall recall accuracy was increased by identifying with the characters in the stories and for passages that were found pleasing and personally meaningful. Consistent with the literature on implicit learning involving odours, recall accuracy varied inversely with perceived odour intensity. Implicit learning involving odours and literary passages is therefore fostered by unity in the reading experience.     

READING IN VOCATIONAL SUBJECTS: AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ READING ABILITY AND CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE

The study investigated the reading ability and classroom performance of vocational students enrolled in the second year of study in auto mechanics, carpentry, electronics, graphics, and masonry. Performance on the California Achievement Test showed average reading achievement for electronics students and below average reading achievement for students in the remaining vocational areas. Students’ ability to read their vocational textbook was measured by a cloze task, with auto mechanics students showing an adequate level of comprehension for instruction. Carpentry, graphics, and masonry students showed performance below instructional level. Significant differences were found in reading achievement between electronics students and the other four areas, and between auto mechanics and masonry. Vocational students in the present sample represented, to some extent, separate groups for reading achievement rather than the traditional view of homogeneity across vocational subjects. Teachers’ evaluations of students’ classroom performance showed statistically significant correlations with textbook reading ability in only two subjects, auto mechanics and carpentry. Correlations suggested that success may not always be dependent on the ability to comprehend the textbook, and that the vocational teachers sampled may not have placed a high value on reading ability as an indicator of competence in a vocational subject.     

An information-processing model of the BOLD response in symbol manipulation tasks

Two imaging experiments were performed—one involving an algebraic transformation task studied by Anderson, Reder, and Lebiere (1996) and the other an abstraction symbol manipulation task studied by Blessing and Anderson (1996). ACT-R models exist that predict the latency patterns in these tasks. These models require activity in an imaginal buffer to represent changes to the problem representation, in a retrieval buffer to hold information from declarative memory, and in a manual buffer to hold information about motor behavior. A general theory is described about how to map activity in these buffers onto the fMRI blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response. This theory claims that the BOLD response is integrated over the duration that a buffer is active and can be used to predict the observed BOLD function. Activity in the imaginal buffer is shown to predict the BOLD response in a left posterior parietal region; activity in the retrieval buffer is shown to predict the BOLD response in a left prefrontal region; and activity in the manual buffer is shown to predict activity in a motor region. More generally, this article shows how to map a large class of information-processing theories (not just ACT-R) onto the BOLD response and provides a precise interpretation of the cognitive significance of the BOLD response.     

Family therapy training on a clinical psychology programme

The report describes the intake interviewing exercise in a family therapy training unit developed for postgraduates in clinical psychology. The teaching method includes pre‐class reading, video modelling, and simulated practice with live feedback. The academic material and other similar practice exercises are contained in the core textbook for this unit.     

Visual field differences in the processing of numerical stimuli

Twenty-four right-handed subjects received random presentations of the numbers 1-6 in the form of words, digits, and dot patterns, to the left and right visual fields. Accuracy and reaction time were recorded for an odd-even judgment requiring a manual response. A significant stimulus type of visual field interaction was obtained, with words showing a left-hemisphere advantage and digits and dot patterns showing a right-hemisphere advantage. This pattern supports Coltheart's (1980, Deep dyslexia: A right hemisphere hypothesis, In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, & J.C. Marshall (Eds.), Deep dyslexia, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul) right hemisphere reading hypothesis, which suggests that the left hemisphere's general advantage in processing linguistic material may be specific to stimuli which involve phonological processing. When phonological processing is not possible (e.g., for arabic digits and other ideographic orthographies), the right hemisphere may have an advantage because of its superior visuospatial processing capabilities.     

Self control of when and how much to test face-name pairs in a novel spaced retrieval paradigm: An examination of age-related differences

ABSTRACT Although the mnemonic benefit of spaced retrieval is well established, the way in which participants naturally space their own retrieval is relatively unexplored. To examine this question, a novel experimental paradigm was developed in which young and healthy older adults were given control over the frequency and timing of retrieval practice in the context of an ongoing reading task. Results showed that both age groups naturally expanded the intervals of their retrieval practice. When instructed, younger adults but not older adults were better able to employ equal spaced retrieval during retrieval practice. However, even under equal spaced retrieval instructions, young adults included an early retrieval attempt prior to equally spacing their retrieval. Although memory performance was equivalent, secondary task performance was reduced in the experimenter-instructed condition compared with the participant-selected condition. The results overall indicate that both younger and older participants naturally monitor their memory and efficiently use testing to titrate the number and timing of retrieval attempts used during the acquisition phase.     

Subcortical aphasia with deep dyslexia: A case study of a Japanese patient

The reading performance of a Japanese Broca-type aphasic patient on a single-word reading test was investigated. The result indicated that the subject fits the symptom complex of deep dyslexia in more than one aspect. Unique characteristics of this subject included (1) the isolated subcortical site of the lesion, which apparently produced deep dyslexia, and (2) double dissociations between kanji and kana processing and between oral reading and reading comprehension. The performance of this subject was compared with that of another Japanese deep dyslexic subject in S. Sasanuma (1980, In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, & J. C. Marshall (Eds.), Deep dyslexia, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul). A theoretical implication was attempted based on a dual coding process scheme by S. Sasanuma and O. Fujimura (1978, Cortex, 7, 1-18).     

老年人与青年人阅读空格文本的注视位置效应

采用EyeLink2000眼动仪,以14名老年人和14名青年人为被试,探讨他们阅读空格汉语文本的注视位置效应.阅读材料分为正常无空格文本和词间空格文本两种.结果发现:(1)在阅读词间空格文本和正常无空格文本时,老年人与青年人都表现出单次注视的首次注视是位于词的中心,多次注视的首次注视是位于词的开头;(2)老年人阅读正常无空格文本时对词尾的注视概率显著低于词间空格文本,而青年人则没有差异.结果表明老年人与青年人在阅读空格文本时存在注视位置效应.     

Is there a causal link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read?

In this review, we re-assess the evidence that phonological awareness represents a skill specific to spoken language that precedes and directly influences the process of reading acquisition. Longitudinal and experimental training studies are examined in detail, as these are considered most appropriate for exploring a causal hypothesis of this nature. A particular focus of our analysis is the degree to which studies to date have controlled for existing literacy skills in their participants and the influence that these skills might have on performance on phonological awareness tasks. We conclude that no study has provided unequivocal evidence that there is a causal link from competence in phonological awareness to success in reading and spelling acquisition. However, we believe that such a study is possible and outline some ideas for its design and implementation.     

The low-frequency encoding disadvantage: Word frequency affects processing demands

Low-frequency words produce more hits and fewer false alarms than high-frequency words in a recognition task. The low-frequency hit rate advantage has sometimes been attributed to processes that operate during the recognition test (e.g., L. M. Reder et al., 2000). When tasks other than recognition, such as recall, cued recall, or associative recognition, are used, the effects seem to contradict a low-frequency advantage in memory. Four experiments are presented to support the claim that in addition to the advantage of low-frequency words at retrieval, there is a low-frequency disadvantage during encoding. That is, low-frequency words require more processing resources to be encoded episodically than high-frequency words. Under encoding conditions in which processing resources are limited, low-frequency words show a larger decrement in recognition than high-frequency words. Also, studying items (pictures and words of varying frequencies) along with low-frequency words reduces performance for those stimuli.