Effects of text genre and verbal ability on adult age differences in sensitivity to text structure

The present study examined the effects of verbal ability and text genre on adult age differences in sensitivity to the semantic structure of prose. Young and older adults of low or high verbal ability heard narrative and expository passages at different presentation rates. The results demonstrated that older adults recalled less than younger adults and that age differences in recall were larger for low-verbal adults and expository texts. However, subjects from all groups favored the main ideas in their recalls for both types of passages. The results indicated that adult age similarities in the ability to focus on the main ideas when processing prose was not compromised by the verbal ability of the subjects or the organization of the passages used. However, the results also demonstrate how the characteristics of the learner and the characteristics of the text modulate the size of the age differences observed.     

Learning and memory of factual content from narrative and expository text

Background. Research on the presentation of information in narrative versus expository text genres is inconclusive with respect to the question of which is more beneficial for student learning. Aims. We examine the effect of presenting factual content in either narrative or expository genres on student learning. We also consider relevant prior knowledge and working memory capacity (WMC) as potential mediating variables. Sample. Ninety university undergraduate students. Methods. Subjects studied circulatory system content embedded in either narrative or expository texts. Prior circulatory system knowledge, knowledge improvement (learning) and free recall were assessed. Results. Learning and recall did not differ as a function of text genre overall, but did interact with prior knowledge. Learning from the narrative and one expository text was optimal at intermediate levels of prior knowledge, with higher knowledge readers benefiting more from the expository text compared with the narrative text. Prior knowledge was positively related to recall for the expository texts, but unrelated for the narrative text. Subjects' WMC did not predict learning or recall. Conclusions. Results suggest that narrative and expository processing differ with respect to integration of text content with prior knowledge.     

Connectives and narrative text: The role of continuity

Connectives are text devices that signal the relation between adjacent sentences. Recently there has been a surge of research interest in the role played by connectives in on-line processing. The present research tested the hypothesis that connectives will impact on-line processing to the extent that they signal a text event that represents a departure from the continuity of the events stated in the text. In Experiment 1, participants generated sentences to follow a stimulus sentence. An additive, causal, or adversative connective (or no connective) was provided to serve as the first word of the participants’ sentence. Results showed that sentences generated in response to additive or causal connectives depicted text events that were continuous with the stimulus text. In contrast, sentences generated in response to adversative connectives depicted discontinuous text events. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants read coherent sentence pairs containing inappropriately placed additive, causal, or adversative connectives. Support for the continuity hypothesis was found when it was shown that adversative connectives led to the greatest amount of processing disruption, as measured by longer reading time on the postconnective sentence (Experiment 2) and lower ratings of coherence (Experiment 3). Future research in this area is discussed.     

Metamemory for narrative text

In this experiment, we investigated metamemory for narrative text passages. Subjects read two stories and made memory predictions for the idea units in one and rated the importance of ideas in the other. Half of the subjects were asked to recall the story immediately after reading the passages and half were asked to recall 1 week later; half received passages with single inconsistent idea units and half received passages with corresponding consistent idea units. All subjects made confidence judgments about the accuracy of their recall. Subjects’ prediction ratings were related to recall, as shown by significant prediction accuracy quotients. Importance ratings were related to recall on the delayed test but not on the immediate test. Memory prediction ratings predicted recall better than did importance ratings. The absolute level of memory predictions did not differ with delay, but subjects did give higher confidence judgments on an immediate than on a delayed test. Subjects recalled the inconsistent idea better than the consistent idea for one story but not for the other. For both stories, subjects predicted that they would remember the inconsistent ideas better, suggesting that they have avon Restorff-type view, rather than a schema view, of memory. We conclude that subjects can predict their memory for the idea units in narrative text.     

Causal network analysis validation using synthetic recall protocols

Subjects read and recalled 12 short texts in a memory recall experiment. The order in which subjects recalled the propositions in the text was recorded. A causal network analysis of each text was then done in order to determine how the propositions in each text were causally related. In addition, an episodic memory network analysis of each text was done in order to represent the original order of propositions presented to each subject in the experiment. The human text recall data were then analyzed using a new statistical methodology known as thetemporal Markov field (TMF) approach, which makes explicit probabilistic predictions about the ordering of propositions in human subject recall protocols in terms of the causal network and episodic memory network analysis of a given text. Samples from the TMF probability model were then used to generate synthetic protocol data using half of the human subject data. Statistics computed with respect to the remaining half of the human subject data and the synthesized protocol data were qualitatively similar in many respects. Relevant discrepancies between the human protocol data and synthesized protocol data were also identified.     

Memory for narrative and expository text: independent influences of semantic associations and text organization

The author examined memory for text in terms of the independent influences of semantic knowledge associations and text organization. Semantic associations were operationalized as the semantic relatedness between individual text concepts and the text as a whole and assessed with latent semantic analysis. The author assessed text organization by simulating comprehension with the construction integration model. Text organization consistently accounted for unique variance in recall. Semantic associations strongly predicted expository recall and predicted narrative recall significantly but to a lesser extent, even when the familiarity of the narrative content was manipulated. Results suggest that prior semantic associations and novel associations in the text structure influence memory independently, and that these influences can be affected by text genre.     

Working Memory Demands and Semantic Sensitivity for Prose in Mild Alzheimer's Disease

The debate continues with regard to whether degradation of semantic knowledge or deficits in information processing lead to impaired memory performance in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study examined the effects of semantic content and working memory demands on the recall and recognition abilities of patients with mild AD. Nineteen patients with probable AD and 19 demographically matched normal control participants were asked to remember prose passages that varied in semantic content (high, medium, and low level of idea importance) and working memory demands (narrative and expository passages). Compared to the controls, patients with mild AD lost the ability to recall prose in a manner consistent with the semantic structure of the passages as the demands on working memory increased. Furthermore, as the demands on working memory increased, patients recognized information in a manner that suggested their initial processing was of isolated details rather than by semantic structure. This study provides support for the hypothesis that information processing deficits contribute to impaired semantic processing in patients with mild AD.     

说明文阅读中因果序列的表征

结合自定步调阅读与句子启动再认范式, 探讨说明文阅读过程中因果序列的表征问题。研究包括3个实验, 实验1的文本提供一个包括4个概念的因果链(如, A－B－C－D), 文本最后设置包含概念A或概念B或概念C的句子, 对概念D进行探测, 结果发现, 对于概念D的再认启动作用, 概念C＞概念B＞概念A; 实验2改变因果链的说明顺序, 使之与因果链本身次序不一致, 结果与实验1一致; 实验3的文本分别介绍两条独立的因果链(如A－B－C; D－E－F), 最后呈现包含概念A或概念D的句子, 对概念C进行探测, 结果发现, 包含概念A的句子理解启动了相关因果链, 使读者对随后呈现的概念C的再认反应加快。基于本研究结果, 结合相关研究, 本文尝试提出说明文文本表征的建构模式。     

The generalizability of story grammar training across setting and tasks

Reading achievement depends in part on children's ability to employ strategies to monitor their comprehension, that is on children's use of metacognitive skills. An experimental intervention program created to foster such skills was evaluated. The story grammar training was designed to increase both strategic reading behavior and explicit, observable comprehension monitoring. Fourth-grade (N = 20) and fifth-grade (N = 16) children were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Maintenance was examined using free and probed oral recall, notetaking, and summarization of brief narrative and expository texts. Generalization was assessed through free and probed written recall of a lengthy text, which required both strategic reading and summarization skills for adequate comprehension. Skill acquisition was clearly demonstrated; trained readers were able to recall and summarize passages better than untrained readers. The evidence for generalization was more equivocal: although trained readers' free recall was significantly better than that of untrained readers, their probed recall was not. Provision of metacognitive skills that promote active comprehension monitoring, then, appears to provide children with the tools needed for independent reading. Programs designed to provide such skills may aid efforts to prevent reading failure.     

Robust inference processes in expository text comprehension

Expository text offers particular challenges to the reader because of the abstract and unfamiliar concepts that it presents and its distinctive structure. The present study had three interrelated aims: (1) It examined the impact of appropriate connectives on the reader's derivation of causal bridging inferences from expository text. (2) It scrutinised texts longer than the ones that we had previously examined (Singer, Harkness, & Stewart, 1997), which in turn made it possible to (3) evaluate the impact of position in the text on inference processing. In Experiments 1a and 1b, a joint profile of target reading times and inference answer times indicated that the inspected inferences reliably accompanied reading only in the presence of appropriate causal connectives. The connective-present conditions of Experiment 1 replicated our previous findings using shorter texts (Singer et al., 1997). Experiment 2 indicated that these inference processes are unaffected by text position. We interpreted these findings with reference to the inference validation model (Singer, Halldorson, Lear, & Andrusiak, 1992).     

Deviation from hierarchical structure in recall: Is there an “optimal” structure?

Past research has suggested that proportionally more superordinate than sub-ordinate propositions are recalled from expository texts, following a hierarchical analysis of the text structure. Since free recall has typically followed this hierarchical pattern, several researchers have assumed that the related memory structures are isomorphic to the text structure. However, few of these studies have examined how individual differences and text structure interact to affect free recall. In two experiments, the assumption of hierarchical patterns of children's recall of expository text was tested. In Experiment 1, high- and average-ability fourth graders (9 years old) were asked to read and recall a passage. Experiment 2 was a replication and extension of Experiment 1. In this experiment, fourth and sixth graders (9 and 11 years old) read and recalled a different passage. The combined results of both experiments support the notion that there is probably no one optimal hierarchical structure for storage and retrieval of expository text.     

Differential effects of high-level and low-level postpassage questions

This experiment compared the effects of high-level and low-level postpassage questions, when presented immediately after the passage segment containing the answer to the question, on college students' free recall of expository prose passages. Low-vocabulary subjects' recall of high-level information not specifically quizzed by the postpassage questions was significantly greater in the condition in which the questions quizzed a high-level unit than in the low-question and no-question conditions, p less than .05. These results are interpreted as being consistent with a direct-access explanation which assumes that questions presented in close temporal contiguity to the quizzed information directly access that information in memory and that fewer associative links have to be traversed in the spread of activation from high-level units to other related information in the hierarchy. The effect of type of question in this experiment was compared with that found in an earlier experiment (Wilhite, 1982) involving delayed question presentation.     

阅读材料类型和难度对五年级儿童阅读策略的影响

以34名五年级儿童为被试,采用出声思维法考查了阅读材料类型和难度对儿童阅读策略使用情况的影响。结果发现,被试在记叙文阅读过程中使用的阅读策略种类数和总次数均多于说明文。阅读材料难度对于阅读策略种类数和使用次数没有影响。阅读材料类型和难度都对多个阅读策略的使用次数有影响,但是阅读材料类型和难度对于各阅读策略使用次数的影响并不一致。     

THE USE OF COHESION BY UNDERACHIEVING READERS

A sample of 18 Grade 6 male poor readers was assigned to one of two expository passages to read aloud. Miscues were analyzed according to the RMI system of Goodman and Burke. A comparison was made of miscues on cohesive items with miscues in general. Readers were also asked to recall the passage. Recall protocols were scored for central and peripheral elements based upon a cohesion map of the recall. An ANOVA indicated no differences between passages, but showed that students made miscue responses to cohesive items which were less similar graphically and phonoloqically to the target words than the errors made in general. Also they lost meaning and syntax more frequently on cohesive items. Recall of central items was poor. Overall recall was related to the grammatical relationships and meaning relationships aspects of the RMI analysis. Inability to use cohesion appears to adversely affect recall. The semantic aspect of cohesion appears worthy of further research as it affects comprehension and recall.     

学生认知方式影响文章阅读理解的实验研究

以初二学生为被试 ,考察了不同认知方式学生对不同体裁文章以及对有无标记说明文的学习效果。结果表明,(1)不同认知方式学生对散文的学习无明显差异,对说明文的学习场独立学生要好于场依存者;(2)场独立者对有标记的说明文的学习效果要好于场依存者;对无标记说明文的学习,场独立与场依存者之间不存在明显差异。     

Levels of processing, encoding strategies, and memory development.

In three experiments, memory for intentionally encoded words was compared with memory for encodings induced by asking semantic, phonemic, or surface questions. Subjects were second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade, and junior and senior high school students. Semantic encodings were more often recalled and recognized than were phonemic and surface (which did not differ). Intentional encodings were as likely to be recalled as semantic but were no more likely than phonemic and surface to be recognized, and this was true whether intentional learning was in anticipation of a recall test or a recognition test. Age trends occurred for recall, for intentional learning, and for induced processing which required subjects to generate word attributes. Age trends were attenuated for recognition and for induced processing which required subjects to verify whether a give attribute applied to the target word.     

Beyond sentence boundaries: Grammatical gender information in short-term recall of texts

In the context of text recall it is often stated that surface representations are quickly forgotten. Jarvella (1971) and Sachs (1967) argued that what is retained beyond sentence boundaries is meaning information, whereas lexical and syntactic information is only available for the most recent constituent. We based a text recall experiment on Jarvella’s paradigm, in order to demonstrate that both meaning and grammatical gender information contribute to the recall of short text passages. Although it is known that grammatical gender information is used in anaphor resolution, even if noun and pronoun do not belong to adjacent sentences, there is no direct evidence for a gender contribution to text memory so far. The present experiment demonstrates that grammatical gender information, even when of no semantic importance, is retained beyond sentence boundaries and can contribute to the memory representation of subsequent text. All materials and additional statistics may be downloaded from mc.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Insertion of connectives by 9- to 11-year-old children in an argumentative text

The objective of the present study was to show that the use of adversative and conclusive connectives to mark off the prototypical schema of argumentative text begins to set in at approximately the age of 10 or 11. Based on Adam's (1992) proposals, we constituted an argumentative text with two blocks of arguments separated by an adversative instruction (the connective but or an equivalent) and followed by a conclusion introduced by a conclusive instruction (the connective thus or an equivalent). Four revising tasks (insertion or substitution with or without five connectives) have been used to asses children's knowledge of the argumentative schema and the use of connectives that punctuate them. The study of good and erroneous locations (concerning the placement of but and thus) showed that there was some regularity in the choices made by the children. The main result of this study shows that argumentative connectives are used differently by children aged 9 and children aged 10 or 11. The argumentative schema is used more consciously by 11-year-olds to guide revising tasks than by 10-year-olds.     

The Supposed Effect of Interactive Imagery in Paired Associate Learning

Previous experiments designed to investigate the effects of interactive imagery in paired associate learning have included the confounded variable of intralist similarity: Images of objects interacting have corresponded to pairs with different connectives, and images of independent objects have corresponded to pairs with the same connective (the conjunction 'and'). For the 'different' group of our first experiment, the members of the different pairs were linked by different connectives, most of which denoted an action. For the 'same' group, the members were linked by the same connective, usually one denoting an action. For the 'and' group, the members were linked by the connective 'and'. Cued recall by the 'different' group was superior to that of the other two groups. Recall by the 'same' and 'and' groups did not differ. Within the 'different' group, recall of 'and' pairs did not differ from the recall of 'action' pairs with which they had been mixed. In a second experiment, subjects were required to match the members of a pair. Analogous results were obtained. Overall, the findings imply that recall effects that have previously been interpreted as being a result of interactive imagery may be the result merely of variations in intralist similarity.