Examining the Relationship Between Text Processing and Text Comprehension in Fourth Grade Readers

This research investigates the relationship among various processing behaviors and their link to comprehension. Thirty-four students from three fourth-grade classrooms orally read the first chapter of a short story. The reading was followed by an unaided recall and probes by the researcher. Each clause as finally read was evaluated for semantics (acceptable/unacceptable) and maintenance of author's meaning (yes/no). Finally, words read per minute and number of total, corrected, and uncorrected miscues was calculated. The impact of miscues on retelling performance on the clause and story event level was evaluated using nonparametric, parametric, and multivariate analyses. On the clause level, findings indicate that a similar proportion of clauses were recalled irrespective of whether the clause had been read with no miscues, corrected miscues, or uncorrected miscues. There was a significant difference, however, in the proportion of recalled clauses depending on miscue type. Uncorrected semantically unacceptable/meaning disrupting clauses were less likely to be recalled, whereas clauses containing uncorrected miscues that did not change meaning were more likely to be recalled than clauses read with no miscues. On the story level, strong retellings were associated with fewer meaning changing and meaning disrupting miscues and with more corrected miscues and reading speed. Total number of miscues, miscues that did not change meaning, and reading grade level were not significantly associated with strong story retellings. These findings suggest that the concept of accuracy may not be as significant as miscue meaningfulness and that speed is best understood as part of a matrix of behaviors associated with strong comprehension.     

Cognitive structures in comprehension and memory of narrative discourse

The effects of structure and content variables on memory and comprehension of prose passages were studied in two experiments. The experimental passages exemplify a class of simple narrative stories that is described by a generative grammar of plot structures. A comprehension model is proposed that assumes a hierarchical organizational framework of stories in memory, determined by the grammar, representing the abstract structural components of the plot. The quality and characteristics of subjects' memory for stories were tested on a variety of experimental tasks in which story organization was manipulated. Comprehensibility and recall were found to be a function of the amount of inherent plot structure in the story, independent of passage content. Recall probability of individual facts from passages depended on the structural centrality of the facts: Subjects tended to recall facts corresponding to high-level organizational story elements rather than lower-level details. In addition, story summarizations from memory tended to emphasize general structural characteristics rather than specific content. For successively presented stories, both structure and content manipulations influenced recall. Furthermore, repeating story structure across two passages produced facilitation in recall of the second passage, while repeating story content produced proactive interference. The implications for a model of memory for narrative discourse are discussed.     

Rehearsal strategies and the serial-position curve in immediate free recall of ordered items

Immediate free recall of random strings of 10 numbers was studied under four experimental conditions: as each number was presented, subjects either had to recall the previous number (Recall n-1), recall the number just presented (Recall n), read the number (Read aloud), or were silent (Free Recall). Overall recall was the same in all conditions. Recall and order of recall by serial-position changed systematically, with an increasing recency and decreasing primacy effect from Free Recall through Read Aloud and Recall n to Recall n-1. These changes in recall order and serial-position curves suggest that differential rehearsal of items is decreased by requiring retrieval during presentation.     

Free recall in boys of normal and poor reading levels as a function of task manipulations

Free recall of reading disabled boys, ages 9 to 11 years, was compared with that of boys showing no reading difficulty. During a baseline trial, poor readers recalled less items and tended to show less recall organization than normals. Recall and category clustering in a second trial were highest following a manipulation designed to produce semantic encoding of items and lowest when children were required to focus on items' physical features. In a condition requiring free sort prior to recall, reading disabled boys failed to organize or study as effectively as normals. Rather than lacking the ability to use semantic relations as a strategy for grouping items, the reading disabled had difficulty in spontaneously generating effective study techniques.     

Validating running memory span: Measurement of working memory capacity and links with fluid intelligence

We manipulated running memory span tasks to examine effects on recall and relations with criterion measures of working memory capacity and general fluid intelligence. The goal of the manipulations was to limit or enhance opportunities for active input processing and response preparation in advance of test. We manipulated presentation rate in Experiment 1. Recall was higher at slow than at fast rates, but correlations with criterion measures were much the same across rate conditions. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the time at which the number of items to report was made known to the participants. They were given that information in advance (precue) or at test (postcue). Recall scores and correlations with criterion measures were much the same across cuing conditions. We conclude that running memory span provides valid measurement of working memory capacity that is predictive of higher order cognition across a wide range of conditions.     

Encoding processes and sex-role preferences

Seven- and 10-year-old children were tested on memory and sex-role preference tasks. The memory task was the Wickens release from proactive inhibition paradigm in which short-term recall of words is tested on successive trials. On Trials 1–4, words were selected from one of two categories, either words with masculine or feminine connotations. On Trial 5, words were drawn from the second category. Sex-role preference was assessed by asking the child to select his favorite pictures from an array that included masculine and feminine items. Recall by boys at both ages increased following a shift between words with masculine or feminine connotations, suggesting that this dimension of a word's meaning was encoded in memory. Recall by girls who selected a feminine item as their favorite on the sex-role preference task increased following a category shift; recall by girls who chose a masculine item did not increase. These results are discussed in relation to previous research on the attributes of encoding in children's memory.     

Manipulating the word frequency effect in free recall

A recall advantage for common words was not evidenced when subjects generated or rated the list words on the basis of commonness and on a semantic, phonological, or orthographic basis prior to recall. Recall of the same set of words following only structural judgments of the words resulted in the usual recall advantage for common words. Results were not consistent with interpretations based only on the associative strengths of the recalled items. A process based on categorization of the words to be recalled was suggested as an alternative explanation.     

Placing a text in context

Can readers accurately retrieve information about the context in which text comprehension occurs? If so, does their memory for context vary with their level of comprehension? Participants studied ambiguous passages in a high-knowledge or low-knowledge condition. They were then asked to remember the spatial location of individual sentences, the color of a border surrounding the passage, or the color of a shirt worn by the experimenter. Recall protocols were collected after participants answered the context question. Knowledge about the topic of the text facilitated both contextual retrieval and recall. Moreover, contextual retrieval and recall were correlated, primarily in the high-knowledge condition. The results suggest that personal experiences accompanying comprehension are encoded in memory along with text meaning and have implications for theories of source monitoring.     

The effects of concurrent secondary tasks on the use of imagery in a free recall task

An attempt was made to evaluate Paivio's view that the superior recall of High-I words compared to that of Low-I words can be ascribed to the fact that imagery is available as an additional encoding dimension in the High-I materials. An experiment is reported which investigated the effects of two types of secondary task on the free recall of word lists consisting of equal numbers of items of high and low imagery. One secondary task was intended to prevent the use of imagery during acquisition. Recall of the High-I items was selectively impaired in the presence of the image inhibiting secondary task. As performance on the secondary task improved in some subjects over 3 trials, it was accompanied by improved recall of the High-I words.     

Effects of part-set cuing on experienced and novice chess players' reconstruction of a typical chess midgame position

A typical midgame chess position was presented to participants for 30 sec. Participants then reconstructed the presented position on a second board from memory. Following a brief distraction phase, participants were asked to reconstruct the position a second time with 0, 6, or 12 of the original pieces present. It was hypothesized that cue presentation during second reconstruction would be more disruptive to experienced players' recall than to novices'. Recall was measured in terms of correct pieces placed, new items generated (reminiscence), and previously recalled items omitted (forgetting). Analysis indicated that cues neither facilitated nor inhibited recall: experienced players performed better than novice players across recall indices, with the exception of reminiscence at which both groups performed similarly.     

The impact of connectives on the memory for expository texts

Three experiments investigated the influence of connectives on memory for expository text. Subjects in Experiments 1 and 2 read and later recalled passages with either no connectives, temporal connectives (before/ and then), causal connectives (which caused/which enabled), or intentional connectives (in order that/so that). There was connective interference rather than connective facilitation in the studies reported here: the recall for passages without connectives was higher than the recall for passages with connectives. The results partially supported a semantic complexity hypothesis, which predicted that recall should increase with the semantic complexity of the connective (i.e. temporal < causal < intentional). In a third experiment, the semantic appropriateness of the connective was manipulated. Recall for passages without connectives was better than recall for passages with either appropriate or inappropriate connectives. In a fourth experiment, the subjects filled in missing connectives in natural expository texts. Subjects were able to select the connective category which was originally used by the author. The influence of connectives on text was discussed from the perspective of resource limitations, elaborations, and the semantic compatibility of the connectives to the text.     

Accessing the particular from the general: The power of distinctiveness in the context of organization

Recall is inversely related to the number of items sharing a cue. The limiting case of unique cue-target relationships supports extremely high levels of recall, particularly when the cue is self-generated. This fact is incongruous with the importance assigned to the construct of organization in memory theory. Further, self-generated unique cue-target relationships tend to be idiosyncratic, implying that the power of unique cues should be limited to cases of self-cued memory. The experiments presented here suggest a role for organization that reconciles the fact of unique cue effectiveness with the importance of organization to memory. Two new findings are reported: Unique cue production enhances target encoding; and general cues can access particular encodings. The data are further tribute to the importance of simultaneous organizational and distinctive processing and recommend a new perspective on the function of organization in memory.     

Effects of context variation, intracategory variation, and spacing on the free recall of pictures

Abstract.— Two experiments examined the effects of encoding variability on the free recall of pictures. In Expt. I, drawn objects were presented 3 times in different pictorial contexts (RV) or in the same contexts (RR). In Expt. II, repeated stimuli were 3 different specimens of the same object category (VR) or the same object presented 3 times (RR). Spacing of repetitions was varied from zero to 15, and a mixed-list design was used. Both RV and VR items tended to be recalled better than and prior to RR items. Recall of RR and of VR items increased with increasing spacing, but recall of RV items showed no spacing effect. In a second recall test, preceded by 4 min of "thinking about" the pictures, the only remaining effect of spacing or of context variation was a low recall of massed RR items. VR items were still recalled better than and prior to RR items. It is suggested that spacing, and variation of the external context of pictures, facilitate retrieval when the time and effort spent on recall is limited, by increasing the numberlvariety of potential recall cues stored together with item information.     

Accuracy,Miscues, and the Comprehension of Complex Literary and Scientific Texts

This research explores the impact of accuracy and meaning maintaining miscues on the comprehension of complex texts. The issue is explored through fourth graders’ readings and retellings. Two types of reading behaviors are examined: (a) portions of text read with no miscues, and (b) portions of text read with meaning-maintaining miscues. Findings indicate that readers were significantly more likely to comprehend information that was read with meaning-maintaining miscues than when read with no miscues. Researchers and educators need to understand the deeper meanings behind certain types of miscue and their supportive role in the comprehension process.     

Perceptual processing in dichotic listening.

Subjects heard two lists of 4 items each presented simultaneously to the two ears at a rate of four pairs of items per sec. A recall cue presented immediately after the test list signalled report of 4 of the 8 items. In recall by spatial location, the cue indicated whether the items on the right ear on left ear should be recalled. In recall by category name, the cue indicated the superset category (e.g., letters or words) of the items to be recalled. Recall by spatial location was not significantly different than recall by category name. This results argues against the idea of a preperceptual auditory storage that holds information along spatial channels for 1 or 2 sec. The final experiment showed that recall by spatial location is significantly better than recall by category name when the report cue is given before, not after, the list presentation. These results show that spatial location can be used to enhance semantic processing and/or memory of 1 of 2 simultaneous items, but only if the relevant location is known at the time of the item presentation.     

Aging and the Ranschburg effect: no evidence of reduced response suppression in old age

Two experiments tested 1 aspect of L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks's (1988) reduced inhibition hypothesis, namely, that old age impairs the ability to suppress information in working memory that is no longer relevant. In Experiment 1, young and older adults were asked to recall lists of letters in the correct order. Half of the lists contained repeated items while half were control lists. Recall of nonadjacent repeated items was worse than that of control items. This Ramschburg effect was larger (i.e., greater response suppression) in older than in young adults. In Experiment 2, young and older adults were required either to recall the list or to report if there was a repeated item. Repetition detection was high and similar in the 2 age groups. When age differences in overall performance were taken into account, there was evidence of increased repetition inhibition with age in both experiments. Thus, contrary to the general reduced inhibition hypothesis, the specific process of response suppression during serial recall is not reduced by aging.     

Social contagion of memory

We report a new paradigm for studying false memories implanted by social influence, a process we call the social contagion of memory. A subject and confederate together saw six common household scenes (e.g., a kitchen) containing many objects, for either 15 or 60 sec. During a collaborative recall test, the 2 subjects each recalled six items from the scenes, but the confederate occasionally made mistakes by reporting items not from the scene. Some intrusions were highly consistent with the scene schema (e.g., a toaster) while others were less so (e.g., oven mitts). After a brief delay, the individual subject tried to recall as many items as possible from the six scenes. Recall of the erroneous items suggested by the confederate was greater than in a control condition (with no suggestion). Further, this social contagion effect was greater when the scenes were presented for less time (15 sec) and when the intruded item was more schema consistent (e.g., the toaster). As with other forms of social influence, false memories are contagious; one person’s memory can be infected by another person’s errors.     

Updating knowledge about encoding strategies: a componential analysis of learning about strategy effectiveness from task experience

Researchers have argued for age deficits in learning about the effects of encoding strategies from task experience, partly on the basis of absolute accuracy of metacognitive judgments. However, these findings could be attributed to factors other than age differences in learning. Forty older and 40 younger adults participated in 2 study-test trials in which they studied paired associates with imagery or repetition, predicted recall for the items, attempted recall, and postdicted recall. Recall was greater after imagery than repetition, yet this effect was not fully reflected by predictions made on Trial 1. Although both older and younger adults accurately postdicted recall from Trial 1, absolute accuracy of the predictions made on Trial 2 showed little improvement. By contrast, both age groups demonstrated increases in between-person correlations of predictions with recall, which is inconsistent with age deficits in knowledge updating. Thus, both older and younger adults had updated knowledge about the relative effects of the strategies, but such updating was not evident in the absolute accuracy of the predictions.