Effect of screen presentation on text reading and revising. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

Two studies using the methods of experimental psychology assessed the effects of two types of text presentation (page-by-page vs. scrolling) on participants' performance while reading and revising texts. Greater facilitative effects of the page-by-page presentation were observed in both tasks. The participants' reading task performance indicated that they built a better mental representation of the text as a whole and were better at locating relevant information and remembering the main ideas. Their revising task performance indicated a larger number of global corrections (which are the most difficult to make)

Evaluation and revision of inferential comprehension in narrative texts: an eye movement study

We investigated the processes of how adult readers evaluate and revise their situation model during reading by monitoring their eye movements as they read narrative texts and subsequent critical sentences. In each narrative text, a short introduction primed a knowledge-based inference, followed by a target concept that was either expected (e.g., “oven”) or unexpected (e.g., “grill”) in relation to the inferred concept. Eye movements showed that readers detected a mismatch between the new unexpected information and their prior interpretation, confirming their ability to evaluate inferential information. Just below the narrative text, a critical sentence included a target word that was either congruent (e.g., “roasted”) or incongruent (e.g., “barbecued”) with the expected but not the unexpected concept. Readers spent less time reading the congruent than the incongruent target word, reflecting the facilitation of prior information. In addition, when the unexpected (but not expected) concept had been presented, participants with lower verbal (but not visuospatial) working memory span exhibited longer reading times and made more regressions (from the critical sentence to previous information) on encountering congruent information, indicating difficulty in inhibiting their initial incorrect interpretation and revising their situation mode

Adolescent Literacy and Textbooks: An Annotated Bibliography

A companion report to Carnegie's Time to Act, provides an annotated bibliography of research on textbook design and reading comprehension for fourth through twelfth grade, arranged by topic. Calls for a dialogue between publishers and researchers

An interactive approach to learning economics: The WinEcon package

Under the TLTP initiative, the Economics Consortium is developing an interactive computer‐based learning package called WinEcon. The package is directed at first‐year economics undergraduates, particularly those taking economics as a supplementary course. Using recent technological developments, the aim is both to facilitate a further increase in student numbers without a proportionate increase in teaching staff, and to provide a better method of student learning. Some key elements of WinEcon are set out in this paper and demonstrated by screens produced at Leicester University. Methods of presenting textual information that give the user control over accessing it are described. For learning difficult concepts, a visual active learning approach is discussed. It involves user interaction and step‐by‐step analysis. The importance of flexibility and choice is emphasized, and the capacity of the computer to assist in deepening and consolidating learning is shown

Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy

Objective We report 1) the first quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA); and 2) the effects of two novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in PCA patients' reading ability. Methods Reading performance, eye movements and fixations were assessed in PCA and typical Alzheimer’s disease (tAD) patients and healthy controls (Experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (Experiment 2). Results PCA patients’ mean reading accuracy was significantly worse (57%) compared to both tAD patients (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%-270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of PCA patients’ fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid. Conclusions These findings demonstrate how neurological characterisation of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. Classification of evidence This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with posterior cortical atrophy, two software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy

Translation Revision: Correlating Revision Procedure and Error Detection

This article reports on an empirical study on translation revision. With the aim of investigating the possible link between revision procedure and quality, the research correlates an indicator of quality, error detection, with revision procedure. Error detection and revision procedure were studied drawing on a convergent parallel mixed-methods research design involving three different sources of data. Nine subjects performed a revision task and thus produced text data; their activities on the computer screen were captured and saved as video fi les; and retrospective interviews were conducted with the revisers upon completion of the task. Results show that the highest error detection scores were linked with a variety of revision procedures, but with one common denominator: the target text was consistently the point of departure. Revisers with high error detection scores thus engaged in various different revision procedures, but their focus of attention in the initial operations was the translation rather than the source text in all cases. Conversely, the revisers whose initial attention was directed towards the source text received the lowest error detection scores in the revision task

Inferential revision in narrative texts:an ERP study

We evaluated the process of inferential revision during text comprehension in adults. Participants with high or low working memory read short texts, in which the introduction supported two plausible concepts (e.g., ‘guitar/violin’), although one was more probable (‘guitar’). There were three possible continuations: a neutral sentence, which did not refer back to either concept; a no revise sentence, which referred to a general property consistent with either concept (e.g., ‘…beautiful curved body’); and a revise sentence, which referred to a property that was consistent with only the less likely concept (e.g., ‘…matching bow’). Readers took longer to read the sentence in the revise condition, indicating that they were able to evaluate their comprehension and detect a mismatch. In a final sentence, a target noun referred to the alternative concept supported in the revise condition (e.g., ‘violin’). ERPs indicated that both working memory groups were able to evaluate their comprehension of the text (P3a), but only high working memory readers were able to revise their initial incorrect interpretation (P3b) and integrate the new information (N400) when reading the revise sentence. Low working memory readers had difficulties inhibiting the no longer relevant interpretation and thus failed to revise their situation model, and they experienced problems integrating semantically related information into an accurate memory representation

Review of Edward Branigan, Narrative Comprehension and Film. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. (Distributed by the Law Book Company Ltd.). 325pp. ISBN 0415075114. (pbk), $45.00.

If Point of View in the Cinema introduced its author as one of the leading film analysts by its attention to the details of the process of cinematic presentation, Narrative Comprehension and Film establishes Edward Branigan as a creative theorist beyond the boundaries of film. The book's voice is that of a craftsman speaking from his workshop. No deconstructive symplok and certainly no rhetorical terrorism. Instead, we find a certain modesty of style, which is deceptive considering that Branigan offers a great deal of substance and a range of attractive speculative insights. The author's mastery of technical intricacies within the broader frame of general narrative makes Narrative Comprehension and Film an outstanding teaching book for film studies as well as other disciplines in the humanities. What makes it especially appealing is its careful elaboration of an inferential account of how we make sense of narrative. For this and other reasons, it is well worth paying closer attention than is perhaps usual for a review article to how the book's argument unfolds and in particular to how it manages to relate the double argument about narrative in film and human perception as interpretive construals