Effects of Task Relevance Instructions and Topic Beliefs on Reading Processes and Memory

This study investigated the effects of task relevance instructions and topic beliefs on reading processes and memory for belief-related text. Undergraduates received task instructions (focus on arguments for vs. against) before reading a dual-position text. In Experiment 1 (n = 88), a reading time methodology showed no differences in reading time for task-relevant and task-irrelevant text, but participants recalled task-relevant text better than task-irrelevant text independently of whether the information was consistent with their topic beliefs. In Experiment 2 (n = 76), a think-aloud methodology showed that participants engaged in confirmation strategies when reading belief-consistent text and disconfirmation strategies when reading belief-inconsistent text, independently of whether the information was relevant to their task instructions. Nonetheless, participants recalled task-relevant text better than task-irrelevant text. The results indicate that task relevance instructions affect memory independently of beliefs but that beliefs affect processing independently of task relevance instructions. Thus, moment-by-moment reading processes and memory for text can operate differently as a function of topic beliefs

Writing for Intercultural Growth on Study Abroad in Australia

For students participating in study abroad programs in seemingly familiar environs, ongoing cultural mentoring is critically important. This study looks at intercultural development using both the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and qualitative analysis of reflective writing assignments. U.S. participants in a semester-long faculty-led program in Australia experienced significant intercultural growth as measured by the IDI. Four writing prompts were analyzed in terms of how well they correlated with student IDI Developmental Orientation (DO) scores. Written reflection reveals how students write about intercultural issues at different developmental stages. Some writing prompts were found to facilitate intercultural development, allowing students to ‘write beyond’ their DO scores. While sojourners effectively wrote about cross-cultural issues pertaining to the host environment, more ethnocentric thinking was revealed when asked to reflect on cultural conflicts in their home community. The findings illustrate that significant intercultural growth is achievable in a culturally and linguistically similar host country, and that carefully designed reflective writing prompts can both illustrate and facilitate meaningful intercultural growth

Introduction to the Special Issue on Emotions in Reading, Learning, and Communication

In our current era, learners are confronted with many and varying sources of information, such as news media, books, websites, social media, scientific articles, communicative interactions, and more. In addition, individuals must learn from such sources, making it important to critically examine the factors underlying learning from text and discourse. Importantly, the valence and activation of readers' emotions can influence the quality of readers' processing, which could help or hinder the learner's ability to understand and learn from text related to important issues. Although theoretical and empirical work documents the role of emotions in learning and motivation, reading- and discourse-specific models are needed. At present, the literature examining reading presents conflicting findings related to the influence of emotion on textual processing. However, asproposed in the Process, Emotion, Task (PET) framework, the discrepant findings related to reading processes may be explained by interactions between specific reader emotions and the type of task. Hence, examining both emotions and features of the text are critical when considering how to support readers' ability to comprehend, evaluate, and learn from text. This article introduces a special issue of Discourse Processes that brings together experts engaging in empirical studies on how emotion influences learning and processing for varying text types in different contexts. Our goal is to further work toward developing a more cohesive understanding of the influence of reader emotions in supporting learning, comprehension, processing, and conceptual change and to draw important connections to the broader fields of text and discourse, learning, and motivation. Such connections are critical for improving learning experiences across a variety of settings and enhancing the relevance of discourse-processing research

Student Learning Outcomes Poster Session for CSB/SJU Joint Board of Trustees Meeting, December 5th, 2014

A faculty and student poster session was held focusing on student learning outcomes at the December 5th, 2014 joint Board of Trustee meeting. The posters focused on using assessment of student learning to improve teaching and learning and covered student learning outcomes at the course, departmental, and institutional levels

Does monitoring event changes improve comprehension?

During narrative comprehension, reading times increase for changes in time, space, characters, goals, and causation. This study examined the extent to which instructional manipulations modify dimension monitoring during reading and whether this affects comprehension. Sixty-seven participants read three narratives (pretest). Half of the participants (the experimental group) were then instructed to simultaneously monitor changes in time, space, characters, goals, and causation. All participants then read three more narratives (post-test). After reading all texts, participants retold each story and answered comprehension questions. At post-test, the reading times for participants in the experimental group increased for changes in time, space, goals, and causation. Participants in the experimental group remembered more story information containing dimension changes compared with a control group (no instructional manipulation). However, participants in experimental and control groups did not differ in terms of overall memory or performance on comprehension questions. The results indicate that monitoring multiple dimensions simultaneously increases memory for those dimension changes but does not affect overall comprehension

Going to pieces: how do emotions influence learning & comprehension?

In educational settings, it is vital that students comprehend content presented aurally, visually, and textually. To date, much research in the fields of cognitive and educational psychology have focused on the strategies and processes successful learners engage in when attempting to understand text. However, real educational settings are not cold settings devoid of emotion: They are dynamic settings in which student learning varies as a function of the classroom environment, students’ own skills and emotions, the content students are learning, and more. This forum described a line of research examining how, and under what conditions, emotions can affect the cognitive strategies students engage in when attempting to learn from text. The results from several studies converge on findings indicating that emotions do, in fact, play an important role in comprehension. However, emotions only play a role under certain conditions, and the degree to which they modify processing is influenced by individual difference variables (e.g., working memory), the textual content (e.g., whether the reading requires constructive processing), and the nature of the task (e.g., goals for learning). Specifically, positive emotions can facilitate inference generation and creative processing, whereas negatively valenced emotions may hinder such processing. These findings indicate that, when researching and attempting to increase learning in our students, we should consider more than just their cognitive development and strategic processing. Instead, we should consider student learning more holistically: factors that are less goal-driven, such as affect and emotion, can play a critical role in attention, strategy use, and learning

The interplay of reader goals, working memory, and text structure during reading

In the current study we examined the complex interactions of instructional context, text properties, and reader characteristics during comprehension. College students were tasked with the goal of reading for study versus entertainment (instructional context) while thinking-aloud about four different expository text structures (text properties). Working memory also was assessed (reader characteristics). Reading goals and working memory interacted to influence paraphrasing and non-coherence processes when thinking aloud. Reading goals, working memory, and text structure all interacted to influence text-based inferences. Text structure also influenced knowledge-based inferences. Post-reading recall was highest for those with the instructional goal of reading for study (compared to entertainment), as well as for problem-response and compare-contrast texts (compared to descriptive and chronological texts). Implications of the findings are discussed