Changing How Students Process and Comprehend Texts with Computer-based Self-Explanation Training

This study assessed whether and how self-explanation reading training, provided by iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking), improves the effectiveness of comprehension processes. iSTART teaches students how to self-explain and which strategies will most effectively aid comprehension from moment-to-moment. We used RSAT (Reading Strategy Assessment Tool) to assess how iSTART changes the relation between important selfexplanation reading strategies—bridging and elaboration—and online comprehension, and how often they are produced. College and high school students received iSTART and were administered RSAT prior to and post-training. Results from three experiments showed that iSTART primarily benefits bridging inferences when self explaining. The frequency of bridging inferences was higher post training than prior to training, but only in the experiments involving college students. Additionally, prior to exposure to iSTART, RSAT bridging scores did not predict comprehension performance, whereas they did after iSTART, suggesting that iSTART may improve comprehension processes by teaching students how to appropriately use selfexplanation to address comprehension difficulties. Finally, the results from this study suggest that RSAT may provide a valuable computer-based assessment of the effectiveness of selfexplanations that could be used in conjunction with iSTART and in future research on selfexplanation

Changing How Students Process and Comprehend Texts with Computer-based Self-Explanation Training

This study assessed whether and how self-explanation reading training, provided by iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking), improves the effectiveness of comprehension processes. iSTART teaches students how to self-explain and which strategies will most effectively aid comprehension from moment-to-moment. We used RSAT (Reading Strategy Assessment Tool) to assess how iSTART changes the relation between important selfexplanation reading strategies—bridging and elaboration—and online comprehension, and how often they are produced. College and high school students received iSTART and were administered RSAT prior to and post-training. Results from three experiments showed that iSTART primarily benefits bridging inferences when self explaining. The frequency of bridging inferences was higher post training than prior to training, but only in the experiments involving college students. Additionally, prior to exposure to iSTART, RSAT bridging scores did not predict comprehension performance, whereas they did after iSTART, suggesting that iSTART may improve comprehension processes by teaching students how to appropriately use selfexplanation to address comprehension difficulties. Finally, the results from this study suggest that RSAT may provide a valuable computer-based assessment of the effectiveness of selfexplanations that could be used in conjunction with iSTART and in future research on selfexplanation

Medial Temporal Lobe Volume Predicts Elders’ Everyday Memory

Deficits in memory for everyday activities are common complaints among healthy and demented older adults. The medial temporal lobes and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are both affected by aging and early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, and are known to influence performance on laboratory memory tasks. We investigated whether the volume of these structures predicts everyday memory. Cognitively healthy older adults and older adults with mild Alzheimer’s-type dementia watched movies of everyday activities and completed memory tests on the activities. Structural MRI was used to measure brain volume. Medial temporal but not prefrontal volume strongly predicted subsequent memory. Everyday memory depends on segmenting activity into discrete events during perception, and medial temporal volume partially accounted for the relationship between performance on the memory tests and performance on an event-segmentation task. The everyday-memory measures used in this study involve retrieval of episodic and semantic information as well as working memory updating. Thus, the current findings suggest that during perception, the medial temporal lobes support the construction of event representations that determine subsequent memory

Directional representations of concrete and abstract verbs : spatial and sensorimotor-based?

Includes bibliographical references (pages [136]-143).Verbs that describe actions or events seem to be associated with spatial information. For example, “dropping” implies action flowing in a downward direction, and “raising” implies action flowing in an upward direction. Extending previous research, the first goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that spatial directionality is a salient feature of verb representations, and that concreteness influences this salience. The second goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that sensorimotor processes underlie the representation of verb directionality. One hundred twenty verbs were classified a priori with respect to the direction with which they are associated. These decisions were based on the direction of the flow of action, direction of stimulus detection in perception, information exchange, social dominance relationships, and emotion. This resulted in 30 verbs of each direction (i.e., upward, downward, leftward, rightward). Experiments 1 and 2 found that directionality is a salient feature of verb representations and that directionality is more salient for concrete than for abstract verbs. Using forced-choice and open-ended tasks, participants selected a direction that best depicted the meaning of each verb. As predicted, participants showed high agreement with the a priori classifications of verb direction (except for leftward verbs in Experiment 2) and agreement was higher for concrete verbs than abstract. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that sensorimotor processing is the source of verb directionality. Participants looked up or down while performing lexical decisions. It was predicted that reaction times would be faster when the head direction and verb direction matched than when they mismatched. The predictions were not supported. However, head direction interacted with verb direction differently (facilitation or interference) depending on whether or not head movements are associated with the verbs. The head direction primed the activation of verbs with consistent directionality when they do not have this association, and competed for resources when they do. These results suggest that spatial directionality is a salient feature of verb representations and that concreteness affects this salience. Spatial directionality appears to be a part of verb representations and to influence spatial judgments. In addition, sensorimotor processing may underlie verb directionality.Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy

The role of context in the orientation of perceptual symbols

Includes bibliographical references (pages [40]-45).M.A. (Master of Arts

Event structure guides reading behavior as revealed by eye movements

Individuals segment information in narrative texts into discrete events, with distinct boundaries between those events. How might event structure affect reading behavior? The present study examines whether eye-movements during discourse comprehension reveal how readers respond online to event structure. In two experiments, reading times were slower for event boundaries, according to multiple measures, and regressions varied by event structure. Working memory capacity interacted with reading effects, showing a larger processing load from event boundaries

Aging and the segmentation of narrative film

The perception of event structure in continuous activity is important for understanding and remembering experience. Although the segmentation of experience into events is a normal concomitant of perceptual processing, there are individual differences in how well this segmentation is accomplished. Previous research shows that younger adults tend to segment continuous naturalistic everyday activity, such as someone washing a car, better than older adults. This suggests an age-related impairment in the perception of event structure. However, past research has also shown that older adults have a preserved ability to comprehend events in narrative text, which suggests that narrative may improve the event processing of older adults. This study tested whether there are age-differences in event segmentation at the intersection of continuous activity and narrative: narrative film. In support of the possibility that narrative structure supports event understanding for older adults, we found minimal age-differences in segmentation performance