Joseph P. Magliano

Conscious understanding during comprehension

This study investigated conscious understanding during narrative comprehension as revealed through the use of think‐aloud methodology. An analytical model of conscious understanding is presented, which assumes that inference and memory processes function together in order to construct a coherent, mental representation of a text. Three working memory operations were operationally identified in the think‐aloud protocols: (1) activation of relevant world knowledge in working memory, (2) maintenance of information in working memory, and (3) retrieval of text and prior thoughts from a long‐term memory store. These memory operations are functionally necessary to three kinds of inferences that also occurred in the protocols: (1) explanation, (2) association, and (3) prediction. The data revealed that understanding is, for the most part, explanation based. Memory processes serve to provide the information that readers use to explain sentences or thoughts that occur while they try to understand the text. Coherent ...

The Time Course of Generating Causal Antecedent and Causal Consequence Inferences.

The present study tested whether causal antecedent and causal consequence inferences are generated on‐line during comprehension and also determined the time course of their activation. The study manipulated inference category, the rate of word presentation in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) format, and the delay between the last word in a sentence and the test word (i.e., SOA interval). Lexical decision latencies were collected on test strings (i.e., nonwords, inference words, or unrelated words) which were presented after each sentence in the passages. The results indicated that there was a threshold of 400 ms after stimulus presentation (RSVP and SOA) before causal antecedents were generated on‐line, whereas causal consequences were not generated on‐line. These results support a bridging model of inference generation which assumes that causal antecedent inferences are needed to bridge an explicit text event with prior passage content, whereas expectation inferences are not normally generated o...

Inferring what the student knows in one-to-one tutoring: The role of student questions and answers

Abstract We analyzed 44 one-to-one tutoring sessions in which undergraduates were tutored by graduate students on troublesome topics in research methods. The primary goal of this research was to determine the relationship between measures of student achievement and measures of student questions and answers. First, our results indicated that the quality of students answers were the most reliable source for inferring student understanding. Second, the quality of the students questions was only a marginal indicator of student understanding. And third, students answers to tutors comprehension-gauging questions (e.g., Do you understand?) proved to be very misleading in regard to student understanding.

The impact of a wayfinder's goal on learning a new environment: Different types of spatial knowledge as goals

This study investigated whether spatial learning is constrained by stage-based processes or by goal-directed activity by having subjects in different groups attend to different types of spatial information during learning. Before viewing a series of slides depicting a walk through a small town, subjects were given instructions that emphasized: (a) landmarks, (b) routes, (c) configurations, or (d) no specific spatial instructions. Following acquisition, the subjects were assessed for their landmark, route, and configuration knowledge of the environment using four tasks: a landmark recognition task, a route-sequencing task, a spatial orientation task, and a direction-giving task. No differences in performance attributable to instruction condition occurred for either the landmark recognition or route-sequencing tasks. On the orientation task, subjects given configuration instructions outperformed those receiving landmark instructions. In addition, differences were found in the direction-giving protocols both in terms of the quantity and the quality of landmark, route, and configuration information. In general, all subjects provided landmark information; subjects given route or configuration instructions provided more route and configuration information. These findings suggest that wayfinders are capable of learning a new environment according to a goal, but that learning is constrained by stage-based processes.

Character and reader emotions in literary texts

Abstract This paper addresses two types of emotions: character emotions and reader emotions, in particular suspense. We assumed that character emotions and suspense are enhanced or suppressed by other story aspects, such as pragmatic intent, imagery, literary devices, and indeterminacy. We also assumed that character emotions and suspense have an effect on the speed with which a story segment is read. We performed two multiple regression analyses to examine to what extent variability in character emotion and suspense could be predicted by the strength of other story aspects. The paper also summarizes the results of a study by Zwaan et al. (1993), which show that character and reader emotion affect the on-line comprehension of literary stories.

The Impact of Comprehension Instruction on the Calibration of Comprehension.

Abstract This experiment investigated whether cognitive skills training influences college students’ calibration of comprehension. In Experiment 1, one group was given comprehension instructions that focused on deep conceptual skills, whereas the other group focused on superficial decoding skills and motivation. After the presentation of tape recorded instructions, subjects read passages, made Judgments of their comprehension of the material, and completed a comprehension test with true/false and short answer questions. Both groups were able to calibrate to a significant degree; there was a significant correlation between their judgments of comprehension and their test performance. The superficial instructions temporarily disrupted calibration as shown by a low and nonsignificant correlation for early passages, but a high and significant correlation for later passages. A control group with no instructions regarding reading strategies was added to Experiment 2 and resulted in calibration scores similar to ...

Answering when questions about future events in the context of a calendar system

Three experiments tested a model of question answering called WHEN, which explains the answer descriptions that are generated when adults answer when questions (Golding, Magliano, & Hemphill, 1992). College students answered questions about future events in the context of a 12‐month calendar year. The WHEN model specifies how the time of the future event is expressed as a function of the temporal interval between the present point in time and the time of a future event (1–90 days away). The answers included generative descriptions (e.g., “next week on Wednesday”) and specific dates (e.g., “August 13”). The answers systematically varied as a function of temporal interval in a fashion that supported most of the production rules of the WHEN model.