Keith K. Millis

Changes in Reading Strategies as a Function of Reading Training: A Comparison of Live and Computerized Training

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of live (SERT) and computer-based (iSTART) reading strategy training. Prior to and after training, participants read scientific texts and self-explained after each sentence. They also answered comprehension questions. Students showed improvement in the quality of their self-explanations and in the performance on the comprehension questionsasa function of both live and computer-based training. However, there were some differences in response to iSTART training as a function of reading skill. Specifically, less skilled readers improved their performance on text-based questions, but not bridging questions. The opposite was found for skilled readers. These results indicate that computer-based, reading-skills training is effective, but different readers may improve at different levels of comprehension.

Resource allocation during the rereading of scientific texts

Two experiments examined how cognitive resources are allocated to comprehension processes across two readings of the same scientific texts. In Experiment 1, readers read and later reread texts describing scientific topics. The results indicated that across readings, readers decreased resources allocated to proposition assembly, increased resources allocated to text-level integration, and expended a similar amount of resources to lexical access. Subjects who reread the texts after a week delay showed a similar pattern, except that they did not show the increase for text-level integration. Experiment 2 revealed a similar pattern of results with a moving window procedure, except that there was a significant decrease in resources allocated to lexical access across exposures. This experiment also indicated that the rereading speedup was greatest at sentence boundaries, suggesting that the prior exposure enabled readers to immediately process each word. Overall, the results are consistent with the claim that readers allocate proportionally more available resources to text-level integration during rereading because proposition assembly, which enables text-level integration, can be completed with fewer resources.

Operation ARIES!: A Serious Game for Teaching Scientific Inquiry

Operation ARIES! is a serious game that teaches critical thinking about scientific inquiry. The player must help to identify aliens on Earth who are intentionally publishing bad research. The game combines aspects of video games and intelligent tutors in which the player holds conversations with animated agents using natural language. The player first takes a training course with a virtual trainee, followed by a module in which the player identifies flaws in research cases. In the third and final module, the player interviews suspected alien scientists on their research. Operation ARIES! is designed for high school seniors and adults.

Using latent semantic analysis to assess reader strategies

We tested a computer-based procedure for assessing reader strategies that was based on verbal protocols that utilized latent semantic analysis (LSA). Students were given self-explanation—reading training (SERT), which teaches strategies that facilitate self-explanation during reading, such as elaboration based on world knowledge and bridging between text sentences. During a computerized version of SERT practice, students read texts and typed self-explanations into a computer after each sentence. The use of SERT strategies during this practice was assessed by determining the extent to which students used the information in the current sentence versus the prior text or world knowledge in their self-explanations. This assessment was made on the basis of human judgments and LSA. Both human judgments and LSA were remarkably similar and indicated that students who were not complying with SERT tended to paraphrase the text sentences, whereas students who were compliant with SERT tended to explain the sentences in terms of what they knew about the world and of information provided in the prior text context. The similarity between human judgments and LSA indicates that LSA will be useful in accounting for reading strategies in a Web-based version of SERT.

Causal connectives increase inference generation

The influence of interclause connectives on inference generation was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1, participants supplied lexical decisions on inference words following the word‐by‐word presentation of sentences containing the connective because and when the clauses were presented as two independent sentences (i.e., no connective). The results indicated that the causal knowledge‐based inferences were generated in the connective condition, but not in the no‐connective condition. Experiment 2 examined whether this finding would generalize to an additive connective (i.e., and). This experiment replicated the results of Experiment 1 for because, but there was little evidence that and had elicited inferences. In Experiment 3, the temporal connective after was examined. The results indicated that after did not produce causal‐based inferences, suggesting that the effect of because was not due to temporal cuing. The pattern of results across the experiments indicate that readers incorporate causa...

Identifying reading strategies using latent semantic analysis: comparing semantic benchmarks.

We explored methods of using latent semantic analysis (LSA) to identify reading strategies in students’ self-explanations that are collected as part of a Web-based reading trainer. In this study, college students self-explained scientific texts, one sentence at a time. LSA was used to measure the similarity between the self-explanations andsemantic benchmarks (groups of words and sentences that together represent reading strategies). Three types of semantic benchmarks were compared: content words, exemplars, and strategies. Discriminant analyses were used to classify global and specific reading strategies using the LSA cosines. All benchmarks contributed to the classification of general reading strategies, but the exemplars did the best in distinguishing subtle semantic differences between reading strategies. Pragmatic and theoretical concerns of using LSA are discussed.

The Influence of Knowledge-Based Inferences on The Reading Time of Expository Text

Publisher Summary This chapter examines inference generation during the comprehension of expository text. There are many subtypes of expository texts that span across many topic domains. The chapter focuses on passages that describe mechanisms found in nature or technology. To understand passages, the reader must access knowledge about concepts that are explicitly mentioned in the passage and must generate at least some knowledge-based inferences. The cognitive system stores world knowledge in the form of both generic knowledge structures (GKS) and specific knowledge structures. Nodes in the network are constructed on the bases of the explicit text, the GKSs, and specific knowledge structures. Three broad classes of knowledge-based inferences are associated with scientific mechanisms. They are states, future events, and past/concurrent events. The knowledge-based inferences do have an impact on reading time for expository text.

REREADING STRATEGICALLY: THE INFLUENCES OF COMPREHENSION ABILITY AND A PRIOR READING ON THE MEMORY FOR EXPOSITORY TEXT

We examined the extent to which comprehenders read expository texts strategically after a prior reading and test. Sentence reading times and the memory for expository texts were examined across two readings. In Experiment 1, sentence reading times were facilitated during rereading to the extent that the information had been encoded from the initial reading. The memory data revealed that participants incorporated new information into their text representations. In particular, rereading improved the memory for causally important information. In Experiment 2, the pattern of results generalized to both good and poor readers except that the correlation between recall and importance was greater for the better readers. The results suggest that all participants reread strategically to some extent, but the better readers were able to use the incoming information to update their situation model.We examined the extent to which comprehenders read expository texts strategically after a prior reading and test. Sentence reading times and the memory for expository texts were examined across two readings. In Experiment 1, sentence reading times were facilitated during rereading to the extent that the information had been encoded from the initial reading. The memory data revealed that participants incorporated new information into their text representations. In particular, rereading improved the memory for causally important information. In Experiment 2, the pattern of results generalized to both good and poor readers except that the correlation between recall and importance was greater for the better readers. The results suggest that all participants reread strategically to some extent, but the better readers were able to use the incoming information to update their situation model.

Updating Situation Models From Descriptive Texts: A Test of the Situational Operator Model

A model of situation model construction suitable for descriptive text, called the Situational Operator Model, was tested in 2 experiments. It assumes that situation models for descriptions are built incrementally by using basic operations that are triggered by text content. In both experiments, participants read and reread texts that described simple machines. Sentence reading times were predicted by the number of operations along with variables associated with text-level features. The impact of the number of operations predicted reading times more consistently for better readers than for poorer readers and for the second reading as opposed to the first. The presence of a drawing task (Experiment 1) or learning a diagram of the machines (Experiment 2) increased the correlation between the number of operators and reading time for better readers but lowered them for poorer readers (Experiment 1). The results provided initial support for the model, and its relation to other models of comprehension is discussed.

Inducing and tracking confusion with contradictions during critical thinking and scientific reasoning

Cognitive disequilibrium and its affiliated affective state of confusion have been found to be beneficial to learning due to the effortful cognitive activities that accompany their experience. Although confusion naturally occurs during learning, it can be induced and scaffolded to increase learning opportunities. We addressed the possibility of induction in a study where learners engaged in trialogues on critical thinking and scientific reasoning topics with animated tutor and student agents. Confusion was induced by staging disagreements and contradictions between the animated agents, and the (human) learners were invited to provide their opinions. Self-reports of confusion and learner responses to embedded forced-choice questions indicated that the contradictions were successful at inducing confusion in the minds of the learners. The contradictions also resulted in enhanced learning gains under certain conditions.