Ramiro Gilabert

Two Procedures To Improve Instructional Text: Effects on Memory and Learning.

The goal of this study was to compare 2 approaches for improving instructional text. The first was based on the procedure created by B. K. Britton and S. Gulgoz (1991) as derived from W. Kintsch and T. A. van Dijks theory (1978). It emphasized the reduction of the readers inferential activity. We created a second method that was inspired by theories of narrative comprehension (P. van den Broek, 1990; A. C. Graesser, M. Singer, & T. Trabasso, 1994). We oriented it toward triggering causal inferences in the reader. Alternative versions of an original passage on history were elaborated for each of the 2 methods. Sixty-four 8th graders read either the original passage or one of the revised versions and were tested on memory (i.e., recall) and learning (i.e., inference questions). Only the 2nd procedure produced benefits on inferential learning, though both procedures had a limited effect on recall.

Recording online processes in task-oriented reading with Read&Answer

We present an application to study task-oriented reading processes called Read&Answer. The application mimics paper-and-pencil situations in which a reader interacts with one or more documents to perform a specific task, such as answering questions, writing an essay, or similar activities. Read&Answer presents documents and questions with a mask. The reader unmasks documents and questions so that only a piece of information is available at a time. This way the entire interaction between the reader and the documents on the task is recorded and can be analyzed. We describe Read&Answer and present its applications for research and assessment. Finally, we explain two studies that compare readers’ performance on Read&Answer with students’ reading times and comprehension levels on a paper-and-pencil task, and on a computer task recorded with eye-tracking. The use of Read&Answer produced similar comprehension scores, although it changed the pattern of reading times.

ETAT: Expository Text Analysis Tool

Qualitative methods that analyze the coherence of expository texts not only are time consuming, but also present challenges in collecting data on coding reliability. We describe software that analyzes expository texts more rapidly and produces a notable level of objectivity ETAT (Expository Text Analysis Tool) analyzes the coherence of expository texts. ETAT adopts a symbolic representational system, known asconceptual graph structures. ETAT follows three steps: segmentation of a text into nodes, classification of the unidentified nodes, and linking the nodes with relational arcs. ETAT automatically constructs a graph in the form of nodes and their interrelationships, along with various attendant statistics and information about noninterrelated, isolated nodes. ETAT was developed in Java, so it is compatible with virtually all computer systems.

Evaluación de las estrategias y procesos de comprensión: el Test de Procesos de Comprensión

Resumen En este trabajo se presenta un nuevo test de evaluación de la comprensión lectora llamado Test de Procesos de Comprensión (TPC) que, a diferencia de la mayoría de los test en español actuales, está basado en un análisis de procesos de comprensión contemplados en la mayoría de los modelos cognitivos actuales. El test es aplicable a escolares entre 11 y 16 años, de fácil aplicación y corrección. Los resultados empíricos muestran que el test cumple con los requisitos psicométricos estándar de homogeneidad, validez y fiabilidad, y muestra un alto poder para discriminar entre estudiantes de diferentes niveles escolares. Supone un avance metodológico en la elaboración de pruebas de evaluación fundamentadas en modelos cognitivos ampliamente aceptados.

Teaching strategies to create visual representations of key ideas in content area text materials: A longterm intervention inserted in school curriculum

This paper describes a long-term research in which middle-grade school children were taught how to represent visually text key ideas through idea-mapping techniques. It consists of three studies, one for each year of our research. Children were at sixth grade when the instruction began, and they were at eighth grade when it finished. Another group of children from a different public school served as control group. Instruction was very close to the real school conditions: instructors were ordinary teachers, instruction was inserted in the content area curriculum, and ordinary textbooks were regularly employed, though combined with specially elaborated materials. Results were positive in the case of the first and third year, depending on instructional conditions. Positive effects were found on recall, comprehension and learning, but they were different in the three studies. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

On-Line Assessment of Comprehension Processes

In this paper we describe a new version of a former paper-and-pencil standardized comprehension test called Test of Comprehension Processes (Vidal-Abarca, Gilabert, Martínez, & Sellés, 2007). The new version has been adapted to a computer-based environment based on the moving window technique. It can be used to assess comprehension strategies of students from fifth to tenth grades (11- to 16-years-old). Comprehension strategies are registered on-line using reading times and visits to relevant sections of the text during the question-answering process. Data show that the computer-based version draws similar results to those provided by the paper-and-pencil version. In addition, we identify the particular strategies deployed during the question-answering process by high, medium and low comprehenders.

Una propuesta para hacer buenos textos expositivos: hacia una tecnología del texto expositivo

Resumen Presentamos una propuesta de tecnología del texto expositivo fundamentada en los conocimientos de la psicología de la comprensión de textos. La propuesta está basada en conjuntos de datos. Primeramente, el análisis de versiones originales y mejoradas de textos procedentes de estudios de revisión de textos publicados en revistas internacionales utilizando una herramienta denominada Expository Text Analysis Tool (ETAT). En segundo lugar, en un experimento en el que estudiantes de 1° de Bachillerato leyeron un texto de Biología en una de las dos versiones, original y mejorada siguiendo las pautas de la propuesta, y contestaron a diversas preguntas de comprensión. Los resultados de ambos conjuntos de datos permiten concluir que el incremento selectivo de relaciones entre las ideas del texto mediante la inclusión de información que ayude al lector a hacer inferencias mejora la comprensión de los lectores.

Estrategias de selección de información en tareas de contestación a preguntas

Resumen El objetivo del estudio fue investigar las estrategias de selección de información de estudiantes de secundaria en una situación de lectura orientada a tareas. Treinta seis estudiantes leyeron dos textos y contestaron seis preguntas por texto, tres de las cuales habían sido manipuladas para inducir un falso emparejamiento de palabras entre el enunciado de la pregunta y localizaciones erróneas del texto. Analizamos si los estudiantes con buen y peor nivel de comprensión contestarían con éxito las preguntas y si copiarían información errónea a partir de un falso emparejamiento de palabras. Los estudiantes con buen nivel de comprensión puntuaron mejor en preguntas y aquellos con peores niveles de comprensión copiaron información más veces a partir de pistas falsas, especialmente en las preguntas más difíciles. Estos resultados sugieren que un buen nivel de comprensión facilita el uso de estrategias de selección a partir de ideas, mientras que un peor nivel de comprensión induce el uso inapropiado de estrategias de contestación basadas en el emparejamiento de palabras.

TuinLEC, an intelligent tutoring system to improve reading literacy skills / TuinLEC, un tutor inteligente para mejorar la competencia lectora

Abstract This study describes an intelligent tutoring system to improve reading literacy skills called TuinLEC and it presents the results of its application to a group of sixth grade students. TuinLEC adopts the reading literacy theoretical framework of PISA (Program for International Students Assessment, OECD, 2009). TuinLEC includes eight lessons distributed in two phases, one for modeling and guided practice, and the second for independent practice. TuinLEC interacts with every student and it provides help and feedback for the task in a game-like environment. Half of the students were taught with TuinLEC, whereas the other half served as the control group. Children in both groups were paired according to reading comprehension scores. We measured students’ reading literacy skills after intervention, which showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. Students who were taught with TuinLEC were also given a questionnaire measuring satisfaction, usability, and self-efficacy; TuinLEC scored positively in all these measurements. We discuss how TuinLEC can improve the reading literacy skills of sixth-graders as well as the contribution of intelligent tutoring systems to instructional interventions.

Search and Comprehension Processes in Learning from Text

We analyzed the relationships between comprehension skill and search strategies in instructional text. In two experiments, college-level readers were asked to search a computer-presented science text in order to answer different types of questions. High level questions required the integration of information across paragraphs, whereas low level questions requested the localization of information within a single paragraph. High level questions were re-read more often and they resulted in broader text search patterns. Furthermore, students who were diagnosed as good comprehenders located relevant sections of the text faster and spent more time on those sections. Poor comprehenders, on the other hand, showed more “erratic” search patterns, spending more time on irrelevant portions of the materials. The results support the view that skilled comprehension involves the ability to allocate various levels of attention to different portions of the text, depending on contextual constraints.