Comprehension Monitoring: Identifying and Coping with Text Confusions

Abstract

Comprehension monitoring was investigated by asking college students to read and answer probed recall questions about passages that contained intentionally introduced confusions. Subjects were then told that confusions had been present and were asked to describe them and comment on how they affected comprehension. Subjects failed to report a surprisingly large proportion of the confusions. Confusions involving main points were detected more frequently than those involving details and confusions of inconsistent information and unclear reference were more often reported than inappropriate connectives. Retrospective reports revealed that failures to report confusions were often not due to failures to monitor comprehension but rather to the use of repair stategies to resolve the potential problems.