Effects of Inference Training on Comprehension and Comprehension Monitoring

Abstract

THE STUDY was designed to examine the differential effects of a strategy to promote inferential thinking and a procedure to organize text information on comprehension and comprehension monitoring. Subjects, 101 high-, middle-, and low-ability fifth-grade students, were assigned to one of four treatments: (a) a cloze strategy to help students integrate prior knowledge with text information, (b) a structured overview to help students organize text information, (c) a strategy that combined the two previous treatments, and (d) a control condition. Subjects received instruction for 6 weeks during social studies class. Subjects were pretested on general reading ability, background knowledge, comprehension ability, and metacognitive awareness. Posttests on both literal and inferential comprehension were administered after each instructional unit. Transfer tests were administered at the end of the instruction and after delays of 6 and 20 weeks. The metacognitive interview was administered again at the end of instruction. According to the results, the cloze strategy, which induced students to integrate text information with prior knowledge, yielded superior gains in comprehension compared to the treatments that did not include this strategy. These effects transferred to unfamiliar texts, and lasted as long as 4 months. Students who received the cloze strategy training also demonstrated greater metacognitive awareness.