Episodically enhanced comprehension fluency.

Abstract

Abstract Fluent reading comprehension was explored in a series of experiments involving sentences presented in normal and inverted typography. Sentences read in a test phase had been read earlier in exactly the same form, or in versions that were created by (a) altering the word order within sentences to create randomly ordered word strings or (b) exchanging causally related clauses to form new meaningful sentences. Variation from exact repetition of word order or clause combination increased the time taken to read the test sentences and these effects were evident over retention intervals ranging from one day to four months. Varying word order across repeated presentations of a sentence was also shown to reduce reporting accuracy in a rapid serial reading task. These results support an episodic view of the basis for rereading fluency in which comprehension processes responsible for constructing and integrating propositions are automatically recruited and reapplied when a sentence is reread.Resume La facilite de comprehension de textes a fait l'objet d'une serie d'experiences dans lesquelles les sujets devaient lire des phrases dont la typographie etait tanto@t normale, tanto@t inversee. Les phrases presentees a l'etape d'essai avaient ete lues auparavant soit sous une forme identique, soit sous une nouvelle forme ou a) l'ordre des mots dans les phrases etait modifie de maniere a creer des suites de mots agences au hasard ou b) les propositions causales etaient combinees autrement pour creer de nouvelles phrases sensees. Lorsque l'ordre des mots ou l'agencement des propositions etait modifie par rapport a celui qui etait repete fidelement, le temps de lecture des phrases presentees a l'essai etait plus long, et cet effet se manifestait de faeon evidente apres les intervalles de retention allant d'un jour a quatre mois. La presentation repetee d'une me@me phrase dans laquelle l'ordre des mots etait modifie avait egalement pour effet de reduire l'exactitude des reponses donnees pendant une ta@che de lecture rapide en serie. Les resultats obtenus temoignent des bases episodiques de la facilite de relecture ou les processus de comprehension responsables de la construction et de l'integration des propositions sont automatiquement selectionnes et reactives lors de la relecture d'une phrase.Literacy skills have been cultivated and prized in part for their artistic merits, but their primary function remains that of communicating meaningful messages. Much of the value of written and spoken messages lies in the lasting impact they have on the receiver. A central issue regarding the communicative function of language, therefore, is how the persistent influence of a message is maintained in memory across time and how it is called forward to guide behavior when appropriate. One very fruitful approach to this issue has been the exploration of text structure and its influence on the ability to remember intentionally the content of a text (e.g., Moravcsik & Kintsch, 1993; Trabasso & van den Broek, 1985). A second approach, pursued further in this article, has emphasized the idea that memory for a comprehension episode is captured procedurally and is revealed through the fluent reapplication of these procedures when a previously comprehended message (or critical components of it) is encountered at a later time (e.g., Kolers & Roediger, 1984).The view that memory for text comprehension episodes is captured in a set of processing operations was advanced by Kolers (1975) as a contrast to the prevailing emphasis on memory for the meaning of text. The procedural nature of memory was demonstrated by showing that the analysis of the surface features of a sentence was an integral part of memory for the sentence. The time taken to reread typographically transformed (e.g., upside down) sentences varied depending on whether sentences were read initially in that form. Sentences read in normal typography on the first occasion (or heard, rather than read) were not read as fluently when re - presented for reading in transformed typography. …