Paragraph Comprehension Research Articles

Language profiles in nonspeaking individuals of normal intelligence with severe cerebral palsy

Evidence is presented that verbal intelligence may be relatively superior to nonverbal intelligence in many nonspeaking individuals of normal intelligence with severe cerebral palsy and that unqualified generalizations about language abilities in this patient population should be avoided. Standardized tests of different levels of processing oral language (phonemic analysis, vocabulary knowledge, sentence syntax, discourse comprehension), of processing written language (word decoding out of sentence context and sentence and paragraph comprehension), and of producing written language (spelling single dictated words) were administered to a nonspeaking adult, adolescent, and child of normal intelligence with severe cerebral palsy. Intraindividual differences and common patterns across language profiles were examined. Not all subjects showed the same pattern within their language profiles, but all showed relatively better receptive oral language at the discourse level than any other level and were relatively b...

The Effect of Three Forms of Summarization Instruction on Sixth Graders' Summary Writing and Comprehension

Three forms of summarization instruction comprised the treatment and control conditions explored in this study of sixth graders. The two treatment groups received direct instruction in either a rule-governed approach to summarization or an intuitive approach. A control group simply received advice to find main ideas with no explicit modeling. Two dependent measures were used to judge the efficacy of the three instructional approaches to summarization: (a) a paragraph summary writing task and (b) a standardized test of paragraph comprehension. On both measures, treatment groups significantly outperformed the control group. The results are discussed from the perspective of a combined textlinguistic and direct instruction model of learning.

Factors influencing readability of rapidly presented text segments.

Experiment 1 compared paragraph comprehension for texts shown either as normal pages on a computer terminal screen or as rapid serial visual presentations (RSVPs) of small text segments to a common location. Over several days of practice, reading comprehension was equivalent in the normal presentation mode and the RSVP format. When successive RSVP segments contained some information in common, to mimic the experience of successive parafoveal and foveal views of words in normal reading, comprehension was somewhat worse than when successive segments contained no overlapping information. Experiment 2 used a variety of segment size and segment duration combinations to investigate the optimal means of presenting text in the RSVP format. Across a variety of presentation rates and text difficulties, comprehension was maximal for segments averaging about 12 character spaces in length. In Experiment 3, texts were divided into short idea units or into random segments of equal average length. Comprehension was shown to be greater in the structured condition than in the random condition. An optimal means of presenting text in the RSVP format could be superior to normal presentation methods for reading and other text-processing tasks.

Comprehension of main ideas and details in coherent and noncoherent discourse by aphasic and nonaphasic listeners

Aphasic and nonaphasic listeners' comprehension of main ideas and details within coherent and noncoherent narrative discourse was examined. Coherent paragraphs contained one topic to which all sentences in the paragraph related. Noncoherent paragraphs contained a change in topic with every third or fourth sentence. Each paragraph contained four main ideas and one or more details that related to each main idea. Listeners' responses to yes/no questions following each paragraph yielded the following results: (1) Nonaphasic listeners comprehended the paragraphs better than aphasic listeners. (2) Both aphasic and nonaphasic listeners comprehended main ideas better than they comprehended details. (3) Coherence did not affect comprehension of main ideas for either group. (4) Coherence did not affect comprehension of details by nonaphasic subjects. (5) Coherence affected comprehension of details by aphasic subjects, and their comprehension of details in coherent paragraphs was worse than their comprehension of details in noncoherent paragraphs. There was no significant correlation between Token Test scores and measures of paragraph comprehension.

Comprehension of directly and indirectly stated main ideas and details in discourse by brain-damaged and non-brain-damaged listeners

Aphasic, right-hemisphere-damaged, and non-brain-damaged subjects heard short narrative paragraphs. Each paragraph contained four main ideas and one or more details related to each main idea. After each paragraph was presented, subjects' comprehension and retention of main ideas and details from the paragraph were tested. Some of the test items directly restated information from paragraphs and others paraphrased information from paragraphs. All groups of subjects remembered main ideas better than they remembered details, and no group of subjects was significantly affected by whether test items directly or indirectly stated information from paragraphs. Disfluent aphasic and right-hemisphere-damaged subjects' overall paragraph comprehension scores were not significantly poorer than those of non-brain-damaged subjects. Fluent and mixed aphasic subjects' overall paragraph comprehension scores were significantly worse than those of non-brain-damaged and right-hemisphere-damaged subjects. Token Test and Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination auditory comprehension scores did not predict aphasic subjects' paragraph comprehension scores.

The Effect of Anaphoric References and Noun Phrase Organizers on Paragraph Comprhension

Based on Halliday & Hasan's theory of textual cohesion, anaphoric references and noun phrase organizers may serve as cohesive ties linking separate sentences into unified paragraphs. It was hypothesized their presence would affect paragraph comprehension and reading time. 12 experimental paragraphs were constructed. Alternate conditions incorporated noun phrase organizers and references. 119 college students read paragraphs and completed a multiple choice recognition test. Analysis of variance indicated only the noun phrase condition was significant. Within subject repeated measures analysis of variance indicated the influence of the noun phrase organizer could be attributed to its position in the initial sentence of the paragraph. No difference in time scores by paragraph condition was indicated. That lexical but not reference items influenced memory is discussed in terms of “old” and “new” information and alternate “checking” systems.

Organization and recall of pictures and words in children

Recall and category clustering of pictures and words were investigated among Ss from the third, fourth, and sixth grades. Both recall and organization were greater among older Ss and for pictorial stimuli. Recall was correlated with scores on a standardized achievement test designed to measure paragraph comprehension (PC). The Z-score measure of clustering was found to yield more reliable and consistent results than the adjusted ratio of clustering. Some of the change in recall as a function of age was associated with both category clustering and PC scores. This finding was interpreted as supporting the view that memory does not develop as an isolated skill, but reflects the child’s developing ability to transform surface structures into abstractly organized deep structures. It was suggested that pictures are easier to recall because the transformation of surface structure representations into organized deep structures is less influenced by the context of encoding than it is in the case of words.

Visual Sequential Memory in Reading Disability

Relationships between visual sequential memory and reading in 81 normal and 43 disabled readers were investigated. The children had normal intelligence and a mean reading grade of 2.5. The mean chronological age of the normals was 8.5 years, and the mean of the disabled was 10.3. Partial correlations between three tests of visual sequential memory and three tests of reading were computed. Significant, positive associations were identified between visual sequential memory and paragraph comprehension, oral reading and word recognition. The intercorrelations of the visual memory tests were moderate indicating that these tests do not measure identical abilities. The results suggest that reading disability may derive from the lack of coordination among three different visual memory functions which are required for reading.

A nonsense test of structural meaning

There is a need for group tests of control over language structure. In an attempt to serve this need, a paper-and-pencil nonsense-word test was devised to measure ability to obtain meaning from sentence structure. It was used to explore the respective roles of lexicon and structure in the reading of normally hearing and deaf children. The test was based on structural clues to meaning described by C. C. Fries (1952) . It was given to normally hearing and deaf children 13–15 years of age. The children were also given tests of vocabulary and paragraph comprehension. Relations between the nonsense-test sections and the two reading tests were investigated and comparisons made between the normally hearing and deaf Ss. The results indicate that paper-and-pencil nonsense-word tests can be used with large groups of children in their early teens. Sections of the nonsense test correlated as highly with paragraph comprehension as did the vocabulary test for both groups of Ss.

Reading Skill as A Predictor of College Achievement

Approximately 56 per cent of the group were male students. The distribution of the students' choices of various schools within the University was as fol lows: Slightly more than half the students entered Liberal Arts. Of the remaining students, approxi mately 20 per cent entered the Business School, 20 per cent entered the Education School, and ten per cent the Engineering School. At the beginning of the testing s e s s ion, the Di agnostic Reading Test (2), survey section, form H, was administered to the students. The content and difficulty level of the test are intended for grades seven through college freshman year. The survey section has the following timed subtests which yield separate reading scores: Subtest I: general story-type reading. (1 5 min utes) Subtest II: a vocabulary test using words from mathematics, science, English, and social studies. (10 minutes) Subtest III: paragraph comprehension of subject matter from social studies and science. (15 minutes) The following scores were obtained from perfor mance on the three subtests: Score 1 a: words read per minute as recorded by the student on subtest I. Score 1 b: comprehension of subtest I at the reading rate recorded. Score 2: vocabulary from subtest H. Score 3: the sum of scores 1 b andscores on subtest HI which is comprehension of work type material. Score 4: the total of scores lb, 2, and 3, but excluding 1 a (words read per minute). In the analysis presented in the next section, scores on 1 a (rate), 2 (vocabulary), 3 (comprehen sion excluding vocabulary), and 4 (comprehe n s i o n including vocabulary) were correlated with first se mester grade point averages. Afterward, the same type of analysis was performed, but the g r a d e s in physical education and ROTC courses were excluded from the computation of grade point averages? These courses were excluded because of their non academic nature and because grades in ROTC cour ses are based largely on attendance. CONSIDERABLE emphasis has beenplaced on the relationship between reading achievement and grades in college. Evidence for the importance of this relationship has been derived from two types of research studies. The first type is represented by correlational studies in which scores on reading tests are corre lated with grades obtained at a 1 at e r time. Thus, Jackson (4) found a correlation of . 64 between the Michigan State College Reading Test and first quar ter grade point averages. In another study by Ha vens (3), a substantial positive correlation was ob tained between scores on the Cooperative Reading Comprehension Test and grades in pre-law courses* On the other hand, low or negative correlations have been reported by Preston and Bol ton (7) and Murphy and Davis (6). The second type of research study analyzes the improvement in grades shown after participation in reading programs. For example, Smith and Wood (9) found that students who had taken a reading im provement course showed a significantly greater gain in grade point average than a comparable group of students who wanted to participate but were un able to do so, and another comparable group ran domly selected from the freshman populationc Sim ilarly, Ranson (8) reported that students in a read ing program demonstrated a s i g n if icantly greater increase in grades than a comparable group of non participating students. On the other hand, Kingston and George (5) noted a reverse trend in which stu dents who had not taken a reading course made a greater improvement in grades than a group who had completed such a course. However, these au thors pointed out that the two groups were not com parable in terms of scholastic aptitude. The present study follows the design of the cor relational type of investigation. The hypothesis is that scores on a standardized reading test show a predictive relationship to college grades.