ies research conference 2009 reducing the complexities of reading comprehension: a simplifying...

IES Research Conference 2009

Reducing the Complexities of Reading Comprehension: A Simplifying Framework

Charles Perfetti


Overview Critical Preliminaries

The comprehension problem What is comprehension? Building mental models word by word

Comprehensive Comprehension Processes, knowledge, and strategies A medium-grain cognitive framework

Simplifying Frameworks Pressure points A simplified framework

Implications


The comprehension problem National Assessment of

Educational Progress (NAEP): 1 of 3 fourth-graders and 1 of 4 eighth-graders cannot read at the basic level. That is, when reading grade appropriate material, these students do not understand what they read ---IES Reading for Understanding


Even adults can have trouble understanding written texts

"By God, for a minute there it suddenly all made sense."


What do we mean by “comprehension”? Comprehension is defined as “intentional

thinking during which meaning is constructed through interactions between text and reader” (Harris &Hodges, 1995). Thus, readers derive meaning from text when they engage in intentional, problem solving thinking processes.

---National Reading Panel 2000


A simpler idea: learning to read with comprehension is learning to understand writing as well as one understands spoken language

“We can expect the comprehension of written language to approximate the comprehension of spoken language. When that happens, then reading comprehension has developed, for practical purposes, to its limiting or asymptotic level. …All other limitations are imposed by linguistic abilities, relevant knowledge, and general intelligence. If we make things more complex than this, we push onto the concept of reading comprehension all these other important aspects of cognition, with the muddle that results from conceptual conflation.”

----Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M. J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227-247). Oxford: Blackwell.


Too simple? We accept, approximately and in an idealized form,

the assumption that reading comprehension is the joint product of printed word identification and listening comprehension, an idea famously asserted by Gough and Tunmer (1986) as a simple view of reading. However, we also must assume that learning to read with comprehension brings … additional complexities…

----Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M. J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227-247). Oxford: Blackwell.


The text and the mind “…researchers working in the area of

reading comprehension have shown repeatedly that meaning does not exist in text.”

--Alvermann & Eakle, p. 14 (in Sweet & Snow, Rethinking reading comprehension 2003)


Well, yes but The application of the symbolic principle (a

language form is a symbol for meaning) is constrained by the language that implements it.

1. The dog bit the man2. The man bit the dog3. Likud members will not react favorably to the

President’s speech.4. Likud members will react favorably to the

President’s speech


A definition that includes the text Reading comprehension “the process

of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through inter- action and involvement with written language. It consists of three elements: the reader, the text, and the activity or purpose for reading.” ---p.viii, Report of Rand Reading Study Group, 2002.


Building a mental model from a text

“Comprehension occurs as the reader builds a mental representation of a text message.”

----Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005).

Mental model

Word 1

Each word is fit into mental models (multiple structures) to the extent possible

Text messages are understood (and mental models are built) word by word

Mental model

Word 2



Mental model

Word 3



Mental model

Word 4




2. Comprehensive Comprehension: More than we need for some purposes?

The complex processes of comprehension: Three non-independent aspects Processes Knowledge Strategies


What are reading comprehension strategies? Reading Comprehension Strategies: Theories,

Interventions, and technologies (Danielle McNamara, Ed.) Erlbaum/ Taylor & Francis, 2007)

Many interesting chapters on comprehension strategies

Definition of reading comprehension strategy: A cognitive or behavioral action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions with the goal of improving some aspect of comprehension. Art Graesser, page 6.


Comprehension Processes:Strategies

1. Making connections

2. Questioning

3. Visualizing

4. Inferring

5. Determining importance

6. Synthesizing

7. Monitoring

8. Metacognition

9. Answering questions

10. Recognizing story structure

11. Summarizing


Strategies that can be taught effectively (according the NRP) NRP report (2000) identified 16

categories of text comprehension instruction; 7 concluded to have a solid scientific basis

1. Comprehension monitoring2. Cooperative learning (where children

learn reading strategies together)3. Graphic and semantic organizers4. Question answering5. Question generation6. Story structure7. Summarization


A possible advantage of strategies that focus attention on what the text says?

McKeown & Beck IES study (J Ed Psych, in press)

Strategies: Predicting Summarizing Making inferences Generating questions Comprehension monitoring

Content focus: Questioning the Author Content focus produced better comprehension


Frameworks for reading comprehension Caveat: frameworks vs models Grain size issues

Useful frameworks range between 3 and 20 components

Trade-offs of completeness with simplicity


One with 4 Components: Rand Ready Study Group Report (2002):

A heuristic for thinking about reading comprehension


A cognitive framework An (almost) consensual framework of

medium grain size• Perfetti, C. A. (1999). Comprehending written language: A blueprint of the

reader. In C. Brown & P. Hagoort (Eds.), The neurocognition of language (pp. 167-208). Oxford University Press.

• Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M. J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227-247). Oxford: Blackwell.

Vis

ual I

nput

Linguistic and Writing System Knowledge

Linguistic SystemPhonology, Syntax, Morphology

Orthographic SystemMapping to phonology

Orthographic

Units

PhonologicalUnits

Wor

dId

enti

fica

tion

Lexicon

MeaningMorphologySyntax - argument structure - thematic roles M

ean

ing

and

For

m S

elec

tion Parser

ComprehensionProcesses

Situationmodel

Text Representation In

fere

nces

NonLinguistic (conceptual) knowledge

Perfetti (1999); Perfetti, Landi & Oakhill, 2005

Vis

ual I

nput




Orthographic

Units

PhonologicalUnits

Wor

dId

enti

fica

tion

Lexicon


ean

ing

and

For

m S

elec

tion Parser


Situationmodel


fere

nces


Control ProcessesAttention

StrategiesMonitoring

Perfetti (1999); Perfetti, Landi & Oakhill, 2005


3. Simplifying frameworks

To highlight broad components that are pressure points for comprehension problems


Pressure Points Processes

Word Identification Word Meaning

Selection

Sentence meaning

Text integration Successive sentences

Global Text Meaning Gist; (summaries)

Knowledge sources Word form Word meaning + local

text meaning

Word meaning + syntax

Sentence meaning +

referential word meaning All relevant knowledge

from text


A focus on word meanings

Lexicon


ean

ing

and

For

m S

elec

tion Parser


Situationmodel

Text Representation

Infe

renc

es

23% below median on comprehension component but above median on lexical component

9% had the reverse pattern: Above median on Comp, below on Lexical

Lexical Component

N= 799

Scatter Plot of subjects’ normalized component scores following factor analysis and rotation

Comprehension Component

N. Landi dissertation (University. of Pittsburgh adult sample)

Word knowledge and Comprehension

Word knowledge Lexical Quality and Comprehension (Perfetti &

Hart, 2001; 2002; Perfetti 2007) General relationships between comprehension and

knowledge of both Word meaning Word form

Meaning: Word learning Skilled comprehenders (ERPs) show stronger

recognition of a word learning episode (Perfetti, Wlotko, & hart, 2005)

Meaning: Word to text integration Skilled comprehenders (ERPs) show stronger

integration of word meanings across sentences in text (Perfetti, Yang, Schmalhofer (2008)

Form: Stability of orthographic word representations

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Spelling instability in adult readers

Is this a correct spelling, yes or no?


Simplification Options Processes or Knowledge

Process1. Decoding

2. Meaning selection

3. Proposition extraction

4. Mental model building

Knowledge1. Orthography2. Linguistic

Knowledge3. Word knowledge4. Nonlinguistic

(Conceptual) knowledge

Vis

ual I

nput




Orthographic

Units

PhonologicalUnits

Wor

dId

enti

fica

tion

Lexicon


ean

ing

and

For

m S

elec

tion Parser


Situationmodel


fere

nces

1

4

3

2


Vis

ual I

nput




Orthographic

Units

PhonologicalUnits

Wor

dId

enti

fica

tion

Lexicon


ean

ing

and

For

m S

elec

tion

Parser


Situationmodel

Text Representation

Infe

renc

es


3

4

21


Word Identification

Meaning Selection

Situation

ModelBuilding

Proposition Extraction

A simplified process framework of reading comprehension

Word knowledge

Conceptual knowledge

Linguistic Knowledge

A Simplified Knowledge Framework of Reading Comprehension

Word knowledge



Attention

The Simplified Knowledge Framework of Reading Comprehension

Word knowledge



Attention


text

Word knowledge



Text knowledge

Attention


text


What about spoken language?

1. Correlations of spoken and written language increase with educational levels approaching .9 in adult sample

2. Spoken language is the source of much of the relevant knowledge


What about Comprehension Strategies?

They are implicit in the framework: Attention and control processes are about strategies.

The central strategy is active engagement with a text with the intention of understanding.

1. This can include comprehension monitoring, question asking, question answering, summarization, and others


Engagement vs Mindless reading Engagement: The reader is motivated to

understand the text and seeks to do so. High Standard for Coherence (van den

Broek et al, 1995)


Mindless reading: evidence that cognition is altered Cognitive processes partially control eye-

movements Reichle & Schooler research

Adult readers; Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. 50 chapters, 7-17 pages per chapter up to 25 lines per page. Self Paced reading. Trained to hit the Z key when they caught themselves thinking about something else

In 12-15 hours of reading, readers caught zone outs 8-36 times (ave 23)

Highly accurate in self-catching: Experimenter controlled Probes produced average of 9% additional zone out reports


Mindless reading results Normal Self-caught ZO

No. of fixations 37.7 28.1

Off text fixations

0.2 2.6

Length effect + 0

Frequency effect

+ 0


Attention So the framework needs attention and

control; otherwise the cognitive part doesn’t work

Comprehension monitoring is the central strategy for controlling attention


Limitations: What complexities are needed? Knowledge must not be inert.

Support for using knowledge Complex text environments

Multiple texts Using texts for arguments and problem

solving


4. Implications of Simplification:

1. The basics of comprehension1. Word knowledge

Form and meaning

2. Language knowledge 3. Conceptual knowledge4. Text knowledge5. A “habits of mind”

High standards for coherence and engagement


Implications of Simplification Focus on fewer problems

But must understand the underlying complexities Hypothesize privileged pressure points

Word meaning and conceptual knowledge Engagement Others

May encourage research that leads to educational improvement


Variability in word episodes: Evidence for a

pressure point Hart, B., & Risley, R. T. (1995). Meaningful differences in

the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Words heard per hour

Words heard per week

Words heard per year

4 years

Welfare 616 62,000 3 million 13 million

Working Class

1,251 125,000 6 million 26 million

Professional 2,153 215,000 11 million 45 million


IES Reading Initiative The Reading for Understanding Research Initiative

(Reading Initiative) is intended to support applied basic research to (a) identify underlying processes that are malleable and potential targets for intervention, (b) develop and evaluate interventions (e.g., instructional approaches, curricula, technology, teacher professional development programs) to improve reading comprehension for students in prekindergarten through Grade 12, and (c) develop and validate

assessments of reading comprehension.


Simplicity is a mixed virtue

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

--H.L.Mencken


An engaged reader

ies research conference 2009 reducing the complexities of reading comprehension: a simplifying...

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