Aging may be associated with an increase in generalized text processing, particularly in adults older than 75 years. The current study examined text comprehension in young, young-old, and old-old adults. Experiment 1 included a comprehension measure (product) and Experiment 2 examined inferences generated during reading (process). Comprehension scores were lowest in old-old adults. Generalized ...

Higher-level graphical and lexical punctuation (paragraphing, indentation, font changes, ...) must be taken into consideration in comprehension processes and text generation. In this paper, we analyse a class of text punctuation marks which includes lexical units (chapter, introduction). We give a method for the analysis of the semantics of these units, in terms of metalanguage. In addition, th...

There has been a considerable suggestion in the literature that syntactic adaptation of a text would simplify it. This empirical study determined that the complexity of the syntax does not significantly affect the level of reading comprehension. While a complete conceptual and lexical analysis may be necessary for reading comprehension, a thorough syntactic analysis is not. This should be true ...

When reading, we frequently find ourselves thinking about something other than the text. These attentional lapses, known as mind wandering (MW), are negatively correlated with text comprehension. Previous studies have shown that more syntactically and semantically difficult texts elicit more MW, because textual difficulty impedes the construction of a mental model of the text, which makes it mo...

It is still not known how to define causality, although its importance has much been stressed in psychology, including text comprehension. The example of gravitation is presented, showing that causality has a surprisingly variable definition. The distinction between epistemological, ontological, and psychological questionings is proposed, in order to clarify earlier theoretical contributions ab...

BACKGROUND Surgical informed consent forms can be complicated for patients to read and understand. We created a consent form with key information presented in bulleted texts and diagrams combined in a graphical format to facilitate the understanding of information during the verbal consent discussion. METHODS This prospective, randomized study involved 70 adult patients awaiting cholecystecto...

The purpose of the present piece is to integrate some current theories of text comprehension with the body of work on metacomprehension, and especially the calibration of comprehension monitoring. This paper explores some important methodological and conceptual issues, inspired by current theories in the text comprehension literature, which suggest that the nature of the texts used for metacomp...

Two experiments explored concept map construction as a useful intervention to improve metacomprehension accuracy among 7 grade students. In the first experiment, metacomprehension was marginally better for a concept mapping group than for a rereading group. In the second experiment, metacomprehension accuracy was significantly greater for a concept mapping group than for a control group—a group...

This study investigates the possibilities of fostering learning based on differences in recall and comprehension after learning with texts which were presented in one of three modalities: either in a spoken, written, or sung version. All three texts differ regarding their processing, especially when considering working memory. Overall, we assume the best recall performance after learning with t...