The  present  study  aimed  at  investigating  DIF  sources  on  an  EFL  reading  comprehension test.  Accordingly,  2  DIF  detection  methods,  logistic  regression  (LR)  and  item  response theory  (IRT),  were  used  to  flag  emergent  DIF  of  203  (110  females  &  93  males)  Iranian EFL examinees’ performance on a reading comprehension test. Seven hypothetical DIF sources were examin...

The current experiment investigated the effects of a dynamic spatial ability on comprehension of a geoscience text on plate tectonics and the causes of volcanic activity. 162 undergraduates (54% female) from a large public university who had little prior knowledge of this science content area were asked to learn about plate tectonics. Measures of spatial ability and working memory capacity were...

In this paper, we discuss the relative contribution of several theoretically relevant skills and abilities in accounting for variance in both word reading and text comprehension. We present data from the first and second waves of a longitudinal study, when the children were 7 to 8 years, and 8 to 9 years old. In multiple regression analyses, we show that there is a dissociation between the skil...

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 ...

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...

This study compared the nature of text comprehension as measured by multiple-choice format and open-ended format questions. Participants read a short text while explaining preselected sentences. After reading the text, participants answered open-ended and multiple-choice versions of the same questions based on their memory of the text content. The results indicated that performance on open-ende...

Purpose To investigate the capacity for self-monitoring reading comprehension in Brazilian Elementary School students. Methods Fifty-three Elementary students in the 5th and 9th grades from two Public Schools in the city of São Paulo were assessed. They were selected based on their oral reading rate and grouped according to their performance in reading comprehension in the following categorie...