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In two self-paced, sentence-by-sentence reading experiments we examined the difference in the processing of Spanish discourses with repeated names, overt pronouns, and null pronouns in emphatic and non-emphatic contexts. In Experiment 1, repeated names and overt pronouns caused a processing delay when they referred to salient antecedents in non-emphatic contexts. In Experiment 2, both processing delays were eliminated when an emphatic cleft-structure was used. The processing delay caused by overt pronouns referring to salient antecedents in non-emphatic contexts in Spanish contrasts with previous findings in Chinese, where null and overt pronouns elicited similar reading times. We explain both our Spanish ...

In two self-paced, sentence-by-sentence reading experiments we examined the difference in the processing of Spanish discourses with repeated names, overt pronouns, and null pronouns in emphatic and non-emphatic contexts. In Experiment 1, repeated names and overt pronouns caused a processing delay when they referred to salient antecedents in non-emphatic contexts. In Experiment 2, both processing delays were eliminated when an emphatic cleft-structure was used. The processing delay caused by overt pronouns referring to salient antecedents in non-emphatic contexts in Spanish contrasts with previous findings in Chinese, where null and overt pronouns elicited similar reading times. We explain both our Spanish ...

We studied how the integration of small visualizations (wordscale visualizations) into a sentence affects reading speed and memorization during a brief reading task. In particular, we were interested in how different placement types—with their inherent text appearance and layout changes—affect readers. We designed a quantitative study in which we gave sentences with or without visualizations for participants to read. Then, we invited them to answer questions on the sentences. We found that the information encoded in the visualizations is more prominent and easily remembered than information in the written text, but that different placement options had little to no ...

In response to the concern of the need to improve the scientific skills of school children, this study investigated the influence of text design (in terms of text cohesion) and individual differences, with the aim of identifying pathways to improving science education in early secondary school (Key Stage 3). One hundred and four secondary school children (56 females, 48 males), aged 12–13 years took part in the study. To assess the influence of local cohesion (lexical and grammatical links between adjacent sentences) in science texts, we measured students' comprehension (through multiple choice questions) of science text that was high and ...

The goal of this study was to examine predictions derived from the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (Perfetti & Hart, 2002; Perfetti, 2007) regarding relations among word-decoding, working-memory capacity, and the ability to integrate new concepts into a developing discourse representation. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to quantify the effects of two text properties (length and number of new concepts) on reading times of focal and spillover sentences, with variance in those effects estimated as a function of individual difference factors (decoding, vocabulary, print exposure, and working-memory capacity). The analysis revealed complex, cross-level interactions that complement the Lexical Quality Hypothesis. ...

When reading conflicting science-related texts, readers may attend to cues which allow them to assess plausibility. One such plausibility cue is the use of graphs in the texts, which are regarded as typical of ‘hard science’. The goal of our study was to investigate the effects of the presence of graphs on the perceived plausibility and situation model strength for conflicting science-related texts, while including the influence of readers’ amount of experience with scientific texts and graphs as a potential moderator of these effects. In an experiment mimicking web-based informal learning, 77 university students read texts on controversial scientific issues ...

In order to assess the effects of attention guiding during the learning of a multimedia document comprising static diagrams and spoken explanations, we recorded the eye movements of participants exposed to a digital learning environment either with or without visual cues. As predicted, the presence of cues (an item changing colour when it was verbally evoked) limited the amount of time spent fixating the less relevant areas of the interface, thereby allowing for more synchronized processing of the visual and auditory sources of information that referred to each other, and better learning (though not deep comprehension) of the signalled information. ...

Despite the dynamic and interactive features of digital text, the visual design guidelines for digital text are similar to those for printed text. The purpose of this study was to develop visual design guidelines for improving learning from dynamic and interactive digital text and to validate them by controlled testing. Two structure design guidelines (for enhancing text structure comprehension) and two selective-attention design guidelines (for maintaining the learners' attention on the essential contents) were developed based on the psychological and instructional, technological foundations that can affect the visual design of digital text. In this study, a 2 × 2 factorial design with ...

This study aimed to understand the relationship between mobile device screen display size (laptops and smartphones) and text segmentation (continuous text, medium text segments, and small text segments) on learning outcomes, cognitive load, and user perception. This quantitative study occurred during the spring semester of 2015. Seven hundred and seventy-one chemistry students from a higher education university completed one of nine treatments in this 3x3 research design. Data collection took place over four class periods. The study revealed that learning outcomes were not affected by the mobile screen display size or orientation, nor was working memory. However, user perception was ...

The present set of 7 experiments systematically examined the effectiveness of adding causal explanations to simple refutations in reducing or eliminating the impact of outdated information on subsequent comprehension. The addition of a single causal-explanation sentence to a refutation was sufficient to eliminate any measurable disruption in comprehension caused by the outdated information (Experiment 1) but was not sufficient to eliminate its reactivation (Experiment 2). However, a 3 sentence causal-explanation addition to a refutation eliminated both any measurable disruption in comprehension (Experiment 3) and the reactivation of the outdated information (Experiment 4). A direct comparison between the 1 and 3 ...