On a daily basis, most people read about issues of interest from a diversity of sources. Moreover, the information they encounter frequently encompass discrepancies, ranging from minor inconsistencies to straight contradictions. Readers may construct coherent representations from discrepant contents by linking contents to their respective sources…

This study examined the effect of the reading environment, i.e., documents presentation and possibility of text-highlighting, on readers' integrated understanding, as well as the interplay between the reading environment and overt reading processes (i.e., online integrative processes) in forming intertextual connections. University students (N…

Background: During digital reading on internet-connected devices, students may be exposed to a variety of on-screen distractions. Learning by reading can therefore become a fragmented experience with potentially negative consequences for reading processes and outcomes. Objectives: This study investigated the effects of on-screen distractions, as…

This article uses the findings from an empirical study on Hong Kong students' reading practices as collected through face-to-face interviews on major university campuses in Hong Kong to argue for the importance of "affective" and "imaginative" engagement with literary texts if students are to develop an interest in reading.…

Reading process has always been one of the most significant and debatable topics in the area of learning and teaching languages. Reading process in mother tongue (L1) and in a foreign language (L2), the association of these processes, variables affecting reading and the qualities of good and poor readers in L1 and L2 have been investigated…

The present study examined how insertion of spaces before and after a word affects saccade target selection in Chinese reading. We found that inserting spaces in Chinese text changes the eye movement behaviour of Chinese readers. They are less likely to fixate on the character near the space and will try their best to process the entire word with…

Two experiments examined parafoveal preview for words located in the middle of sentences and at sentence boundaries. Parafoveal processing was shown to occur for words at sentence-initial, mid-sentence, and sentence-final positions. Both Experiments 1 and 2 showed reduced effects of preview on regressions out for sentence-initial words. In…

This work examined how adjunct displays influence college readers' moment-by-moment processing of text and the products of reading, using reading time (Experiments 1 & 2), and think-aloud methodologies (Experiment 3). Participants did or did not study a diagram before reading a text. Overall, the reading time data, think-aloud data, and recall…

This article reports on two studies investigating reader stance, navigation, and response in expository hypertext. Subjects in the studies included 69 and 147 adult readers prompted to adopt either an efferent or aesthetic stance when reading a 36-node expository hypertext. Reading was followed by recall and essay writing tasks. Results of the…

Studies the ways readers create meaning initially from literary texts. Analyzes the data collected via think-aloud protocols and interviews. Compares reading tactics of first-year college students and graduate students. (HB)

A study investigated the effects of text processing orientations and reader-generated versus text-based comprehension aids on readers' comprehension of expository text. The processing orientations included memory-oriented processing, organization-oriented processing, understanding-oriented processing, and a read and study control. Subjects, 136…

As part of a series of studies describing the oculomotor behavior of skilled readers, a study investigated whether a word refixation curve exists. Subjects, 66 college students fixating over 40,000 times, read lines of text from a computer screen and were instructed to read for meaning without regard to errors. Results of eye movement control…

Examined whether activating conditional knowledge about appropriate strategies for studying a text would enhance self-efficacy and comprehension monitoring in college students. Found that subjects in the activation condition outperformed those in the control condition on reading comprehension monitoring and on comprehension performance but not on…

To examine the effectiveness of various writing devices, a study used Richard Carter's Signalled Stopping Technique (SST) to compare these devices as used in two student-authored science stories. The SST indicates how messages are mentally processed, and uses the following seven stops: (1) C (confusion); (2) R (reread); (3) Q (question); (4) T…

This paper focuses on methods to improve the reading abilities of college students. A list of five elements college instructors (who are not reading specialists) should establish in a content reading agenda is offered; (1) an instructional basis for the reading process which will work for them; (2) content literacy environments; (3) insights into…