The introduction and wide use of devices, especially mobile ones, has changed the way learners read and do research for a variety of reasons, and this trend has attracted a number of studies conducted regarding reading on screen and on paper in addition to those dealing with the students' behavior in using online resources to print ones. This…

Examines the semantic effect on retrieval of radicals of Japanese kanji script. Highlights a critical role that meaning plays in the activation of orthographic forms of kanji. Discusses some characteristic features of writing in kanji. (SG)

Reports a study showing that reading comprehension of college students who were poor readers increased when passages were rewritten editing out abstract nouns and verb-nominalizations and replacing them with either concrete nouns or full verbs, but that comprehension of average and good readers did not change with the revisions. (TJ)

Presents 3 experiments that examine whether Japanese readers activate phonological information when reading kanji compound words and sentences and if so, how they do it. Suggests that readers activate phonological information of two-kanji compound words when reading for comprehension but not for simple proofreading. (SG)

Investigates the influence of metaphors on text processing. Varies the degree of explicitness provided between a metaphor and new information. Finds that metaphors increase learning of the idea units strongly related to the metaphors, and thus can be used to increase learning of particular material in text. (SR)

Tests how domain-related knowledge influences inference generation during text comprehension. Examines local and global inferences. Finds that all knowledge groups process sentences involved in local inferences similarly, but not global inferences. Suggests that individuals with prior knowledge use their knowledge actively to generate global…

Examines the effects of the characteristics of narrative text on generation of thematic inference. Indicates that generation of thematic inference depended on the interaction between the goal of the protagonist and the outcome of a text. Investigates the effects of the title, the goal of the protagonist and the final outcome of a narrative text on…

Identifies and describes major factors interacting with readability measures in 36 experimental studies analyzing the validity of such measures. (RB)

Describes a study in which it was found that informational background has some effect on reading speed and comprehension. (TJ)

Investigates the impact of causal discourse markers (connectives and signaling phrases) on the comprehension of expository texts in a first language (L1) and a second language (L2). Indicates that readers benefit from the presence of causal relational markers both in L1 and in L2. Discusses implications for (theories of) text processing as well as…

Tests how well two models of text comprehension (one referential and one causal) predicted the importance ratings and the recall of procedural texts. Finds better predictive power of the causal model for importance ratings; neither model performed well with recall; and neither model was as predictive of procedural text as they were in previous…

Finds that the updating of situation models is achieved by accessing both locational and temporal links in the knowledge-based spatial representation. (SR)

Assesses the effects of headings on text processing behaviors during immediate and delayed testing of 65 undergraduate students. Finds that headings did not appear to affect overall comprehension or overall answer location accuracy. (MG)

Investigates whether individual differences in working-memory (WM) capacity are related to the ways readers use inferences to facilitate text comprehension. Finds several differences between low-memory-span and high-memory-span readers. Notes that readers with adequate WM capacity can keep interpretations open ended and await more information from…

Presents and tests a theoretically derived causal model of the recall of sentences. Notes that the causal model identifies familiarity and concreteness as causes of comprehensibility; familiarity, concreteness, and comprehensibility as causes of interestingness; and all the identified variables as causes of both immediate and delayed recall.…