Learning involves complex cognitive processes such as perception, attention, and memory, with reading being a common method to acquire knowledge. Textbooks are often supplemented with additional materials such as self-test questions and demonstration tasks to enhance learning. However, the impact of these supplemental materials, especially when…

When learning from texts, it is not only important that learners remember and comprehend the content, but also that they monitor and accurately judge their memory and comprehension so as to efficiently regulate their learning. In the present experiment with 51 university students, we investigated to what extent headings within texts promote these…

Background: Research shows that providing readers with a title prior to reading a passage increases comprehension compared with reading a passage without a title. However, the specific type of comprehension that is facilitated by the presence of a title and how this relates to reading time has not been examined. We present three experiments in…

Developing English reading fluency (ERF) is challenging due to cross-linguistic differences between L1 and L2. This study replicated, with modifications, prior study of "syntactic enhancement and secondary school EFL Students' reading fluency in South Korea." The current project investigated the impact of visual-syntactic text formatting…

Typical print formatting provides no information regarding the linguistic features of a text, although texts vary considerably with respect to grammatical complexity and readability. Complex texts may be particularly challenging for individuals with weak language knowledge, such as English language learners. This paper investigates the usefulness…

Social networks are dynamic, accessible virtual planes of communication, through which users carry out the cross-border and transient exchange of information and emotions, meeting their communication needs. The article outlines the main aspects of written communication, its communicative needs, and the ambiguity of interpretations. The constant…

This study was qualitative content analysis that evaluated the quality of English for University Teaching (EUT), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) textbooks through impressionistic and in-depth analysis. The participants were 9 EAP teachers and 15 EAP students from three universities in Surakarta,…

Previous work has ostensibly shown that readers rapidly adapt to less predictable ambiguity resolutions after repeated exposure to unbalanced statistical input (e.g., a high number of reduced relative-clause garden-path sentences), and that these readers grow to disfavor the a priori more frequent (e.g. main verb) resolution after exposure (Fine,…

Dyslexie is a specialized font style that was designed to enhance reading performance in students with reading disabilities. The present study sought to examine Dyslexie's impact, compared to two commonly used fonts, on reading performance while controlling for Dyslexie's large size and spacing. We recruited 36 fourth and fifth grade students…

Unlike alphabetic languages, Chinese text marks no word demarcation. Previous research inserted word-demarcating spaces into Chinese text but found inconsistent effects on reading efficiency. To address the potential trade-off effects of the additional length caused by inserted spaces, this study introduces color-and-font formatting as a word…

Semantic illusions are recognition errors that occur when an individual fails to notice that information contradicts their prior knowledge (Barton & Sanford, 1993; Erickson & Mattson, 1981). For example, after hearing the question, "If a plane crashes while flying over state lines, where should the survivors be buried?" many…

The replacement of Times New Roman (TNR--serif) with Calibri (sans serif) as default typeface on Microsoft Office Word reflects the growing prevalence of screen-based reading. The change also points to a festering conflict in the literature on the readability and legibility of serif and sans serif typefaces in print and computer-based platforms.…

Children now use digital devices for learning and leisure activities. The study assessed children's ability to read from computers, smartphones and printed sheets. We provided 60 children aged seven to ten years with reading material and recorded the time taken by them to complete reading and their navigation pattern and eye movements using…

The present study examined children's digital text comprehension of digital text types linear digital text vs hypertext, with or without graphical navigable overviews. We investigated to what extent individual variation in children's comprehension could be explained by lexical quality (word reading efficiency and vocabulary knowledge), cognitive…

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the suitability of adult drug court handbooks for participants with low literacy. Methods: A convenience sample of seven drug court participant handbooks from urban drug courts in three regions of the USA were assessed for reading and literacy suitability for low-literacy learners using the…