The current study examined the extent to which the cohesion detected in readers' constructed responses to multiple documents was predictive of persuasive, source-based essay quality. Participants (N=95) completed multiple-documents reading tasks wherein they were prompted to think-aloud, self-explain, or evaluate the sources while reading a set of…

Dialogism provides the grounds for building a comprehensive model of discourse and it is focused on the multiplicity of perspectives (i.e., voices). Dialogism can be present in any type of text, while voices become themes or recurrent topics emerging from the discourse. In this study, we examine the extent that differences between…

This study investigates how cohesion manifests in readers' thought processes while reading texts when they are instructed to engage in self-explanation, a strategy associated with deeper, more successful comprehension. In Study 1, college students (n = 21) were instructed to either paraphrase or self-explain science texts. Paraphrasing was…

A framework is proposed in which on-line activities occurring during comprehension are explicitly tied to the memory representation of a story. The framework, referred to as the "landscape" framework, is used to implement a process model that assumes that readers attempt to explain story events in terms of their causal antecedents. An…

College students (n=24) read passages marked for think-aloud (TA) procedure, not marked for TA, and control (no TA). The marked procedure elicited more veridical protocols, and students who scored high on the comprehension test were more likely to have made many TA comments reflecting a knowledge-transforming approach to the text. (SLD)

This paper reports the results of a think-aloud study that investigated the comprehension processes of 10 Chinese English as a Second Language college students as they read texts in English. All participants were asked to read two English passages and think aloud as they read them. After reading each passage, the students answered 20…

This paper addresses how rereading can improve comprehension of second language college texts, describing a pilot study that examined what happens when people reread. The study involved two female Japanese college students enrolled in a U.S. university. The women were asked to do think-aloud protocols while individually reading a section of an…

A study examined how students use their prior knowledge and experience to help them understand a text, and how that influences what they recall from the text. Subjects, 46 sixth graders from 3 elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee, were tape recorded as they thought aloud while reading either a passage on "sugar" or a passage on…

A study determined what comprehension strategies either contributed to literary engagement or inhibited engagement among adolescents. Subjects, 25 eleventh-grade students chosen at random from two heterogeneous English classes in a suburban school, read two short stories and reported their thinking and understanding as they were reading.…

A study examined the relative merits of characteristics of general modeling when applied to cognitive modeling of reading comprehension processes and whether the characteristics of modeling, when applied to cognitive modeling of reading processes, influence comprehension and comprehension monitoring. Subjects, 100 eighth grade students who could…

The comparability of computerized and paper-and-pencil tests was examined from cognitive perspective, using verbal protocols rather than psychometric methods, as the primary mode of inquiry. Reading comprehension items from the Graduate Record Examinations were completed by 48 college juniors and seniors, half of whom took the computerized test…

A study investigated the effectiveness of training students in think-aloud procedure to improve reading comprehension. Subjects were two groups of Taiwanese university students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). In the first week, a think-aloud training session was given to one group. Then both groups were asked to read an English passage and…

A study examined the ways in which college readers interact with literary texts. The method of interviews and think-along protocols, in which a text was read aloud by the subject while he simultaneously verbalized his thoughts, was used to compare the reading processes of eight college freshman to those of eight masters students in literature who…

A study aimed to discover a correspondence between the thinking processes and textual structures of six eleventh graders. In a predominantly White, middle class rural high school, six students were selected to think aloud as they read two essays written as part of two assignments for their advanced English classes. The six were selected based on…

A study investigated the differences between what advanced and remedial high school readers do while reading a short story. Subjects were three seniors nominated by their literature teachers as being expert high school readers of literature, and three junior level students who were all reading about two grade levels below the junior level…