Reading skills are fundamental for success in school and society. Research has shown that struggling readers need intensive interventions to improve their reading skills. The purpose of this study...Show moreReading skills are fundamental for success in school and society. Research has shown that struggling readers need intensive interventions to improve their reading skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two individualized online reading tutoring interventions – UIL (Universal Instruction for Literacy) and RA (Read-Along) – on the word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension skills of struggling readers in grades 4 and 5 (N=52). The UIL intervention involved direct, explicit reading instruction, whereas the RA intervention focused on increasing the amount of reading that students did. Both interventions were compared to a wait-list, business-as-usual (BAU) control group. Reading skills were measured via CBM word reading, CBM reading aloud, and CBM maze-selection tasks. Results revealed that students in the intervention conditions (UIL and RA) made significantly greater pre-posttest gains in word reading skills than did students in BAU control condition. Additionally, students in the UIL and RA made significantly greater pre-posttest gains in reading fluency and in restoring meaning to the text than did students in the BAU condition; however, these results were seen only for instructional texts, not for transfer texts. The results of the study suggest that providing extra, intensive 1:1 reading intervention to struggling readers in grades 4 and 5 may increase their reading skills; however, the extent to which such skill improvements transfer to material not practiced during instruction is in question.Show less
Abstract The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of personal interest on reading comprehension. All eighteen participants received three texts that fit their personal interests...Show moreAbstract The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of personal interest on reading comprehension. All eighteen participants received three texts that fit their personal interests (high interest condition) and three texts that did not (low interest condition). After the participants read the texts, their reading comprehension was measured using two types of text questions. In addition, a measure of overall reading motivation was obtained. By differentiating between literal and bridging questions, the current study aimed to get insights into the underlying cognitive processes of reading comprehension. Repeated Measures ANOVA’ s did not show a significant effect of personal interest on reading comprehension, nor when using literal or bridging questions as outcome variables. There was neither an interaction-effect of overall reading motivation. The lack of significant results could be explained by a ceiling effect. An exploratory analysis showed significant chi-square relationship between personal interest and prior knowledge. Overall, we concluded that the study should be repeated with younger participants before final conclusions can be drawn. To get deeper understanding of the underlying cognitive processes, future research should also incorporate on-line measurements of reading comprehension. Abstract (Nederlands) Het voornaamste doel van de huidige studie was om de invloed van persoonlijke interesse op tekstbegrip te onderzoeken. Alle achttien participanten kregen drie teksten toegewezen over onderwerpen die bij hun persoonlijke voorkeur pasten (hoge interesse conditie) en drie onderwerpen die dat niet deden (lage interesse conditie). Na het lezen werd tekstbegrip met twee type tekstvragen gemeten en aanvullend werd een meting gedaan van de algemene leesmotivatie. Door onderscheid te maken tussen letterlijke en overbruggende tekstvragen werd voorzichtig beoogd inzicht te verkrijgen in onderliggende begripsprocessen. Repeated measures ANOVA ’s liet en geen significant effect zien van persoonlijke interesse op het tekstbegrip, ook niet met letterlijke- of overbruggende vragen als uitkomstvariabelen. Er was ook geen interactie-effect met algemene leesmotivatie. Het uitblijven van een effect zou verklaard kunnen worden door een plafondeffect. Met een exploratieve chi-kwadraattoets werd wel een significant resultaat gevonden wat suggereerde dat de mate van voorkennis samenhangt met persoonlijke interesse. Geconcludeerd werd dat de huidige studie zou moeten worden herhaald met jongere participanten voordat sluitende conclusies kunnen worden getrokken. Om dieper inzicht te verkrijgen in onderliggende begripsprocessen, zijn vervolgstudies nodig waarbij ook daadwerkelijk een meting tijdens het lezen wordt gedaan.Show less
A quarter of students is not able to read reasonably well at the end of elementary school. The number of students that voluntarily read in their spare time is also decreasing. However, reading is...Show moreA quarter of students is not able to read reasonably well at the end of elementary school. The number of students that voluntarily read in their spare time is also decreasing. However, reading is an important presentation mode in order to understand information. The ability to process information is important in order to function in society. The purpose of this thesis is to research which factors influence story comprehension. The effect of presentation mode, child-specific-factors and reading skills on the ability to understand information was investigated. For instance, the influence of a reading comprehension-test and the class-level on the comprehension scores for each presentation mode was examined. Furthermore, the effect of the level of intrinsic reading-motivation and the frequency of reading in spare time on the scores of comprehension for reading was investigated. An experiment was carried out in which 82 students from grade 4, 5 and 6 answered comprehension questions about three stories that they have read, listened to and viewed. The participants also filled in questionnaires about reading, listening and viewing frequency and about intrinsic motivation. The analysis of the results showed that scores for comprehension differed between text and video, but not between audio and the other presentation modes. The highest scores are reached by viewing a story. The results showed also that the effect of presentation mode on the level of story comprehension is not different for various reading comprehension-test scores and class-levels. Eventually, only a small part of the comprehension score can be explained by intrinsic reading-motivation and the amount of reading in spare time. Intrinsic reading-motivation is the best explainer for this relationship. Implications for theory and practice were also discussed. Follow-up research could for example focus on different aspects of story comprehension, like retelling a story or predicting how a story will continue.Show less
The CBM maze task scores must reflect all skills required for reading for it to be used as a measure of general reading proficiency. The main purpose of the current study was to find out whether...Show moreThe CBM maze task scores must reflect all skills required for reading for it to be used as a measure of general reading proficiency. The main purpose of the current study was to find out whether the CBM maze task scores reflect reading comprehension because, despite evidence for the reliability and validity of the maze task as a measure of general reading performance, there are questions about the extent to which the maze task scores reflect reading comprehension. The second purpose was to find out whether gender is an influential factor affecting the performance on the maze task. The current study had an experimental design because the format of the maze, which was the within-subjects factor, was manipulated. All 44 participants in the study completed both standard and scrambled mazes. The coherence of the scrambled maze texts was distorted by randomly shuffling the order of the sentences. Thus, if the participants score significantly higher on the standard mazes than on the non-coherent scrambled mazes, it would mean that CBM maze scores reflect reading comprehension. A two-way mixed ANOVA was performed to answer the research questions. The study revealed that participants obtained significantly higher scores on the standard mazes than on the scrambled mazes, supporting the hypothesis that CBM maze scores reflect reading comprehension. A statistically significant main effect of gender was found, however, there was no statistically significant interaction between the gender of the participants and the maze format on the maze scores. More research is needed to find out whether gender plays a significant role in the performance on maze tasks. The finding that CBM maze task scores reflect reading comprehension supports the use of the CBM maze as a measure of general reading proficiency.Show less
Leisure time reading is often stimulated in primary and secondary school, because of its expected benefits in language and reading development. In this thesis, a meta-analysis was performed to...Show moreLeisure time reading is often stimulated in primary and secondary school, because of its expected benefits in language and reading development. In this thesis, a meta-analysis was performed to examine the relationship between reading behaviour and receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, combined vocabulary and reading comprehension in primary and secondary school students. A total number of 30 studies (4.769 students) were included. As expected, a medium to large effect was found for all four outcome measures. This is in line with results from previous research. Since girls happen to read more and more often than boys, it was expected that gender would be a significant predictor of the effects. This hypothesis was not confirmed in this meta-analysis. This may be explained by the fact that the reported gender percentages in the respective studies were not similar to the actual gender distribution in the final analyses. Researchers sometimes reported that participants were excluded in the analysis of our variables of interest, without stating the exact number of boys and girls. Overall, this study confirms that reading plays a positive role in acquiring vocabulary and reading comprehension.Show less
According to international research, the reading skills of Dutch students have declined in the last few years. The Curriculum-Based Measurement maze test can be used to monitor the progress of...Show moreAccording to international research, the reading skills of Dutch students have declined in the last few years. The Curriculum-Based Measurement maze test can be used to monitor the progress of students’ reading performance. This can help teachers in adjusting instructional programs, which can lead to improvement in students’ reading skills. Although most of the previous research showed that maze test scores measure reading skills, one study showed that the scores measure decoding, not text level reading comprehension. The current study investigated whether the maze test also measures text level reading comprehension, through comparing the scores on maze tests with a standard and a scrambled format. The standard maze test was comprehensible on text level, but the scrambled maze test was not: the text was incoherent, because the sentences were placed in a random order. This study also investigated the relations among reading comprehension level, reading motivation level and maze test scores. Two standard and two scrambled maze tests and the Standards of Coherence questionnaire were completed by 140 fifth grade students. Their reading comprehension Cito-scores were also collected. Results showed that students scored higher on the standard than on the scrambled maze test. This suggests that the scores also reflect reading comprehension on text level, which supports the fact that maze tests measure reading skills. The main effects of reading comprehension level and reading motivation level on maze test scores were significant. Both factors seem to be related to reading performance. The interaction-effect of reading motivation level and reading comprehension level was not significant. The relation between reading motivation level and reading scores appears to be the same for weak, average and strong readers. More research is needed to find out if the maze test scores are sensitive for change when interventions are carried out to increase reading skills.Show less
The research focuses on the frontispieces from René Descartes' Opera philosophica, printed in 1664 in Amsterdam by Janssonius & Weyerstraten, addressing the role that images play in the...Show moreThe research focuses on the frontispieces from René Descartes' Opera philosophica, printed in 1664 in Amsterdam by Janssonius & Weyerstraten, addressing the role that images play in the understanding of a philosophical text. The first part offers a visual analysis and identification of the two prints, attributing them to artist Cornelis Hellemans. A brief account of the circulation and reprinting of these engravings is also given. The second part looks at the two prints from an embodied cognition perspective, investigating a deeper layer of visual understanding through bodily metaphors. The gestures and countenance of the figures are analyzed in depth through the theories of Lakoff & Johnson. Lastly, the third part investigates the role that images play in reading comprehension through contemporary accounts and studies, especially those pioneered by Glenberg. The possibilities and limits of the embodied cognition framework for art historical research are also taken into consideration here.Show less
The present study investigated what the influence of media is on the comprehension skill of students in upper primary school, where a distinction is made in their reading proficiency skill, age and...Show moreThe present study investigated what the influence of media is on the comprehension skill of students in upper primary school, where a distinction is made in their reading proficiency skill, age and intrinsic motivation. Reading comprehension is a very complex skill, which consist of two components: basic language skills and comprehension skills. The inference skill is one of the comprehension skills, which could possible also be trained in other modes than reading. Previous studies haven’t shown the difference between individuals yet. In the current study 31 participants from grade 4, 5 and 6 completed three comprehending tasks: reading, listening and watching a narrative story. In the analyses are the independent, between variables: reading proficiency skill, age and intrinsic motivation and the dependent, within variables: reading, listening and watching. The findings from the current study highlights there are no differences between media modes and readers based on decoding skills, media and ages, and media and intrinsic motivation. Indeed the findings show that there are differences between media and readers with a weak performance in comprehension. Weak comprehenders show lower performance scores for the reading task than strong comprehenders, however they are no differences found in the listening and watching task. To conclude weak comprehenders possess comprehension skills by the use of other media, but experience difficulties with reading processes.Show less
Children growing up today do not only read printed books but also electronic books (e-books) which are offered to them through the internet or applications on tablets. The purpose of this study was...Show moreChildren growing up today do not only read printed books but also electronic books (e-books) which are offered to them through the internet or applications on tablets. The purpose of this study was to research whether a reading voice in combination with highlighted print in e-books has a positive influence on the reading development of beginning readers. The study involved 54 fluent Dutch speaking students without any learning- and/or behavioural problems who were in third grade of regular primary education. The research was a randomised pretest posttest within subjects design. During the pre-and posttest, word recognition and reading comprehension skills were measured by means of one standardised and three book bound tasks. The intervention is the reading and listening to e-books via the computer with a built-in reading voice and different levels of highlighted print (one line, half a page or no highlighted print). Results indicated that reading e-books leads to better word recognition and reading comprehension skills. Different levels of highlighted print do not have effect on the proficiency in word recognition and reading comprehension. Similarly, there is no difference found between the most and least skilled readers in the extent to which they profit from highlighted texts in e-books. Students read better independently when they were able to read along with the spoken text several times. It seems that reading along the spoken text before reading the text independently is an appropriate way to stimulate reading development and could be a valuable addition to current reading instructions.Show less
In dit onderzoek staat de volgende vraag centraal: kunnen Nederlandstalige versies van de MOCCA individuele verschillen in begrijpend lezen aantonen bij kinderen uit groep zes tot en met acht? Uit...Show moreIn dit onderzoek staat de volgende vraag centraal: kunnen Nederlandstalige versies van de MOCCA individuele verschillen in begrijpend lezen aantonen bij kinderen uit groep zes tot en met acht? Uit een steekproef van 119 proefpersonen is een sample genomen van 40 leerlingen uit groep zes tot en met acht, afkomstig van vier verschillende basisscholen. De MOCCA en de Think Aloud werden als instrumenten gebruikt om het leggen van verbanden tijdens het begrijpend lezen te meten. De CBM Maze werd gebruikt als maat voor het niveau van begrijpend lezen en de Read Aloud voor vloeiend lezen. Er is gevonden dat de MOCCA geen samenhang vertoonde met de Think Aloud. Ook konden de scores van de MOCCA niet worden voorspeld door het niveau van begrijpend lezen en kon de MOCCA geen leesstrategieën onderscheiden binnen de groep zwak begrijpende lezers. Op grond van de resultaten kan de MOCCA in Nederland dus niet gebruikt worden in het onderwijs om individuele verschillen tijdens het begrijpend lezen in kaart te brengen. Wel werd een zeer zwak verband gevonden tussen vloeiend lezen en de verbanden die leerlingen leggen bij de MOCCA: hoe zwakker een leerling is in vloeiend lezen, hoe minder causale verbanden deze leerling legt en hoe meer een leerling parafraseert. Dit ondersteunt de theorie dat er minder ruimte in het brein is voor hogerorde processen, zoals het leggen van verbanden, wanneer het vloeiend lezen minder geautomatiseerd is.Show less
Huidig onderzoek is uitgevoerd met als doel om meer te weten te komen over de meerwaarde die een animatie kan hebben bij het begrijpen van verhalen in vergelijking tot het lezen van teksten. Op...Show moreHuidig onderzoek is uitgevoerd met als doel om meer te weten te komen over de meerwaarde die een animatie kan hebben bij het begrijpen van verhalen in vergelijking tot het lezen van teksten. Op deze manier wordt geprobeerd om meer inzicht te krijgen in welke methoden gebruikt kunnen worden om kinderen te ondersteunen bij het begrijpen van verhalen. Er is onderzocht of kinderen een verhaal beter begrijpen op het moment dat zij het verhaal alleen beeldend zien, dan wanneer zij hetzelfde verhaal alleen lezen. Daarnaast is onderzocht in hoeverre de mate van sociaal-emotionele betrokkenheid van een kind van invloed is op het beter kunnen beantwoorden van de begripsvragen. Leerlingen zijn willekeurig ingedeeld in een van de drie condities: verhaal lezen, neutrale animatie en animatie met meer emotie. Vervolgens beantwoorden zij allemaal dezelfde vragenlijsten. Zij beantwoordden een korte begripsvragenlijst over het verhaal en een vragenlijst over hun eigen leesmotivatie. Ouders vulden een online vragenlijst in over de sociaal-emotionele aspecten van hun kind. Uit de resultaten van het onderzoek blijkt dat de leerlingen die het verhaal hebben gelezen, de begripsvragen beter hebben beantwoord dan de leerlingen die de neutrale animatie of de animatie met meer emotie hebben gezien. Er bleek geen verschil tussen de condities die beiden een filmpje hebben gezien. Wat betreft de sociaal-emotionele ontwikkeling bleek dat zowel emotieregulatie als gedragsevaluatie geen invloed hebben op het begrip van het verhaal, ongeacht in welke vorm zij het verhaal aangeboden hebben gekregen.Show less
Abstract A world-wide problem has been found with children in the fourth grade learning from expository text. Little is known about the effects of different text types and individual differences on...Show moreAbstract A world-wide problem has been found with children in the fourth grade learning from expository text. Little is known about the effects of different text types and individual differences on reading process and reading comprehension. In this study the effects of vocabulary and working memory capacity on expository and narrative texts is measured and the differences in reading processes and reading comprehension between groups of readers at the age of 7 is investigated. The results show that expository text are more difficult for young readers than narrative texts, while there are longer fixations in expository texts and readers find it difficult to answer questions of the these texts. Readers with a low vocabulary show longer fixations the readers with a high vocabulary and the have more difficulties in giving the right answers on the inference questions. No effect is found of working memory capacity on reading process, but there is an effect of working memory capacity on inference questions. Readers with a low working memory capacity find it harder to answer the inference questions than readers with a high working memory capacity. Readers with a low working memory capacity have little “room” in their heads to remember information of the texts. A second comparison has been made between weak and strong comprehenders. Weak comprehenders made more errors on the inference questions than strong comprehenders. With a regression analysis the effects of vocabulary seems to partly explain the differences between weak and strong comprehenders.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-09-05T00:00:00Z
This eye-tracking study investigates whether age-related changes in the ability to take perspective influence narrative text comprehension. Thirty-two typically-developing children (M = 11.73; SD =...Show moreThis eye-tracking study investigates whether age-related changes in the ability to take perspective influence narrative text comprehension. Thirty-two typically-developing children (M = 11.73; SD = 0.74) and 34 young adults (M = 21.02; SD = 1.98) read stories in which the need to use perspective-taking abilities was systematically varied. The offline measure (after reading) suggested that adults were better and faster at making inferences in general, and both 10-12-year-olds and 18-25-year-olds were faster in making an inference in the complex perspective-taking condition (which required them to take the perspective of one of the story characters and imagine how this character would react to the intentions, thoughts, or feelings of another story character) compared to the control condition (which required them to make an inference about physical causality with regard to an object). The reading process itself revealed that 18-25-year-olds read stories faster across all conditions we examined. In addition, both 10-12-year-olds as well as adults revealed the longest reading times in the most difficult condition in which complex perspective-taking was needed to draw inferences. Stories in which the interaction between two story characters has to be taken into account are processed differently compared to stories in which no social-cognitive information is needed, as well as compared to when one only has to take the perspective of one story character. Narratives in which perspective-taking is crucial for comprehension are more difficult to process, even for adults, but are better represented in the situation model readers construct.Show less
The purpose of the current research was to learn more about the differences between subgroups of poor comprehenders. Using a think-aloud and recall procedure the differences in the online process...Show moreThe purpose of the current research was to learn more about the differences between subgroups of poor comprehenders. Using a think-aloud and recall procedure the differences in the online process of inference making and the offline product of reading comprehension, the mental representation of narrative and informational texts, have been investigated in fourth and fifth grade Dutch speaking students. Results from the think-aloud procedure replicated findings from previous research. Two subgroups of poor comprehenders have been found which differ in inference making. First, the paraphrasers primarily make text repetitions while reading a text. Second, the elaborators make connecting and elaborative inferences comparable to good comprehenders. However, unlike the good comprehenders, the elaborators make more invalid inferences. Results from the recall procedure indicated that the subgroups of poor comprehenders do not differ in the mental representation they construct after reading both narrative and informative texts. The current research confirms that poor comprehenders do not form a homogenous group, but differ in online comprehension processes. However, next to individual differences also the existence of subgroups of poor comprehenders has been confirmed. Further research is needed to investigate the instructional and educational validity of the subgroups of poor comprehenders.Show less
The inference making ability of good and poor comprehenders were assessed by means of a think-aloud procedure. Inference making is the online process of connecting different parts of a text and the...Show moreThe inference making ability of good and poor comprehenders were assessed by means of a think-aloud procedure. Inference making is the online process of connecting different parts of a text and the connection of parts of the texts with background knowledge. Special interest of the current research was the role of vocabulary and working memory in inference making ability. The results indicated that good and poor comprehenders differ in their inference making ability. Poor comprehenders make more text repetitions while good comprehenders make more elaborative inferences. This seems to be influenced by vocabulary and working memory. Good comprehenders have a greater vocabulary knowledge and a greater working memory capacity and this stimulates elaborative inferencing. Poor comprehenders have less vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity and this limitates their ability to make elaborative inferences. Vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity affects the inference making ability and thereby affects the construction of a coherent mental representation of the text.Show less
Readers can be poor comprehenders in the face of sufficient basic reading skills. Common perception is that poor comprehenders have difficulty constructing a coherent mental representation of the...Show moreReaders can be poor comprehenders in the face of sufficient basic reading skills. Common perception is that poor comprehenders have difficulty constructing a coherent mental representation of the text in their memory. In current study, among good (N = 11) and poor comprehenders (N = 14), was analyzed through one-way ANOVA whether good and poor comprehenders draw different inferences and if there are relations between inference making patterns for good and poor comprehenders. The analysis showed that poor comprehenders engage significantly different online processes, and show weaker working memory abilities compared to good comprehenders. This research provides further evidence that working memory abilities influence reading comprehension.Show less
