The purpose of the current study was to examine whether being interested in a particular text topic affects reading comprehension processes and products of skilled and less-skilled comprehenders...Show moreThe purpose of the current study was to examine whether being interested in a particular text topic affects reading comprehension processes and products of skilled and less-skilled comprehenders differently. Fifty-two upper elementary school children read six expository texts, three of which the topic of the text was rated as interesting and three of which the topic was rated as uninteresting. Eye-tracking was used to monitor the processes while reading. Reading comprehension products were assessed by two types of questions (i.e., literal and inferential), each designed to reflect a different level of comprehension. Students were also asked about how much knowledge they already had about each of the topics. The results indicated that being interested in a topic does not change reading comprehension processes of both skilled and less-skilled comprehenders, suggesting that they do not benefit from interesting topics compared to noninteresting topics. In addition, topic interest affected the amount of literal questions answered correctly. However, no such results were shown for inferential questions. With skilled comprehenders scoring better on both types of questions, and no interest topic x reading comprehension skill interaction being observed, this indicates that less-skilled comprehenders also do not benefit enough from an interesting topic regarding reading comprehension products. The results are discussed in the light of standards of coherence, cognitive abilities, and background knowledge.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
This research focuses on the degree of credibility of educational texts with brain pictures and textual information about the brain, which are read by teachers. The seductive allure of neuroscience...Show moreThis research focuses on the degree of credibility of educational texts with brain pictures and textual information about the brain, which are read by teachers. The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations (SANE) effect is tested, which means that people judge a text as more credible due to the presence of information about the brain or a picture of the brain. The main question is: what role does information about the brain play to the extent to which teachers consider a text credible? To answer this question, a questionnaire was sent to teachers. This questionnaire contained eight texts, for each text the participants answered five statements about the credibility of the text. An average credibility score was calculated based on these statements. Results showed that there was also the SANE effect in teachers. The results showed that there is an effect in terms of years of teaching experience, with teachers with more years of teaching experience judging a text with a higher degree of credibility in general. Finally, there also appeared to be a difference with regard to the educational attainment of the teachers, with the teachers with a university education judging a text in general with a lesser degree of credibility. The sample distributions of the education type are uneven in this study, so the results of the present study should be interpreted with caution. Another limitation is that more non-university-trained teachers participated in the survey, resulting in an uneven distribution with regard to the educational level of the participants. Follow-up research should focus on preventing uneven distributions, by involving more university-trained teachers in the research.Show less
This study is about the SANE effect (Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations) among teachers. The SANE effect is the seductive effect that neuroscientific information can have on people....Show moreThis study is about the SANE effect (Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations) among teachers. The SANE effect is the seductive effect that neuroscientific information can have on people. People find explanations and arguments more credible when there’s neuroscientific information present, even when this information is superfluous and doesn’t improve the explanations. In this between-subjects design study the main question if there is a SANE effect among teachers when they read texts about educational research was answered. 318 teachers (62 males, 256 females) completed an online Qualtrics questionnaire in which they had to read texts about educational research and then state with some questions how credible they found the texts on a Likert scale of 1 to 7, which yielded an average credibility score. They were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. In the first condition teachers only read a text about educational research. In the second condition there was also superfluous neuroscientific textual information present. In the third condition there was information and a graph with brain data present and in the fourth condition there was information and a (fMRI) brain image present. Their brain knowledge was tested in a questionnaire consisting of 20 statements about the brain. The results showed that, as expected, teachers are susceptible to the SANE effect. They find the texts more credible when they are accompanied by neuroscientific information and when they are accompanied by neuroscientific information combined with a brain image. Unexpectedly, there wasn’t a difference in susceptibility to the SANE effect between teachers with and without an academic education. Furthermore, there wasn’t a difference in susceptibility between teachers with a lot of brain knowledge and teachers without that knowledge. Now that the SANE effect is established among teachers, the next step is to raise awareness so the SANE effect can be reduced.Show less
A scientific article is more likely to be believed if information about the brain is added, even if that information does not necessarily add value to the argument that is made in the article. This...Show moreA scientific article is more likely to be believed if information about the brain is added, even if that information does not necessarily add value to the argument that is made in the article. This phenomenon is called the Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanation-effect (SANE-effect). In this study 318 teachers participated by completing an online questionnaire where they had to assess the credibility of eight articles about education. There are four versions of texts with various levels of neuroscientific information, namely without neuroscience information, with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal), with an extraneous finding (verbal) and graph about the brain, and with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal) and brain image. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of neuroscience information and assess the credibility of all eight articles at this level. The results suggest that there is a SANE-effect for articles about education among teachers. Furthermore, the education level of the teachers and the type of school they are working in do not determine the extent to which the SANE-effect occurs. The SANE-effect persists after correction is made for the knowledge about the brain that the teachers possess.Show less
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations (SANE effect), the finding that people overvalue psychological arguments when framed...Show moreThe aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations (SANE effect), the finding that people overvalue psychological arguments when framed in terms of neuroscience findings, among teachers in the Netherlands. This study is based on the work of Im, Varma & Varma (2017) and also examined the possible role of three moderating variables, i.e. educational background, neuroscientific knowledge and attitude towards educational neuroscience. Participants (N = 310) read eight articles about educational topics in one of the four conditions corresponding to four levels of neuroscientific framing: psychological finding alone, with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal), with an extraneous neuroscience finding (verbal) and graph, and with an extraneous neuroscientific finding (verbal) and brain image. Participants were randomly assigned to one level of neuroscientific framing and rated the credibility of each article’s argument on a 7-point Likert scale. The results show that there was a general SANE effect when educational articles were accompanied by both extraneous verbal neuroscience findings and brain images. Extraneous verbal neuroscientific framings, either alone or accompanied by graphs, did not influence the credibility of the application of psychological findings to educational topics. The results did not support the expectations that teachers’ educational background or neuroscientific knowledge play a role in the SANE effect. However, the results suggest that the teacher’s attitude towards educational neuroscience does influence the SANE effect: teachers who were very positive towards the use of neuroscience in education were sensitive for the SANE effect and teachers who were moderate to not positive about this were not. On the basis of the results of this research and previous SANE studies, future studies to further investigate the mechanism of the SANE effect among teachers, the role of the effect and neuromyths in education, and how to build a bridge between neuroscience and education are suggested.Show less
Reading comprehension is a complex but important skill to function well in society. Reading motivation is of great importance in the development of reading comprehension skills. International tests...Show moreReading comprehension is a complex but important skill to function well in society. Reading motivation is of great importance in the development of reading comprehension skills. International tests shows that the reading skills and reading motivation of secondary school students has deteriorated in recent years. The aim of the current research is to examine the reading motivation of students in higher professional education and university. First, the influence of the Standard of Coherence on the reading comprehension level of students was investigated. The Standard of Coherence is a collective term for intrinsic reading motivation, extrinsic reading motivation, the desire to read difficult texts and the desire to understand texts. Secondly, it was investigated to what extent the Standard of Coherence differs between students in higher professional education and university. Participants were 47 Dutch students, of which 25 students from higher professional education and 22 students from university. All students completed a questionnaire as a measure of the reader's Standard of Coherence. In addition, the reading comprehension level of the students was determined by means of the inference test and CBM-Maze test. The results show that the individual elements of the Standard of Coherence as well as the Standard of Coherence itself are not significant predictors of the reading comprehension level. In addition, the results don’t show that the Standard of Coherence differs between students in higher professional education and university. Follow-up research should clarify the extent to which reading motivation decreases with the transition from secondary school to further education and the role of gender in the relationship between the Standard of Coherence and the reading comprehension level. Based on the current results, teachers are advised to continue to offer scientific literature in higher professional education and university in a comparable way as they are used toShow less
While reading a text, the reader makes a mental representation of this text to understand it. Reading comprehension is one of the most important tasks in primary school. It is important for success...Show moreWhile reading a text, the reader makes a mental representation of this text to understand it. Reading comprehension is one of the most important tasks in primary school. It is important for success in all subjects in school, but it is also important in daily life. The aim of this study is to investigate if readers a text understand better if they are interested in the subject of the text than when they are less interested. In addition, it is investigated whether the difference is different for low-motivated readers than for highly-motivated readers. The following research question has been formulated: ‘Do readers understand a text better when they are very interested in the subject of a text than when they are uninterested in the subject of the text? And is the difference non-identical for highly intrinsically motivated readers and low intrinsically motivated readers?’ To answer the research question, the reader has completed a reading task and a questionnaire about reading motivation. The reader has chosen three interesting topics and three uninteresting topics to read. After reading the text, the reader was asked to answer three literal questions and three inference questions about the text. In this way, it could be investigated whether interest in a specific text plays a role in text comprehension. The reader also completed a questionnaire about reading motivation to investigate whether the difference is different for highly motivated readers than for low-motivated readers. In this research, attention is only paid to intrinsic motivation. The research has shown that interest has no influence on text comprehension and there is no difference for highly motivated readers and low-motivated readers. Despite these results, it is still recommended to look for texts that arouse the interest of children. According to the literature, interest and motivation are effective factors for text comprehension.Show less
