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More U.S. community college students are enrolling without the requisite reading skills to be successful. Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students are following a similar pattern with a little less than half requiring remedial instruction when entering college. College-age readers were the first population that we studied to learn about reading and reading instruction. The present study revisits this notion with DHH students at the forefront. We wanted to know what skills DHH readers have when they enroll in community college and what skills secondary teachers could focus on to prepare them. Based on the Degrees of Reading Power assessment given to DHH first year students prior entering community college (N = 409 participants), DHH readers would benefit from instruction in three important areas of reading comprehension: key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas. We discuss instructional ideas and future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: The study investigates the extent to which offline and online comprehension of reflexive possessive pronouns in L3 and L4 is modulated by previously acquired native and non-native grammars. Design/Methodology/Approach: Thirty-one intermediate to advanced L1 Polish learners of Swedish, who have also acquired German and English (L4 Swedish learners) or only English (L3 Swedish learners), completed a self-paced reading task and a grammaticality judgement task. The tasks targeted learners' sensitivity to possessor and possessee agreement violations. Data and Analysis: Reading times and judgement accuracy were collected and analysed using generalised linear models. Findings/Conclusions: In online comprehension, L3/L4 Swedish learners showed sensitivity to possessor and possessee agreement, which was affected neither by their proficiency, nor by their prior native and non-native grammars. In offline comprehension, however, they had difficulty deploying possessor and possessee agreement. Performance on possessee but not possessor agreement increased with advancing proficiency, indicating the persistent influence of L1 Polish grammar. Furthermore, L4 Swedish learners achieved an overall higher judgement accuracy than L3 Swedish learners. At the same time, L4 Swedish learners read the relevant regions longer than L3 Swedish learners, suggesting a speed–accuracy trade-off for L4 Swedish learners. Originality: The study investigates cross-linguistic influence in the comprehension of reflexive possessive pronouns in multilingual learners, which has not been explored before. It is also the first to provide evidence for a multilingual advantage in the accuracy of reflexive possessive agreement, albeit at the cost of reading speed. Significance/Implications: The study demonstrates that native and non-native grammars differently affect the offline comprehension of reflexive possessive pronouns in L3 and L4. The native language seems to have a more direct effect that consists in the employment of agreement mechanisms, while the non-native language has a more indirect effect, as it can increase learners' sensitivity to morphosyntactic violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the syntactic parsing abilities of children and infants exposed to Catalan as their first language. Focusing first on ages 3 to 6, we conducted two sentence-picture matching tasks. In experiment 1, 3 to 4-year-old children failed in identifying singular third-person subjects within null-subject sentences, although they performed above chance in all other scenarios, including plural third-person subjects and sentences with overt full DP subjects. This is reminiscent of the results of Pérez-Leroux for Spanish. In experiment 2, with the same design but involving numeral distractors, children's performance was above chance level across all conditions from age 3 to 4. Then, in experiment 3, we moved to a younger age range with the help of eye-tracking techniques. The findings revealed that infants at 22 months had the ability to parse subject–verb agreement in sentences with third-person null subjects, and at 19 months there was evidence of parsing for third-person plural null subjects. These findings are inconsistent with the perception of children grappling with syntactic agreement computation. We argue that instances of underperformance in subject–verb agreement parsing identified in the literature often stem from task-related and pragmatic issues rather than core syntactic delay. If so, the putative asymmetry between early production of verbal inflection and late comprehension disappears; rather, the results suggest early establishment of matching operations and mastery of language-specific agreement properties before production starts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that morphological knowledge has effects on reading comprehension separate from other aspects of language knowledge. This has implications for reading instruction and assessment: it suggests that children could have reading comprehension difficulties that are due to a lack of morphological knowledge, and thus, that explicit instruction of morphology might be helpful for them, indeed for all children. To find children who might especially benefit from specific instruction in morphology, we would need good tests of morphological knowledge. We evaluated a set of morphological awareness assessments to determine whether they conclusively tapped into morphological knowledge, and found that it was not possible to be certain that they were accurately targeting morphological knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite calls for journalists and media agencies to address a disconnect between news audiences and news prose, content continues to increase in its difficulty to read and comprehend for the masses. While readability is often associated with audience comprehension and engagement, studies have neglected to assess whether readability is a factor in audience assessments of the credibility of content. Using an online experimental design, this study examines whether readability acts as a heuristic that helps news consumers make credibility judgments of news. Results show that readability tends not to be a predictor of credibility perception, regardless of partisanship strength or media use preferences. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subject relative clauses (RCs) have been shown to be acquired earlier, comprehended more accurately, and produced more easily than object RCs by children. While this subject preference is often claimed to be a universal tendency, it has largely been investigated piecemeal and with low-powered experiments. To address these issues, this meta-analysis follows an established and rigorous scientific method to test the generalizability of the subject preference in RC acquisition by evaluating the collective evidence. While the results show a significant crosslinguistic subject preference, there is a large amount of heterogeneity in the data. The manifestation of this subject preference may not be uniform across languages, depending on typological properties such as language headedness, RC headedness, and main clause similarity. The true impact of these features, however, requires research on more typologically diverse languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphor comprehension is an important component in the process of constructing metaphorical thinking. Therefore, the topic of "metaphor comprehension" should be a crucial part of metaphor studies. This study uses Bibliometrix to conduct a bibliometric study of research on metaphor comprehension from 2013 to 2023, focusing on the knowledge structure, the hot spots, and the research fronts. The co-citation analysis shows that the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CTM) in Cognitive Linguistics has provided the dominant knowledge foundation for the research of metaphor comprehension. A large number of hypotheses from CTM not only provide theoretical guidance for the current understanding of metaphor but also provide a reference for experimental paradigms. The coupling analysis shows that most of the influential studies in the time span have conducted empirical studies, demonstrating the explanatory power of empirical results and the interdisciplinary trend of metaphor in psychology and neuroscience. In the past decade, theoretical approaches to metaphor comprehension have been divided into linguistic and interdisciplinary categories, in which different experimental paradigms and conditions were used to reveal the comprehension mechanism. However, while providing insights for metaphor comprehension study through the existing research results, the bibliometric analysis reflects that researchers should fully consider the gap between metaphor in use and metaphor in experiments. This may be mediated through the progress of metaphor comprehension models in different contexts. This study suggests that future research on metaphor comprehension should enrich their theoretical models, properly use or combine research methods and designs, and look into different types of research objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associative anaphora refers to a discourse operation that links a definite determiner phrase (DP) to an antecedent that acts as an indirect referent of the definite DP. For example, in the sequence 'I bought a laptop. The keyboard was black', the definite DP 'the keyboard' is linked to 'a laptop', meaning 'the keyboard of the laptop'. The development of children's knowledge of associative anaphora has long been investigated in child language research, as it provides a unique window into the interaction between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive abilities. However, most prior research focused on Indo-European languages without looking at typologically distinct languages. To fill the gap, this study investigated children's knowledge of associative anaphora in Mandarin Chinese, a typologically distinct language, thus allowing for a better cross-linguistic understanding of the phenomenon. Ninety-one 3- to 5-year-olds were investigated using a truth-value judgment task. The findings were that Mandarin-speaking children exhibited a similar developmental trajectory and were impacted by the same cognitive factors as observed in children speaking Indo-European languages. The implications of the findings were then discussed in relation to the role of processing factors and language-specific properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic literature review examined the research on prior knowledge and its activation to ascertain how these terms are defined, what specific techniques have been empirically investigated, and the conditions under which prior knowledge activation facilitated students' comprehension. Fifty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and revealed that the terms prior knowledge and prior knowledge activation were often vaguely defined. Further, 30 unique techniques for activating readers' prior knowledge representing eight different categories were identified. Those categories were open-ended prompts, procedural or strategic supports during reading, visual representations, analogical reasoning, text alteration, augmented activation, extratextual activities, and spontaneous activation. Techniques meant to facilitate knowledge activation prior to reading were most common, although the prompting of students' existing knowledge was beneficial during and after reading as well. Variability in the effectiveness of activation techniques was related, in part, to the amount, accuracy, and specificity of students' knowledge. Based on the key findings identified in this review, recommendations for future inquiry are forwarded, including suggested definitions of prior knowledge and prior knowledge activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & aims: Communicative and sensory differences are core autistic traits, yet speech-perception abilities and difficulties among autistic individuals remain poorly understood. Laboratory studies have produced mixed and inconclusive results, in part because of the lack of input from autistic individuals in defining the hypotheses and shaping the methods used in this field of research. Little in-depth qualitative research on autistic experiences of speech perception has been published, yet such research could form the basis for better laboratory research, for improved understanding of autistic experiences, and for the development of interventions. Existing qualitative research describes widespread autistic listening differences with significant impacts, but these results rely on data gathered via oral interviews in a small sample. The present study addresses these limitations and employs a mixed-methods approach to explore autistic listening experiences. Methods: We gathered survey data from 79 autistic individuals aged 18–55 without diagnosed hearing loss. The questionnaire included 20 closed-set questions on listening abilities and difficulties and three free-text questions on listening experiences. The free-text questions underwent deductive content analysis using a framework composed of themes from previous interview data on listening experiences (including auditory differences, contributing factors, impacts, and coping strategies). Concepts in the free-text data that were not part of the analysis framework were analyzed inductively. Results: In the closed-set data, participants reported listening difficulties in most specified environments, but complex background sounds and particularly background voices caused the most difficulty. Those who reported listening difficulties expressed having substantially greater difficulties than other people the same age. Participants indicated multiple impacts from listening difficulties, most prominently in their social lives. Concepts in the free-text data strongly supported previous interview data on listening differences and factors that affect listening ability, especially the diversity of types of listening difficulties. Consistent with the closed-set data, background-sound complexity and concurrent voices were especially troubling. Some concepts in the free-text data were novel, particularly difficulties with remote, broadcast, and recorded audio, prompting the creation of new themes. Conclusions: Both forms of data indicate widespread listening differences—predominantly listening difficulties—affecting most autistic adults. Diverse types of listening difficulty are evident, potentially indicating heterogeneous underlying mechanisms, and complexity of background noise is consistently identified as an important factor. Listening difficulties are said to have substantial and varied impacts. Autistic adults are keen to share coping strategies, which are varied and usually self-devised. Implications: Based on both the quantitative and qualitative results, we provide recommendations to improve future research and support the autistic community. The data-revealing types of listening difficulties can guide better quantitative research into underlying mechanisms. Such research should take into account potential heterogeneity in listening difficulties. Suggestions for optimized collection of self-report data are also offered. Additionally, our results could be used to improve societal understanding of autistic listening differences and to create beneficial interventions for and with autistic individuals. Moreover, given the willingness of the autistic community to share coping strategies, systematic collation of these strategies could form the basis for self-help and clinical guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need to better understand the complex landscape of adolescent literacy intervention as a shared responsibility across all educational stakeholders. To address this need, we examined the self-reported literacy beliefs and practices about secondary readers and literacy intervention among a group of educators (including administrators, teachers, and specialists) who participated in a year-long professional learning series focused on providing adolescents with rich and responsive literacy learning opportunities. We found that educators' beliefs and practices shifted as they developed shared understandings of asset-based mindsets and ways of supporting students' situated literacy learning and comprehension within disciplinary contexts. We offer suggestions for how to create shared learning opportunities for educators across roles and discuss implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on four experiments aiming to examine immediate post-sentential recall of core sentence information (conveyed by direct objects), and optional/additional information (conveyed by temporal or locative adjuncts). Participants read simple and unambiguous Czech sentences such as Starší důchodce velmi pečlivě pročetl noviny v neděli v knihovně : "An older retiree read the newspaper very carefully on Sunday in the library." Sentences always appeared as a whole after pressing a space bar. Immediately after the sentence disappeared, an open-ended (free response) question was presented targeting either the direct object (e.g., newspaper), temporal adjunct (e.g., on Sunday), or locative adjunct (e.g., in the library). Altogether, it was found that the core information (conveyed by the direct object) was recalled almost perfectly, whereas additional information, conveyed by temporal and locative adjuncts, was recalled with significantly lower accuracy rates. Information structure also played a role: if the temporal or locative adjunct was focused, it was recalled better than if it was unfocused. The present article thus shows systematic differences in recall success for different pieces of information. These findings suggest the presence of selective attention mechanisms during early stages of sentence processing. Factors such as syntactic function or information structure influence the degree of attention to different pieces of information conveyed by a sentence. In turn, certain pieces of information may not be consciously accessible already after the sentence is processed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether animation can help to improve the comprehension of universal healthcare symbols for middle-aged and older adults. Background: The Hablamos Juntos (HJ) healthcare symbol system is a set of widely used universal healthcare symbols that were developed in the United States. Some studies indicated that HJ healthcare symbols are not well-understood by users in non-English-speaking areas. Other studies found that animations can improve users' comprehension of complex symbols. Thus, we wanted to test whether animation could help to improve users' comprehension of HJ symbols. Methods: The participants included 40 middle-aged and 40 older adults in Taiwan. We redesigned the 12 HJ symbols into three visual formats—static, basic animation, and detailed animation—and compared them to find which best improved the participants' guessability scores. Results: (1) Middle-aged adults' comprehension of static and basic animated symbols was significantly better than that of older adults, but there was no significant difference in the guessability scores between the two age groups in terms of detailed animated symbols; (2) In general, both basic animation and detailed animation significantly improved the guessability score, but the effect with detailed animation was significantly greater than that with basic animation; (3) Older women were more receptive to detailed animation and showed better guessing performance. Conclusion: Detailed animation contains more details and provides a more complete explanation of the concept of the static symbols, helping to improve the comprehension of HJ symbols for middle-aged and older adult users. Application: Our findings provide a reference for the possibility of new style symbol design in the digital and aging era, which can be applied to improve symbol comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of Reading for Ethiopia's Achievement Developed Community Outreach (READ CO) project intervention on students' oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, academic achievements, and listening comprehension. It also aimed at identifying the students and teachers' awareness and practices about the READ CO project interventions. Experimental research—Posttest-only control group—design was employed for the study, which is mainly quantitative, but also uses qualitative techniques (latent content analysis). The results were analyzed using t tests and econometrics analysis mainly. Questionnaires and observations were also developed and employed as other tools among the experimental group principals and language teachers in the school to investigate the overall practice. The results from quantitative data analysis indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the posttest performance of the study group and the control group for reading comprehension, academic achievements, and listening comprehension, yet oral reading fluency is significant. The result from questionnaire and observation also showed that the project has not been found to have a positive impact on students reading performance or improvement. Finally, it was mainly recommended that practical training and real service should be given for the targeted schools on how to improve and implement reading practices via the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of news media in the perpetuation of misinformation has faced increasing scrutiny. Concerns have been raised about news media's negative influence on mental health, increasing news avoidance, and decreasing trust in news. Constructive journalism is proposed to increase engagement with and trust in news media, reduce the mental health impact of news consumption, and provide a more accurate view of the world. However, constructive journalism studies primarily investigate the inclusion of solutions and positive emotions in news stories, to the exclusion of other techniques. Additionally, few studies have investigated constructive journalism's effects on trust and comprehension. We used a randomised-controlled repeated-measures experimental design to investigate the effects of a comprehensive set of constructive journalism techniques on mood, comprehension, and trust among 238 Australian participants. Participants who read constructive articles reported higher positive emotion, and lower negative emotion, compared to participants who read the same articles without constructive features. However, participants in the constructive condition demonstrated worse comprehension than participants in the control, an effect partially mediated by negative emotion but not effort. No significant differences in trust in journalism as an institution or in article content were present between groups. However, when accounting for interest, constructive journalism demonstrated a significant negative effect on trust in the information, though positive where it increased mood. Further research is needed to calibrate techniques which balance the positive effects of constructive journalism with its ability to convey information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates narrative retelling and comprehension among 30 native Arabic-speaking preschool children with a mean age of 5:10. Narrative features of text-complexity (less-complex and more-complex episodic structure) and language variety (Spoken Palestinian Arabic [PA] and Modern Standard Arabic [MSA]) were analyzed for their effect on narrative retelling and comprehension. Four narratives accompanied by six pictures each (Gagarina et al., 2012) were used. Two were presented in MSA and two in PA, the children's spoken vernacular. Two of them, one per each language variety, matched on episodic structure, were less complex, and two were more complex. Although children were free to choose which language to use for the retelling, they all used PA. Retelling performance was analyzed according to macrostructure, microstructure, and the use of Internal State Terms (ISTs). Comprehension was tested via questions addressing the character's goals, ISTs, and Theory of Mind. With respect to text complexity, the results showed that the participants produced longer texts and demonstrated better comprehension when the narratives were more complex. Language variety was only associated with a difference in comprehension, with higher scores for the narratives presented in MSA. Older children produced longer texts and a higher number of ISTs. Finally, a three-way interaction emerged in the use of ISTs – while younger children produced more ISTs for the PA narratives, the older ones produced more of those for the MSA narratives. The study suggests that language variety and text complexity may exert different effects on narrative production and comprehension in Arabic-speaking preschool children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language and literacy difficulties are prevalent in young people involved in youth justice services (YJS). Given the known importance of language for literacy development, few studies have examined the literacy abilities of young people involved in YJS who have language difficulties. The writing abilities of this population have yet to be examined despite their importance for participation in restorative justice. This study examined the word reading, spelling, reading comprehension and expository writing abilities of 48 young people aged between 12 and 18 years involved in YJS who were on community orders and identified as having language difficulties. The young people scored −1SD below all subtest norms and displayed extremely low abilities on the writing subtest. Young people known to YJS should be screened for potential language and literacy difficulties to support their access to interventions aimed at reducing recidivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated successful EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students' learning strategies in Chinese universities and explored the classification system of English learning strategies, to guide EFL students how to learn English. A total of 24 successful English majors and non-English majors in Chinese universities were interviewed about their English learning strategies and experiences, which were coded in three stages with the grounded theory approach. About 767 items of specific strategies were identified and merged into 66 open codes which constructed four categories: self-management, cognitive, affective, and resource-using strategies. Furthermore, the core of successful English learners' strategies was generalized: to comprehend and learn English comprehensively in whole contexts, briefly, holistic learning. This idea coincides with the global precedence effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of psychotic tendencies on aesthetic preferences for paintings. Although psychotic tendencies and related phenomena are often associated with creative achievements, little research in the field of experimental aesthetics has investigated their effects on the aesthetic experience. This study (N = 153) examined how the positive, negative and disorganized aspects of psychotic tendencies, defined through a comprehensive model of the Disintegration trait, are related to the aesthetic preferences of paintings. Results indicated a general trend whereby Disintegration and its modalities had a positive effect on the aesthetic preferences of non-canonical (Ugly and Incomprehensible) paintings, and a negative effect on canonical, traditional (Beautiful and Comprehensible) paintings. Examination of the Disintegration trait provides us with additional information regarding aesthetic preferences, compared to use of the Big Five model alone. Two processes – conservation and progression – are proposed as explanations for the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning as the theoretical foundation to explore the potential effects of different data visualisations on news recalling and comprehension. Using a quasi-experimental design, three data visualisations (bar chart, coloured map, and timeline) were examined on three different topics; Corona vaccines, conflict in Syria, and Ever Given ship aground. The results suggest that data visualisations can increase recall and comprehension, but this effect is inconsistent for all data visualisations. Also, recall and comprehension are not always correlated; an easy-to-remember visualisation is not necessarily easy to comprehend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has consistently demonstrated that learners are strikingly poor at metacognitively monitoring their learning and comprehension of texts. The aim of the present meta-analysis is to explore three important questions about metacomprehension: (a) To what extent can people accurately discriminate well-learned texts from less well learned ones? (b) What are the (meta)cognitive causes of poor metacomprehension accuracy? and (c) What interventions improve the accuracy of metacomprehension judgments? In total, the meta-analysis integrated 502 effects and data from 15,889 participants across 115 studies to assess these questions. The results showed a weighted mean correlation of.178 for nonintervention effects. Many interventions were shown to be effective, such as delayed summary writing and delayed keyword generation. In addition, combining different interventions tended to generate additive benefits. The findings support the transfer-appropriate monitoring account, the situation model framework, and the poor-comprehension theory as explanations for why metacomprehension accuracy is typically poor. Practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Miranda warning was drafted in order to inform people of their rights upon arrest in an easy to understand manner. However, to understand the warning a person needs a high school level reading comprehension (which is above the level of most offenders). Among these offenders, deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals are particularly prone to misinterpreting the Miranda warning due to language barriers with law enforcement and below average English literacy compared to hearing individuals. Two studies were performed. The first compared Miranda warning comprehension between hearing and DHH participants, and it was found that DHH participants showed overall lower comprehension. The second study, consisting only of DHH participants, compared the effectiveness of four different presentations of the Miranda warning: signed in American Sign Language (ASL), signed in Signed Exact English (SEE), oral presentation, and written presentation. The written presentation demonstrated the lowest comprehension scores while the other three methods showed no significant difference in comprehension. The results suggest that the Miranda warning is best administered to DHH individuals with the assistance of a certified sign language interpreter. Limitations of the sample and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has uncovered that, despite the omnipresence of focus in utterances, children typically do not compute the exhaustivity inference associated with cleft(-like) syntactic focus constructions at adult-like levels before 7 years of age. Children's comparable limitations with lexically triggered scalar implicatures, inferences with an essentially identical logical structure, have been argued to stem not from the lack of their competence to compute the implicature itself, but from their immature contextualization abilities to identify relevant scalar alternatives. We address the question whether the same extraneous factor may underlie preschooler's difficulties with focus exhaustification in a comprehension study of 5- to 6-year-old Hungarian children which investigated the effect of contextual cues on their focus interpretation. It was found that while the presence of an explicit Question Under Discussion significantly raises children's accuracy in identifying the focus and its alternatives (sub-experiment 1), it fails to induce a similar increase in the proportion of exhaustive interpretations (sub-experiment 2). These results indicate that, in contrast to the case of scalar implicatures, children's low rate of exhaustification of focus reflects a deeper, less context-dependent difference from adult-like comprehension, possibly rooted in the linguistic representation of focus exhaustivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language that originated in South Africa as a descendent of Dutch. It displays discontinuous sentential negation (SN), where negation is expressed by two phonologically identical negative particles that appear in two different positions in the sentence. The negation system is argued to be an innovation that came about through the reanalysis of a discourse-dependent (pragmatically conditioned) structure in Dutch, reinforced by proponents of the standardisation of Afrikaans who prescriptively imposed a negative concord structure onto the Dutch negation system. The Afrikaans negation system is therefore argued to be artificially created, making it crosslinguistically rare and syntactically complex, the latter possibly having a delaying effect on acquisition. This study investigates both the comprehension and production of negation by young child speakers of Afrikaans. Sentences containing negative indefinites (NIs) (niks 'nothing' and geen 'no'/ 'none' with a final negative particle) are compared with those containing two negative particles (referred to as SN), which are syntactically less complex. We examined (1) whether the comprehension of sentences with NIs is more difficult to acquire than that of sentences using SN and (2) when and how negation is produced by young children. Data were collected through a picture selection task (comprehension) and recordings of spontaneous speech during free play (production). Results show that the comprehension of SN was acquired before that of NI, indicating that sentences containing NIs were indeed more difficult to comprehend than those containing SN. The production data showed that even the youngest participants (age 3;0) could produce grammatically well-formed negated constructions, but that errors occurred until age 4;3. In comparison with that found for other West Germanic languages, Afrikaans' complex system of expressing negation seems to have a delaying effect on the comprehension of negation, specifically NIs, but not on production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the extent to which presenting youth interrogation rights using different combinations of three multimedia elements (Animation, Audio, and Caption) improved comprehension. A 2 (Animation: Present, Absent) × 2 (Audio: Present, Absent) × 2 (Caption: Present, Absent) between-participants design was employed using samples of adults (Experiment 1: N = 207) and youth (Experiment 2: N = 193). Participants in both experiments were shown one of eight multimedia presentations and asked about their understanding of the presented youth interrogation rights. In both experiments, the multimedia presentation that contained animation and caption led to the highest level of comprehension. Implications of these findings for protecting youth and the use of technology during interrogations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a range of reasons why college students may be underprepared to read, but one possibility is that some college students are below a threshold of proficiency in the component skills of reading. The presence of thresholds means that when students fall below that threshold, their proficiency in that component skill of reading is not sufficient for there to be a relationship with comprehension performance. The present study assessed (a) whether there were thresholds in proficiencies in foundational skills, (b) whether students falling below the thresholds were disproportionately in developmental literary programs (i.e., institutionally designated as underprepared), and (c) the implications of being below the thresholds on engaging in strategic processing during reading. College students were administered assessments of foundational literacy skills, text comprehension, and strategic processing of texts. The sample included students who were enrolled in developmental literacy programs and students who were not. Thresholds were found in the foundational skills associated with word-, sentence-, and discourse-level processing. Participants below these thresholds were represented disproportionately by students determined to be underprepared for college and assigned to developmental literacy programs. Finally, students falling below the thresholds demonstrated lower reading strategy scores than students above the threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective(s): To develop a questionnaire that assesses the level of comprehension and decision-making capacity of patients with breast cancer about palliative care and advance care planning. Methods: Questionnaire items were based on the scientific literature. Delphi Consensus, a three-round survey with experts (n = 14), evaluated the relevance, clarity, and redundancies of the items. A pretest with breast cancer patients (n = 15) evaluated whether they comprehended each item and identified doubts or discomforts. Results: The initial questionnaire was composed of 38 items. After the Delphi, 18 items were restructured, six were added, and 16 were removed. In the pretest phase, all items with the survey header, guidelines, and Likert model were evaluated. All items accomplished ≥80% cut-off score and were kept as in the original version. The final version of the questionnaire have 28 itens and five domains: determination, responsibility, independence, self-knowledge, and knowledge of reality. Conclusions: This study represents the first step in the development of a questionnaire that may be used in oncology clinical practice. The main findings revealed that Delphi and pretesting increased the quality of the questionnaire, making it compelling to assess breast cancer patients' comprehension and decision-making capacity about PC and ACP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored (a) emergent bilingual students' talk-turns during read-alouds, (b) how earlier talk-turns were related to later talk-turns, and (c) how talk-turns varied across more versus less culturally relevant books. One teacher and her four students' read-alouds across two sessions each were video-recorded and transcribed. Emergent coding was used to identify talk-turn codes. Codes were categorized using Zone Theory constructs (Zone of Free Movement, Zone of Promoted Action, Zone of Proximal Development, Zone of Actual Development). Statistical discourse analysis showed that several Zone of Free Movement mediations (book/lesson/off-task) predicted comprehension talk-turns (developed connections/comparisons/contrasts). Zone of Promoted Action mediations predicted subsequent talk-turns: (a) reiteration/modeling were related to children expressing developed factual knowledge, (b) clarification/extension were related to children expressing developed opinions, (c) clarification/agreement were related to children expressing developed inferences, and (d) 11 talk-turns supported children expressing vocabulary knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the fundamental issue of whether children evaluate the reliability of their language interpretation, that is, their confidence in understanding words. In two experiments, 2-year-olds (Experiment 1: N = 50; Experiment 2: N = 60) saw two objects and heard one of them being named; both objects were then hidden behind screens and children were asked to look toward the named object, which was eventually revealed. When children knew the label used, they showed increased postdecision persistence after a correct compared with an incorrect anticipatory look, a marker of confidence in word comprehension (Experiment 1). When interacting with an unreliable speaker, children showed accurate word comprehension but reduced confidence in the accuracy of their own choice, indicating that children's confidence estimates are influenced by social information (Experiment 2). Thus, by the age of 2 years, children can estimate their confidence during language comprehension, long before they can talk about their linguistic skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delayed acquisition of Spanish ser and estar is generally understood as rooted in the cognitive demands imposed by the integration of semantic-pragmatic and world-knowledge factors associated with their lexical meanings. Here we ask (1) what is the nature of this language world-knowledge integration? and (2) what is the developmental trajectory including its age distribution? We examine Spanish copula production and comprehension in 142 children (age range: 4–12 years) and 26 adults. Using two tasks, sentence-choice (comprehension) and cued-production (production), we test the hypothesis that estar use is constrained by an ability to construe an alternative to the copula predication; an ability that develops with life experience. We test estar / ser use in two contexts: alternative-supporting, favoring estar use; and alternative-neutral, neutral regarding estar use, and possibly favoring ser use. The results show that for comprehension, children do not reveal adult-level sensitivity to context, exhibiting instead over-selection of estar sentences. For production, all children over-produce the estar sentence, even after having just chosen the ser counterpart. However, in this task, the 10- to 12-year-olds do behave similarly to adults and differently from 4- to 6-year-olds, consistent with our hypothesis. Alternative construal requires exposure to entities and properties in a variety of situations; exposure that older children are more likely to exhibit. Collectively, these results (1) support the properties of estar use hypothesized to underlie the language-world-knowledge integration, and (2) delineate a potential developmental trajectory whereby mastery of the copula may not begin to manifest until 10–12 years of age, not because of any one linguistic factor but rather due to specific world-knowledge exposure constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of life design in contemporary adolescence is of increasing interest in times of lifelong learning and the knowledge society. The aim of this article was to increase the comprehension of career designs by analysing the two-phase interviews of 31 young people at the ages of 15 and 18. Drawing on actantial analysis, we modelled the plurality of the career designs, analysed who the main actors are in those career designs, and how young people express, exercise, and adjust their designs. We conclude that both the subjects and the objects of the young people's career designs included multiple actors. People, issues, and circumstances are integral components of the narratives on the career designs of young people. These components bound their agency and are integrated with their orientations to education and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given children's difficulty comprehending prosocial narratives, we examined strategies to bypass comprehension (affiliative priming) and reduce cognitive burden (simplified lessons, adult scaffolding). In Study 1, one hundred seven 3- to 5-year-olds watched a prosocial narrative (helping vs. waiting) with affective primes (loving vs. funny) or a control narrative. Comprehension was low and behavioral outcomes were unaffected by lesson or prime. In Study 2, sixty-four 3- to 5-year-olds watched shorter stimuli (1-minute song videos) about loving or helping others. Those in the helping condition helped more, but the loving condition did not differ from a no-exposure control. In Study 3, 636 parents of 2- to 10-year-olds were surveyed about a time their child showed prosocial responses to media. Over 70% recalled an instance, a third of which involved songs. Reported response duration was positively predicted by family discussions after exposure (rather than at the time), including explicating the lessons and giving timely reminders/praise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although metaphors are essential tools in everyday communication and educational settings, the literature lacks evidence of effective training tools to promote metaphor comprehension in typical development. Grounding in theoretical pragmatics, we developed a novel metaphor comprehension training (MetaCom) for school-age children that focuses on inferential and contextual aspects of metaphors. The effects of the MetaCom were tested against a control training focusing on text comprehension in a randomized controlled trial involving 55 children aged between 8;8 and 9;8. Only children in the MetaCom group improved in the ability to verbally explain the meaning of a metaphor. Moreover, only the MetaCom showed transfer effects to reading comprehension. These findings suggest that targeting inference and attention to context is key to promote metaphor understanding, and that the benefits might extend to linguistic and communicative skills at large. The MetaCom training can thus represent a promising tool for educational programs, possibly also in atypical populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle grade students with disabilities that impact reading, including learning disabilities (LD) in reading, high functioning autism (ASD), and emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and students atrisk for reading failure due to the effects of poverty often struggle to make knowledge-based inferences while reading informational texts. As a result, these populations of students are not able to read for understanding or learn from grade-level texts. Unfortunately, many special educators have had little preparation in how to develop their knowledge of inference-making or methods for explicitly teaching inference-making. Despite their lack of knowledge, special educators are often solely responsible for teaching skills that support reading comprehension, such as knowledge-based inference-making. This article provides special educators with information and resources to enhance their understanding of knowledge-based inferencing and methods for teaching knowledge-based inference-making to middle grade students with disabilities and those who are at risk for reading failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child and adolescent sexual abuse is considered to be a serious public health concern and a devastating form of violence with serious physical, mental, and behavioral consequences in the short and long term. This qualitative study aimed to identify maternal reactions to the disclosure of sexual violence and explore the comprehension regarding child and adolescent sexual abuse held by the mothers of child victims. Twelve mothers were interviewed, whose children had experienced a situation of sexual abuse and were receiving psychosocial care in a municipality in southern region of Brazil. The collected data were organized and analyzed using the principles of Grounded Theory with the Atlas.ti 7.5.7 software. From the analysis of the narratives, three main categories emerged: mothers with positive reactions, mothers with ambivalent reactions, and mothers with negative reactions. Mothers that presented positive reactions believed the report and supported their children, showing a comprehension that sexual abuse can occur in different ways and not only when there is penetration. The participants that had ambivalent reactions oscillated between maintaining or breaking off the relationship with the perpetrator of the violence, expressed initial disbelief regarding the report of the abused child, and had a comprehension that sexual abuse could be a form of affection. Mothers that had a negative reaction to the disclosure of abuse presented a contradictory narrative, minimizing the effects of the violence and placing the victims at fault regarding the abuse suffered. The importance of considering the possible relationships between the maternal comprehensions regarding child and adolescent sexual abuse and the reactions of these mothers during the professional intervention was demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language comprehension depends heavily upon prediction, but how predictions are generated remains poorly understood. Several recent theories propose that these predictions are in fact generated by the language production system. Here, we directly test this claim. Participants read sentence contexts that either were or were not highly predictive of a final word, and we measured how quickly participants recognised that final word (Experiment 1), named that final word (Experiment 2), or used that word to name a picture (Experiment 3). We manipulated engagement of the production system by asking participants to read the sentence contexts either aloud or silently. Across the experiments, participants responded more quickly following highly predictive contexts. Importantly, the effect of contextual predictability was greater when participants had read the sentence contexts aloud rather than silently, a finding that was significant in Experiment 3, marginally significant in Experiment 2, and again significant in combined analyses of Experiments 1–3. These results indicate that language production (as used in reading aloud) can be used to facilitate prediction. We consider whether prediction benefits from production only in particular contexts and discuss the theoretical implications of our evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall aim of the current investigation was to develop and validate the initial version of the Minnesota Inference Assessment (MIA). MIA is a web-based measure of inference processes in Grades K–2. MIA leverages the affordances of different media to evaluate inference processes in a nonreading context, using age-appropriate fiction and nonfiction videos coupled with questioning. We evaluated MIA's technical adequacy in a proof-of-concept study. Taken together, the results support the interpretation that MIA shows promise as a valid and reliable measure of inferencing in a nonreading context for students in Grades K–2. Future directions involve further development of multiple, parallel forms that can be used for progress monitoring in K–2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the second year of life, children acquire words and expand their receptive and expressive vocabularies at a rapid pace. At this age, toddlers' phonological abilities are also developing rapidly. The current study investigated the effect of phonological complexity of words on the order in which they are acquired, receptively and expressively. Data were collected from Hebrew-speaking parents of 881 typically developing toddlers: 417 girls and 464 boys, aged 1;0 to 2;0 years old. Parents reported on their child's receptive and expressive vocabularies by completing a computerized version of the Hebrew adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Phonological complexity scores of the target words were calculated using the Phonological Mean Length of Utterances measure. The proportion of children who were reported to understand and produce each word at each age was calculated. Results showed that phonological complexity affected the acquisition of word comprehension and word production. Words that are less phonologically complex were acquired earlier, representing a process of subconscious selection of words that are easier to produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to exhibit best practices in a collaborative program between a campus recreation department and center for global engagement while demonstrating appropriate learning outcomes. The learning domains that were assessed in this program were intrapersonal development, interpersonal competence, humanitarianism and civic engagement, and practical competence. The program reviewed was a philanthropic recreational soccer tournament designed to specifically offer international and domestic students an opportunity to play recreational sports together while providing learning opportunities for all participants. Participants placed a higher value on participating in a charitable event and participating for health and wellness over seeking involvement with different types of people. Descriptive statistics were analyzed using SPSS and mean scores and standard deviations were reported from the respondent data gathered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mandarin classifiers are a complex system, but little is known about how Mandarin-speaking children manage to learn the system. Based on the extant literature, we explored potential factors influencing the comprehension and production of Mandarin shape classifiers, including classifier-based semantic categorization and errors pertaining to the semantic strategies, input frequency of classifier-noun combinations, and vocabulary knowledge. In total, 138 typically developing monolingual Mandarin-speaking children between ages 4;1 and 6;5 completed an object categorization task, shape classifier comprehension and production tasks, and a vocabulary test. The results showed that classifier-based categorization did not significantly relate to classifier knowledge, but children's comprehension errors were mostly selecting an object that is perceptually similar to the target object. Estimated input frequency of classifier-noun combinations was significantly related to classifier comprehension, and there was differential accuracy for different classifier-noun combinations, which may indicate item-by-item learning of individual classifier-noun pairings. Mandarin-speaking children may take a combined approach by sorting semantic features for different classifiers and learning individual classifier-noun combinations. The interplay of the two approaches can be very complex and should be further investigated in future studies. Vocabulary knowledge was significantly related to classifier comprehension and production, indicating common traits between classifier learning and noun learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifinality, equifinality, and fanning are important developmental concepts that emphasize understanding interindividual variability in trajectories over time. However, each concept implies that there are points in a developmental window where interindividual variability is more limited. We illustrate the multifinality concept under manipulations of variance in starting points, using both normal and zero-inflated simulated data. Results indicate that standardized estimates and effect sizes are inflated when predicting components of growth models with limited interindividual variance, which could lead to overinterpretation of the practical importance of findings. Conceptual implications are considered and recommendations are provided for evaluating developmental changes in common situations that researchers may encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-worn French proverb pronounces ' tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner ' ('to understand all is to forgive all'). Is forgiveness the inevitable consequence of social scientific understanding of the actions and lives of perpetrators of serious wrongdoing? Do social scientific explanations provide excuses or justifications for the perpetrators of the actions that the explanations purport to explain? In this essay, I seek clarification of these intertwined explanatory and moral questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research on the role of verbal working memory (WM) in language processing has focused on phonological maintenance, considerable evidence indicates that the maintenance of semantic information plays a more critical role. This article reviews studies of brain-damaged and healthy individuals demonstrating the contribution of semantic WM to language processing. On the sentence-comprehension side, semantic WM supports the retention of individual word meanings prior to their integration. It also serves to maintain semantic information in an activated state such that semantic interference between sentence constituents can be resolved. Phonological WM does not appear to support either of these functions, though it contributes to verbatim sentence recall. On the production side, evidence points to the phrase as the minimal scope of advance planning in sentence formulation, and to semantic WM as supporting the representation of the meanings of the content words within a phrase. Planning at the phonological level appears to have a very limited scope, making few demands on phonological WM. These findings imply that treatment of semantic but not phonological WM deficits should lead to improved sentence comprehension and production, and preliminary findings support that view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has uncovered actions that would seem to undermine but in fact frequently enhance persuasion. For example, expressing doubt about one's view or presenting arguments against it would seem to weaken one's case, but can sometimes promote it. We propose a framework for understanding these findings. We posit that these actions constitute acts of receptiveness —behaviors that signal openness to new information and opposing viewpoints. We review four classes of acts of receptiveness: conveying uncertainty, acknowledging mistakes, highlighting drawbacks, and asking questions. We identify conditions under which and mechanisms through which these actions boost persuasion. Acts of receptiveness appear to be more persuasive when they come from expert or high-status sources, rather than non-expert or low-status sources, and to operate through two primary mechanisms: increased involvement and enhanced source perceptions. Following a review of this work, we delineate potentially novel acts of receptiveness and outline directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disagreement and debate are the lifeblood of any scientific field. With that truth in mind, we express our disagreement with some of the conclusions drawn by Samba et al. in a generally well-conducted meta-analysis recently published in Strategic Organization. We carefully reexamine several aspects of their study and suggest that two of their key conclusions are flawed because of misinterpretations of data and analyses. We present new findings that call into question their conclusion that observed positive relationships between decision comprehensiveness and firm outcomes are likely a methodological artifact of researchers' use of subjective outcome measures. In addition, we question Samba et al.'s conclusion regarding the unimportance of proper lag structures in assessments of comprehensiveness and outcomes. Because meta-analyses are vital tools for consolidating and extending research, our work is important for informing future directions of both science and practice. Because the value of systematic, extensive decision processes has been the focus of a decades-long debate in organizational science and strategic management, our goal is particularly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses recent debates relating to the measurement of domestic violence, and in particular the 'domestic violent crime' framework proposed by Sylvia Walby and colleagues. We argue for the utility of coercive control as a framework for measurement of domestic violence, and highlight what we see as misrepresentation of this concept in the work of Walby and colleagues. We also point to the limitations of traditional crime codes in capturing the range of abuse suffered by victims of coercive control, and question whether measuring physical assault is any more straightforward in sample surveys than measuring non-violent forms of coercion. We conclude by calling for greater attention to qualitative narratives and practice-based knowledge to ensure that measurement frameworks reflect the lived experiences of victim-survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed consent is an important part of the research process; however, some participants either do not read or skim the consent form. When participants do not read or comprehend informed consent, then they may not understand the potential benefits, risks, or details of the study before participating. This study used previous research to develop experimentally manipulated online consent forms utilizing various presentations of the consent form and interactive elements. Participants (n = 576) were randomly exposed to one of six form variations. Results found that the highly interactive condition was significantly better for comprehension than any of the other conditions. The highly interactive condition also performed better for readability, though not significantly. Further research should explore the effects of interactive elements to combat habituation and to engage participants with the parts of the consent form unique to the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers are increasingly attentive to the importance of supportive school climates, even as many students report that schools seem to be uncaring places. Using recent scholarship that foregrounds the organizational and contextual dimensions of educational caring and student engagement, we use qualitative case study interview data to examine these concepts in two schools. We find that organizational and contextual factors such as students' sense of continuity and the manner and degree of staff collaboration have important implications for caring, student engagement, and school climate writ broadly. Implications for policy makers and education leaders are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metarepresentational aspect of early pretend play (make-believe activities where children create or participate in creating a new situation different from a real one) has been theoretically debated. In the present longitudinal study of N = 83 children, we tested for predictive relations of shared attention at 12–18 months, implicit false belief (FB) at 18 months, and pretend production at 18 months, as well as comprehension at 24 months. We also tested for long-term predictive relations of pretense production and comprehension with theory of mind (ToM) at the age of 4–5 years. Only pretense production directed toward others (but not self) was specifically related to infancy measures of shared attention. Early pretense, either production or comprehension, was not related to implicit FB or later ToM measures. The findings are discussed in terms of different theoretical accounts of early pretense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inference generation and comprehension monitoring are essential elements of successful reading comprehension. While both improve with age and reading development, little is known about when and how children make inferences and monitor their comprehension during the reading process itself. Over two experiments, we monitored the eye movements of two groups of children (age 8–13 years) as they read short passages and answered questions that tapped local (Experiment 1) and global (Experiment 2) inferences. To tap comprehension monitoring, the passages contained target words which were consistent or inconsistent with the context. Comprehension question location was also manipulated with the question appearing before or after the passage. Children made local inferences during reading, but the evidence was less clear for global inferences. Children were sensitive to inconsistencies that relied on the generation of an inference, consistent with successful comprehension monitoring, although this was seen only very late in the eye movement record. Although question location had a large effect on reading times, it had no effect on global comprehension in one experiment and reading the question first had a detrimental effect in the other. We conclude that children appear to prioritise efficiency over completeness when reading, generating inferences spontaneously only when they are necessary for establishing a coherent representation of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]