Latent Semantic Analysis is used as a technique for measuring the coherence of texts. By comparing the vectors for two adjoining segments of text in a highdimensional semantic space, the method provides a characterization of the degree of semantic relatedness between the segments. We illustrate the approach for predicting coherence through re-analyzing sets of texts from two studies that manipulated the coherence of texts and assessed readers' comprehension. The results indicate that the method is able to predict the effect of text coherence on comprehension and is more effective than simple term-term overlap measures. In this manner, LSA can be applied as an automated method that produces coherence predictions similar to propositional modeling. We describe additional studies investigating the application of LSA to analyzing discourse structure and examine the potential of LSA as a psychological model of coherence effects in text comprehension.

This study examines the hypothesis that the ability of a reader to learn from text depends on the match between the background knowledge of the reader and the difficulty of the text information. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a statistical technique that represents the content of a document as a vector in high dimensional semantic space based on a large text corpus, is used to predict how much readers will learn from texts based on the estimated conceptual match between their topic knowledge and the text information. Participants completed tests to assess their knowledge of the human heart and circulatory system, then read one of four texts that ranged in difficulty from elementary to medical school level, then completed the tests again. Results show a non-monotonic relationship in which learning was greatest for texts that were neither too easy nor too difficult. LSA proved as effective at predicting learning from these texts as traditional knowledge assessment measures. For these te...

This paper summarizes three lines of research that are motivated by the practical problem of helping users find information from external data sources, most notably computers. The application areas include information retrieval, text categorization, and question answering. Acommon theme in these applications is that practical information access problems can be solved by analyzing the statistical properties of words in large volumes of real world texts. The same statistical properties constrain human performance, thus we believe that solutions to practical information access problems can shed light on human knowledge representation and reasoning.

This study examined a corpus of 10 widely used pre-algebra and algebra textbooks, with the goal of investigating whether they exhibited a symbol precedence view of mathematical development as is found among high school teachers. The textbook analysis focused on the sequence in which problem-solving activities were presented to students. As predicted, textbooks showed the symbol precedence view, presenting symbolic problems prior to verbal problems.

Based on an engagement perspective of reading development, we investigated the extent to which an instructional framework of combining motivation support and strategy instruction (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction—CORI) influenced reading outcomes for third-grade children. In CORI, five motivational practices were integrated with six cognitive strategies for reading comprehension. In the first study, we compared this framework to an instructional framework emphasizing Strategy Instruction (SI), but not including motivation support. In the second study, we compared CORI to SI and to a traditional instruction group (TI), and used additional measures of major constructs. In both studies, class-level analyses showed that students in CORI classrooms were higher than SI and/or TI students on measures of reading comprehension, reading motivation, and reading strategies. A widespread goal of education in the elementary grades is reading comprehension for all students. Reading comprehension becomes especially important in the later elementary grades (Sweet & Snow, 2003) and provides the basis for a substantial amount of learning in secondary school (Kirsch et al., 2002). Without the skills of reading comprehension and the motivation

Hypertexts present methods to read online texts that are different from those available when reading standard linear texts. Hypertexts give readers more flexibility in choosing paths through the text and in finding relevant information. However, research in hypertext has often shown little or no advantages over the equivalent linear text.

Coh-Metrix is a computer program that analyzes various text features relevant to text comprehension by incorporating techniques informed by theories of text processing, cognitive psychology, and computational linguistics. Three key classes of cohesion indices (i.e., coreference, conceptual relations, connectivity) measured by Coh-Metrix are evaluated with texts used in published studies of cohesion effects on reading comprehension. The results confirmed that Coh-Metrix successfully detects levels of cohesion in texts.

Users of educational hypertext are faced with the challenge of creating meaning both within and between texts. Cohesion is an important factor contributing to whether a reader is able to capture meaning and comprehend text. When readers are required to fill in conceptual gaps in text, comprehension can fail if they do not have sufficient knowledge. Cohesion helps low-knowledge readers to create a more coherent mental representation of the text. However, text that is too cohesive can inhibit active processing, and thus reduce coherence for more knowledgeable readers. Similar patterns have been found for hypertext, which requires readers to create coherence between multiple electronic texts. Domain novices are in greater need of explicit pointers to important links between documents and gain from having less control over system navigation. Domain experts are in less need of scaffolding within the system. We discuss the use of a multimedia reading strategy training program to help low-knowledge readers better understand less cohesive text. Finally, we discuss four principles to guide hypertext development geared toward improving coherence and metacognitive engagement.

This study examined the effect of graphic organizers on the comprehension of a health education brochure text and compared subjective with objective comprehension measures. Graphic organizers are graphical depictions of relations among concepts in a text. Participants read a brochure text about asthma with and without these organizers, and subjective and objective text comprehension was measured. It was found that graphic organizers had effects on four levels of objective comprehension as indicated by open comprehension questions. However, on the subjective comprehension measure using Likert-type scales, the groups with and without graphic organizers did not differ from each other. It is concluded that health education texts could benefit from relatively simple techniques to increase comprehension. Furthermore, in developing health education materials, comprehension should be measured objectively.

An analysis of standardized reading ability tests: What do questions actually measure? Abstract. This study examined what types of passage and individual item attributes of reading ability tests affect item difficulty. Ninety-six questions from the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test for 7/9th graders were analyzed in terms of individual item characteristics and passage features that were considered to affect the item’s difficulty. Whereas two passage features, word frequency and sentence length, influenced the item difficulty, none of the individual question characteristics were found to affect the item difficulty. Thus, the GMRT may be assessing how difficult a passage they can comprehend, not how difficult a question they can answer about a passage. These findings may be the result of the passages in the GMRT having an atypical construction; shorter passages tended to be composed of longer sentences.