Cognitive and Motivational Determinants of Reading Comprehension in Good and Poor Readers

Abstract

Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational factors were examined as predictors of individual differences in the reading comprehension abilities of good and poor readers. Two hundred twenty seventh graders were measured on reading comprehension, and the top 30% and bottom 30% were identified as good and poor readers, respectively. Subjects were then measured on word recognition, metacognitive knowledge about text processing, perceived competence, and attributional beliefs about the reasons underlying academic outcomes. The results indicated that good readers in comparison to poor readers scored higher on the word recognition measure, possessed richer metacognitive knowledge, and had more positive beliefs about their academic abilities. Regression analyses indicated that word recognition and metacognition predicted reading comprehension in the whole sample; however, regression analyses within subgroups indicated that word recognition was the most important predictor variable for poor readers, whereas perceived competence predicted the reading comprehension abilities of good readers.Numerous developmental researchers have recently argued that it is time we seriously attempt to integrate cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational factors both in our theories and in our investigations of children's cognitive performance 365

Efficacy of a reading intervention for first-year university students

“…This shows that the affective levels of first-year students could drop after the start of academic work. Affective support is needed to stabilise and develop students' affect towards reading, especially their self-efficacy, which has been proven to correlate highly with reading proficiency and academic success (Ehrlich, Kurtz-Costes & Loridant, 1993;Mills et al, 2007:436;Pretorius, 2007). The medium and large effect sizes that were obtained also show the extent to which the intervention was effective in improving students' reading habits, strategy use, and affective levels towards reading.…”

Mesurer les connaissances et compétences des élèves

“…Plusieurs études ont montré une corrélation entre les connaissances métacognitives et les performances en lecture chez les jeunes lecteurs (Ehrlich, Kurtz-Costes et Loridant, 1993 ;Ehrlich, 1996). Elles ont mis en évidence chez les lecteurs des variations dans la compréhension du concept de lecture, dans les buts et objectifs de la lecture, dans les stratégies destinées à la compréhension et dans la détection des incohérences.…”

Motivational determinants of reading comprehension: A comparison of French, Caucasian–American, and African–American adolescents

“…the equivalent of the American seventh grade). Data for the French sample came from a large-scale investigation of reading comprehension in French adolescents (Ehrlich, Kurtz-Costes and Loridant, 1993). Mean ages of the two groups were 12 years, 9 months (SD = 6 months) and 12 years 11 months (SD = 8 months), respectively.…”

“…Ehrlich et al, 1993). Examples of comprehension monitoring questions are: (1) 'If you had only 3 minutes to read a 2-page text, and you would be asked questions about the text afterwards, how would you go about reading the text?'…”

“…Given the growing body of research on the relationship between metacognitive knowledge and performance, this result is no surprise (e.g. Forrest- Pressley and Waller, 1984;Garner, 1987). However, metacognition was not related to individual differences in performance for African Americans.…”