Comprehension of topic shifts by Argentinean college students: Role of discourse marker presence, causal connectivity and prior knowledge

Gender-based violence in Latin America (Ecuador and Argentina): current state and challenges in the development of psychoeducational materials

“…In consequence, promoting that students get emotionally involved appears to facilitate that they elaborate on statements that are key to comprehend and learn from the material. This finding converges with recent studies, which suggest that establishing a high number of discourse connections [ 67 , 70 , 81 , 96 ], getting emotionally involved with the material [ 72 , 80 ], and performing elaborative question answering tasks facilitate discourse comprehension [ 85 , 97 ]. It also expands these studies, given that it focuses on the interplay between these variables, and on the comprehension of written and spoken spontaneous discourse on the prevention of GBV.…”

“…It would be, thus, interesting that future studies compared the role of these variables in the comprehension of students from other countries, such as Argentina. This would allow us to explore whether we would observe the same results (this is possible, given that prior research has already suggested that the establishment of causal connections and the generation of emotion inferences play a role in written and spoken discourse comprehension by college students from this country [ 67 , 70 , 89 ]. It is also possible that results would differ, given that there are cultural and educational differences between these two countries [ 98 ].…”

“…In this case, it can be proposed that statement 2 causes statement 1, because the protagonist’s ‘ being flung into the heart of things primordial ’ occurs prior to his ‘ every hour being filled with shock and surprise ’, is in operation when it does, and is necessary for it to happen. Prior studies suggest that events with many causal connections are recalled more often [ 56 , 62 – 65 ], rated as more important [ 59 ], more often included in summarization protocols [ 66 ], more often identified as introducing a topic shift [ 67 ], and retrieved more quickly [ 68 ] than events with few connections in the comprehension of written and spoken discourse. In turn, the generation of emotion inferences have been proposed to enrich the mental representation that comprehenders construct of the text [ 69 – 74 ].…”

“…Taking into account these preliminary findings, we can propose that it can be useful that future studies continue examining the effect of the design, selection and presentation of materials that promote the comprehension of topics related to the prevention of GBV. These materials should promote the establishment of discourse connections (not only causal, but also adversative, additive [ 15 , 67 , 104 ]), and facilitate that participants get actively engaged in learning about this topic (for example, through the presentation of elaborative question answering tasks ). It would also be interesting that future studies examined whether participants’ active learning can be facilitated by asking participants to perform other tasks that promote comprehenders’ oriented processes, such as self explanation and note-taking [ 14 , 94 ].…”

“…and is necessary for it to happen. Prior studies suggest that events with many causal connections are recalled more often [56,[62][63][64][65], rated as more important [59], more often included in summarization protocols [66], more often identified as introducing a topic shift [67], and retrieved more quickly [68] than events with few connections in the comprehension of written and spoken discourse. In turn, the generation of emotion inferences have been proposed to enrich the mental representation that comprehenders construct of the text [69][70][71][72][73][74].…”