Elaborative Inference in Children with Poor Reading Comprehension: Instrument Inference

Abstract

Objectives: Elaborative inference is the integration of a text and the reader's knowledge; it facilitates comprehension and allows readers to more easily learn the information contained within the text. The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of instrument inference (a type of elaborative inference) in poor comprehenders. Methods: The participants were 15 poor comprehenders and 15 normally developing children in 3rd to 6th grade. The children were asked to decide if target words (instrument words) were words or nonwords after reading sentences including the cue to infer instrument while measuring their reaction time. In this lexical decision task, the target words were divided into two conditions: the related condition between sentences and instruments words (related condition) and the unrelated condition between sentences and instrument words (unrelated condition). Results: Normally developing children reacted faster in the related condition than the unrelated condition; on the other hand, poor comprehenders showed no significant difference between the two conditions. Conclusion: Unlike normally developing children, poor comprehenders failed to infer instruments in real time while reading. From this result, it can be explained that poor comprehenders have difficulty in processing implicit information while reading texts because they assign most of their comprehension resources to processing the literal information in the text.

Characteristics of Semantic Processing in Children with Reading Difficulties through Grammaticality Judgment Task

“…이들과 다른 견지에서 보면, 읽은 내용을 효율적으로 이해하기 위해서는 불필요한 정보를 빠르게 억제하는 능력이 중요하다 하였 다 (Gernsbacher & Faust, 1991;Gernsbacher & Robertson, 1995;Gernsbacher, Robertson, & Werner, 2001;Gernsbacher, Varner, & Faust, 1990;Khanna & Boland, 2010) (Gernsbacher & Faust, 1991;Gernsbacher & Robertson, 1995;Gernsbacher et al, 1990) (Betjemann & Keenan, 2008;Guldenoglu, Kargin, & Miller, 2012;Hahn, Hwang, & Ko, 2018;Joo, Hwang, & Choi, 2020;Nation & Snowling, 1999;Park, Hwang, & Ko, 2017) (Hwang, 2020;Ko, Choi, & Hwang, 2010;Ryu, Hwang, & Ko, 2018). (Henderson, Snowling, & Clarke, 2013) (Gernsbacher et al, 1990;Grensbacher et al, 2001;& Faust, 1991;Gernsbacher & Robertson, 1995;Ko et al, 2010;Ryu et al, 2018) (Hwang, 2020;Ko et al, 2010;Ryu et al, 2018).…”