The Influence of Domain Knowledge on Inferencing In Low-Aptitude Individuals

A trading relationship between reading skill and domain knowledge in children's text comprehension

“…Furthermore, there are clear demonstrations that specific knowledge has a decisive role in skilled performance in such domains as chess (Chi, 1978), physics (Glaser & Chi, 1988), computer programming (Kulikowich & Alexander, 1990), and science fiction (Means & Voss, 1985). The most relevant observations to the issue at hand are that comprehension during reading has been shown to vary with the reader's familiarity with the specific content area of the text (e.g., FincherKiefer, Post, Greene, & Voss, 1988;Spilich, Vesonder, Chiesi, & Voss, 1979), with the reader's educational background (e.g., Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, & Goetz, 1977;Birkmire, 1985), with both specific content and educational background (Ohlhausen & Roller, 1988), and with knowledge analogous to specific context (Alexander, Pate, & Kulikowich, 1989;Hayes & Tierney, 1982;Kulikowich & Alexander, 1990;Walker, 1987;Yekovich, Walker, Ogle, & Thompson, 1990).…”

Does domain knowledge moderate involvement of working memory capacity in higher-level cognition? A test of three models

“…At the same time, domain knowledge also has a powerful effect on language comprehension. For example, Spilich, Vesonder, Chiesi, and Voss (1979) found that participants with high levels of knowledge about the game of baseball showed better comprehension and recall of a narrative passage about a fictitious baseball game than did low-knowledge participants (for numerous other examples, see Adams, Bell, & Perfetti, 1995;Arbuckle, Vanderleck, Harsany, & Lapidus, 1990;Britton, Stimson, Stennett, & Gü lgö z, 1998;Haenggi & Perfetti, 1992, 1994Hall & Edmondson, 1992;Morrow, Leirer, & Altieri, 1992;Recht & Leslie, 1988;Schneider, Bjorklund, & Maier-Brü ckner, 1996;Schneider, Kö rkel, & Weinert, 1989;Soederberg Miller, 2003;Walker, 1987;Yekovich, Walker, Ogle, & Thompson, 1990).…”

Knowledge-Based Inferencing after Childhood Head Injury

“…One is a knowledge base pertinent to the domain or context described by a particular text. Equating the knowledge base across groups has been shown to attenuate or eliminate individual and developmental differences in inferencing and other skills (Bjorklund & Bernholtz, 1986;Ceci & Liker, 1986;Chi, 1978;Yekovich, Walker, Ogle, & Thompson, 1990; but see DeMarie-Dreblow, 1991). Another factor important for successful inferencing is the speed of access to knowledge or prior text during comprehension (Ackerman, Silver, & Glickman, 1990;McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992;Singer, Andrusiak, Reisdorf, & Black, 1992).…”