Metacomprehension skills depend on the type of text: an analysis from differential item functioning / Las habilidades metacomprensivas dependen del tipo de texto: un análisis desde el Funcionamiento Diferencial de los Ítems

Background: Metacomprehension skills determine an individual reader’s ability to judge their degree of learning and text comprehension and have considerable importance in their ability to learn from reading. Given that many comprehension processes are influenced by text characteristics, the aim of the present study was to analyze whether different types of text have significant impact on metacomprehension skills at two different points in primary education. Method: A total of 823 students (4th and 6th years of primary school, 9 to 11 years old) read three different texts (narrative, expository and discontinuous texts) taken from ECOM-PLEC.Pri, a standardized Spanish test for reading comprehension (León, Escudero, & Olmos, 2012). Students were classified by their metacomprehension skills. A Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis was conducted in order to analyze whether the underlying reading comprehension and metacomprehension processes differed across text types. Results: Results showed a considerable divergence of performance for reading narrative texts as opposed to expository and discontinuous texts. These differences were related to academic level. Conclusion: Text characteristics such as the type of text can have a great impact on metacomprehension skills and, consequently, on learning

Antecedentes: la metacomprensión supone la habilidad que uno mismo posee para juzgar su grado de aprendizaje y comprensión de un texto, adquiriendo una gran importancia en la comprensión lectora. Dado que los procesos de comprensión se encuentran influenciados por las características de los textos, el objetivo de este estudio fue analizar si diferentes tipos de texto afectan de manera significativa a la habilidad metacomprensiva de estudiantes de distintos niveles de Educación Primaria. Método: un total de 823 estudiantes de 4º y 6º de Primaria (9 y 11 años) leyeron tres textos diferentes (narrativo, expositivo y discontinuo) tomados de la prueba estandarizada de comprensión lectora ECOMPLEC.Pri (León, Escudero, y Olmos, 2012). Los estudiantes fueron clasificados por su nivel de metacomprensión obtenido en la prueba. Un Análisis Diferencial del Ítem (DIF) se aplicó para analizar si los procesos de comprensión lectora y de metacomprensión difieren entre tipos de texto y niveles académicos de los participantes. Resultados: los resultados mostraron una notable divergencia en el rendimiento metacognitivo del texto narrativo frente a los textos expositivo y discontinuo. Estas diferencias estaban relacionadas con el nivel académico. Conclusión: el tipo de texto puede tener un gran impacto en las habilidades de metacomprensión y, consecuentemente, en el aprendizaje de textos

Metacomprehension skills depend on the type of text: An analysis from Differential Item Functioning.

BACKGROUND: Metacomprehension skills determine an individual reader's ability to judge their degree of learning and text comprehension and have considerable importance in their ability to learn from reading. Given that many comprehension processes are influenced by text characteristics, the aim of the present study was to analyze whether different types of text have significant impact on metacomprehension skills at two different points in primary education. METHOD: A total of 823 students (4th and 6th years of primary school, 9 to 11 years old) read three different texts (narrative, expository and discontinuous texts) taken from ECOM-PLEC.Pri, a standardized Spanish test for reading comprehension (León, Escudero, & Olmos, 2012). Students were classified by their metacomprehension skills. A Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis was conducted in order to analyze whether the underlying reading comprehension and metacomprehension processes differed across text types. RESULTS: Results showed a considerable divergence of performance for reading narrative texts as opposed to expository and discontinuous texts. These differences were related to academic level. CONCLUSION: Text characteristics such as the type of text can have a great impact on metacomprehension skills and, consequently, on learning.

Selective attention to question-relevant text information precedes high-quality summaries: Evidence from eye movements.

Comprehension and summarizing are closely related. As more strategic and selective processing during reading should be reflected in higher quality of summaries, the aim of this study was to use eye movement patterns to analyze how readers who produce good quality summaries process texts. 40 undergraduate students were instructed to read six expository texts in order to respond a causal question introduced in the end of the first paragraph. After reading, participants produced an oral summary of the text. Based on the quality of the summaries, participants were divided into three groups: High, Medium and Low Quality Summaries. The results revealed that readers who produced High Quality Summaries made significantly more and longer fixations and regressions in the question-relevant parts of texts when compared to the other two summary groups. These results suggest that the summary task performance could be a good predictor of the reading strategies utilized during reading.

Effects of valence and causal direction in the emotion inferences processing during reading: evidence from a lexical decision task / Efectos de la valencia y la dirección causal en el procesamiento de inferencias emocionales durante la lectura: evidencia mediante una tarea de decisión léxica

In two experiments we investigated the role that activation of emotional inferences when readers represent fictional characters' emotional states using an affective lexical decision task. Subjects read short stories that described concrete actions. In the first experiment, we analyzed whether the valence (positive or negative) was an important factor of inference´s activation. The results showed that valence was determinant factor in the moment that emotional inference was generated, being the positive valence faster than negative. In the second experiment we studied whether the emotion inference activation was influenced by the causal direction of the story, where the causal direction of the text was manipulated in order to induce towards an emotional inference predictive (the reader looking for a consequence that promote a particular emotion) or inducing an explanatory inference (reader looking for a cause that 'explain' a particular emotion). The results suggest that emotional inferences are made online, and that valence and causal directions are two decisive components of emotional trait, but only positive valence increase their processing

En dos experimentos se investigó el papel que juega la activación de inferencias emocionales cuando los lectores representan estados emocionales de los personajes ficticios mediante una tarea de decisión léxica. Los participantes leyeron historias cortas que describían acciones concretas. En el primer experimento se analizó si la valencia emocional (positiva o negativa) influía en la activación de la inferencia. Los resultados mostraron que la valencia fue factor determinante en el momento en que generaba la inferencia emocional, siendo la valencia positiva más rápida que la negativa. En el segundo experimento se analizó la dirección causal de la historia, donde en un caso fue manipulada para inducir hacia una inferencia emocional predictiva (el lector busca una acción que anticipa una emoción particular), y en otro explicativa (el lector busca una causa que 'explique' una emoción en particular) y si estas dos condiciones diferían en la activación de la inferencia emocional. Los resultados revelaron que las inferencias emocionales se hacen de manera automática en ambos estudios y que tanto la valencia como la dirección causal se consideran componentes básicos de las inferencias emocionales, pero sólo la valencia positiva acelera aún más el procesamiento del rasgo emocional

Baremación de una prueba estandarizada de resúmenes (RESUMeV) para los niveles de 4o y 6o de educación primaria / Scaling of a standardized summary test (RESUMeV) for two primary school grades

El objetivo del estudio fue el de mostrar evidencias de fiabilidad y validez para una prueba de resúmenes (RESUMev) que evalúa el grado de comprensión lectora en alumnos de cuarto y sexto de primaria. Participaron un total de 528 estudiantes de primaria, de los cuales 236 fueron estudiantes de 4o de primaria (9 y 10 años) y 292 a 6o de primaria (11 a 13 años). Todos estos alumnos procedían de 21 centros escolares. Para evaluar la consistencia interna, se calculó el alfa de Cronbach en los criterios de evaluación de resúmenes (contenido, coherencia y estilo) y su índice de homogeneidad (Hj). La validez se evaluó mediante la comparación entre niveles académicos. En cuanto a los resultados, se obtuvieron índices elevados significativos de fiabilidad y de validez. Los resultados proporcionan evidencia empírica para la validez de la prueba

The purpose of this work was to collect construct and criterion-related evidence of validity for a summary test (RESUMeV) designed to assess students from fourth and sixth grade. The sample of this study consisted of 528 children, 236 from fourth grade and 296 from sixth grade. They were drawn from 21 different primary schools. Several criteria were used. To evaluate the internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha was calculated for all summary evaluation criteria (content, coherence, and style); a homogeneity index (Hj) was calculated too. The validity was evaluated by comparing academic levels. As for the results, both reliability and validity indices were high and significant. These results provide empirical evidence for the validity of the summary test

Hitos y Retos del Psicólogo Educativo / Milestones and Challenges in Educational Psychology

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El Psicólogo Educativo en EEUU y Australia / The Educational Psychologist in the United States and Australia

En este artículo se analizan los orígenes y la situación actual del psicólogo educativo en dos países de gran relevancia dentro de la Psicología como son Estados Unidos y Australia. En el primer caso, se hace una revisión desde el origen de la psicología escolar que data de 1890, fecha en la que se funda la Asociación Americana de Psicología (APA), hasta nuestros días. El avance y desarrollo de la psicología educativa en este país ha confluido en la elaboración de algunas propuestas muy interesantes de formación y acreditación del psicólogo educativo, basadas en el establecimiento de sus competencias académicas y profesionales. Dada su gran relevancia, se revisan en este artículo los modelos de competencias propuestos por las dos principales asociaciones que representan a este colectivo, como son la Asociación Nacional Americana de Psicólogos Escolares (NASP) y la Asociación Americana de Psicología (APA). En el segundo caso, se revisa la situación del psicólogo educativo en Australia, desde sus orígenes, que datan de comienzos del siglo XX, hasta su situación actual, en la que asociaciones importantes como la Asociación Australiana de Psicología y la Australian Guidance and Counsellor Association juegan un papel muy relevante en la regulación de la preparación necesaria y funciones del psicólogo educativo. Finalmente, se destacan algunas tendencias de futuro que marcarán de manera significativa la evolución de la psicología educativa en este país y que, como veremos a lo largo de este monográfico, comparten semejanzas con la situación de otros países (AU)

In this article we analyze the origins and the current situation of educational psychologists in two countries of great relevance for Psychology: the United States and Australia. In the first case, a review is conducted from the origins of school psychology, dating back to 1890 ? when the American Psychological Association (APA) was founded ? to the present day. The advance and development of educational psychology in this country has provided the elaboration of some very interesting proposals about professional preparation and accreditation of the educational psychologist, based on the establishment of their academic and professional competences. Given the great relevance of these proposals, we review the competences models proposed by the two main associations that represent these professionals: The American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). With regard to Australia, we analyze the situation of the educational psychologist there, from the origins of this figure -dating back of the beginning of the twentieth century- up to their current situation. Important associations like the Australian Psychological Association and the Australian Guidance and Counsellor Association have played a very relevant role in the regulation of the professional preparation and functions of the educational psychologist. Finally, we outline some future trends that are likely to impact on the evolution of the educational psychologist in Australia. These issues share similarities with the situation of other countries reviewed in this special monographic edition (AU)

Procesos de Comprensión del Discurso y Adquisición de Segundas Lenguas: ¿Hasta qué Punto Estamos ante una Nueva Variedad de Relativismo Lingüístico? / No disponible

A través de este trabajo se examinan diversas cuestiones relacionadas con los procesos de comprensión del discurso escrito y de la adquisición de segundas lenguas como el español, inglés o portugués. El objetivo fundamental de este artículo es tratar de desvelar si el procesamiento que realiza el lector durante la comprensión de un discurso determinado o ante la adquisición de una segunda lengua requiere de una actividad cognitiva diferente a cuando se trata de comprender otro de naturaleza diferente o bajo una lengua diferente. Para ello se analiza por un lado, las diferencias existentes entre diferentes tipos de texto, centrándonos fundamentalmente en el narrativo y el expositivo, analizando sus repercusiones sobre varios niveles de la cognición humana. Por otro, se analizan algunos estudios sobre la adquisición de diferentes segundas lenguas y sus repercusiones sobre su nivel de activación cerebral utilizando la técnica de fMRI. Por último, se plantea hasta qué punto el relativismo lingüístico influye en los procesos de comprensión y de la realización de inferencias y de la adquisición de una segunda lengua (AU)

In this paper we address issues related to comprehension processes, and how they can be affected by types of text or written discourse, and by a reader?s first or second language. To this end, we discuss the processing of narrative and expository texts, and their effects on different levels of human cognition. Likewise, we discuss the effects of texts written in different codes, that is, in first and second languages. We propose that differences in text comprehension processes occur as a function of their causal nature and of the inferences that are generated during comprehension. In terms of second language comprehension, modern research applying functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, with bilinguals is discussed in support of the notion that first language comprehension processes are generally replicated in the second language. Therefore, we focus on comprehension processes, generation of interferences, and the processing of a second language as influenced by linguistic relativism (AU)

New algorithms assessing short summaries in expository texts using latent semantic analysis.

In this study, we compared four expert graders with latent semantic analysis (LSA) to assess short summaries of an expository text. As is well known, there are technical difficulties for LSA to establish a good semantic representation when analyzing short texts. In order to improve the reliability of LSA relative to human graders, we analyzed three new algorithms by two holistic methods used in previous research (León, Olmos, Escudero, Cañas, & Salmerón, 2006). The three new algorithms were (1) the semantic common network algorithm, an adaptation of an algorithm proposed by W. Kintsch (2001, 2002) with respect to LSA as a dynamic model of semantic representation; (2) a best-dimension reduction measure of the latent semantic space, selecting those dimensions that best contribute to improving the LSA assessment of summaries (Hu, Cai, Wiemer-Hastings, Graesser, & McNamara, 2007); and (3) the Euclidean distance measure, used by Rehder et al. (1998), which incorporates at the same time vector length and the cosine measures. A total of 192 Spanish middle-grade students and 6 experts took part in this study. They read an expository text and produced a short summary. Results showed significantly higher reliability of LSA as a computerized assessment tool for expository text when it used a best-dimension algorithm rather than a standard LSA algorithm. The semantic common network algorithm also showed promising results.

Assessing short summaries with human judgments procedure and latent semantic analysis in narrative and expository texts.

In the present study, we tested a computer-based procedure for assessing very concise summaries (50 words long) of two types of text (narrative and expository) using latent semantic analysis (LSA) in comparison with the judgments of four human experts. LSA was used to estimate semantic similarity using six different methods: four holistic (summary-text, summary-summaries, summary-expert summaries, and pregraded-ungraded summary) and two componential (summary-sentence text and summary-main sentence text). A total of 390 Spanish middle and high school students (14-16 years old) and six experts read a narrative or expository text and later summarized it. The results support the viability of developing a computerized assessment tool using human judgments and LSA, although the correlation between human judgments and LSA was higher in the narrative text than in the expository, and LSA correlated more with human content ratings thanwith hu mancoherence ratings. Finally, theholistic methods were found to be more reliable than the componential methods analyzed in this study.

"Profe, ¿puedo preguntar?" Una breve introducción a la interacción de preguntas y respuestas entre profesor y alumno / "Teacher, Can I make a question?" a short introduction to question-answer interaction between teacher and student

En este artículo se presentan algunas de las principales conclusiones con aplicación en el ámbito educativo que se puede extraer a partir de la literatura sobre la interacción entre preguntas y respuestas. Por una parte, se realiza una revisión de las investigaciones realizadas desde la psicología básica que permite conocer de forma resumida el estado de la cuestión, así como algunos de los factores reguladores de esta interacción y los tipos de preguntas que pueden generarse. Por otra parte, se presentan algunos ejemplos de investigaciones más aplicadas, con clara orientación pedagógica. El artículo termina con una serie de sugerencias extraídas a partir de la literatura que, de nuevo, pretenden ayudar a los docentes en su práctica diaria (AU)