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Effects of field dependence-independence and passive highlights on comprehension

University of British Columbia

This study explores the effects of relevant and irrelevant highlights on reading comprehension. Participants were divided by their cognitive styles based on their degree of Field Dependence-Independence (Witkin, Dyk, Fattuson, Goodenough, & Karp, 1962). The Construction-Integration model (Kintsch, 1988) was used for the selection of reading tests that are most likely to measure comprehension. As a result, multiple choice, open-ended summary, and Sentence Verification Technique (Royer, Hastings, & Hook, 1979) questions were used. Passive highlights were found to have significant effects on comprehension. Both Field Independents and Field Dependents were positively affected by relevant highlights and negatively affected by irrelevant ones. Differences were found between measures of comprehension used in the study, suggesting the comprehension tests measure different components of comprehension. These results have implications for the future study of reading.

Text

2016-04-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/57729

Library and Information Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/