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- Title
Specific relevance instructions promote selective reading strategies: evidences from eye tracking and oral summaries.
- Authors
León, José A.; Moreno, José David; Escudero, Inmaculada; Olmos, Ricardo; Ruiz, Marcos; Lorch, Robert F.
- Abstract
Background: The present study analysed how relevance instructions affect eye movement patterns and the performance in a summary task of six expository texts. Methods: Forty‐one undergraduate students participated in the experiment; half of them were instructed to make an oral summary of the main ideas focusing on the 'why' question that appeared at the end of the first paragraph (specific relevance instruction), while the other half were instructed to make an oral summary of the main ideas of the text (general relevance instruction). Results: Eye movement patterns revealed that specific instructions promoted more and longer fixations and more regressions for relevant information than general instructions. A higher percentage of words in the summary task related to relevant information was recalled when readers received specific instructions. Conclusions: These findings suggest that relevance instructions influence how readers enact strategies to meet their reading goals and how these strategies are reflected on memory. Highlights: What is already known about this topicA reading goal is formed on the basis of the reader's personal intentions and given intentions, such as a given reading perspective.Readers modulate their attention to task‐relevant content in response to specific task instructions.There are strong evidences showing that eye tracking offers useful and accurate data about online processes during reading. What this paper addsThe type of relevance instruction influences how readers enact strategies to meet their reading goals, and these strategies have an influence on memory.Readers who receive a specific relevance instruction show a strategic reading behaviour, which is also reflected in the quality of their recall.Readers who adopt a selective strategy tend to use it in a consistent way across different texts and topics. Implications for theory, policy or practiceThere is a benefit in combining online and offline measures to examine the influence of relevance instructions on texts' strategic processing.The ability to distinguish relevant from irrelevant content in response to specific task instructions is an important instance of a competency that readers must develop in order to become efficient and effective as readers and learners.Assigning a comprehension perspective through relevance instructions should increase learning of perspective‐relevant information from expository materials, such as textbooks.
- Subjects
EYE movements; EXPOSITION (Rhetoric); ENGLISH language rhetoric; VOCABULARY; MEMORY; YOUNG adults
- Publication
Journal of Research in Reading, 2019, Vol 42, Issue 2, p432
- ISSN
0141-0423
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1467-9817.12276