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"Comprehension - physiology"
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Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering
Given that the ability to attend to a task without distraction underlies performance in a wide variety of contexts, training one's ability to stay on task should result in a similarly broad enhancement of performance. In a randomized controlled investigation, we examined whether a 2-week mindfulness-training course would decrease mind wandering and improve cognitive performance. Mindfulness training improved both GRE reading-comprehension scores and working memory capacity while simultaneously reducing the occurrence of distracting thoughts during completion of the GRE and the measure of working memory. Improvements in performance following mindfulness training were mediated by reduced mind wandering among participants who were prone to distraction at pretesting. Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with wide-reaching consequences.
Journal Article
A bottom-up view of toddler word learning
A head camera was used to examine the visual correlates of object name learning by toddlers as they played with novel objects and as the parent spontaneously named those objects. The toddlers’ learning of the object names was tested after play, and the visual properties of the head camera images during naming events associated with learned and unlearned object names were analyzed. Naming events associated with learning had a clear visual signature, one in which the visual information itself was clean and visual competition among objects was minimized. Moreover, for learned object names, the visual advantage of the named target over competitors was sustained, both before and after the heard name. The findings are discussed in terms of the visual and cognitive processes that may depend on clean sensory input for learning and also on the sensory–motor, cognitive, and social processes that may create these optimal visual moments for learning.
Journal Article
Information entropy facilitates (not impedes) lexical processing during language comprehension
It is well known that contextual predictability facilitates word identification, but it is less clear whether the uncertainty associated with the current context (i.e., its lexical entropy) influences sentence processing. On the one hand, high entropy contexts may lead to interference due to greater number of lexical competitors. On the other hand, predicting multiple lexical competitors may facilitate processing through the preactivation of shared semantic features. In this study, we examined whether entropy measured at the
trial
level (i.e., for each participant, for each item) corresponds to facilitatory or inhibitory effects. Trial-level entropy captures each individual’s knowledge about specific contexts and is therefore a more valid and sensitive measure of entropy (relative to the commonly employed
item
-level entropy). Participants (
N
= 112) completed two experimental sessions (with counterbalanced orders) that were separated by a 3- to 14-day interval. In one session, they produced up to 10 completions for sentence fragments (
N
= 647). In another session, they read the same sentences including a target word (whose entropy value was calculated based on the produced completions) while reading times were measured. We observed a
facilitatory
(not inhibitory) effect of trial-level entropy on lexical processing over and above item-level measures of lexical predictability (including cloze probability, surprisal, and semantic constraint). Extra analyses revealed that greater semantic overlap between the target and the produced responses facilitated target processing. Thus, the results lend support to theories of lexical prediction maintaining that prediction involves broad activation of semantic features rather than activation of full lexical forms.
Journal Article
Conceptual overlap among texts impedes comprehension monitoring
For decades, research on
metacomprehension
has demonstrated that many learners struggle to accurately discriminate their comprehension of texts. However, while reviews of experimental studies on relative metacomprehension accuracy have found average intra-individual correlations between predictions and performance of around .27 for adult readers, in some contexts even lower near-zero accuracy levels have been reported. One possible explanation for those strikingly low levels of accuracy is the high conceptual overlap between topics of the texts. To test this hypothesis, in the present work participants were randomly assigned to read one of two text sets that differed in their degree of conceptual overlap. Participants judged their understanding and completed an inference test for each topic. Across two studies, mean relative accuracy was found to match typical baseline levels for the low-overlap text sets and was significantly lower for the high-overlap text sets. Results suggest text similarity is an important factor impacting comprehension monitoring accuracy that may have contributed to the variable and sometimes inconsistent results reported in the metacomprehension literature.
Journal Article
The Effect of Metacognitive Intervention on the Listening Performance and Metacognitive Awareness of High- and Low-Working Memory Capacity EFL Learners
EFL listening comprehension has been a stark challenge for language learners, but little is known about the combined effect of individual differences, such as working memory capacity, and metacognitive intervention. Thus, the present experimental study investigates the effect of metacognitive intervention on the listening performance and metacognitive awareness of high- and low-WMC EFL learners. For this purpose, Oxford Placement Tests were distributed among 120 male Iranian EFL learners, of which 94 were identified as intermediate. Then, backward visual digit span tests were administered to measure their working memory capacity. Based on the median of all scores, 80 learners were selected and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and two control groups each with 20 participants. Next, their performance on the International English Language Testing System and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire was measured before and after the 8-session metacognitive intervention. Results showed that high-WMC experimental learners had a higher gain with a large effect size in terms of listening performance compared with all the other groups. In addition, the experimental group learners reported the significantly higher use of the metacognitive strategies with a moderate effect size. Interestingly, low-WMC learners’ listening performance and metacognitive awareness also improved as a result of the intervention. Our findings bear pedagogical significance in that individual differences in WMC should be considered more in both EFL language classes and the future line of research involving the metacognitive intervention.
Journal Article
Consolidation and Transfer of Learning After Observing Hand Gesture
Children who observe gesture while learning mathematics perform better than children who do not, when tested immediately after training. How does observing gesture influence learning over time? Children (n = 184, ages 7–10) were instructed with a videotaped lesson on mathematical equivalence and tested immediately after training and 24 hr later. The lesson either included speech and gesture or only speech. Children who saw gesture performed better overall and performance improved after 24 hr. Children who only heard speech did not improve after the delay. The gesture group also showed stronger transfer to different problem types. These findings suggest that gesture enhances learning of abstract concepts and affects how learning is consolidated over time.
Journal Article
The effects of a single bout of high intensity exercise on stress reactivity, mind wandering, and lecture comprehension in young adults
Post-secondary students experience acute stressors daily. Acute stress has been associated with poor cognitive and learning outcomes. Prior work has demonstrated a single bout of exercise can attenuate acute stress responses. The present study examined the effects of a single 30-minute bout of high intensity aerobic exercise on multidimensional stress reactivity and learning-related outcomes. Forty participants were randomized to either engaging in an exercise bout or seated rest. Participants were then exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test followed by a 20-minute video lecture. The video lecture contained embedded mind wandering probes. Acute exercise did not attenuate stress responses, however promoted greater on-task behaviour (i.e., less mind wandering) and improved lecture comprehension scores. Notably, state anxiety was positively associated with mind wandering and mind wandering was negatively associated with lecture comprehension. Collectively, examining the role of acute interventions that reduce state anxiety may promote favourable learning outcomes in young adults.
Journal Article
Effects of multisensory simultaneity judgment training on the comprehension and cortical processing of speech in noise: a randomized controlled trial
Understanding speech in noise can be facilitated by integrating auditory and visual speech cues. Audiovisual temporal acuity, which can be indexed by the temporal binding window (TBW), is critical for this process and can be enhanced through simultaneity judgment training. We hypothesized that multisensory training would narrow the TBW and improve speech understanding in noise. Participants were randomized to receive either training and testing (
n
= 15) or testing-only (
n
= 15) over three days. Trained participants demonstrated significant narrowing in their mean TBW size (403ms to 345ms;
p
= 0.030), whereas control participants did not (409ms to 474ms;
p
= 0.061). Although there were no group-level changes in word recognition scores, trained participants with larger TBW decreases exhibited larger improvements in auditory word recognition in noise (R
2
= 0.291;
p
= 0.038). Individual differences in responses to training were found to be related to differences in cortical speech processing using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Low audiovisual-evoked activity in the left middle temporal gyrus (R
2
= 0.87;
p
= 0.006), left angular and superior temporal gyrus (R
2
= 0.85;
p
= 0.006), and visual cortices (R
2
= 0.74;
p
= 0.041) was associated with larger improvements in auditory word recognition after training. Multisensory training transfers benefits to speech comprehension in noise, and this effect may be mediated by upregulating activity in multisensory cortical networks for individuals with low baseline activity.
Journal Article
Targeting Oral Language and Listening Comprehension Development for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A School-Based Pilot Study
This study investigates the effects of an integrated oral language and listening comprehension intervention for early elementary students with ASD. Students (n = 43) were randomly assigned to intervention or control comparison conditions, with intervention students receiving instruction in small groups of 3 or 4. Groups were led by special education classroom teachers 4 days per week across 20 weeks in the school year. Significant group differences were detected on measures of expressive vocabulary, narrative ability, and listening comprehension. This study provides preliminary evidence of the intervention’s feasibility and effectiveness for intervening in language and early reading skills for students with ASD.
Journal Article