Thesis (M.Ed.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1980. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2795.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 19-20).

Le but de cette thèse est de proposer des méthodes pour pouvoir évaluer les performances durant la lecture sur support électronique, afin de pouvoir comparer plusieurs dispositifs d’affichage. Des tests permettant d’effectuer des mesures de performances de manière répétée ont été construits pour chacune des dimensions classiques de la lecture électronique : visibilité (test de caractérisation psychométrique), lisibilité (identification de lettres, décision lexicale, vitesse de lecture de phrases générées automatiquement) et compréhension (mesure de la mémorisation et des inférences pendant la lecture de textes générés automatiquement). Au-delà de ces dimensions classiques, nous avons réalisé deux études pour examiner le lien entre la lecture sur support électronique et la posture des utilisateurs. La première montre qu’une posture pouvant être engendrée par l’utilisation de tablette (inclinaison latérale de tête) n’affecte pas la performance de lecture. La seconde étude posturale montre l’effet de la difficulté d’un texte sur la distance à l’écran pendant l’utilisation d’une liseuse électronique ; les sujets se rapprochent de l’écran lorsque leur niveau d’attention augmente. L’ensemble des tests développés et une mesure de posture ont été regroupés dans une batterie de tests visant à quantifier la performance de lecture associée à un support donné ; l’indicateur résultant étant appelé « Quotient de Lecture Electronique ». Cet indicateur a été calculé pour un écran d’ordinateur, un vidéoprojecteur et une tablette. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que les tests permettent de comparer les supports, notamment en termes de visibilité et de lisibilité. / The aim of this thesis is to offer methods of evaluating performance during digital reading, in order to be able to compare different display devices. Tests were developed allowing repeated measurements for classic measures of digital reading: visibility (psychometric characterization), readability (letter identification, lexical decision, reading speed on automatically generated sentences) and comprehension (memorization and inference measurement while reading automatically generated texts). Beyond these classic dimensions, we also conducted two studies in order to examine the link between digital reading and the posture adopted by the device users. The first revealed that a tablet-use-related posture (lateral head tilt) does not affect reading performance. The second postural study demonstrated the effect of text difficulty on eye-screen distance during the use of an e-reader. Subjects approached the screen as their attentional level increased. The constructed tests and a postural measure were aggregated into a battery of tests permitting the evaluation of reading performance associated with a device. The resulting indicator is called the “Digital Reading Quotient”. This indicator has been computed for a computer screen, a projector and a tablet. The experimental results show that these tests can be used in order to compare different devices, especially in terms of visibility and readability.

In a world with an increasing flow of written information online and offline, the demand for automatic translation, simplification and summarization technology is growing. The tool StilLett uses several lexical and semantic rules to automatically simplify text, shortening the time from original text to simplified text compared to manual simplification. Four of the simplification types were evaluated in this study, using three different eye tracking measures; total dwell time, number of regressions, and average fixation duration. No statistically significant differences were found for any of the simplification types when compared to the corresponding original sentences, indicating that for this population the difficulty of the sentences was roughly the same.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorder experience difficulties with reading comprehension and information processing, which affect their school performance, employability and social inclusion. The main goal of this work is to investigate new ways to evaluate and improve text and web accessibility for adults with autism. The first stage of this research involved using eye-tracking technology and comprehension testing to collect data from a group of participants with autism and a control group of participants without autism. This series of studies resulted in the development of the ASD corpus, which is the first multimodal corpus of text and gaze data obtained from participants with and without autism. We modelled text complexity and sentence complexity using sets of features matched to the reading difficulties people with autism experience. For document-level classification we trained a readability classifier on a generic corpus with known readability levels (easy, medium and difficult) and then used the ASD corpus to evaluate with unseen user-assessed data. For sentence-level classification, we used for the first time gaze data and comprehension testing to define a gold standard of easy and difficult sentences, which we then used as training and evaluation sets for sentence-level classification. The results showed that both classifiers outperformed other measures of complexity and were more accurate predictors of the comprehension of people with autism. We conducted a series of experiments evaluating easy-to-read documents for people with cognitive disabilities. Easy-to-read documents are written in an accessible way, following specific writing guidelines and containing both text and images. We focused mainly on the image component of these documents, a topic which has been significantly under-studied compared to the text component; we were also motivated by the fact that people with autism are very strong visual thinkers and that therefore image insertion could be a way to use their strengths in visual thinking to compensate for their difficulties in reading. We investigated the effects images in text have on attention, comprehension, memorisation and user preferences in people with autism (all of these phenomena were investigated both objectively and subjectively). The results of these experiments were synthesised in a set of guidelines for improving text accessibility for people with autism. Finally, we evaluated the accessibility of web pages with different levels of visual complexity. We provide evidence of existing barriers to finding relevant information on web pages that people with autism face and we explore their subjective experiences with searching the web through survey questions.

Magister Artium - MA / Technical documentation comes in a variety of forms such as installation or operation manuals, quick reference guides, maintenance manuals, user manuals, policy and procedure manuals or marketing brochures and flyers (Walsh, 2012). What all these sub-genres have in common is that the texts that correspond to them seek to inform and give instruction about procedures, behaviour and actions related to products (Schäffner & Wiesemann, 2001: 49). Manuals have been described as “the complete reference source for a product’s operation, maintenance and safety” (Cowley & Wogalter, 2011: 1773). For the purpose of this study, we will focus on one form of technical documentation, namely user manuals. The terms “documentation” and “manuals” will be used interchangeably. Although there are probably as many manuals as there are products in our homes, these user manuals have not frequently been the subject of academic study in the South African context. The relative lack of research into user manuals is especially regrettable at a time when new product liability legislation and trade regulations (e.g. the Consumer Protect Act of South Africa, 2008) have enhanced the profile of product manuals in public and regulatory discourse. As a result of this relative neglect, it is not known how understandable, relevant and therefore empowering users of products find these manuals. There is also not much knowledge concerning the level of compliance in manuals to the provisions of product liability legislation. This study therefore proposes to investigate the comprehensibility and usability of user manuals associated with two products (blenders) marketed in South Africa. It will draw on theories and methods of analysis associated with technical writing, analysis of terminological consistency, genre and multimodality, to evaluate the selected manuals from the standpoint of a subset of the criteria listed in Section 22(2) of the Consumer Protection Act of South Africa, No. 68 of 2008, which was later amended in 2011. The methodology for the proposed study will combine text analysis (by the researcher) with comprehension and usability tasks performed by selected participants. Data from these sources will be collated and analysed to determine the conformity of the manuals to criteria in the Consumer Protection Act of South Africa, and the effect the manuals have on product users. Areas for optimising (improving) the manuals will also be identified.

The complexity of text has a number of implications for educators in the areas of instruction and assessment. Text complexity is particularly important in formative assessments, which utilize repeated, alternate, equivalent forms to capture student growth towards a general outcome. A key assumption of such tools is that alternate forms of the assessment are of equal complexity. Consequently, there is a need to better understand what variables contribute to text complexity and how they impact student performance. This study was designed to evaluate features of text that are not typically included in readability estimates but may contribute to the text complexity: text cohesion and genre. Currently, text complexity of oral reading fluency measures is often quantified using readability estimates. It is hypothesized that a factor generally excluded from readability estimates, text cohesion&mdashthe extent to which the text functions as a cohesive, meaningful whole&mdashcontributes to text variability and variability in student performance. This research evaluated the role of a type of text cohesion (referential cohesion) in text complexity by manipulating the cohesion of passages otherwise assumed to be of equal difficulty. Genre was also considered, as research suggests that genre may impact complexity ratings of texts. Passages were strategically selecting to capture four conditions&mdash1) informational text/low cohesion, 2) informational text/high cohesion, 3) narrative text/low cohesion, and 4) narrative text/high cohesion. Data were collected on reading rate, accuracy, and passage-specific reading comprehension Results were analyzed using two-way, univariate ANOVA with dependent observations. Results indicate effects for each of the dependent variables included in the design. For rate and accuracy, results indicate significant interactions between genre and referential cohesion; scores were significantly higher for high cohesion narrative text than low cohesion narrative text and high cohesion informational text. There was a significant main effect of genre on comprehension, with students performing significantly better on the comprehension measure for narrative texts than informational texts. Altogether, these results indicate direct effects of genre and referential cohesion on student reading performance and provide evidence that text cohesion may be a meaningful component of text complexity. / 2015-10-10

abstract: A commonly held belief among educators, researchers, and students is that high-quality texts are easier to read than low-quality texts, as they contain more engaging narrative and story-like elements. Interestingly, these assumptions have typically failed to be supported by the writing literature. Research suggests that higher quality writing is typically associated with decreased levels of text narrativity and readability. Although narrative elements may sometimes be associated with high-quality writing, the majority of research suggests that higher quality writing is associated with decreased levels of text narrativity, and measures of readability in general. One potential explanation for this conflicting evidence lies in the situational influence of text elements on writing quality. In other words, it is possible that the frequency of specific linguistic or rhetorical text elements alone is not consistently indicative of essay quality. Rather, these effects may be largely driven by individual differences in students' ability to leverage the benefits of these elements in appropriate contexts. This dissertation presents the hypothesis that writing proficiency is associated with an individual's flexible use of text properties, rather than simply the consistent use of a particular set of properties. Across three experiments, this dissertation relies on a combination of natural language processing and dynamic methodologies to examine the role of linguistic flexibility in the text production process. Overall, the studies included in this dissertation provide important insights into the role of flexibility in writing skill and develop a strong foundation on which to conduct future research and educational interventions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2017

This essay deals with the issue of readability, the term readability referring to what it is that makes a reader perceive a text as difficult or easy. Some factors are related to the reader but there are also those which depend on the text as such, one such factor being style which is the one that will be focused on in this essay. The investigation is based on the analysis and comparison of a complete version and an abridged version of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and the questions to be investigated are whether the author of the abridged version has succeeded in making it less complicated, and if he or she has done so by considering stylistic features said to be affecting readability. Further, this essay is divided into four chapters. The first chapter contains the background for the analysis and is divided into 4 parts dealing with the following aspects: the definition of readability, early research on readability, later research on readability, and difficult and easy language. Chapter two describes the limitations made and the method used for the analysis which involves looking at the noun phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. Chapter three gives a detailed description of the corpus investigated. Moving on to chapter four, this is where the results of the investigation are presented. This is done by dividing it into four different subchapters, each of them dealing with issues related to the different areas described in the method. Each of the subchapters then begins with the presentation of the results for each edition which is then followed by a comparative discussion. The essay ends with a conclusion part where conclusions regarding the four areas presented in the analysis are made along with the answering of research questions.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo identificar e analisar como a hospitalidade pública se manifesta na Praça Gustavo Teixeira, em São Pedro, Estado de São Paulo, a partir das relações estabelecidas entre moradores e turistas, tendo como base as dimensões de acessibilidade, legibilidade e identidade. A metodologia utilizada foi uma combinação de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, fundamentada em documentos de arquivos públicos, fotografias e mapas da Prefeitura Municipal de São Pedro; relatórios de pesquisa baseados em trabalho de campo de auxiliares. Dentre as técnicas de coleta de dados estão observação sistemática e pesquisa de caráter qualitativo, exploratória e com questões semiestruturadas e abertas, o que permitiu um melhor direcionamento no decorrer da conversa informal. O grupo de entrevistados divide-se em moradores, composto por seis pessoas que possuem envolvimento com o local de pesquisa em todos os momentos da vida; e visitantes, composto por mais seis pessoas que não possuem envolvimento diário com o local. Constatou-se que a maioria dos moradores visita a Praça diariamente; suas falas são repletas de sentimentos pelo local; percebem, nitidamente, uma interação com outros moradores e com turistas; a dimensão da acessibilidade, por meio da localização, da qualidade das vias de acesso, da divulgação das atividades, está presente; a legibilidade, por sua vez, faz-se nítida por possuir área verde, bancos, coreto, tranquilidade de cidade do interior; e, por fim, a identidade é percebida na forma como os anfitriões conversam, nas atividades realizadas teatro, música, literatura, quermesse, museu que leva o nome do poeta. Já o grupo de turistas visita a Praça quase todas as vezes que está na Estância, com exceção de um integrante que a visitou pela primeira vez; são motivados pela natureza e pela segurança característica de cidade pequena ao deixar os filhos brincarem em meio ao espaço verde; notam um acolhimento por parte dos moradores, tanto na Praça quanto no comércio do entorno; a acessibilidade é percebida pelas informações passadas em pontos de informações turísticas, no comércio, na internet, na fácil localização por estar no centro da cidade; a dimensão da legibilidade faz-se presente no espaço verde em meio ao urbano, nas lembranças da infância e no encontro com amigos; já a identidade é percebida no artesanato e na gastronomia do entorno, na relação amigável entre as pessoas / The present study aimed to identify and analyze how public hospitality is manifested in Gustavo Teixeira Square, in São Pedro, State of São Paulo, based on relationships established between residents and tourists, based on the accessibility, readability and identity dimensions. The methodology used was a combination of bibliographical and documentary research, based on public records documents, photographs and maps of the São Pedro City Hall; research reports based on auxiliary field work. Among the techniques of data collection are observation systematic and qualitative, exploratory research with semi structured and open questions, which allowed a better targeting during the informal conversation. The group of interviewees is divided into residents, composed of six people who have involvement with the research site at all times of life; and visitors, composed of another six people who do not have daily involvement with the place. It was verified that the residents visit the Square daily; their lines are full of feelings for the place; they perceive, clearly, an interaction with other residents and tourists; the accessibility dimension, through location, the quality of the access roads, the dissemination of activities, is present; the readability, in turn, is made clear by having green area, benches, gazebo, tranquility of inner city; and, finally, the identity is perceived in the way the hosts talk, in the activities performed - theater, music, literature, kermesse, museum that bears the name of the poet. Already the group of tourists visits the Square every time it is in the Estancia, except for one member who visited it for the first time; are motivated by the nature and safety characteristic of a small town - by letting their children play in the green space; they notice a welcome on the part of the residents, both in the Square and in the commerce of the surroundings; the accessibility is perceived by the information passed in points of tourist information, in the commerce, in the internet, in the easy location for being in the center of the city; the dimension of readability is present in the green space in the middle of the urban, in the memories of childhood and in the encounter with friends; already the identity is perceived in the crafts and in the gastronomy of the surroundings, in the friendly relationship between the people