Thesis (M.A.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-71).

Theories of reading have seldom been examined across orthographies. In the present study, Dual Coding Theory (DCT), a general theory of cognition applied to literacy, was applied to Chinese sentences to investigate the effects of language concreteness and abstractness on immediate recall. Forty Chinese-English bilinguals read and recalled five concrete sentences and five matched abstract sentences. Of the ten sentences, five were English, and five were Chinese. Due to the characteristics of Chinese orthography, Chinese script may have a direct and more efficient access to meaning; hence, it is possible that concrete sentences in Chinese would not have the typical advantage over abstract sentences in recall found in other languages. However, the results showed that concrete Chinese sentences were recalled better than abstract Chinese sentences. A 2 (languages: Chinese vs. English) x 2 (sentence concreteness: concrete vs. abstract) analysis of variance with proportion of recall as the dependent variable showed that significant main effects were found for languages, F (1, 76) =11.68, p = .001, n2 = .13, and for concreteness, F (1, 76) = 38.12, p < .001, n2 = 33. That is, Chinese was overall recalled significantly better than English, and concrete sentences were overall recalled significantly better than abstract sentences. There was no significant interaction. Concrete Chinese sentences were recalled 1.32 times as much as abstract Chinese sentences, thus confirming the concreteness effects in Chinese. The results of the study are consistent with those of previous studies on DCT in alphabetic languages, and they also provide evidence of concreteness effects across orthographies.

<p>Denna studie utgår ifrån Paivios dubbelkodningsteori, som kortfattat säger att information bearbetas av två separata symboliska system. Dessa system är det ickeverbala och det verbala systemet vilka är specialiserade på att bearbeta två olika sorters stimulusmaterial: bildlikt och språklikt material. Vidare koncentrerar sig detta arbete på dubbelkodningshypotesen som kan härledas ur teorin. Genom olika minnesexperiment angående bilders och ords konkreta värde kom Paivio fram till att vi bäst minns bilder, därefter konkreta ord och slutligen abstrakta ord. Enligt dubbelkodningshypotesen beror det här på att bilder har störst möjlighet att kodas dubbelt (både ickeverbalt och verbalt). Efter det kan konkreta ord, till skillnad från abstrakta ord, lättare kodas dubbelt och därför är de bättre återkallade till minnet än abstrakta ord. De tidigare studier som gjorts har enbart varit på visuella stimuli. För detta arbete var det därför intressant att se om samma resultat skulle kunna fås med auditiva stimuli. Hypotesen blev då följande: Auditiv ickeverbal information återkallas bättre till minnet än vad auditiv konkret verbal information görs. Vidare återkallas auditiv konkret verbal information i sin tur bättre än auditiv abstrakt verbal information. Hypotesens riktighet undersöktes med hjälp av ett minnesexperiment. Det resultat som erhölls kunde varken stödja eller motbevisa hypotesen.</p>

Tecken som kommunikationsmedel i förskolan möjliggör inkludering av barn som av olika anledningar saknar eller har begränsad tillgång till verbal kommunikation. Tecken underlättar även och är ett stöd för barngruppen som helhet, även de barn som kan kommunicera verbalt. Barnens språkutveckling gynnas av att både verbal kommunikation och tecken används. Dual-coding med hjälp av verbalt språk och tecken berikar barnens vokabulär och styrker deras stavningsförmåga.   Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka hur TAKK, vilket står för tecken som alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation, används i den svenska förskolan. För att undersöka det fick förskolepersonal från hela landet svara på en webbaserad enkät kring användandet av TAKK i förskolan. Enkäten hade både öppna och slutna frågor för att skapa ett brett underlag för analys. Enkätundersökningens resultat tematiserades utifrån de mönster som framgick i svaren och presenteras under resultat i flytande text. Det teoretiska perspektiv som examensarbetet har är socialkonstruktivism som lägger mycket vikt på språket och att samhället skapas genom sociala handlingar.  Genom undersökningen framkom det att förskolepersonal ställer sig positivt till användandet av TAKK samt att det underlättar kommunikation med barn. De hinder som framkom är att utbildningen inom området är bristfällig, vilket leder till ojämn kompetens hos personalen.

The research was conducted in Sydney and Hong Kong using students, from grades 5 to 9, whose first language or teaching medium was English, learning to read Chinese as second language. According to cognitive load theory, the processing of single Chinese characters accompanied by pictures should impose extraneous cognitive load and thus hinders learning. In Experiments 1a and 1b, simple Chinese characters appeared to be processed likes pictures. Reading Chinese characters without pictures produced significantly better learning outcomes than reading them with pictures, suggesting that subjects processed Chinese characters and their English translations according to the Dual Coding model. In Experiment 2, grade 6 students learned to read two-character compound words in word-and-word and picture-and-word conditions. As expected, phonetic compounds were learned more effectively when presented along with the same word written in English than when accompanied by a picture of the object represented. In Experiment 3, grade 6 students were used in an investigation of the differential learning effects of two-character-compound and two-single-characters formats. The two-single-characters format, being of low element interactivity, resulted in better learning outcomes than the compound format, in which the two components were necessarily of higher element interactivity. In Experiment 4, six concrete sentences and six abstract sentences were used to investigate the learning strategies used by grade 9 students in processing second-language Chinese sentences. In a &quotno-picture &quot condition, a Chinese sentence was printed on each learning card underneath the English translation; and in a &quotwith-picture &quot condition, a picture was positioned above the condition pair of sentences. As expected, the mean learning outcomes were greater for the no-picture s than for the with-picture conditions, and the difference between the no-picture and with-picture means was greater for concrete sentences than for abstract sentences. A logographic visual processing strategy was probably employed in reading concrete sentences but an analytic strategy used in reading abstract sentences. A new dual-coding model, based on the bilingual dual coding theory for different patterns in reading Chinese as a second language at various structural levels of processing was proposed.

The current state of much research on written patient education materials (WPEM) suggests that they are written in a manner that is too difficult even for educated patients to understand and remember. Much of the research in this area is focused on modification of the readability of WPEM, which has shown to be relatively ineffective. In this study, an attempt was made to determine if a theory-based method in revising WPEM for improved comprehensibility and memorability was effective. The effectiveness of three versions of WPEM regarding breast self-exams (BSEs) was examined; the original version without illustrations obtained from the American Cancer Society website, a version that was written at a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula, and a version with a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula and the increased use of concrete language as suggested by Dual Coding Theory. The researcher compared the percentage of recall of idea units recalled by 76 participants at two time periods: immediately after reading the randomly assigned version of WPEM and seven days after the initial reading. The WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language was most recalled by participants both at immediate recall and delayed recall. In fact, the delayed recall of the WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language after the seven-day period was almost equivalent to the immediate recall of the participants in the other two groups. A significant main effect was found for the forms of WPEM, F(2, 73) = 27.69, p = .00, n2 p = .43 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant main effect was found for time, F(1, 73) = 161.94, p <.00, n2 p = .69 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant interaction of WPEM and time was found, F(2, 73) = 5.07, p = .01, n2 p = .12 with an observed power of .80. Reported levels of frequency of performing BSEs and levels of confidence in performing BSEs were also analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test in relation to the three WPEM versions over time. Reported frequency was significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = .32; WPEM B, p = 1.00; WPEM C, p = .74). Levels of confidence were significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = ..02; WPEM B, p = .00; WPEM C, p = .00). Overall results indicate that combining reduced readability and increased concrete language is beneficial. The writing of WPEMs in a way that patients can understand should be supported by a theory, and infusing Dual Coding Theory in the writing of selected WPEMs may be beneficial for patients.

Thesis (M. Sc.) -- University of Alberta, 2010. / "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Psychology, University of Alberta." Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on January 5, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation investigated the effects of multimedia annotation on L2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The overarching objective of this study was to compare the effects of text-picture annotation and audio-picture annotation on L2 vocabulary immediate recall and reading comprehension. This study also sought to examine the different effects under incidental and intentional learning conditions. The participants were 78 intermediate adult ESL learners from three universities in northwest U.S. The participants read an Internet-based English text. Twenty target words, annotated in either text-picture or audio-picture, were embedded in the reading text. The participants accessed the annotations by clicking on the highlighted target words. Two instruments were used for measuring vocabulary immediate recall: Vocabulary Knowledge Scale and Word Recognition Test. Two measurements were used to assess reading comprehension: Multiple-choice Reading Comprehension Questions and L1 Written Recall. In term of annotation types, the results indicated that the audio-picture annotation group did significantly better than the text-picture group in L2 vocabulary immediate recall. However, there was no significantly different effect between the two annotations on L2 reading comprehension. In terms of learning conditions, the intentional learning condition resulted in significantly better performance in L2 vocabulary immediate recall than the incidental learning condition. However, the incidental learning condition resulted in significantly better L2 reading comprehension than the intentional learning condition only in the Written Recall measure, but not in the multiple-choice Reading Comprehension Test. In terms of interaction between annotation type and learning condition, there was not interaction between annotation type and learning condition on L2 vocabulary immediate recall. The interaction between annotation type and learning condition on L2 reading comprehension was not significant in multiple-choice Reading Comprehension Text. However, the interaction was found to be significant in Written Recall: in the incidental learning condition, the difference between text-picture annotation and audio-picture annotation was not significant; in the intentional learning condition, participants in text-picture did significantly better than those in audio-picture on Written Recall.

xiii, 205 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This study examined idiom understanding in 120 neurologically healthy adults, ages 20-29 (20s Group), 40-49 (40s Group), 60-69 (60s Group), and 80-89 (80s Group) years old. Each participant was administered a familiarity task, definition explanation task, mental imagery task, and forced-choice comprehension task. Twenty idioms, 10 transparent and 10 opaque, were used with no supporting contexts. Participants were asked to rate the familiarity of each idiom, to provide a definition of each, to generate a mental image of each, and to select the best definition of each from among four options. It was predicted that younger and older adults would perform equally well on the comprehension task but that older adults would perform poorer than younger adults on the explanation task. Additionally, mental imagery of idioms was expected to become more figurative with advancing age, and participants were expected to perform better on highly familiar and transparent idioms than on less familiar and opaque ones. Participants rated all 20 idioms as highly familiar, with the lowest familiarity rating for participants in the 20s Group. No significant differences were found on the forced-choice comprehension task across the four age groups although the 20s Group scored the lowest among all age groups. The 60s Group performed significantly better than the 20s Group on the definition explanation task, but no significant differences were found between the other age groups. No significant differences were found in generating mental images between transparent and opaque idioms, and mental images tended to be figurative rather than literal for both types of idioms. The present study adds to our knowledge of idiom understanding across adulthood. Familiarity seemed to play a stronger role than transparency in idiom understanding in adults. Once an idiom was learned and stored as a lexical unit, people used the idiomatic meaning and generated figurative mental imagery immediately without accessing the literal meaning or the literal mental image. / Committee in charge: Marilyn Nippold, Chairperson, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Roland Good, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Deborah Olson, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Nathaniel Teich, Outside Member, English

Denna studie utgår ifrån Paivios dubbelkodningsteori, som kortfattat säger att information bearbetas av två separata symboliska system. Dessa system är det ickeverbala och det verbala systemet vilka är specialiserade på att bearbeta två olika sorters stimulusmaterial: bildlikt och språklikt material. Vidare koncentrerar sig detta arbete på dubbelkodningshypotesen som kan härledas ur teorin. Genom olika minnesexperiment angående bilders och ords konkreta värde kom Paivio fram till att vi bäst minns bilder, därefter konkreta ord och slutligen abstrakta ord. Enligt dubbelkodningshypotesen beror det här på att bilder har störst möjlighet att kodas dubbelt (både ickeverbalt och verbalt). Efter det kan konkreta ord, till skillnad från abstrakta ord, lättare kodas dubbelt och därför är de bättre återkallade till minnet än abstrakta ord. De tidigare studier som gjorts har enbart varit på visuella stimuli. För detta arbete var det därför intressant att se om samma resultat skulle kunna fås med auditiva stimuli. Hypotesen blev då följande: Auditiv ickeverbal information återkallas bättre till minnet än vad auditiv konkret verbal information görs. Vidare återkallas auditiv konkret verbal information i sin tur bättre än auditiv abstrakt verbal information. Hypotesens riktighet undersöktes med hjälp av ett minnesexperiment. Det resultat som erhölls kunde varken stödja eller motbevisa hypotesen.