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published_or_final_version / abstract / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

College requires students to read strategically in order to be academically successful (Caverly, Nicholson, & Radcliffe, 2004). Strategic readers utilize a variety of strategies, including metacognitive reading strategies (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002; Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). However, not all students use the same strategies when reading academic text. The purpose of this study was to explore whether students enrolled in a developmental reading course report using different metacognitive reading strategies than students who are enrolled in a college-level English course. The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (Mokhatari & Reichard, 2002) was administered to 423 students at a community college in the southeastern United States. The results of the Tests of Between-Subjects Effects indicated that the main effect for group membership was not significant. The results of the Tests of Within-Subjects Effects indicated that problem solving was reportedly used relatively equally by the two groups, but global and support reading strategies were used less by the English group,with the interaction effect even stronger for support strategies. The implications of this study on teaching and further research were also explored. / by Sophia Munro. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

In a series of five experiments, the effectiveness of using worked examples to teach grade 8 and 9 students the process of translating a written sentence into an algebraic equation, was examined from a cognitive load perspective. The first experiment compared the use of worked examples with a problemsolving strategy. Both for higher and lower levels of prior knowledge in mathematics, the worked examples format group performed significantly better than the problemsolving group. In experiment 2 the worked examples format was compared with an ??algorithm?? method for teaching students to write equations. No significant differences were found in performance on similar questions at either the higher or the lower levels of prior knowledge. However, for transfer questions and questions testing understanding, the performance of the worked examples format was significantly better than that of the algorithm format for the higher level of prior knowledge, though differences were not significant for the lower level. In experiment 3 worked examples using two different methods of checking the translation, the ??comparison?? method and the ??substitution?? method, were compared. No significant differences were found between the two methods for either knowledge group. In experiments 4 and 5 it was shown that grade 8 and 9 students were initially disadvantaged by the inclusion of a checking method. However, after a more substantial period of acquisition, for the students with a lower level of prior knowledge, those who received checking instructions performed significantly better than did those who did not receive such instructions. In contrast, higher knowledge students were continually disadvantaged by the inclusion of a checking method. Higher knowledge students receiving checking instructions experienced a significantly higher cognitive load than did those not receiving them, as shown by a measure of mental effort. The positive effect of checking for lower knowledge students and the negative effect for higher knowledge students in this domain is a further example of the expertise reversal effect. Evidence was found that the inclusion of checking instructions led to a redundancy effect for higher knowledge learners and caused retroactive inhibition for all learners.

This study tested the prediction that a group of dyslexic children (n = 70) would be less sensitive to auditory and visual temporal stimuli than a control group (n = 52). In the auditory domain, detection thresholds for 2 Hz FM, 2 Hz AM and 20 Hz AM were assessed. The modulations in these stimuli are detected on the basis of temporal cues. In contrast, the modulations in the control stimulus 240 Hz FM modulate too rapidly to be detected with temporal cues. The dyslexic group were significantly less sensitive than the control group to the temporal and non-temporal measures at initial testing (Phase 1) and again nine months later (Phase 4). These data demonstrated that the auditory deficit in the dyslexic group was more general in nature than had previously been suggested. In the visual domain, sensitivity to global coherent motion was assessed. The dyslexic group were significantly less sensitive than the control group on this measure at both phases of the study. Despite the overall between group differences, the magnitude of the effects were low to moderate. There was also substantial overlap between the performance of the two groups on the sensory processing measures. A deviance analysis was conducted to determine the proportion of dyslexic individuals who had sensory processing deficits. When data from each phase was examined separately, the incidence of sensory processing deficits in the dyslexic group was comparable to previous studies. However, when the data from both phases was combined, only 5-18% of the dyslexic group had impairments on any of the sensory tasks that were stable across time. Nevertheless, these results do not preclude sensory processing making a contribution to reading difficulties in some children. When the relationship between sensory processing thresholds and reading ability was considered, sensitivity to auditory and visual temporal measures accounted for significant unique variance in phonological processing, orthographic coding and overall reading skill, even after accounting for IQ and vigilance. This study was also tested the prediction that visual attention can explain the link between visual temporal processing and reading. Vidyasagar (1999) proposed that the magnocellular (M) system, which processes temporal stimuli (e.g., motion), is also important for efficient functioning of an attentional spotlight. This spotlight is proposed to arise in parietal cortex (a major endpoint of the M system), and is involved in highlighting areas for detailed visual processing when performing visual tasks, such as visual search or reading. It was predicted that only those dyslexic participants with motion detection impairments would also be impaired on a serial search task that required the attentional spotlight. On average, the dyslexic group had significantly slower serial search than the control group. However, the magnitude of effect was small and a deviance analysis demonstrated that only 8.5% of the dyslexic group had stable impairments relative to the control group. Furthermore, only one of the six dyslexic participants with a visual attention impairment had a co-existing deficit in detecting coherent motion. Thus, visual attention deficits of this type appear to exist independently of coherent motion deficits. This study also provided important evidence on the reliability of measurement for the sensory processing tasks. The data showed that the test-retest reliability of the sensory measures was only moderate over a nine month period. Test-retest for other cognitive measures over the same time frame was high - including that for an orthographic coding task, which had similar procedure and task demands to the sensory measures. The results also demonstrated that a high proportion of participants in both groups performed inconsistently across time (i.e., they had a threshold indicative of a deficit at one phase and performance within normal limits at the other). Up to 32% of the dyslexic group and 19% of the control group had inconsistent performance on the sensory measures across time. The importance of developing more reliable methods of estimating sensory sensitivity is discussed, as is the need for normative data on sensory processing tasks in order to more accurately make decisions about the incidence of sensory deficits. In summary, this study provided evidence for a relationship between sensory processing and reading. However, the current data demonstrated that sensory processing deficits are not characteristic of all dyslexic individuals. Future research should focus on explaining why only a sub-group of dyslexics have sensory deficits, and also why some control participants have deficits.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-134).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-124).

Recent reviews (Peyser & Poser, 1986; Rao, 1986) suggest that Multiple Sclerosis results in cognitive impairments in the areas of learning and memory, abstract reasoning, information processing efficiency, and, often, visual-spatial ability. Whether this pattern applies to the individual with MS is unclear. Due to the disseminated distribution of MS neuropathology, patients may undergo idiosyncratic cognitive changes dependent upon the site of white matter lesions. The present study explored this question using cluster analysis on the neuropsychological data from a group of mildly disabled MS patients (n = 177) and a well-matched control group (n=89). In a group of MS patients who were identified with unequivocal cognitive impairment, the resultant clusters indicated that MS does not result in a characteristic pattern of impairment. Two clusters were obtained that resembled the pattern described in the literature, while the majority of patients clustered into groups with specific deficits in one or two areas, with normal performance in others. In order to identify associations between cluster groups and lesion sites, frequency tables were constructed for the presence of a lesion on Magnetic Resonance Imaging in 24 brain sites. An association was obtained between two lesion sites and two cognitive tests. Visual-spatial impairment, as assessed by the Benton Visual Retention test, was associated with lesions in the genu of the corpus callosum and with more lesions throughout the corpus callosum. Impaired performance on Paired Associates, a test of learning and memory for novel verbal associations, was associated with a lesion in the deep white matter of the left parietal lobe. The results support the hypothesis that MS results in multiple patterns of cognitive impairment depending on the individual placement of white matter lesions. Identifying and characterizing the heterogeneity of the impairment may greatly increase our understanding of the role of myelin in cognition and the functions of white matter tracts in the brain.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of South Australia, 1999