Strategies for Distributing Time When Studying Text: An Exploratory Cluster-Analysis Approach.

The present study utilized a two‐stage, cluster‐analysis methodology to explore empirically the structuring of text by readers as reflected in their reading times and the strategies employed by readers in allocating their reading time. Students at grades 4, 7, and 10 read a text which was presented, one clausal segment at a time, on the screen of a computer which recorded per‐segment viewing times. The students then completed several comprehension tests under a variety of conditions. It was found that, as assessed by viewing times, the text segments could be analyzed into seven interpretable clusters. After standardizing per‐segment viewing times within individual readers, patterns relating to times substantially above (“pausing”) and below (“skimming”) each individual's mean viewing time were identified. Students were then clustered on the basis of these two types of patterns. The relationships between membership in pausing and skimming clusters and grade, ability level, and various comprehension measure...

[1]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Reading comprehension and readability in educational practice and psychological theory , 1979 .

[2]  Ralph E. Reynolds,et al.  Distribution of Reading Time When Questions are Asked about a Restricted Category of Text Information. , 1979 .

[3]  William Revelle,et al.  ICLUST: A cluster analytic approach to exploratory and confirmatory scale construction , 1978 .

[4]  M. J. Billington,et al.  Goal-guided learning from text: inferring a descriptive processing model from inspection times and eye movements. , 1979, Journal of educational psychology.

[5]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  Interestingness: Controlling Inferences , 1979, Artif. Intell..

[6]  A. Graesser.  Prose Comprehension Beyond the Word , 1981 .

[7]  Charles A. Perfetti,et al.  Discourse Comprehension and Sources of Individual Differences. , 1977 .

[8]  W. H. Macginitie,et al.  Identifying Children Who Use a Perservative Text Processing Strategy. , 1984 .

[9]  Peter R. Stopher,et al.  Survey sampling and multivariate analysis for social scientists and engineers , 1979 .

[10]  Janet S. Twyman,et al.  Teaching Reading Comprehension , 1978 .

[11]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Effects of the reader's schema at different points in time , 1979 .

[12]  Richard C. Anderson.  Allocation of Attention during Reading. , 1982 .

[13]  D. J. Foss,et al.  Text structure and reading time for sentences , 1980 .

[14]  M A Just,et al.  A theory of reading: from eye fixations to comprehension. , 1980, Psychological review.

[15]  Bruce Thompson,et al.  Cognitive Styles as Mediating Variables in Inferential Comprehension. , 1984 .

[16]  George W. McConkie,et al.  Eye Movements and Perception during Reading. , 1982 .

[17]  K. Haberlandt,et al.  The episode schema in story processing , 1980 .

[18]  R. Kirk.  Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences , 1970 .

[19]  N. S. Johnson,et al.  Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall , 1977, Cognitive Psychology.

[20]  Michael R. Anderberg,et al.  Cluster Analysis for Applications , 1973 .

[21]  W Revelle,et al.  Hierarchical Cluster Analysis And The Internal Structure Of Tests. , 1979, Multivariate behavioral research.

[22]  R. Reynolds,et al.  Influence of questions on the allocation of attention during reading. , 1980, Journal of educational psychology.