The effect of “false” schema activation on the construction of meaning

Abstract Recent research on the constructive processes in reading and writing has centered on the knowledge sources responsible for meaning construction. It has been shown that the activation of specific knowledge influences the reader's specific instantiation of a text. The present study examines the effects of an imposed schema on the reader's comprehension of a text. Both a “correct” schema and a “false” schema were imposed on the subjects in the form of comprehension questions geared to one of two points of view. The first hypothesis was that comprehension questions which focus on the dominant information in a text would generate a summary of main ideas in line with the author's point of view. The second hypothesis was that misleading comprehension questions which focus on the less emphasized information in a text would generate a summary of main ideas not in line with the author's point of view. The subjects of the study were 177 EFL university students who were randomly divided into three groups, two experimental groups and a control group. The subjects read a 900-word article and completed a comprehension questions task and a summary writing task. The results confirm both hypotheses. The implications for teachers of reading comprehension are discussed.