The effects of explicit instructions and processing demands on comprehension monitoring of learning disabled and nondisabled children

The present study explored whether explicit instructions would improve the ability of learning disabled and non-disabled children to monitor their comprehension for explicitly stated inconsistencies in stories particularly when the processing demands were increased. Specifically, 24 LD and 24 NLD third and fourth-grade boys listened to three prose passages. Half of each group received explicit instructions describing exactly what type of anomaly was present in the story and the other half received general instructions. The processing demands were manipulated by presenting the stories to each child under three different conditions. In the easy presentation, the premise and contradictory sentences were adjacent. In the distractor task presentation, the premise and contradictory sentences were adjacent, but the child had to simultaneously monitor a secondary task while listening to the story. In the hard presentation, the premise and contradictory sentences were separated by two filler sentences. Multiple measures of detecting inconsistencies and recall were obtained. Past research has determined that LD children exhibit a production deficiency for monitoring inconsistencies in prose passages (Bos & Filip, 1984). However, the present research found that LD children do not exhibit a production deficiency for monitoring explicitly stated inconsistencies in passages. Furthermore, LD and NLD children exhibited the same proficiency in identifying the inconsistencies and recalling the stories. This research provides additional information that must be considered before labeling the LD child as an “inactive learner" (Torgesen, 1980).

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1988

Author dc:creator

• Vaught, Donna Rae

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-09082012-040600

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/44694