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Cognitive Precursors to Science Comprehension Kimberly G. Cottrell (kcottrel@odu.edu) Danielle S. McNamara (dmcnamar@odu.edu) Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23529 USA Abstract This study examined the ability of cognitive factors (i.e., prior domain knowledge, reading ability, and metacognitive reading strategies) to predict students’ comprehension of science texts and students’ performance in an introductory psychology course. Both prior knowledge and reading ability reliably predicted comprehension of the science text (about sensory memory). Prior knowledge was the best predictor for exam performance. However, greater knowledge provided no benefit for students who did not use certain types of metacognitive reading strategies. Also, the tendency to use previewing strategies only benefited students if they possessed sufficient prior knowledge. Introduction What cognitive abilities are most important to a student entering a college level science course? If we assume that science course performance relies on factors related to science comprehension, then cognitive factors such as the students’ level of reading ability, their prior knowledge of the domain area, and students’ knowledge and use of metacognitive reading strategies should play key roles in students’ course performance. Hence, the purpose of this research was to establish whether these cognitive factors were predictive of students’ comprehension of science texts as well as their performance in a science course (in this case, introductory psychology). There is no doubt that better readers better comprehend text (Perfetti, 1985) – because, of course, that is the underlying definition of reading skill. Skilled readers also tend to experience the reading process as more automatic and effortless than less skilled readers (Underwood, 1997). Skilled readers tend to make reading process decisions below the level of consciousness, particularly when reading familiar material. Thus, skilled readers unconsciously, or with very little conscious effort, understand the thoughts communicated through the texts and are reminded of the knowledge they have regarding the topic covered within a text (Underwood, 1997). Furthermore, skilled readers approach confusing sentences or passages by incorporating their prior domain knowledge to help them better understand the text (Collins, 1994). Thus, it would be expected that not only reading skill, but also prior knowledge would provide considerable benefits to science text comprehension and by consequence to students’ course performance. Researchers have established that prior domain knowledge has a strong effect on text comprehension and memory. Bransford and Johnson (1972) first established that prior knowledge improves readers’ memory for written information. They showed that when readers were provided with a prior schema via a passage title or a picture, readers recalled twice as much from the passage compared to those who were not provided with prior schematic information. Essentially, the passage title activated the appropriate prior knowledge, or schema, that allows the reader to understand and thus remember the passage. Chiesi, Spilich, and Voss, (1979) demonstrated that readers with greater prior knowledge of baseball better understood and remembered a passage concerning baseball, regardless of the participants’ age or reading ability. Further research has demonstrated that prior knowledge has a pronounced effect on comprehension of difficult expository texts, such as those found in science textbooks. Readers with greater prior knowledge exhibit superior comprehension and thus enhanced learning compared to those with less prior knowledge (Alexander, Kulikowich, & Schulze, 1994; Chiesi et al., 1979; McNamara, 2001; McNamara & Kintsch, 1996; McNamara, Kintsch, Songer, & Kintsch, 1996). Therefore, we can expect that prior knowledge will have a substantial effect on science course performance, perhaps more so than reading skill. Whereas prior knowledge is certainly critical for successful text comprehension and course performance, students’ metacognitive knowledge, such as their knowledge of metacognitive reading strategies, may also play an important role. Generally, metacognition refers to an individual’s ability to think about thinking. More specifically, metacognition can be defined as an individuals’ ability to self-monitor, self-assess, and self-evaluate. These processes help a learner determine why a process such as reading a science textbook is difficult, and then potentially overcome the difficulty. Metacognition when applied to reading refers to the process of monitoring comprehension and the use of strategies to improve comprehension (Forget & Morgan, 1997). Reading strategies such as summarization, mental imagery, mnemonic imagery, question generation, answering self-generated questions, and look-backs have all been shown to enhance text comprehension (Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995). Chi and Bassok (1989) found that successful students tended to employ reading strategies such as generating elaborations and paraphrases, monitoring and creating statements, and producing self-explanations. In turn, these strategies enhanced their understanding of the |
