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Bergh, Johann Rath. "Ontology comprehension." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6517.
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Thesis (MSc (Mathematical Sciences. Computer Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Ontologies are conceptual models of a domain of discourse and are used in a number of applications to model a field of knowledge. For example, SNOMED, an ontology of medical terminology, is widely used among medical professionals. Commercial ontologies, such as SNOMED, can have hundreds of thousands of concepts. People who want to use these ontologies need an understanding thereof, but the sheer magnitude of these ontologies hampers comprehension. It was within this context that the need arose for software tools that facilitate the understanding of ontologies. Given this background, our aim is to investigate a new area within the field of ontologies, namely, ontology comprehension. We make a contribution to it by developing an ontology comprehension framework and writing a software tool of our own. This software tool, PathViz, helps users to understand how different concepts in an ontology are related to each other and what effect entailments have on the way concepts in an ontology relate to each other. The ontology comprehension framework, PathViz and the reasoning measurement instruments were found useful for ontology comprehension by participants at an ontology workshop.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ontologieë is konseptuele modelle van ’n domein en word in verskeie toepassings gebruik om ’n kennisveld te modelleer. SNOMED is ’n voorbeeld van ’n ontologie van mediese terme wat baie gebruik word deur die mediese beroepslui. Kommersiële ontologieë, soos SNOMED, kan bestaan uit duisende konsepte. Dit is belangrik om hierdie ontologieë wat gebruik word te verstaan, maar die enorme omvang van hierdie ontologieë belemmer die verstaanproses. In hierdie konteks het die behoefte ontstaan vir programmatuur wat die verstaanproses van ontologieë vergemaklik. Met hierdie agtergrond inaggenome, is dit ons doel om ’n nuwe area in die veld van ontologieë te ondersoek, naamlik, Ontologie-begrip. Ons maak ’n bydra tot hierdie veld deur ’n raamwerk vir ontologie-begrip te ontwikkel en programmatuur van ons eie te skryf. Hierdie programmatuur, PathViz, help gebruikers om te verstaan hoe verskillende konsepte in ’n ontologie aan mekaar verwant is. Verder help dit gebruikers om te verstaan watter invloed afleidings uit die ontologieë het op konsepverwantskappe. Deelnemers aan ’n ontologie-werkswinkel het gevind dat die raamwerk vir ontologie-begrip, PathViz en die instrumente wat die invloed van die ontologie-redeneerder meet, ontologie-begrip bevorder.
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Chattratichat, Jaturon. "Visual information comprehension." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.249638.
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Roberts, Sian. "Reading comprehension and listening comprehension in children : an individual differences investigation." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2011. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/2927/.
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Little research has explored listening comprehension in children whereas reading comprehension has been extensively investigated. One of the reasons for this is that listening comprehension and reading comprehension are highly correlated and it is generally assumed that they draw on the same cognitive-linguistic processes. This assumption has been formalised in the “Simple View of Reading” (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) which states that, once printed text has been decoded, it is understood in exactly the same way as its spoken equivalent. The main aim of the work presented in this thesis was to investigate the assumption that the same skills and processes underpin reading comprehension and listening comprehension by conducting an investigation of the demands made by comprehension in each modality which are over and above those shared with comprehension in the other modality. This issue has not previously been addressed. Children were assessed on both standardised and true/false measures of listening comprehension and reading comprehension and on several variables previously found to predict reading comprehension. Although results varied slightly according to the measure of comprehension used, broad support was found for the Simple View of Reading as a conceptual framework for explaining reading comprehension. It appeared, however, that listening comprehension involved skills which were not shared with reading comprehension. Of particular interest was the finding that, compared to reading comprehension, listening comprehension appeared to make extra demands on children’s inferencing ability. In a further study it was ascertained that this was not simply due to the shared memory demands of the inferencing and listening comprehension tasks. The hypothesis that listening comprehension ability depends on the ability to generate inferences “on-line” whilst listening was tested in a final study but was not supported. In conclusion, the research presented here suggests that listening comprehension is a topic worthy of investigation in its own right and that, for purposes of both research and educational practice, children’s comprehension is best assessed in both modalities.
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Tzerpos, Vassilios. "Comprehension-driven software clustering." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ63614.pdf.
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Berman, Lewis Irwin. "Program comprehension through sonification." Thesis, Durham University, 2011. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1396/.
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Background: Comprehension of computer programs is daunting, thanks in part to clutter in the software developer's visual environment and the need for frequent visual context changes. Non-speech sound has been shown to be useful in understanding the behavior of a program as it is running. Aims: This thesis explores whether using sound to help understand the static structure of programs is viable and advantageous. Method: A novel concept for program sonification is introduced. Non-speech sounds indicate characteristics of and relationships among a Java program's classes, interfaces, and methods. A sound mapping is incorporated into a prototype tool consisting of an extension to the Eclipse integrated development environment communicating with the sound engine Csound. Developers examining source code can aurally explore entities outside of the visual context. A rich body of sound techniques provides expanded representational possibilities. Two studies were conducted. In the first, software professionals participated in exploratory sessions to informally validate the sound mapping concept. The second study was a human-subjects experiment to discover whether using the tool and sound mapping improve performance of software comprehension tasks. Twenty-four software professionals and students performed maintenance-oriented tasks on two Java programs with and without sound. Results: Viability is strong for differentiation and characterization of software entities, less so for identification. The results show no overall advantage of using sound in terms of task duration at a 5% level of significance. The results do, however, suggest that sonification can be advantageous under certain conditions. Conclusions: The use of sound in program comprehension shows sufficient promise for continued research. Limitations of the present research include restriction to particular types of comprehension tasks, a single sound mapping, a single programming language, and limited training time. Future work includes experiments and case studies employing a wider set of comprehension tasks, sound mappings in domains other than software, and adding navigational capability for use by the visually impaired.
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Rol, Marco Cees Abraham. "The comprehension of Wittgenstein." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.615298.
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Claro, Rita de Cássia Sobreira. "EFL readers' text comprehension." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2012. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/94026.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2010Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-25T05:41:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 289913.pdf: 1836384 bytes, checksum: 6a48f2b2cfc9ec39e8af2d91bfb7848a (MD5)
Este estudo empírico investigou o efeito facilitador de ilustrações na compreensão de texto para leitores de inglês como língua estrangeira. O estudo foi motivado pela necessidade de maior entendimento do tema, tendo em vista ser um assunto atualmente abordado por vários pesquisadores do campo de Linguística Aplicada. A metodologia adotada envolveu a coleta de dados de 13 participantes do curso de inglês extracurricular da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, com nível básico de proficiência, correspondente ao terceiro semestre do curso, o qual é composto por seis semestres. Os participantes foram divididos em três grupos pequenos e cada grupo leu o mesmo texto com uma abordagem diferente: O Pre-Reading Group realizou uma atividade pré-leitura com figuras antes de ler o texto; O With-Picture Group leu o texto com as imagens; e o No-Picture Group leu o texto sem imagens. As atividades realizadas pelos participantes consistiram em uma leitura de texto, uma arefa de recordação de conteúdo imediatamente após a leitura, uma tarefa de múltipla escolha, um questionário retrospectivo; uma segunda tarefa de recordação do conteúdo foi realizada uma semana após o primeiro encontro. Os dados foram analisados tanto quantitativamente quanto qualitativamente, examinando-se os resultados das tarefas de recordação do conteúdo lido, os dados da tarefa de múltipla escolha e o questionário retrospectivo. Os achados deste estudo indicam um efeito facilitador das ilustrações na compreensão de leitura quando levado em consideração o uso das imagens como suporte na atividade de pré-leitura. O grupo WPG mostrou melhores resultados no delayed recall quando comparado com o immediate recall. Os resultados gerais sugerem que o efeito facilitador do uso de ilustrações pode auxiliar os leitores de segunda língua (inglês) na seleção de informação relevante, o que pode ajudar na compreensão de texto para alunos/leitores com nível básico de proficiência.
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Infante, Marta D. "Social background and reading disabilities : variability in decoding, reading comprehension, and listening comprehensive skills /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3012981.
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Faour, Ghada Awada. "Instructional strategies for enhancing learning disabled students' reading comprehension and comprehension test performance." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/403207.
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Aquest estudi experimental es va crear per investigar l'efecte de la instrucció d'estratègies combinades en la millora de la comprensió lectora de textos narratius per 12-14 i 13-15 anys -Old alumnes dislèxics d'anglès com a llengua estrangera, així com la comprensió de textos expositius per 14-16 i 15-17 als seus homòlegs antics -Any. A més, l'estudi es va centrar en els efectes de la interacció del tractament amb estratègies combinades i el sexe dels participants (homes enfront de dones) i el tipus d'escola dels participants en l'estudi (control versus experimental, utilitzant un mètode de disseny factorial mixt on la variable de les condicions de tractament amb dos nivells (control davant experimental) es va utilitzar com una variable independent, es van utilitzar les variables de gènere i l'escola com a variable moderadora, i la comprensió lectora com a variable dependent. la instrucció estratègia combinada es compon d'organitzadors gràfics, presentacions visuals, mnemotècnic il·lustracions, exercicis d'ordinador, la predicció, la inferència, l'estructura del text de la consciència, la identificació de la idea principal, el resum, i el qüestionament sobre la millora de la comprensió lectora de textos narratius per als estudiants amb dislèxia a 12-14 i 13-15 anys -Old .No obstant això, l'estudi instrucció estratègia combinada no va incloure exercici equip per als estudiants amb dislèxia a 14-16 i 15-17 textos -Any d'edat, i el expositius i no es van utilitzar les narratives en 14-16 i 15-17 -any d'edat. Es van informar i van discutir a la llum de les investigacions prèvies i el context de l'estudi, així com les implicacions per a la instrucció a l'aula i més investigació Les troballes de l'estudi.
La instrucció estratègia combinada es compon d'organitzadors gràfics, pantalles visuals, il·lustracions, exercicis mnemotècnics ordinador, la predicció, la inferència, l'estructura del text de la consciència, la identificació de la idea principal, el resum, i el qüestionament sobre la millora de la comprensió lectora de textos narratius per als estudiants amb dislèxia a 12-14 i 13-15 anys -Old alumnes.Este estudio experimental se creó para investigar el efecto de la instrucción de estrategias combinadas en la mejora de la comprensión lectora de textos narrativos por 12-14 y 13-15 años -old alumnos disléxicos de Inglés como lengua extranjera, así como la comprensión de textos expositivos por 14-16 y 15-17 a sus homólogos antiguos -Año. Además, el estudio se centró en los efectos de la interacción del tratamiento con estrategias combinadas y el sexo de los participantes (hombres frente a mujeres) y el tipo de escuela de los participantes en el estudio (control versus experimental, utilizando un método de diseño factorial mixto donde la variable de las condiciones de tratamiento con dos niveles (control frente experimental) se utilizó como una variable independiente, se utilizaron las variables de género y la escuela como variable moderadora, y la comprensión lectora como variable dependiente. La instrucción estrategia combinada se compone de organizadores gráficos, presentaciones visuales, mnemotécnico ilustraciones, ejercicios de computadora, la predicción, la inferencia, la estructura del texto de la conciencia, la identificación de la idea principal, el resumen, y el cuestionamiento sobre la mejora de la comprensión lectora de textos narrativos para los estudiantes con dislexia en 12-14 y 13-15 años -old .Sin embargo, el estudio instrucción estrategia combinada no incluyó ejercicio equipo para los estudiantes con dislexia en 14-16 y 15-17 textos -Año de edad, y el expositivos y no se utilizaron las narrativas en 14-16 y 15-17 -año de edad. Se informaron y discutieron a la luz de las investigaciones previas y el contexto del estudio, así como las implicaciones para la instrucción en el aula y más investigación Los hallazgos del estudio. La instrucción estrategia combinada se compone de organizadores gráficos, pantallas visuales, ilustraciones, ejercicios mnemotécnicos computadora, la predicción, la inferencia, la estructura del texto de la conciencia, la identificación de la idea principal, el resumen, y el cuestionamiento sobre la mejora de la comprensión lectora de textos narrativos para los estudiantes con dislexia en 12-14 y 13-15 años -old alumnos.
This experimental study was set to investigate the effect of combined strategy instruction on improving the reading comprehension of narrative texts by 12-14 and 13-15-year –old dyslexic learners of English as a foreign language as well as the comprehension of expository texts by their 14-16 and 15-17 –year old counterparts. In addition, the study looked into the interaction effects of the treatment with combined strategies and the gender of the participants (male versus female) and the school type of the study participants (control versus experimental, using a mixed method factorial design where the variable of the treatment conditions with two levels (control versus experimental) was used as an independent variable, the variables of gender and school were used as moderator variable, and reading comprehension as dependent variable. The combined strategy instruction consists of graphic organizers, visual displays, mnemonic illustrations, computer exercises, predicting, inference, text structure awareness, main idea identification, summarization, and questioning on improving the reading comprehension of narrative texts for students with dyslexia in 12-14 and 13-15-year –old .However, the study combined strategy instruction did not include computer exercise for students with dyslexia in 14-16 and 15-17 –year old ,and the expository texts and not the narrative ones were used in 14-16 and 15-17 –year old. The study findings were reported and discussed in light of previous research and study context as well as implications for classroom instruction and further research. The combined strategy instruction consists of graphic organizers, visual displays, mnemonic illustrations, computer exercises, predicting, inference, text structure awareness, main idea identification, summarization, and questioning on improving the reading comprehension of narrative texts for students with dyslexia in 12-14 and 13-15-year –old learners .
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Larsson, Sofi, and Ove Lundberg. "Listening comprehension : Digital technology and its effect on the L2 learner’s listening comprehension." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskapernas och matematikens didaktik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-160967.
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The rapid development of new technologies and how these are affecting school age children is in this day and age an area of growing importance. In the context of second language (L2) acquisition, it has been noted that spare time activities of a digital nature impact those pupils who spend more time on activities such as online gaming in the target language than average (Sundqvist 2019, 95-103). The aim of the current study was to investigate the possible effect three different digital spare time activities (computer and video games, movies and music) have on listening comprehension. This when English is the dominant language in the activities, and the focus is on 6th grade children. The method used was a comparison made between a language diary homework, consisting of the participants’ estimated number of hours spent on digital spare time activities, and the results of a listening exercise. The results show that there is a positive correlation between the results of the listening comprehension test and the number of hours spent on digital spare time activities. Also, repeated exposure to the target language in a digital spare time context does, therefore, affect second language acquisition to a limited extent. The conclusion was that in order to come to a more conclusive answer regarding the correlation between digital spare time activities and English listening comprehension, more research is needed.I samband med andraspråksinlärning har det noterats att digitala fritidsaktiviteter påverkar de elever som spenderar mer tid på denna sorts aktiviteter (Sundqvist 2019, 95–103). Syftet med den aktuella undersökningen blev således att undersöka den möjliga effekt digitala fritidsaktiviteter, på engelska, har på just engelsk hörförståelse. De tre utvalda aktiviteterna är här digitala spel, film och musik. Engelska är alltså målspråket och fokusgruppen är sjätteklassare. Metoden som användes var en jämförelse mellan resultaten av en språkdagbok, bestående av det antal timmar som deltagarna angett att de spenderar på digitala fritidsaktiviteter under en genomsnittlig vecka, samt resultat inhämtade från en hörövning. Resultatet visar att det finns en positiv korrelation mellan resultaten på hörförståelsetestet och antalet timmar som spenderas på digitala fritidsaktiviteter. Vidare visade det sig att upprepad exponering för målspråket i ett digitalt sammanhang påverkar andraspråksinlärning i en begränsad utsträckning. Slutsatsen blev därmed att det krävs mer forskning för att komma fram till ett definitivt svar angående sambandet mellan digitala fritidsaktiviteter och engelsk hörförståelse.
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Sarasti, Israel A. Laney James Duke. "The effects of reciprocal teaching comprehension-monitoring strategy on 3rd grade students' reading comprehension." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2007. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-3919.
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Cooperman, Annie. "Improving Reading Comprehension in Students with Autism| Associating Cognitive Impairments with Reading Comprehension Problems." Thesis, Prescott College, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1538940.
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This research postulated that the cognitive impairments characteristic of students with high-functioning autism can be associated with specific types of reading comprehension difficulties. Descriptive data was collected from two case studies of adolescent students who were diagnosed with high-functioning autism. The researcher employed interactive questioning techniques, based on task-analysis theory, to develop hypotheses on the types of cognitive impairments that might be causing the participants in the study to experience reading comprehension difficulties. Based on these hypothesized associations between cognitive impairments and specific incidences of reading comprehension problems, the researcher selected and employed targeted reading comprehension interventions. Descriptive results suggest that incremental improvements in reading comprehension and expressive language occurred for the case-study participants.
Keywords: autism, high-functioning autism, reading comprehension, task analysis
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Priddy, Evelyn Jo. "Improving comprehension : comparing the effects of two types of advance organizers on passage comprehension." Virtual Press, 1989. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/720319.
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The objective of this study was to compare the effects of two types of advance organizers on the comprehension of fourth grade students. The students' reading achievement levels were identified, and prior knowledge of the topics presented in the passages was assessed.Six intact classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. The first group was given a prose organizer before reading each of the passages; the second group received a discussion organizer; and the third group participated in both types of organizers. All of the activities were presented by the regular classroom teachers.The appropriate treatment and a selected passage were given to each group on the same day. On the following day, the subjects were asked to complete a cloze test constructed from selected portions of the passage. This procedure was repeated four times.A three factor analysis of covariance with repeated measurement of the four posttests was used to analyze the data. Reading achievement was used as the covariate in the analysis. Subjects were classified as to treatment group and high or low prior knowledge. Results indicated that the composite posttest means of the groups differed significantly. There was, however, no interaction between treatment and prior knowledge or between treatment and repeated presentations.The Student-Newman-Keuls procedure was applied post-hoc to test the difference among the means. The treatment group receiving only the prose organizer differed from the other two groups with lower passage comprehension. It was concluded that the discussion organizer alone or with a prose organizer facilitated better passage comprehension.Department of Elementary Education
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Demel, Marjorie Cornell. "The relationship between co-referential tie comprehension and overall comprehension for second language readers /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487584612163762.
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Sarasti, Israel A. "The Effects of Reciprocal Teaching Comprehension-monitoring Strategy on 3Rd Grade Students' Reading Comprehension." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3919/.
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Reciprocal teaching comprehension-monitoring is a reading comprehension instructional procedure that combines four instructional strategies: predicting, summarizing, questioning, and clarifying to enhance students' comprehension of text. The procedure is a dialogue between the teacher and the students. During reciprocal teaching instruction, the teacher and students take turns leading the dialogue in order to enhance the students' comprehension-monitoring skills. The research on reciprocal teaching has included meta-analyses, group designs, qualitative designs, and single-subject research designs. These studies have identified gaps in the literature to include the measurement of treatment fidelity and treatment acceptability, as well as the psychometric properties of the instruments used to measure daily reading comprehension growth. These gaps were investigated in this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reciprocal teaching comprehension-monitoring with a group of fifteen 3rd grade students reading at grade level. Specifically, this study investigated the use of curriculum-based measurement maze probes (CBM-maze probes) to formatively assess the reading comprehension growth of the students. Additionally, this study implemented treatment integrity procedures and investigated the acceptability of reciprocal teaching and the CBM-maze probes through a treatment acceptability rating scale. A multiple baseline across groups with three phases (baseline, intervention, follow-up) was employed. Overall, visual analysis of the data suggested reciprocal teaching was an effective intervention in increasing reading comprehension abilities in students as measured by the CBM-maze probes. All three groups exhibited continual growth on the daily comprehension measures across all three phases. Implications for practice, cautions in interpreting the results, and future directions are discussed.
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Humphreys, Gina F. "Linking sentence production and comprehension : the neural mechanisms underlying production and comprehension control processes." Thesis, University of York, 2012. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3780/.
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This thesis investigated the relationship between sentence production and comprehension. A combination of behavioural and neuroimaging techniques were used to examine the extent to which sentence production and comprehension engage common or distinct mechanisms, with specific focus on the processes engaged by semantic/syntactic competition. Behavioural studies in Chapter 2 indicated that high-competition cases were more difficult to understand and produce than low-competition cases, and that difficulty varied as a function of the number of alternative associations entertained during performance in both tasks. In Chapter 3, an fMRI study indicated that production and comprehension shared a common competition mechanism within left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). However, they engage distinctive networks that interact with LIFG, with production eliciting a larger network including areas involved in sentence planning and memory retrieval. Further asymmetries across tasks were revealed in Chapter 4, in which behavioural results and neural networks were compared across adults and adolescents. This study also demonstrated the occurrence of shifts in the neural networks involved in competition resolution throughout development, thereby providing a strong link between poor behavioural performance and the underdevelopment of pre-frontal inhibitory mechanisms in adolescents. Chapter 5 used an improved experimental paradigm from that in Chapters 3 and 4. The results showed that production elicits more activity than comprehension in the dorsal language route thus confirming the engagement of task-specific control processes. Interestingly, this study also revealed a common area of LIFG involved in both tasks, but also differences within LIFG, suggesting the possibility of task-specific circuitry. Together, the findings suggest that production and comprehension share fronto-temporal areas that store and manage abstract linguistic associations between words and structures. However, they differ in the manner in which linguistic information is used, as is evident by the recruitment of distinct networks. Implications for models of language processing are discussed.
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Kubitza, Andy James. "Using standardized test reading comprehension software to improve student academic achievement in reading comprehension." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2007. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3262.
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The purpose of this quantitative design research study for fourth grade students was to examine whether a web-based Standardized Test Preparation Intervention for reading comprehension was more effective and efficient in improving student academic achievement in reading comprehension than a paper-based Standarized Test Preparation Intervention. It was found that the paper-based reading comprehension intervention was equally effective as the web-based.
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Higgins, Lynnda G. "An evaluation of the relationship between Criterion-Referenced Competency Test reading comprehension and Lexile scores and Fountas and Pinnell's guided reading levels in a Georgia Public School District." Lynchburg, Va. : Liberty University School of Education, 2009. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu.
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Baier, Rebecca J. "Reading comprehension and reading strategies." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2005/2005baierr.pdf.
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Luk, Pui-ki Betty. "Children's comprehension of relative clauses." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 1995. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36209120.
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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1995."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), the University of Hong Kong, April 28, 1995." Also available in print.
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Mak, Wing-fung Jouie. "Children's comprehension of double negation." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 1995. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36209181.
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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1995."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, April 28, 1995." Also available in print.
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Lindsay, Shane. "Perceptuomotor processing in language comprehension." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.487586.
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Recent approaches to cognition have proposed that our understanding of the world and of language is rooted in our perceptual and motoric embodiment This thesis investigates a central idea of the embodied approach to cognition: that language comprehension prompts for the activation of perceptuomotor activity. This perceptuom'otor activity is thought to involve similar processes and brain areas to those in actual perceptioij and action. One problem for embodied approaches to cognition and language comprehension is how to account for abstract concepts and abstract language. Consequently, this thesis has two main goals. Firstly, it is to test and extend our existing knowledge of the role of perceptuomotor processing in language comprehension. A secondary aim is to investigate both theoretically and empirically whether the processing of abstract language involves perceptuomotor processing, given the idea that one important way in which we understand abstract language is through metaphoric projection from more concrete concepts. This thesis employs a variety of different psycholinguistic methodologies all using reaction time measures, in nine experiments. One set of studies investigate how language processing can interact with the execution of actions that are semantically related to words and sentences, and presents the Word Action Compatibility Effect A second set of experiments examines how irrelevant static and dynamic visuospatial information can affect the processing of words and sentences. A final chapter theoretically investigates claims of metaphoric structuring of the conceptual domain of quantity. The thesis represents a sustained investigation of key ideas in the embodied approach to language comprehension, develops new psycholinguistic methodologies and subjects a number of important theoretical ideas to empirical investigation.
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Nguyen, Thi Van, and n/a. "Listening comprehension : a Vietnamese perspective." University of Canberra. Information Sciences, 1985. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20061109.170135.
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A newly emerging, developing country has many high priority
areas. Many of these high priority areas are related to
the educational system. Education is viewed by many
political leaders (and also by citizens rich and poor) as
a 'Golden Key' which will unlock doors labelled with words
such as 'Development', 'Progress', 'Success', and 'the
English Language'.
The English Language, a modern technical, trade and
diplomatic language, is one of the avenues of communication
which may enhance development within Vietnam.
At the present moment, foreign language teaching and
especially Teaching English as a Foreign Language and
Teaching English for Special/Specific purposes, are given
high priority ratings by those who plan the development
stages for Vietnam. It is also recognized that EFL and ESP
teaching can and should be improved.
Australia is assisting this process of improvement by
supporting an assistance programme. Twenty two teachers
from tertiary language centres have been studying Teaching
English as a Foreign Language at the Canberra College of
Advanced Education. This writer is one of these students.
One of the requirements for the Master's Degree in
Teaching English as a Foreign Language is an extended
Field Study in a specific area. This writer selected
'Aural Comprehension'.
In this Field Study, the writer has explored the past
and present position of teaching ' Aural Comprehension'
in Vietnam. The writer has identified several significant
problem areas and has suggested alternative options which
may improve the teaching and the learning in this area.
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Klemola, Tuomas. "Software comprehension, theory and metrics." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ39115.pdf.
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Richards, Eric D. "Goal information and text comprehension." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0003/MQ41764.pdf.
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Black, Alison. "Lexical support in discourse comprehension." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.328444.
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Sharkey, Amanda J. C. "Contextual mechanisms of text comprehension." Thesis, University of Essex, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.328838.
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Whitlock, Jordan Ashley. "Retrieval mechanisms in sentence comprehension." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90177.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: S.M., Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 30).
This work investigates the nature of the memory mechanisms utilized in language comprehension. Through the use of the Speed Accuracy Tradeoff (SAT) paradigm (Wickelgren, 1977), healthy young adults were studied for the use of parallel or serial search mechanisms to understand syntactically complex sentences with multiple embeddings. Systematically designed sentence stimuli tested whether the relevant memory mechanism differs when reanalysis is required. Results indicated that sentence length and syntactic ambiguity affected overall accuracy of sentence comprehension. The rate in which information was retrieved did not vary for most sentence types, but may have been affected by length in one type of sentence (ambiguous "early closure" sentences). The data support a parallel, content-addressable retrieval mechanism for information in most sentences but may provide evidence for serial search in ambiguous sentences that require complex syntactic reanalysis.
by Jordan Ashley Whitlock.
S.M.
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Nicol, Janet Lee. "Coreference processing during sentence comprehension." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/14421.
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Chernenko, Andrii. "Facilitating comprehension of Swift programs." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap och medieteknik (DM), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-73774.
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Program comprehension is the process of gaining knowledge about software system by extracting it from its source code or observing its behavior at runtime. Often, when documentation is unavailable or missing, this is the only reliable source of knowledge about the system, and the fact that up to 50% of total maintenance effort is spent understanding the system makes it even more important. The source code of large software systems contains thousands, sometimes millions of lines of code, motivating the need for automation, which can be achieved with the help of program comprehension tools. This makes comprehension tools an essential factor in the adoption of new programming languages. This work proposes a way to fill this gap in the ecosystem of Swift, a new, innovative programming language aiming to cover a wide range of applications while being safe, expressive, and performant. The proposed solution is to bridge the gap between Swift and VizzAnalyzer, a program analysis framework featuring a range of analyses and visualizations, as well as modular architecture which makes adding new analyses and visualizations easier. The idea is to define a formal model for representing Swift programs and mapping it to the common program model used by VizzAnalyzer as the basis for analyses and visualizations. In addition to that, this paper discusses the differences between Swift and programming languages which are already supported by VizzAnalyzer, as well as practical aspects of extracting the models of Swift programs from their source code.
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Spooner, Alice L. R. "Investigating and assessing comprehension ability." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/c7802095-cfa9-4db5-a8b6-2f2ad7e18e9e.
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Middleton, Margaret E. "Reading Motivation and Reading Comprehension." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1313166336.
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Emmott, Catherine. "Narrative comprehension : a discourse perspective /." Oxford : New York : Clarendon press ; Oxford university press, 1997. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb375096439.
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Texte remaniée de: Th. Ph. D.--University of Birmingham. Titre de soutenance : Reading between the lines : building a comprehensive model of participant reference in real narrative.Bibliogr. p. 276-310. Index.
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O'Bryan, Erin Leigh. "Event structure in language comprehension." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289983.
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This dissertation presents and evaluates the hypothesis that event structure information such as telicity is used during language comprehension. A verb or verb phrase is telic if it denotes an event that necessarily progresses towards an endpoint. The major experimental finding presented in this dissertation is that garden pathing is less severe in reduced relative clause sentences with telic embedded verbs than in those with atelic embedded verbs. For example, in the structurally ambiguous sentence 'The actress awakened/sketched by the writer left in a hurry', less comprehension difficulty occurs on the word 'by' when the embedded verb is telic ('awakened') than when it is atelic ('sketched'). On-line measures of comprehension difficulty in three different experimental paradigms showed this result at the earliest disambiguation point (on the by-phrase). Two of these paradigms involved comprehension in reading, and the third one involved spoken language comprehension. These experiments also included the factor of obligatory transitivity: whether or not the verb requires a direct object. The results show that telicity and obligatory transitivity both immediately affect the severity of the garden path independently of each other. In order to address the issue of how to categorize verb phrases as telic or atelic, I conducted a computerized study which collected semantic judgments and grammaticality judgments on verb phrases used in three classic telicity tests from the event structure literature. The participants in the study were 24 English-speaking students in an introductory linguistics course. The results provide preliminary evidence that sentence frames, such as the adverbials 'for an hour' and 'in an hour', provide an objective means of categorizing verb phrases as telic or atelic. The research strongly suggests that verb telicity information should be included in models of human language comprehension. I discuss means of including telicity in several pre-existing comprehension models. The account that best explains the telicity and transitivity effects taken together is based on identifying canonical sentence patterns associated with thematic roles, as proposed by Townsend and Bever (2001). The information that a verb is inherently telic activates the use of an NV(N) template with an obligatory theme role.
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Holmes, Michael Henry. "Comprehension based adaptive learning systems." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2017. http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/621011/.
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Conversational Intelligent Tutoring Systems aim to mimic the adaptive behaviour of human tutors by delivering tutorial content as part of a dynamic exchange of information conducted using natural language. Deciding when it is beneficial to intervene in a student’s learning process is an important skill for tutoring. Human tutors use prior knowledge about the student, discourse content and learner non-verbal behaviour to choose when intervention will help learners overcome impasse. Experienced human tutors adapt discourse and pedagogy based on recognition of comprehension and non-comprehension indicative learner behaviour. In this research non-verbal behaviour is explored as a method of computationally analysing reading comprehension so as to equip an intelligent conversational agent with the human-like ability to estimate comprehension from non-verbal behaviour as a decision making trigger for feedback, prompts or hints. This thesis presents research that combines a conversational intelligent tutoring system (CITS) with near real-time comprehension classification based on modelling of e-learner non-verbal behaviour to estimate learner comprehension during on-screen conversational tutoring and to use comprehension classifications as a trigger for intervening with hints, prompts or feedback for the learner. To improve the effectiveness of tuition in e-learning, this research aims to design, develop and demonstrate novel computational methods for modelling e-learner comprehension of on-screen information in near real-time and for adapting CITS tutorial discourse and pedagogy in response to perception of comprehension indicative behaviour. The contribution of this research is to detail the motivation for, design of, and evaluation of a system which has the human-like ability to introduce micro-adaptive feedback into tutorial discourse in response to automatic perception of e-learner reading comprehension. This research evaluates empirically whether e-learner non-verbal behaviour can be modelled to classify comprehension in near real-time and presents a near real-time comprehension classification system which achieves normalised comprehension classification accuracy of 75%. Understanding e-learner comprehension creates exciting opportunities for advanced personalisation of materials, discourse, challenge and the digital environment itself. The research suggests a benefit is gained from comprehension based adaptation in conversational intelligent tutoring systems, with a controlled trial of a comprehension based adaptive CITS called Hendrix 2.0 showing increases in tutorial assessment scores of up to 17% when comprehension based discourse adaptation is deployed to scaffold the learning experience.
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Tomitch, Leda Maria Braga. "Schema activation and text comprehension." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 1988. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/75496.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Comunicação e ExpressãoMade available in DSpace on 2012-10-16T01:51:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2016-01-08T15:56:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 83643.pdf: 2084878 bytes, checksum: 4b8b6bb865257b92b4c4ae73c43dd066 (MD5)
O objetivo do presente trabalho é investigar os efeitos de duas atividades de pré-leitura, "Possible Sentences" (Moore and Arthur, 1981) e uma versão modificada da "Request Procedure" (Manzo, 1969), na compreensão em leitura de alunos brasileiros estudando uma segunda língua no Brasil. Quarenta alunos de nível intermediário matriculados em Inglês numa escola particular em Florianópolis, no estado de Santa Catarina, participaram do estudo. Os sujeitos leram quatro textos, cada um trabalhado de maneira diferente, três precedidos de atividades de pré-leitura i.e., 1) Possible Sentences, 2) Request Procedure, 3) Possible Sentence + Request Procedure e um texto sem atividade, como controle. Imediatamente após terem lido cada texto, os sujeitos foram testados através de 5 perguntas de compreensão e 10 itens do tipo verdadeiro ou falso. Os sujeitos também avaliaram os textos em termos de dificuldade e familiaridade com o conteúdo dos mesmos. De acordo com a ANOVA (Análise de Variância) realizada nos resultados totais (soma do resultado das perguntas e dos itens verdadeiro/falso), os tratamentos tiveram efeito significativo na compreensão dos sujeitos, i.e., quando leram os textos precedidos de uma das três atividades obtiveram melhores resultados nos testes do que quando leram sem atividades. Resultados semelhantes foram encontrados para a ANOVA realizada nos dados obtidos nas perguntas. Entretanto não foram encontrados efeitos estatísticamente significativos nos resultados dos itens verdadeiro/falso. O teste de "Tukey" para comparações múltiplas não revelou diferenças significativas entre as próprias atividades de pré-leitura. Nenhuma correlação foi encontrada entre a avaliação dos sujeitos em relação ao nível de familiaridade com o conteúdo dos textos e os resultados obtidos pelos mesmos nas perguntas de compreensão. Também não foi encontrado correlação entre o nível de familiaridade e os resultados dos testes do tipo verdadeiro/falso. Entretanto, houve uma correlação moderada entre a avaliação dos textos como fáceis/difíceis e os resultados obtidos das perguntas, mas novamente não foi encontrada correlação entre esta avaliação e os resultados obtidos nos itens verdadeiro/falso. Todos os resultados foram analisados do ponto de vista da teoria dos esquemas da compreensão em leituras.
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Dwyer, Edward J. "Enhancing Comprehension Competencies Through Questioning." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2007. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3330.
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Dwyer, Edward J. "Reading Comprehension with a Beat." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1993. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3358.
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Lottes-Bishop, Laura Theresa. "Student Success and Reading Comprehension." ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1225.
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Nursing administrators are exploring interventions to increase student retention rates in order to decrease college costs, improve faculty effort and time developing courses, decrease administrative resources, and to continue their accreditation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there was a correlation between the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) reading comprehension scores, American College Test (ACT) reading comprehension scores, Comprehensive Computer-Adaptive Testing (COMPASS) reading comprehension scores, and the cumulative college grade point average (GPA) of the first-year nursing student. The theoretical foundation for this study was Tinto's retention theory, which claims that students' past academic performance predicts retention. A correlation approach within a cross-sectional nonexperimental design was used by analyzing data from admission testing and the first-year cumulative GPA from 151 associate degree nursing students from a private college in the Southeast Missouri area. According to study results, there was no correlation between GPAs and reading comprehension scores. Additionally, ACT, TEAS, and COMPASS reading comprehension scores did not correlate with student retention rates. Administrators in the associate degree nursing program can use the results of this study to determine what interventions might determine the success of the first-year nursing student. Positive social change will result from a more diverse set of admission criteria for acceptance into the program and will assist the admissons committees to find the best candidates for the program.
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Gleize, Martin. "Textual Inference for Machine Comprehension." Thesis, Université Paris-Saclay (ComUE), 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016SACLS004/document.
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Étant donnée la masse toujours croissante de texte publié, la compréhension automatique des langues naturelles est à présent l'un des principaux enjeux de l'intelligence artificielle. En langue naturelle, les faits exprimés dans le texte ne sont pas nécessairement tous explicites : le lecteur humain infère les éléments manquants grâce à ses compétences linguistiques, ses connaissances de sens commun ou sur un domaine spécifique, et son expérience. Les systèmes de Traitement Automatique des Langues (TAL) ne possèdent naturellement pas ces capacités. Incapables de combler les défauts d'information du texte, ils ne peuvent donc pas le comprendre vraiment. Cette thèse porte sur ce problème et présente notre travail sur la résolution d'inférences pour la compréhension automatique de texte. Une inférence textuelle est définie comme une relation entre deux fragments de texte : un humain lisant le premier peut raisonnablement inférer que le second est vrai. Beaucoup de tâches de TAL évaluent plus ou moins directement la capacité des systèmes à reconnaître l'inférence textuelle. Au sein de cette multiplicité de l'évaluation, les inférences elles-mêmes présentent une grande variété de types. Nous nous interrogeons sur les inférences en TAL d'un point de vue théorique et présentons deux contributions répondant à ces niveaux de diversité : une tâche abstraite contextualisée qui englobe les tâches d'inférence du TAL, et une taxonomie hiérarchique des inférences textuelles en fonction de leur difficulté. La reconnaissance automatique d'inférence textuelle repose aujourd'hui presque toujours sur un modèle d'apprentissage, entraîné à l'usage de traits linguistiques variés sur un jeu d'inférences textuelles étiquetées. Cependant, les données spécifiques aux phénomènes d'inférence complexes ne sont pour le moment pas assez abondantes pour espérer apprendre automatiquement la connaissance du monde et le raisonnement de sens commun nécessaires. Les systèmes actuels se concentrent plutôt sur l'apprentissage d'alignements entre les mots de phrases reliées sémantiquement, souvent en utilisant leur structure syntaxique. Pour étendre leur connaissance du monde, ils incluent des connaissances tirées de ressources externes, ce qui améliore souvent les performances. Mais cette connaissance est souvent ajoutée par dessus les fonctionnalités existantes, et rarement bien intégrée à la structure de la phrase.Nos principales contributions dans cette thèse répondent au problème précédent. En partant de l'hypothèse qu'un lexique plus simple devrait rendre plus facile la comparaison du sens de deux phrases, nous décrivons une méthode de récupération de passage fondée sur une expansion lexicale structurée et un dictionnaire de simplifications. Cette hypothèse est testée à nouveau dans une de nos contributions sur la reconnaissance d'implication textuelle : des paraphrases syntaxiques sont extraites du dictionnaire et appliquées récursivement sur la première phrase pour la transformer en la seconde. Nous présentons ensuite une méthode d'apprentissage par noyaux de réécriture de phrases, avec une notion de types permettant d'encoder des connaissances lexico-sémantiques. Cette approche est efficace sur trois tâches : la reconnaissance de paraphrases, d'implication textuelle, et le question-réponses. Nous résolvons son problème de passage à l'échelle dans une dernière contribution. Des tests de compréhension sont utilisés pour son évaluation, sous la forme de questions à choix multiples sur des textes courts, qui permettent de tester la résolution d'inférences en contexte. Notre système est fondé sur un algorithme efficace d'édition d'arbres, et les traits extraits des séquences d'édition sont utilisés pour construire deux classifieurs pour la validation et l'invalidation des choix de réponses. Cette approche a obtenu la deuxième place du challenge "Entrance Exams" à CLEF 2015With the ever-growing mass of published text, natural language understanding stands as one of the most sought-after goal of artificial intelligence. In natural language, not every fact expressed in the text is necessarily explicit: human readers naturally infer what is missing through various intuitive linguistic skills, common sense or domain-specific knowledge, and life experiences. Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems do not have these initial capabilities. Unable to draw inferences to fill the gaps in the text, they cannot truly understand it. This dissertation focuses on this problem and presents our work on the automatic resolution of textual inferences in the context of machine reading. A textual inference is simply defined as a relation between two fragments of text: a human reading the first can reasonably infer that the second is true. A lot of different NLP tasks more or less directly evaluate systems on their ability to recognize textual inference. Among this multiplicity of evaluation frameworks, inferences themselves are not one and the same and also present a wide variety of different types. We reflect on inferences for NLP from a theoretical standpoint and present two contributions addressing these levels of diversity: an abstract contextualized inference task encompassing most NLP inference-related tasks, and a novel hierchical taxonomy of textual inferences based on their difficulty.Automatically recognizing textual inference currently almost always involves a machine learning model, trained to use various linguistic features on a labeled dataset of samples of textual inference. However, specific data on complex inference phenomena is not currently abundant enough that systems can directly learn world knowledge and commonsense reasoning. Instead, systems focus on learning how to use the syntactic structure of sentences to align the words of two semantically related sentences. To extend what systems know of the world, they include external background knowledge, often improving their results. But this addition is often made on top of other features, and rarely well integrated to sentence structure. The main contributions of our thesis address the previous concern, with the aim of solving complex natural language understanding tasks. With the hypothesis that a simpler lexicon should make easier to compare the sense of two sentences, we present a passage retrieval method using structured lexical expansion backed up by a simplifying dictionary. This simplification hypothesis is tested again in a contribution on textual entailment: syntactical paraphrases are extracted from the same dictionary and repeatedly applied on the first sentence to turn it into the second. We then present a machine learning kernel-based method recognizing sentence rewritings, with a notion of types able to encode lexical-semantic knowledge. This approach is effective on three tasks: paraphrase identification, textual entailment and question answering. We address its lack of scalability while keeping most of its strengths in our last contribution. Reading comprehension tests are used for evaluation: these multiple-choice questions on short text constitute the most practical way to assess textual inference within a complete context. Our system is founded on a efficient tree edit algorithm, and the features extracted from edit sequences are used to build two classifiers for the validation and invalidation of answer candidates. This approach reaches second place at the "Entrance Exams" CLEF 2015 challenge
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Möllerfeld, Michael. "Generalized inductive definitions : the m-calculus [my-calculus] and P12-comprehension [Pi 1 2-comprehension] /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2003. http://miami.uni-muenster.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-243/diss.ps.
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Card, Marilyn P. "The Effects of a Reading Comprehension Intervention Package on Increasing Third Grade Students' Comprehension Skills." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2440.
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Increasing students' reading comprehension involves the use of targeted strategies and effective instruction. Previous research has shown that instruction in individual skills such as vocabulary acquisition, reading fluency, writing, and story mapping help increases students' reading comprehension. However, few studies have explored combining these skills and their cumulative effects, if any, on reading comprehension. The purpose of this quasi-experimental secondary analysis study was to examine the effects of adding a reading comprehension instruction package (RCIP), which includes vocabulary acquisition, reading fluency, and writing, to instruction in story mapping alone. Constructivist theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 8 students with low reading achievement as indicated by their performances on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The single-case, multiple-probe design across subjects was used to intermittently collect data, which were the correct responses per 3 minutes using the Curriculum Based Measure-Reading Maze. The data were visually analyzed by looking at data points and trend lines directionality using the percentage nonoverlapping data along with the Cohen's d effect size. Although this study showed mixed results and were not statistically significant, it could still contribute to positive social change. The findings have a small to medium effect size impact on students' reading comprehension; 3 out of 4 students who completed the study surpassed their expected goal. The results from this study may provide teachers with tools for improving the foundational reading skills of struggling readers, thus enabling their students to succeed in school and become productive members of society.
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Wolfe, Traci. "Digging deep for meaning." Online version, 2008. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2008/2008wolfet.pdf.
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Woolley, Gary Ernest. "The Development, Documentation, and Evaluation of a Strategy-Training Program for Primary School Students With reading Comprehension Difficulties." Thesis, Griffith University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365975.
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This research developed from a documented need to enhance the reading skills of students with comprehension difficulties, who despite initial interventions in the early years of schooling, still had reading problems that persisted into high school. The study also responds to the need for more sophisticated programs that effectively facilitate primary children's use of complex reading comprehension strategies, within a tutoring and mentoring framework. The main aim of this research was the development, documentation, and evaluation of the Comprehension of the Narrative tutoring program for primary school students with reading comprehension difficulties. The intervention was based on three theoretical notions. The first, learning is a socially constructed process (Becker & Luthar, 2002; Vygotsky, 1978). The second, student's use of visual imagery connects the reading text to the reader's own experiences and provides a strategy that facilitates recall and comprehension of the text (Eddy & Glass, 1981; Kosslyn, 1976; Romeo, 2002). The third, student's reading comprehension is an outcome of six interactive factors: (1) the historical/cultural context, (2) the social context, (3) the instructional context, (4) the task environment context, (5) the text context, and (6) the reader context (Pearson & Raphael, 1990). The student participants in this research were selected according to their reading achievement scores from whole class screening procedures using the Test of Reading Comprehension TORCH (Mossenson, Hill, & Masters, 1987). Additional information was collected on the students using the Neale Analysis of Reading (1988), the students' attitude to reading survey, the classroom teachers' survey, and students' level of book reading. The 72 participants (male 38 and female 34) were drawn from Years 5 to 7, from a large metropolitan independent coeducational primary school on the Gold Coast, Australia. The tutors were parents who volunteered their time and who were educated and mentored on the strategies and procedures outlined in the Comprehension of the Narrative tutoring program. The results demonstrated that students who participated in the tutoring intervention made significant gains in their reading and comprehension abilities as well as in their attitudes towards reading, compared to their peers in the control group who received no intervention by adult tutors. These intervention-based improvements were maintained over time. This original research documents the effectiveness of four strategic elements that collectively enhanced students' reading performance by utilizing: (1) visual and verbal comprehension strategies, (2) controlled levels of text and task difficulty, (3) systematic metacognitive focused instruction procedures, and (4) well trained and mentored tutors.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Education and Professional Studies
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Haenen, Jonathan William. "The interactions between decoding and comprehension in reading processes and the implications for reading comprehension disorders." Thesis, University of Reading, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.558732.
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Abstract Successful reading is frequently described as the result of two necessary but inde- pendent processes: text decodmg and ImgUIstlc comprehensIOn. SImIlarly, readmg comprehension disorders are defined across these two dimensions: those that relate to the failure to decode text adequately and those that relate to the failure to under- stand text adequately. The research presented in this thesis explores the possibility that decoding and comprehension abilities, though independent in isolated contexts, influence each other, when processed simultaneously, more than would otherwise be expected. There are two main aims in this thesis: to examine the plausibility of the idea of a coherent "specific comprehension deficit" and to assess the degree to which theories of reading hold up to empirical analysis. Studies of the cognitive components of reading were carried out with groups of typically developing children. Analysis of data collected in these studies is presen- ted and support this general hypothesis. Basic correlational analysis indicates that decoding and comprehension processes are more highly interrelated when measured simultaneously than when measured in isolation from the other. Two potential mech- anisms for this interaction are presented. First, it is shown that the ability to pay attention to two simultaneous tasks is an important predictor of reading compre- hension for children who struggle, relative to their peers, to decode text. Second, working memory is shown to be a shared resource between these two processes, based on data collected from young adults. Data collected from typically developing chil- dren suggests that an increase in effort in decoding text can lead to reduction in working memory, and that this can also result in a larger number of comprehension errors. Executive function is also examined, but data analyses do not indicate any special interaction between executive control required for decoding and comprehen- sion tasks. These results are discussed in relation to theoretical definitions of reading pro- cesses and practical classifications of reading disorders. We conclude that there is no single typical model of the reading process, concluding the first main aim of the thesis. Evidence of interactions between decoding and comprehension indicates the need for increased complexity and consideration when modelling reading processes. Additionally, with regards to the second aim, reading difficulties should be considered in relation to specific deficits in the numerous sub-components of the reading process, 7 I ~ •• ----------------------------------------- including their possible interaction, rather than across the two simplified dimensions. The results from the studies discussed in this thesis identify sub-group effects within "typical reading" profiles, provide evidence for a more complex interaction between decoding and comprehension processes, and are used to initiate a critique on the use of general terminology and oversimplified models in reading comprehension research.
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Hill, James Carroll. "Dialogic Pedagogy and Reading Comprehension: Examining the Effect of Dialogic Support on Reading Comprehension for Adolescents." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/97829.
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The reading comprehension scores of students in secondary education have been stagnant since the collection of national statistics on reading comprehension began (National Assessment on Educational Progress [NAEP], 2015, 2017, 2019). This study explored the effect of providing dialogic and thematic support on reading comprehension and intertextuality. The theories of dialogic pedagogy (Fecho, 2011; Stewart, 2019) and cognitive flexibility in reading (Spiro et al., 1987), along with the construction-integration model of reading comprehension (Kinstch, 2004) formed the foundation for this study. The study focused on the reading comprehension and ability to make connections across texts of 184 participants enrolled in 9th or 10th grade English classes in a high school in the Appalachian region of the southeastern United States. Methods included an experimental study which required participants to participate in two rounds of testing: the Nelson Denny Reading Test to provide reading levels and the Thematically Connected Dialogic Pedagogy (TCDP) testing which introduced dialogic and thematic support for reading comprehension and intertextuality. For the TCDP testing, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Thematically Connected Texts (TC), Thematically Connected Texts with Dialogic Support (TCDS), or a Control. Results from testing were analyzed to compare performance on outcome measures for reading comprehension and ability to make connections between texts. These comparisons suggest that the interventions do not affect either outcome measure significantly, though the data highlight the need for a nuanced approach to reading intervention and the development of adolescents' ability to use textual evidence. The findings drawn from the data point to implications for English educators, teacher educators, and administrators in the areas of assisting adolescents in making meaning from texts at a level that facilitates applying that knowledge in effective ways in order for them to fully participate in social, civic, and economic matters.Doctor of Philosophy
This quantitative study focused on the effect of reading support for adolescents centered on a dialogic pedagogy in an effort to improve reading comprehension outcomes and the ability of adolescents to make connections across texts. The study involved an experimental research design in which participants enrolled in 9th and 10th grade English classes in the southeastern United States were randomly assigned to one of three test conditions. Performance on outcome measures for reading comprehension and participant ability to make connections between texts were compared between conditions. These comparisons suggest the interventions do not affect either outcome measure significantly, though the data highlight the need for further support for adolescent readers with implications for English educators, teacher educators, and administrators in supporting adolescent reading comprehension and intertextuality to promote full social, civic, and economic participation for future generations.
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Schenker, Victoria Jewell. "Overlapping Genetic and Child-Specific Nonshared Environmental Influences on Listening Comprehension, Reading Motivation, and Reading Comprehension." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1447682484.
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Hilton, Courtney Bryce. "Syncopating comprehension: The Effect of Meter-Syntax Alignment on Sentence Comprehension, Sensorimotor Synchronisation, and Neural Entrainment." Thesis, University of Sydney, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/24230.
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Why rhythm in language? And why is linguistic rhythm grasped by means of meter (a temporal grid structure) in the human mind? And specifically, why does the human mind prefer to align meter to language in certain ways and not others? This thesis examines the alignment of meter to syntactic phrase structure and its effect on language comprehension. This is investigated empirically in four experiments, whose results are situated within the relevant linguistic, musicological, cognitive, and neuroscientific literatures. The first two experiments show that meter-syntax alignment indeed affects sentence comprehension, and the second also shows an effect on sensorimotor synchronisation. The third experiment behaviourally replicates the comprehension result while also recording electroencephalography (EEG). This neural measurement shows how delta oscillations track the perceived meter rather than syntactic phrase structure: contradicting some recent theories. The final experiment applies meter-syntax alignment to an algebraic grouping task. By using simpler (better controlled) non-linguistic stimuli, the results in this experiment better constrain the mechanistic interpretation of the results so far. Specifically, I suggest that the effect of meter (and its alignment to syntax) on comprehension is mediated by an effect on short-term/working memory. The broader theoretical and practical implications of these experiments is finally discussed, especially with regard to theories of language processing, music-language parallels, and education.
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Lau, Ellen Frances. "The predictive nature of language comprehension." College Park, Md.: University of Maryland, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/9599.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2009.Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Linguistics. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
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Chin, Ngai-man Wesley. "Comprehension of locatives in Cantonese children." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 1996. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36209247.
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Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1996."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, April 29, 1996." Also available in print.