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Biomedical subjects

R F Lorch

Publications and source records attributed to R F Lorch.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The effects of readers' goals on inference generation and memory for texts.

We investigated the effects of readers' goals on inference generation and memory for expository text. College students (N = 82) read texts for the purpose of either study or entertainment. On-line inference generation was recorded via think-aloud procedures, and off-line memory was assessed via free recall. Reading goal strongly influenced inferential activity: Readers with a study goal produced more coherence-building (i.e., backward/explanatory and forward/predictive) inferences, whereas readers with an entertainment goal produced more associations and evaluations. These differences were associated with superior memory for the texts in the study condition. The results indicate that inference generation during reading is partly strategic and is influenced systematically by reading purpose. We propose that reading goals influence readers' standards of coherence, which in turn influence the types of inferences that they draw and the final memory representations that they construct.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Effects of headings and familiarity with a text on strategies for searching a text.

College students were videotaped while they searched chapter-length texts for answers to specific questions. The texts either did not contain headings or contained one of three types of headings that varied in the information that they provided about text organization and content. Familiarity with the text was varied by manipulating (1) the number of prior searches of the text and (2) whether or not the text was read before searching. Measures were taken of the time spent examining each page and of the sequence of examination of pages. Cluster analyses of the search measures revealed that familiarity with the text influenced a searcher's strategy for selecting which pages to examine. Once a page was selected for examination, both headings and familiarity influenced how the page was inspected.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

The relation of story structure properties to recall of television stories in young children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and nonreferred peers.

In this study, the authors examined memory for televised stories to gain insight into similarities and differences in story comprehension between young children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their typical peers. In particular, the authors investigated the extent to which 4- to 6-year-old children's free recall of story events is predicted by several structural properties of story events (number of causal connections, whether an event is on or off the story's causal chain, story-grammar category, and position in the story's hierarchical structure), whether differences exist between children with ADHD and nonreferred comparison children in their sensitivity to structural features of stories, and whether age differences in sensitivity to structural features are similar for both groups. For both groups, recall of story events was predicted by all four structural properties, but the effects of the two causal properties was stronger for comparison children than for children with ADHD. Further examination revealed that this difference was observed only when a competing activity was available during television viewing. These findings indicate that both groups of preschool children are able to benefit from causal structure when recalling television stories, but that children with ADHD lose this benefit when attention is divided. Consistent with previous findings for nonreferred children (P. W. van den Broek, E. P. Lorch, & R. Thurlow, 1996), in both diagnostic groups the effects of causal properties increased across age, and older children were more likely to include causally important protagonists' goals in their recalls than younger children.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed1990

Regression analyses of repeated measures data in cognitive research.

Repeated measures designs involving nonorthogonal variables are being used with increasing frequency in cognitive psychology. Researchers usually analyze the data from such designs inappropriately, probably because the designs are not discussed in standard textbooks on regression. Two commonly used approaches to analyzing repeated measures designs are considered in this article. It is argued that both approaches use inappropriate error terms for testing the effects of independent variables. A more appropriate analysis is presented, and two alternative computational procedures for the analysis are illustrated.

Cognition↗
PubMed1985

Distractibility and vocabulary deficits in children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

This experiment tested the hypothesis that children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (SBH) are more distractible than normal children, and that the distractibility partially accounts for the language deficits of these children. In Part 1, 15 of these children of primary-school age were compared with controls matched for mental age on a non-verbal task during which irrelevant stimuli were present or absent. Interference effects of the irrelevant stimuli were larger and more persistent for the SBH children. In Part 2, the children and their controls were tested for comprehension of relational words, with and without irrelevant information. The two groups performed similarly when there was no irrelevant information, but the SBH children exhibited vocabulary deficiencies when irrelevant items were present. These findings support the original hypothesis of a relationship between distractibility and language deficits.

Attention↗