The linguistic complexity of ballot measures impedes people's ability to participate fully in democratic processes by limiting voters' ability to understand and act on legislation that affects their everyday lives. We conducted an ecologically grounded experiment to examine the effects of three common types of text simplification (surface readability, Plain Language, and discourse-informed revisions) on voting behaviors. The results demonstrated that all three types of simplification increased participants' perceived understanding (i.e., metacomprehension) and decreased roll-off (i.e., skipping items). More specifically, ballot measures simplified with discourse theory-informed revisions were most effective in reducing roll-off. These results highlight opportunities for targeting multiple levels of linguistic complexity to reduce the cognitive barriers that often exclude voters from full civic participation. La complejidad ling & uuml;& iacute;stica de las medidas presentadas en las voletas electorales dificulta la capacidad de las personas para participar plenamente en los procesos democr & aacute;ticos, ya que limita la capacidad de los votantes para comprender y actuar sobre la legislaci & oacute;n que afecta a su vida cotidiana. Realizamos un experimento involucrando asuntos ecol & oacute;gicos para examinar los efectos de tres tipos comunes de simplificaci & oacute;n del texto (legibilidad superficial, lenguaje sencillo, revisiones basadas en el discurso) sobre el comportamiento electoral. Los resultados demostraron que los tres tipos de simplificaci & oacute;n aumentaron la comprensi & oacute;n percibida por los participantes (es decir, la metacomprensi & oacute;n) y disminuyeron el roll-off (es decir, el saltarse elementos y no contestarlos). M & aacute;s concretamente, las medidas electorales simplificadas con revisiones basadas en la teor & iacute;a del discurso fueron las m & aacute;s eficaces para reducir el roll-off. Estos resultados ponen de relieve las oportunidades de abordar m & uacute;ltiples niveles de complejidad ling & uuml;& iacute;stica para reducir las barreras cognitivas que a menudo excluyen a los votantes de la plena participaci & oacute;n c & iacute;vica.

Rendering understanding as a general causal account is problematic. This leads us toward accusations of partial understanding, or illusory understanding, characterized by understanding that lacks depth. The discourse comprehension literature offers an alternative: rendering understanding as the construction of a situation model, a model that integrates knowledge, purpose, and context. On this account, the question is never whether understanding is complete, but whether it is adequate for what it aims to achieve.

This study applies a learning-engineering process to refine and pilot an instructional framework designed to help high school science students read and write from multiple sources. Building on prior participatory design research with science teachers, the pilot examined how one biology teacher implemented a structured, five-lesson sequence and how her reflections and student work informed iterative improvement. Findings indicated that the lesson design was clear, manageable, and compatible with existing science routines, helping students build confidence before engaging with more rigorous texts. Paraphrasing provided an accessible entry point for writing, while students required additional modeling for source evaluation and elaboration. Teacher feedback led to targeted design refinements, including checklists and low-stakes grading to support accountability. The study illustrates how learning engineering can use classroom data to align instructional design with authentic teaching contexts, promoting feasible and scalable approaches to integrated literacy instruction in science.

The benefits of retrieval practice are highly dependent on the quality of the retrieval. This study examined how two explanatory activities (self-explanation; explanatory retrieval) might serve to improve retrieval quality in a science text comprehension task. In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (concurrent prompt: think-aloud control, self-explanation) x 2 (retrieval prompt: free recall retrieval, explanatory retrieval) between-subjects design. Experiment 1 demonstrated mixed effects of the prompts such that concurrent self-explanation marginally improved retrieval quality and significantly improved comprehension, but there were no benefits of explanatory retrieval prompts. Experiment 2, conducted to address potential ceiling effects in Experiment 1, revealed stronger evidence of the self-explanation effect, but again indicated no benefits of explanatory retrieval on retrieval quality or comprehension test performance. These results highlight the benefits of self-explanation during reading and indicate that the processes that occur during reading have downstream effects on future comprehension and learning opportunities.

The purpose of this study was to engage high school science teachers as co-design partners in refining and extending instructional frameworks to support multiple-document reading and writing in science classrooms. Using a participatory mixed-methods design, the project adapted the InSPECT framework for secondary science, developed professional development (PD) materials to introduce the framework, and explored the role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in lesson planning. Five virtual focus group sessions guided the co-design of PD activities, followed by a pilot implementation in one biology classroom. Data included focus group and interview transcripts, surveys, and student work artifacts. Analyses examined teachers’ perceptions of PD features, framework usability, and student engagement. Teachers valued PD that was practical, relevant, and feasible within classroom constraints and described the frameworks as clear, stepwise structures that supported lesson design and literacy integration. Student work showed that paraphrasing was an accessible entry point, while bridging, elaboration, and source evaluation required additional modeling. Teachers viewed generative AI as a promising planning aid but expressed concerns about accuracy and ethics. Findings informed revisions emphasizing discipline-specific exemplars, scaffolds for higher-order strategies, and AI-literacy modules, illustrating how participatory design can yield feasible, teacher-centered PD.

The use of active comprehension strategies that encourage students to explain what they have read can improve students' comprehension of complex scientific texts. Most research has focused on either strategies that are engaged during reading (online) or those used after reading (offline)-often ignoring potential interactions that might occur in authentic learning. This study used a 2 (online: think-aloud, self-explain) x 3 (offline: reread, free recall, explanatory retrieval) design with a 7-day delayed comprehension test to examine how explanatory prompts might affect comprehension. Analyses from this Stage 2 Registered Report revealed a main effect of online condition, but no main effect offline condition. This was qualified by an interaction such that retrieval of any kind supported the comprehension benefits of self-explanation. These findings highlight the importance of considering how comprehension strategies interact and the conditions under which they are most effective.

This study investigates how learners' constructed responses, specifically typed thoughts prompted during multiple-document reading, reveal cognitive strategies used to integrate and make sense of complex information. Undergraduate students (n = 73) read four texts on climate change and generated constructed responses to one of three types of prompts: self-explanation, source evaluation, and think-aloud. Readers' constructed responses were coded and analyzed for evidence of key comprehension strategies: paraphrasing, bridging, elaboration, source evaluation, and comprehension monitoring. Results revealed that self-explanation prompts promoted paraphrasing and bridging; source evaluation prompts encouraged bridging, elaboration, and sourcing; and think-aloud prompts supported comprehension monitoring. Although only comprehension monitoring predicted improved performance on multiple-document comprehension measures, the constructed responses nonetheless provided a window into students' strategic processes while reading. Insights gleaned from the constructed responses highlight their unique power to reveal the mental processes that underlie reading comprehension and to inform the design of more effective instructional scaffolds.

Although reading in the digital age looks different than in the past (e.g., on a screen, shorter texts spread across multiple sources), reading continues to be a central part of everyday life. Research in reading comprehension shows that this type of modern reading requires more complex knowledge building inference processes that are difficult for many adolescents and adults. Constructive and personalized learning activities can support readers’ knowledge building. Researchers have been using artificial intelligence (AI) to make these types of activities more effective and accessible. Emerging directions and considerations also result from the introduction of generative AI. Increased collaboration across researchers, developers, educators, and policymakers would afford empirically supported research, development, and implementation that can keep pace with the quickly evolving technological landscape.

Writing an integrated essay based on multiple-documents requires students to both comprehend the documents and integrate the documents into a coherent essay. In the current study, we examined the effects of summarization as a potential reading strategy to enhance participants' multiple-document comprehension and integrated essay writing. Participants (n = 295) were randomly assigned to either summarize or reread five texts on sun exposure and radiation. They produced an integrated essay based on the texts that they read, which were scored by expert raters. Finally, the participants completed three knowledge assessments (topic, domain, general). Readers who summarized texts had lower essay scores than readers who reread the texts. However, within the summary group, summary quality was positively correlated with essay score. These findings are discussed within the context of multiple-document comprehension and writing skill.

One barrier to participating in clinical research is that patients with low literacy skills (1 in 5 US adults) may struggle to understand the informed consent document (ICD). Writing consents using health literacy and plain language guidelines including simplified syntax and semantics can increase understandability and facilitate inclusivity of research populations with literacy challenges. Our study aim was to evaluate a simplified ICD for understandability while considering factors known to relate to comprehension (reading skills and working memory). We performed an on-line survey of 192 adults ages 18-77 in Georgia. Participants performed significantly better on the simplified ICD test. We built an additional model with all version x measure interactions (i.e., age, sex, race, urbanicity, GMVT, WM). This model did not significantly improve model fit, F < 1.00, suggesting that individual differences did not moderate the effect of simplification. Our findings suggest that using plain language and simplified syntax and semantics in ICD as a universal precaution may reduce cognitive reading burden for adults regardless of differences in reading skill or working memory. Increasing understandability in ICD may help improve targets for clinical trial enrollment.

The goal of the present study was to explore the impact of cinematic features on the comprehension of fiction film. Professional filmmakers filmed an event (a dance performance) to create three versions of a film (one objective long shot version, two versions edited to focus on one of the characters). Participants “thought aloud” as they watched one of the versions of the film. Think-aloud responses were coded on the cognitive framing (e.g., description, narrative) and the ways the characters were conveyed (e.g., internal states, actions). Analysis of the think-aloud responses revealed that cinematic features affected the cognitive framing of the film but had little effect on how the characters were conveyed.

Scene Perception and Event Comprehension Theory (SPECT) posits that understanding picture stories depends upon a coordination of two processes: (1) integrating new information into the current event model that is coherent with it (i.e., mapping) and (2) segmenting experiences into distinct event models (i.e., shifting). In two experiments, we investigated competing hypotheses regarding how viewers coordinate the mapping process of bridging inference generation and the shifting process of event segmentation by manipulating the presence/absence of Bridging Action pictures (i.e., creating coherence gaps) in wordless picture stories. The Computational Effort Hypothesis says that experiencing a coherence gap prompts event segmentation and the additional computational effort to generate bridging inferences. Thus, it predicted a positive relationship between event segmentation and explanations when Bridging Actions were absent. Alternatively, the Coherence Gap Resolution Hypothesis says that experiencing a coherence gap prompt generating a bridging inference to close the gap, which obviates segmentation. Thus, it predicted a negative relationship between event segmentation and the production of explanations. Replicating prior work, viewers were more likely to segment and generate explanations when Bridging Action pictures were absent than when they were present. Crucially, the relationship between explanations and segmentation was negative when Bridging Action pictures were absent, consistent with the Coherence Gap Resolution Hypothesis. Unexpectedly, the relationship was positive when Bridging Actions were present. The results are consistent with SPECT’s assumption that mapping and shifting processes are coordinated, but how they are coordinated depends upon the experience of a coherence gap.

Virtual experiments offer opportunities for students to engage in the scientific process and observe scientific phenomena. However, virtual experiments are not always effective for learning. The current study examined how two small manipulations might support better learning from virtual experiments and the extent to which this varied across learners. Undergraduates in an introductory biology class (n = 415) were randomly assigned to a 2(agency: active, passive) $ \times $x 2(strategy instruction: control condition, control of variables [CVS] strategy instruction) between-subjects design and completed two prior knowledge tests (topic, general science). Comprehension tests results indicated that the students had relatively good comprehension of the experiment content, but that performance was driven by prior knowledge. Although there were no significant effects of the agency or strategy instruction manipulations, exploratory interactions suggest a need to further investigate which types of virtual experiment supports might be most beneficial for different learners.

Abstract Visual media (pictures, photographs) are often used in adult literacy instruction, presumably because they are easy for adult literacy learners to process. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how adult literacy learners comprehend visual media, such as picture stories. Some have argued that picture stories could be used as a scaffold for training higher-level skills, such as inference strategies. Before such interventions can be developed, an understanding of how adult literacy learners process picture stories is warranted. The present study consisted of a contrastive case study in which adult literacy learners, less proficient college readers, and proficient college readers (three individuals per group) thought aloud while viewing picture stories. This comparison was chosen because less proficient and proficient college readers provide an aspirational comparison for many adult literacy learners who want to eventually pursue college. A qualitative analysis of participants’ think-aloud protocols demonstrated that there were strengths and challenges for the adult literacy learners, less proficient college readers, and proficient college readers in comprehending the picture stories. All three groups of participants demonstrated that they were able to establish explanatory coherence, which involves inferring the meaning of story events. However, there were differences in the extent to which efforts to achieve coherence were directed at the context of individual pictures, the local story context, or global story context. These differences will be discussed in terms of exploring the merits of using visual media in adult literacy instruction.

When students learn, they activate, use, revise, and acquire knowledge. As such, knowledge is a fundamental asset. We advocate for an asset-based approach which capitalizes on students' knowledge through prompts and activities that invite learners to leverage what they already know. Considering knowledge as an asset means that educators must consider multiple aspects of knowledge rather than just the amount of knowledge related to a target domain. This article explores how knowledge can be conceptualized across multiple types (e.g., explicit vs. implicit, declarative vs. procedural, metacognitive, epistemological, disciplinary, formal vs. informal) and dimensions (i.e., amount, accuracy, specificity, coherence) and how acknowledging and responding to the multi-faceted nature of knowledge supports learning. Effective learning comes from capitalizing on what a student already knows and engaging the student in active, knowledge building which results in more meaningful and long-term learning.

This study examined how different qualities of readers' prior knowledge influenced performance on a Scenario Based Assessment (SBA). High school students (n = 506) completed a SBA in either the domain of science (ecology) or the domain of history (women's suffrage). In addition to the SBA, participants completed a measure of foundational reading skills and three measures of prior knowledge (topical vocabulary, basic/factual, inte-grated/conceptual) for both domains. While all three knowledge measures predicted comprehension above and beyond reading skill, they differentially contributed to SBA performance. These findings highlight the need to not only evaluate how much a student knows prior to learning, but to understand the nature of that knowledge and how it will help or hinder comprehension.

Readers often struggle to identify the main ideas in expository texts. Existing research and instruction provide some guidance on how to encourage readers to identify main ideas. However, there is substantial variability in how main ideas are operationalized and how readers are prompted to identify main ideas. This variability hinders identification of best practices for instruction and intervention. The goal of the current series of experiments was to systematically examine the extent to which different tasks (e.g., selecting main ideas vs. deleting details) and different operationalizations of main ideas (e.g., “important ideas” vs. “main ideas”) influenced adult readers’ identification of sentences containing main ideas as they read 11 expository texts. Across experiments, the results showed that readers were generally unreliable in identifying main idea sentences; however, they were more reliable when they were instructed to select main idea sentences compared to when they were instructed to delete sentences comprised of details, and more skilled readers were more reliable than less skilled readers. The findings from the current experiments challenge existing instructional approaches and call for additional research to better understand readers’ main idea selection.