Low-skilled readers with strong background knowledge partially compensate for poor reading skill at the textbase level but not for inferencing¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 2 studies · 2 review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? High-knowledge low-skilled readers can compensate for poor reading skill in recall/summarization (textbase), reaching performance similar to high-knowledge skilled readers. → Reid Smith 2021 q2 i? The compensatory effect is less pronounced for inferencing; low-skill readers cannot fully compensate for below-average reading skill when making inferences. → Reid Smith 2021 (2)

Evidence¶

Reid Smith 2021¶

Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry & Lorraine Hammond (2021) The Role of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review, Reading Psychology, 42:3, 214-240, https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2021.1888348

q2 · i? · review · r2

Review reports the Recht and Leslie (1988) 'baseball study' finding at the textbase level, noting no statistically significant difference in recall between less-skilled and skilled high-knowledge children.

"Recht and Leslie ( 1988) focused on the textbase level and demonstrated that high-knowledge readers were able to compensate for poor reading skill to the extent that they were able to summarize and recall to a similar degree to high-knowledge, skilled readers."

Reid Smith 2021 (2)¶

Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry & Lorraine Hammond (2021) The Role of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review, Reading Psychology, 42:3, 214-240, https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2021.1888348

q2 · i? · review · r2

Review synthesis: compensatory effect of knowledge on inference generation is weaker; low-skill readers gain some benefit from increased knowledge but less than above-average readers (Adams et al., 1995).

"In contrast to the effects of knowledge on the textbase, low-skill readers were not able to fully compensate for below-average reading skill while inferencing (Adams et al., 1995). This was consistent with findings from a number of other studies (Holmes, 1983; Reutzel & Morgan, 1990; Stahl & Jacobson, 1986)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Inferencing — outcome: instruction changes it
• Prior Knowledge — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Higher background knowledge enables better reading comprehension for both skilled and low-skilled primary readers — a broader claim this one bears on
• When explicitly required by direct questions, less skilled comprehenders' inference performance improves greatly while skilled comprehenders perform at ceiling — related
• Less skilled comprehenders make fewer knowledge-based coherence and elaborative inferences than skilled comprehenders even when the relevant knowledge is equally available — related