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Knowledge Accessibility and Availability in Forming Knowledge-to-Text Inferences Among Middle Grade Readers

NCT03782012 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 241

Last updated 2024-05-16

Study results available
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Summary

Recent adolescent-based research shows that inference making improves across grades 6-12, uniquely accounts for variance in sentence- and passage-level comprehension, and that individual differences in inference making relate in a principled way to variations in reading comprehension for readers of all abilities (Barth et al., 2015; Barnes et al., 2015). These findings suggest that comprehension requires inference making and that comprehension fails when readers do not possess relevant knowledge (i.e., availability) or slowly retrieve (i.e., accessibility) and integrate knowledge from text or semantic memory during reading (Kendeou, 2015). To date, only one study has examined the effects of knowledge availability and accessibility on inference making among adolescents. To extend this limited body of research, this project will conduct two experimental studies designed to examine (a) the extent to which knowledge-base availability and accessibility relates to the accuracy and rate of constructing inferences using that knowledge (Aim 1) and (b) the extent to which retrieval practice (i.e., spaced practice testing) increases knowledge availability and accessibility and improves the accuracy and rate of forming inferences using that knowledge-base among middle grade readers (Aim 2). In addition, this project will integrate investigative research into an undergraduate Honors Research Program by developing an investigative laboratory component that engages undergraduates in conducting applied research (Aim 3). The research design uses 558 students in grades 5-8. To address Aim 1, mixed effects explanatory item response models will fit to the trial-by-trial reading accuracy and speed data. Repeated measures analysis of variance models will address Aim 2 with analysis of variance models used for Aim 3. The expected outcomes of the proposed research include (a) understanding how knowledge availability and accessibility relate to inference making among adolescent readers; (b) understanding the sources of inference making difficulty; and (c) methods for improving knowledge availability and accessibility and inference making to broadly implement in secondary grade classrooms.

Conditions

  • Reading Problem

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Supported

Visual organization of knowledge base items plus discourse-based discussion supporting knowledge availability and accessibility

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Buena Vista University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • AMY E BARTH, PHD · Buena Vista University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
10 Years
Max Age
14 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-01-14
Primary Completion
2022-05-27
Completion
2022-08-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03782012 on ClinicalTrials.gov