Reading comprehension mechanisms and current models of reading

阅读是一项复杂的技能。由于阅读在我们的社会中是必不可少的，所以阅读的机制是认知心理学中最关键的问题之一。研究揭示了阅读的重要方面。例如，已经对阅读过程中我们的眼睛移动的方式进行了广泛的研究，或者哪些策略对于识别单个单词是重要的。然而，令人惊讶的是，关于阅读的主要目标：理解，仍有许多未知之处。目前的研究计划将探索阅读理解的机制，以及理解在阅读领域中被忽视的作用。更准确地说，目前的研究项目专门考察了句法在阅读理解中的作用。句法在表达句子意义方面起着至关重要的作用，这一点是毋庸置疑的。例如，“人杀了狗”这句话和“狗杀了人”这句话的意思是完全不同的，即使这两句话是由相同的词组成的。然而，虽然大多数理论模型认为句法很重要，但它们对句法处理的相对重要性各不相同。根据一类模型，句法处理必须总是在完成对句子意义提取至关重要的其他处理之前完全完成。然而，其他模型假设意义提取不需要详细的句法处理。换句话说，在这些模型中，可以绕过语法处理。我和我的学生将利用各种方法和策略来帮助理解句法在阅读理解中的作用。由于不是所有的人都以相同的速度阅读或从他们的阅读中提取相同的信息量，我们将利用阅读技能的个体差异来帮助澄清辩论。此外，我们还将考察文本难度在阅读过程中提取的信息中的作用。该项目的主要目标是，第一，阐明句法在阅读理解中的作用；第二，帮助理解阅读理解的机制，从而对理论模型进行相应的修正。

Reading is a complex skill. As it is essential in our society, the mechanisms underpinning reading are among the most crucial problems in cognitive psychology. Research has revealed important aspects of reading. For example, extensive research has been conducted on the way our eyes move during reading or what strategies are important to recognize individual words. However, what is surprising is that much remains unknown regarding the main goal of reading: comprehension. The current research program will explore reading comprehension mechanisms as well as the role of comprehension in areas of reading where it has been neglected. More precisely, the current research program specifically examines the role of syntax in reading comprehension. It is beyond dispute that syntax plays a critical role in conveying the meaning of a sentence. For instance, the sentence "the man killed the dog" has a very different meaning than the sentence "the dog killed the man", even if both sentences are made of the same words. However, while most theoretical models suggest that syntax is important, they vary on the relative importance that they give to syntactic processing. According to one class of models, syntactic processing must always be fully completed before other processing, important for extraction of the sentence meaning, are completed. Other models, however, assumed that a detailed syntactic processing is not required for meaning extraction. In other words, within these models, syntactic processing can be bypassed. My students and I will make use of a variety of methodologies and strategies to help understand the role of syntax in reading comprehension. Since all individuals do not read at the same pace or extract the same amount of information from their readings, we will make use of individual differences in reading skills to help clarify the debate. Furthermore, we will also examine the role of the difficulty of the text in the information that is extracted during reading. The main goal of this program is, first, to clarify the role of syntax in reading comprehension and second, to help understand the mechanisms of reading comprehension to modify theoretical models accordingly.