Incremental Comprehension during First and Second Language Reading of Authentic Texts Assessed through Statistical Models, ERPs, and Behavioral Measures

许多儿童和成人很难理解他们所阅读的内容，这会影响学业成功，专业发展和社会参与。本项目旨在了解成人学习者在英语不是母语时所面临的具体阅读理解挑战。研究策略是确定影响渐进式阅读理解的因素--随着单词被识别、理解并与已经阅读的内容联系起来，理解能力逐渐增强。该项目评估了基于单词的因素在阅读理解中的相对贡献（如它们的熟悉程度和它们的含义），基于单词的因素（如它们的结构和语法形式）和因素的相互作用（例如，该词在特定句子上下文中的可预测性如何）。成人学习者阅读真实的文本，统计语言模型已经评估了语法，词汇和预测属性。研究人员收集行为测量（例如，阅读每个单词所花费的时间）和电生理测量（事件相关电位）来确定1）英语句子结构是否对学习英语阅读的非本族语者的阅读理解的贡献大于英语本族语者的理解，以及2）句子结构在非本族语学习者的阅读理解中的作用是否部分取决于，母语和非母语语法的相似性。 这项工作有可能阐明阅读中对教育有重大影响的关键问题，特别是对有阅读障碍和其他学习障碍的儿童。和认知计划，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估而被认为值得支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Many children and adults struggle to comprehend what they read, which interferes with academic success, professional development, and engagement with society. This project seeks to understand the specific reading comprehension challenges faced by adult learners when English is not their native language. The research strategy is to identify the factors that affect incremental reading comprehension – comprehension that builds as words are recognized, understood, and connected to what has already been read. The project assesses the relative contributions of word-based factors in reading comprehension (such as their familiarity and their meaning), sentence-based factors (such as their structure and grammatical form) and the interaction of factors (e.g., how predictable the word is in particular sentence contexts). Adult learners read authentic texts for which statistical language models have assessed the grammatical, lexical, and predictive properties. The investigators collect behavioral measures (e.g., the time taken to read each word) and electrophysiological measures (event-related potentials) to determine 1) whether English sentence structure contributes more to reading comprehension of non-native speakers learning to read English than to native English speakers' comprehension and 2) whether the role of sentence structure in reading comprehension of non-native learners depends, in part, on the similarity between the native and non-native grammars. The work has the potential to elucidate critical issues in reading that have major implications for education, and in particular for children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.This project is funded by the Perception, Action, and Cognition Program with co-funding from the EHR Core Research Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.