1994 — 1997 |
Meyer, Bonnie J F |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Minimizing Age Differences in Reading--How and Why @ Pennsylvania State University-Univ Park
The long term goals of the research are to identify 1) factors and conditions that produce optimal reading comprehension and retrieval for older learners, and 2) mechanisms responsible for age-related deficit in processing texts; specifically, can working memory deficits account for most of the accountable variance in the decline between reading performance and aging? The literature on discourse processing and aging show that age-related differences are minimized or eliminated when the text presentation pace is slowed, and the readers is given maximum support of signals (text structure) and strategy. Given these findings, two logical research questions follow. One, how do pace, signals, and strategies interact to minimize age difference? And, more importantly, why? The proposal research will combine the expertise from two laboratories. First, Meyer's laboratory will examine the necessary combination of conditions that will produce minimum and large age differences in text comprehension followed by experiments to understand interactions among age pace, signals, and strategies. This unique set of experiments is designed to extend our knowledge on the how question. At the same time, Poon's laboratory will examine the why questions by studying the predicative accuracy of individual differences in working memory capacitates and processing rates on text comprehension. Information gathered on measures of working memory from Poon's laboratory will be used in Meyer's laboratory to further examine patterns of relationships between aging and memory as stress on the processing of texts is varied. Finally, a four- month text comprehension training program will be conducted in both laboratories based on our understanding of individual differences. Through this systematic series of studies the proposed research will further extant understanding of an important specific cognitive function, reading comprehension. The proposed series of studies of studies examines how much of the accountable variance attributed to age in reading performance can be attributed to working memory deficits as stress on processing is systematically varied by manipulating important strategy, text, and tasks variables. These findings will add to a better understanding of age-associated changes of cognitive performance found in cross-sectional studies.
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0.936 |
2015 — 2018 |
Clariana, Roy (co-PI) [⬀] Li, Ping [⬀] Meyer, Bonnie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Ncs-Fo: Integrative Neural Approaches to Understanding Science Text Comprehension @ Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
The overall goal of this project from researchers at Pennsylvania State University is to understand the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying reading comprehension of expository scientific texts by school-aged children, adult first language readers, and adult second language readers. The proposed research integrates knowledge from several largely separate research traditions that are related to reading comprehension: (1) cognitive psychological and educational research in adult first language reading comprehension, (2) cognitive psychological and educational research in child first language reading comprehension, (3) neuroimaging research in text comprehension, and (4) graph-theoretical modeling of knowledge representation. Findings from this project will have significant implications for STEM education. It was funded by the Integrated Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems program, which included support from the EHR Core Research (ECR) program and the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences division of SBE. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.
The research team will study the behavioral and neural patterns during the reading of science text, in an attempt to unravel the brain's text reading network underlying first and second languages, and the neurocognitive differences between good versus poor readers. It combines methods from functional magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive study of learner abilities, and advanced data-analytic techniques in cognitive modeling and brain networks. The study of brain networks through the connectivity that exists in the functional and structural pathways of the learning brain holds the promise of providing new insights into the neural bases of individual differences, neuroplasticity, and language learning and representation. Data analytics will be applied to probe into the dynamic changes in connectivity patterns. This approach will allow the study not only of learning-induced or experience-dependent neural changes, but also what brain networks characterize individual differences in learning and representation (including intrinsic neural patterns captured by resting-state functional connectivity). Observed neural changes and patterns will allow the researchers to predict who might be more successful learners.
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0.915 |