Infants' Awareness of Number: Innate Ability or Perceptual Bias?
subject: Addition, subtraction, Number, Object Tracking, object files, Infant perception
description: In order to identify the origin of our understanding of numerosity and arithmetic abilities, it is essential that such abilities are measured in infants. In Wynn’s (1992) study, a case was made for an innate ability to perform arithmetic operation on small number sets as it was demonstrated that infants would look longer at displays that violated their expectations of number. However, research in the years following this seminal study cast doubt on this interpretation of infants’ behaviour. Other research has suggested that perceptual biases are at play, rather than infants possessing a symbolic understanding of number. To address the contrasting finding in this area of developmental research, this study set out to analyse preexisting data to investigate the factors that influence infants’ abilities to track objects over occlusion and to identify the most appropriate level of interpretation of this ability The present study recruited a sample of 32 infants across two experiments. Adapting the methodology from Wynn (1992), Experiment 1 measured looking time when an object was revealed to be missing from the display, violating infants’ expectation of presence. Experiment 2 measured looking time when an object was revealed to be in the incorrect position on the stage, violating infants’ expectation of position. It was found that infants violation trial had a significant effect on looking time and whether the object missing was the first or last to be placed had a significant effect on looking time in violation of presence conditions
creator: Jessica Sparks
source: Participants: In this study, participants were 32 infants aged 5- to 7-months, (M = 188.38 days, SD = 10.51, range = 175 – 218). Infants were 15 males and 17 females. 16 participants were used in each experiment. In Experiment 1, participants were 7 males and 9. In Experiment 2, participants were 8 males and 8 females. Participants in each experiment were matched based on age. Apparatus & Stimuli: The experiment took place in a dimly lit test room, with displays presented on a grey stage measuring 64cm wide by 40cm high and 31cm deep. An 8.5cm high black screen located 31.5cm behind the front of the stage was used to occlude the display by being rotated upwards. The display also consisted of a 30cm rotating platform that allowed different configurations of objects to be rotated rapidly. The objects used in this study were two 12.5cm high by 9.5cm wide toy hedgehogs that squeaked when squeezed. These toys were magnetic at the bottom. Procedure: Infants were sat in either a high seat or on a caregiver’s lap, 60cm from the front edge of the stage. In cases where infants were sat on a caregiver’s lap, the caregiver’s eyes were above the stage as to avoid them seeing the display and possibly influencing the infant’s behaviour. After gaze calibration to ensure the accuracy of eye-tracking measures, the procedure closely followed that of Wynn (1992) and Bremner et al (2017). Three pre-test (baseline) trials were presented initially. These resulted in the correct outcome of the operation as well as the two incorrect outcomes in counterbalanced order. The screen was lowered to reveal either one or two toys, depending on the trial, and the observer recorded where the infant looked on the stage. In terms of the location of the toys in trials, when one was presented, it was placed 7.5cm to the right of the stage’s centre. When two toys were presented, the second toy was placed 7.5cm to the left of the stage’s centre. Pre-test trials continued until the infant accumulated at lea…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 07.09.2021
contributor: Julonna Peterson and Rebecca Mitchell
rights: open
relation: Wynn's 1992 study
format: .csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: Developmental

The Impact of Sleep Patterns on Emotion Regulation in Taiwanese Adolescents
subject: sleep patterns, circadian types, morningness-eveningness, on/off-peak time, emotion regulation, cognitive control, adolescents
description: Emotion regulation has been shown in a number of studies to be related to sleep, which often suggested that good sleep quality leads to better emotion regulation. However, research which has empirically documented the link between individuals’ specific sleep patterns/circadian types and emotion regulation among adolescents is scant. Therefore, the aim of this study attempts to explore whether there is an interaction between circadian types and the corresponding peak time on emotion regulation. Participants were 204 boys and 148 girls, who were from 13 to 16 years of age. The present study involved three questionnaires and two modified emotional Stroop tasks, including Facial-Emotional Stroop task and Lexical-Emotional Stroop task, as the assessment of emotion regulation. The analysis of the questionnaires and experiments was conducted through a series of multivariate ANOVA analyses in order to indicate whether there is a main effect of two independent variables or interactions on two emotion regulation. The results showed three main findings. Firstly, ‘morning people’ committed more error on facial tasks than ‘evening people’. Secondly, participants who attended the tasks in the afternoon had faster reaction times on Lexical task than who were tested in the morning. Thirdly, the interaction between circadian types and the corresponding peak time only showed in the evening group. To sum up, this study might be of importance in explaining the relationship between sleep patterns and emotion regulation in adolescents. Nevertheless, further studies for adolescents in investigating circadian types in relation to emotion regulation are needed.
creator: Jhih-Ying, Chen
source: Materials Each participant was asked to complete three online questionnaires about sleep and mood as well as two experimental tasks about emotion regulation. Three questionnaires had been translated into a Chinese version and inspected by a native Chinese-speaking professor in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University. Sleep Measures. Circadian Types Questionnaire. Participants were given a Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) (Horne & Östberg, 1976) to assess when their biological clock can achieve peak alertness, which indicates the better timing for people to behave more efficiently in their work and cognitive, behavioural and emotional functioning (see Appendix A). Three groups were be categorized based on the MEQ score: score > 58 for the morning type, 42 < score < 58 for the Intermediate type and score < 42 for the evening type. Sleep Quality Questionnaire. To assess whether participants have sleep dysfunction, participants were also asked to fill out the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (Buysse, Reynolds, Monk, Berman & Kupfer, 1989), which elicited information concerning their sleep quality (see Appendix B). The higher score the participants gain, the poorer sleep quality they have. This score can be used to examine whether people's sleep quality can influence their emotion regulation ability. Mood Measurements. Emotional Problems Questionnaire. Participants needed to fill out the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) (Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns & Swinson, 1998), which is a self-reported measure to record their mood during over one recent week (see Appendix C). There were three dimensions of negative mood in this questionnaire, including depression, anxiety and stress. Each dimension had an independent score, with a higher score indicating more emotional problems. In this study, three sub-scores were added together to produce a composite measure of emotional difficulties. Emotion Regulation. In addition to the questionnaires, pa…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: None
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

The Impact of Spatial Locations Involving Schema Representations on False Memories
subject: Schema, false memory, source monitoring, distinctiveness heuristic, object-location binding.
description: While numerous studies have investigated the effects of schema on false memories, few have looked at how schematic framework involving spatial locations have influenced levels of true and false memories in different age groups. For this study, two separate analyses were conducted; both analyses required participants to study four environment scenes, which contained schema- consistent objects that were placed in either schema-expected or schema-unexpected locations and schema- irrelevant objects. After each scene, a distractor task was presented, followed by the test scene. In the first analysis, false memory rates were examined by adding objects, which were not present during study, into test scenes; in the second analysis, false memory rates were assessed by shifting schema-consistent objects from a schema-expected to a schema-unexpected location or vice versa between study and test scene. In both analyses, target objects that remained in the same location for both study and test scenes assessed for true memories. Three different age groups were studied; younger children aged seven and eight, older children aged nine and ten, and adults who were university students. Results revealed that overall, adults were more schema-bound, and had significantly higher levels of true memories as well as significantly lower levels of false memories compared to younger and older children. Furthermore, schema-inconsistent objects attracted lower levels of false memories across all age groups. However, objects that shifted from a schema-unexpected to a schema-expected location yielded high false memories for object-location pairing. This study is of particular significance to the field of forensic psychology.
creator: Ji Yun Gan
source: The experiment was programmed using a computer software called Psyscript and was run on a Mac laptop. Four different environments were used during the experiment, which were a kitchen, a living room, an office and a bathroom. For the practice run, a separate image, which was a seminar room, was used. All the photographs used were standardized across all four environments, with each photograph being 1300 x 864 pixels, to ensure that the quality and clarity of each photograph was the same. To every environment image, three different versions were prepared for the study scene, ensuring that all six of the schema-relevant target objects had the opportunity to appear in a schema-unexpected location, a schema-expected location, or not being present at all. Moreover, to every version, two test scenes were prepared, to create a variation between which of the target objects that were initially placed in schema-relevant or schema-irrelevant locations during study phase would be shifted during the test scene. Figure 1a is an example of a bathroom scene during study phase and Figure 1b is an example of the test scene for that version. The program had been set to ensure that the sequence of the four different environment images would be pseudo-randomized for counterbalancing purposes, in which all the scenes were presented once, whereas the versions and test scenes selected were randomized. Moreover, the target objects that were circled during the test scenes were also pseudo-randomized, in which each object would only be circled once. For the practice run, both the study scene and the test scene were presented in a hardcopy form, which was laminated. Two separate slips of paper were prepared, one being “Was this object anywhere in this picture before?” for the participants allocated to the Presence condition, and “Was this object in this place before?” for the participants allocated to the Location condition. The paper slips containing the questions were left on the table for p…
publisher: Lancaster University
contributor: Rachel Coyle
language: English
coverage: LA1 4YF

The validity of traditional readability tests on accurately predicting people’s comprehension of health information
subject: Vocabulary knowledge, health literacy, reading comprehension skill, reading strategy
description: Tons of evidence indicated that readers benefit from clear and understandable health information in various contexts. Authors have been looking forward to utilizing a wide range of readability formulas so that they can produce comprehensible texts for readers. Both traditional readability formulas and the new Coh-Metrix algorithms have been widely used for decades and the utilities for the new tool were more likely to be supported by theoretical evidence. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of empirical evidence supporting the utilities of the two kinds of readability formulas. In this paper, a secondary data analysis was utilized to give empirical evidence to whether the widely used readability tests can predict participants’ comprehension responses effectively. By using Bayesian generalized linear mixed-effects models, variation in both traditional readability formulas and two of the new Coh-Metrix algorithms were tested having little or no effect on variation in participants’ comprehension accuracy. In this case, it is suggested that researchers in the future should think twice before utilizing the readability tests to analyse text difficulty.
creator: Jiawen Liu
source: Participants Participants recruited in the original study were through the Prolific online platform. Participants recruited were all UK nationals who were aged eighteen or over and spoke English as their first language. Participants who completed the test battery were awarded £12.50 (equalling £6.25 per hour). All participants who volunteered were tested, with exclusion of participants whose reading times for the health-related information texts were recorded being below 30s. The reading time includes reading the text and answering the questions relating to that text, including the self-rated evaluation-of understanding probe. While participant recruitment was administered through the Prolific platform, response data collection was conducted through a Qualtrics survey for each study. Design Two studies were conducted in the original research. In Study One, participants were presented with a sample of written health information texts on a range of topics. The observation was replicated and extended in Study Two by presenting a sample of texts on a range of health topics, together with a sample of guidance texts on COVID-19. In both studies, participants were asked to complete four multiple-choice questions, each with three answer options, in response to each stimulus health text. After the comprehension test questions, participants were asked to rate how well they thought they understood the information in the guidance. The original dataset also included individual differences, including reading skill and knowledge, and collected information on text attributes. Responses by participants in terms of the comprehension of the four multiple-choice questions for each text and the individual differences, such as reading skills and knowledge, would be utilized in the current study analysis with more kinds of text attributes included. In sum, except the heath-text materials picked to test participants’ comprehension responses and participants chosen, all other variables and …
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Mistry, Daniel Lin, Pei-Ying
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/Excel.csv Data/R.r Data/DS_Store
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

How the correlation of Istagram tweets readability and brand hedoism affect audiecne engagment
subject: Readability, Brand hedonism, readbility formula, audience engagment
description: Social media marketing is increasing in importance and more and more brands are embracing social media to increase their brand reach and communicate with their audience. However, there is still little empirical research on how brand message features affect consumer engagement. This study focuses on the impact of readability as an influence on consumer engagement while also noting that the effect of hedonic value of a brand may potentially moderate the level of audience engagement. An experiment based on a sample of 20 of the 100 brands covered by Forbes Media was conducted for this study. In total, a sample of 400 Instagram tweets were collected and analysed for their text readability and audience engagement. Still, the results did not indicate a significant interaction between readability and engagement. A careful analysis of the difficulties and shortcomings encountered in this experiment provides some insights for any subsequent research on the readability of short-form communication by brands.
creator: Jiehong Wu
source: Research Question & Hypotheses The research question for this study is: can the readability of tweets influence the level of audience engagement? As readability increases the perception associated with processing fluency (Rennekamp, 2012), the ability to process information fluently makes the target message more appealing to the audience, and visual fluency in processing information can also increase people's perception of the processing target (Novemsky et al., 2007). Language that can be processed fluently also enhances consumer perceptions (Lee & Aaker, 2004; Lee & Labroo, 2004). Thus, for most brands with low levels of hedonism, higher tweet readability means higher processing fluency which can reduce audience metacognitive difficulties and thus increase tweet engagement levels. At the same time, for products with high hedonic demand, lower familiarity and uniqueness may provide consumers with greater signals of value, with metacognitive difficulties increasing the appeal of the product by making it appear unique or unusual. More easily processed messages reduce the appeal of the product, possibly because they appear too familiar and therefore less consistent with the perception of uniqueness (Pocheptsova, Labroo, 2004；Pocheptsova, Labroo, and Dhar 2010). It is therefore hypothesised that text features associated with greater readability will be positively associated with consumer engagement with the message. However, given the presence of brand hedonistic features, it can be argued that low readability of messages may increase consumer engagement in brand tweets with higher levels of hedonism instead. Data collection for the experiment From the above, whether the readability of the tweet text and the level of brand hedonism of the brand to which the tweet belongs combine to influence consumer engagement with the brand's social tweets must be determined. Instagram was chosen because it is one of the world's most popular social networks, with around one billion a…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: Sep 8th 2021
contributor: Chloe Keung, Elena Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/Excel.xlsx
language: English
type: Word
identifier: Wu 2021
coverage: LA1 4YZ

A secondary data analysis: How will the effects on accuracy differ when measuring individual differences in word reading skill in Spanish?
subject: Individual differences, Dyslexia, Word property effects, Language orthographies, Reading accuracy
description: A deficit in accuracy has been found to correlate to reading difficulties (Davies et al., 2007). Effects of psycholinguistic factors and differences in language orthographies contribute to reading skills, predominantly in children with reading impairments such as dyslexia. The present study is a secondary data analysis of the original research conducted by Davies et al. (2007). The effects on accuracy of individual differences demonstrated by nonword reading skill and word property measures were examined in Spanish children. Participants were 110 students differing in reading ability from schools located in A Coruńa, Lugo, Orense and Pontevendra in northern Spain. The subjects were required to take standardized and experimental reading ability and intelligence tests. Eight lists consisting of 15 words each were created. The words were presented in five rows of three columns. Participants were asked to read the words as quickly and accurately as they could. Words which were incorrectly pronounced were identified as errors. Word property measures suggested to affect reading ability were selected and updated from an online database of Spanish words ‘EsPal’. Variables of frequency, length of words, neighbourhood size (Levenshtein distance), RAN, PROLEC-R nonword reading were investigated in the present analysis. Accuracy of reading scores was found to be significantly high for the sample. Effects of individual differences on accuracy were noted. Word property measures of frequency and neighborhood size were found to significantly affect reading accuracy. Effects of fluency (RAN) and nonword reading (PROLEC-R) were also observed. The analysis provides insight into plausible factors which contribute to reading impairments in a rule governed orthography such as Spanish. Results suggest that perhaps nonword reading skill could serve as an marker for reading difficulties.
creator: Julianna Krol
source: Participants In the original study (Davies et al.,2007) researchers selected and identified three groups of children from an initial sample of 110. Children who indicated clear reading disabilities (DYS/ dyslexia), a control group consisting of children matched by reading ability level (RA matched group) to the DYS group and a chronological age control group (CA matched group). The present analysis investigated the whole sample of 110 participants and no group selection was conducted. Participants were students from schools located in A Coruńa, Lugo, Orense and Pontevendra in northern Spain. 110 children differing in reading ability and age were selected. These children did not obtain any prior diagnoses of impaired neurological or sensory-motor functioning. The sample of 110 children was required to take standardized and experimental reading ability and intelligence tests on different school days during a 3-month time. Experimental data was gathered in a single session focusing primarily on the experimental test, whereas the standardized reading test was given in a separate session. Measures Reading performance was measured across a series of ability tests (PROLEC-R, RAN). PROLEC-R Battery Tests of Literacy Skills Evaluation of reading processes for children is assessed through the use of the PROLEC-R battery constructed by Cuetos, Rodriguez, Ruano & Arribas (1996). The battery consists of Spanish tests analyzing reading processes such as lexical, semantic etc. Subjects were required to read from a list of 40 words as quickly and accurately as possible. Words differed on properties such as frequency and length. The scores obtained consist of a score relating to accuracy and reading speed when assessing words and nonwords. It has been suggested that the results of the test provide significantly more information when combining the PROLEC-R scores of accuracy and PROLEC-R reading times. This is why PROLEC-R nonword reading was computed into a combined measure. This wa…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2021
contributor: Florine Causer, Siri Sudhakar
rights: Data set belongs to Robert Davies who is the author of the original published study (Davies et al.,2007, “Reading development and dyslexia in a transparent orthography: a survey of Spanish children”.)
relation: The present work is a secondary data analysis of the original research conducted by Davies et al. (2007), “Reading development and dyslexia in a transparent orthography: a survey of Spanish children”.
format: Data/Excel. csv
language: English and Spanish (Spanish participants, words, database)
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Carer adaptation to childhood epilepsy: The role of the Epilepsy Specialist Nurse.
description: Positive carer adaptation to childhood epilepsy is essential as poor adaptation can be detrimental to child behaviour outcomes. Fulfilment of carer psycho social and informational need is important to facilitate successful adaptation to childhood epilepsy. The role of the Epilepsy Nurse Specialists (ESN) is well suited to meet psychosocial need and so ESNs are hypothesised to improve carer adaptation and in turn child behaviour. This study investigated carer adaptation in geographical areas in the north of England with and without ESN provision using telephone interviews with carers of children with epilepsy. It was found that ESN provision had no significant effect on carer adaptation, psycho social needs of the carer, or child behaviour. Reasons for why no effect was found is attributed to the significant difference in condition severity and comorbidity between the groups that require more complex care needs. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.
creator: Kate Greene
source: 1. Parent Response to Child Illness (PRCI). Participants were assessed in three outcome measures. 2. Parent Report of Psychosocial Care Scale (PRPCS). The second area of assessment was carers' perceived need for information and support. 3. Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). The third measure is a measure of child behaviour using the CBCL (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). 4. Hague Seizure Severity Scale (HASS). Participants were also asked to provide information relating to their child's seizure severity, their mental health and demographic information so intergroup comparisons could be made. 5. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Mental health of the carer was assessed using the short form of the GHQ (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). 6. Demographic Information. Additionally participants were asked to complete a questionnaire containing demographic information, and also information relating to age of seizure onset, time of last seizure, seizure frequency, anti-epileptic drug (AED)therapy and adherence to this medication.
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2013
contributor: Chen, Jhih-Ying
rights: Open
format: data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Do inward and outward consonants and vowels have different effects on customer’s liking rates towards the brand names?
subject: Consonants, vowels, MacNeilage syllables, brand names, liking rates
description: The origin of speech development starts with the way that infants or children produce their first words. In the early stage of speech acquisition, children tend to produce particular syllables that are low in energy to produce, such as intrasyllabic and intersyllabic consonant-vowel co-occurrence patterns (MacNeilage et al., 2000). Such patterns may have an effect on individual’s preference for words later in life, such as for brand names. More pointedly, according to Topolinski et al. (2014), there is an in-out effect which significantly affect individual’s liking rates towards the brand names that contain inward and outward consonants. However, previous findings have only focused on such effects on consonants, whereas there is insufficient research on the combination effects of consonants and vowels on brand names. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate whether such in-out effects of both consonants and vowels of English brand names have association with customer’s emotional response to the words, as well as whether the involvement of MacNeilage syllables in the brand names are associated with customer’s liking rate. The whole experiment was conducted through an online questionnaire consisting of 360 sound stimuli to test on participant’s liking rate towards the brand names which are non-words with the combination of inward and outward consonants and vowels, and Macneilage syllables. Results of the study showed that liking rates towards the brand names are significantly increased for the ones that include inward consonants and vowels, while lower liking rates were associated with outward consonants and vowels. Not to mention, no significant relationship was found between the number of MacNeilage syllables and one’s preference towards the brand names, yet individuals had higher preference for brand names that contained MacNeilage syllables as the first syllable of the word.
creator: Keung Wang Shan
source: Participants A total of 51 participants who spoke different first languages were recruited through researcher’s family and friends as well as invited via SONA. They were all healthy individuals with normal vision and hearing, all aged 18 or above with no health conditions. The participants included 23 males and 28 females, with the age range from 22 to 28 and a mean age of 23.33, SD=. Materials The study was carried out as an online questionnaire which consisted of four open ended questions at the beginning and 360 questions with a 10-point Likert scale to display the answers. The whole questionnaire was based on the liking rate of the brand names that were presented as sound stimuli displayed in the questionnaire. The first four open ended questions were designed to ask participants’ age, gender, first language and whether they speak other languages (see Appendix D). Next, 360 questions each containing an audio of a sound stimulus that was between one to three seconds were presented in the questionnaire (see Appendix D). All sound stimuli were recorded by the researcher’s supervisor who was a native English speaker with a Northern English accent with training in phonology beforehand, which were also produced in a monotone. Within the 360 sound stimuli, they were divided into six different sets which included six combinations of inward and outward consonants and vowels. The total six sets of stimuli included nonwords that contained consonants that required the articulation from front to the middle to back of the mouth (inward) (FMB), from front to back to middle (FBM), from middle to front to back (MFB), from middle to back to front (MBF), from back to middle to front (outward) (BMF) and from back to front to middle (BFM). There was a total of 60 stimuli with the same articulation of consonants and different articulation of vowels in each set, and 10 stimuli with the same articulation of both consonants and vowels in each set. Within each set of the same articulatio…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 5/9/2022
contributor: Keung Wang Shan
rights: open
relation: none
format: Data/Excel.csv Data/R.r
language: english
type: data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Assessing comprehension of health-related texts in non-native and native English speakers
subject: reading comprehension, health literacy, individual differences, language groups.
description: Background — Health written materials are more often complex to comprehend if they mismatch the reading ability of people in the target audience. We need to consider how to make text accessible, by considering individual differences that affect comprehension of written health materials. Surprisingly, there are very few studies that indicate how non-native English speakers and native English speakers differ in comprehension of written health texts. Methods — A total of 557 participants were studied in the present study. In the study, participants were asked to respond to multiple-choice questions that were designed to examine understanding of 25 health texts with different text properties. Each participant responded to tests measuring individual differences in demographics, reading strategy, vocabulary, and health literacy. Findings — Using mixed effects logistic regression analysis, we found that non-native English speakers and native English speakers have different accuracy of responses for written health texts. Effects of vocabulary skills and text readability were significant. These effects were different for different language groups. Native speakers of English with higher scores on vocabulary were more likely to make correct responses to written health texts. Native speakers of English were more likely to make correct responses to written health texts as text readability increased. Conclusion — In future, experimental studies should look at the effects of training to improve vocabulary on reading comprehension for different language groups. Alongside consider sources of variances due to individual differences and text properties for different language groups.
creator: Khushboo Anup Agarwal
source: Design We conducted experimental research on factors that influence the response to written health information, aiming to answer the research question: RQ.1 How does the reader’s attributes such as age, vocabulary skills, health literacy, reading strategy skills, along with text features, interact to predict the comprehension of health information in written texts for native language English speaker and non-native English speaker? We conducted the study to test the hypotheses: 1. Comprehension will be better for people with higher scores on reading skill, vocabulary and health literacy. Comprehension will be lower as age increases. 2. Comprehension will be better for responses to texts which are higher on measures of readability, cohesion, word frequency, referential cohesion, and passive sentences. 3. There will be differences between native and non-native speakers. Comprehension will be better for native speakers. The effect of age, reading strategy, vocabulary skills, and health literacy will be different for different language groups. The effect of cohesion, readability, word frequency, referential cohesion, and passive sentences will be different for different language groups. Ethical approval. The data collection plan and study design were reviewed and approved by a member of the Psychology Department Research Ethics Committee. Pre-registration. The study has not been pre-registered. Participants Participants were recruited using primarily opportunity and snowball sampling. Participants were invited using social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. We aimed at recruiting Bilingual/Multilingual Indian Residents (18+) who have access to the internet. We collected 201 responses, but only 112 participants were included in our analysis due to incomplete forms by other respondents. Our criterion for including participant data in analyses was that they had to complete 80 percent or more of the survey. We had 112 responses, but we did not test any of the r…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 13/09/2022
contributor: Huzaifah Adam, Coco, Alex Myroshnychenko
rights: Open
relation: This work is based on Kintsch, W. (1994). Text Comprehension, Memory, and Learning. American Psychologist, 10. White, S., Happé, F.M., Hill, E., & Frith, U. (2009). Revisiting the Strange Stories: Revealing McNamara, D., & Magliano, J. (2009). Chapter 9 Toward a Comprehensive Model of Comprehension. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 51, 297–384. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(09)51009-2 O’reilly, T., & Mcnamara, D. S. (2007). Reversing the Reverse Cohesion Effect: Good Texts Can Be Better for Strategic, High-Knowledge Readers. Discourse Processes, 43(2), 121–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/01638530709336895
format: Excel spreadsheets - .csv R Script - .r
language: English
type: Data
coverage: Developmental, Other

Assessing comprehension of health-related texts in non-native and native English speakers
subject: reading comprehension, health literacy, individual differences, language groups
description: Background — Health written materials are more often complex to comprehend if they mismatch the reading ability of people in the target audience. We need to consider how to make text accessible, by considering individual differences that affect comprehension of written health materials. Surprisingly, there are very few studies that indicate how non-native English speakers and native English speakers differ in comprehension of written health texts. Methods — A total of 557 participants were studied in the present study. In the study, participants were asked to respond to multiple-choice questions that were designed to examine understanding of 25 health texts with different text properties. Each participant responded to tests measuring individual differences in demographics, reading strategy, vocabulary, and health literacy. Findings — Using mixed effects logistic regression analysis, we found that non-native English speakers and native English speakers have different accuracy of responses for written health texts. Effects of vocabulary skills and text readability were significant. These effects were different for different language groups. Native speakers of English with higher scores on vocabulary were more likely to make correct responses to written health texts. Native speakers of English were more likely to make correct responses to written health texts as text readability increased. Conclusion — In future, experimental studies should look at the effects of training to improve vocabulary on reading comprehension for different language groups. Alongside consider sources of variances due to individual differences and text properties for different language groups.
creator: Khushboo Anup Agarwal
source: Design We conducted experimental research on factors that influence the response to written health information, aiming to answer the research question: RQ.1 How does the reader’s attributes such as age, vocabulary skills, health literacy, reading strategy skills, along with text features, interact to predict the comprehension of health information in written texts for native language English speaker and non-native English speaker? We conducted the study to test the hypotheses: 1. Comprehension will be better for people with higher scores on reading skill, vocabulary and health literacy. Comprehension will be lower as age increases. 2. Comprehension will be better for responses to texts which are higher on measures of readability, cohesion, word frequency, referential cohesion, and passive sentences. 3. There will be differences between native and non-native speakers. Comprehension will be better for native speakers. The effect of age, reading strategy, vocabulary skills, and health literacy will be different for different language groups. The effect of cohesion, readability, word frequency, referential cohesion, and passive sentences will be different for different language groups. Ethical approval. The data collection plan and study design were reviewed and approved by a member of the Psychology Department Research Ethics Committee. Pre-registration. The study has not been pre-registered. Participants Participants were recruited using primarily opportunity and snowball sampling. Participants were invited using social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. We aimed at recruiting Bilingual/Multilingual Indian Residents (18+) who have access to the internet. We collected 201 responses, but only 112 participants were included in our analysis due to incomplete forms by other respondents. Our criterion for including participant data in analyses was that they had to complete 80 percent or more of the survey. We had 112 responses, but we did not test any of the r…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2022
contributor: Ashlynn Mayo
rights: Open
relation: This work is based on Kintsch, W. (1994). Text Comprehension, Memory, and Learning. American Psychologist, 10. White, S., Happé, F.M., Hill, E., & Frith, U. (2009). Revisiting the Strange Stories: Revealing McNamara, D., & Magliano, J. (2009). Chapter 9 Toward a Comprehensive Model of Comprehension. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 51, 297–384. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(09)51009-2 O’reilly, T., & Mcnamara, D. S. (2007). Reversing the Reverse Cohesion Effect: Good Texts Can Be Better for Strategic, High-Knowledge Readers. Discourse Processes, 43(2), 121–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/01638530709336895
format: Excel spreadsheets - .csv R Script - .r
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YT