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Effects of Key Words on Reading Comprehension

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

This experiment explored the process students go through when reading a new, unknown word. Additionally, this study assessed whether or not unknown words had an effect on students’ overall reading comprehension. In this experiment, 25 students from the University of Northern Iowa read two short stories while Tobii Studio software and the T60 eye tracking system recorded their eye movements. One passage contained a story with nonsense words and the other contained all familiar words. The eye tracking software recorded the amount of time participants spent reading the nonsense words initially and when the words were repeated throughout the reading passage. It also recorded the time it took participants to complete a post-reading quiz. The brief quiz was used to assess whether or not the presence of nonsense words affected the participants’ comprehension and recall of the stories they read. The data for this study is currently being analyzed, but it is hypothesized that students would spend more time reading the nonsense words than familiar words and would not be able to correctly recall all of the nonsense words. Results are expected to be completed by the time of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Student Research Conference.

Start Date

25-4-2015 8:30 AM

End Date

25-4-2015 9:45 AM

Faculty Advisor

Jack Yates

Comments

Location: Great Reading Room, Seerley Hall

File Format

application/pdf

Electronic copy is not available through UNI ScholarWorks.

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Apr 25th, 8:30 AM Apr 25th, 9:45 AM

Effects of Key Words on Reading Comprehension

This experiment explored the process students go through when reading a new, unknown word. Additionally, this study assessed whether or not unknown words had an effect on students’ overall reading comprehension. In this experiment, 25 students from the University of Northern Iowa read two short stories while Tobii Studio software and the T60 eye tracking system recorded their eye movements. One passage contained a story with nonsense words and the other contained all familiar words. The eye tracking software recorded the amount of time participants spent reading the nonsense words initially and when the words were repeated throughout the reading passage. It also recorded the time it took participants to complete a post-reading quiz. The brief quiz was used to assess whether or not the presence of nonsense words affected the participants’ comprehension and recall of the stories they read. The data for this study is currently being analyzed, but it is hypothesized that students would spend more time reading the nonsense words than familiar words and would not be able to correctly recall all of the nonsense words. Results are expected to be completed by the time of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Student Research Conference.