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Aspects of pronominal resolution as markers of reading comprehension: The role of antecedent variability

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posted on 2023-06-09, 15:24 authored by Carsten Elbro, Jane OakhillJane Oakhill, Hakima Megherbi, Alix Seigneuric
This study explored pronominal resolution as a measure of reading comprehension beyond single sentences. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the ability to specify the referents of pronouns like this and these that have variable antecedents would be a good probe of the quality of the reader’s mental model. This idea was tested in a study of 123 French eight-year-olds. After controlling for word decoding, vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, various aspects of pronominal comprehension were found to contribute independent variance to reading comprehension: (1) pronominal knowledge as measured in a pronoun selection task, (2) referent specification of pronouns that refer to protagonists. In addition, (3) referent specification of pronouns (French y and en) with variable antecedents added further independent variance. The results support the idea that the ability to specify referents accounts for unique variance in reading comprehension and may tap the quality of the reader’s mental model of preceding text.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Reading and Writing

ISSN

0922-4777

Publisher

Springer Verlag

Issue

4

Volume

30

Page range

813-827

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-10-09

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-10-09

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-10-07

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