Researches On The Inferences In Reading Of High School Students With Different Reading Ability

Inference is very important in reping, because it decides whether a reader can build a coherent and integrated mental model. Recently, the individual differences of inferences in reading have catched the researchers' attention. Most researches analyzed reader's inferences using comprehensive questions, but that method could not gain online information of inference in reading. Based on the theories of discourse comprehension and inference processes, useing RT method, this study explored the characteristics of inference of high school students with different reading ability.In order to find the influential factors, the working memory capacity and inhibition of unrelated information were also studied.In chapter 1,through reviewing the theories and researches of reading processing, the structure and developmental characteristics of reading ability, it was found that inference was one of the most central factors guaranteeing discourse comprehension and there were many kinds of inferences during reading. The effect of reading,the quality of mental model was related largely with inference in reading. The focus of this doctoral dissertation was put based on the theories above. In chapter 2, three experiments were designed to study the bridging inference, thematic inference and reading focus changing, using self-paced moving window techniques. In each experiment, the subjects were junior high school grade 2 and senior high school grade 1 students who were skilled and less skilled comprehenders and were matched the lexical decoding ability. The results showed that there were significant differences between skilled and less skilled comprehenders in bridging inference, thematic inference and reading focus changing, and less skilled comprehenders did less well than skilled comprehenders in the three inferences. However, although less skilled comprehenders can not fulfill inference tasks effectively during reading, they reached the same level as skilled comprehenders in memory of literal information, thematic evaluation without time limitation.Because this research controlled subjects' lexical decoding ability, it would be assumed that the differences in inference be due to the limitation on general cognitive processes. Chapter 3 investigated the capacity of working memory and the inhibition of unrelated information. The results showed that the working memory capacity of skilled comprehenders was better than less skilled ones in three levelsof processing difficulty. With increase in processing difficulty,the difference between skilled and less skilled comprehenders became more and more evident. Working memory capacity in highest level of difficulty was most closely related to inference. Less skilled readers were more difficult to resist the interference of unrelated information when unrelated information had entered the working memory,so their processing time was longer and reaction correctness was lower than that of skilled comprehension in the experiment of inhibition.it is obvious that the working memory capacity limitation and less effective suppression of unrelated information made less skilled comprehenders not fulfill the inference processing in reading well. In turn,it influenced the building of discourse representation,and then destroy the comprehension and memory of discourse.Finally,the relation between inference processing and general cognitive ability of high school students with different reading ability was analyzed synthetically on the basis of these research findings.