| Successful students need to comprehend expository text. This study assesses the interplay of cognition and motivation in reading comprehension among multi-ethnic middle schoolers. It compares individual and joint contributions of motivational factors (topic interestingness or character identification) and cognitive strategies (organization or elaboration) in comprehending biographical passages.;To invoke motivation and cognition, I varied the topic and the characters' ethnicity for motivation and inserted questions and visual structures for cognition. To assess interaction, I combined factors in the experimental texts, leading to eight experimental conditions.;Participants read two sequential and two comparison-contrast passages about African American pioneers---Matthew Henson, explorer, Mary Ellen Pleasant, abolitionist and entrepreneur, Lloyd Hall, chemist; Frederick Jones, engineer; Sarah Walker, banker; and Madam C. J. Walker, manufacturer. Participants displayed their comprehension, cognitive strategies, and motivation on written instruments.;I predicted that both motivation and cognition are necessary for high comprehension levels. If motivation and cognitive effects are additive, then comprehension scores would increase incrementally with text manipulations. If the effects are interactive, then scores would increase disproportionately when both factors are present or decline if either factor is absent.;The results indicate that motivation and cognition can be assessed individually and in combination. They further reveal that providing cultural detail, identifying characters' ethnicity, and matching readers' and characters' gender increases interest and desire to read among African and non-African Americans. Girls responded to gender more than did boys. African American readers expressed more confidence to perform feats than did non-African Americans. Visual structures helped readers organize their ideas, as I predicted, and to elaborate, which I did not predict. Both high and low skilled readers showed evidence of combining motivation and cognition in free-style letters to friends. These letters provide an alternative means of assessing comprehension.;This study reveals a psychological link between cognitive skill and motivational will. It further helps educators and researchers understand ways to assess and improve reading comprehension. Moreover, it suggests factors for designing textbooks that prompt motivation and cognitive strategies. Finally, it contributes empirical evidence that informs the debate on ethnic diversity in school texts. |
