| Traditionally, investigators of comprehension monitoring behavior have focused on the performance of skilled and unskilled readers; however, research suggests that individual differences other than reading ability may also be responsible for some comprehension monitoring variation. Evidence now indicates that cognitive style may be a contributing factor. The present study, therefore, was designed to obtain quantitative and qualitative evidence of the specific contribution of the field-dependent/field-independent construct in differentiating successful from unsuccessful comprehension monitors.; Each of 128 fifth graders--half (N = 64) were designated as field-independent, and half (N = 64) were designated as field-dependent--was randomly assigned to read a reader-based version (i.e., written so that the reader must resort to his/her prior knowledge on the subject) or a text-based verison (i.e., written so that the reader has all the information he/she needs on the printed page) of a passage on air pollution off a computer terminal under his/her control. Afterward, the subject was asked to recall what was read, to indicate if his/her respective passage had inconsistencies, to provide a verbal explanation stating why inconsistencies were illogical, and to explain how awareness of an inconsistency affected his/her subsequent reading.; Split-plot repeated measures analyses of variance and two-way analyses of variance provided support for a predicted significant style effect of exposure times, re-exposures, indication (detection) scores, verbalization (explanation) scores, and number of strategies used to resolve inconsistencies. Support was also found for a predicted significant interaction between style and inconsistency at the main idea level.; Field-independent subjects, in essence, are significantly more likely than field-dependent subjects to impose structure on disorganized textual information, to employ a hypothesis testing approach while reading, and to maximize the use of their prior knowledge through a scaffolding effect. Taken together, these findings suggest that cognitive style functions as an important source of individual differences in terms of how proficiently children monitor their comprehension as they read. |
