Multiple studies have demonstrated a positive effect of having students read books or passages that represent an instructional level of 93%-97% known words, but little is known about the potential theoretical underpinnings of those findings. The current study examined the relationship between instructional level and Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory,…

Despite the recognized link between scientific reasoning, mental sets, and conceptual change, the cognitive mechanisms underlying successful conceptual change remain unclear. To explore this, we developed computer-based reasoning programs with and without mental set support to examine their effects on conceptual change in tasks of varying…

Audio-assisted reading (reading-while-listening) was commonly used as a pedagogical method in English (L2) learning. Numerous studies had reported its efficacy in English (L2) reading. Its efficacy in reading comprehension has been inconclusive due to the lack of studies on the relationship among attention, cognitive load and L2 reading…

Previous research has demonstrated that negated text (i.e., text that contains words such as "no," "not," or "never") presents considerable challenges to accurate reading comprehension. Furthermore, while metacomprehension judgements have indicated an awareness of this challenge on the readers' part, this insight has…

Two studies sought to replicate and extend the seductive effect of decorative pictures in expository text comprehension to an e-learning environment. In the first study, undergraduate students read and answered questions about two texts, with and without decorative, irrelevant images, in an e-learning course. The presence of decorative images had…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to examine whether attention cueing benefits learners of ancient Egyptian culture using mobile-assisted instrumentation. A self-regulatory, mobile phone based set of visualizations depicting ancient Egyptian culture served as the primary instrument. A total of 50 learners of English as a foreign…

Some music has been proved effectively to mitigate anxiety, beneficial to reading. However, little was known on its influence of reading behaviors and outcomes. Thanks to the advance of e-book technology, it becomes possible to track reading rate and outcomes in a real-time manner by the underlying mobile devices. This study intends to examine the…

Graphic novels in the K-12 classroom are most often used to motivate marginalized readers because of the lower text load and assumption of easy reading. This assumption has thus far been unexplored by reading research. This qualitative multiple-case study utilized think-aloud protocols in a new attention-mapping activity to better understand how…

In recent years, gloss presentation format or the location where a gloss appears with respect to its related target word has received renewed attention. Research suggested that different gloss presentation formats could have differential effects on reading comprehension and/or vocabulary learning. This study hypothesized that the effectiveness of…