Metacomprehension During Rare Word Comprehension

Abstract

To examine metacomprehension during comprehension, undergraduates (n = 133) were asked to provide descriptions of how they determined the meaning of four rare words presented in short passages. Content analysis of these written descriptions revealed task-specific metacomprehension reflecting lexical, textbase, and situation model processes. Cluster analysis yielded four metacomprehension groups with differing emphases on textbase and situation model processes. Participants also provided definitions, post-comprehension assessments, and completed the Metacomprehension Scale. Differences across the subgroups provide evidence that individual differences in task-specific metacomprehension influence interpretation accuracy and post-comprehension assessments. In contrast, global metacomprehension subscales were uncorrelated with interpretation accuracy.

Notes

∗p ≤ .05;

∗∗p ≤ .01;

∗∗∗p ≤ .001.

∗p ≤ .05;

∗∗p ≤ .01;

∗∗∗p ≤ .001.