Cognitive and Motivational Predictors of Narrative and Informational Text Comprehension

Abstract

The present study employed regression analyses to examine the influence of cognitive competencies (decoding ability, vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge) and intrinsic motivation (curiosity and involvement) on the comprehension of narrative and informational texts. Participants included 104 students in grades four and five. Results showed informational text comprehension was predicted with vocabulary knowledge and intrinsic motivation (involvement) while narrative text comprehension was predicted with decoding ability and intrinsic motivation (curiosity). Intrinsic motivation explained about 4% of the variance in comprehension for each text type beyond the other cognitive study variables. Reading comprehension – regardless of text type – was predicted with intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation should be an area of emphasis in both research and instruction with a wide range of texts to support reading comprehension.