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Improving reading comprehension:

From metacognitive intervention on


strategies to the intervention on working
memory executive processes*
Mejorando la comprensin lectora: Desde la intervencin
metacognitiva en estrategias a la intervencin en los
procesos ejecutivos de la memoria operativa
Recibido: junio 1 de 2012 | Revisado: agosto 1 de 2012 | Aceptado: octubre 10 de 2012

Elosa, M.R. **
Garca-Madruga, J.A.
Vila, J.O.
Gmez-Veiga, I.
Universidad Nacional de Educacin a Distancia, Spain
Gil, L. ***
Valencia University, Spain
Abstract
Many students may read fluently but have difficulties constructing meaning
from texts. Difficulties with reading comprehension have many implications at
school. In particular, problems understanding texts interfere with studying and
learning from text. Reading comprehension has improved in the last 30 years
focusing on intervention programs that work with strategies in which metacog-
nition plays a crucial role. However, recent years have seen relevant advances
in the study of the relationship between working memory (WM), particularly
Doi: 10.11144/Javeriana.UPSY12-5.ircm executive processes, and reading comprehension. In this paper, we present how
the last 20 years of our research has evolved regarding metacognitive interven-
Para citar este artculo: Elosa, M.R., Garca- tion from text comprehension strategies, as the main idea and summarization to
Madruga, J.A., Vila, J.O., Gmez-Veiga, I., & Gil, the intervention on WMs executive processes during reading. Thus, our more
L. (2013). Improving reading comprehension: From recent empirical data has shown that text comprehension can be improved after
metacognitive intervention on strategies to the in- specific training on the executive functions of working memory (e.g., focusing,
tervention on working memory executive processes. switching, connecting and updating mental representations, and the inhibition
Universitas Psychologica, 12(5), 1425-1438. Doi: of irrelevant information) in Primary school students.
10.11144/Javeriana.UPSY12-5.ircm Key words authors
Reading comprehension, text comprehension strategies, metacognition, training
*
This research was conducted while M. Rosa Elosa working memory, executive functions.
and Juan Antonio Garca Madruga were receiving Key words plus
Grant DGICYT PSI2008-00754 and Consolider- Neuropsychology, Cognitive Science, Development.
Ingenio 2010 (CSD2008-00048), both from the
Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain.We R e s u me n
thank students who voluntarily participated in this Muchos estudiantes pueden leer de forma fluida pero presentan dificul-
research. tades para construir significados a partir de los textos. Las dificultades de
**
Universidad Nacional de Educacin a Distancia, compresin lectora tienen varias implicaciones en la escuela. En particu-
Spain. Area of research: Working memory; Text lar, los problemas de comprensin de textos interfieren con el estudio y el
Comprehension; Executive Processes; Strategies aprendizaje desde el texto. La comprensin de lectura se ha mejorado en los
on Cognitive Training. Correspondence and re-
quests for reprints should be addressed to: M. Rosa
ltimos 30 aos enfocndose en los programas de intervencin que trabajan
Elosa. Departamento Psicologa Bsica I. Facultad con estrategias en las cuales la metacognicin juega un papel crucial. Sin
de Psicologa. UNED. C/ Juan del Rosal, 10. 28040 embargo, en aos recientes han sido relevantes los avances en el estudio de
Madrid (SPAIN) Tfno.: +34 91 398 6224 Fax: +34 las relaciones entre la memoria de trabajo (WM), particularmente el pro-
91 3987972 e-mail: melosua@psi.uned.es ceso ejecutivo, y la comprensin de lectura. En este artculo presentamos
***
Valencia University, Spain. la manera como se ha desarrollado nuestra investigacin en los ltimos 20

Univ. Psychol. Bogot, Colombia V. 12 No. 5 PP. 1425-1438 ciencia cognitiva 2013 ISSN 1657-9267 1425
E losua , M.R., G arca -M adruga , J. A., V ila , J. O., G mez -V eiga , I., & G il , L.

aos, en relacin con intervencin metacognitiva desde regarding metacognitive intervention from text
las estrategias de comprensin de textos, tales como la idea comprehension strategies, as the main idea and
principal y el resumen en la intervencin sobre el proceso
ejecutivo de WM durante la lectura. As, nuestros datos summarization, to the intervention on WMs ex-
empricos recientes han mostrado que la comprensin de ecutive processes during reading. Thus, our more
textos puede ser mejorada despus del tratamiento especfico recent empirical data show that text comprehen-
sobre las funciones ejecutivas de memoria de trabajo (e.g., sion can be improved after specific training on the
enfocndose, cambiando, conectando y actualizando las
representaciones mentales y la inhibicin de informacin executive functions involved in working memory
irrelevante) en nios de escuela primaria. (e.g., focusing, switching, connecting and updat-
Palabras clave ing mental representations, and the inhibition of
Comprensin de lectura, estrategias de comprensin de texto,
metacognicin, entrenamiento en memoria de trabajo, funciones irrelevant information) in Primary school children.
ejecutivas. First, we describe an overall summary regarding
Palabras clave descriptores
Neuropsicologa, Ciencia Cognitiva, desarrollo. some of the strategies most often used in reading
intervention programs, using our empirical data
as an example of this kind of study. Second, we
describe from our most recent studies some of the
main executive processes of working memory that
Introduction have been studied to improve reading comprehen-
sion. Finally, we draw some conclusions from these
Difficulties with reading comprehension have ma- studies to illustrate the nature of the changes that
ny implications in school. Specifically, problems have occurred over the past 30 years.
understanding texts interfere with studying and
learning from text. In fact, most teachers usually 1. Reading intervention programs
complain about the difficulties their pupils have in focusing on specific strategies
paying attention to what they are reading during
daily classroom activities. These kinds of problems What kind of specific cognitive strategies have
with text comprehension have a great impact on been used in text comprehension programs? This
academic achievement. paper presents a brief summary of some specific
In this paper we focus on higher-order compre- strategies that help students to be aware of and
hension problems that are not caused by decoding regulate their thinking processes that surrounds
skill deficits or difficulties with lexical access (see comprehension. Two types of strategies are re-
Cain & Oakhill, 2007; Rapp, Van den Broek, Mc- viewed: teaching the main idea and summarization.
Master, Kendeou, & Espin, 2007). Students with In this way, we are focusing on some of the most
these types of problems may read fluently but have frequent strategies used in this field (see Block &
difficulties constructing meaning. How have these Pressley, 2002; Cain & Oakhill, 2007; Kamil et
comprehension problems been dealt with in cog- al., 2011). Furthermore, these two strategies were
nitive science? Many papers and handbooks have implemented as well in every one of our studies
focused on reading comprehension and comprehen- (Elosa, Garca-Madruga, Gutirrez, Luque, &
sion instruction (see Baker & Beal, 2009; Block & Grate, 2002; Garca-Madruga, Martn Cordero,
Pressley, 2002; Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002; Luque, & Santamara, 1992, 1995).
Kamil, Pearson, Moje, & Afflerbach, 2011; Kling- To teach readers to identify the main idea in
ner, Morrison & Eppolito, 2011; McNamara, 2007; texts is a well-known approach that has had a pos-
Oakhill & Kane, 2007a, 2007b). itive impact on text comprehension. Some studies
The scope of this field of knowledge is too large (e.g. Elosa et al., 2002; Stevens, 1988; Van den
to attempt to be covered here. The aim of this pa- Broek, Lynch, Naslund, Ievers-Landis, & Verduin,
per is much more limited. In this study, we present 2003; Williams, 1988) support instructional ap-
how the last 20 years of our research has evolved proaches that focus on the identification and con-

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I mproving reading comprehension

struction of the main ideas, as cognitive strategies main idea is placed at the beginning, but it could
that are essential for studying and learning from also be at the end or in the middle of the text. So,
texts. The identification of the main idea of a text the instruction about the position of the main idea
is an important step to be able to summarize that of the text is important. Identification of the main
text. Williams (1988) has shown how important is idea at the beginning of the text is generally easier
to get the main idea, as a basic aspect of reading than when positioned elsewhere (Baumann, 1986;
comprehension, in order to draw inferences, to Elosa et al., 2002).
study and to learn from text. And this difficulty Baumann (1984) completed a well-known study
is always present, in both children and university in the instruction of comprehending the main idea
students. by using the principles of direct instruction to teach
It is also important to consider that reading sixth-grade students in a direct way to identify the
comprehension requires knowledge of text struc- main ideas in stories that were explicit or implicitly
tures. The nature of the main idea depends on text stated.
structure, as Bauman (1986), Meyer (1975, 1984) Some studies (Bauman, 1984; Jitendra & Ga-
and Williams (2004) have extensively argued. In jria, 2011) have shown that the task of training
narrative texts, the reader has to identify the main participants in the selection, generalization and/
idea through the description of events (for example, or construction of the identification of the main
a protagonist effecting actions that produce results idea requires them not only to pay attention to
in different ways) that occurs in a temporal the explicit or implicit ideas, or their position, but
sequence. In expository text, readers have to dis- also to link the more meaningful ideas, ordering
cover the structure of the text (e.g., description of and identifying the main idea as a result. In our
facts, compare-contrast, cause-effect, problem-solu- studies (Elosa et al., 2002; Garca-Madruga et al.,
tion). Some studies (Meyer, 1975, 1984; Williams, 1992, 1995) the intervention program based on
2004; Williams & Pao, 2011) have highlighted identifying main ideas was useful in different age
diverse features of narrative and expository text groups (12 and 16 year olds in Elosa et al., 2002;
structures that enable the reader to organize text 17 and 18 year olds in Garca-Madruga, Martn
content, and to construct a mental representation Cordero, Luque, & Santamara, 1995). It involves
necessary for comprehension. using many and different kinds of text structures
Explicit main ideas are easier than implicit main of various lengths. It could be interesting to apply
ideas (Baumann, 1984). When texts explicitly this strategy to different disciplines or areas of study
show the main ideas, readers only have to select such as science, History, Social Sciences and so on
it from the text. However, if the main idea is im- (see also Jitendra & Gajria, 2011). In these studies
plicit, readers have to generalize or even construct the authors describe their work on instructional
a statement to represent the main idea of the text. programs including the explicit instruction in strat-
These cognitive macrorules (selection, generaliza- egies with extensive practice opportunities, as well
tion and construction) can be taught. The main as the ongoing assessment of the students use of
idea selection is easier than the generalization these strategies. Jitendra and Gajria (2011) provide
and construction of the main idea (Elosa et al., extended teaching scripts and simple passages that
2002). In other words, the macrorules of selection, clearly illustrate how teachers can implement this
generalization, and construction are necessary in instruction. It is also possible to make adaptions
developing the strategy of identifying the main idea. to the relevant main idea identification strategy
Furthermone, text structure may support a readers because trainers can use longer and more complex
identification of main ideas, as Bonnie Meyer (1975, texts.
1984) has found. The strategy of summarization is the ability to
The difficulty in understanding the main idea is construct a concise account of the main ideas in a
also affected by its position in text. Sometimes the text. In fact, we deal with two different cognitive

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E losua , M.R., G arca -M adruga , J. A., V ila , J. O., G mez -V eiga , I., & G il , L.

strategies (e.g. main idea and summarization). The among the elements and ideas of the text. Some
summarization strategy, however, first requires to studies (Brown & Day, 1983; Caccamise, Franzke,
identify the main ideas in the text. In other words, Echkoff, Kintsch, & Kintsch, 2007; Elosa et al.,
the first strategy should be seen as a prerequisite of 2002; Rinehart, Stahl, & Erikson, 1986; Winograd,
the second. 1984) have shown that students develop the sum-
A good summary is an accurate indication about marization strategy following the training on these
how well the text has been understood. Summari- basic macrorules of Kintsch and Van Dijks (1978)
zation training enhances not only the main ideas model using different kinds of texts, with more or
of the text, but also the different interrelationships less complexity and of various lengths. Therefore,
among those key ideas. As Gitendra and Gajria the macrorules of selection, generalization, and
(2011, p. 202) describes, the goal of summarization construction are also necessary to develop the
training is to make children aware of the highest summarization strategy.
level of information or main ideas in a text, as well Once again, knowledge about text structure
as details that support the main ideas, because both is important in the acquisition of the strategy of
are important to remember for school success. summarization. Good readers are more aware of the
The summarization strategy involves the same structure of a text in order to properly summarize it
underlying processes presupposed by the model (Cain, Oakhill, Barnes, & Bryant, 2001). It can be
of text comprehension of Kintsch and Van Dijk said that the proper text structure helps students
(1978). It is well known that in this model the to put specific macrorules into action in order to
global meaning of the text (what is called the mac- construct the gist of the text. As a consequence,
rostructure) is critical. Within the framework of intervention programs focusing on summary forma-
the theory proposed by Kintsch (Kintsch & Van tion may be beneficial for poor readers. Research
Dijk, 1978; Van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983; Kintsch, in strategy training involving the summarization
1988, 1998), a distinction between the text mi- of texts is known both to enhance written sum-
crostructure and macrostructure is established. maries and result in transfer effects on a variety of
The former is the local structure of the text, that reading comprehension measures (Caccamise et
is, the semantic content of sentences in text. The al., 2007; Elosa et al., 2002; Rinehart et al., 1986;
macrostructure of a text consists of a hierarchy Winograd, 1984).
of propositions representing its global structure, In general, these studies have shown empirical
derived from the microstructure. Thus, the mac- support for the systematic instruction of strategies
rostructure that one constructs during reading is such as the main idea and summarization strategy
like a summary: It represents the core of the text in order to increase the reading comprehension
(and the macropropositions summarize the general of readers. As Baker and Beal (2009, p. 373) have
idea of the text). expressed, more than 30 years have passed since
According to this comprehension model, the research on metacognition began with the work
construction of these macropropositions is carried of John Flavell (1976) and Ann Brown (1978).
out by applying certain macrorules that allow the Nowadays, the majority of intervention programs
information contained in the text to be reduced and have a metacognitive approach, in the sense that
organized. As we have already mentioned above, participants not only learn the different strategies,
these macrorules are selection, generalization, and but are also taught to be aware of when and how to
construction. Whereas the selection macrorule apply them adequately, regardless of the contents.
basically requires a process of recognition, the This should include the key dimension of self-eval-
generalization macrorule is more complex because uation as well as monitoring the results of the task.
it is based on a logical relation of inclusion. A con- Three basic components -direct instruction,
struction is even more complex, as it requires rela- modeling, and practice- have been integrated into
tionships of various types to be determined from this metacognitive approach. Intervention program

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procedures could be organized by taking the three However, in our first intervention programs
recurrent phases into account, relative to each (Elosa et al., 2002; Garca-Madruga et al., 1992,
component: 1) direct instruction consisting of a 1995) we tried to teach not only the cognitive
specific description of the strategy to be used and strategies of main idea and summarization, but
how and when to use it, with concrete examples; also to carry out a metacognitive and active inter-
2) explicit and detailed modeling by the teacher or vention, trying to develop an active practice in the
trainer when applying the strategy being trained; use of those strategies. These cognitive strategies
and 3) practice using practical exercises in which are different from the metacognitive strategies of
the pupils are given the opportunity to use the strat- monitoring the comprehension process that we
egy, first under the guidance of an instructor, and previously mentioned, although the metacognitive
then, 4) as an independent practice, that is, giving perspective is included in our metacognitive and
the participants different opportunities to practice active intervention.
on their own (see Kamil et al., 2011). How should these intervention programs fo-
The metacognitive training of text comprehen- cused on main idea and summarization strategies
sion strategies enhances the importance of active be implemented in schools? To what degree were
processing during reading. As some authors have teachers involved? And do positive results from lab
highlighted (Garca-Madruga et al., 1992; Kintsch, studies meet the complex situation of daily class-
1988, 1998), in order to achieve an integrated rep- room teaching? It seems that the three basic com-
resentation of texts, it is not sufficient to have the ponents of direct instruction, modeling, and practice
appropriate knowledge; readers really need to acti- could be integrated in the way teachers appropriate
vate and apply this knowledge during the reading this metacognitive approach. Furthermore, some
process. studies (e.g. Jitendra & Gajria, 2011) have shown
In reading intervention research, it is important how teachers might implement the instructions re-
to clarify that specific cognitive strategies (e.g. main garding the adaptation of the strategy of main idea
idea identification and summarization) are different to different settings in schools, as we have already
from metacognitive strategies. In fact, a specific set mentioned. However, it is important to highlight
of strategies is particularly relevant to comprehen- that we need to learn more about comprehension
sion; these are called metacognitive strategies. Meta- strategies across the full range of age and grade
cognitive strategies are routines and procedures levels (Elosa et al., 2012; Lpez Escribano, Elosa,
that allow individuals to monitor and assess their Gmez-Veiga, & Garca Madruga, 2013) and across
ongoing performance in accomplishing a cognitive a range of variation, such as reader differences, text
task. Students who use metacognitve strategies types, and instructional contexts (see Sweet, 2003).
are aware of the cognitive resources they have to The metacognitive and active text processing
test, revise and evaluate their comprehension pro- approaches, hence stress the role of executive control
cess. Baker and Brown (1984) have described the processes in reading comprehension. In the next sec-
kinds of metacognitive strategies or comprehension tion we will describe reading intervention programs
monitoring that good readers execute as they read. that focus on working memorys executive processes.
For example, they ask themselves: Is there some-
thing I dont understand? Are there any gaps in my 2. Reading intervention programs focusing
knowledge to understand this text? Am I learning on working memorys executive processes.
this material? Can I repair the gap so that my un-
derstanding is complete? These compensatory In the past 30 years, many researchers in the field of
strategies restore understanding and learning. It is reading and text comprehension have investigated
important to clarify that metacognitive strategies the role of working memory (WM), a memory sys-
such as the monitoring and evaluation of compre- tem assumed to be involved in the active processing
hension are not the specific purpose of this paper. of current information (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974).

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E losua , M.R., G arca -M adruga , J. A., V ila , J. O., G mez -V eiga , I., & G il , L.

Many studies have demonstrated the importance components: the phonological loop, the visuo-spa-
of working memory in decoding and comprehen- tial sketchpad and the episodic buffer.
sion (Cain, Oakhill, & Lemmon, 2004; Carretti, The main component of the working memory
Borella, Cornoldi, & De Beni, 2009; Savage, Lavers, system is the central executive. It not only has to
& Pillay, 2007). In fact, reading comprehension co-ordinate the other components, but it is also in
requires the integration of meaning across words, charge of the attentional control of information.
sentences and passages in the text. Therefore, there That is, it has to focus and switch attention, to
are demands on working memory at various levels: activate representations, to inhibit automatic pro-
(a) the individual word level (recall and retention cesses and to discard irrelevant information. The
of semantic meaning), (b) the sentence-level (merg- development and capacity of central executive
ing of the syntactic and semantic cues to create a functions (Gathercole, Lamont, & Alloway, 2006;
proposition), and (c) the text-level (synthesizing St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006) has been
propositions into a coherent idea). shown to support reading comprehension and ac-
Research has shown a strong and consistent ademic skills.
relationship between measures of working memory We consider that text comprehension is a highly
and comprehension (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; demanding cognitive task that implies the simulta-
Daneman & Merikle, 1996; Cain et al., 2004). neous process of extracting and constructing mean-
Skilled readers appear to manage integrated and ing (Sweet & Snow, 2003). As numerous authors
cohesive text comprehension with little effort. have maintained, working memory plays a crucial
However, less-skilled readers show specific and role in storing the intermediate and final products
consistent impairments in the components required of readers computations, as well as coordinating
building these cohesive representations, leading to the processes of constructing and integrating the
the hypothesis that impairment in working mem- semantic representation from a text (e.g. Cain,
ory may underlie problems in text comprehension. 2006; Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995; Gathercole &
Students with high WM scores show good compre- Baddeley, 1993; Just & Carpenter, 1992). The nec-
hension reading skills, and conversely, students with essary metacognitive monitoring during reading
poor WM scores tend to perform below average on underscores the importance of attentional control
reading comprehension measures (Cain et al., 2004; and enhances the role of executive functioning in
Carretti et al., 2009; Savage et al., 2007). reading comprehension (e.g. Baker & Beal, 2009).
Before moving on to WMs executive functions, The relationship between working memory span
it seems convenient to stress the influence of other and reading comprehension has been well estab-
variables in the comprehension process. As Oakhill lished in the literature (see Daneman & Merikle,
and Cain (2007a, 2007b) have reviewed, vocabulary 1996; Savage et al., 2007). Recently, an increasing
is an important predictor of comprehension skills, number of authors have highlighted the role of the
and there is some evidence that the relation be- diverse interrelated executive processes of WM in
tween vocabulary and comprehension development reading comprehension. In particular, (Carretti,
may be reciprocal, at least in Primary students. Cornoldi, De Beni, & Roman, 2005) have linked
WMs updating to reading comprehension skills;
Working Memory Executive functions likewise, (Carretti, Borella, Cornoldi, & De Beni,
2009) and (Savage, Cornish, Manly & Hollis, 2006)
The model of working memory developed by Bad- have underscored the function of inhibiting and
deley (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) is one of the most discarding information in reading comprehension.
used in the field of text comprehension (see also Some studies have recently shown (Cain, 2006;
Kintsch, 1998). In this model, there are four com- Gaskins & Pressley, 2007; Gathercole et al., 2006;
ponents: a central executive with a limited capacity, Holmes, Gathercole, & Dunning, 2009; Kling-
which controls and coordinates the other three berg, 2010; Meltzer, Pollica, & Barzillai, 2007) that

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these working memory executive processes can be focusing, switching, connecting and updating men-
improved and trained in an explicit way in educa- tal representations, and the inhibition of irrelevant
tional settings. In this paper we try only to illustrate information) in Primary school children (8 and 9
how this kind of training on executive functions of years old children). We hypothesized that specific
working memory might be implemented. training on the executive functions of working
A recent meta-analytic review (Melby-Lervg & memory will improve reading comprehension.
Hulme, 2012) has questioned the efficacy of train- The battery of tasks included in the training
ing studies on WM. According to these authors, enabled us to systematically vary demands on the
training programs yield only near-transfer effects executive abilities required to perform them suc-
and there is not any evidence that these effects are cessfully in different proportions. The focusing
durable. Likewise, Melby-Lervg and Hulme (2012) function is present in all the tasks since they re-
cast doubt on the relevance and theoretical basis quire children to focus their attention on specific
of studies that argue WM training can enhance and relevant information for solving the task. The
cognitive functioning. However, as these authors switching function is particularly present in some
explicitly acknowledge, the problem with meta-an- tasks in which readers have to shift back and forth
lyses is that they bring together studies that widely between diverse pieces of information included into
differ in their characteristics and theoretical per- the task. Connecting with long-term knowledge is
spectives. We agree with Melby-Lervg and Hulme particularly necessary when performing tasks that
(2012) that some of the training programs need a require combining information from the task with
clearer analysis of the processes involved and the information from long-term memory. The function
training tasks used. In our work (Garca-Madruga of updating mental representations function is
et al., 2013), we have attempted to be more precise particularly necessary in those tasks which require
in the analysis of the executive processes trained in monitoring and coding incoming information for
every task used in the training program. relevance to the task at hand and then appropri-
Our research (Garca-Madruga et al., 2013) ately revising the items held in working memory by
has attempted to evaluate a training program on replacing old, no longer relevant information with
the executive functions of working memory (e.g., newer, more relevant information.

Table 1
The executive processes trained, their icons, and the tasks used.

Executive Function Icons Tasks tapping each executive function

Vignettes in Order, Decoding Instructions, Sentences in Order, Anaphora,


Focusing
Inconsistencies, Inferences, Changing Stories and Integrating Knowledge

Switching Anaphora, Inconsistencies, Inferences and Integrating Knowledge

Vignettes in Order, Decoding Instructions, Sentences in Order, Anaphora,


Connection with knowledge
Inferences and Changing Stories

Sentences in Order, Anaphora, Inconsistencies, Inferences, Changing Sto-


Semantic updating in WM
ries and Integrating Knowledge

Vignettes in Order, Decoding Instructions, Sentences in Order, Anaphora,


Inhibition
Inconsistencies, Changing Stories and Integrating Knowledge

Source: Own work.

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E losua , M.R., G arca -M adruga , J. A., V ila , J. O., G mez -V eiga , I., & G il , L.

Finally, the inhibition of irrelevant information of ten sessions over a three-week period (50 min/
concerns tasks in which children need to inhibit or day). Two researchers carried out the training in
override the tendency to produce a more dominant the classroom during the ordinary school period.
or automatic response. In order to make each exec- They used students workbooks to fill out the solu-
utive function concrete and easy to understand, dif- tions of the tasks, plus Power Point presentations.
ferent symbols were illustrated graphically and pre- Participants were assessed on reading comprehen-
sented to students throughout the training program sion before and after training. To measure reading
(see Table 1). Concretely, Focusing was illustrated comprehension, we used a Spanish version of the
as a magnifying glass, Switching as two eyes looking Diagnostic Assessment of Reading Comprehen-
in different directions, Connection with long-term sion (DARC; August, Francis, Hsu & Snow, 2006;
knowledge as a fishing rod with a globe, Updating of Francis et al., 2006), called EDICOLE (see Garca
mental representations as a fishing rod with a book, Madruga et al., 2010). The task requires children
and finally, Inhibition of irrelevant information was il- to silently read three short texts and answer 44
lustrated with a stop-sign. The tasks used to tap into related comprehension questions.
each executive function are presented in Table 1. Presented in narrative-style, the texts consist
We used an intervention design with pre-train- of four small paragraphs that describe transitive
ing and post-training measures in an experimental relations among a set of real and artificial entities.
and control group. The training program consisted For instance, Maria likes to eat fruit. Most of all,

Figure 1
Some exemples of the different tasks used in the training of working memory executi-
ve functions. Numbers correspond to the tasks described in Table 1.

Source: Own work.

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I mproving reading comprehension

she likes to eat nuras. A nura is like an orange. Children performed different tasks each day,
But a nura is bigger than an orange. Combining selected from a bank of eight tasks: Vignettes in
the information in the text with world knowledge Order, Sentences in Order, Decoding Instructions,
should, in principle, allow for the construction of a Anaphora, Inconsistencies, Inferences, Changing
five-entity-long linear ordering along a dimension Stories and Integrating Knowledge. In the vignettes
that is likely to be familiar to all children. Three of in order and sentences in order tasks children were
the entities are unknown to all readers (artificial asked to organize either a series of vignettes or a
terms) and they are presented as nonsense words, series of sentences into the logical order, in order to
whereas two of the entities referred to are likely to create a coherent story. The decoding instruction
be known by all children (real terms) and differ task requested them to interpret and perform com-
strikingly on the critical dimension. After each plex written instructions involving the integration
text, readers are asked a series of sixteen yes-no-I of a sequence of actions. To do that, they had to
dont know questions. read the instructions presented on a screen and
The comprehension questions are designed to then either write down or draw the information
assess readers performance on four central com- received in their workbooks. In the Anaphora task
prehension processes: (a) knowledge access, i.e., children have to solve either syntactic and seman-
accessing relevant prior knowledge from long-term tic anaphora problems, and store and remember
memory (e.g., An orange has a peel); (b) text mem- the word solution in a growing series of inferential
ory, i.e., recalling from memory new information problems.
presented in the text (e.g., Maria likes to eat fruit); They had to read to themselves the anaphora
(c) inferences, i.e., making novel inferences based problems presented on a screen, and then recall
on information provided in the text but without the word solution of each anaphora problem and
prior knowledge (e.g., A nura is smaller than an write them down in the correct order. The Incon-
orange); and (d) integration, i.e., integrating ac- sistencies task requested students to act as a detec-
cessed prior knowledge with new text information tive whose job consisted of looking for mistakes in
(e.g., You peel a nura to eat it). Participants are the texts. They read texts containing an internal
encouraged to read the text carefully at their own inconsistency (i.e. inconsistency between two ideas
pace and to answer the comprehension questions expressed within the text) and an external incon-
without having the text in front of them. The task sistency (i.e. information that conflicted with their
is preceded by a practice text and some comprehen- prior knowledge). The task of the student consisted
sion questions across each category. The scores are of detecting one inconsistency of both types within
based on the number of correct answers in the four each text. When performing the Inferences task,
categories of questions related to the basic processes students had to read different short texts presented
underlying reading comprehension. on a screen and answer embedded questions that

Table 2
The distribution of the eight tasks through the sessions in the intervention program.

TASKS Variable of difficulty Sessions


Arranging vignettes in logical order. n vignettes 1, 2
Interpreting and performing written instructions. n instructions 2, 3
Arranging textual sentences in logical order. n sentences 3, 4
Solving anaphora. n words to be remember 4, 5
Detecting textual inconsistencies. Distance & salience 5,6,7
Making textual and prior knowledge inferences. Distance & causality 6,7
Following changing stories. n units to be followed 8,9
Integrating information from different formats. n units to be integrated 8,9
Source: Own work.

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E losua , M.R., G arca -M adruga , J. A., V ila , J. O., G mez -V eiga , I., & G il , L.

either require the integration among individual boosting the central executive functions involved
sentences in the text (i.e. text-based inferences) or (focusing, switching, connecting with long-term
demand the integration of general knowledge with information and updating, and inhibition). These
information in the text (i.e. elaborative inferences). findings provide support to this training perspective
In the changing stories task, children read dif- regarding reading comprehension (Chein & Mor-
ferent texts including a stream of information rison, 2010; Klingberg, Forssberg, & Westerberg,
in which relevant facts are constantly changing. 2002; Klingberg, 2010).
They were asked to actively keep track of the in- Nevertheless, we would like to emphasize that,
formation as they read it because, in several points as suggested by recent criticism (Melby-Lervg &
of the story, they were requested to determine the Hulme, 2012; Morrison & Chein, 2011; Shipstead,
state of different parts of the story at that time Hicks, & Engle, 2012; Shipstead, Redick, & Engle,
(e.g. the order of the horses in a race, the state of 2012), this work is clearly open to further study: The
the scoreboard during a football match). Finally, results found have to be confirmed with training
the training program included the Integrating experiments that use more complete designs. Like-
knowledge task. This activity required children to wise, it is also necessary to investigate the mainte-
focus and switch their attention to different units nance and durability of the effects found.
of information presented on a screen in different
formats (i.e. text, video, pictures) in order to be Conclusions
able to answer several questions that required the
integration of multiple sources of information. To The research on reading comprehension interven-
keep children motivated throughout the program, tion described in this work can be integrated in
at the end of each session they performed the whole-class, small groups, or individual instruc-
Motoric instructions. To do this, they had to read tion. Interventions in reading comprehension can
some instructions presented on a screen and then be implemented in school by developing specific
execute with their body some funny postures and comprehension strategies such as teaching the
movements. Additionally, at the end of each week main idea and summarization skills. However, some
of training, children were awarded with a diploma recent studies have begun to develop a different ap-
and a small gift. proach that focuses on working memorys executive
Students performed the eight different tasks processes (e.g. focusing, switching, connecting and
that were designed to boost the four executive updating mental representations, and the inhibition
functions. All tasks consisted of several items that of irrelevant information).
were presented in order of increasing difficulty. The role of the working memory system in
Each task was trained by means of four modes of reading comprehension has been highlighted from
instruction: explicit instruction in the executive classical text comprehension models. Reading
functions related to the tasks, modeling examples, comprehension is often a complex process that is
guided practice and independent practice. achieved within working memory and requires a
Our data show that students performed signifi- great deal of cognitive resources, including storage
cantly better on the reading comprehension mea- and processing efficacy. Reading comprehension
sures after training. Moreover, trained participants is hence a task in which the executive processes
also improved their scores in fluid intelligence and are highly implicated. The specific training pro-
on executive tasks (Garca-Madruga et al., 2012). gram focused on working memorys executive
These results clearly confirm that reading compre- functions is an example of what researchers might
hension is a complex cognitive process in which the do to grasp how, when and why the reading com-
executive processes are highly implicated. There- prehension process can be improved in the school
fore, it is possible to develop some intervention setting. In this paper, we have presented a training
programs that improve reading comprehension by program based on working memorys executive

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I mproving reading comprehension

processes of repetition, feedback and the gradu- Baumann, J.F. (1986). Teaching main idea comprehension.
al adjustement of difficulty, and one that shows Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
the effectiveness of the adaptative training, as Block, C.C., & Pressley, M. (Eds.) (2002). Comprehen-
some recent studies have suggested (Holmes et sion Instruction. Research-Based Best Practices. New
al., 2009; Klingberg, 2010). York: The Guilford Press.
We have not explicitly trained any particular Block, C.C., Gambrell, L.B., & Pressley, M. (Eds.)
strategy, but the training explicitly demanded stu- (2002). Improving Comprehension Instruction. Re-
dents to actively and consciously engage throughout thinking Research, Theory, and Classroom Practice.
the entire training process, from the first to the fi- San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
nal session. In fact, the main focus was not to train Brown, A.L. (1978). Knowing when, where, and how
reading comprehension itself, but to train WMs to remember: A problem of metacognition. In R.
executive processes, that is, the conscious control Glaser (Ed.), Advances in instructional psychology
of cognitive processes involved in reading compre- (pp. 157-165). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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practice ultimately addressed at the outcome of rizing texts: The development of expertise. Journal
achieving some kind of automated behavior, but of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 1-14.
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Therefore, it can be seen that any intervention ogy-Based Summary Writing. In D.S. McNamara
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