Flexibility of Schema Shifting in Good and Poor Readers

Abstract

This study was designed to see whether good and poor readers show similar facility in shifting between familiar schemata in a listening comprehension task. Similar flexibility would mitigate an explanation of comprehension differences based on mediational control mechanisms in the deployment of cognitive structures. Twenty good and twenty poor readers at the third grade level listened to two short passages about very familiar daily activities. Comprehension of the second passage demanded a shift in schemata and only half of the children were explicitly cued to this shift. Analyses of free recall and interview responses indicated that although good readers recalled more information, there was similar flexibility of schema shifting for good and poor readers.