Bridging Inference Based Sentence Linking Model for Semantic Coherence

As the various social Medias emerge on the web, how to link the large scale of unordered short texts with semantic coherence is becoming a practical problem since these short texts have vast decentralized topics, weak associate relations, abundant noise and large redundancy. The challenging issues to solve the above problem includes what knowledge foundation supports sentence linking process and how to link these unordered short texts for pursuing well coherence. Herein, the authors develop bridging inference based sentence linking model by simulating human beings' discourse bridging process, which narrows semantic coherence gaps between short texts. Such model supports linking process by implicit and explicit knowledge and proposes different bridging inference schemas to guide the linking process. The bridging inference based linking process under different schemas generates different semantic coherence including central semantics, concise semantics and layered semantics etc. To validate the bridging inference based sentence linking model, the authors conduct some experiments. Experimental results confirm that the proposed bridging inference based sentence linking process increases semantic coherence. The model can be used in short-text origination, e-learning, e-science, web semantic search, and online question-answering system in the future works.

Effect of Preschool Working Memory, Language, and Narrative Abilities on Inferential Comprehension at School-Age in Children with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele and Typically Developing Children

Children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) are more likely to display a pattern of good-decoding/poor comprehension than their neurologically intact peers. The goals of the current study were to (1) examine the cognitive origins of one of the component skills of comprehension, bridging inferences, from a developmental perspective and (2) to test the effects of those relations on reading comprehension achievement. Data from a sample of children with SBM and a control group (n = 78) who participated in a longitudinal study were taken from age 36-month and 9.5-year time points. A multiple mediation model provided evidence that three preschool cognitive abilities (working memory/inhibitory control, oral comprehension, narrative recall), could partially explain the relation between group and bridging inference skill. A second mediation model supported that each of the 36-month abilities had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through bridging inference skill. Findings contribute to an understanding of both typical and atypical comprehension development, blending theories from the developmental, cognitive, and neuropsychological literature. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–10)

Improving Adolescent Students' Reading Comprehension with Istart

This study examines the benefits of reading strategy training on adolescent readers' comprehension of science text. Training was provided via an automated reading strategy trainer called the Interactive Strategy Trainer for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART), which is an interactive reading strategy trainer that utilizes animated agents to provide reading strategy instruction. Half of the participants were provided with iSTART while the others (control) were given a brief demonstration of how to self-explain text. All of the students then self-explained a text about heart disease and answered text-based and bridging-inference questions. Both iSTART training and prior knowledge of reading strategies significantly contributed to the quality of self-explanations and comprehension. Adolescents with less prior knowledge about reading strategies performed significantly better on text-based questions if they received iSTART training. Conversely, for high-strategy knowledge students, iSTART improved comprehension for bridging–inference questions. Thus, students benefitted from training regardless of their prior knowledge of strategies, but these benefits translated into different comprehension gains.