Reducing Cognitive Demands on Preschoolers and Its Effect on Causal Cohesion: A Preliminary Study

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Comprehension During and After Reading

Abstract

The study of causal inferencing, reading, and comprehension has been extensively investigated (e.g., Cain, 2003; Lynch & van den Broek, 2007), however, less is understood about causal inferencing abilities in preschool-aged children. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of segmenting a wordless picture book into sets of causal events to reduce cognitive demands in order to produce a more causally cohesive story. We hypothesized that segmenting the book will reduce cognitive demands and maximize working memory capacity for young children by eliminating the need to hold pieces of information presented earlier in text while also processing new information. The findings suggest that reducing cognitive demands on preschoolers allow them to produce a more causally cohesive story.

Authors

• Stephanie Lai, University of Georgia - Athens

• Paula J. Schwanenflugel, University of Georgia

• William Alexander Mira, University of Georgia