Developing a Measure of Reader-Based Standards of Coherence and Its Relationship to Reading Habits

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Motivation in Literacy

Abstract

Two studies examined whether individual differences in readers’ desire to understand texts, e.g., reader-based standards of coherence, influence reading behaviors. Study 1 designed a self-report measure of reader-based standards of coherence. For an adult community sample, an exploratory factor analysis identified four factors of the measure: 1) intrinsic reading goals, 2) extrinsic reading goals and learning strategies, 3) desire to understand and reading regulation strategies, 4) desired reading difficulty. The measure predicted readers’ reading habits, even when need for cognition was controlled. This finding was replicated with college students in Study 2. Overall, results showed that the reader-based standards of coherence measure is distinct from need for cognition, and that relationships between extrinsic and intrinsic reading goals differ across samples.

Author

• Regina Calloway, University of Maryland, Applied Laboratory for Intelligence and Security