Inferencing and Comprehension Processes Predicted by Situational and General Reading Motivation

• In Event: Reading and Motivation

Abstract

Reading motivation, as a general and situational factor, has been theorized to have distinct effects on reading comprehension (Davis et al., 2018). The current study examined the structural relationship between general reading motivation, situational reading motivation, inferencing, and reading comprehension. Students typed out their thoughts, reported their reading motivation, and completed comprehension questions after reading short texts. Path analyses revealed that situational reading motivation fully mediated the relationship between general reading motivation and elaborative inferences. Bridging inferences were not predicted by either situational motivation. For reading comprehension, it was shown that situational reading motivation fully mediated the effect of general reading motivation, while situational difficulty avoidance partially mediated the effect of general reading avoidance. Future avenues of research are discussed.

Authors

• Christian Steciuch, Northern Illinois University

• Stephen M. Tonks, Northern Illinois University

• Ryan Kopatich, Augustana College

• Karyn Higgs, Northern Illinois University

• Joseph Magliano, Georgia State University

• Alecia Santuzzi, Northern Illinois University