First Initial: V. & D.
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Last Name: Silvers & Kreiner
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Year of Publication: 1997
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Article Title: The Effects Of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting On Reading Comprehension
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Journal Name: Reading Research And Instruction
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Journal Volume: 36
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Journal Number:
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Page Numbers: 217-23
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Study Purpose: The study examines the effects of both pre-existing appropriate highlighting and pre-existing inappropriate highlighting on student comprehensio
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Operation Definition:
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N: 114
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Age/Grade: University students
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Ethnicity:
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Gender:
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Ability:
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Achievement:
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Identified Exceptionality:
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Location: A state university testing room
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Content: Participants were asked to read and decide whether the passages contained in the Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension Test had been highlighted with appropriate information. Three passages were highlighted correctly and four passages were highlighted inappropriately. The participants randomly assigned themselves to one of three conditions according to where they chose to sit in the testing room. The conditions: a control group (no highlighting), an experimental group with only appropriate material highlighted, and another experimental group with only inappropriate material highlighted. Students had 20 minutes to complete the NDRCT test which consists of seven passages and multiple choice questions
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Definition (if stated): NA
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Assessed By (tasks - tests): The Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension Test (NDRCT), Form H
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Treatments: Students were placed into three categories: a control group (no highlighting), an experimental group with only appropriate material highlighted, and another experimental group with only inappropriate material highlighted.
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Type of data collected/reported (e.g., Mean/SD, frequency, latency, etc.): The number of correct responses was recorded as well as a one-way ANOVA of the data
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Dependent Measures: The dependent variable was reading comprehension measured by the number of correct answers on the NDRCT.
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Independent Measures: The independent measure was the type of highlighting used for each group.
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Outcomes: Performance on the NDRCT was lower in the inappropriate condition than in the others. This supports the authors? hypothesis that inappropriate highlighting would reduce reading comprehension. There was no significant difference in test performance between the control group and the appropriate highlighting group. This supports previous research showing that highlighting of appropriate materials does not interfere with the retention of materials. The study points out that if the participants had actively taken part in the highlighting of appropriate materials, there may have been a significant difference between the Appropriate and Control groups.
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Follow-up Activities: A second experiment was used to test whether a prior warning would eliminate the negative effect of inappropriate highlighting. The same test and conditions applied to this group. The results show that even with prior warning, participants in the inappropriate group would be unable to ignore the inappropriate highlighting.
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