TEXT COMPREHENSION SEMINAR, Dr. Richard Golden (golden@utdallas.

edu),
Web Site: www.utdallas.edu/~golden/TEXTCLASS (login: golden)

COURSE LOCATION AND TIME: Wednesday 2pm-4:45pm, CR.1.508

REQUIRED READINGS: Rouet, Levonen, Dillon, and Spiro (1996). Hypertext and Cognition. Erlbaum.
ISBN 0805821449. Additional assigned readings (some will be posted on web)

COURSE FOCUS: This course will focus upon the scientific study of human text comprehension within
hypertext environments.

FORMAT: Each week Dr. Golden or students will present powerpoint presentations on designated topics
which will be the basis of discussions. One student will have the responsibility of presenting the
powerpoint presentation, while two students will have the responsibility of reading all papers in their
assigned discussion group and leading a 20 minute discussion of those papers.

GRADING: Grading will be based upon class participation, preparation, and presentation quality. Each
student presentation will be graded. Students may be requested to redo their presentations. The
maximum grade which can be achieved by the second presentation is a B. Student discussion leaders
will be graded as well.

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE:
January 11: Introduction to Text Comprehension (Golden, Powerpoint Notes).
January 18: An Introduction to Hypertext and Cognition (Ch. 1, Perwaiz).
Bower, Black and Turner (1979, Scripts in Memory for Text. Cognitive Psychology, 11, 177-220). Kintsch and Van
Dijk (1978, Psychological Review, 85, 363-394). Fletcher and Bloom (1988, Journal of Memory and Language, 27,
235-244). Lichtenstein and Brewer (1980, Cognitive Psychology, 12, 412-445). Rumelhart (1976/1977;
Understanding and summarizing brief stories. In “Basic Processes in reading: Perception and comprehension.”
Erlbaum). Graesser (1978; “How to catch a fish”). Studying and Learning with Hypertext: Empirical Studies and
their Implications (Ch. 2, Golden). Myths, Misconceptions, and an Alternative Perspective on Information Usage
and the Electronic Medium (Ch. 3, Perwaiz). Using Hypertext to study and reason about historical evidence (Ch. 4,
Rebecca).

January 25: Effects of Overview Structure on Study Strategies And Text Representations for Instructional
Hypertext (Ch. 5, Golden). Comprehension, Coherence, and Strategies in Hypertext (Ch. 6, Bridgett). Studying and
Annotating Electronic Text (Ch. 7, Unknown???).

February 1: Notes on Hypertext, Cognition, and Language (Ch. 8, Rachel). Text and hypertext (Ch. 9). Reading
Strategies and hypertext Comprehension (Salmeron et al., 2005; Discourse Processes).

February 8: Navigation in hypermedia learning systems: experts vs. novices (Chen, Fan,Macredie, Computers in
Human Behavior, 22, 2006, 251-266). Effects of content representation and readers’ prior knowledge on the
comprehension of hypertext (Potelle and Rouet, 2003; International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 58, 327-
345). Perwaiz NSF Proposal.

February 15: Comprehension and Retention of Nonlinear Text: Considerations of Working Memory and Material-
Appropriate Processing. The American Journal of Psychology, 109, 93-130 (Wesley). The effects of three different
computer texts on reader’s recall: based on working memory capacity (Lee and Tedder, 2003; Computers in
Human Behavior, 19, 767-783) (Wesley).

February 22: The Chemnitz LogAnalyzer: A tool for analyzing data from hypertext navigation research (Brunstein,
Naumann, Krems, May 2005; Behavior Research Methods 37(2): 232-239). Graphic and numerical methods to
assess navigation in hypertext (McEneaney, 2001; International J. Human-Computer Studies, 55, 761-786).
Knowledge Digraph Contribution Analysis (Golden, 2005).

March 1, 15, 29, April 5, 12, 19: To be Decided