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Authors: Charles Spender
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of low-to-moderate complexity [ 26 ]. On the other hand, fluid intelligence is most likely crucial for grasping complex concepts in more difficult texts, such as research articles or college-level textbooks.
The third relevant mental ability is attention control, which includes the ability to maintain attention on an object or subject for extended periods of time. This ability is also known as sustained attention. Academic reading involves keeping one’s attention in the text for hours at a time. Distractibility, or an inability to maintain the focus of attention on the text, impairs reading comprehension and makes learning problematic. We talked about the attention function at length in Chapter Three. That chapter describes some techniques that improve attention in healthy people and maybe in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The fourth mental ability is attention span, also known as working memory or short-term memory. This concept describes how much information a person can hold in memory for short-term use: within seconds to minutes. Information held in working memory is quickly lost or forgotten as opposed to long-term memory where the brain can store information for years. Working memory is crucial for many mental tasks, for example for complex calculations, when a person must hold several numeric values in his/her mind simultaneously in order to perform various manipulations with these data. Copious working memory (good attention span) is necessary for understanding of long sentences or grasping a lengthy argument in a text. Studies have identified different types of working memory, which are more or less independent of each other. For example, people have spatial working memory (deals with shapes and orientation of objects) and verbal working memory (deals with language). This book does not discuss working memory at length and it is unknown whether the techniques described here can improve working memory. Psychostimulant drugs improve some components of working memory in healthy people and in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although these drugs are controlled substances, illegal without prescription. Some of this book’s methods (high-protein diets and cold hydrotherapy) share many similarities with stimulant drugs and, in theory, should improve some components of working memory. Controlled studies and further research are needed in this area. To summarize, good working memory is useful for reading comprehension, especially when it comes to complex texts.
Finally, knowledge of the language of a text is important for good understanding of the text, as is familiarity with the subject matter. This falls under the jurisdiction of the mental ability known as crystallized intelligence, which we talked about in Chapter One. A person with a high level of crystallized intelligence will find it easier to read unfamiliar complex texts compared to people with average intelligence. Vocabulary is an important component of crystallized intelligence, and there are several different approaches to building vocabulary, as you will see later in this chapter. We will talk about some other techniques that deal with crystallized intelligence in the next section. The proposed techniques are appropriate for high-school students and people with higher levels of education. For techniques that can improve reading comprehension in preschoolers and grade school students, readers can visit government websites such as the website of the National Reading Panel in the United States.
Key points:
Good reading comprehension requires good functioning of such mental abilities as alertness, fluid intelligence, attention control, and attention span (working memory).
Good reading comprehension also requires knowledge of the language of a text (vocabulary) and prior knowledge of the basics of the subject matter (including special vocabulary).
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Key points:
You
The third relevant mental ability is attention control, which includes the ability to maintain attention on an object or subject for extended periods of time. This ability is also known as sustained attention. Academic reading involves keeping one’s attention in the text for hours at a time. Distractibility, or an inability to maintain the focus of attention on the text, impairs reading comprehension and makes learning problematic. We talked about the attention function at length in Chapter Three. That chapter describes some techniques that improve attention in healthy people and maybe in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The fourth mental ability is attention span, also known as working memory or short-term memory. This concept describes how much information a person can hold in memory for short-term use: within seconds to minutes. Information held in working memory is quickly lost or forgotten as opposed to long-term memory where the brain can store information for years. Working memory is crucial for many mental tasks, for example for complex calculations, when a person must hold several numeric values in his/her mind simultaneously in order to perform various manipulations with these data. Copious working memory (good attention span) is necessary for understanding of long sentences or grasping a lengthy argument in a text. Studies have identified different types of working memory, which are more or less independent of each other. For example, people have spatial working memory (deals with shapes and orientation of objects) and verbal working memory (deals with language). This book does not discuss working memory at length and it is unknown whether the techniques described here can improve working memory. Psychostimulant drugs improve some components of working memory in healthy people and in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although these drugs are controlled substances, illegal without prescription. Some of this book’s methods (high-protein diets and cold hydrotherapy) share many similarities with stimulant drugs and, in theory, should improve some components of working memory. Controlled studies and further research are needed in this area. To summarize, good working memory is useful for reading comprehension, especially when it comes to complex texts.
Finally, knowledge of the language of a text is important for good understanding of the text, as is familiarity with the subject matter. This falls under the jurisdiction of the mental ability known as crystallized intelligence, which we talked about in Chapter One. A person with a high level of crystallized intelligence will find it easier to read unfamiliar complex texts compared to people with average intelligence. Vocabulary is an important component of crystallized intelligence, and there are several different approaches to building vocabulary, as you will see later in this chapter. We will talk about some other techniques that deal with crystallized intelligence in the next section. The proposed techniques are appropriate for high-school students and people with higher levels of education. For techniques that can improve reading comprehension in preschoolers and grade school students, readers can visit government websites such as the website of the National Reading Panel in the United States.
Key points:
Good reading comprehension requires good functioning of such mental abilities as alertness, fluid intelligence, attention control, and attention span (working memory).
Good reading comprehension also requires knowledge of the language of a text (vocabulary) and prior knowledge of the basics of the subject matter (including special vocabulary).
[ Previous ][ Next Key Points ]
Key points:
You
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