Abstract
In the present study we examined the ability of American and Chinese undergraduate students to calibrate their understanding of textbook passages translated into their native languages. Students read a series of texts and made predictions of their understanding of each text as well as the number of questions they would be able to answer correctly. Students also made postdictions of their test performance. Chinese students were significantly better than American students in calibrating their understanding of passages and predicting how many comprehension items they would answer correctly. Chinese students also outperformed American students on comprehension tests. All students were able to make more accurate postdictions of comprehension test scores than predictions. Results are related to possible instructional differences between American and Chinese students. Several possible directions for future research are discussed.
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Notes
We used eight passages designed by Zabrucky et al. (2009) in the present study. Two passages were not included in the data analyses due to experimenter error (necessary figures were inadvertently left out).
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank DeWayne Moore at Clemson University for his insightful advice and suggestions during readings of the manuscript. Portions of this work were presented at the annual meetings of the International Reading Association, Chicago, May 2012, and The Comparative and International Education Society, March 2013, New Orleans.
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Commander, N.E., Zhao, Y., Li, H. et al. American and Chinese Students’ Calibration of Comprehension and Performance. Curr Psychol 33, 655–671 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9235-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9235-4