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12I.V. Bogoslovskaya
INVESTIGATION OF TEXT COMPREHENSION PECULIARITIES: MEASURING OF INDIVIDUAL DISTINCTIONS
Keywords: text comprehension, extroverts and introverts, Myers-Briggs questionnaire, associative fields, semantic space, cognitive space, universal and specific features, word and text meaning operation, stereotype level.
Abstract: Strategies of verbal behavior extrovert/introvert are the subject of the research. The aim is to define specificity and universality of nonfiction text difficulties and comprehension according to the readers psychological type. The main methods are the associative context experiment with the registration of the primary response, quantitative analysis, and the method of denotative analysis, descriptive-comparative method. questionnaire of Myers-Briggs based on theoretical research is used as the research tool of psychological type of the Testers. The article reveals the suggestive potential of the text and justify the extensive comparative studies, the results obtained allow us to enrich significantly the portrait image of a native speaker.
Ключевые слова: понимание текста, экстраверты/интроверты, опросник Майерс-Бриггс, ассоциативные поля, семантическое пространство, когнитивное пространство, универсальные и специфические особенности, уровень стереотипности.
Аннотация: Предметом исследования выступают стратегии вербального поведения экстравертов/интровертов (испытуемых, принадлежащих к разным психологическим типам^. Цель заключается в определении универсальных и специфических особенностей процесса понимания компонентов сложности научно-популярного текста с учетом личностных различий испытуемых. Основными методами являются ассоциативный контекстный эксперимент с регистрацией первичного ответа, количественный анализ; наблюдение; метод денотативного анализа, описательно-сопоставительный метод, в качестве инструмента исследования психологического типа испытуемых был использован опросник Майерс-Бриггс, в основе которого лежат теоретические исследования. Статья раскрывает суггестивный потенциал текста и обосновывают проведение широких сопоставительных исследований, полученные результаты позволяют значительно обогатить портретный образ носителя языка.
Research tasks that can be solved with quantitative and qualitative analysis of the associative field structure dealt with the study of the words and text meaning operation difference between extroverts and introverts. The experience of many researchers was considered and the most extensive comparative analysis was carried out during the associations investigation.
The working hypothesis of the study is that bi-directional specificity of operation of the word meaning is transformed into universality under the influence of the context. A necessary condition for the transformation of specificity into universality is the text.
Readers individual mindsets are leveled off during the text comprehension. Universality of comprehension strategies of the Testers suggests the equivalence of established complexities of the text for different types of Testers.
The aim of our research was to define specificity and universality of nonfiction text difficulties comprehension according to readers psychological type. Thus, the first step was to measure psychological types of all Testers. There are a lot of different procedures and techniques for measuring certain quality of a testee. We have chosen the social-psychological typology created by G. Jung which let us know Testers' interior life.
The questionnaire of Myers-Briggs follows through with G. Jung theory about individual proneness and explains, characterizes individual peculiarities. This questionnaire (MBTI) was worked out on the basis of G. Jung ideas at the end of 50s in XX century. The author created a psychological tool for the individual peculiarities description. The questionnaire is based on the opposition exposure which reflects mental process of perception and information processing.
The base of the typology is the notion of "mindset and function". According to G. Jung, mindsets don't exist independently and there are both mindsets in every person, but the dominating mindset is a principal one, another is secondary. Combination of dominating and secondary mindsets identifies person type.
Existence of four processes (S, N, T, F) is shown in the questionnaire. The scales of important individual proneness were formed, namely: extraversion -introversion, sensory ability -
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intuition, way of thinking - feeling, decision making -perception. Oppositions combination makes up 16 behavior types.
Questionnaire scales show individual distinctions in information perception and making decision and there are specific dynamic relationships between questionnaire scales. All the processes and mindsets are involved in individual behavior, but gravitation to one of the poles occurs.
Individual psychological type can be described by a formula of 4 letters ( E/I, S/N, T/F, J/P =ESTJ, INFP) - each letter indicates the domination pole at each scale: extraversion or intro-version(1st letter), sensory ability or intuition (2nd letter), way of thinking or feeling (3rd letter), decision making or perception (4th one). Every type is characterized by dominant and secondary processes. One function usually dominates considerably and one more relatively developed is secondary. The more dominant and secondary are developed and conscious the more their oppo-sites are unconscious.
An extravert uses their dominant process dealing with external world while secondary process is used to relate to the inner world. The dominant process of an introvert is introspective, the secondary one is used for external world. So we can see secondary process is developing to balance perception and evaluation of information.
In comparison with others this questionnaire has some advantages but there is no one which can discover the complexity of human nature. Application of this questionnaire seems to be rather wide. Testers answer 94 questions and then through machine processing the explanation of rate is known. In such a way all rates were divided in two groups - extraverts and introvert.
The research has been carried out on the material of russian nonfiction texts. Revealing the extent and depth of comprehension of the texts by Testers required building denotative graphs on the original texts and the texts obtained from the Testers. To describe associative fields 74600 associative responses obtained from 373 stimulus words and phrases were analyzed. The algorithm of words selection was based on the detecting areas of difficulties in the text. Such areas of difficulties were indicators of areas of misunderstanding. Detecting areas of difficulties in the texts is based on denotative analysis proposed by A. I. Novikov.
An experimental list of stimulus words and phrases consisted of four groups of words. They were key words, terms, and words that belong to the vocabulary core of a person. The list also included the words selected according to the results of Testers' work with texts: at one stage of the experiment Testers were asked to make up the texts of the parts. The texts were cut into fragments by the researcher (the author's sequence of paragraphs was thereby broken down), and during the presentation of the test parts were mixed. Thus, "problem" paragraphs were identified.
The "problem" in the work called the paragraphs that "travel" in the text i.e. the testers could not connect these paragraphs with those that precede or follow them according to the author's ideas. As the result the testers themselves have identified the words that were at the junction of the difficulties found in the text. These words were also included in the associative experiment.
The information base of any person occurs through the word - only the word allows us to capture the experience of previous generations completely. Initially, the individual must learn the ideas of previous generations, and only on this basis formation of his own system of thoughts occurs. To participate in this process it is necessary that the intellectual work of one man be transferred to another person.
And this is the direct mission of the language, which is a kind of gear. Speech is a channel of communication and comprehension becomes the reinforcement of communication, without which the communication is terminated. Thus, the lexicon is the means of accessing the information
base and, accordingly, reflects the systemic nature of human knowledge about the surrounding world and his characteristic patterns and relationships [3: 157].
Given that the lexicon is a tier structure (this hypothesis was expressed by A. A. Zalevskaya), with each tier corresponds to a particular stage of verbal and cognitive activity, one can imagine that the internal lexicon is a complex system of "tiered repeatedly intersecting fields.
In these fields, information is stored in an orderly manner "ready to use". It is necessary to launch this multi-tiered mechanism [6: 267]. A. A. Zalevskaya calls a word as "center of relations bundle, directly leading to the products of numerous acts of deep predication, which together with ties along the lines of sound and graphical forms of a word gives a multidimensional system of relations" [4: 55].
Each word is characterized by a certain level of activity, and the relationship between words delivers this activity from one word to another. In addition, the word can store the total activity during some time. Thus, the operation of the lexicon is a "branching process. At any moment words may become available for a linear processing device with probability determined by the ratio of the accumulated activity of this word to the sum of all such activities in the lexicon" [3: 64].
The activity of the words is determined by information, thought processes, and the interaction of units of the lexicon.
The system of knowledge which a perceived word is in "is backlit" by the subconscious level of a person during the perception of the word.
Text perception is accompanied by certain mental operations, providing the recipient a constant orientation. This orientation is carried out in two spaces simultaneously: in the semantic space of the text and the cognitive space of thinking.
Both these spaces must be covered by some anchor points - "contact points" - such common elements on which these spaces can be interprojected to form integral structure of content during the process of comprehension. This is reflected in the fact that in the text perception the reader constantly needs to know what it is about, what sub-theme or sub sub-theme must be in the operative memory even if it is not indicated explicitly. Orienting in the space of sub-theme or sub sub-theme the reader should also determine the coordinates of these units in the cognitive space. Due to the above reasons this orientation can be broken and lead to comprehension difficulties. Comparison of quantitative parameters obtained from the extraverts and introverts showed that areas of difficulty encountered by the experimenter in the text constitute identical areas of misunderstanding for extraverts and introverts.
The analysis carried out leads to the conclusion that comprehension of nonfiction text often is only "the illusion" of comprehension, not a full and deep comprehension. Experimental material obtained from testers belonging to different psychological types suggests that the illusion of ease comprehension is a characteristic of the testers of both types.
Associative field structures of extroverts and introverts have both universal and specific features, which in turn indicates the universal and specific features of the word semantic development of the introverts and extraverts.
Associative fields are generated on the basis of information contained in the dictionary article. As an example, let's consider the content of the article, based on the reactions of a group of extroverts on the stimulus word GIDROMOTOSKI.
GIDROMOTOSKI: water 20; sports 11; the sea; the motor 3; batten; skis; don't know; rest; instrument; speed; snow; equipment; equipment 2; aggregate; device; delirium; fast; fun; water technology; water skiing; jet; wave; rattles; an item; a detail of the machine; the Board with the motor; land; winter; interesting; some thing; some invention; skate; knee; ski; motor boat; powerful; male; incomprehensible; innovation; ocean; to drive; pan; scooter; complex technique; snowmobile "Buran"; snowboarding; means of transportation; technical derision; pleasure; installation; nonsense; Eureka; powerhouse1; 100+55+5+40.
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The core of such associative field will be three most frequent responses with quantitative indicators: 20, 11 and 3. The next turn will reflect the words with a frequency of "2", i.e. 2*9=18. The third turn shows a single reaction in a quantity of 40. Sector "refusal" completes the picture - the number in the last turn displays the number of subjects that responded with a refusal. We also track the quantitative composition of the core and the number of turns in each field.
The table let us see the difference in the associative behavior of extroverts and introverts on the basis of comparison of the number of turns of each associative field. We see that fields with the lowest number of turns - 4 characterize extroverts. These indicators of extroverts are higher than those of introverts. The indicators of extraverts decrease - the frequency of their occurrence decreases due to the increase of the number of turns. Spiral with five turns were in associative fields of introverts. In addition, spiral with seven turns were registered into introverts' associative field, which have never been recorded in the associative fields of extroverts.
Table
Summary table of the turns number and the frequency of their occurrence_
Number of turns up The frequency of occurrence of a given number of turns up of extroverts ; frequency of occurrence of a given number of is up of introverts
4 10 5
5 6 9
6 3 3
7 0 2
The analysis of the responses received suggests that the search for words in Testers' memory of both groups occurs most often with regard to the semantic attribute, the total number of formal responses is negligible. The analysis of experimental data revealed that responses with paradigmatic type of relationship are dominated in the testers' responses of both groups. The indicator of introverts syntagmatic responses is higher. Word-formation responses in the total mass of analyzed responses are negligeable, The way of new word formation of the extraverts and introverts are similar.
The basis for the study of the responses stereotype level was the assumption that it can be associated with the typological characteristics of the testers. Experimental data allow us to mark different levels of extraverts and introverts stereotypes. It was recorded that the extroverts responses have a higher stereotype level as compared with the introverts responses. The associative fields of introverts are characterized by a large number of different and individual responses.
Analyzing the strategies that were used by testers in text comprehension , we can note that the set of strategies for the representatives of different psychological types is characterized by heterogeneity. The success of comprehension is achieved by the difference in the use of comprehension strategies by extraverts and introverts, in particular strategies of local coherence, production strategies, and inference strategy.
The analysis of the obtained responses showed the universal and specific features in the processes of semantic development in testers belonging to different psychological types. Universal strategy complexes specific to all groups of testers was defined. Specificity consists in the difference of "N" dominant strategies: the dominance of the process of generalization is illustrative of extraverts, introverts are characterized by the dominance of the process of differentiation.
Objects of comparing and contrasting become the mentality of extraverts and introverts presented in associative-verbal networks, which reflect the text potential of the individual. As can be seen from the analysis of associative responses of introverts and extraverts, a number of associative responses to the same stimuli coincides. It appears from this that the degrees of intellectual activity of introverts and extroverts can be the same. However, recognizing the duality of the medial meaning function, we have seen the priority use of system-wide meaning by extroverts and psychological meaning by introverts.
Associative fields fragments of extroverts and introverts modeled in the experiments are part of the associative-verbal network which reflecting the organization of human linguistic capacity contains information about the levels of linguistic identity. The materials of the experiments indicate the implementation of the main ways of word meaning development. They are hypothesis of generalization, hypothesis of differentiation, prototypes hypothesis, and hypothesis of characterizing- definitive shift.
The distribution of associative search in a specific direction defined by the text prevents the associative movement in other arbitrary directions.
The text is a regulator of "choice freedom" of strategies, as the result of which a matrix of universality observed in the materials of the associative experiment is transformed into the universal matrix, and it is able to neutralize the personality differences of the testers. Verifications of expressed assumptions have been found in the researches carried out by A.A.Reformatski, N.I. Zhinkin, T.Rogozhnikova, R Daminiva.
In our study we compare the individual fields - author's one of nonfiction texts and collective associative fields, obtained in the experiment from the testers. Static equilibrium of relations can be described as smooth surface with many nodes. Collective field, in our view, is characterized by the absence of relations equilibrium, and, consequently, the surface cannot be flat and smooth. In addition, relations equilibrium of the individual's associative field makes it possible to achieve balance and symmetry in the mechanisms of association of Testers with different, moreover, diametrically opposed individual mindset - extraverts and introverts.
In psycholinguistic studies the lexicon is treated as a hierarchical system consisting of two main layers - deep and surface. Both basic layers consist of many sublayers. At the level of the surface layer relations are installed according to sound and graphical form, length, etc. Units of the deepest layer find a large number of relations on the principle of overlapping or coincidence of content items, such overlapping or coincidence is due to the inclusion in the context the act of deep predications.
Existing semantic and logical rules of text formation reduce the number of combinations of selected words that gradually transforms a multi-level system into a single-layer.
Given the text-forming potential of associative field we can consider it as a text and schematically it can be presented as networks (our memory forms a system of interrelated elements), so any text is to present a network. The dome of such network should be presented as the plateau as in the text everything is inferior to semantic and process of comprehension involves only those relations that are in the plane of the text: text combination of words does not allow the mind to go far in the search of some associations, as it occurs in the associative experiment.
The specificity of psycholinguistic interpretation of the word meaning is to study the internal context of words based on perceptual, cognitive, affective experience of the individual, taking into account external (verbal or situational) context. From the perspective of this interpretation the word is a means of output to an individual picture of the world in all its diversity of objects, links and relations between them.
проелемы современного осрпзоопнип
Double mediative function of the word meaning is manifested in bi-directional specificity of operation of the word meaning. During the research we found that the system-wide meaning will appear when strategy of generalization is used, the psychological meaning will appear if the strategy of differentiation is used.
This analysis allows us to conclude that the use of opposite strategies occurs regardless of Testers types. As you can see, in the process of text comprehension a set of strategies included in the universal complex of strategies are not only kept but there is a strategies transition from specific into universal, that is, there is an increase of universal complex of strategies by adding strategies of generalization and differentiation to the strategies of characterizing-definitive shift and typing strategies.
In the conclusion it should be mentioned that the text part of the experiment helped debunk the myth of comprehension ease of nonfiction text. The inability of the Testers to answer the questions after reading the text, gives us reasons to speak about the existence some areas of misunderstanding in the text.
Using a variety of traditional techniques for experimental psycholinguistic research was aimed at identifying the extent and depth of text comprehension by the Testers. The results obtained in the study of the difficulties of text comprehension have been have grouped into the associative fields and subjected to the same analysis as the responds of the associative experiment.
This confirmed the conclusion about the high stereotype level of extrovert made in associative experiment. But the analysis of the strategies used by the Testers in the text part of the experiment showed a difference of verbal strategic behaviour of the testes.
The Testers of both types used all strategies without restrictions. In this part of the experiment the using of "their" strategies was not recorded as clear as it was in the associative experiment. Specificity, observed in the associative experiment, ceased to be such and turned into universality.
According to this it can be concluded that the text having the protection of a technical nature, reflecting the static equilibrium of relations by smooth surface with many nodes, is itself a powerful external objective condition, which is able to smooth out certain personality traits.
Thus concept developed reveals the principle of the transformation of the bi-directional specificity of word operation in individual lexicon into an unidirectional versatility of words operation in the text. The text is declared as the controller of strategies choice and its impact leads to "dissolution" of individual differences in the process of comprehension.
References
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