Preparing readers for texts… my first CogSci colloquium

I attended my first colloquium hosted by the Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota. (Information about the weekly series is available on CogSci’s web site.) Today’s presenter was Michael Mensink, a PhD candidate in Educational Psychology. He presented the results of research (by him and his colleagues) into the ways that the attention of students reading texts can be focused by certain kinds of “prereading questions.” The research is reported in Mensink’s forthcoming dissertation and the following article: Peshkam, A., Mensink, M. C., Putnam, A. L., & Rapp, D. N. (n.d.). Warning readers to avoid irrelevant information: Read More …