Memória de trabalho e retenção de informações lidas em diferentes contextos de leitura

Abstract

Several independent studies have investigated the effects of working memory capacity, prior knowledge (in this study explored as topic familiarity) and reading purpose on text comprehension, whether in L1, L2, in digital or printed media (Jaegui, et al., 2012; Fujii; Weissheimer, 2017; Baretta; Guará-Tavares, 2018; McNamara et al., 2011; Priebe et al., 2012; Oliveira, 2015; Broek et al, 2001; Linderholm; Broek, 2002; Horiba; Fukaya, 2015, among others). However, until the present moment, a study that assesses immediate and delayed retention under conditions that simultaneously addresses working memory capacity, prior knowledge and reading purpose from the perspective of Experimental Psychology and Experimental Linguistics is something that, in light of our investigations, still has few answers or even remains unexplored. Thus, in light of the panorama outlined, this study has the general objective of investigating how text retention (immediate and delayed), among readers with lower and higher working memory spans, varies according to different reading contexts (that involve the presence and absence of topic familiarity, established reading purpose, as well as the presence and absence of both). To this end, a population of 40 students from the Federal University of Ceará and the Federal Institute of Ceará underwent data collection that consisted of two working memory tests (a verbal and a non-verbal one), reading of four different texts in four different contexts and their respective written retellings immediately and one day after reading the texts. The results indicated compensatory effects of topic familiarity, reading purpose, as well as cumulative effects of both of these cognitive facilitators on immediate retention of readers with lower memory spans, to the point of contributing to balanced levels of immediate retention among the different memory groups. In addition, compensatory effects were also observed on delayed retention of readers with lower working memory spans, but only cumulative effects of both topic familiarity and reading purpose were able to balance the levels of delayed retention between readers with lower and higher working memory spans. Effects of tak repetition as a kind of cognitive training were also considered, in both memory groups. The results were discussed in light of the literature in the fields of the most influential reading models, as well as the stages of reading processing within a psycholinguistic view, in the area of studies on working memory capacity and its relationship with reading, prior knowledge and reading purpose (Kintsch and Van Dijk, 1978; Van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983; Baddeley, 2000; Rumelhart, 1980; McNamara et al.,

1996; Smith et al., 2021; Broek et al, 2001; Linderholm; Broek, 2002; Horiba; Fukaya, 2015, among others). Pedagogical implications were also pointed out, highlighting that pedagogically structured reading contexts with the insertion of cognitive facilitators can balance individual differences in working memory capacity, which supports the proposal of differentiated teaching that admits that everyone, despite their individual cognitive differences, can achieve high levels of performance if reading conditions are adequately planned and structured.