title: Meaning construction and integration in children with hydrocephalus.
abstract: Text comprehension processes were investigated in children with hydrocephalus, a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with good word decoding, but deficient reading comprehension. In Experiment 1, hydrocephalus and control groups were similar in processes related to activating word meanings and using context to enhance meaning. The hydrocephalus group was poorer at suppressing contextually irrelevant meanings. In Experiment 2, the hydrocephalus group had difficulty integrating information from an earlier read sentence to understand a new sentence as textual distance between the two propositions increased, suggesting difficulty in reactivation processes related to comprehension. Results are discussed in relation to cognitive and neurocognitive models of comprehension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1X8. marcia.barnes@sickkids.ca
authors.forename: Marcia A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Faulkner
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dennis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension; D003463:Cues; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values