1. Current Research in the Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory Reading Background, Understandings of Reading, Self- Perception as Reader, and Reading Behaviors in Adult Competent Readers Emily Fox These case studies of four competent adult readers aim at a description of competent adult reading that incorporates interview data on readers' backgrounds, understandings of reading, and perceptions of themselves as readers in relation to theoretically and empirically-based profiles of possible competent reader types, together with task-based data on their reading behaviors and outcomes produced under conditions of varying levels of topic knowledge and interest. Key findings include the persistence of childhood experiences and identities, the difficulty of talking about reading knowledge, a tension around the roles of academic and personal reading, and a potential influence of graduate school training on reading for information and reading critically, along with the concomitant influence of earlier reading experiences and identity formation as a reader. Two reader profiles (out of 12 offered) emerged as focal for participants in identifying their own reader type. Analogy, Anomaly, Antithesis, and Antimony: Development of a Test of Relational Reasoning Denis Dumas and Patricia A. Alexander Relational Reasoning is any cognitive procedure applied to recognizing or deriving meaningful relations or patterns between and among pieces of information that would otherwise appear unrelated. So much of human learning and performance in predicated on the ability to engage in relational reasoning, yet measures of this foundational process are not present within the literature. For this reason, we are engaged in the development and validation of a measure of relational reasoning that assesses four forms of relational reasoning: analogy, anomaly, antithesis, and antimony. As this measure is validated, our ability to accurately describe, assess, and ultimately teach these abilities will grow. Eventually, a study pertaining to the explicit teaching of relational thinking strategies may be an important next step in this program of research. Conceptions of Knowledge, Information, and Truth in Elementary School and Middle School Students Emily M. Grossnickle, Alexandra List, & Patricia A. Alexander It is crucial to understand how young students, living in an information-saturated culture, think about knowledge and information and their veracity. Although studies of epistemic beliefs have historically focused on undergraduates’ epistemic beliefs, this study used a novel task to uncover beliefs about knowledge, information, truth (KIT), and their interrelations in younger learners. These students were able to convey their ideas about KIT in meaningful ways, providing important insights into students’ beliefs. This study will track these students over time to examine developmental changes in students’ beliefs about KIT. "I was looking for the answer": Investigating the Effects of Domain and Question Type on Multiple Source Use Alexandra List, Emily M. Grossnickle, and Patricia A. Alexander This study examined students' multiple source use when responding to discrete and open-ended academic questions in the domains of developmental psychology and astrophysics using a library of sources. Sources were selected to represent a variety of text types and to differ in their reliability. Data tracing students’ navigational path was collected. Significant differences by question type were found in the number of sources students accessed and duration of use. Further, participants' rating of source utility, trustworthiness, familiarity and accessibility differed by question type. Examining Trans-Symbolic and Symbol-Specific Processes in Poetry and Painting Sandra M. Loughlin A newly-articulated theory of comprehension, the Trans-Symbolic Comprehension framework (TSC; Loughlin & Alexander, 2012) posits that every act of comprehension, regardless of the symbolic encoding of the composition, entails both general and trans-symbolic processes that are particular to a given symbol system (i.e., symbol-specific comprehension processes). However, to date, the TSC has not been tested empirically. This study interrogates the TSC framework by comparing the comprehension processes individuals use to understand a poem and a painting in an effort to determine which, if any, comprehension processes are shared across contexts and which, if any, are unique to each. Approximately 32 upper division English and Art education students will report the processes they plan to use to understand a painting and a poem, and then will verbalize their thoughts while actually studying those compositions using think aloud protocol (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). Overlap and Divergence in Mapping Different Levels of Epistemic Competence Emily Fox, Liliana Maggioni, & Patricia A. Alexander Epistemic competence involves both adaptiveness and consistency, which raises the question: if learners manifest epistemic competence for a given type of task as enacted within a particular context, do they also appear competent with regard to larger-scale beliefs? We looked at high-end outliers on two measures of epistemic beliefs at different levels of specificity, both completed by the same sample of 240 U. S. undergraduates. One type of competence was reflected by a definition of knowledge as some form of justified true belief, while the other form of competence was based on scores on a questionnaire regarding beliefs about text- based inquiry. Only two participants were high-end outliers on both measures, and other features of participants' responses indicated considerable divergence in who looked competent and why, according to these two measures. This suggests issues with regard to how we define, operationalize, and assess epistemic competence. Not All Transfer is Created Equal: Making the Case for Different Types of Transfer Daniel L. Dinsmore, University of North Florida Peter Baggetta, University of Maryland Stephanie Doyle, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Sandra M. Loughlin, University of Maryland Understanding when and how students use knowledge learned in one situation and apply it to another (i.e., transfer) is essential to more efficient and effective learning (e.g., Alexander & Murphy, 1999; Schoenfeld, 1999). Although research on transfer is rather mature, there appears to be little commonality among researchers in how transfer is conceptualized and operationalized (Lobato, 2006; Loughlin et al., 2011). This can often create problems in that evidence for transfer in studies may not be equivalent. The current investigation empirically tests two questions. First, does manipulating what is expected to transfer and where transfer is expected to occur influence individuals’ positive and negative transfer? Second, are prior knowledge and pattern recognition predictive of individuals’ positive or negative transfer? Clarifying Definitions and Measures of Critical Thinking & Clinical Reasoning Lily Fountain The focus of this systematic review of over 40 studies is to analyze definitions and measures of critical thinking and clinical reasoning used in nursing and medicine articles. The clarity, domain specificity, and equivalency of definitions were examined. Measures were coded for operationalization, validity and reliability reports, and type of analysis. A goal of this review is to develop shared understandings of the constructs critical thinking and clinical reasoning that can lead to improved interprofessional communication and research and improved patient outcomes. Reading Comprehension and its Assessment: Aligning Operationalization with Conceptualization of the Construct Taslima Rahman The study explores ways to improve reading comprehension assessments. Current assessments appear misaligned with the leading view of reading comprehension. Further, the measurement model currently applied to synthesize observations of comprehension performance does not take into account the cognitive perspective of the construct when estimating comprehension proficiency. Integrating a theory of comprehension into the measurement model is expected to provide more accurate estimates of reading comprehension proficiency of the readers and improve validity of the inferences made from those estimates.