This career advancement award will permit Dr. Susan Goldman to acquire new methodological skills relevant to understanding how people learn from written material. In previous work, Goldman provided evidence that readers exhibit a great deal of flexibility in the strategies they use to learn from text. Goldman will study how readers select various strategies by (1) having readers describe and explain their reading behavior, and (2) creating computer models of the reader that vary the knowledge available to the "reader." To do the computer modeling work, Goldman will acquire the necessary skills by studying at two research laboratories where scientists are engaged in this type of work. She will pursue skills in two approaches to modeling, one relying on the assumption that readers have many rules that govern their behavior and a second that makes the assumption that readers operate with very few of these rules. Goldman will spend approximately two months at each research laboratory, devoting the remainder of her time to implementing the project at her home institution. The activities in which Goldman is engaged will enhance understanding of the knowledge requirements of different types of reading material, of the types of strategic knowledge for reading that lead to efficient learning from text, and of how texts can be written to facilitate understanding and learning. Ultimately, the information and the techniques Goldman is developing can be used to assist in the diagnosis and remediation of developmental and adult reading difficulties. Thus, this career advancement award will contribute toward improving independent learning skills and levels of literacy in our society.
