The development of reading comprehension monitoring ability and its moderating factors among third and fifth grade children

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2026.0853

Abstract

Abstract:

Using eye-tracking and an inconsistency-detection paradigm, this study investigated the development of reading comprehension monitoring in third- and fifth-grade children, and examined the moderating roles of textual relatedness, vocabulary knowledge, and morphological awareness. The results showed that: (1) both third- and fifth-grade children were able to monitor text content effectively, as indicated by significantly longer gaze duration, second reading time, and regression path duration in the inconsistent condition than in the consistent condition; (2) textual relatedness did not moderate the comprehension monitoring process, but semantically related text content improved reading efficiency among third-grade children; and (3) vocabulary knowledge moderated children’s comprehension monitoring, such that children with richer vocabulary repaired inconsistent information more quickly. Although morphological awareness did not exert a direct effect, it could influence comprehension monitoring indirectly through vocabulary knowledge. These findings suggest that third-grade children already demonstrate a certain level of comprehension monitoring ability, and that improvements in this ability are closely associated with vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness.

Key words: comprehension monitoring, vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, semantic relatedness

JIANG Bofan, CHEN Qiyang, CUI Nannan, WU Yan. (2026). The development of reading comprehension monitoring ability and its moderating factors among third and fifth grade children. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 58(5), 853-865.

Figures/Tables 7

References 63

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Experimental condition	Example sentence	Sentence plausibility		Sentence comprehension difficulty
Experimental condition	Example sentence	Teachers	Children	Grade 3	Grade 5
Consistent-Related	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought grapes in the /fruit bowl.	3.53(0.51)	3.20(0.35)	3.45(0.28)	3.52(0.30)
Inconsistent-Related	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought fruit bowl on the /grapes.	1.34(0.27)	1.60(0.38)	2.55(0.50)	2.41(0.50)
Consistent-Unrelated	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought grapes on the /paper towel.	3.08(0.56)	3.07(0.45)	3.26(0.29)	3.32(0.36)
Inconsistent-Unrelated	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought paper towel on the /grapes	1.29(0.27)	1.58(0.33)	2.53(0.50)	2.33(0.58)

Experimental condition	Example sentence	Sentence plausibility		Sentence comprehension difficulty
Experimental condition	Example sentence	Teachers	Children	Grade 3	Grade 5
Consistent-Related	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought grapes in the /fruit bowl.	3.53(0.51)	3.20(0.35)	3.45(0.28)	3.52(0.30)
Inconsistent-Related	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought fruit bowl on the /grapes.	1.34(0.27)	1.60(0.38)	2.55(0.50)	2.41(0.50)
Consistent-Unrelated	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought grapes on the /paper towel.	3.08(0.56)	3.07(0.45)	3.26(0.29)	3.32(0.36)
Inconsistent-Unrelated	After getting home, Mom put the newly bought paper towel on the /grapes	1.29(0.27)	1.58(0.33)	2.53(0.50)	2.33(0.58)

Word type	Example	Strokes	Mean character frequency	Word frequency	Familiarity	Relatedness
Core word	grapes	17.63(3.96)	4.59(0.73)	3.13(0.71)	1.08(0.31)	——
Semantically related word	fruit bowl	16.08(4.27)	4.81(0.57)	2.91(0.70)	1.05(0.24)	3.32(1.05)
Semantically unrelated word	paper towel	16.04(4.09)	4.69(0.71)	3.02(0.80)	1.03(0.18)	2.14(1.26)

Word type	Example	Strokes	Mean character frequency	Word frequency	Familiarity	Relatedness
Core word	grapes	17.63(3.96)	4.59(0.73)	3.13(0.71)	1.08(0.31)	——
Semantically related word	fruit bowl	16.08(4.27)	4.81(0.57)	2.91(0.70)	1.05(0.24)	3.32(1.05)
Semantically unrelated word	paper towel	16.04(4.09)	4.69(0.71)	3.02(0.80)	1.03(0.18)	2.14(1.26)

Condition	Grade 3			Grade 5
Condition	GD	SRT	RPD	GD	SRT	RPD
Consistent-Related	387(231)	470(311)	856(569)	365(198)	427(292)	854(581)
Consistent-Unrelated	397(240)	482(314)	892(591)	378(226)	452(301)	842(565)
Inconsistent-Related	403(240)	554(358)	1066(713)	398(216)	454(285)	956(602)
Inconsistent-Unrelated	428(241)	539(338)	1149(714)	379(224)	463(286)	942(576)