Reading comprehension

Constructing an integrated interpretation of a text, including its explicit content and relevant inferences. Comprehension can depend on word decoding, vocabulary, working memory and monitoring; the contribution of one should not be inferred by ignoring the others.^[ref]

Knowledge brought to interpreting a text. It can support integration but can also produce answers not warranted by the passage, so text-topic sampling matters.

Deriving information needed to connect or interpret a text beyond what is explicitly stated. Useful inference should be distinguished from unsupported guessing based on background knowledge.

Detection and evaluation of whether a representation of a text is coherent or understood. Noticing an inconsistency and repairing it are distinguishable from correctly answering a literal question.

A component or task demand that limits successful understanding for a particular reader and text. Print access, language knowledge, inference and monitoring are candidate bottlenecks, not mutually exclusive diagnoses.

A model distinguishing decoding and linguistic comprehension as necessary contributors to reading comprehension. The product formulation motivates different profiles with similar aggregate performance, but does not license multiplying arbitrary raw test scores or treating the two components as indivisible mechanisms.^[ref]

In the idealised model $R=DC$, changing decoding by $h$ with comprehension fixed changes the product by $hC$, since $(D+h)C-DC=hC$. Similarly, changing comprehension by $k$ changes it by $kD$. ThusIf either component is zero, increasing only the other leaves the product zero. Equal products can arise from different profiles: $0.3\times 0.9=0.9\times 0.3=0.27$. These algebraic properties explain the model's complementarity; they are not estimates of treatment response or diagnostic cutoffs.

Understanding linguistic content, including word meanings, sentence relations and discourse. The construct is broader than any one listening test.

Understanding connected language beyond an isolated word or sentence, including reference, coherence and relations between events.

Understanding spoken linguistic material. It can help assess language demands separately from print decoding, but also depends on attention, memory and the temporal presentation of speech.