The role of vocabulary knowledge on inference generation: A meta-analysis

LUCAS STERPIN; SOFÍA SOLEDAD ORTIZ; JESICA FORMOSO; JUAN PABLO BARREYRO

Psychology of Language and Communication

SCIENDO

Año: 2021 vol. 25

1234-2238

Successful text comprehension results in a coherent mental model of the situation beingdescribed. To achieve this, the reader has to infer certain information by connecting partsof the text to their prior knowledge. An important construct involved in this process isvocabulary knowledge, usually divided into breadth and depth. We conducted a metaanalysis on 23 studies, and explored the fit of five different models to establish an effectsize of both dimensions of vocabulary on inference making, as well as its developmentaltrajectory in children aged 3-12. We found a significant and moderate effect of vocabularyknowledge of both modalities. Vocabulary type was not a significant moderator, but agewas, meaning that there was a similar effect for both breadth and depth and that the strengthof the correlations decreased with age. Heterogeneity was high overall, meaning that moremoderators should be assessed in future studies