Reading science has reached consensus that background knowledge is essential for reading comprehension. What remains an open question for the science of reading, however, is how and when this background knowledge ought to be developed. Teachers often include activities meant to activate background knowledge immediately prior to read‐alouds. However, these activities also often provide completely new knowledge, the efficacy of which has not been well studied. The goal of the current study was to examine differences in narrative comprehension when background knowledge is activated before reading (i.e., students are reminded of things they already know) versus provided before reading (i.e., students are informed of new information). To that end, 92 participants were tested on familiar information (i.e., activated knowledge), taught novel but relevant information (i.e., provided knowledge), or taught novel but irrelevant information (i.e., neither activated nor provided knowledge) prior to reading a story. Regression analyses showed that whereas students showed basic comprehension no matter when they learned the information, attention and more advanced comprehension skills were more successful when students already knew about a topic and merely had their knowledge activated. This suggests that common prereading activities may not be successful for students who are unfamiliar with the topic. Reading science must continue to explore how to develop this crucial background knowledge.

中文翻译：

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您何时学习的？背景知识如何影响朗读活动中的注意力和理解力

阅读科学已经达成共识，即背景知识对于阅读理解必不可少。然而，对于阅读科学而言，尚待解决的问题是，应如何以及何时开发这种背景知识。教师通常会进行一些旨在在朗读前激活背景知识的活动。但是，这些活动通常也提供了全新的知识，其功效尚未得到很好的研究。当前研究的目的是研究在阅读之前（即提醒学生他们已经知道的事情）激活背景知识与阅读之前（即告知学生新信息）提供的背景知识之间的差异。为此，对92名参与者进行了熟悉信息（即激活的知识）的测试，在阅读故事之前，先讲授新颖但相关的信息（即提供的知识），或讲新颖但无关的信息（即既未激活也不提供知识）。回归分析表明，尽管学生无论何时学习到信息都表现出基本的理解能力，但当学生已经知道一个主题并且仅仅激活他们的知识时，注意力和更高级的理解能力就更加成功。这表明，对于不熟悉该主题的学生，常见的预读活动可能不会成功。阅读科学必须继续探索如何发展这一至关重要的背景知识。回归分析表明，尽管学生无论何时学习到信息都表现出基本的理解能力，但当学生已经知道一个主题并且仅仅激活他们的知识时，注意力和更高级的理解能力就更加成功。这表明，对于不熟悉该主题的学生，常见的预读活动可能不会成功。阅读科学必须继续探索如何发展这一至关重要的背景知识。回归分析表明，尽管学生无论何时学习到信息都表现出基本的理解能力，但当学生已经知道一个主题并且仅仅激活他们的知识时，注意力和更高级的理解能力就更加成功。这表明，对于不熟悉该主题的学生，常见的预读活动可能不会成功。阅读科学必须继续探索如何发展这一至关重要的背景知识。