The gender gap in reading literacy is repeatedly found in large-scale assessments. This study compared girls’ and boys’ text responses in a reading test applying natural language processing. For this, a theoretical framework was compiled that allows mapping of response features to the preceding cognitive components such as micro- and macropropositions from the situation model. In total, $$n = 33,604$$ responses from the German sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 reading test have been analyzed for characterizing the genders’ typical cognitive approaches. The analyses mainly explored the gender gap by contrasting groups of responses typical for either gender. These gender-specific responses characterize the typical responding of the genders to PISA reading questions. Responses typical for girls contained three to five more proposition entities from the situation model, irrespective of the response correctness. They integrated more relevant propositions and constituted better fits to the question focus. That means, in answering questions which ask for explicit information from the stimulus text, the typical girl responses appropriately encompassed more micropropositions, and typical boy responses tended to include more macropropositions—vice versa for questions requesting implicit information. It appears that typical boy responses to PISA reading questions are characterized by struggling with retrieving and integrating propositions from the situation model. The typical girl liberally juggles these to formulate the responses. The results demonstrate that text responses are a neglected but informative source for educational large-scale assessments made accessible through natural language processing.

中文翻译：

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自动分析文本回复以探索PISA阅读中的性别特定认知

在大规模评估中反复发现阅读识字方面的性别差距。这项研究在采用自然语言处理的阅读测试中比较了男孩和女孩的文字反应。为此，编译了一个理论框架，该框架允许将响应特征映射到先前的认知组件，例如情境模型中的微观和宏观命题。总体而言，已对来自德国2012年国际学生评估计划（PISA）阅读测试样本的回应中的$ n = 33,604 $$进行了分析，以表征性别的典型认知方式。分析主要通过对比两种性别的典型回答来探讨性别差距。这些针对性别的回答是性别对PISA阅读问题的典型回答。女生的典型回答中，从情境模型中又包含三到五个命题实体，而与回答的正确性无关。他们整合了更多相关的命题，并且更适合问题重点。这就意味着，在回答要求从刺激文本中获得明确信息的问题时，典型的女孩回答适当地包含了更多的微观命题，而典型的男孩回答则倾向于包含了更多的宏观命题，反之亦然。看来，典型的男孩对PISA阅读问题的回答的特征是努力从情境模型中检索和整合命题。典型的女孩会随意摆弄这些内容以制定答案。