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Previous research has shown that empathy influences reading comprehension, and the current research builds further on these results. It examines whether emotional stories lead to more text comprehension than neutral stories; whether empathy influences text comprehension of stories that tend to elicit emotion and; whether working memory moderates this relation. Text comprehension is measured during reading (online processes) and after the reading is finished (offline processes). The stories are read by 54 Psychology- and Pedagogical Sciences students, by the use of a self-paced reading paradigm. After the reading was finished, all participants answered several questions about the texts. They also filled in two questionnaires regarding their levels of empathy and they made a working memory test. The analyses have shown that, in accordance with the hypothesis, emotional stories result in more online and offline text comprehension. Contrary to the second hypothesis, empathy does not...Show morePrevious research has shown that empathy influences reading comprehension, and the current research builds further on these results. It examines whether emotional stories lead to more text comprehension than neutral stories; whether empathy influences text comprehension of stories that tend to elicit emotion and; whether working memory moderates this relation. Text comprehension is measured during reading (online processes) and after the reading is finished (offline processes). The stories are read by 54 Psychology- and Pedagogical Sciences students, by the use of a self-paced reading paradigm. After the reading was finished, all participants answered several questions about the texts. They also filled in two questionnaires regarding their levels of empathy and they made a working memory test. The analyses have shown that, in accordance with the hypothesis, emotional stories result in more online and offline text comprehension. Contrary to the second hypothesis, empathy does not have a significant effect on online and offline text comprehension of emotional stories. Working memory seems to moderate the relation between empathy and text comprehension of emotional stories, which corresponds to the third hypothesis. The overall conclusion is that emotional stories are read faster than neutral stories, but the remaining question is whether shorter reading times reflect better text comprehension. Besides that, the role of empathy is still doubtful, because the effects differ between online and offline text comprehension and it also seems to depend on working memory.Show less

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Het verband tussen inlevingsvermogen en tekstbegrip