What's Your Pleasure? Exploring the Predictors of Leisure Reading for Fiction and Nonfiction

Leisure reading is associated with several important educational and cognitive benefits, and yet fewer and fewer young adults are reading in their free time. To better study what drives leisure reading in undergraduates, we developed the Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) scale. The PoLR investigates key predictors of leisure reading, namely reading motivations, obstacles, attitudes, and interests. We examined the PoLR’s ability to predict language skills in 200 undergraduates, both directly and indirectly via exposure to fiction and nonfiction texts. Language skills were measured with a diverse battery of tasks, including items from two sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. We found that greater intrinsic reading enjoyment predicts better verbal abilities, and this was often explained via exposure to fiction rather than nonfiction. In contrast, participants who reported reading due to extrinsic pressures typically had weaker verbal abilities, often explained by stronger associations with nonfiction. This pattern was observed across the raw correlations and in a series of path analyses. In sum, it was ‘reading enjoyment’ and ‘identifying as a reader’ that uniquely predicted better verbal abilities in our undergraduate sample. The importance of these findings are discussed in relation to fostering intrinsic reading enjoyment throughout the various stages of formal education.

What’s Your Pleasure? Exploring the Predictors of Leisure Reading for Fiction and Nonfiction

Leisure reading is associated with several important educational and cognitive benefits, and yet fewer and fewer young adults are reading in their free time. To better study what drives leisure reading in undergraduates, we developed the Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) scale. The PoLR investigates key predictors of leisure reading, namely reading motivations, obstacles, attitudes, and interests. We examined the PoLR’s ability to predict language skills in 200 undergraduates, both directly and indirectly via exposure to fiction and nonfiction texts. Language skills were measured with a diverse battery of tasks, including items from two sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. We found that greater intrinsic reading enjoyment predicts better verbal abilities, and this was often explained via exposure to fiction rather than nonfiction. In contrast, participants who reported reading due to extrinsic pressures typically had weaker verbal abilities, often explained by stronger associations with nonfiction. This pattern was observed across the raw correlations and in a series of path analyses. In sum, it was ‘reading enjoyment’ and ‘identifying as a reader’ that uniquely predicted better verbal abilities in our undergraduate sample. The importance of these findings are discussed in relation to fostering intrinsic reading enjoyment throughout the various stages of formal education.

ANALISIS RESPONS BUTIR PADA TES BAKAT SKOLASTIK

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), consisting of both verbal and numerical subtests. We used a descriptive quantitative approach by describing the characteristics of SAT based on the degree of item difficulty, item discrimination index, pseudoguessing index, test information function and standard error measurement. The data are responses of the SAT instrument, collected from 1,047 subjects in Yogyakarta using the documentation technique. Data were then analyzed by Item Response Theory (IRT) approach with the help of the BILOG program on all logistic parameter models, preceded by identifying item suitability with the model. Analysis concludes that: verbal subtest tends to compliment the 2-PL and 3-PL model, meanwhile, numerical subtest only fit the 2-PL model. Majority items of SAT have a good characteristic on index of item difficulty, item discrimination, and pseudoguessing, and based of test information function, SAT is accurate to be used in the 1-PL, 2-PL, and 3-PL IRT models for all level of ability.