Professor Dr. Meredyth Daneman

Biography

Meredyth Daneman's primary research program is concerned with developing ways to measure, understand, and improve reading comprehension skills. The assumption underlying her approach is that the major determinants of comprehension are the text and the reader. Her past research focused primarily on the contributions of the reader, while her current investigation centers on the contributions of the text and reading situation, specifically aiming to establish the degree of text difficulty that constrains reading time to produce optimal levels of comprehension. Daneman's early individual-differences research emphasized measuring readers' working memory capacity and establishing its correlates with reading comprehension. Her latest research explores the application of working memory theory to enhance comprehension in educational settings. She is also involved in investigating sensory-cognitive factors contributing to age-related declines in speech and language comprehension, focusing on the complex interactions between cognitive and perceptual factors affecting comprehension, especially under realistic conditions. This research aims to provide insights into why older adults experience difficulties comprehending speech compared to younger individuals.

Research Interests