Abstract
We prepared 2 error detection tasks, one involving global errors, that is, errors related to core information about the overall content, and the other, local errors, or errors relating to information peripheral to the main content. The second experiment included a doze test, in which participants had to fill in an appropriate word, basing their choice on information in the context of the deleted word. Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders participated in 2 experiments in which they tried to find inconsistencies in texts. Children with high doze test scores detected more errors, which suggests that the ability to interpret a sentence in terms of its context is related to error detection. Global-error detection was easier than local-error detection, which suggests that core informtion about the content, which is connected to much other information in the text, is easier to retrieve than more peripheral information. Fourth graders, however, showed no difference between the 2 error detection tasks. Moreover, cloze test scores did not completely explain the age difference in global-error detection rate. These results suggest that both the ability to interpret a sentence according to its context, and the ability to generate macrostructure that is easy to retrieve, develop in late childhood.
