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DISCIPLINARY
COMPREHENSION
LAB

Cognition. Education. Literacy.

Interested in an MS or PhD?

Dr. McCarthy is seeking Master's and Doctoral students for Fall 2024.
 

Interested students can email kmccarthy12 [@] gsu.edu

Our Research

Our goal is to help adolescents and adults to become better students, workers, and citizens.

In the Disciplinary Comprehension Lab, we study the science of learning. We draw from cognitive and educational psychology as well as the learning sciences to examine the following questions:

Studying at Home

What processes and strategies support learning? Are there general strategies or are there differences across contexts?

We examine how different study strategies, like self-explanation and retrieval practice, can help learners to better remember and understand what they read. 

We explore how comprehension processes and strategies might vary across disciplines and how teachers can help students to cultivate discipline-specific comprehension skills.

Modern Classroom

What individual differences affect comprehension and learning?  

We recognize that students come to learning activities with a variety of skills and experiences. We examine how differences in factors such as reading skill, writing skill, prior knowledge, and culture can influence comprehension processes.

Studying

How can we use advances in technology to make learning more effective and equitable?

We use technology to study comprehension processes and consider ways that technological advances can be used to further learning theory.

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