Eileen Kintsch

Research Interests

• The design of theoretically based computer assisted tools for learning from text; 
• The integration of computer educational tools into classroom settings; 
• Assessment of learning from text.

Current Project

Currently, the LSA Research Group, of which I am a member, is developing a method for analyzing natural language, somewhat different from LSA-based approaches. Our plan is to use this methodology as the engine for an automatic tutor that will coach students through the process of deeply understanding difficult science texts.

Previous Projects

As a member of the LSA Research Group, I have been involved in the development and evaluation of the LSA-based educational technology, called Summary Street. The preliminary development of Summary Street was supported by the McDonnell Foundation (Cognitive Studies in Educational Practice Program), and the tool has been widely implemented in Colorado schools. The scale-up and evaluation were funded by NSF-Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI). Summary Street is now part of a commercial educational product, called "WriteToLearn", owned by Pearson Knowledge Technologies.

In addition , I served as a consultant on a project to create interactive computer support for learning to write scientific text. This project was funded by an NSF grant to Larry Greene, Marie Boyko, and Sally Susnowitz.

Selected Publications

Kintsch, E., Caccamise, D., Franzke, M., Johnson, N., & Dooley, S. (2007). Summary Street ® : Computer-guided summary writing. In T. K. Landauer, D. M., McNamara, S. Dennis, & W. Kintsch (Eds.), Latent Semantic Analysis (pp. 263-277). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Caccamise, D., Franzke, M., Eckhoff, A., Kintsch, E., & Kintsch, W. (2007). Guided practice in technology-based summary writing. In: D. McNamara (Ed.), Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies. (pp. 375-396). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Kintsch, E. (2005). Comprehension theory as a guide for the design of thoughtful questions. Topics in Language Disorders, 25 , 51-64.

Kintsch W. and Kintsch, E. (2005). Comprehension. In: S. G. Paris and S. A. Stahl (Eds.), Current issues in reading comprehension and assessment (pp. 71-92). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Franzke, M., Kintsch, E., Caccamise, D., Johnson, N., and Dooley. S. (2005). Summary Street ® : Computer support for comprehension and writing. Journal of Educational Computing Research , 33 , 53-80.

Wade-Stein, D., and Kintsch, E. (2004). Summary Street: Interactive computer support for writing. Cognition and Instruction , 22 , 333-362.

Kintsch, E., Steinhart, D., Stahl, G., LSA Research Group, Cindy Matthews, and Ronald Lamb (2000). Developing summarization skills through the use of LSA-based feedback. Interactive Learning Environments , 8 , 87-109.

Kintsch, E., and Kintsch, W. (1997). Learning from text. In F. E. Weinert and E. de Corte (Eds.) International encyclopedia of developmental and instructional psychology . Elsevier Science.

Kintsch, E., Franzke, M., and Kintsch, W. (1996). Principles of learning in multimedia educational systems . Tech. Rep. No. 96-01). Boulder, CO: University of Colorado, Institute of Cognitive Science.

Curran, C. E., Kintsch, E., and Hedberg, N. (1996). Learning-disabled adolescents' comprehension of naturalistic narratives. Journal of Educational Psychology , 88 (3), 494-507.

McNamara, D. S., Kintsch, E., Butler-Songer, N., and Kintsch, W. (1996). Are good texts always better? Interactions of text coherence, background knowledge, and levels of understanding in learning from text.Cognition and Instruction , 14 (1), 1-43.

Kintsch, E. and Kintsch, W. (1995). Strategies to promote active learning from text: Individual differences in background knowledge . Swiss Journal of Psychology , 54 (2), 141-151.

Kintsch, W., Britton, B. B., Fletcher, C. R., Kintsch, E., Mannes, S. M., and Nathan, M. J. (1993). A comprehension-based approach to learning and understanding. In D. Medin (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation , Vol. 30. New York: Academic Press.

Kintsch, E. (1990). Macroprocesses and microprocesses in the development of summarization skill. Cognition and Instruction, 7 (3), 161-195.