Research on Edited Captions
Detailed Overview

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The project is evaluating effects of edited captions— captions with a slower presentation rate and modified language— on comprehension. For many deaf children, reading is a frustrating experience, and reading captions is challenging. The goal of edited captions is to help children who are not fluent readers have greater success reading captions and understanding a program. If the research results support our hypothesis, this would argue for a second stream of captions on selected children's television programs, in addition to the original "near-verbatim" captions. Media with edited captions could be a new source of age-appropriate materials that match children's reading abilities.

The project is a collaboration between NCAM and researchers at Ohio State University.

The research questions are:

• Is there a difference in children's comprehension scores between the near-verbatim and edited videos?
• Is there an effect due to the type of assessment used?
• What are the children’s preferences and attitudes with respect to the captioned programs in the study and to captioned media in general?

The study is using Arthur, an Emmy-award winning and extremely popular children's program on public television. Under a separate agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, all existing episodes of Arthur have two sets of captions, near-verbatim and edited.

The project is developing 16 videotapes for the study, half with edited captions and half with original, near-verbatim captions. We will set up after-school Arthur Clubs at eight New England schools, involving a total of 38 children. Participating children will be between 7 and 11 years old and read at a 2.0 reading level or higher.

During each Club session, children will watch an Arthur program with either edited or near-verbatim captions, and an examiner will assess each child on his or her comprehension of the story. There will be two types of assessments— one known as QAR, question answer relationships, and a Retell format— to reduce the possibility of the assessment influencing comprehension scores. Approximately three-quarters of the students will be part of a group design and the remaining students will be part of a single-subject design. Both the caption condition— edited and near-verbatim— and the assessment— QAR and retell— will be randomized. To gather qualitative information about children's attitudes towards captioned media, the project will set up a video lending library (which will include both near-verbatim and edited tapes) and ask students about their reasons for choosing particular programs.