Compréhension

Compréhension is the ability to grasp the meaning, significance, or relationships expressed in information, speech, or phenomena. In educational and cognitive contexts, it refers to understanding ideas, texts, arguments, or events, and to making inferences or connections beyond explicit statements. The term derives from Latin comprehendere, meaning to seize together, via Old French comprendre.

Cognitive foundations and processes. Comprehension depends on decoding input, activating relevant prior knowledge, and constructing an integrated mental representation of content. Key components include vocabulary, syntax, working memory, and the use of inferences to bridge gaps in information. Theories of comprehension range from bottom-up accounts, which emphasize parsing linguistic cues, to top-down and constructivist accounts, which stress the role of prior knowledge and expectations. Most contemporary views regard comprehension as an interactive process that blends these elements.

In education, comprehension is a central goal, especially in reading. It relies on decoding skills, lexical knowledge, textual coherence, and background knowledge. Effective instruction often promotes strategies such as predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and making connections between the text and the reader’s experiences. Assessment typically involves measures of main ideas, details, inferences, and the ability to reinterpret information.

Barriers and supports. Challenges to comprehension include limited vocabulary, insufficient background knowledge, high cognitive load, poor text cohesion, and unfamiliar genres or formats. Interventions emphasize explicit instruction, guided practice, and activities that activate schemas and promote metacognitive awareness. Beyond pedagogy, comprehension is a focal topic in linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence, related to how systems interpret and explain information.