Abstract

From the multimodal theoretical perspective of systemic functional linguistics and cognitive psychology developed by Mason et al. (2013), Parodi (2011), Parodi and Julio (2015; 2017), Parodi et al. (2020) and Bateman and Hiippala (2021); and empirical evidence, this study contributes to the limited body of research in the multimodal research line, specifically focusing on multimodal inferential reading competence. To this end, a multisemiotic text -National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (Inei) bulletin was subjected to testing, which was segmented into three independent semiotic artifacts: full original text (TC), text with only graphics (SG), and text with only verbal content (SV). The research objective was to determine which of the three tested artifacts is more efficient for the identification and justification of textual inferences. An intersubject experimental design was employed, with the participation of 235 students from the industrial engineering and social communication programs at a public university in Peru. The results indicate that the original multimodal artifact (TC) and the verbal-only artifact (SV) achieved a higher and better identification of appropriate inferences by industrial engineering students. In other words, they achieve greater success than those in the social communication program. Therefore, it provides empirical evidence of differences in inferential comprehension among students in the mentioned programs, based on the semiotic composition of the texts. © 2024 Eduem - Editora da Universidade Estadual de Maringa. All rights reserved.