In this study, we investigated which section of a page was difficult for students to read, based on eye movement data and subjective impressions of the page's difficulty, with the aim of helping teachers revise teaching materials. It is problematic to manually model relationships between eye movements and subjective impressions of the page's…

This report, presented at the symposium "Deaf Readers: Clues to the Role of Sound in Reading," addresses the nature of phonological recoding--use of the inner voice in silent reading--for deaf readers. Studies are reported on the forms in which deaf readers recode the printed text. Findings noted include that deaf readers--specifically, second…

In an investigation similar to the early Secor (1900) and Pintner (1913) studies, a verbal distractor was used to demonstrate that comprehension of written materials, though reduced, was not completely disrupted when mature readers engaged in an irrelevant articulation exercise. Twelve undergraduate and graduate subjects participated in two…

This paper is the introduction to an inquiry into the relationship of post-structural reader theories to cognitive theories in the study of educational media. Basic concepts in reader and cognitive theories are defined, including the notions of "meaning" and "learners." Similarities and differences in the theories are…

Information processing models indicate that learning occurs in the interaction of three systems: perceptual (receiving information), memory (selective storing of information), and performance (using the processed information). The three systems working together affect each other and together demonstrate learning. Reading, then, is the organization…

Theories of reading development may be grouped into roughly two opposing categories, depending on where the source of reading control is assumed to be located. "Outside-in" theories, those characterized by the notion that reading is a hierarchical series of decisions dependent on structured discrimination of print material, clearly predominate.…

A study investigated the effect of providing students with varying forms of feedback during reading on students' estimates of understanding, actual comprehension scores, and students' use of rereading and reading rate adjustment. The 67 subjects were presented with passages to read, and their reading behavior was monitored via computer. Although…

A study tested the hypothesis that readers continually evaluate the informational content of text in terms of its relevance to processing goals and congruence with existing knowledge, and that they prioritize this information in terms of its strategic importance to the task at hand, integrating it with existing schemata when it is compatible.…

In an investigation of the "shaping" function of postquestions in prose and of a new methodological approach, fifth-grade children read forty text cards, each consisting of four attributive statements. Each card was followed by an experimental question, which during training tested information related to specified concepts or positions, or…

This study was designed to determine whether adults' memory for pictorial and word stimuli might be differentially affected by age. Twenty female secretaries, median age 22.1, and 20 female members of a senior citizens' center, median age 69.4, were asked to learn lists of pictorial and word stimuli under free recall conditions. Eight trials were…

If motivation to read fails to develop, reading failure is the outcome. All of us have very delicately balanced neural systems for integrating incoming sensory inputs, evaluating their significance in the light of past experience, and storing the learning for future use. Autistic and hyperkinetic children apparently have unbalanced neurological…

A study using a biasing paradigm examined four hypotheses regarding specific mechanisms thought to underlie the Assimilation-plus-Correction (A-C) theory of schema-text interactions. According to this theory, the ideas implied by a schema (type-1 ideas) are thought to be assimilated and obscured, while those ideas representing novel information…

This study examined the value of the Read-Encode-Annotate-Ponder (REAP) procedure as a teaching/learning strategy, focusing on its use of written annotations designed to achieve specific learning objectives. Subjects were 105 students in six college reading/study skills classes who were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: the…

The process model of reading suggests that even the effective reader makes recurring regressions to lower levels of functioning when faced with unfamiliar topics or texts. The gradual formulation of new linguistic and cognitive structures necessitated by the task of reading is similar to the acquisition of language, and the process model suggests…

Instructional Feature Analysis allows teachers to explain, articulate, and evaluate the processes by which students learn and the activities that involve students in those processes. To develop an Instructional Feature Analysis, teachers must first ask what processes their students need to engage in if they are to learn from a reading assignment.…