Issues related to research on children's eye movements during reading are discussed. Specifically, the following topics are addressed: (1) basic methodological issues, (2) prior research findings on children's reading, (3) research that is missing in the literature regarding children's eye movements during reading, (4) applied…

The cumulative body of eye movement research provides significant insight into how readers process text. The heart of this work spans roughly 40 years reflecting the maturity of both the topics under study and experimental approaches used to investigate reading. Recent technological advancements offer increased flexibility to the field, providing…

Using Atkinson's Keyword Method--an imagery mnemonic for vocabulary learning--as a vehicle, this paper argues that even the most well-reasoned and explainable psychological outcomes need to be validated empirically. The paper provides 12 examples of applications of the keyword method in which an eminently reasonable cognitive outcome was…

Applies a taxonomy to a review of the methods used to study mental processes in reading that divides the methods into simultaneous or successive and obtrusive or unobtrusive; the taxonomy proved useful in describing encoding and memory processes. (AEA)

States that although the think-aloud method (TAM) is being used with increasing frequency in studying text comprehension, some skepticism of its value remains. Discusses assumptions behind TAM, aspects of comprehension it can reveal, and directions for research using TAM. Argues that TAM is a useful technique for tracking changes in the contents…

The meta-analysis method was used to summarize the findings of 23 studies of the word learning process that had used imagery as an independent variable as either an "imposed" or an "induced" condition. Imposed imagery investigations compared word recall on the basis of the imagery attribute of a word, while induced imagery…

Provides a personal account of the development of the Eye Movement Contingent Display Control research methodology for the study of perceptual and cognitive processes in reading. Suggests that the usefulness of eye movement techniques for studying human cognition is still in its beginning stages. (RS)

M.H. Ashcraft found that people tend to know more properties of items they rate as typical of a category than of items they rate as atypical, suggesting that variations in typicality result from variations in familiarity. Three experiments were designed to challenge this suggestion. The first investigated whether familiarity is necessarily…

Rigorously articulated conversational studies (based on George Kelly's personal construct theory) of the reading of complete texts raise new questions about the cognitive processes by which meaning is attributed to the printed word. Four generative models are examined: probabilistic, phrase structure, transformational, and semantic. No single…

Calls into question the assumptions (1) that those who read unfamiliar text use analytic processing more than do those who read familiar text and (2) that introspective reporting interferes with comprehension. (FL)

Distinguishing between interpretive and formal models of discourse processing and between qualitative and quantitative research, this paper argues that formal models are the analogues of interpretive models, and that the two are complementary. It observes that interpretive models of reading are being increasingly derived from qualitative research…

Noting that current theories of comprehension are based on the assumption that cognitive patterns (schemata) are structural constructs and that credit for the structural assumption is generally given to F. C. Bartlett, this paper suggests that problems concerning the phenomenal nature of the patterning aspect of cognition may be more readily…

This paper is intended to serve as an introduction to text analysis as a research tool and vehicle for improving instruction. In terms of perspective, two major theses are maintained throughout the paper: text analysis should be used within the context of understanding that a multiplicity of variables can influence reader/text interactions, and…

Explores how findings from current cognitive styles research might enlighten reading process and reading instruction researchers. (FL)

Reviews the primary characteristics of eye movements during reading and summarizes four areas: (1) the span of effective vision; (2) integration of information across eye movements; (3) the decision of where to fixate next; and (4) the decision of when to move the eyes. Discusses some current controversies about eye movements and reading. (RS)