A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of priming, using the first of several metaphors with common ground (the relationship or similar characteristics between the subject of a metaphor and the term used metaphorically) to facilitate comprehension of successive related metaphors. Ten groups of three to five metaphors with common…

Three studies were conducted in an attempt to replicate previous research concluding that semantic meaning is accessed in the absence of conscious awareness. A pattern mask was used to interrupt the processing of stimulus words after 30 milliseconds; at this duration subjects were not able to identify the stimulus words or even to determine…

A transactional investigation of reading considers comprehension to be more than the duplication of the author's message. Rather, it entails the readers' interpretation of the textual representation that he or she has constructed. Thus, researchers must ask how the reader duplicated the author's creative role. The goal, in other words, is to…

This report examines the theory that when people understand a text, they create a complex scenario (or model) within which the events described might plausibly occur. In order to study construction and revision of such models, five subjects were given difficult-to-understand texts, and were later asked to discuss the processing they went through…

Two fundamental assumptions guide this survey of recent research on anaphora. The first is that anaphoric expressions do not refer to segments in a text or discourse, but to entities that are assumed to be in the language receiver's mind. The second assumption is that a text serves to suggest the referents for anaphora, as does the nonlinguistic…

Three experiments explored whether recoding to speech during reading occurs before or after lexical access, or not at all. Tests determined the effects of a concurrent shadowing task on lexical information retrieval. Results indicate a model of reading in which speech recoding occurs after lexical access, with temporary word storage. (CHK)

Experiments were done for comprehension and recall using short English texts with a controlled number of words and propositions but differing in the number of word concepts in the text base. Reading time was longer and recall less for texts with more word concepts. (SC)

The first part of this paper on prose analysis explains how structural analysis of text can be used in reading research. This explanation focuses on three methodological uses of prose analysis: (1) the identification of the content and organization of the text for use in a scoring system, (2) the measurement of variations between the text and the…

A study was conducted to find a manipulation that could be performed on a text (roughly analogous to real instructional material) which would lead readers to process that text more efficiently. One-hundred five college students were placed into either an experimental or a control group. Students in the control group were given an unchanged version…

Ninety college students wrote free-recall protocols immediately after reading each of three different passages in a study of how three factors affected the comprehension and recall of expository discourse. The three factors were the order in which a passage was read within a series of passages, the rhetorical predicate structure of the passage…

In a study of individual differences in long-term memory access, university undergraduates verified (1) whether an item was a member of a category; (2) whether two items belonged in the same category; and (3) whether two words had the same name. Reaction times from these tasks were correlated with verbal ability, as measured by performance on a…

A study was conducted to examine the process of the development of knowledge structures concerning events. Specifically, it investigated (1) the ways in which individuals build theories about events as they experience them; (2) the number of events an individual must experience, and how similar those events must be, before he or she begins to…

A dynamic model of reading that represents the processes of gaining idiosyncratic integrated meaning from the silent reading of continuous textual discourse has been developed. It includes the roles of the affective interactions as well as the cognitive connections and integrations energized during the silent reading of a continuous text. The…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of contextual knowledge on comprehension and retention of text material. The subjects were 144 high school students randomly assigned to experimental conditions. The subjects were provided with different types of information about the theme and context of various prose passages, and…