The three papers in this book treat the experimental literature on eye movements in reading and information processing to determine what factors might be manipulated to improve reading efficiency. The first paper discusses control models of eye activity in reading, research data concerning eye activity with reading material, and future directions…

This study examined the ability of junior high school students to use advance information when making semantic category decisions. The subjects, eight good readers and eight poor readers, identified paired words as "same" or "different" in category, with some words more highly associated with the category than others--in the "fruit" category, for…

Describes research done to determine whether there is a statistical relationship between an English as a second language learner's ability to determine a word's morphemes or structural units and his/her ability to comprehend written English text. (SED)

Discusses the emerging assumptions of literature and its teaching that knowledge is made and must be remade by each person. Considers the relationships between the reader and the text, the reader and the reader, and the relationship between texts. (EL)

Employs a well-developed information-processing task to assess the nature of the representation and activitation of letters and geometrical figures and the changes that occur with reading development. (FL)

Investigates the development of children's metacognitive knowledge about reading, its relationship to reading performance, and the influence of using two different interviewing techniques for eliciting information about reading. (FL)

Research on levels of questioning and their effects on learning is reviewed. It is shown that higher level questions facilitate reproductive and productive knowledge, but the reasons why are not clearly understood. An information processing model which accounts for question level effects is discussed. (MH)

This study evaluated the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) characteristics of children assessed for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD referred), children with a Reading Disability (RD), and children in Regular Education (RE). The Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) was used to assess PASS processes for the 119…

A study was conducted to determine the validity of the Op-In procedure in measuring global comprehension and to identify patterns of integrative thinking similar to those of pilot study subjects. The Op-In procedure is a type of cloze procedure that deletes every other sentence ending from a passage. Three sixth grade level scientific passages…

In order to study why students have difficulty learning from science textbooks, this study investigated how middle school students use textbooks and how their thinking about one science concept (photosyntheis) was influenced by the reading of three different science texts. One of the texts used was an experimental one written to challenge and…

A review of literature reveals a need to explicitly incorporate critical thinking skills in the college curriculum. Recent research and theories of reading provide some insight into cognitive processes that would provide a basis for study about how to foster critical thinking. Schema theory, in particular, provides a view of cognition that relies…

Noting the growing interest in recent years in the use of mentalistic measures in studying the reading process, this paper draws upon findings of studies conducted at the Hebrew University in Israel to show how mentalistic measures have been used effectively in reading research. Following a discussion of the unique role mentalistic data can play…

Recent research suggests that an understanding of a simple children's story can demand sophisticated knowledge of concepts, social life, and literary forms. A well-written story for beginning readers will relate goal-directed event sequences in a coherent and relatively complete form, but understanding the story involves processes extending beyond…

Two studies examined how the factors of content-relevant knowledge and text organization influence students' abilities to study and to remember text information. The first experiment examined the effect of prior content knowledge on students' ability to identify important information in the text. Forty 7th- and forty 11th-grade students, experts…

This book, intended for researchers in the psychology of reading and language, college students in psychology and education, teachers of reading, and educators in general, is designed to be used in a course on the psychology of reading or the psychology of language comprehension. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "An Introduction and…