Two kinds of memory organization are distinguished: segregrated versus integrated. In segregated memory organizations, related learned propositions have separate memory representations. In integrated memory organizations, memory representations of related propositions share common subrepresentations. Segregated memory organizations facilitate…

Research on comprehension and recall in reading has been limited in the past to quantitative studies of the amount of text items recalled. This paper reports on two experiments that used a qualitative measure in order to investigate the differences between fluent and less fluent comprehenders and the recall processes they use. The first…

Following reading and listening tasks, adult long-term memory is high in semantic information and low in syntactic and lexical information. Comprehension during reading and listening must depend to some extent, however, on short term retention of linguistic information that is less abstract and shares more features of the input than the semantic…

While semantic development has been alleged to proceed slowly, reading instruction begins early in the child's school career. Yet, little research has been addressed toward understanding how beginning readers extract meaning from the printed word. This paper reports two experiments that measured latencies in a picture-word interference task to…

Several influences upon mathemagenic activity during text learning were examined in this study, and the effects of attentional processes arising during instruction upon incidental rather than intentional learning were focused on. The subjects were 114 students enrolled in eight graduate classes in educational psychology. Six experimental groups…

The "page-at-a-glance" reading phenomenon in two gifted readers using only monocular vision was investigated. The specific questions to be answered in this preliminary study were (1) What is the average duration of fixations made by gifted readers while reading a somewhat familiar article? and (2) What degree of comprehension on materials of…

The purpose of this discussion is to identify and to describe current models of reading comprehension in order to draw conclusions regarding their application to classroom teaching. The models are categorized according to the different approaches to comprehension: "Behavior Models" are concerned with determining behavioral outcomes for teaching…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of adjunct objectives (AO) or adjunct rules (AR) on instructional materials. The subjects were 110 undergraduate volunteers attending Arizona State University. As each subject entered the lecture hall for the class, he was given an envelope containing the experimental materials appropriate to a…

Critical reading is a continuous process, only beginning in the first grade, which necessitates carefully planned training by qualified teachers. By building upon the student's competence in literal reading, interpretation, evaluation, integration of facts, accurate recall, and reorganization of materials, the teacher can develop the student's…

Working from theories of text grammar and logic, the authors suggest and tentatively confirm several hypotheses concerning the role of micro- and macro-structures in comprehension and recall of texts. (Text is in French.) (DB)

The effects of differential teacher questioning strategies on reading comprehension were studied in 75 secondary-level educable mentally handicapped students. (DLS)

To determine whether the connectedness of prose passages had any effect on the behavior of readers who searched for information in the passages, the behavior of readers who saw the normal arrangement of a passage was contrasted with the behavior of readers who saw the random arrangement of the passage. (HOD)

A study of the effect of lexical items within first sentences which affect reading expectations for the remainder of the passage, and of the effects of violation of reader expectation following first sentences, showed poorer performance by low achievers on the "violating" passage and a performance increase with familiar content regardless of a…

Two experiments examined the roles of semantic and surface information in reading and recognizing sentences. Results indicate that reading and recognition are interactive processes, involving conceptually driven and data driven operations; the interaction may be either automatic or controlled. Semantic and surface information are conceptualized as…

The author discusses the processes by which children learn to read and how the natural sequence of learning may be used to improve reading instruction. (JD)