Reprints Thorndike's classic article which appeared in The Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. VIII, No. 6, June 1917, pp. 323-32. (VJ)

Relations between rank of propositions in descriptive passages, importance ratings, and recall were evaluated in experiments using undergraduates to determine whether passage structure and importance ratings are necessarily related. Importance ratings varied with instructions, but subjects recalled superordinate propositions better than…

Use of cognitive capacity was measured during reading of text in six experiments. Results were consistent with a comprehensibility theory stating that when more meaning is produced in reader's cognitive system while reading a text, more cognitive capacity is filled by reading it. (FL)

Presents a strategy that helps poor readers overcome some of the problems they have with reasoning. The strategy offers students a way of hypothesizing answers to inferential questions and checking their answers. (FL)

Describes the four steps of critical reading adapted to the model of reading proposed by W. S. Gray: (1) the perception of the connotative power of words, (2) the comprehension of persuasive language, (3) the reaction of judgment, and (4) the integration of monitoring devices. (FL)

Reviews the work of Yale computer scientist Roger C. Schank in the area of reading instruction and offers five reasons why his model of computer reading should not be applied to the reading processes of children. (FL)

Discusses previous articles in this journal issue and addresses issues concerning the acquisition of specific social knowledge. (FL)

Suggests that chunking might improve the reading comprehension of good as well as poor readers. (FL)

Discusses four aspects of listening comprehension citing supportive research: (1) what is involved in listening comprehension, (2) whether it be taught, (3) how it is related to reading comprehension, and (4) what other factors affect listening comprehension. Provides recommendations for teaching. (HTH)

Investigated seven eight-year-old children's memory for aurally presented sentences. Used a recognition-memory task to probe constructive memory processes in two groups differentiated by reading comprehension. Results indicated the tendency to construct meanings was greater in children who scored higher on reading comprehension. (Author)

Reviews the problems posed by atheoretical approaches to research and the benefits of employing theory in conducting research in active response modes. (HOD)

Three classes of research on reading are identified. The articles of this section pertain to investigation of the organization and operation of basic processing mechanisms underlying skilled reading; each is described briefly and commented upon. Particular attention is devoted to the articles on context effects. (Author/RD)

To support the view of readability as an interaction between a text and the reader's prose-processing capabilities, this article applies an extended and formalized version of the Kintch and van Dijk prose-processing model to 20 texts of varying readability. (Author/GSK)

The relevance of psycholinguistics to reading is based on the premise that reading is the act of constructing meaning, first, foremost, and always. (MKM)

Reveals that (1) structural importance and not serial position was the better guide to recall, (2) children were able to sequence properly with few idiosyncratic interferences, and (3) younger children recalled main events, as well as did older children--improved recall with age was primarily for filler events. (FL)