This paper is a summary of research on the perceptual and memory processes related to reading, their developmental progress in children, and the reading abilities in adults. Reported among the results of the various studies are the following: (1) developmental changes in reading after second grade primarily improve speed of coding, (2) reading…

Two comprehension-time experiments were conducted to identify factors affecting the comprehensibility of written materials. The subjects (a total of 52 college students for the two experiments) were presented with pairs of sentences--"context" sentences followed by "target" sentences--and were asked to relate the content of the target sentences to…

The "individual forming meaning with a text" is a private and fundamental semiotic process involving relationships among text, individual, and meaning. Prior to an individual's use of language for aesthetic purposes lies the presupposition of the aesthetic language act--that the individual approaches the text expecting to work and be rewarded.…

This paper investigates the ways readers use two semantic tools, synonymy and entailment, when responding to reading-comprehension questions. After a brief overview of semantic theory, two reading passages and their attendant multiple-choice questions are analyzed, demonstrating how readers might choose the correct answer by analyzing the way it…

This paper reviews approaches to understanding how adolescents of different ages and abilities read and understand literature. The specific examples discussed focus on the contrast between "describer" and "explainer" responses to passages in which literary characters experience sudden and traumatic changes in their lives.…

Samples of forty students at ages twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen participated in a study of adolescents' sensitivity to suddenly changed circumstances of literary characters. Each student answered six questions on each of five passages; for each set, two questions focus on the story itself and four require consideration of consequences of…

A study was designed to examine the relationship between certain measures of cognitive development and reading scores, particularly reading comprehension scores. Forty-one adult basic education students, ranging from 16 to 62 years of age (mean age of 25) and predominantly from lower socioeconomic groups, were administered the following three…

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships among five measures of aided reading comprehension (reading to each subject while he silently reads or follows along), intelligence, and three measures of cognitive style variables in first grade children. Thirty-four first graders, 13 boys and 21 girls, served as subjects. It was…

Two sources of information are involved in reading; the visual information picked up by the eyes from the printed page and the nonvisual information, or prior knowledge, that the reader possesses. An overreliance on visual information leads to an overloading of the cognitive process involved in reading and loss in comprehension. Overreliance on…

This study examined the effect of reading ability and frequency of object association on picture-verification latency in a group of 40 fifth graders. Subjects received sets of two slides each, the first of which was a sentence in which the subject and object were in either frequent or infrequent association. When the children had read and had…

Students have been taught to recall specific details, but often are unable to read critically or to grasp the main ideas. (JH)

In secondary-task reading experiments, easy text filled cognitive capacity more completely than difficult text. A cognitive interpretation is that, in reading easy passages, the cognitive processors are full. But in difficult passages, frequent breakdowns in comprehension temporarily empty processor spaces, leaving cognitive capacity for the…

Presents a reply to and an analysis of a study which examined the use of logograph research to determine children's cognitive integration ability. The study in question had been based on the present author's previous research. (BD)

Outlines a taxonomy of reading comprehension skills that teachers can use to develop questioning techniques that are flexible enough to reflect the nature of the reading materials. (RL)

Explores the relative contributions of global vocabulary and specific attribute knowledge to the metaphorical comprehension of fluent and less fluent adult users of English. Results indicate that, for both groups, specific attribute knowledge was a better predictor of metaphorical interpretation than global vocabulary knowledge. (Author/CB)