There is growing consensus that, for trained readers, poetic-text processing involves a genre decision, which triggers genre-based conventional expectations and directs attention to the textual devices. This research examines how students recognize and process texts in poetic versus prose form at different points during their literary education.…

This article presents data on the types and duration of reading-related activities reported by a volunteer sample of 400 adults (demographically similar to the U.S. adult population age 20 and older in terms of race, ethnicity, education, and working status) in the 2005 Real-World Tasks Study. This diary study revealed that adults spent, on…

We propose a two-component theory of text signaling devices. The first component is a text-based analysis that characterizes any signaling device along four dimensions: (a) the type of information it makes available, (b) its scope, (c) how it is realized in the text, and (d) its location with respect to the content it cues. The second component is…

This study examined the ability of young children to correct comprehension errors, considered to be an aspect of comprehension monitoring. Kindergartners and second graders (N=32) heard a story about an unfamiliar situation, then answered questions which either assessed information contained within a single sentence, required the correct…

Differences in discourse type were expected to result in differences in processing text. The more organized discourse types of comparison, problem/solution, and causation were predicted to yield superior recall of information than a collection of descriptions about a topic. Results from two studies supported this prediction. (Author/BW)

Organization theory emphasizes groupings of items on the basis of a variety of characteristics, and the role of the learner as an active processor or encoder of information. Research on organization theory as it is applied to memory and recall of prose is reviewed here. (BW)

Retrieval and response criterion explanations of the effects of text organization on memory were tested in four experiments. More target information was freely recalled when it was high than when low in content structure. Retrieval cues reduced recall differences between information high and low in the structure. (Author/RD)

The effects of verbal and pictorial organizing material on comprehension of paragraphs was investigated with second- and fifth-graders. Results suggest that knowledge of the interrelationships among elements is important, if not essential, for the comprehension of prose material. (Author/RC)

Examined effects of enforced organizational strategies on the memory of older adults for textual material. Young and old adults sorted scrambled sentences of a prose passage into the correct order. When older adults were required to make an in-depth analysis to sort material, their incidental memory for textual information was approximately equal…

This article examines the research on different levels of questions inserted in prose. The first section defines the level of questions and presents a number of theoretical issues. The second section discusses methodological issues in research, such as inadequate directions to subjects. The final section provides recommendations for further…

This study examines the utility of an elaboration hypothesis as a means of predicting the recall of major ideas from text through the manipulation of paragraphs and via the use of inserted questions requiring different levels of elaboration. (PN)

Subjects read passages taken from Bransford and Johnson's materials either with or without the context-inducing title provided. The presence of the title increased comprehension and recall but had no effect on recognition. Activation of relevant information already stored in memory may not be essential to the encoding process. (Author/RD)

Two aspects of memory for prose were investigated. The amount of information remembered and the semantic interpretation assigned to ambiguous paragraphs. Task instructions and exposure duration of passages were varied. Recall and recognition measures indicated students remembered more with instructions requiring processing at a semantic level.…

A study examined the effects of within domain processing on the recall of idea units as well as the potential reversals in performance resulting from the passing of time. Subjects for the experiment were 89 undergraduate students randomly assigned to six conditions related to target words in a reading passage: counting e's, determining the…

This study supported the hypothesis that the same prose passage would be stored in different memory locations as a function of its relationship to previous knowledge. Subjects told that a reading passage was about a famous person before reading the passage made more false positive errors in a recognition test. (Author/BH)