To test whether cognitive interest in a topic is affected by how much the reader knows about the topic, 36 undergraduate students read a text, gave a rating for cognitive interest, and answered 2 recall measures. Associations among knowledge, cognitive interest, and text recall are discussed for their implications for learning. (SLD)

Concludes that vocabulary knowledge can produce effects on reading comprehension, but that the nature of the effects depends on the method used to present the knowledge and the manner used to measure reading comprehension. (FL)

This paper describes a study undertaken to examine how four variables (domain knowledge, topic knowledge, individual interest, and situational interest) impact recall of information from a hypertext environment. Participants in the study were 107 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the School of Education at a large northeastern…

Noting that conceptions of the cognitive representations and processes involved in discourse comprehension and production recently have undergone an important shift in orientation, this paper points out the importance of the shift to the conception of the nature of texts, of text understanding, and of cognitive processes in knowledge creation and…

Teaching literature as a basis for teaching writing affords a paradigm for teaching structure and meaning. While a truly integrated English department would put equal emphasis upon composition, language, literature, and reading, two-year college curricula have emphasized composition and challenged literature's place. A reader-based model for…