Reading research has recognized the strong relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension. However, we are still perplexed by the precise nature of how readers access and retrieve word meanings while reading. We have not reached a consensus on "what it means to know a word" (e.g., Anderson & Nagy, 1991; Nation, 2001) or…

Describes a study in which it was found that informational background has some effect on reading speed and comprehension. (TJ)

Two studies involving 135 college students examined the effects of instructional activities that provided either relevant domain knowledge or knowledge about comprehension strategies. The two studies did not provide unequivocal information regarding the efficacy of these activities, although results suggest that strategy instruction may compensate…

Factors affecting the failure to use world knowledge to complete an otherwise incomplete linear ordering was examined. Failure persisted after three repetitions was unaffected by order of presentation or nature of test procedure. Performance was affected by overall amounts of known and new information and by their relation. (Author/RD)

A study was conducted to examine the process of the development of knowledge structures concerning events. Specifically, it investigated (1) the ways in which individuals build theories about events as they experience them; (2) the number of events an individual must experience, and how similar those events must be, before he or she begins to…

Eighty-eight college students were invited to cook a chocolate mousse and were allowed first to ask any question that seemed helpful to completing the task. The questions were answered immediately according to a predetermined schema: in one condition the subjects were told that the task would be rather easy, in the other condition they were told…

Reviews the recent research which (1) explores the ability of college students to monitor their comprehension; and (2) determines the factors which influence comprehension monitoring. (MG)

The differences among elaborative-interrogation, reading-to-understand, and no-exposure control conditions with familiar domain material in contrast to unfamiliar domain material were studied for 50 Canadian and 50 west German undergraduates. Results provide evidence of effects of both elaborative interrogation and prior knowledge on learning.…

In a study investigating the nature of questioning, a group of subjects with little relevant knowledge and a group with a great deal of relevant knowledge were asked to prepare a chocolate mousse. During the preparation, the subjects were allowed to ask any number of questions and each was answered immediately. Results showed that the number of…

The question of whether readers subjectively perceive the meaning of written materials is a specific form of the more general issue of whether human beings make or find knowledge. The subjectivist paradigm asserts that the first priority in the search for knowledge is the individual's awareness of personal motives for obtaining that knowledge. The…

Paragraph recall was easier if prior information, presented as elaborations of the paragraph sentences, was precise, rather than irrelevant or imprecise. Precise information also permitted quick and efficient elaboration of new information. (Author/CP)

Analyzes synthesis essays of graduate students for the importance and origin of information and for the quality of key rhetorical moves. Confirms the interrelatedness of comprehension and composing processes and illustrates how writers, with varying levels of topic familiarity, use both their knowledge of disciplinary topics and their experience…

A study was conducted to assess the possible effects of headings on the search and recall performance of high- and low-knowledge subjects, 153 college students in an introductory psychology course. Seventy-five of the subjects read a 1,760-word adaptation of the passage on organizational processes in memory--the low-knowledge passage. The other 78…

An experiment, which replicates an earlier study conducted in Sweden, was performed to study the effects of prior knowledge of relevant subject matter on reading comprehension and on memory. Fifty college students read one of two contrasting passages that presented two opposing points of view after they had recorded their beliefs about the subject…

A total of 70 college students who had a wide range of coursework in physics or music theory read expositions in both domains in a study to determine the relationship between readers' self-assessments of confidence in comprehension (strength of belief) and performance on a test of comprehension. After reading each text, students provided a…