Item difficulty modeling studies involve (a) hypothesizing item features, or item response demands, that are likely to predict item difficulty with some degree of accuracy; and (b) entering the features as independent variables into a regression equation or other statistical model to predict difficulty. In this review, we report findings from 13…

This study examined the interaction of 3 schemata on overall reading comprehension in 95 first-year English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) college students: language skills, content knowledge, and rhetorical structure. The results indicated that content schemata best predicted EFL test comprehension, although all three schemata contributed in some…

The major purpose of the present experiment was to assess the impact of student-generated and expert-generated knowledge maps on the effectiveness of post-organizer construction, initial acquisition, and transfer. Sixty students at the University of Missouri-Rolla were included in this study. Participants were required to study a passage and…

According to Gough and Tunmer (1986), in a "Simple View of Reading" (SVR), Reading comprehension (RC) = Decoding (D) x Linguistic Comprehension (C). To further evaluate this model, this paper describes an exploratory study of the performance of 60 university students, the majority of whom received academic accommodations at university to…

The procedures used to establish the validity of the Minnesota Reading Assessment (MRA) are described in this paper. The MRA is described as a measure designed for use with students in community colleges, business schools, technical schools, and other secondary and postsecondary training institutions in order to measure student competence in…

This article reviews 34 studies in reading research. It identifies trends related to ambiguous findings about the effect of sentence-combining training on measures of reading comprehension. The effects of grade level and four other variables are described. The use of cloze procedures and standardized tests as measures is discussed. (Author/JL)

Measures of working memory capacity and measures of word knowledge were used as predictors of three measures of reading skills in 95 undergraduates. Vocabulary size and speed of accessing it were independent of word knowledge. Reading comprehension, reading speed, and text inferencing ability were independent measures of reading skill. (SLD)

Reading comprehension scores, course examination scores, grade point average (GPA), and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores were analyzed to test the hypothesis that the comprehension of reading materials could be used to predict learning performance. Results showed that course-relevant reading comprehension was a predictor of course performance but…

A reanalysis of data from a 1980 Miami University study on sentence-combining in freshman writing courses investigated the role of reading comprehension (measured by the Sequential Test of Educational Progress) as a predictor of growth in writing skills (measured by syntactic and qualitative criteria). (Author/PN)

Studies the effect of intellectual development, degree of field independence, mental capacity, amount of prior genetics knowledge and amount of fluid intelligence on reading comprehension and/or genetics achievement of students enrolled in a nonmajor biology course. Concludes that developmental level was the most consistent predictor of…

Incidental vocabulary learning from context and 2 factors that might influence it, access to a dictionary and verbal ability, were examined among 112 second-year university students. Results indicate that subjects learned more words while reading for meaning, but high verbal ability students and those using a dictionary learn more. (71 references)…

Decoding, working memory, and domain-specific prior knowledge were studied as predictors of comprehension for 48 university undergraduate students after rewriting notes, rereading notes, or rereading a text. Working memory was most important for comprehension of text-implicit information, whereas knowledge was relatively more important for…

This study examined characteristics of multiple-choice reading comprehension tasks suspected of influencing their difficulty, through administration of the California Achievement Tests to 158 deaf college students. Problem components evaluated included manifest content, psychologically salient features, and processing demands. Variation in item…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) measures the English language proficiency of foreign students who apply for higher education in the United States. It is administered according to a strict schedule through the International and Special Center (I&SC) testing program or at ad hoc intervals by institutional users as part of the…