We compared the effects of the effects of self-instructions in the form of prose or song lyrics in the acquisition of gross motor tasks in 4 third-grade children. We taught participants 4 pairs of gross motor tasks, with one task in each pair taught with prose self-instructions and the other taught with song lyric self-instructions. Both…

The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) assessed the English literacy skills of a nationally representative sample of 18,500 U.S. adults (age 16 and older) residing in private households. NAAL is the first national assessment of adult literacy since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). The NAAL and NALS produced direct…

Adolescent subjects, randomly assigned to immediate or delayed recall conditions, were given two prose passages to recall, one after reading, the other after listening. As hypothesized, for a difficult recall task involving connected prose, recall after reading was superior, both for total units recalled and for number of errors. (Author/SJL)

Proposes a model for how document literacy and prose literacy are related to young adults' occupational status and their societal participation. Finds that the relatively low occupational status of Blacks appears to be attributable to their relatively low literacy achievement and literacy activity. (MG)

Compares (in two experiments) thematic and mnemonic strategies with respect to: (1) the amount of prose information remembered by students; and (2) the students' structuring of that information. Finds mnemonic strategies more beneficial for recall and organization only when several passages were presented, and thematic strategies more beneficial…

Results of a study involving approximately 500 sixth and seventh graders suggest that a two-column layout with traditional paragraphing denotation is more readable than a single-column layout, but that an extreme line length does not place an undue strain on the reader. (Examples of the two formats are included.) (GT)

"Is academic speech "more like" casual conversation or academic writing?" [Swales, J. (2001). "Metatalk in American academic talk. The cases of 'point' and 'thing'." "Journal of English Language," 29(1), p. 37]. Taking a corpus-based perspective to the analysis, this study compares the language of university classroom talk to academic prose and…

Examines three categories of psychological processes which determine how easily a table can be used: comprehension processes, search processes, and interpretive and comparative processes. The breadth of cognitive processes involved in the reading of tabulated information provides the basis for drawing similarities with the problems of…

Investigates the effect of instructional strategy and relevant drawings on a task requiring the processing of verbal information rather than direct recall. (Author/DEP)

Three known methodological approaches were investigated as to their within-test correlative support in the measurement of a phenomena called imagery. Based on these methodologies, repeated dichotomization of subjects into high and low visualizers was significantly consistent. Moreover, self-reported ratings of imagery vividness of prose were…