A study investigated the role of prior knowledge in ambiguous text interpretation by directly measuring readers' knowledge of, and level of involvement with, three distinct topical domains that could be assigned during reading of an ambiguous passage. Subjects, 52 athletes of average or above average reading ability competing in one of three…

A study examined the ability of 204 students in nine Illinois high schools to process and recall information contained in four newspaper elements: story texts, graphics, index boxes and pullout quotes. Students were randomly assigned to read the front page of one of 20 newspapers and answer questions based on information in the stories. Students…