Identifies and describes major factors interacting with readability measures in 36 experimental studies analyzing the validity of such measures. (RB)

Presents results of a study comparing standard automobile insurance policies which are difficult to understand with passages from new readable insurance policies, using the cloze procedure with 150 college and high school students in three reading-ability groups. (JM)

Reports that the readability level of a document is a poor indicator of its comprehension for aged subjects and that simplifying the language of documents may not be sufficient in easing their comprehension difficulties. (FL)

Finds no support for a widely-held theory relating redundancy to reading rate and eye movements. (Author/RB)

Examines the relationship between the number of cohesive ties in a passage, as defined by M. Halliday and R. Hasan, and free and prompted recall scores. (HOD)

To determine whether the connectedness of prose passages had any effect on the behavior of readers who searched for information in the passages, the behavior of readers who saw the normal arrangement of a passage was contrasted with the behavior of readers who saw the random arrangement of the passage. (HOD)

Seven passages of a published reading comprehension test were administered to college students to compare the regular multiple choice test scores with scores on two forms of a cloze test and with readability formula values. (HOD)

Examines undergraduate students' imaginative processes (i.e., spontaneous imagery and emotional response) to newspaper articles. Finds that, as in previous studies with literary texts and feature journalism articles, imagery and affective responses (i.e., emotional response and story interest) were moderately to strongly related. Finds that both…

A study assessed and compared the syntax in the oral language of six-, seven-, and eight-year-olds with the syntax in the written language of reading instruction textbooks prepared for children of the same age. (HOD)

Reviews research in revising instructional text by examining multidisciplinary research in readability, text structure, text interestingness, expert revisers' strategies, and readers' comprehension strategies. Finds that much of this research is limited by a simplistic view of reading, the use of experimentally contrived texts and contexts, and a…