Features of eighth-grade history textbooks were examined through replication of a 20-year-old study that investigated "considerateness" of textbooks. Considerate texts provide clear, coherent information and include features that promote students' comprehension, such as explicit use of organizational structures, a range of question types…

Investigates how interest and importance interact to affect the strategy use and recall of skilled readers. Finds that readers acted strategically, except when they encountered seductive details: subjects spent a great deal of time on seductive details, even though they considered them highly memorable and unimportant. (RS)

Examines effects on recall and comprehension of a passage from a fourth-grade textbook and versions revised for greater coherence or to exhibit voice. Finds that, immediately after reading, the voiced coherent passage held significant advantage over all other passages in both recall and comprehension. Finds similar, though statistically…

Investigates effects of text coherence and active engagement on students' comprehension of textbook information. Finds a continuum of increased performance from original silent text, to original text with thinking aloud, to revised text read silently, and finally revised text with thinking aloud. (SR)

Presents five experiments examining the use of illustrations in the comprehension of technical material by students of good to very good reading ability. Concludes that technical content which lends itself to presentation as an illustration will be comprehended better as an illustration than as text and will be comprehended best of all if…

This research compared high-load and low-load versions of a text by manipulating text presentation, text organization, and example context on measures of fact and concept learning. The low-load text presentation variable enhanced fact and concept learning and post-reading ease of comprehension ratings. The low-load text organization variable led…

Compares and contrasts chapters from two children's science textbooks, one published in 1992 in a traditional format, and the other in 1995 using a new format. Finds them very different in terms of structure and organization. Shows that children respond to these texts very differently. Shares some ideas about teaching with such texts. (SR)

Investigated the effect of causal structure revisions to school texts on the comprehension of more- and less- skilled undergraduates. Found that readers at both skill levels benefited from the revisions but only for the difficult text. (JPB)

In the course of a longitudinal study that addressed the questions of how children learn to comprehend what they read and how they learn science concepts, many other research questions emerged. The original longitudinal study investigated how children learn to comprehend what they read. Three school districts with fairly stable student…

Uses a cognitive processing perspective to revise fifth grade social studies texts, to describe those revisions, and to demonstrate their effects empirically. Finds that students reading the revised text recalled more material and answered more questions correctly than did those reading the original text. Concludes that a text-processing approach…

Investigated is a reader's ability to comprehend written text that is highly novel with few semantic cues. The theoretical perspective, assessment theory, materials and methods, and the results of this study are discussed. (KR)