We examined genre-specific reading strategies for literary texts and hypothesized that text categorization (literary prose vs. poetry) modulates both how readers gather information from a text (eye movements) and how they realize its phonetic surface form (speech production). We recorded eye movements and speech while college students (N = 32)…

Studies on reading literacy have yet to connect how students perceive the importance of different literacy areas to their ability perception in those areas. This article analyzes students' importance ranking of four different areas of literacy: prose (comprehending written information), document (interpreting information in forms, schedules,…

The present research investigated whether test-enhanced learning can be used to promote transfer. More specifically, 4 experiments examined how repeated testing and repeated studying affected retention and transfer of facts and concepts. Subjects studied prose passages and then either repeatedly restudied or took tests on the material. One week…

Few would argue that psychology has been as successful as the natural sciences in constructing measurement systems, yet this has not tempered the near universal claim of psychological measurement. As Haig and Denny Borsboom note, the sustained nature of conceptual attacks from a small group of quantitative psychologists suggests a deep-seated…

Evaluated the effect of using underlining cues in prose materials for 24 elderly volunteers with low or high Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale vocabulary subtest scores. Results showed underlining cues were not successful in reducing vocabulary-related differences in performance. (BH)

A 2,217-word news article was reduced 10 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent by one of three reduction methods: word frequency, grammatical, and subjective. Reduction method had no effect on comprehension at the 10 percent and 30 percent reduction levels, but at the 50 percent level the subjective method produced better reading performance than…

Our understanding of a story is highly dependent upon our ability to recognize the underlying purpose for actions described in the story. We need to view those actions as steps in, or reactions to, plans. This paper sketches some of the components of a model for the understanding of plans and social actions. The model is first applied to narrative…

This experiment investigated the assumption that children's learning and retention of prose material can be differentially affected by varying discrepancy from expectation (as established by an advance organizer). It was hypothesized that a passage which differed significantly from expectation would produce heightened arousal, which should in turn…

One-hundred and forty undergraduates were divided into seven equal groups; each group read five passages and then answered one of seven types of questions. However, after reading the sixth passage, all subjects received the same type of questions. Reading time for each passage was recorded, and students were encouraged to read faster. Significant…

Multidimensional scaling was used to study the comprehension of prose. Undergraduates rated the similarity of twenty nouns before and after reading passages containing those nouns. Results indicated that the scaling analysis provided an effective valid indicator of prose representation. (Author/JKS)

Developments in linguistics, particularly in Europe in the work of T.A. Van Dijk, a broader conception of texts that shows promise for the study of reading. Textlinguistics covers a domain of linguistics studies that are involved with texts. Textlinguists are interested not only in those obvious immediate connecting mechanisms, such as anaphora,…

In two experiments, high school students read and listened to either a signaled or nonsignaled expository passage. Signals consisted of preview sentences, underlined headings, and logical connective phrases. Results indicated a pattern in which the signaled groups performed better on recall of conceptual information and on generating high quality…

This research examined the possibility that readers would differentially recall passage material as a result of differing levels of processing during reading. The results seem to indicate that what readers remember from reading passages is determined by the activities they engage in during reading. (Author/BW)