Three correlation matrices of readability variables were factor analyzed and the results compared to factor analyses of earlier matrices and to each other. (HOD)

Points out an algebraic error in a paper by Glenn E. Roudabush. (JM)

Responds to discovery, by Gordon Rae, of algebraic error in his paper on an empirical structure for reading objectives. (JM)

Investigates good and poor readers' ability to answer text-based inference and paraphrase questions after reading two narrative stories and two expository passages. Finds that expository passages are significantly more difficult for children to understand than narrative stories, and that good readers read texts faster than poor readers. (MM)

Reports four experiments which contrast the levels-of-processing perspective (holding that the durability of memory traces is a function of the depth to which items are processed) with the transfer-appropriate-processing perspective (holding that encoded events are always represented in a semantic memory code). (MM)

Examines the issue of what makes information important by examining the influences of three factors--category membership, normative relative importance, and goal-relatedness. Finds that all three factors influenced the perceived importance of information to some extent; however, normative relative importance influenced writing tasks more strongly…

Reanalyzes data collected in a 1990 study on factors in reading ability to see whether the three individual difference factors advanced in rauding theory were also detectable in the data from the earlier study. Finds support for the three rauding ability factors. (SR)

When 23 commonly taught phonics rules were analyzed in terms of consistency and complexity, it was determined that only nine appeared to be useful. (Includes a table showing the consistency of the generalizations.) (HOD)

Closely examined the effects of word length cues on cloze scores. (HOD)

Rebuttal to an article by Montare, Elman, and Cohen (in a previous issue of this journal) which the author claims used an incorrect model of learning to analyze his research. (HOD)

Reports on an examination of three types of cloze tests developed from a fiction and a nonfiction passage to see if such tests showed promise for use in a pre/posttesting paradigm for investigating the acquisition of information from texts by reading. (Author/HOD)

Classifies articles from "Reading Research Quarterly" and the "Journal of Reading Behavior" as examples of empirical/analytic, symbolic, or critical science to discover the types of assumptions which underlie current reading research. Finds that nearly all articles employ the assumptions from natural and physical…

Examines the error detection task, a paradigm used to measure metacognitive skill. Finds that conceptual tempo, passage readability, and error type, as well as reading ability, influence sixth-grade students' performance on error detection tasks. (MM)

Investigates the influence of metaphors on text processing. Varies the degree of explicitness provided between a metaphor and new information. Finds that metaphors increase learning of the idea units strongly related to the metaphors, and thus can be used to increase learning of particular material in text. (SR)