Reading and comprehending content area texts require learners to effectively select and encode with hierarchically strategic memory structures in order to combine new information with prior knowledge. Unfortunately, evidence from state and national tests shows that children fail to successfully navigate the reading comprehension challenges they…

In the study, we investigated effects of 2 different versions of a web-based tutoring system to provide 5th-grade students with strategy instruction about text structure, which was an intervention to improve reading comprehension. The design feature assessed varied in individualization of instruction (individualized or standard). The more…

Differences in discourse type were expected to result in differences in processing text. The more organized discourse types of comparison, problem/solution, and causation were predicted to yield superior recall of information than a collection of descriptions about a topic. Results from two studies supported this prediction. (Author/BW)

Younger and older adults participated in nine hours of either strategy training, interest strategy training, or no training. Both trained groups reported positive changes in reading, but only the structure strategy group showed increased total recall from a variety of texts and informative video. Structure strategy training increased the amount of…

Presents finding of two studies designed to test the theory that limitations in working memory pose a lower limit to reading rate for effective prose recall. Tests college students, young adults and older adults, finding no evidence to support the theory. (NH)

The first part of this paper on prose analysis explains how structural analysis of text can be used in reading research. This explanation focuses on three methodological uses of prose analysis: (1) the identification of the content and organization of the text for use in a scoring system, (2) the measurement of variations between the text and the…

The question of how people learn and remember information from complex written materials is explored by means of Grime's semantic grammar of propositions and the author's analysis of the content structure of prose. This paper, presented at the 1973 Interdisciplinary Meeting on Structural Learning, first discusses such elements of the semantic…

In order to determine what aspects of information from prose are available for recall after one presentation of a passage and what aspects are learned with additional presentations, two passages were divided into idea units. These units were placed in a logical hierarchical structure for each passage, and scores were assigned to the idea units on…

The effects of organizational variables on recall of prose were examined in 48 college-educated adults in three age groups (20 to 33 years, 41 to 55 years, and 58 to 79 years). It was hypothesized that if older adults suffered deficits in organizational processes, they would show lower quantities of prose recall, difficulties in following the…

The purpose of this study to determine if information high in the logical structure of a passage tends to be recalled better than information low in the structure. Two groups of 24 Cornell undergraduates participated in the experiment. Subjects in each group read and recalled three passages. Group one read the Breeder Reactor High, Schizophrenia…

This study has demonstrated the feasibility of extracting from passages of expository text a structure that reveals an important aspect of the logical interrelations among the ideas expressed in the passage. (Author)

A study examined the connection between the everyday activities of adults of different ages and their performance on a prose recall task. Subjects were 54 adults, 18 in each of three age groups (18-32, 40-54, and over 62). Written recall of two 388-word expository prose passages was used for the prose recall measure. For the activities measures,…

A study examined how the text variables of organizational plan (top-level structure), emphasis plan (implemented through signalling devices), and presence of details influenced the selection of reading strategies by adults. Subjects--149 young, middle aged, and older expert readers--read and recalled in writing two expository prose passages of 388…

A study was made of the importance to reading comprehension of using the author's top-level organization or textual schema. The subjects, 102 ninth graders with high, average, and low reading comprehension scores, read expository passages, some of which included signals explicitly stating the top-level organizational structure and some of which…

A study was conducted to determine the effects of age, verbal ability, education, reading habits, and recall strategies on prose recall among adults. Subjects were 422 adults in three age groups--young (18-28 years), middle (40-54), and older (62-80). They were asked to read and recall in writing two 388-word prose passages and to answer questions…