Interviews 195 older adults, finding that those who read for pleasure were less lonely than those who did not. Finds no association between loneliness scores and several other factors thought to have a relationship to loneliness. Finds, however, decreased loneliness strongly associated with whether the participant had a confidant. (SR)

Provides a simple outline of theories addressing orthographic analogies in learning to read. Addresses some misunderstandings of the analogy approach. (RS)

Investigates the epistemology of reading theory, practice, and research. Examines the theories of knowledge implicit in two views of the reading process (L. Rosenblatt's and D. Rumelhart's). Concludes that differences between and among theories of reading, reading instructional approaches, and reading research paradigms often result from and…

Examines contextual and definitional factors that determine whether and to what extent college students learn unknown words without instruction. Finds that the quality of the definition appears to determine the extent to which college students are able to learn unknown words. (RS)

Compares secondary school students' underlining of main points in a biology text to their teachers' underlinings of main points. Finds large variations in the number of main points underlined by the students and even by the teachers, and large variations in the agreement between students and their teachers. Suggests that educational variables are…

Clarifies the efficacy of targeting the area of vocabulary as a means of increasing reading level. Concludes that the acquisition of new vocabulary words is related to reading proficiency. Offers five guidelines for teachers regarding direct vocabulary instruction. (SR)

Presents the first part of a six-part series reporting on a research project to investigate how students make sense of a text, what disempowers meaning making, what empowers meaning making, how readings might be meaningfully assessed, and how readers might be empowered in classrooms. Invites readers to join in the investigation. (SR)

Uses content analysis and a descriptive technique to describe the attributes of the most prominent workbook items found in the workbooks of four basal reading series. (SR)

Finds the Belgau Calibrated Variable-Difficulty Balance Platform ineffective in the remediation of reading and other learning problems of junior high school students. (SR)

Investigates the effect of teaching kindergarten children orthographic analogies based on onset and rime units. Finds that analogy training specifically based on onset-rime units is an effective method to assist children as they move into reading, benefiting children differently depending on their prior segmentation level. (SR)

Investigates the effect of depth of processing on second-language reading comprehension. Finds that questions which entailed shallow cognitive processing (factual ones) are easier to answer than those which entail deeper cognitive processing (generalization and inference questions). (SR)

Finds that children come to preschool with some knowledge of print but do not achieve mastery until the second or third grade. Finds a significant gender effect, but different patterns of that effect for each of the concepts about print task. (RS)

Discusses the progress in accurate measurement of reading, the major challenges for reading researchers in developing better measures in reading, and significant developments in the near future. (RS)

Compares three linguistically motivated algorithms for assigning between-word space sizes for their impact on text readability. Finds that the readability of text can be improved with the aid of a rudimentary automatic parser. (PRA)

Investigated the relationships among individual differences in reading ability, phonological awareness, and short-term memory. Also examined the mechanisms responsible for differences in short-term memory skills between good and poor readers. Found that reading differences were associated with verbal short-term memory differences. (TM)