Society expects certain levels of literacy from its citizens. In addition, individuals have expectations for their own levels of literacy. In defining functional literacy, there is considerable disagreement over what can be expected of consumers, employees, and taxpayers. Empirical studies in Sweden attempting to establish criteria of functional…

The 609 entries in this annotated bibliography are intended to help research workers who have an interest in the reading behavior of the general public and to stimulate ideas for further research. The entries are divided into nine sections covering general works; works providing a historical background; works dealing with the development from…

Twenty children between six and nine years of age and of average or above average intelligence were used in a study to determine whether methods that restrict pupil participation to visual attention or oral response are of more or less value in attempts to recognize words than methods that involve activity with the hands, such as tracing or…

This report presents results of analyses of factors affecting reading achievement of 14,318 pupils in 34 elementary schools in Washington, D.C., as measured by the percentage of objectives mastered on the Prescriptive Reading Test and students' interest in reading for the school year 1977-78. It also presents descriptive information about…

Noting that current theories of comprehension are based on the assumption that cognitive patterns (schemata) are structural constructs and that credit for the structural assumption is generally given to F. C. Bartlett, this paper suggests that problems concerning the phenomenal nature of the patterning aspect of cognition may be more readily…

This report summarizes computational investigations of language comprehension based on Marvin Minsky's theory of frames, a recent advance in artifical intelligence theories about the representation of knowledge. The investigations discussed explored frame theory as a basis for text comprehension by implementing models of the theory and developing…

First grade students practiced reading ten unfamiliar function words; half studied the words embedded in printed sentences and half studied the words in unstructured lists and then listened to sentences comprised of the words. Posttest measures revealed that those who studied the sentences learned more about the syntactic/semantic identities of…

A questionnaire was completed by 110 individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 in a study conducted to determine the primary reason why adults read. The results showed that informational reading was the main purpose for adult reading, but did not indicate a relationship between purpose for reading and socioeconomic status and educational level.…

Several research studies were reviewed to formulate a definition of metacomprehension in elementary school children. Although much additional research is needed, the one conclusion evident from the review is that metacomprehension is not a unitary phenomenon. It encompasses several kinds of abilities and degrees of awareness that may appear at…

This paper argues that assessments of the correlation between emotional problems and reading have been, for the most part, products of particular historical periods and have been influenced by particular psychological theories--theories that also influenced education and counseling. The paper first traces the history of research investigations…

This monograph, the sixth in a series on the development of the reading process, is concerned with the development of reading comprehension. In the first chapter, "Comprehension in Listening and Reading: Same or Different," Joseph H. Danks analyzes the evidence for the proposition that tbe comprehension processes for language in print and language…

The effects of test anxiety on reading comprehension were studied in two experiments. In the first experiment, 75 college students completed a test anxiety scale and the McGraw-Hill Basic Skills System reading comprehension subtest. The low anxious students in this experiment showed higher reading comprehension than the high anxious students. In…

Eye movement monitoring is useful both in the control of experiments on reading and as a source of data. Experiments using eye monitoring techniques have helped develop the following conclusions about the reading process: the region of text read during a fixation is quite small and asymmetric to the right of the center of vision, successive…

THIS EXPLORATORY STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO ANALYZE DATA TO DETERMINE IF THE ASSOCIATION REPORTED BY OTHER INVESTIGATORS LINKING LOW SELF-CONCEPTS TO READING DIFFICULTIES WAS CORRECT OR WAS CAUSED BY UNFORTUNATE EXPERIENCES IN READING UNDERMINING SELF-CONCEPTS. A SAMPLE OF 185 KINDERGARTEN ENTRANTS WAS INTERVIEWED AND OBSERVED FOR RATINGS IN RELATION…

TO SUPPORT THE VIEW THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS OF CONTROLLING LEARNING BEHAVIORS, TWO APPROACHES TO STUDYING THE EFFECT OF QUESTIONS ON ADULT READING BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO PROGRAMED MATERIALS ARE REVIEWED, AND AN ALTERNATIVE S-R MODEL IS OFFERED. THE "CYBERNETIC" VIEW PROCEEDS FROM THE ASSUMPTION THAT SENSORY FEEDBACK RATHER THAN…