Naturalistic inquiry (based on the ethnographic research paradigm) has the potential to supplement, or possibly to replace, quantitative experimental research in education. For years most reading researchers have used the experimental research design. This design fails to tap self-concept, value systems, purpose of and attitude toward reading,…

Eighty-eight college students were invited to cook a chocolate mousse and were allowed first to ask any question that seemed helpful to completing the task. The questions were answered immediately according to a predetermined schema: in one condition the subjects were told that the task would be rather easy, in the other condition they were told…

Based on an extensive review of literature on the depth of comprehension approach, a study was conducted to induce various degrees of depth of processing at the semantic inferential level through orientation tasks. It was hypothesized that the most superficial reading would occur for "error correction" and the deepest reading would be done for…

Addressing the question of how schools and teachers can foster an advanced level of reading awareness among secondary students, this paper focuses on the similarity in language used to describe recent research on both the composing process and comprehension as acts of constructing meaning. It presents a perspective on the reading/writing…

Intended primarily for teachers and administrators, this paper presents 20 guidelines as the basis for an evaluation procedure for workbook, skillbook, and ditto master components of basal reading programs. The paper begins with a discussion of how and why workbooks are used in the classroom, a description of the original study from which the…

Concludes that cue systems within words (graphics) are affected by syntactic and semantic cue systems within the sentences. (RB)

Describes Simuread, a computer program which is designed to aid in reading instruction, and illustrates its research applications. (RB)

Reports on a study to determine differences in measured self-concept among college freshmen grouped by demonstrated differences in reading ability, by sex, and by enrollment in a reading skills program. (RB)

Concludes that some sociological and adjustment factors are related to scholastic achievement. (RB)

Presents the results of a research study which was designed to determine gains or losses in reading proficiency during summer vacation, investigate the characteristics of those students whose proficiency increases or decreases, and aid in planning summer reading programs which maximize gains and minimize losses. (RB)

Discusses the results of a survey of children's reading interests classified by age and by sex within age levels. (TO)

This paper describes a computational approach to certain problems of anaphora in natural language and argues in favor of formal meaning representation languages (MRLs) for natural language. After presenting arguments in favor of formal meaning representation languages, appropriate MRLs are discussed. Minimal requirements include provisions for…

College undergraduates read a story about two boys playing hooky from school from the perspective of either a burglar or a person interested in buying a home. After recalling the story once, subjects were directed to shift perspectives and then recall the story again. In two experiments, subjects produced on the second recall significantly more…

In order to obtain information on the reading skill levels of Naval recruits for use in improving their reading skills, the United States Navy administered the Gates-MacGinite reading test to all available recruits in its training programs between May 1974 and May 1975. The relationship of those test scores to other personnel data indicated that a…

The hypothesis that pragmatic inferences presented in text are taken for granted, superficially processed, and not stably or enduringly represented in memory was investigated. Stories were read which in some conditions contained information vitiating the implicational force of explicit inferences. The vitiating information was presented either…