Readability estimates are usually based on measures of word difficulty and measures of sentence difficulty. Word difficulty is measured in two ways: by the structural size and complexity of words or by reference to phonomena of language use, such as word-list frequency or the regularity of spelling patterns. Sentence difficulty is measured only in…

Children, four, six, eight, and twelve years old, and adults participated in a study of judgments of syllable similarity. Subjects listened to a disyllabic nonsense unit (the standard) followed by two comparison stimuli; they were then asked to choose the comparison stimulus "most like" the standard. Changes between the comparison stimuli and the…

This study compared syntactic complexity and vocabulary diversity in two groups of books that can be used for reading aloud to preschool children: books recommended by authorities in reading and children's literature for reading aloud and "grocery store" books (small, inexpensive picture books that can be purchased in grocery stores).…

To determine whether comprehension as measured by retelling relates to comprehension as measured by cloze and whether comprehension as measured by retelling changes as retelling is manipulated, a study involving 40 fifth grade students was undertaken. The students were ranked according to their scores on a standardized comprehension test and then…

To determine the relationship of the expressed reading interests of fourth grade students to their free selection library book choices, 12 boys and 9 girls were administered an interest category inventory and recorded their free selection choices on a special record sheet. Analysis of the data revealed a moderately positive correlation between…

Stanford Diagnostic Reading Tests and The Wide Range Achievement Tests were administered to 307 second, fourth, and sixth grade students to study the reading subskills of blacks, Latinos, and Asians/whites. An analysis of variance tested main effects of ethnicity, reading levels (good, average, and poor), and interaction effects. Main effects of…

This monograph examines reading as a cognitive process, focusing on the relationship between reading and thinking as developed in Piagetian theory. Sections of the paper provide a brief overview of Piagetian theory, pointing out its relevance for reading; examine correlational, comparative, and perceptual studies of the relationship between…

A longitudinal study was conducted to determine the relative effectiveness of a developmental reading course taught to students in a college of nursing. Forty-two students in the experimental group were enrolled in a ten-week developmental reading course during the first semester of their freshman year; the control group, also composed of 42…

Noting the limitations of recent word recognition research, this paper suggests ways that these limitations might be overcome and then extends these suggestions into a framework for distinguishing between good and poor readers' ability to comprehend words. The paper begins by reviewing the major models of word recognition and discussing their…

Defining metaphor as "seeing a concept from one class in terms of a concept from another class," a study was devised that analyzed the degree to which two concepts occupy dissimilar positions with respect to their category or domain (within-domain distance), and the degree to which categories themselves are dissimilar (between-domain distance).…

Forty-eight first grade students participated in a three-fold study to (1) examine the effect of repeated exposure to text on memory for prose as determined through retelling, (2) determine how low and high comprehending students performed on this task, and (3) determine if males would perform as well as females on the task. The subjects were…

This paper is intended as an introduction to the concept of comprehension monitoring, which is an important component of reading and involves evaluating and regulating one's ongoing comprehension processes. A discussion of research that investigated comprehension monitoring with both children and adults is presented and the implications for…

The purpose of this study was to determine if beginning readers read with fewer errors when the reading materials had content directly related to the reader's existing cognitive structure (for example, reading based on recent concrete experiences). Meaningfulness was manipulated by basing the reading materials on an audio-tutorial science program…

A combination of case study observation and mini-experimentation techniques were used to examine a number of issues of relevance in the study of the acquisition of beginning reading skills. Six children were divided equally among three instructional modes: phonics, whole word, and mixed. They were asked to decode and encode words, and their…

A PROGRESS REPORT OF THE COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF VALUE SYSTEMS UPON SCHOOL LEARNING AMONG GHETTO CLUB MEMBERS IS PRESENTED. STREET GROUP MEMBERS CONSIDERED SCHOOL LEARNING IRRELEVANT TO PRESTIGE WITHIN THE GROUP. THEY WERE CONCERNED WITH TOUGHNESS, SMARTNESS, TROUBLE, EXCITEMENT, AUTONOMY, AND FATE. FULL…