Responds to an article in the same issue of the journal presenting a meta-analysis of reading research. Discusses limitations of meta-analysis; changing views of research; influential instructional research; and changing standards, changing possibilities. (RS)

Tests how well two models of text comprehension (one referential and one causal) predicted the importance ratings and the recall of procedural texts. Finds better predictive power of the causal model for importance ratings; neither model performed well with recall; and neither model was as predictive of procedural text as they were in previous…

Finds that the updating of situation models is achieved by accessing both locational and temporal links in the knowledge-based spatial representation. (SR)

Reports on the second phase of a two-phase, two cohort componential analysis of reading. Finds a good fit for the grade four data, a reasonable fit for grade five, and a less unambiguous fit for grade six. Finds results are generally confirmed with the simultaneous structural analyses of phase one and phase two multisamples. (RS)

Assesses the effects of headings on text processing behaviors during immediate and delayed testing of 65 undergraduate students. Finds that headings did not appear to affect overall comprehension or overall answer location accuracy. (MG)

Investigates whether poor readers differ from their reading age controls in terms of their ability to make rhyme judgments, and determines whether intelligence levels affect the kinds of difficulties they experience. Finds that average intelligence poor readers performed with the same overall accuracy as their reading age controls. (MG)

Investigates whether individual differences in working-memory (WM) capacity are related to the ways readers use inferences to facilitate text comprehension. Finds several differences between low-memory-span and high-memory-span readers. Notes that readers with adequate WM capacity can keep interpretations open ended and await more information from…

Presents and tests a theoretically derived causal model of the recall of sentences. Notes that the causal model identifies familiarity and concreteness as causes of comprehensibility; familiarity, concreteness, and comprehensibility as causes of interestingness; and all the identified variables as causes of both immediate and delayed recall.…

Discusses the major emphases of the National Reading Research Center regarding future research and study; the types of input to the center from the reading community; the role of individual reading researchers at the center; and potential products of the center. (RS)

Finds that (1) exposure to correctly spelled words improved spelling accuracy for immediate and delayed posttests; (2) exposure to misspelled words did not significantly affect the spelling accuracy of the sample as a whole; and (3) no interaction was found between spelling ability and spelling accuracy improvement as the result of proofreading…

Synthesizes the history and research trends of the National Reading Conference (NRC) through a global analysis of 2,139 articles published in this journal (from 1969 to 1991) and the NRC Yearbooks (from 1952 to 1991). Includes recommended reading lists of NRC "firsts, classics, and oddballs." (RS)

Shows that the Orton-Gillingham reading treatment program can produce positive results in certain populations of college developmental reading students. (SR)

Examines the performance of Moroccan children on a series of common household literacy tasks, and whether their performance on these tasks was related to school literacy skills, school experience, and other factors. Finds that although the children had learned many skills relevant to household literacy tasks, they demonstrated only partial…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Explains the apparent "conflicts" between findings of two research studies (with different purposes and methods) of the same classroom. Emphasizes the different natures of qualitative and quantitative research. (SR)

Explores the nature of point-driven and purpose-driven understanding in undergraduate and graduate students. Finds that readers following a point-driven reading strategy tend to get locked into a particular level of interpretation. Discovers an asymmetric relation between readers' main-point identification and their interpretation of the author's…