Traces a major source of confusion in the literature on passage dependence and integrates the relevant concepts into a general theory of context dependence. Sample items and data illustrate practical applications of the theory. (AA)

A group of 190 third through sixth graders were given either 6, 16, or 26 months of reading instruction with functional color components (FCC) of parts of words. Another 160 children in the same schools did not recieve FCC instruction. FCC brought about improvement in reading scores. Nondisability children showed greater improvement. (Author)

Concludes that after 50 years, the McCall-Crabbs norms are out of date and need to be revised. (MKM)

Previous research indicates that children comprehend more of high- than low-interest material when given both types of material. In this study fifth grade children each received either high-interest or low-interest cloze passages but not both. Results indicated that the interest effect is not dependent on a contrast phenomenon. (HOD)

Investigates the relationship between learning style, reading and study skills scores on a number of standardized tests, and performance on a scanning experiment involving locating information in meaningful prose. (HOD)

Describes a means of characterizing one of many semantic aspects of young children's comprehension ("necessity for linking"). This semantic aspect is then used to experimentally clarify sentence processing results that are ambiguous at the syntactic level. (HOD)

Presents tables of initial and final letter clusters for use in psychological experiments as well as in the teaching of reading. (HOD)

Reading comprehension is an active inferential process. Three experiments are described in which the possibility was examined that highly probable inferences are drawn, even when they are unnecessary for comprehension. (Author/RM)

Teacher characteristics and student variables go together to constitute a reading instructional program. (Author/MLF)

This study shows that illustration is effective in learning of both simple and complex stories of both long and short length thus arguing against the hypothesis that illustration adds to cognitive load. (HOD)

Reports on a study that provides evidence of the validity of the cloze test as a measure of reading comprehension and its subskills as measured by a conventional standardized reading achievement test. (HOD)

Suggests that the kinds of research likely to have an impact on future instructional systems will have an emphasis upon the learner and the validity of his or her own purposes and backgrounds. (HOD)

Discusses a study which compared the reading scores of first and fifth-grade subjects classified as reflective or impulsive. Reflective first-grade girls scored higher on all tests than impulsive girls, reflective first-grade boys scored higher than impulsive boys on the critical reading measure, and no differences were found for fifth-grade…

A questionnaire that focused on the previous day's activities was administered to twenty-six adult black high school equivalency students to determine the kind of material read and any reading difficulties encountered. Findings are reported with implications for adult education curricula. (MF)

Discusses the level of reading achievement in our schools and the report of the advisory board commissioned by the College Entrance Examination Board to study the steady decline of SAT scores from 1963 through 1977. Evaluates the role of the teacher in the development of critical reading and examines six aspects of the process of comprehension.…