Experiments demonstrating that perceptual identification and recognition memory both rely on memory for single prior processing episodes, contrary to common assumption, are reported. The balance between data-driven and conceptually-driven processing in reading is explored, and the effects of changing the subject's reliance on one or the other…

Subjects were better able to read essays in good rhetorical form with explicit structural cues than essays in bad form without cues and in deviant paragraph order. Differences depended upon whether the test evaluated macro- or microprocesses (global or local comprehension). Comprehension strategies involving rhetorical cues are discussed.…

Reviews the work of Yale computer scientist Roger C. Schank in the area of reading instruction and offers five reasons why his model of computer reading should not be applied to the reading processes of children. (FL)

A model of context effects in perception is applied to perception of letters. Perception results from excitatory and inhibitory interactions of detectors for visual features, letters, and words. The model produces facilitation for letters in pronounceable pseudowords as well as words and accounts for rule-governed performance without any rules.…

Investigated seven eight-year-old children's memory for aurally presented sentences. Used a recognition-memory task to probe constructive memory processes in two groups differentiated by reading comprehension. Results indicated the tendency to construct meanings was greater in children who scored higher on reading comprehension. (Author)

Outlines three constructs of text difficulty: text-based (objective), performance-based (behavioral), and a combination of the two (subjective). (HOD)

Reviews work on three areas of visual information that are available to readers: information provided by the conventional arrangements of the print on the page, by the features of each letter, and by the shapes of entire words. (HOD)

Argues that researchers and classroom teachers need not be adversaries and uses examples from the area of domain knowledge to demonstrate how teachers can adapt research findings to their reading lessons. (FL)

Concludes that beginning English-as-a-second-language students might be getting an instructional message about the reading process that overemphasizes the least useful aspects of print at the expense of comprehension. (FL)

The need for and the limits of flexibility in college reading and study skills instruction are discussed with regard to the diversity of student population and theories on the reading process. (HTH)

The authors review a body of theory and accumulating evidence which suggests that critical study of the arts facilitates the development of cognitive skills, including those essential to reading. (Author/SJL)

Three classes of research on reading are identified. The articles of this section pertain to investigation of the organization and operation of basic processing mechanisms underlying skilled reading; each is described briefly and commented upon. Particular attention is devoted to the articles on context effects. (Author/RD)

This study compared the abilities of 30 sixth-grade, competent readers and 30 adult, competent readers to process syntactic structures under conditions of related and unrelated discourse. Results suggest the ability to process syntactic and semantic elements is not fully developed in children in the 11- to 12-year range. (Author/SJL)

Reports on two experiments concerned with the use of the limited capacity cognitive processing system in a later stage of reading: the processes associated with processing information and knowledge from text for retention. (HOD)

Discusses experiments that provide information about the reading processes involved in mapping phonemes onto alphabetic symbols; suggests several techniques for helping children both to differentiate among the short vowel sounds and to associate sound and symbol. Focuses on the needs of beginning readers who are experiencing reading difficulties.…