This paper presents an extensive, critical review of Eleanor Gibson and Harry Levin's "The Psychology of Reading." Treating the book as an attempt at comprehensive integration of the literature on the reading process, the reviewers look for a theoretical account that will bind findings together, for a critical examination of the research…

This paper develops the thesis that the knowledge a person possesses has a potent influence on what he or she will learn and remember from exposure to discourse. After outlining some assumptions about the characteristics of the structures (schemata) in which existing knowledge is packaged, a theory of the processes involved in assimilating the…

The model of sentence perception proposed by Fodor, Bever and Garrett (1974) emphasizes the importance of grammatical cues signalling clause boundaries, and suggests that segmentation of a sentence into clauses precedes computation of the internal structure of those clauses. However, this model has nothing to say about the many sentences in which…

A cognitive approach to the interrelation of writing and reading assumes that production and comprehension of written text depend upon cognitive and affective schemata used in concert by a writer or reader to produce or encode, store, and retrieve text information. Both comprehending and composing are basic, complex, interactive processes with…

Addressing the wave of public criticism of the English curriculum, the six articles in this book cite "basics" that are far different from those of the current "back to basics" movement. The first article surveys the nature of the curriculum attacks and suggests why English teachers may be more vulnerable to public criticism…

Intended for current or prospective teachers of illiterate adults, this book highlights both some motivational and environmental factors that may particularly affect the classroom performance of adult remedial readers and the areas where the backgrounds, experiences, and expectations of teachers and learners are apt to differ. Following an…

This review of the literature on reading theories is built around three components: an explication of each theory, an evaluation of the theory based on an examination of its internal and external coherence and correspondence, and an application of the theory to a child's reading. The literature is organized around discussions of 12 benchmarks…

A study was undertaken to determine if a criterion referenced test based on a Piagetian stage model of reading acquisition was related to grade level, to a standardized reading achievement test, and to a test of cognitive developmental level. Sixty first, second, and third grade children were administered a comprehensive test of basic skills. They…

It was hypothesized that college students' metacognitive behaviors would predict their reading achievement scores. Nelson-Denny Reading Tests scores were obtained for each of 66 students in undergraduate reading methods courses, and these students were asked to introspect about their behavior as they read an article related to course work.…

The focus of this paper is on how bilingual children may benefit through a reading method that allows them opportunities to perceive and conceptualize aspects of the English language using a Piagetian model. The paper presents the analysis and prevention methods used for correcting difficulties encountered by bilingual students, and argues that…

Two experiments assessed the effect of vocabulary difficulty on three measures of text comprehension--free recall, summary recall, and sentence recognition. In the first experiment, the effect of differing proportions of rare-word substitutions were examined in 79 sixth grade students. It was found that a high rate of difficult vocabulary (one…

This annual report contains summaries of more than 1,200 reading research studies that appeared in print between July 1, 1979 and June 30, 1980. The summaries are arranged into six major categories. The first category lists other general bibliographies offering summaries of reading research, while the second category presents summaries of studies…

Using computer controlled text presentation that permitted the measurement of reading time for individual sentences, a study tested two hypotheses concerning how schemata guide reading comprehension. The focusing hypothesis suggested that the schemata activated by the reader's perspective might identify relevant information to which additional…

A sample consisting of 115 college students participated in a study of the relationships between reading rate, reading comprehension, and related independent variables (attitude, motivation, and interest). A short story was used for obtaining objective rate and comprehension scores for each subject. Two questionnaires designed for the study were…

Reading times can be a valuable source of data on comprehension processes, especially in the case of recording reading times on individual sentences in a passage. To overcome the methodological problems encountered in other research efforts concerning reading times, a multiple regression method was used to compare an ordinary language processing…