Four experiments investigated memory scanning rates of skilled and less skilled readers. In three experiments, reaction times of skilled readers were faster than those of less skilled readers with reading time partialled out (aloud and silent reading). Differences were not significant when the scan component in answering was minimized. (Author/RD)

Fourth-grade good and poor readers were given six different digit span tasks in which task structure (simultaneous vs sequential presentation of digits) and modality of presentation (visual vs auditory) were varied. Task structure was more powerful in predicting test performance than was modality of presentation. (Author/BH)

Integrates research findings on modal preferences to attempt to arrive at some reasonably sound principles through a systematic synthesis of the literature and to suggest some areas in need of further research. (HOD)

Reviews and criticizes literature on the deficiencies of poor readers. (HOD)

Describes research on decoding and reading strategies involving three six-year-old migrant children learning to read in French. (AM)

The Matching Familiar Figures Test and the Auditory Impulsivity Task were administered to 81 fourth-grade students. Fifty-five percent of the students maintained classifications as reflective, impulsive, fast-accurate, or slow-inaccurate across the two modalities, indicating that the two tasks measured different abilities. The authors suggest that…

Discusses how language cues are used in the reading process, describes a means of evaluating a learner's effectiveness in processing these cues, and suggests ways to help foster more effective reading strategies. (Author/RK)

A thorough knowledge of the relationship of language and reading will lead to more effective teaching than following a list of basic skills. (MKM)

Discusses the steps involved in and the preparation necessary for learning to read (decode) and to comprehend what is read. (JM)

Available from: University of Chicago Library Society Bulletin, c/o Harriet Clouse, Library Development Office, Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; $7.50 per year; issued irregularly 2-3/year. Discusses late-medieval primary education, especially learning to read; indicates how such education affected the way adults used…

Three experiments examine the information extraction process in adults and elementary school children reading paragraphs or words. In experiments 1 and 2 subjects were presented paragraphs to read and to search for specified targets. In experiment 3 subjects were asked to judge whether briefly presented pairs of letters were the same or different.…

Synthesizing a diverse group of studies, author argues that reading disability is not a unitary phenomenon but can result from deficiencies in different psychological processes. Based on the points at which an individual's reading breaks down, she presents a fourfold classifications scheme capable of categorizing all poor readers. (Editor/RK)

Students were randomly assigned to read a text passage displayed on microcomputers in one of four conditions: (1) required reviewing of main; or (2) alternate text when responses to adjunct questions were incorrect; (3) reading with adjunct questions; and (4) reading without adjunct questions. (Author/LMO)

Describes a study of oral reading errors by six-year-olds indicating that previously read words are frequently substituted at points of miscue, but that reliance on this source decreased over the year, casting doubt on previously postulated developmental phases of reading. (HTH)

Describes a study of the effect of incongruent prior knowledge on fifth- and sixth-graders' text comprehension, indicating that text structures that explicitly contrasted the reader's misconception with the correct information were more effective than those that simply gave correct information. (HTH)