A study was conducted to investigate the effects of high and low relevant text underlining and annotating (making margin notes or other marks to indicate important material) on test performance. The subjects, 67 college freshmen, were randomly assigned to one of four experimenter-generated conditions: (1) high relevant underlining; (2) high…

A survey of the current research on readability formulas is presented in this paper, which distinguishes this research from research on the more general questions that surround formulas: What features of a text, particularly the language it is written in, make the text easy or difficult to read? and, What will predict that readers with particular…

Defining mathemagenics as adjunct aids that can be used in textual situations to enhance learning, this paper places a new perspective on mathemagenics research as well as on practical considerations derived from that research. Specifically, the paper addresses two questions: (1) Which explanatory concepts--degree of processing, selective…

A language screening test and a standardized reading test were administered to 41 first grade children to determine if there was a significant correlation between language ability and reading achievement as measured by the tests. The tests were hand scored and the results analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation. The findings…

To gain a greater understanding about how people comprehend a set of directions, a macro-level research approach is needed. Researchers must first decide on the domain of activity that is to be investigated. In our society instructions are used for building things from parts, disassembling things, determining the functional characteristics of…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of priming, using the first of several metaphors with common ground (the relationship or similar characteristics between the subject of a metaphor and the term used metaphorically) to facilitate comprehension of successive related metaphors. Ten groups of three to five metaphors with common…

Few children possess the knowledge and experience to identify the best books from the numbers that flood the market, so it is wise for authors, publishers, librarians, teachers, and parents to be aware of any body of informed critical opinion regarding excellence in books for children. The contribution of the conscientious critic is as valuable to…

Three studies were conducted in an attempt to replicate previous research concluding that semantic meaning is accessed in the absence of conscious awareness. A pattern mask was used to interrupt the processing of stimulus words after 30 milliseconds; at this duration subjects were not able to identify the stimulus words or even to determine…

A study examined the effect of variation in category dominance on retrieval latencies (and errors) from semantic memory. Subjects, 66 students enrolled in an introductory psychology course, were required to perform 6 successive retrievals from each of 18 conceptual categories. The six retrievals consisted of two successive blocks of three from…

This report presents the results of internal and external surveys of engineers and scientists at Langley Research Center and in the academic and industrial communities concerning the format of technical reports of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After stating the purpose of the study and defining the terms, the report…

Thirty undergraduate students were asked to read and recall information presented in one of two parallel expository passages about the professional athlete. These passages differed only in their use of the "he" or "she" generic referent. The passages were parsed into 19 idea units, and 5 target words in each conveying the…

To assess the context in which information is presented to readers and to know what demands information being presented makes of an audience, IBM designed three procedures to help gather such material. First, customer sites are visited to interview representatives from the intended audience and see the environments in which the information will be…

A transactional investigation of reading considers comprehension to be more than the duplication of the author's message. Rather, it entails the readers' interpretation of the textual representation that he or she has constructed. Thus, researchers must ask how the reader duplicated the author's creative role. The goal, in other words, is to…

Examines the effect of repatterning representative passages from a tenth grade social studies text upon the average sophomore's comprehension. (RB)

Acknowledging widely recognized shortcomings of readability formulas, the authors propose a technique for analyzing syntactic complexity. (RB)