Describes a study which examined the effectiveness of four methods for teaching word meanings. The context method was found to be more effective than the use of category labels and dictionary practice. Associating new words with familiar synonyms was also supported. (MKM)

Reports that students in a college reading efficiency course who had high self-images read significantly faster than those with low self-images, that students with initially high self-images did not maintain those images, that males had higher self-images and read faster than did females, and that there were negative relationships between speed…

Two experiments were conducted to test how readers process unattended words in a display and how the semantic category of these flanking words affects response time. (Author/AM)

Describes a study of the relationship between performance on word problems and general reading ability, certain problem-solving reading and thinking skills, and computation skills. (DD)

An approach to assessing context dependence was applied to data from the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. The results suggest that scores on the difficult passages are inflated because the examinees can answer the questions without having to comprehend the passage. (MKM)

Critiques an experiment by M. Arlin, M. Scott, and J. Webster (see EJ 206 153) in which their pictures as an aid to learning hypothesis contrasts with the focal attention hypothesis supported by research by H. Singer, S. J. Samuels, and J. Spiroff (see EJ 105 648). (MKM)

Describes a study of 16 kindergarten children--eight good prereaders and eight poor prereaders--designed to determine if there were relations between reading skill and the processing of distinctive features of patterns. Concludes that both pattern classification and feature processing appear to be involved in early reading skills. (TJ)

Suggests that reading comprehension is a special case of language comprehension; considers the effect of prior knowledge and experience on recall of meanings; points to the role of "scripts" (information accumulated about a situation, word, or concept) in reading comprehension; and outlines implications for teachers. (GT)

Reports that the "Wyoming Standards of Excellence for Reading," drafted by the Wyoming State Reading Advisory Council, appear to be reliable and internally consistent guidelines, valid with respect to current Wyoming practices. Includes the standards. (GT)

Discusses documents found in the ERIC system that deal specifically with research, curriculum guides, and model programs related to reading instruction and mainstreaming. (MKM)

Examines the extent and direction of curriculum bias in standardized reading achievement tests by comparing the relative overlap in the contents of five separate reading achievement tests with the content of seven commercial reading series. (HOD)

This study ascertained the effects of kindergarten conceptual tempo classification on middle of first-grade reading performance and compared the results obtained using a double median split classification procedure to those obtained by computing a standard score response time and error composite for each child. (HOD)

Argues that a broad dimension of useful experiments would be suggested if the field supplemented its current research strategy with a second strategy focused more explicitly on the extension of generality. (HOD)

Seven passages of a published reading comprehension test were administered to college students to compare the regular multiple choice test scores with scores on two forms of a cloze test and with readability formula values. (HOD)

Reports a study designed to determine whether there was a difference in the reading achievement of Mexican-American elementary school migrant children with differing levels of self-concept. (FL)