bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Reading Competence on the Ability to Take a Perspective
Authors: Grabe Mark , Prentice Walt
Published: December 2009

Students grouped as good or poor readers on the basis of a vocabulary test were asked to read a story from a certain perspective or with instructions to read carefully. While the groups given a perspective recalled more information than the control groups, the most interesting results came from the significant interaction of reading ability, reading instruction and type of information. Relative to good readers in the control condition, good readers given a perspective responded with greater recall of information related to the perspective. The poor readers appeared unable or unwilling to use the perspective in differentially processing the perspective relevant sentences.
Investigating the Relationship between Comprehension and Word Recognition: Oral Reading Analysis of Children with Comprehension or Word Recognition Disabilities
Authors: Kendal Janet Ross , Hood Joyce
Published: December 2009

Two types of disabled readers were identified: those with good comprehension but poor word recognition (HiC-LoWR) and those with poor comprehension but adequate word recognition (LoC-HiWR). All Ss read orally a grade 3 and a grade 5 story, and their reading performance was evaluated. Preliminary analyses indicated that, contrary to expectations, HiC-LoWR Ss used contextual information less well and corrected fewer errors. When Ss' oral reading of stories of comparable difficulty was contrasted, HiC-LoWR Ss, as expected, used contextual information to better advantage. Results suggested there is more involved in comprehending text than the ability to recognize individual words.
How Personal Evaluation Affects the Underlining and Recall of Prose Material
Authors: Brady Peter J. , Rickards John P.
Published: December 2009

The influence of personal evaluation from the experimenter on the underlining and recall of prose material was investigated for college undergraduates (N = 135). Subjects who received positive personal evaluation performed better on the underlining task and on the recall of nonunderlined material than subjects who received negative personal evaluatoion. Subjects who received no personal evaluation also performed better on the underlining task than subjects who received negative personal evaluation. Implications for education are presented.
The Effects of Imaginal and Verbal Strategies on Prose Comprehension by Adults
Authors: Tirr William C. , Manelis Leon , Leicht Kenneth L.
Published: December 2009

Adult subjects were given concrete and abstract textbook passages to study by using either an imaginai or verbal strategy. Two days later, they were given a multiple-choice test and a production test of comprehension. The verbal strategy produced better comprehension than the imaginai strategy; concrete passages were comprehended better than abstract passages, but only according to the production test; and strategy and concreteness did not interact. Differences between these results and results obtained in imagery research on word lists are discussed, and caution is advised before generalizing the word research to meaningful prose learning by adults
Time-on-Task and Reading Performance in Underachieving Children
Authors: Wyne Marvin D. , Stuck Gary B.
Published: December 2009

Elementary school pupils identified as being a year or more behind in reading achievement and who were observed as spending low percentages of time-on-task-were selected for participation in a short-term, highly structured program designed to increase task oriented behavior. Two different groups of approximately ten children each participated in each of three separate eight-week intervention phases. For each phase, a comparison group of approximately ten children remained in the regular classroom. Following the intervention, participating pupils were found to spend significantly more time-on-task and to achieve at a significantly higher level in reading than their comparison counterparts. These advantages in reading achievement performance were maintained over a period of four months after their return to regular classrooms on a full-time basis.
A Sentence Verification Technique for Measuring Reading Comprehension
Authors: Royer James M. , Hastings C. Nicholas , Hook Colin
Published: December 2009

Two studies are reported which assess whether a sentence verification technique for measuring reading comprehension is sensitive to reading difficulty of text. Fifth and sixth grade students and fourth and sixth grade students read text passages two grade levels below reading level, at reading level, and two grades above reading level, and then responded to original, paraphrase, meaning change, or distractor sentences. Analysis of proportion correct and d' scores indicated that the technique was sensitive to text difficulty. A cumber of possible uses and advantages of the sentence verification technique are discussed.
Good and Poor Readers' Recall of Familiar and Unfamiliar Text
Authors: Taylor Barbara M.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated poor readers' use of prior knowledge in reading by comparing good and poor readers' recall of familiar and unfamiliar text. Thirty-one third graders and thirty-one fifth graders, reading on a third grade level, and twenty fifth graders, reading on a fifth grade level, read and orally recalled two third grade expository passages, one on a familiar topic and one on an unfamiliar topic, which were very similar in structure. Both fifth grade groups recalled more than the third graders on the familiar passage. The fifth grade good readers recalled more than the poor readers and third graders on the unfamiliar passage. All groups recalled more on the familiar than unfamiliar passage, but the poor readers' mean difference score between the two passages was greater than the other two groups' mean difference scores. These findings suggest that poor readers' comprehension, in particular, suffers when their use of prior knowledge is restricted, as when reading unfamiliar material. Also, it appears that poor readers can do an adequate job of comprehending if given familiar material to read on an appropriate level.
Monitoring of Understanding: An Investigation of Good and Poor Readers' Awareness of Induced Miscomprehension of Text
Authors: Garner Ruth
Published: December 2009

Good and poor junior high readers were directed to process two expository passages as editors. Each passage had been divided into four segments, and in two of the four segments of one passage, material had been altered to introduce inconsistency with the overall message. Comprehension-miscomprehension monitoring was assessed after each segment; the readers were asked to rate each chunk as “very easy to understand,” “ok,” or “difficult to understand,” and to explain instances of the latter two ratings after completion of the entire passage at hand. A material × segment × reader repeated-measures ANOVA revealed numerous significant main and interaction effects. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis of data supported the original hypothesis of good reader/poor reader differences in comprehension-miscomprehension monitoring. It seems that good readers noticed the disruptive effect of the altered material and poor readers did not.
Transfer Effect of Word Recognition Strategies
Authors: Mcneil John D. , Donant Lisbeth
Published: December 2009

The present study was an investigation of the transfer effect from training in three word recognition strategies. Results are based upon a test of ability to decode unknown words classified as graphophonic, structural, and contextual. Ninety second, third, and fourth grade children and an equal number of children in a non-instructional control group provided the data. Significant results are discussed in light of the effectiveness of the training in helping pupils decode new words and the specific rather than the general values of each strategy.

The data support the efficacy of children learning multiple word recognition strategies for decoding purposes. The study does not, however, treat the relation of word recognition strategies to comprehension of text.
Position Saliency and Limited Capacity in Children's Short Term Memory for Graphic Patterns
Authors: Leslie Ron
Published: December 2009

A short term recognition memory task which varied the number of letters distinguishing target and comparison stimuli was used to assess the ability of prereaders and beginning readers to utilize graphic information in a three letter graphic pattern. In Experiment 1 the Exposure Time of the target stimulus and the Retention Interval were varied. Results indicated that children were not able to process the graphic pattern as a single unit. Children based their same-different judgments on only limited graphic information and displayed clear saliency effects of the initial letter position. In fact, stimuli distinguished by an initial letter difference were more discriminable than those which differed in both middle and final letter positions. An Exposure Time × Position interaction supports the interpretation that position saliency is in part the result of serial encoding. Contrary to some explanations of position saliency, both readers and non-readers demonstrated the effect. In Experiment 2, beginning kindergarten children failed to demonstrate an effect of position. These studies indicate that early reading or prereading activities result in serial encoding strategies.
Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading: Effects of Processing Information from Text for Immediate Recall and Retention
Authors: Britton Bruce K.
Published: December 2009

In two experiments, subjects read short passages and then took recall tests on them. One group expected and received a delayed test on each passage, and the other group expected and received an immediate test. In the delayed test condition, the delay was one minute long and was filled with a distracting task. Use of cognitive capacity during reading of the passages was measured with a secondary task technique. Inspection time and learning were also measured. Results showed that more cognitive capacity was used when subjects expected a delayed test than when they expected an immediate test, but no more time was spent reading and no more was recalled. It was concluded that subjects engaged in additional cognitive operations when they expected a delayed recall test, and these operations used cognitive capacity and were carried out in parallel with the cognitive operations associated with the other cognitive processes in reading.
A Comparison of Readers versus Non-Readers in a Cognitive Synthesis Task
Authors: Hartlep Karen L. , Dolan Ellen
Published: December 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive synthesis abilities and reading abilities in young children. Forty/kindergarten-age children were tested in a cognitive synthesis task involving logographs or whole-word symbols. Half of the children were readers, and half were not. Since the children were equally unfamiliar with the symbols, readers had no initial advantage over non-readers. All of the children demonstrated their verbal comprehension of the vocabulary words represented by the logographs. All were able to learn which word went with each symbol. However, a significant difference was found between children who read and non-readers in the ability to integrate logographs arranged in sentence form. Readers were better able to synthesize information in sentences than were non-readers.
Intersentential Processes in Reading Comprehension
Authors: Kibby Michael W.
Published: December 2009

Mature readers were given cloze tests on two paragraphs of varying difficulty presented in three formats: regular, the paragraph as the author wrote it (with cloze deletions); scrambled, the same paragraph and deletions, but the sentences were presented in scrambled order; and isolated, in which each sentence was read in isolation. No significant differences between the regular and scrambled formats were found. Isolated performance was significantly lower than regular, but by only 10 to 1570. Performance in the isolated format indicated acceptable comprehension. The results served as a basis for examining the importance and function of intersentential processes in comprehension. Conclusions about cloze as a measure of reading comprehension were also offered.
Where Do Their Answers Come from? A Study of the Inferences which Children Make when Answering Questions about Narrative Stories
Authors: Nicholson Tom , Imlach Robert
Published: December 2009

Young readers often seem to overlook explicitly stated causal statements In narrative texts and instead give their own versions of why a text event occurred. Some researchers would agree with Smith (1979) that children do this because they read for meaning rather than word-by-word. This is an “inside-out” (or, “schema-based”) view of text comprehension. Other researchers, however, agree with Thorndike (1917) that “errors” occur because “the mind is assailed by every word in the paragraph.” This is an “outside-in” (or, “text-based”) view of the comprehension process. The purpose of this study was to find out the relative influence of text data and prior knowledge on the kinds of inferences which children make when answering questions about stories. In Experiment 1, text structure was altered by embedding either predictable or unpredictable reasons for events in the text, and also by varying the position and distance of these reasons from the text event being asked about. Some of these stories were familiar; others less so. Text accessibility was also varied. In all, the design was a 24 × 3 factorial, using repeated measures. In Experiment 2, a causal “preference” factor was added, to take account of the fact that children seemed predisposed toward certain kinds of inferences, whether they are predictable or not. The results provide support for the notion that text data and background knowledge compete for priority in question-answering. They suggest that children may benefit from instruction which helps them to arbitrate between plausible, yet competing explanations for important text events.
Levels of Processing Effects on the Immediate and Delayed Recall of Prose
Authors: Burton John K. , Niles Jerry A. , Wildman Terry M.
Published: December 2009

Levels of processing is an explanatory framework which postulates that differences in memorial processing quality and/or effort affect the duration of the memory trace. Using recall (immediate, one week, two week) for connected discourse processed under three semantic and three orthographic interference conditions as well as a “normal” control, hypotheses of superior delayed recall for semantic processing conditions and “reversals” from immediate to delayed recall were tested. Results were consistent with a semantic elaboration notion, but the reversals suggested by the other studies (e. g., Pellegrino, Siegel & Dhawan) were not found to be statistically reliable. Alternative hypotheses are considered.
Subjective Text Difficulty: An Alternative Approach to Defining the Difficulty Level of Written Text
Authors: Tamor Lynne
Published: December 2009

This paper outlines three operationalizations of the notion of text difficulty; text-based (objective), performance-based (behavioral), and a combination of the two (subjective). Text-based approaches such as readability formulae view “difficulty” as a characteristic residing in the text itself. Behavioral approaches disregard the text and focus solely on the performances of individual readers. The subjective approach outlined here matches a priori estimates of reading ability to objective measures of text difficulty to establish a criterion for each individual reader. Texts falling below the criterion according to the objective difficulty scale are defined as subjectively “easy”, those above the criterion are defined as subjectively “hard”. It is argued that individual performance characteristics are in part a function of subjective difficulty and that psychological research linking reading performance with general individual difference factors must therefore control for the subjective difficulty of texts used in research studies.
The Relationship between Conceptual Tempo, Phonological Awareness, and Word Recognition in Beginning Readers
Authors: Tunmer William E. , Fletcher Claire M.
Published: December 2009

An alternative explanation of the divergent findings appearing in the literature on conceptual tempo and reading acquisition is presented. The discussion yields three hypotheses, which are the focus of the present study: (1) conceptual tempo is related to phonological awareness; (2) the relationship between phonological awareness and reading ability (in beginning readers) is stronger than the relationship between conceptual tempo and reading ability; and (3) conceptual tempo and phonological awareness are differentially related to the recognition of real and synthetic words. Thirty-seven first grade children were individually administered tests of verbal intelligence, conceptual tempo, phonological awareness, and reading ability. The data indicate that phonological awareness is significantly correlated with conceptual tempo, that phonological awareness is related to synthetic word recognition, and that synthetic word recognition is highly correlated with real word recognition. The results are explained in terms of a model of reading acquisition that emphasizes the role of metalinguistic abilities in learning to read.
Adult Disabled Readers' Metacognitive Awareness about Reading Tasks and Strategies
Authors: Gambrell Linda B. , Heathington Betty S.
Published: December 2009

Adult good and poor readers' metacognitive awareness of task and strategy variables that influence reading was assessed in an interview study. Twenty-eight adult good readers and 28 adult poor readers answered questions about the effects of task parameters and cognitive strategies involved in reading. Although adult poor readers were sensitive to task parameters such as motivation, interest and prior knowledge they were less sensitive to the structure of paragraphs or stories than adult good readers. The most dramatic finding was that, in general, adult poor readers are not aware of strategy variables or their role in facilitating comprehension. Adult poor readers' metacognitive awareness about reading appears to be more like that of beginning readers as compared to that of sixth graders (Myers & Paris, 1978). Adult disabled readers perceive reading as a decoding process rather than as a meaning construction or comprehension task. The results of the present study demonstrate that adult disabled readers have a limited understanding of reading as a cognitive process.
Effect of Story Context on Children's Ongoing Word Recognition
Authors: Schwantes Frederick M.
Published: December 2009

In this study, the reading time of specific target words embedded within an extended and meaningful story context was measured. The target words were either congruous or incongruous with the story context. Results indicated that the mean difference between these target word types did not significantly vary between third and sixth grade children when these words were presented in isolation. However, this mean reading time difference between target types was found to be greater for the younger as compared to the older readers when these words were embedded within the story context. These findings extend prior work in this area and indicate that developmental differences in context effects during ongoing word recognition are present under conditions which require the comprehension and memory of extended and specific story material. The results are discussed in terms of an interactive-compensatory model of reading.
Use of Passage Cues in Answering of Questions: Investigation of the Effects of an Explicit External Criterion on Adults' Studying Behavior
Authors: Garner Ruth , Alexander Patricia
Published: December 2009

Thirty proficient adult readers were directed to read a passage of about 4200 words under one of two treatments. Half read; responded to a reader-based question; and were given an explicit, external criterion for completing a text-based question. The other 15 subjects read; responded to the same reader-based question; but were given no criterion for completion of the text-based question. All subjects completed a response satisfaction scale and chose either to stop the task at that point or to reanswer the questions with text pages available as external cues. The adults given the criterion treatment—despite superior question-answering performance to their non-criterion peers—expressed dissatisfaction with responses, and chose in large numbers (14 of 15) to reanswer the questions; no non-criterion treatment subjects chose to exercise the same option. Criterion subjects who did choose to reread and reanswer generally selected highly informative pages to assist in work on the text-based questions and improved their answers substantially. Implications from the findings are drawn for classroom practice in the area of “studying.”
Text Readability Level and Developmental Differences in Context Effects
Authors: Schwantes Frederick M.
Published: December 2009

Vocalization latency of target words which were either congruous or incongruous with a story context was measured. The readability level of the story contexts was varied. Third and sixth grade children each read stories which were of grade-appropriate level as well as stories with readability levels which were above their present grade level. The effect of story context on mean vocalization latency was greater for the third as compared to the sixth graders when grade-appropriate level stories were presented. However, these developmental differences in context effects were reduced when more difficult readability level stories were presented.
Recognition of Spellings Printed in Lower and Mixed Case: Evidence for Orthographic Images
Authors: Ehri Linnea C. , Wilce Lee S.
Published: December 2009

Three experiments explored whether visual properties of word spellings are retained in memory. Two forms of a multiple-choice spelling recognition test were given to college students and seventh graders, one with the choices printed in lower-case type, the other printed in mixed-case type (e.g., eXaMpLe). Significantly more correct spellings were distinguished in the former case. Results are interpreted to support the view that orthographic images of words are retained in memory. Evidence for the relationship between spelling recognition, spelling production, and reading comprehension capabilities is also considered.
Learning New Information from Text: The Role of Prior Knowledge and Reading Ability
Authors: Lipson Marjorie Youmans
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to examine children's ability to learn new information from textual materials. It investigated the extent to which equally intelligent average and poor readers could recognize and recall information from expository texts. Two types of explicit and four types of inferential information were tested through recognition items. Subjects recognized more explicit than inferential information, although some inference types were more difficult than others to recognize. In addition, the study examined the extent to which acquisition of new information was a function of prior knowledge. The probability of a correct response was computed for three different prior knowledge conditions: 1) correct, 2) wrong, or 3) unknown. This permitted investigation of the effect of prior knowledge on subjects' acquisition of new information, as well as subjects' ability to correct old information. Prior knowledge was a powerful factor in reading comprehension for both average and poor readers. Both groups were better at acquiring totally new information than at correcting old information that was inaccurate. Even when prior knowledge was contradicted by the text, subjects used it, rather than textual information, for item recognition. Only when they did not, or believed they did not, possess the necessary prior knowledge did they resort to text—with a consequent improvement in recognition.
Readers' Awareness of Cohesive Relationships during Cloze Comprehension
Authors: Bridge Connie A. , Winograd Peter N.
Published: December 2009

Ninth grade good and poor readers completed a cloze passage in which words involved in three kinds of cohesive relationships (referential, conjunctive, and lexical) had been systematically deleted. The subjects were asked to read the passage orally, supply the missing words, and think aloud about the reasons for supplying each cloze deletion. Results indicated that subjects were aware of the cohesive relationships in text and that they generally used these relationships to help them supply the missing cloze items. More importantly, the results indicated that subjects varied their use of intrasentential and intersentential information based upon the type of cohesion involved in the cloze. The results of this study are first discussed in terms of the debate over whether or not cloze is sensitive to intersentential processing and then in terms of the use of cloze as an instructional technique in the classroom.
The Effects of Long-Term Vocabulary Instruction on Reading Comprehension: A Replication
Authors: McKeown Margaret G. , Beck Isabel L. , Omanson Richard C. , Perfetti Charles A.
Published: December 2009

A study that investigated the relationship between vocabulary instruction and reading comprehension was replicated and extended. The original study showed substantial gains in accuracy of word knowledge and speed of lexical access, but only marginal gains in comprehension. This latter result was attributable to methodological problems, and thus the comprehension measure was revised. In the present study, fourth graders were taught 104 words over a five-month period. Following instruction, these children and a group of uninstructed children matched on pre-instruction vocabulary and comprehension ability performed tasks to measure accuracy of word knowledge, speed of lexical access, and comprehension of stories containing taught words. Instructed children showed substantial advantage in all tasks. Reasons for these results, in contrast to studies that have failed to improve comprehension through vocabulary instruction, are discussed.
Adults' Text Recall: An Examination of the Age-Deficit Hypothesis
Authors: Glynn Shawn M. , Okun Morris A. , Muth K. Denise , Britton Bruce K.
Published: December 2009

One-hundred and eight young and middle-aged adults studied two texts. The adults' vocabulary scores and their reported use of organizational strategies were correlated positively with their total recall of text information; their chronological ages, however, were correlated negatively with their recall. The relative contribution that each of these variables made to recall was assessed by means of a hierarchical regression analysis. Vocabulary and age were found to be particularly important variables. Vocabulary represented a text-learning resource that increased with age; it offset the age-related deficit in recall, but only in part. The findings provide support for the existence of a small, but significant, age-related deficit in text recall.
The Effect of Inference Training on Children's Comprehension of Expository Text
Authors: Carr Eileen M. , Dewitz Peter , Patberg Judythe P.
Published: December 2009

Three procedures were used to help sixth-grade children increase inferential reading comprehension with expository text: a structured overview to activate background knowledge, the cloze procedure to develop an inferential thinking strategy, and a self-monitoring checklist to train the subjects to use the strategy independently. There were two treatment groups. One used the cloze procedure to integrate text and background knowledge and the checklist to maintain the strategy; the other used both the structured overview and the cloze procedure with the checklist. A control group read the same materials as the other two groups, but was not trained in any strategy. Posttests periodically measured the students' progress and ability to infer. Transfer and delayed transfer tests measured the application of inferential skills to untaught materials immediately after instruction and six weeks thereafter without further instruction. Results indicated that students in both treatment groups increased their inferential comprehension skills as measured by both the immediate and delayed transfer tests. Results also indicated that below average readers benefitted most from the instruction.
Effects on Text Comprehension of Differing Proportions and Locations of Difficult Vocabulary
Authors: Freebody Peter , Anderson Richard C.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments assessed the effect of vocabulary difficulty on three measures of text comprehension—free recall, summary recall, and sentence recognition. In Experiment 1, the effects of differing proportions of rare-word substitutions were examined. It was found that a high rate of difficult vocabulary (one substance word in three) was required before reliable effects on comprehension were evident. In Experiment 2, difficult vocabulary was placed in important text elements in one form of the passages, and in unimportant elements in another. These forms were contrasted with easy vocabulary forms in their effects on the three comprehension measures. Only on the summary measure was there an overall effect of difficult vocabulary in important elements. The results are discussed in terms of the salience of the signaling value of unfamiliar words.
An Examination of Fifth- and Eighth-Grade Children's Question-Answering Behavior: An Instructional Study in Metacognition
Authors: Raphael Taffy E. , McKinney Jean
Published: December 2009

While it may be obvious that one's ability to answer a question is dependent upon the knowledge one possesses relative to the question's topic, less obvious, but equally important, is one's ability to access appropriate information sources in search of a correct answer. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a ten-week program designed to heighten fifth- and eighth-grade students' awareness of information explicitly stated in text, information implied by text, and information found only in the individual's knowledge base. In addition, the relative usefulness of prompting students to think of these three relationships between questions and sources of information was examined. Results indicated that while the training program was effective at both the fifth and eighth grades, the eighth-grade students benefitted as much from a 10-minute orientation to the concepts. Prompting students to use their knowledge of question-answer relationships was helpful in the fifth grade, but disruptive in the eighth.
Attitudes towards Testing and Test Results of Reading Achievement
Authors: Singer Harry , Dreher Mariam Jean
Published: December 2009

In the first phase of this study, 44 educators attending classes at two large universities indicated they preferred reports of tests which provided them with information on students' progress relative to their previous standing and with sample items showing what students read in addition to the normative information that is typically reported. In the second phase of the study, which is reported here, the same subjects completed a 32-item Likert Scale designed to reveal the reasons for their most and least preferred types of test reports. Although their responses resulted in statistically significant differences between their most and least preferred types of test reports, they expressed agreement with only nine items. These items indicated that their most preferred choice provides them with informative and useful information. In general, the results of the Likert Scale indicated that the ambivalent and somewhat negative attitudes of educators towards the current way of testing and reporting of test results can be reliably shifted in the direction of more favorable responses. Consequently, the results suggest a change in current practices in testing and reporting of test results.
Decoding as a Component of Reading Comprehension among Secondary Students
Authors: Hood Joyce , Dubert Lee Ann
Published: December 2009

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development vocabulary test was administered once to ninth graders following standard procedures (ITED-V) and again using the alternate form in which students listened to a tape-recording of items (PROMPTED-V). Word meaning knowledge was controlled by entering the PROMPTED-V score first into a multiple regression equation to predict reading comprehension. The ITED-V score made a significant addition to the prediction equation, suggesting that the ability to decode printed words is a component of comprehension performance. Poor decoders were operationally defined as students with an ITED-V score more than two standard errors below their PROMPTED-V score. Their reading comprehension, as indicated by several measures, was significantly below that of good decoders who showed no discrepancy between their PROMPTED-V and ITED-V scores. Among poor decoders, there was a range in comprehension performance which suggests the possible influence of a third component of comprehension, such as ability to use contextual prediction.
Awareness of Text Structure in Recognition and Production of Expository Discourse
Authors: Hiebert Elfrieda H. , Englert Carol Sue , Brennan Sharon
Published: December 2009

This study had three purposes in examining college students' awareness of four expository text structures. The first was to determine whether students were more aware of some text structures than of others in reading and writing. A second was to determine how performance on these text structure measures related to performance on a general comprehension measure. The third was to examine the relationship between awareness of these text structures in reading and writing. Fifty-two college students who were equally divided into two ability groups were given two tasks, one which assessed their awareness of the text structures in reading and the other which assessed awareness in writing. Findings related to the first aim indicated that awareness of the four text structures varied in both the recognition and production of relevant information. With respect to the second aim, performance on both recognition and production measures was related to performance on a general comprehension measure, with high-ability students more sensitive to intrusive information in the recognition task and more able to produce missing text structure information than low-ability students. Findings related to the final aim indicated that the relationship between recognition and production performances was moderate.
Facilitating Retention through Instruction about Text Structure
Authors: Barnett Jerrold E.
Published: December 2009

In an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of instruction in the use of text structure for comprehending and recalling textual information, ninety college students received one of three treatments. They received either a brief description of the organization of a text immediately prior to reading the text, after reading but before recalling the text, or they received no text-organization instruction. Research report and journalism structures were employed. For both text structures, subjects who received instruction prior to reading performed better on a delayed free recall test than subjects who received instruction prior to recall or than subjects who received no instruction. Subjects who received instruction prior to reading also had better recognition scores than subjects who received instruction prior to recall. Instruction prior to recall had no facilitative effect relative to the no-instruction control treatment. The research report structure led to better performance than the journalism structure. Results suggest that, when encountering well-organized text, skilled readers can profit from instruction about the structure of written materials.
Hierarchical Importance of Pre-Passage Questions: Effects on Cued Recall
Authors: Wilhite Stephen C.
Published: December 2009

This experiment compared the effects of pre-passage questions that quizzed information of different structural importance on college students' cued recall of expository prose passages. Among higher-vocabulary subjects, cued recall of detail information not specifically quizzed by the pre-passage questions was significantly greater in the condition in which pre-passage questions quizzed a detail unit than in the higher-level pre-passage question condition or the no pre-passage question condition, p < .05. These findings suggest that lower-level pre-passage questions do facilitate encoding of related details for subjects of certain ability levels, and that earlier findings showing a facilitation of free recall by higher-level pre-passage questions, but not by lower-level pre-passage questions, reflect primarily a retrieval phenomenon. However, the results also indicate that lower-level pre-passage questions are specific in their facilitative effects and do not promote memory for related main ideas.
Main Idea Identification: Instructional Explanations in Four Basal Reader Series
Authors: Hare Victoria Chou , Milligan Beverly
Published: December 2009

All explanations and directives related to main idea identification were classified and evaluated in four current basal reader series. Results across the four series demonstrate that explanations tend to evade admittedly difficult issues of determining importance. Reasons for this finding are discussed. Results for directives replicate previous researchers' findings.
Reading Stories to Young Children: Effects of Story Structure and Traditional Questioning Strategies on Comprehension
Authors: Morrow Lesley Mandel
Published: December 2009

The purpose of the study was to determine if the pre- and postquestioning and discussion portions of the directed reading activity (DRA) could improve comprehension when stories were read to kindergarten children. Questioning and discussion focused on the structure of stories as well as traditional (literal, inferential, and critical) questioning and discussion were investigated. The stories were read to children using the DRA format of pre- and postquestioning and discussion. Story structure treatment groups ( N = 73) received structural questions and discussion; traditional treatment groups ( N = 64) received traditional comprehension questions and discussion; and the combined treatment groups ( N = 57) received a combination of both. The control groups ( N = 60) heard stories with no pre- or postquestions or discussion. The results indicated that the use of the DRA when reading stories to children significantly improved comprehension. Traditional and structural treatment groups each significantly improved performance on traditional and structural questions, respectively. Each treatment also had a small positive effect on children's ability to answer the other type of question. The combined treatment group made the greatest gains. When differences occurred between achievement levels within the treatment groups, it was the high and middle achievers whose scores increased. None of the treatments significantly increased performance of the low achievers.
Verbal Ability and Cooperative Learning: Transfer of Effects
Authors: Larson Celia O. , Dansereau Donald F. , O'Donnell Angela , Hythecker Velma , Lambiotte Judith G. , Rocklin Thomas R.
Published: December 2009

This study examined the relationship of verbal ability and heterogeneous versus homogeneous pairing of students on cooperative learning tasks (i.e., two students interacting over textbook passages) to the students' performance after engaging in cooperative learning and to their performance on a subsequent individual learning task (transfer). As expected, individuals' scores on a vocabulary test, serving as an indication of verbal ability, were strongly related to performance after engaging in cooperative learning and on the individual learning task. More importantly, it was found that cooperative partners with dissimilar vocabulary scores recalled significantly more main ideas from the passage used in the individual learning task than did partners with similar vocabulary scores.
Habits of Study and Test Performance
Authors: Estes Thomas H. , Richards Herbert C.
Published: December 2009

A study habits inventory was administered to ninth- and tenth-grade students. The data were factor-analyzed to yield three constituents of study practices: distractibility, compulsiveness, and inquisitiveness. These factors satisfactorily replicated factors found in previous research and accounted for over 50% of the total variation of the items in the inventory. Tests of hypothesized relationships between habits of study and test performance suggest that test performance is monotonically related to study behaviors associated with inquisitiveness, particularly for studying as part of homework preparation. Compulsivity is also related to performance but only in the distinction between “A” students and those receiving other test scores. Distractibility, though it was the most reliable study habits scale, bears virtually no relationship to test performance. Possible explanations for all results are explored and implications for teaching are drawn.
Normal and Disabled Readers' Use of Orthographic Structure in Processing Print
Authors: Horn Colette C. , Manis Franklin R.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments examined whether normal and disabled readers differed in the ability to use orthographic structure information to process printed material. Experiment 1 required subjects to search for a target letter in a six-letter stimulus array held in memory. Experiment 2 required subjects to make word-nonword decisions. Stimulus arrays for both experiments were words and nonwords varying in orthographic regularity and positional frequency. The results of Experiment 1 showed that both disabled and normal readers were able to perform the memory search task more accurately for letter strings high in either type of orthographic structure. In Experiment 2, disabled and younger normal readers produced decision times reflecting greater sensitivity than older normal readers to orthographic regularity. The finding that disabled readers use orthographic structure information to the same extent, and, under some circumstances, to a greater extent than normal readers supports the interactive-compensatory model of reading proposed by Stanovich (1980).
The Effects of Prior Knowledge and Oral Reading Accuracy on Miscues and Comprehension
Authors: Taft Mary Lynn , Leslie Lauren
Published: December 2009

The effects of prior knowledge (high, low) and oral reading accuracy (95% +, 90–94%) on miscues and comprehension were examined by requiring 57 third-grade average readers to read an expository passage orally. The children had either high prior knowledge of the topic, defined as completing a classroom instructional unit and verified by a free-association test, or low prior knowledge. Children with high prior knowledge made fewer miscues which resulted in meaning loss ( p < .05), and their miscues were less graphically similar to the text word ( p < .01) than children with low prior knowledge. Also, children with high prior knowledge correctly answered more comprehension questions of all types – textually explicit ( p < .01), textually implicit ( p < .05), and scriptally implicit ( p < .001) – than children with low prior knowledge. Support for an interactive-compensatory model of reading is discussed.
Measuring Readability using DRP Units
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

The DRP is a new technique for measuring the readability of reading material. In this study, DRP-Difficulty scores were rescaled into grade equivalent (GE) units, called DRP-GE-Difficulty, and the reliability and validity of both versions were investigated. The formula for obtaining DRP-Difficulty is based on Bormuth's research that involved 330 passages sampled from curriculum materials. Using these same 330 passages, plus 30 more sampled from graduate school materials, the DRP-Difficulty scores were rescaled into DRP-GE-Difficulty units by finding comparable GE values obtained from the Rauding Scale of Prose Difficulty. The DRP-Difficulty and the DRP-GE-Difficulty scores correlated highly with cloze (-.84 and -.81, respectively), and with the grade level at which the passages were used (.80 and .78, respectively). DRP-GE-Difficulty values were found to be accurate to within about one grade level for materials used in the lower grades and to within about two grade levels in the upper grades. The DRP appears to provide estimates of readability that are reasonably reliable and valid.
Map Feature Content and Text Recall of Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Amlund Jeanne T. , Gaffney Janet , Kulhavy Raymond W.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments evaluated the effect of map feature content on recall of text auded by subjects of varying reading skill levels. In Experiment 1, elementary students with below average reading skill studied a map with features represented by labels, symbols with labels, or mimetic drawings with labels before listening to text. Students who studied the mimetic map recalled significantly more map-featured text information than students who studied label or symbol maps. In Experiment 2, good and poor readers studied a mimetic or a label map prior to listening to text. While good readers recalled more map-featured and nonfeatured information than poor readers, no differences were found between map feature content conditions. Map-featured information was better recalled than nonfeatured information by all groups in both experiments. Data from both experiments provide support for the conjoint retention hypothesis.
The Relationship of Headings, Questions, and Locus of Control to Multiple-Choice Test Performance
Authors: Wilhite Stephen C.
Published: December 2009

This experiment examined the effects of headings and adjunct questions embedded in expository text on the delayed multiple-choice test performance of college students. Subjects in the headings-present group performed significantly better on the retention test than did the subjects in the headings-absent group. The main effect of adjunct questions was not significant, but there was a significant interaction of locus of control group and adjunct questions. For subjects with an internal locus of control, performance in the questions-present condition significantly exceeded performance in the questions-absent condition; however, adjunct questions did not significantly affect the performance of subjects with an external locus of control. The results support the view that headings may promote the organization of passage information so as to increase its general availability, and the results suggest possible differences in the organizational effects of adjunct questions in readers differing in locus of control.
Understanding and Remembering Complex Prose Augmented by Analogic and Pictorial Illustration
Authors: Hayes David A. , Henk William A.
Published: December 2009

An experiment compared readers' use of analogic and pictorial illustrations for understanding and remembering complex instructional text. High school students ( N = 102) read procedural texts under six analogic and pictorial illustration conditions and attempted to apply the texts' content in an applied performance task. Two weeks later students were evaluated on their attempts to perform the same task from memory. Pictures proved helpful for both immediate performance and delayed performance. Analogy was helpful for delayed performance but only slightly more helpful on immediate performance. Results are discussed in terms of apparent functions of analogies and pictures.