Describing how the experiences of nine cognitive researchers have influenced college writing classrooms, this book demonstrates the critical role of the learner in interpreting and responding to the texts they read, the tasks they are assigned, and the feedback they receive from instructors, readers, and collaborators. Growing out of a project at Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania), the Center for the Study of Writing, the book describes a collaborative research initiative that is interdisciplinary in nature. The teaching activities described in each chapter of the book are grounded in a strong belief in the value of critical reflection in learning processes. The book also develops the concept of the research-based classroom, a classroom in which students actively examine the processes and contexts of reading and writing and then turn their observations into principles for practice. Chapters in the book are: (1) "Introduction: Studying Cognitive Processes in the Classroom" (Ann M. Penrose and Barbara M. Sitko); (2) "Beyond 'Just the Facts': Reading as Rhetorical Action" (Christina Haas); (3) "Exploring the Relationship between Authorship and Reading" (Stuart Greene); (4) "Writing and Learning: Exploring the Consequences of Task Interpretation" (Ann M. Penrose); (5) "Reading to Argue: Helping Students Transform Source Texts" (Lorraine Higgins); (6) "The Library Revisited: Exploring Students' Research Processes" (Jennie Nelson); (7) "Decision-Making during the Collaborative Planning of Coauthors" (Rebecca E. Burnett); (8) "Revising for Readers: Audience Awareness in the Writing Classroom" (Karen A. Schriver); (9) "Exploring Feedback: Writers Meet Readers" (Barbara M. Sitko); and (10) "Using Conferences to Support the Writing Process" (Betsy A. Bowen). An appendix discusses conducting process research. (RS)