In order to investigate the effect of experimenter-controlled reading speeds on the literal comprehension of multilevel reading passages and to assess the effects of operant-regulated, or self-regulated, conditions on reading speed, these two studies sampled a total of 400 eighth graders. Two passages, originally written at the eighth-grade level, were rewritten at the fourth-grade and twelfth-grade levels. Students then read composite passages and were tested on their comprehension; the passages were organized in ascending or descending order of complexity. One group of subjects was asked to adjust reading speed to the passages' difficulty; another group received two prompts while reading that signaled the need to read faster. While the hypothesis that multilevel reading passages result in greater comprehension could not be proven, it was apparent that, as reading speed increased, comprehension decreased. In addition, neither order of passage difficulty could be shown to result in higher levels of comprehension or reading speed. Prompts did, however, produce greater speed scores than did self-regulation. (Author/KS)