An investigation examined student-generated texts in terms of both traditional and more theoretically valid readability to determine what factors influence comprehension when children read their own, peer, and adult-written texts. Seventy dictated stories created in an earlier study, along with 4 first-grade level stories from the "Reader's…

A study explored the relationship of interest in story content, external incentives, and reading level to elementary school children's reading performance. The subjects, 75 fifth grade students who were either average or below-average readers, were asked to rate the content of five stories from "most" to "least" interesting and were then assigned…

A study was conducted to determine whether students' preferences for reading or for viewing television were related to the quality of their leisure reading choices. The families of 198 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were asked to complete television and reading logs for four weeks. Sixty-six students were identified from this sample as…

A sample consisting of 115 college students participated in a study of the relationships between reading rate, reading comprehension, and related independent variables (attitude, motivation, and interest). A short story was used for obtaining objective rate and comprehension scores for each subject. Two questionnaires designed for the study were…

To update the findings of a 1971 study, a study seeking to identify the interest patterns and media preferences of fourth and fifth grade children was undertaken in 1978. The responses of 731 children to an interest inventory were subjected to separate factor analytic and analysis of variance procedures. The former were used to cluster…

Of a random sampling of 500 persons living in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, 167 were in the 21 to 34 age group whose newspaper reading habits and attitudes toward newspapers were being studied. The profile of that group's attitudes toward news media, particularly newspapers, shows that these young adults are less "newspaper oriented" than…

To gather information about reading as it relates to older adults, 267 people, ranging in age from 60 to 93 years, were asked to complete questionnaires. Specific information elicited concerned reading habits, reading materials, time spent in reading daily, time spent watching television, reading interests, preferred television shows, and reading…

A telephone questionnaire was designed to collect data on community identification, community involvement, and newspaper use. The entire questionnaire was pretested three times over the telephone and was revised after each pretest, yielding a final form between five and ten minutes in length. The questionnaire was administered to a proportionate…

During the school year 1971-72, a study of language skills was conducted in the city of Toronto, Ontario. Scores on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test were analyzed for many students in grades four, six, eight, and nine. Students scored at grade level with reference to the United States norms of this test. The vocabulary and reading subsections of…

The seminar summarized in this report was held at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee) in July 1970 as part of the summer program of the Center for Twentieth Century Studies. Moderator for the seminar, for which the general topic was the appreciation of literature as one of the arts, was Robert F. Roeming, director of the Center. Each of the…

Attitude toward reading is an important educational outcome and evaluative criteria due to its relationship to reading behavior and the refinement of reading skills. However, existing scales for assessing reading attitudes are invalid, are constrained by a ceiling effect, or are difficult to administer. A reading attitude assessment package was…

Examines the influence of teachers, age, sex, and race on the reading preferences of third, fourth, and fifth grade pupils. Concludes that the tested variables do explain differences, but that there are more similarities than differences. (RS)

Reinforces the idea of the importance of home influences in early reading behavior. Reveals a significant positive correlation between the literary environment of the home and the "literacy set" of a child in a preschool setting. (FL)

Reports findings of a study in which third-grade students gave reasons why children and adults should read. Reveals that the children saw reading as a utilitarian activity both for children and adults. (FL)

Reports on a study that examined the effects of prior knowledge and topic interest on the reading comprehension of seventh- and eighth-grade students. The results suggested that both prior knowledge and topic interest were autonomous factors in reading comprehension. (HOD)