Reports five experiments; the first two assessed the effect of the selectional restriction requirements of verbs and the animacy of nouns on sentence comprehension, the third determined the cause of the interaction found in the first set of studies, and the fourth and fifth were self-paced reading experiments. (52 references) (Author/CK)

Examines whether the characteristic reading speed impairment of German dyslexic children resulted from a general skill-automatization deficit or a phonological deficit. Tests a dyslexic and nondyslexic group of boys in grade 2. Concludes that difficulties in learning to read are due phonological deficit and not a general skill-automatization…

A study examined the effects of different teacher styles on one variable related to classroom learning production. Subjects, 34 first grade middle- and lower-middle income students in a Catholic school matched by ability and randomly assigned to either an authoritarian, systematic, ordered, and controlling teacher or to a "laissez faire"…

Scores from the Stanford Achievement Tests administered to 50,000 students in Palm Beach County, Florida, were studied in order to determine whether the speeded nature of the reading comprehension subtest was related to inconsistencies in the score profiles. Specifically, the probable effect of random guessing was examined. Reading scores were…

A study examined student abilities to integrate semantically related propositions; and identified sources of comprehension difficulty for the unskilled reader. It also examined the influence of two types of relations (causal and adversative) and two types of connectives (conjunctions and verbs) on readers' comprehension, on-line integration of…

Four studies used the theoretically based understanding of comprehension developed by W. Kintsch and T. A. van Dijk to look for processes that might undergo development as a child becomes more practiced and skilled in reading so that an understanding of these processes might become the basis for reading remediation programs. The first three…

The present study employed discrete trial procedures to compare the performance of skilled and less-skilled third and sixth grade readers (N=37) on picture, letter and word naming tasks. It was assumed that if lack of proficiency in reading skill is due to a general name-retrieval deficit, then the skilled readers would be able to name each…

A study was conducted to replicate earlier findings regarding the relationships between letter, word, and text reading times and measures of reading achievement and to establish the stability of reading times measures and their relationships over a one-year period. Subjects included 150 children in eight age cohorts between grades one and six. The…

Examines the word-reading strategies of a sample of second- and third-grade students in normal classrooms, focusing on the students' relative reliance on decoding versus sight-word associations. Suggests that lack of efficient decoding skills will begin to take a toll on reading comprehension by grade 3. (SR)

Examined patterns of variance for sex and grade level using the Nelson Reading Test, the Gates-MacGintie Reading Test, and the Spache Diagnostic Reading Scales for first to eighth grade students referred for possible reading disabilities. Females outscored males significantly on all measures. Found differences among grades in regard to both…

Two groups of undergraduates differing in reading ability were tested on a number of reaction-time tasks designed to determine the speed of encoding visual information at several different levels, tests of sensory functions, verbal and quantitative reasoning ability, short-term auditory memory span, and ability to comprehend spoken text.…

Scores in reading and comprehension on the University of Minnesota Reading and Speed of Reading examinations for the years 1928 and 1978 were compared. The 1978 freshmen were found to be at least one grade level below their 1928 counterparts in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and rate of reading. (MLW)

A look at one adult literacy class in India indicated that, despite apparently ideal educational conditions, students remained almost illiterate. The author comments on the results and speculates on the reasons. (MF)

Compares gains in reading rate and comprehension of students using traditional texts and those using a computer-based, commercially prepared, speed reading package. Offers recommendations for the use of computers in college reading courses, focusing on hardware/software needs and student/teacher responsibilities. (DMM)

Experiments with 12 sixth-grade students doing mathematics assignments and 9 students doing reading assignments under differing conditions of radio and television distraction indicate no sizable distractor effects on time studying, accuracy of computation or reading comprehension, and reading rate. Results are consistent with the conceptualization…