This investigation of the use of white space in print-based, computer-generated text focused on the point at which the white space interferes with reading speed and comprehension. It was hypothesized that reading speed and comprehension would be significantly greater when text was wrapped tightly around the graphic than when it had one-half inch…

Undertaken as part of a larger study, the experiments described in this report examine various aspects of the relationship between pictures and text and of the methodology for examining that relationship. Each of the 11 experiments described in the report involved college students and deals with the effects of storyline and texture on the reading…

A study investigated the role of phonemic (sound-based) information during silent reading to determine whether the visual tongue-twister effect occurs only when readers make judgments of sentence acceptability or whether the visual tongue-twister effect is due to the way sentences are represented in memory. Data were collected from 45 university…

This paper discusses a study designed to evaluate the use of semantic and syntactic expectations in reading. Sixteen college-student subjects, measured for reading proficiency by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, were divided equally into a fast-reading group (350-450 words per minute) and an average-speed reading group (200-275 words per minute).…

These conference proceedings reflect the growing appreciation of the related skills necessary for both teacher and pupil in acquiring competency in reading. Article titles are "The Teaching of Reading and Related Skills,""Reading Research from the Outside and Inside,""The Problem of Evaluating Aids to the Teaching of…

Tested whether a relationship existed between the method of presentation of statistical data and (1) reader retention, (2) reader reaction, and (3) reading time. Found that reader retention was highest for reports with tables; reader reaction was most favorable for reports with graphs; and reading time was shortest for reports with tables. (PD)

High school students studied a passage to achieve prememorized goals in three experiments. Inspection times and eye movements were recorded in goal-relevant and nonrelevant text neighborhoods. Goal-relevant sentences resulted in twice as many fixations. Qualitative differences were observed in style of subjects' responses to task demands.…

Spanning the annual meetings of the North Central Reading Association from 1971 to 1974, this yearbook presents papers dealing with programs and centers, materials and techniques, a new research field, and in honor of Roger S. Pepper. Papers include: "Attitudinal Factors among Marginal Admission Students" (Roger S. Pepper and John A. Drexler,…

Describes an informal inventory that gives underprepared college freshmen the opportunity to express their own perceptions of their reading needs and interests. Finds that students are most concerned with reading rate. Suggests that speed-reading activities play to students' interests while at the same time giving practice in comprehension skills.…

This college-level textbook, entirely in Arabic, is designed to help students develop specific reading skills, namely, skimming and scanning. Users should have had at least 30 quarter hours of Arabic instruction previously. The reading selections and tasks are intended to promote reading fluency by also increasing reading speed. Learner tasks also…

Focusing on improving college students' reading efficiency, a study investigated whether a commercially-prepared computerized speed reading package, Speed Reader II, could be utilized as effectively as traditionally printed text. Subjects were 70 college freshmen from a college reading and rate improvement course with borderline scores on the…

Two experiments examined the cognitive resources used by readers in sentence modeling (summarizing the propositions in a sentence) as a function of reader task and of sentence complexity. It was predicted that encoding a sentence into memory for later recall would require more cognitive resources than reading a text to answer immediate questions,…

This book is presented for teachers who do not use a reading course and who wish to produce their own material as well as for individuals developing materials for tailor-made courses. Various types of reading comprehension exercises are described and classified. The exercise-types suggested can be adapted for all reading levels. The book begins…

A series of six studies of the reading ability of Japanese high school and college students investigated the ability of students to process various literary forms and the types of questions students have difficulty with at different levels of reading proficiency. Over 25,000 students completed various versions of an English reading comprehension…

Presents a fully incremental model that accounts for attachment preferences by the linear order of lexical heads in the surface structure and their thematic properties. Discusses the principle of "parameterised head attachment" and a serial variant on the basis of three online experiments on noun phrase and prepositional phrase…