A study compared native and nonnative reading styles in order to see whether Japanese readers process text differently than readers whose native language uses a phonetic alphabet. Subjects, 29 native readers of Japanese, 37 advanced-level nonnatives and 39 intermediate-level nonnatives enrolled in Japanese language courses were randomly assigned…

A study examined the influence of the computer management feature of a commercially prepared speed reading software package on the reading rate and attitudes of college students towards computers as instructional tools. Subjects, 66 college freshman from lower-middle to middle socio-economic brackets (and divided into control and experimental…

Two experimental studies were conducted to compare two typical reading tasks--critical reading and proofreading--on computer display and on hard copy. Ten college freshmen with less than 10 total hours spent on a computer prior to the experiments were trained on the computer system for approximately three hours in two sessions before beginning the…

College students read passages and answered either verbatim or parphrased adjunct questions either inserted in the text or massed at the end of the passage. Passage review was varied. On the post-test containing unfamiliar paraphrased questions, students given inserted paraphrased adjunct questions outperformed the others. Paraphrased questions…

Describes an experiment that explored the relationships between text structure, prior knowledge, and reader's purpose on the processing of text and memory for text information. Results demonstrated that the strategies used to read text are flexible. (HOD)

This study compares college freshmen's reading test scores over 50 years. The 1978 freshmen at the University of Minnesota scored significantly lower than their 1928 counterparts on vocabulary, comprehension, and reading rate. (Author/PN)

Describes Brigham Young University's reading and study skills course for law students, which is designed to increase reading speed and comprehension. Explains the use of the FAIR (Facts, Action, Issues, and Reasoning) system for analyzing law cases. Covers student reactions and modifications implemented in course design. (AYC)

Results of two experiments strengthen the hypothesis that the ability to divide attention is constrained primarily by the individual's level of skill. It is not affected by rapid alteration of attention between a reading and writing task, or by automatic processing of the dictated material. (Author/CP)

A target paragraph was embedded in one passage where the target was of major importance, and one where it was of minor importance. Free recall, reading time, and usage of cognitive capacity were measured. There was greater recall when the target was important. The selective-attention hypothesis was not supported. (Author/GDC)

First-year students of Chinese at the United States Air Force Academy (n=60) were tested for reading speed and comprehension of Chinese passages presented either in characters or romanization. Students read faster and understood more in romanization than in characters. (LMO)

Converts silent reading rates into grade equivalent units. Finds that growth in reading rate is approximately constant each year in school for typical students. Presents grade equivalent data which provides reasonably valid, criterion-referenced grade equivalents that may be used to evaluate the status and progress of individuals or groups. (RS)

The impact of interestingness and "narrativity" on comprehension, attention, and reading speed and the role of topic familiarity were studied for 16 college students in psychology classes and 8 from engineering classes who read excerpts from psychology and engineering texts. Results support schema-based comprehension theory. (SLD)

Five experiments used self-paced reading time to examine the ways in which complex noun phrases influence the interpretation of referentially dependent expressions. Results indicate that the entity introduced by a major constituent of a sentence is more accessible as a referent than the entities introduced by component noun phrases. (Author/VWL)

While the prediction of college grade point average (GPA) has been extensively investigated, research results seem inconclusive. Recent developments in the realm of intelligence have emphasized word knowledge and world knowledge. These two components were investigated relative to college GPA in a group of elementary and secondary student teachers…

This study examined the relationship between reading ability and attitude toward reading of 81 undergraduate education students enrolled in either elementary or secondary reading methods courses. Subjects' scores on the Mikulecky Behavioral Reading Attitude Measure indicated a positive attitude toward reading, but subjects' scores on the…