Describes two studies designed to determine if a sentence verification technique would detect differences in performance when subjects read material of varying difficulty. Concludes that the technique was sensitive to differences in text difficulty and suggests several possible uses and advantages of the technique. (HOD)

This study examined whether post-reading comprehension would be affected by the inclusion of pictorial material with a story and a prereading prediction questionnaire. Subjects, 75 heterogeneously grouped fourth grade students randomly assigned to one of three groups, either (1) read a basal reader passage with pictorial material; or (2) read the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the strength of the relationship between syllabication ability and reading comprehension. Pre- and posttests using the syllabication and comprehension subtests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Tests were administered to 275 middle school children involved in corrective and developmental reading…

Discusses the accuracy of the Fog Index and the SMOG grade (two readability formulas) as predicators of readability. (MAI)

Examines the ability of children to evaluate their comprehension of text using lexical, external, and internal consistency standards. Finds that children more often use lexical and external consistency than internal consistency and that the results of verbal report measures are inconsistent with performance measures. (RS)

Examines the effect of self-instruction on error detection in short essays. Finds that above average readers in the self-instruction group performed significantly better than those in a control group, and that average readers displayed a similar but not statistically significant trend. (RS)

A study investigated the development of vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children as a function of story reading for partially known and unknown words. Subjects, 43 fourth-grade low-middle to middle-class children from a rural elementary school in the southeastern United States, participated in a vocabulary checklist in which they…

In order to investigate differences between the comprehension of high or low imagery passages of long or short length, a study analyzed the reading comprehension of fifth grade pupils (all reading at grade level). Thirty subjects read 16 passages each: four high imagery/short; four high imagery/long; four low imagery/short; and four low…

An instructional study was conducted (1) to explore the efficacy of using an explicit instruction model versus a basal approach to teach the comprehension or critical reading skills of discerning fact and opinion and evaluating evidence, and (2) to learn whether adding a functional aspect to the instruction would affect the students' acquisition…

IN A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE EFFECT OF ATTITUDES ON LEARNING, THE LITERAL AND INTERPRETATIVE COMPREHENSION ABILITIES OF INTERMEDIATE GRADE CHILDREN ON THEMATICALLY BASED READING SELECTIONS WERE COMPARED WITH THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARD THAT MATERIAL. THREE OF THE MOST COMMON READING THEMES INHERENT IN CHILDREN'S STORIES WERE DETERMINED BY A PANEL OF…

Presents a dialogue between a student and an examiner that demonstrates the difficulty of diagnosing a comprehension problem. (MKM)

Examines the effects of 2 levels of prior knowledge and 2 types of text structure on the recall and question performance of 90 fifth graders who were average readers. Finds that prior knowledge has a greater effect on question performance than on recall performance and that it only enhances the recall of one section of the text information. (MG)

A study examined three variables derived from earlier research on comprehension and recall of narrative text: time in short-term memory; causal connections allowed; and referential connections allowed. Subjects, 84 randomly selected fourth graders in three suburban public elementary schools, read 8 short texts that each contained 4 embedded goals,…

This paper analyzes the relative contributions of general reading comprehension and domain knowledge to subject matter text learning. The paper points out the limits of each factor in explaining text learning and summarizes some recent studies that support the complementary role played by each factor. A two-factor account of text learning (general…