Reports that students in a college reading efficiency course who had high self-images read significantly faster than those with low self-images, that students with initially high self-images did not maintain those images, that males had higher self-images and read faster than did females, and that there were negative relationships between speed…

Two experiments were conducted to test how readers process unattended words in a display and how the semantic category of these flanking words affects response time. (Author/AM)

Examines selected research showing how the components of human information processing limit reading rates. Suggests that speed reading is impossible when the intent is to understand the message communicated by the text. Discusses limiting factors in processes of word recognition, working memory, and comprehension. Discusses evaluative and…

Investigates whether a freshman reading improvement training program will produce gains in reading rate (normal reading rate, not skimming). Finds positive results for the program. (SR)

A study with 18 deaf high school students found that skills that actually contribute to reading proficiency included use of prior text information, prior knowledge, reading speed and consistency, use of active memory for function words and inflections, and correct processing of relative clauses and the passive voice. Instructional implications are…

Describes an advanced reading course at Mississippi State University that is designed to increase vocabulary, comprehension, and reading rate. Notes that unteaching reading habits necessary to beginner's instruction is a large part of increasing students' effective reading rate. Presents student performance statistics. (RS)

Describes a German longitudinal study of the relationship among verbal ability, memory capacity, phonological awareness, and reading performance. Reports that the relationship between memory capacity and phonological awareness remained stable over time. Concludes that memory capacity predicted phonological awareness task performance, phonological…

Examines factors related to the slower reading of text by reading-disabled compared to average readers. Finds phonological awareness and digit-naming speed consistently related to speed and errors on initial reading and on reading for a fourth time. Finds an independent relationship between phonemic sensitivity and fluency. (RS)

Determines grade-level reading rates for third- and fifth-grade students as well as reading rates that correspond to independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels as determined through informal reading-inventory procedures. Suggests that availability of reading-level-rate norms can assist reading diagnosticians in evaluating the…

The purpose of this book is to introduce the research on readability, defined here as reading ease. The first part of the book covers how people read. A series of national literacy surveys show that the average person in the U.S. and most other countries are adults of limited reading skills. For example, the average adult in the U.S. reads at the…

Fast and average readers were tested on four tasks. Fast readers appear to pick up more information per fixation on structured textual material, and had a greater span of apprehension for unrelated elements. Results disagree with the view that reading speed depends solely on ability to infer missing information. (CHK)

A total of 99 students from a Toronto secondary vocational school participated in a study to determine whether students who studied retail merchandising differed significantly in comprehension and reading rate from students who did not study retail merchandising. An experimental group composed of 50 merchandising students and a control group of 49…

A longitudinal study was conducted to determine the relative effectiveness of a developmental reading course taught to students in a college of nursing. Forty-two students in the experimental group were enrolled in a ten-week developmental reading course during the first semester of their freshman year; the control group, also composed of 42…

Summers' annotated bibliographies of secondary reading (1963, 1964), "Review of Educational Research,""Journal of Reading," ERIC/CRIER, and "Research in Education" are listed as resources for all phases of reading. A shifting of trends in the nature and scope of research topics in secondary reading is noted, with diagnosis and treatment,…