Five experiments were performed to determine whether different amounts of attention were demanded of readers under the following conditions: (1) during the reading of relevant segments of text prefaced by questions; (2) by questions following relevant segments of text; and (3) during the reading of prefatory questions. (LMO)

Individual differences and the role of advance organizers in reading comprehension were examined. Subjects read short passages sometimes preceded by a given type of advance organizer. Good readers showed greater recall of detail given either type of advance organizer; poor readers displayed enhanced recall of detail only for a particular type of…

Reports the results of a study in which community college students were found to be unable to summarize adequately without considerable training. (AEA)

Pupils studied a short passage in one of four conditions: control, passage with title, passage with headings written as statements, and passage with headings written as questions. Passages with headings were recalled significantly better, both in immediate and delayed conditions. Low ability students profited most from the "question" headings.…

A series of Danish studies suggests that a great deal of prequestioning before students read may adversely affect students' reading processes. (DD)

Describes a study in which seventh graders who read a chapter in a science text along with a written handout explaining the major concepts (in simplified vocabulary) performed better on a post-test than the group that simply read the text. (MKM)

A study explored the effects of prequestions (questions provided prior to reading) and the influence of a prediction strategy upon the amount and types of information recalled by children in grades three through six. Subjects, 188 students in grades three through six who were reading at third grade level or above, read a 900-word expository…

This study investigated the effect on learning of the interspersing of questions with sections of written discourse. A 5,200-word passage was divided into seven sections, from each of which several completion questions were derived. A pair of questions was inserted before, after, or both before and after the section. These questions also formed an…

Three studies examined the nature of individual differences and the role of advance information in reading comprehension. The subjects, 116 college students, read short passages--in some cases preceded by a given type of advance organizer--recalled the information therein, and finally sorted ideas from the passage into groups of similar ideas.…

A study tested the effects of using a graphic advance organizer before, during, and after reading on the comprehension of written text. Subjects were 197 sixth-grade students who were assigned to a graphic advance organizer group or a reading-only control group and who were also designated as below-level, at-level, and above-level readers. The…

Of 21 studies on the effect that question placement had on reading comprehension, ten favored and eleven opposed the use of prequestions. A review of these studies suggests that the issue is not whether prequestions or postquestions produce greater gains in reading comprehension. What remains to be examined is the change in reading comprehension…

The major purposes of this study were to determine the effect of a specific cognitive organizer, the Structured Overview (SO), on reading comprehension and to assess the effect of accompanying the overview with a set of directions for its use. One hundred twenty-four undergraduate members of a developmental reading course were randomly assigned to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interrelationship between passage organization and the presence or absence of advance organizers. Two sets of stimulus materials were used. One set consisted of six paragraphs, each of which described the important events in the administration of one obscure American president. The second set of…

Taking notes on a teacher-prepared listening guide helped high school students improve on their performance on essay tests. (MKM)

Advanced organizers produced two distinct effects--subsumption of related material and abstraction of incidental concepts. (RB)