This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of modality-based instruction in test taking skills upon young children's performance on standardized reading tests; (2) the effects of five different picture placements in printed text on the acquisition and retention of verbal information and concrete concepts; (3) the development of a survey to ascertain the reading preferences of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students; (4) the development of an instrument for the evaluation of secondary school reading programs derived from a modified Delphi technique; (5) simultaneous and successive processing and reading decoding and comprehension; (6) the cloze procedure as a measure of across-sentence reading comprehension; (7) the effect of pictures on anxiety and text learning; (8) the relationship between specific processing abilities and traditional measures of comprehension skills; (9) the structure of narrative passages and third grade students' scores on selected tests of reading achievement; and (10) passage dependency in three selected informal reading inventories with third and fourth grade students. (FL)