This study examined the relationships of 3 levels of reading fluency--the individual word, the syntactic unit, and the whole passage--to reading comprehension among 278 5th graders heterogeneous in reading ability. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that reading fluency at each level related uniquely to performance on a standardized reading…

In three experiments, the meaning of the textual materials was held constant while structural (surface) variables, such as vocabulary, syntax, and signals about idea importance, were manipulated. Findings in all cases indicated that aspects of the surface structure of text made demands on the reader's cognitive processing capacity. (Author/GK)