This paper advocates reading philosophy and using its concepts in educational and social science research. The lengthy engagement with the various concepts and conceptual orders of poststructuralism required for post qualitative inquiry exceeds the scope of reading required for a conventional literature review at the beginning of a typical…

Knowledge of familiar people is essential to guide social interaction, yet there is uncertainty about whether semantic knowledge for people is stored in a categorical structure as for objects. Four priming experiments using hard-to-perceive primes investigated whether occupation forms a category connecting famous persons in semantic memory. Primes…

Reflecting recent widespread interest in schema theory, this bibliography is intended to assist anyone interested in how the topic relates to reading. The introduction defines schema theory as the study of generic knowledge structures--called schemata--which are composed of "slots" or "placeholders" for each component, and…

Investigates the cognitive functions of college students' use of underlining as a learning strategy. Finds that underlining does not serve an encoding or review function and may be counterproductive for inferential recall. (PRA)

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…

A study compared the literary response and character attribution processes of 40 undergraduate students on the basis of differences in their interpersonal construct repertoire, or "interpersonal cognitive complexity." No studies to date have explored the ways in which cognitive complexity influences readers' overall responses to…

A study explored children's notions of what stories and reports are, how they can be organized, and when to use them, as revealed in the stories and reports they wrote or recalled and in their responses to questions about each. Sixty-seven high achieving children in grades three, six, and nine read and wrote similar kinds of stories and reports.…

A pilot study was conducted to contrast children's comprehension of inside view (where writers share the inner thoughts of characters with readers) and character plans in an original story and its basal reader adaptation prior to and following participation in a reading conference focused upon these aspects of character. Subjects were 12 students…

A study was conducted involving two experiments to address the question "What effects do students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge have on comprehension?" Experiment one involved 117 junior college students and 149 university students as subjects. An epistemological questionnaire was administered to the undergraduates. Factor…

Focusing on variables linking fourth graders' reading comprehension and writing ability, a study investigated the (1) relationship between both free recall and comprehension probe scores in reading and analytical scale scores in writing, (2) effects of reading and writing competence on the production of story grammar categories in writing, (3)…

Challenges the widely endorsed practice of activating relevant knowledge prior to reading. Outlines a perspectival (perspective-relative) view of reading and suggests that this view provides a means to make coherent sense of interpretations. Concludes that having specific knowledge is not the main desideratum in interpreting texts--the main…

Reports on a study using 126 university freshmen to examine the effects of instruction and practice in a discourse structure reading and writing strategy focusing on main ideas, supporting ideas, and central ideas. Indicates the discourse structure treatment is effective and worthy of further study. (NH)

In order to investigate the text structure/reading comprehension relationship, this paper reviews recent research on text representation theories. Text structure investigation--research on semantic memory as it is concerned with meaning from the word level through the inference level--follows the premise that sentences are understood in the…

Noting that successful comprehension, problem solving, and decision making are dependent upon activation and appropriate application of relevant schemata of existing knowledge, this report examines the practice of oversimplifying information in the content areas to make teaching and studying easier, and the dangers inherent in doing so. The report…