The purpose was to test the assumption that nonspecific facilitated learning of a second prose passage occurs in the situation in which an initial passage read by the subjects contained concrete referents designed to increase the comprehension of a difficult to understand second passage. Results supported the assumption. (Author/BJG)

Structural reading difficulty of argumentative prose (text with an underlying message or superordinate principle), is related to the reader's approach to reading and learning. Ninety Swedish teenagers and adults with varying levels of formal education, were divided into three groups, based on their own descriptions of reading and learning: deep…