Two studies examined the validity of a model of procedural document processing, and the relationships among document features, reader characteristics, and successful completion of a button-sewing task. The first study tested three information sources. Subjects were 12 seventh-grade, 12 tenth-grade, and 12 adult students who used 2 commercially…

Examines students reported and demonstrated knowledge of three structural properties of text: topic relatedness, superordination, and cohesion. Reports students are only moderately knowledgeable about topic relatedness and superordination, and unknowledgeable about cohesion. (RS)

A qualitative study examined the ways in which middle school and high school students create meanings when they are reading literary and non-literary texts. Subjects, 18 seventh-grade and 18 eleventh-grade students attending schools in an inner city or a suburban school district and judged by their teachers to be either above, at, or below average…

A study investigated whether presenting scientific information about seasonal change in a narrative which is also a refutation text will promote learning of the information more than presenting it in an expository text which is either a considerate refutation text or an inconsiderate non-refutation text. Subjects, 123 seventh grade students and…

A study compared the comprehension abilities of readers when reading narrative and expository discourse. It was designed to investigate how middle-level high-achieving and low-achieving readers comprehend the two discourse genres, testing the readers' comprehension of main ideas in the text under both conditions. Also examined was whether…