The effects of prepassage questions quizzing information of different structural importance on college students' memory for expository prose passages were compared. Results indicated that questions which direct the subjects' attention to material at the top of the organizational structure facilitate the effective encoding of the central…

Contains citations for 24 published monographs dating from 1772 to 1972 and covers Native American prose from the 17th century to 1972. Introduction is by a graduate fellow of Native American literature. (AN)

Pupils studied a short passage in one of four conditions: control, passage with title, passage with headings written as statements, and passage with headings written as questions. Passages with headings were recalled significantly better, both in immediate and delayed conditions. Low ability students profited most from the "question" headings.…

The verbal-imagery code test appeared to differentiate between individuals on their immediate recall of prose materials which differed in style with respect to the amount of visual description and semantic complexity. These findings are consistent with the view that there is a verbalizer-imager learning style continuum. (Author/SJL)

Paragraph recall was easier if prior information, presented as elaborations of the paragraph sentences, was precise, rather than irrelevant or imprecise. Precise information also permitted quick and efficient elaboration of new information. (Author/CP)

Variables affecting long-term retention are examined: (1) learner history--including ability, prior knowledge and self-confidence; (2) events (teaching techniques) occurring immediately before reading; (3) events occurring during reading; and (4) events in the retention interval, particularly practice effects. The ACT associationist model is used…

Memory representations of statements from a story were predicted to cluster into separate episode chunks in memory. It was shown that the recall of episode depends on the length of that episode, but not on the lengths of other episodes. The chunking idea was confirmed. (SW)

A technique was devised for constructing a text story which subjects agreed matched the dialogueless movie "The Red Balloon" in episodic structure. It relies partly on subjects judging where episodes and their components were located in the stories. Differences in content in movie and text recall are discussed. (SW)

A sample of 80 first- and second-grade children selected to represent four levels of reading competence were tested in their recognition of semantic, syntactic, and lexical change in sentences previously decoded during prose reading. (JMB)

Presented three algorithms to university students in an introductory laboratory chemistry course and found that differences in the effects of representation modes--flow charts, lists, and standard prose--were complex and changed over 10 lab sessions. There was no evidence that representation mode affected critical thinking ability or final grade.…

The report presents an analysis of the underlying structure of simple stories and examines the implications of such structure for recall. Data comparing recall by children and adults suggest that story schemata differ somewhat at various points in development and that consequently there are qualitative differences in recall. (RC)

In 2 experiments, 80 and 88 college students, respectively, used either imposed or spontaneous tactics for studying a descriptive prose passage. Imposed tactics were either outlining or relating passage information to prior knowledge. Spontaneous tactics were at least as effective as were tactics imposed via short-term training. (TJH)

Describes the results of a study in which 32 English teachers were requested to identify passages of verse disguised as prose. Analyzes which features enabled the readers to recognize the poetry passages. (KEH)

Includes: (1) "A Comment on 'Lacan, Transferences, and Writing Instruction'," Janet Hiller and Barbara Osburg; (2) "Robert Brooke Responds"; (3) "A Comment on 'Writing (with) Cixous'," Debra Raschke; and (4) "Clara Juncker Responds." (RAE)

Articles included in this compilation represent functional approaches to literary analysis. Most of these papers were presented at the Sixteenth International Systemics Congress held in Helsinki, Finland, in 1989. The aim of the congress was to establish dialogue between various functional approaches to the theoretical study of language, to…