A study examined whether (1) the performance of students on text explicit (TE), text implicit (TI), and script implicit (SI) questions inserted in a text would vary as a function of the type of question received; (2) students responding in writing to the inserted questions would perform at a higher level on a subsequent criterion test than those responding covertly or mentally; (3) student performance levels would be higher on a multiple choice recognition test than on a short answer recall one; and (4) patterns of student performance would remain constant across developmental levels. Subjects were 97 fourth grade and 102 eighth grade students who read a 600-word passage, responded to questions in either the TE, TI, or SI condition, and completed a reading comprehension posttest. Students in the overt condition were asked to write their responses to the inserted questions, while those in the covert condition were told only to think carefully about their responses. The reading comprehension posttest questions were prepared in either a short answer or a multiple choice format. Results showed no interaction between inserted question and test question type, and eighth grade students performed better in the overt condition than did fourth grade students. In addition, it was found that student performance was higher on recognition than on recall tasks and that performance patterns did not remain constant across developmental levels. (FL)