This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 13 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the development, implementation, and evaluation of a reading improvement program for business and industry; (2) how instruction in a college rapid reading course meets individual students' learning needs; (3) the effectiveness of two instructional techniques used in a college developmental reading program; (4) a community college basic skills class; (5) the impact of a developmental reading course on student retention and achievement in a two-year technical college; (6) the relationship between and among reading failure and selected personality variables with severity of criminality; (7) the reading habits, attitudes, interests, problems, and early reading-related experiences of elderly active and elderly inactive readers; (8) syntax and reading comprehension; (9) adult literacy; (10) the effects of preteaching vocabulary and access to a glossary on comprehension of text; (11) an evaluation paradigm for university reading and study skills program courses; (12) a classroom strategy for teaching reading in the content area of human heredity and development; and (13) the effects of two methods of survey on the accuracy of prereading schema when controlling for prior knowledge and ability. (FL)