ERIC Number: ED157040
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1978-Jun
Pages: 63
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
On the Theory and Measurement of Reading Comprehension. Technical Report No. 91.
Royer, James M.; Cunningham, Donald J.
The minimal comprehension principle asserts that the act of comprehension must entail an interaction between an incoming linguistic message and the reader's world knowledge. An analysis of current tests of reading comprehension indicates that test passages are likely to draw broadly from knowledge of the world, so that some of the variability in test performance must be attributable to differences in prior knowledge rather than to differences in reading skills. Most tests of reading comprehension currently in use do not distinguish between these two sources of variability. This does not affect their usefulness as predictive instruments but greatly restricts the use of the tests for diagnosis of reading difficulties or assessment of educational gains. Optimal tests for these purposes would reduce variability due to prior knowledge or reasoning ability. Various suggestions for achieving this control are in need of empirical verification. (AA)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Illinois Univ., Urbana. Center for the Study of Reading.; Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc., Cambridge, MA.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A