READING ABILITY AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AS PREDICTORS OF ELEVEN AND TWELVE YEAR OLDS' TEXT COMPREHENSION

Abstract

The effect of prior knowledge on the comprehension of written prose paragraphs in intact, topic sentence deleted and topic and concluding sentence deleted conditions was studied. A methodology for determining prior knowledge is advanced. Subjects were average and high ability upper elementary age children. A 3 X 3 passage by treatment design was utilized. Strongest correlations were for ability and prior knowledge, and criterion measures of inferencing and summarizing. ANOVA yielded significant main effects for ability and all criterion measures except inference. Step‐wise regression analysis suggests prior knowledge as a better response predictor than ability on three of four criterion measures. The utility of an uncomplicated method for analyzing students' levels of prior knowledge valuable to researchers and classroom teachers is discussed.