FUNDAMENTAL FACTORSOF____ COMPREHENSiON IN READING _

FREDERICK B. DAVISCooperotw Test Service of tna Amencon Council on Education·

A survey of the literature was made todetermine the skills involved in readingcomprehension that are deemed mostimportant by authorities. Multiple-choicetest items were constructed to measureeach of nine skills thus identified as basic.The inrcrcorrclarions of the ninc skillscores were factored. each skill beingweighted in the initial matrix roughly inproportion to its importance in readingcomprehension, as judged by authori-ties. The principal components wererather readily interpretable in terms ofthe initial v:lriJblcs. Individual scores incomponents I and 11arc sufliciendy reli-able to warrant their usc for practicalpurposes, and useful measures of othercomponents could be provided by con·

The application of techniques offactotial analysis to the investigation ofreading has been attempted sevetal times.Fedet (11), Gans (12), and Langsam (23)have published studies that employedThurstone's centroid method, and un-published studies have been made by Be-dell and Pankaskie. So far as the writeris aware, the study reported here is thefirst to make use of testS especially con-structed to measure the mental skills inreading comprehension that are consid-ered of greatest importance by authori-ties in the field...

·On le3ve for military service .... For a detailed presentation of the basic

data of thiS study, see (8).From Psychoml'triito, 9(3),1944, pp. 185-

97. Reprinted with permission.

structing the required number of addi-tional items. The results also indicate needfor workbooks to aid in improving stu-dents' use of basic reading skills. Thestudy provides more detailed informa-tion regarding the skills measured by theCooperative Reading Comprehen.HonTests than has heretofore been providedregarding the skills actually measured byany other widely used reading test. Sta-tistical techniques for estimating the re-liability coefficients of indiVIdual scoresin principal-axes components, for deter-mining whether component variances aregre3ter than would be ~'ielded by chance.and for calculating the significance of thedifferences between successive compo-nent variances are illustrated.

The most important step in a studythat employs factorial procedures fot theinvestigation of reading comprehensionis the selection of the tests the scores ofwhich are to be factored. Unless thesetests provide reasonably valid measuresof the most important mental skills chathave to be performed during the processof reading, the application of the mostrigorous statistical pro'edur~s can notyield meaningful and significant results.The importance of this point can hardlybe overstated.

As the first step in the present study,a careful survey' was made of the Iitera- ([)ture to identify the comprehension skills Jthat are deemed most important by au-thorities in the field of reading. A list ofseveral hundred specific skills was com·

research

236READING COMPREHENSION

of five-choice objective teSt items wereconstruered. All possible care was takento obtain items that measured only onerather than several of the nine skills.However, it was recognized that skill I{knowledge of word meanings) is basicto the measurement of all the other skills,since to read at all one has to reco.gnj.«words and understand their meanings,and that some overlapping of skills 2-9is inevitable.

Since the final forms of the reading-comprehension tests used in this studywere to be the published forms of TestsC1 and C2 of Form Q of the Coopera-tive Reading Comprehension Tests,practical considerations [notably the reoquirements of the procedure for obtain-ing three equivalent "scales" in the tests(6)J determined in some measure thenumber of items testing each basic skillthat could be used. An eHort was made,however, to include the proportion ofitems testing each one of skills 2-9 thatconformed to the judgments of authori-ties in the field of reading.

To obtain the intercorrelations ofSCores in the nine basic reading skills se.leered for measurement, 240 multiple-choice items were administeted to a largenumbet of freshmen in several reacherscolleges.· The students were told to markevery item and were allowed an unlim-ited amount of time. By this means, theinfluence of speed of reading was reomoved and the effects of mechanical dif.ficulties in word perception wereminimized. Of the 541 students tested,421 J.(tuall' answered every l[em, and,when proof was obtaine t at t IS group

·Every freshman in all of the ttachers col.leges of the Sute ot Connecticut Jnd evtr~· frtsh-man In two of the .\1Jssa.:husetts Surt TeachersCoJltges ..:omprised the u.mple testtd. The (tH'ing was done about a month atter the beginningof the school year.

piled, many of them ovetlapping. Thislist of skills was studied intensively bythe writer in order to group together thosethat seemed to tequire the exercise of thesame, or closely related, mental skills. Theobjeerive was to obtain several groups ofskills, each one of which would consti-tute a cluster having relatively highinrercorrelations and relatively low cor-relations with other clusters of skills.

Nine groups of skills were sorted outand labeled. For the purposes of thisstudy, they are regarded as the nine skillsbasic to comprehension in reading. In-cluded within them is the multitude ofspecific skills considered important by theauthorities consulted. These nine basicskills are as follows:

1. Knowledge of word meanings

2. Ability to seleer the appropriatemeaning for a word or phrase in thelight of its particular contextual serting

3. Ability to follow the organization ofa passage and to identify antecedentsand references in it

4. Ability to sereer the main thought ofa passage

Ability to answer questions that arespecifically answered in a passage

Ability to answer questions that areanswered in a passage but not in thewords in which the question is asked

7. Ability to draw inferences from apassage about its contents

8. Ability to recognize the literary de-vices used in a passage and to deter.mine its tone and mood

9 .. -\biliry to determine a wrIter's pur.pose, intent, and point of view, i.c.,to draw inferences about a writer

To provide a measure of each oneof these nine basic skills, a large number

research

FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS OF COMPREHENSION IN READING 237RESEARCH/TABLE 1Intercorrelauons. mc:ans. and standard deViations of raw scores In the nine basic reading skills. andtheIr reiaCionshlps With sex (.\1 = 421\

Skill 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sex· Mean a

1 .72 .41 .28 .52 .71 .68 .51 .68 .03 23.77 11.612 .34 .36 .53 .71 .68 .52 .68 -.07 12.70 3.253 .16 .34 .43 .42 .28 .41 -.01 4.20 1.734 .30 .36 .35 .29 .36 -.03 2.97 1.105 .64 .55 .45 .55 -.04 18.10 2.466 .76 .57 .76 -.01 25.67 5.677 .59 .68 .06 28.46 5.818 .58 -.05 6.75 1.869 -.05 15.19 4.07

• A posltlve coeffiCient In thiS column indicates that the men obr.llned a higher mean score than thewomen.

consrirured a r restnrative sample of theentire: 541 students teste, e scores ofonlv rhese 421 pupils were used in rhefactorial analySIS. In addmon ro the in-(ercorrelations of the scores, the corre-lations between sex and scores ~h ofrhe nine skills were compured. As wouldhave been expected, the correlarions withsex were all insignificantly different fromzero. This being so, there:was no need toparrial uur rhe intluence of sex beforemaking a factorial analysis.

Research/Table 1 shows rhe inrer-correlarions of the scores in the nine basicreading skills, and rheir relationships· withsex.

The intercorrelations of the ninebasic skills range from .16 to .76, thevalues reflecting in parr their true rela-tionships and in parr the differences intheir reliability. The reliability coeffi-cients of the scores in the nine skills areshown in Research!T able 2.

As would be expected in view of thewidely different lengths of the tests usedto measure the nine basic reading skills,their reliability coefficiems differ consid-erablv. For even the least reliable,however. rh< r<liability coefficient is sub·

stantially and significantly grearer thanzero.

Subjective judgment had forecastrelatively high correlations between skill1 and each of skills 2-9. Inspection ofResearduTable 1 in the light of ,he data

RESEARCH/TABLE 2Reliablliry codficlcnrs of raw scores in each of[ne nine basic reading skills·

Number ofSkill 'II N Items

1 .90 100 602 .56 100 203 .44 100 94 .18 421 55 .55 100 "6 .77 100 427 .63 100 438 .64 100 109 .71 100 27

-The division of each test into two halves wasaccomplished in this case by arranging the itemsin order of difficulty and asslgnmg alternate Itemsto tach "2If. It will be recalled thar speed had noinfluence on these scores. The reliability coeffi-cient for skill 4 is b.1scd on 421 cases; the relia-bility coeffiCients for the other ~kills uc based ona representative sample of 100 cases drawn fromthe 421 available.

research

238 READING COMPREHENSION

RESEARCH/TABLE 3Partial correl~tlon coe!ficients among skills 2-9. skill 1 being held consunt IN = 421)

Skill 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2 .09 .23 .26 .40 .38 .:26 .373 .05 .16 .22 .22 .09 .204 .19 .23 .22 .17 .245 .45 .32 .26 .326 .53 .33 .537 .38 .408 .38

in Research/Table 2 reveals this to be so.h is apparent that skill 1 constitutes thelargest element common to all of the otherinitial variables; hence, it may be of in-terest to study the inrercorrel:ltions ofskills 2-9 when skill 1 is held constant.

RESEARCH/TABLE 4Inltlal matrix of variances Jnd CQvan3nces·

These partial coefficients are shown inResearch/Table 3.

Perhaps the most surprising featureof the data in Research,Table 3 IS thesmall size of the coefficients. After mak-ing due allowance for the Jttenuation

Var;ahle x, x, xJ x. x, x. x. x, x,

x, 134. -0 F.OI 8.16 3.65 14.77 46.88 45.78 11.04 32.07x, 10.56 1.94 1.29 4.22 13.03 12.90 3.17 8.93x, 3.01 0.31 1.44 4.24 4.24 0.90 2.91x. 1.l2 0.82 2.25 2.25 0.59 1.63x, 6.05 8.93 7.85 2.07 5.53x. 32.17 24.89 5.96 17.42x. 33.75 6.33 16.00x. 3.46 4.42x, 16.54

·Vanances are shown In the di.1gonJ,i cells. The Kelley method would be equ311~· .lppllcable If thescores In van:ables 1-9 were rtJ.nsformed into standard mcasurC'S. In thiS c.ase. the varIance 10 cachdiagonal cdl would be 1 anJ the ";".1\ .L!l.1n.;es woulJ be IJentlc",1 \\inn the Inrcn.:orrel.1uons shown ~nResearchrrable 1. The resulnng matrix would undoubtedly present a more familiar appearance tomany nudenn. Each one of the baSIC reading skills would then have b~n weighted equally forpurposes of factorial analYSIS. However, authontles in the field of reading quite reasonably do notludge each one or the basiC slulls to be oi equal importance in the process of reading comprehenSIOn.Of the many possible facronal Jnalyses :using different weights). that analYSISwhich appears to haveunique merit ISa prinCipal-axes solution based an a matrix of vanances and covanance'S In whi~h theinitial test varianc:cs are weighted to correspond with their relauve importance in the process ofreadin~. as determined by the pooled rudgment of authonries. That is the rypc of facronal anOl1ySlSthOlt It '4"JSIntenJeJ )huulJ be performed In the present study, but pracrtc~1 conslderaCions resuhedIn some modifications in the relative weights of the nine IOlrial variables.

for purposes of comparison. the Kelley method was used to perform a factorial lnalysls oi thecorrelation matrix shown in ResearchITable 1 (C'xcluding sex) with unit variances in the diagonals. Acomp:)rl)on of the b.ctor IOJdings detlved from the rwo pnn":lpJ.l-ues analyses .nd from a centrOIdanalysIS of the same data ISnow In preparation.

~esecrch

1 _

fUNDAMENTAl fACTORS Of COMPREHENSION IN READING 239

RESEARCH/TABLE 5Coefficients ot each of the initial variables thar yield scores In the nine independent components

(factor loadings of skills 1-9 In components I-IX)

Components I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Van;ance 192.1,70 22.824 8.657 5.282 3.828 3.306 2.321 1.956 1.006

SkillsV.mance

1 .813 -.571 - .064 -.033 -.082 .006 -.016 .001 .011 134.699

2 .184 .124 -.005 -.003 .971 -.019 -.017 -.028 -.076 10.563

3 .057 .054 -.001 .000 -.000 .000 .997 .000 - .004 3.009

4 .027 .048 -.000 .000 .067 .000 .000 .000 .996 1.220

5 .10i .149 .152 -.003 -.Oll .970 -.014 - .024 - .012 6.050

6 .341 .469 .567 -.531 - .129 -.204 -.044 -.001 -.023 32.169

7 .336 .580 -.719 .008 - .147 - .020 - .051 -.0.1 -.02ti 33.751

8 .078 .105 - .001 .141 -.000 .000 - .010 .981 -.007 3.456

9 .233 .253 .366 .835 - .080 - .126 -.02:- - .166 - .013 16.540

resulting ftom the comparatively low re-liability coefficients of some of the vari-ables, it IS apparenr rhat reading

.A( comprehension, as measured by the nine1'" basic reading skills, is not a unitaty abil-

ity. From the correlations it appearsprobable that a mental ability presenr tothe greatest extenr in skills 6, 7. and 9 issecond most importanr in producing theinrercorrelarions shown in Research!Table 1. To explore this matter, a fac-torial analysis was undertaken, usingthe method described by T. L. Kelley(22).'

The initial matrix of variances andcovariances used in the factorial analysisis presented in ResearchfTable 4.

In Researchrr able 5 are presentedthe ooefficients of each of the initial var-iables (the nine basic reading skills) thatyield the nine independent componentsobtained by factorial analysis. The de-sign shown in ResearchfT able 5 is one of

• For this study it was desirable (0 obtainthe factor loadings of 111 significant componentsrather than the loadings for only the twO or threelargesr componentS; hence a fairly luge numberof subJects W3S tesred 3nJ Kelle~'·s method W.loS

selected as being most suitable for use.

the most interesring that has been ob-tained by factorial techniques.

The subjective judgment exercised inconstructing the teSts of.the nine readingskills is reflected in the surprising extentto which several of the tests appear to bemoderately "pure" factor measures. Aword of caution must, however, be in-jected. Because some of the skills werejudged to be more important than othersin the reading process and because prac-tical considerations governed to someextent the number of items used to mea-sure each of the nine reading skills, thestandard deviations of the initial varia-bles differed considerably. And, since theinitial matrix of variancl:s .lnd covari·ances used for the analysis reflected thosedifferences, the coefficients in Research!Table 5 must be interpreted with due re-gard for the magnitudes of the standarddeviations of the nine initial skills. Scoresin skill 1, for example, have a large Stan-dard deviation in comparison with thestandard deviations of scores in the otherskills. So a small component loading inskill 1 may be found to have more weightin a regression equation for obtainingscores in anyone of the components than

research

240would be expected from an inspection ofResearchfTable 5 alone.'

A srudy of the values in Research!Table 5 (making due allowance for themagnirudes of the standard deviations ofthe initial variables) reveals that the ninecomponents are rather readily identifia-ble in terms of the original nine readingskills. Component I is dearly wordknowledge (skill 1). Its positive loadingsin each of the nine basic reading skillsreflect the fact that to tead at all it isnecessary to recognize words and to re-call their meanings.

It is dear that word knowledge playsa very important part in reading compre-

• Readers who are most familiar with thecentrOid med'lOd of factorial analysis have some-umes questioned this statement. A principal-axesitnalysis makes it possible to obuin very readilya giHn tndi ..".dual"s s~ore in anyone of the com-ponents for which regression coefficients (or fac-ror loadings) have b«n determined. For example.IndiVIdual scores in component I may be ob-tained from the follo ....IOS regression equation:

Cl

= ,813'.'(1) ..... 184(.'(1) + .OS-IX)}+ .027IX.1 + .107(X.1+ .J4I(X.I + .336,X.1+ .0781X,1 + .23JIX.i.

In rhi'S equation. variables 6 and 7 havenearly Identical regression codticlents. but weknow that the standard deviation of ,,·an.ble 6 is5.67 wntle that of vari;ablc 7 is 5.81. Thereiore.variable 7 will have 3 slightly greater weIght InJetermtntng.n indiVidual's ..core 10 .:omponent 1than will variable 6 despite the tact that the fac·tor 1030dings of v:uiable1 6 and -; tn .:omponent Iare 3o1most the same.

A Simple and convenlent :lid 10 interpretingthe regression coefficients with proper regud forthe Sizes at the standard deVIations of the IOtrlalvarIables IS to construct a table containing eachregression coefficient multiplied by the 3ppropn·ate standard deviation of an mitial variable. Forexample. the factor loading of skill 1 in compo-nent I (.813) would be multiplied by the st3nd3tddevlauon of sk1l11 (11.61). Yielding 9.4; the fac-tor loading of skill 2 in component I (.184\ wouldbe multiplied by the st3nd.Jrd deVIation 01 skdl 2I '\.2 ~ . ~',dJing .6; and so on.

reseorch

READING COMPREHENSION

hension and that any program of reme-dial teaching designed to improve theabiliry of srudents to understand whatthey read must include provision for vo- ,cabulary building. When one combines Ithe evidence that word knowledge is soimportant an element in reading with thefact that the development of an individ-ual's vocabulary is in large measuredependenr on his interests and his back- \ground of experience, the relatively lowcorrelations between reading tests in dif-ferent subject-matter fields are under-standable.· There IS, however, nonecessiry to conclude that all of the fun-damental factors of comprehension inreading are not involved in reading ma-terials in various subject-matter fields.

Component II has been termed ameasure of reasoning in teading. It hasits highest positive loadings in the r.,...oreading skills that demand ability to in-fer meanings and to weave together sev·era I statements. It may seem puzzling atfirst that this component should have astrong negative loading in skill 1 (wordknowledge), but consideration of thepsychological meaning of components Iand II indicates that this should be ex-pected_ The explanation undoubtedlv liesin the fact that individuals who knowaccurately the meanings of a great manywords are thereby given a head starttoward getting the meaning of what thevread. ~refore. if we are to meJ.surereasoning In reading independently ofword knowledge, we must give mdmd-Uils who are defiCient 10 word knowl-eage a "handicap" and then see how wellthey reason when Jhey are Elacea on e~terms with their fellows in word knowl-edge. Component II appatently mea-'wes the ability to see the relationshipsof ideas.

• For d3t3 on tim pOint see (5).

1 _

FUNDAMENTAl FACTORS OF COMPREHENSION IN READING 241

Component III is not so readily in-terpretable as most of the others, but itis clear that individuals who obtain highscores in this component focus their at·(ention on a writer's explicit statementsa~ost to the exclusion of their implica-rions. Component IV measures chidly the

ability to loemifY"awrlter's mtent u/-pose, or pomt 0 vIew (skill 9). Individ-uals wno obtam hIgh scores in thiscomponent are less concerned with whata writer says than wlth why he says it.Such individuals should presumably bebetter able to detect bias and propa-ganda than individuals who obrain lowscores in this component. Component Vis composed principally of ability to fig-ure out from the context the meaning ofan unfamiliar word or to detennine whichone of several known meanings of a wordis most appropriate in its particular con·textual setting (skill 2). It is reasonablethat it should be essentially unrelated toskill 1, which measures memoty for iso-lated word meanings. The slight negativeloadings of skills 6 and 7 in componentV may result from the fact that the lattermeasures deductive reasoning, while skills6 and 7 measure inductive processes.

Judging by its vety high loading inskill 5, component VI seems to be largelya measure of ability to grasp the detailedstatements in a passage. It is probably afairly direct measure of the ability to getwhat 1. A. Richards has called "the lit-eral sense m<aning" of a passage. Skill 5was originally intended to measure thisabiliry and the results of the analysis sug-gest that this ability is more than a name;it appears to be a real psychological en-tity distinct from other mental skills in-volved in reading. Component VII seemsto be a measure principally of skill 3(ability to follow the organization of apassage and to identify antecedents andreferences in it). The variance of this

component consists of about 77% of theoriginal variance of skill 3.

Component VIII measures specificknowledge of literaty devices and tech-niques, and probably reflects the influ-ence of training in English more than theother components do. Component IX iscomposed largely of ability to select themain thought of a passage; it may beconsidered a measure of ability in thesynthesis of meaning. The variance ofcomponent IX comprises approximatelv82% of the original variance of skill 4(ability to select the main thought of apassage). Students who make high scoresin component IX are presumably thosewho would be most capable of writingadequare summaries and precis of whatthey read.

Of the nine components described,all except components'll, Ill, and IV can,for practical purposes, probably bemeasured satisfactorily by means of rawscores in one of the nine basic readingskills sel<cted initially. Components Vthrough IX accounr for only a smallfraction of the total variance, but theirvariances are significantly different.' Anumber of the skills considered most im-portant by authorities in the field of

·Thc writer ls indebted to Professor T. L.Kelley for the deYelopment of a precise test of thevariance ratios of components obt:llned by hiS

iterarive process. This reSf is descnbed In the Jr·ride by Pro;cssor Kelley that lmmedlatdy follows.

The differences between tne variances ofsuccessive components ue all slgn!licant at tneone.per.cent level with tne exception of tne dif-fetences between tne variances of components Vand VI. and VII and VIII; those differences aresigni6cant approximately at the nve-pc:r<ent level.

It snould be noted tnat tne vanance4ratiorest of the sisni6cance of the diffCKfta bC'tWC"Cncomponent variances il pcenninc:d by the Kelle,metnod but is not permlned by otner metnods offactorial analysis tnu,are frequently employed.

Whetner tne variance of component IX (tnesmallen component) IS signilicantiy greater than

research

reseorcn

242

RESEARCHITABLE6V.1nance ranos of successive componentS

Degrees ofComponent Freedom VarIance F

406 192.170 }8.180

II 399 11.814 }2.663

III 403 8.657 }1.622

IV 399 5.282 }1.387

V 401 3.828 }1.158

VI 401 3.306 }1.428

VII 4031.317} 1.18!

VIII 400 l.9;6 }1.944

IX 400 1.006

.reading include independenr elements tharshould be raughr separately. ir is norenough to assign learning exercises inreading rhar consist of passages followedby facrual qucstions to be answered. Suchexercises will not necessarily call rhe stu-dent's attention to the separate and es-sentially unrelated reading skills [har heuught to master or give him sufficientpractice in each one of rhem.

Because individual scores in each of[he independent components definedabove can readily be csrimared by usingappropnate regression equations \Cf.ante, foornore following Researchffable

would be YIelded by chance may be determinedby nonng whether the rehahillty coerficlent ofcomponent IX IS slgnaJicantly greater than zero,This IS not established by the data, It is highlylikely, however, rhat the vanance of che nextlargest component is sigmficandy greater thanwould be YIelded by chance.

READING COMPREHENSION

RESEARCHITABLE7Reliabiliry coeffiCIents. means, and St.1nd3rddeViations of the SIX independent componentshaVing reli3biliry coeificlents su~s{Jntlallygreater than zero

StandardComponent 'u Mean DeViation

I .94 46.30 13.87II .48 14.14 4.78III .18 .81 2.94IV .17 -.62 2.30

VII .33 .27 1.53VlII .29 .70 1.40

5), rhe reliability coefficients of scores inthe nine components have been derer·mined empiricaJly, using the same sam-ple of 100 cases for which odd and evenscores in each variable were obtained incomputing the reliability coefficients ofrhe nine inirial variables.

Inspection of Researchff able 7 re-veals rhat only components I and II aremeasured wirh sufficient reliability towarrant the:ir use for practical purposes.However, when rhe significance of rhereliability coefficienr or each one of ,henine components is tested; it becomesevident rhat useful measures of ar leastthree additional components could cer-rainly be provided by constructing rherequired number of addirional irems ofthe appropriate types. Since several ofrhe components may be satisfactorilymeasured, for practical purposes, by rawscores in appropriate types of test items,construction of a large number of rheindicated types of irems has already beenstarred. It is believed rhat rhese may beusefulfor instructional as well as for

-The st.1ndard error of a split·half re!i.1DII-iry coeffiCIent, corrected by the SpeJ.rman-Bro,,·nformub.. mar be obtained by using Shen's formula.

2(1 - rll)

<T'll :II 'w'N

FUNDAMENTAL FACTORSOF COMPREHENSION IN READING 243

measurement purposes when they areemployedin combination with otherworkbook materials.

Since useful measures of compo-nents I and II are already available, aprofile chart for making a graphic recordof scores in these mo'O components hasbeen prepared and is described in con-siderable derail elsewhere (9).

The correlations of components I andII with the Q and L scores derived fromthe American Council on Education Psy-chological Examination and with the to-tal score on the Nelson-Denny ReadingTest have also been reported in the liter-ature (9, 370-371). It is hoped that therelationships between components I andII and other well·known reading tests canbe obtained, for if components I and IIare regatded as fundamental abilities inreading it is of paramount importance todteermine the exrent to which the read-ing tests now commonly used in highschools and colleges actUally measureeach of these abilities.

The study reported here has ex-plored one means of investigating thepsychological nature of reading ability.It has suggested a means of determiningthe validity of tests of comptehension in

REFERENCES

1. Adler, M. J. Ho.....to re3d a book, Ne.....Yorlc:Simon IS.:. S..:huster, 1940.

2. Alderman, G. H. Improving comprehensionIn re3dmg. j. ~dtlc. R~s.. 19~6, 13, 11-21.

3. Rerry, B. T. ImprOVing freshman readinghabIts. Engl. J.t College: EJltlun, 1931,20,8240-828.

4. Curoll. R. P. An experimental srudy of com-.prehension in reading. Ne.....York: TeachersCoilege, Columbia Unlversiry, t 927.

teading. The results indicate that thete is \need for reliable tests to measure severalof the nine basic skills that have been I

defined and for workbooks to aid in im-proving students' abilities in them. Theneed for correlating scores in existingreading tests with scores in several of theprincipal components seems obvious.And, not least, the study provides moredetailed information regarding the skillsmeasured by the Cooperative ReadingComprehension Tests than has hereto-fore been provided regarding the skillsactUally measured by any ocher widelyused reading cest.•

Finally, it is hoped thac the data pre-sented will draw attention ro che impor-tanCe of che mental skills invoh'ed inreading and act as a stimulus to furtherresearch in che fundamental facrors ofcomprehension.

• Frederick B. D.1Vls. et al.. Th~ Coopera-tille Reading ComprehensIon Tesu. Lower .mdHigher Ltllds. Forms Q. R, S. and T. Eight sep-arate 40-minutc reading tests are now aV:lIlabJeand .are distributed by the Coopcratl\le TCSt Serv-ice, 15 Amsterdam Avenue, New York. KY., anonprofit agency of the Amcric.an Council onEducation.

5. The Cooperanvc General AchIevement Tests(RC'\'lsedSCrles): Informanon concerning [heIrconstruction, Interpretation, and usc. Ne .....York: Cooperative Test Service. 1940.

6. The Cooperative Reading COmpreflenSIOnTests: Information concerning theIr con-struction, Intcrpreta[Jon • .1nd usc. Ne.....York:Cooperative Test ServIce, 1940.

7. The Coopcrari~e Reading ComprehensionTests, Lo.....er and Higher levels; Forms QtR, S, and T. Ne .....York: Cooperative TestService.

reterences