INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN READING COMPREHENSION

Reading comprehension was studied as a function o £ individual differences in extraversion-introversion, neuroticism and academic and resultant achievement motivation. Seventy-eight college students were categorized into personality or motive groups on the basis of personality test scores, dividing the distribution into top, middle and bottom thirds. Academic achievement motivation was assessed by a recently developed measure previously used with British students; resultant achievement motivation was measured as need for achievement minus fear of failure. Analyses of variance indicated no significant contributions of any of the IDs studied to reading comprehension. Discussion centered on limitations of the study, its relationship to previous work, and future directions. Much reading research has been concerned with the attempt to identify individual differences (IDs) as sources of the large variance typically obtained in measures of reading comprehension. The major IDs investigated have tended to be either cognitive, for example