FURTHER RESEARCH ON THE READING-STORAGE TEST AS A MEASURE OF GAIN DURING READINGa

Abstract. The sensitivity of the reading-storage technique as a measure of gain during reading was investigated. Gains on this test were related to three other variables—passage difficulty, reader ability, and the understanding judgments of readers themselves. Reading-storage tests on 16 prose passages were administered to about 600 students in Grades 4-12. The passages ranged in difficulty from beginning reader level to college level. After reading a passage, the Ss made understanding judgments and took a reading-storage test on the passage. The same tests were given to other Ss who had not had the opportunity to read the passage first. The gain on the reading-storage test between nonreading and reading was highly correlated with understanding judgments. It was concluded that the reading-storage test was sensitive to the gain due to reading as long as the difficulty level of the material was approximately equal to the reading ability level of the individual. Some measures are more sensitive to gains due to reading than other measures. For example, Tuinman (1973-74) found that scores on some standard