INFORMATION-FLOW DIFFICULTY IN RELATION TO READING COMPREHENSION

Since the days of Thorndike (1917) reading has been regarded as a "thinking " process. Comprehension has been considered as representing the major dimensions in which thought is manifested. Davis (1944) found that comprehension correlated highly with inductive and deductive reasoning tasks. Others, also, have demonstrated that reading comprehension correlated positively with thinking or with reasoning (Harootunian, 1966, Hage & Stroud, 1959). In contrast rote learning and paired associate learning have generally been considered to represent comparatively simple and less complex mental operations. English and English (1958, p. 291), define rote learning as "memorizing in which the tasks as seen by the learner requires no understanding but merely the reproduction of words or other symbols in the exact form in which they were presented. " Other psychologists, however, view rote learning as more complex. Underwood (1964) and Miller (1958) apparently regard rote learning as akin to concept formation. Such views reflect the idea that rote learning is more complex than previously thought. It does seem clear, when one considers the volume of materials which can be processed in a given period of time, that rote memorization is not easily accomplished by the organism