The effect of background knowledge on the reading comprehension of ninth graders

Background knowledge, or what one already knows about a subject, has long been assum-ed to influence one's reading comprehension concerning that subject (James, 1890; Horn, 1937; Adams, Note 1; Rumelhart & Ortony, 1977). However, relatively few empirical studies have tested whether or not background knowledge does indeed effect reading comprehension. Several studies have demonstrated that knowing the theme of a passage produces better readin