Strategies for Controlling Hypothesis Formation in Reading

Reading is a process of forming and evaluating hypotheses to account for the data in a text. Because of its complexity, the task of reading requires strategies for controlling the proliferation of hypotheses. Four of these strategies, (a) jumping to conclusions, (b) maintaining inertia, (c) relying on background knowledge, and (d) working backwards from the goal, are generally effective, but they occasionally create reading problems, rather than alleviating them. Examples from protocols of readers reading a reading test passage are presented. These examples show both the effective use of the strategies and some problems that may arise from their use.National Institute of Education under Contract No. HEW-NIE-C-400-76-0116.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe