An Extended Comparison of Adjunct Aids with Low-Average and Good Readers in the Sixth Grade

Four types of prestatements and prequestions and no adjunct aid were compared as techniques for enhancing comprehension of cause-effect passages. During six weekly practice sessions, each of 200 randomly assigned sixth grade subjects read one passage accompanied by the designated type of aid, answered comprehension questions, and checked the answers. During the first testing session, each student read two systematically assigned passages of five used. The next day each student answered 10 literal and four main idea questions for each passage read. The good readers given no adjunct aid performed significantly better on the main idea questions than the good readers given application prequestions and those given why prequestions. Good readers in the sixth grade may be motivated by post questions alone.