COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF READING-COMPREHENSION IN GOOD AND POOR READERS

Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational factors were examined as pr edictors of individual differences in the reading comprehension abilit ies of good and poor readers. Two hundred twenty seventh graders were measured on reading comprehension, and the top 30% and bottom 30% were identified as good and poor readers, respectively. Subjects were then measured on word recognition, metacognitive knowledge about text proc essing, perceived competence, and attributional beliefs about the reas ons underlying academic outcomes. The results indicated that good read ers in comparison to poor readers scored higher on the word recognitio n measure, possessed richer metacognitive knowledge, and had more posi tive beliefs about their academic abilities. Regression analyses indic ated that word recognition and metacognition predicted reading compreh ension in the whole sample; however, regression analyses within subgro ups indicated that word recognition was the most important predictor v ariable for poor readers, whereas perceived competence predicted the r eading comprehension abilities of good readers.