Abstract
This study attempted to investigate the relationship between inferred identification and two types of reading comprehension, molar and specific, at the third grade level. Subjects for this study were selected from six schools located in four midwestern urban centers. The 121 Negro and Caucasian children who participated in the study attended schools designated as Title I schools.
Findings suggested that children who identified at high and moderate identification levels achieved significantly higher molar reading comprehension scores than low identifying children of both races. Initial interpretation of these results seems to offer some justification for recent efforts to include diverse ethnic characters in elementary reading texts. A more thoughtful examination of this relationship, however, may indicate the possible presence of a third and as yet unknown factor which acted in conjunction with the identification process and to which the gain witnessed in molar reading comprehension may be attributed.