Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reading comprehension ability and the presence of explicit or implicit causal relationships upon recall of propositional content and comprehension of interpropositional relationships. Subjects were fifth-grade children with above and below-average reading comprehension ability. Materials were three types of expository passages: explicit causal, containing causal relationships signalled by connecting words; implicit causal, without connecting words; and non-causal, without explicit or implicit causal ties. A significant effect for ability level was found for free recall of interpropositional relationships, with above-average comprehenders recalling more causal relationships when these were explicit. Below-average comprehenders recalled almost no causal relationships in either condition. The better readers were apparently at an intermediate stage in the awareness of connective relationships: beginning to respond to connectives but dependent upon explicit cues. Subjects' recalls were then examined further in order to explore the semantic variables and individual recall strategies that may be conducive to the successful recall of causal relationships.