The genre-specific hypothesis of reading: Reading poetry and encyclopedic items

The experiment reported in this paper investigates the genre-specific hypothesis of reading in relation to the reading of poetry and encyclopedic items. Based on previous empirical research and theoretical positions, three hypotheses which differentiate between the reading of poetry and encyclopedic items in relation to surface information recall, reading time and self evaluations of levels of comprehension were proposed and tested. Using a within subjects design, 38 participants read and recalled four encyclopedic items and four poems. Random sampling methods were employed to choose the authentic texts used in this study. The results support all three of the genre-specific hypotheses and demonstrate the following processing differences between poetry and encyclopedic texts: (1) Reading poetry involves higher levels of surface information recall than encyclopedic texts; (2) Encyclopedic items are read at a faster rate than poems; (3) Poems are considered to be more difficult to understand than encyclopedic items. Accordingly, this study offers some empirical support to the genre-specific hypothesis of reading. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.