Abstract

This study examines whether different levels of reading comprehension have different cognitive and motivational basis. One hundred and forty-four 7th graders participated in this study. Students' critical thinking dispositions and skills, prior knowledge, inferential and metacognitive ability, and reading comprehension performances at different levels of depth were assessed. Interest predicted deeper levels of reading comprehension, whereas prior knowledge was important at all levels of reading comprehension. Critical thinking skills only contributed to a literal level of reading comprehension.