ABSTRACT
Although researchers have been aware of the effects of interest on memory since perhaps the middle of the last century (Renninger, 1990), little research has isolated the components of interest and studied their impact on reading. A number of years ago, when a small group of researchers at the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois attempted to conceptualize why interest influenced memory for what was read, these questions arose from a more general discussion of the effects of important text elements on reading comprehension.
