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The effectiveness of two types of adjunct questions, standard embedded questions and “why” questions (elaborative interrogation), was investigated for readers differing in structure-building ability (Gernsbacher, 1990). Participants read a textbook chapter either with or without the adjunct questions. Learning was assessed with typical classroom testing methods (multiple choice, short answer). Also, relatedness ratings were used to assess the coherence of learners' representations. High structure builders generally outperformed low structure builders. However, embedded questions but not elaborative interrogation improved the low structure builders' test performances on information targeted by and related to the adjunct questions. Neither study method improved test performance for the high comprehenders. Embedded questions also stimulated more coherent representations. Results indicate that embedded questions are an effective study method for low comprehenders.

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The present study utilizes readings taken from texts in social psychology to examine the effects by gender of embedded “what” questions and elaborative “why” questions on reading comprehension. During regular class time, 97 advanced second language (L2) learners of Spanish read two different vignettes, either with or without the adjuncts, and then completed a written recall, multiple choice items, and a topic familiarity inventory. Results revealed significant effects of gender and question type for wriftten recall with passage one, which was about first impressions and schemas. Females outscored males with the inserted “why” questions and males outscored females with the inserted “what” questions. No significant effects by gender and embedded questions were found with recall for passage two, concerning implicit personality theory and attribution theory. Additionally, no gender differences were found for the interaction of gender and embedded question type for multiple choice items across both passages. Results are discussed in light of previous research that reports females outperform males on recall tasks for L2 reading. Instructional implications along with suggestions for more research of this nature are offered.