Strategic reading requires not only a repertoire of processing strategies but also knowledge about the conditions under which a given strategy is relevant. This study examined college students' conditional knowledge about reading. Subjects sorted descriptions of reading situations according to how they believe they read in each situation. Cluster analyses of the resulting distance matrixes identified 10 distinct categories of reading situations. Ratings of the cognitive demands of the reading situations supported the interpretations of the sorting data and suggested how reading patterns vary across different texts and task demands. The 10 distinct reading categories constitute a first approximation to a typology of reading situations that may serve as a framework for organizing research on reading strategies.

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College students were videotaped while they searched chapter-length texts for answers to specific questions. The texts either did not contain headings or contained one of three types of headings that varied in the information that they provided about text organization and content. Familiarity with the text was varied by manipulating (1) the number of prior searches of the text and (2) whether or not the text was read before searching. Measures were taken of the time spent examining each page and of the sequence of examination of pages. Cluster analyses of the search measures revealed that familiarity with the text influenced a searcher's strategy for selecting which pages to examine. Once a page was selected for examination, both headings and familiarity influenced how the page was inspected.

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