bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Readability of Study Habit Books and College Students' Reading Ability
Authors: Keetz Mary A.
Published: December 2009

This study was undertaken to determine the readability of a representative number of study habits books used in college reading and study skills courses and to compare their readability with the reading ability of the students who use them. The Davis Reading Test scores of 110 students enrolled in reading and study skills classes and of 1,145 entering freshmen at West Chester State College were compared with the Dale-Chall readability levels of 14 study habits books. From 4.5 to 43.6 percent of the 110 students enrolled in reading and study skills classes were below the grade-level placement of the 14 study habits books. Only one study habits book had a range of 5 to 9 grade-level placements. The findings suggested that the readability of study habits books, like other college texts analyzed in readability studies, were above the reading ability of a varying number of college students who used them. It was recommended that the findings be considered in the teaching of study habits and the writing of study habits books. The need for replicating the study in other college settings and with other study skills books and readibility measures was also noted.
More is Clearer: Children's Insertion of Redundant Elements in Complex Sentences
Authors: Gowie Cheryl J.
Published: December 2009

One type of linguistically and psychologically complex sentence was examined. Sixty children, with 12 each in grades 4 through 8, demonstrated comprehension of 10 sentences violating the common pattern described by the Minimum Distance Principle. Five items were harmonious with Ss' previously identified expectations, and 5 were contrary to them. Children rephrased each item, retaining the meaning and stating it as clearly as possible. The criterion measure was the number of redundant elements inserted in the restatements of harmonious and contrary sentences by children in each grade. Derivational and psychological complexity interacted in a manner which changed with Ss' age.
Instantiation of Word Meanings in Children
Authors: Anderson Richard C. , Stevens Kathleen C. , Shifrin Zohara , Osborn Jean H.
Published: December 2009

Previous research has shown that adults tend to narrow the meanings of words encountered in context, a process that has been termed instantiation. In the present study, 60 first and fourth graders selected pictures which best represented the meanings of sentences read to them. The sets of pictures included three examples of a target word in each sentence, one of which best fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole. The children selected the contextually most appropriate picture over 90% of the time. The results indicate that the children were instantiating the target words with specific concepts rather than bringing to mind abstract, undifferentiated meanings.
The Effect of Anaphoric References and Noun Phrase Organizers on Paragraph Comprhension
Authors: Fishman Anne Stevens
Published: December 2009

Based on Halliday & Hasan's theory of textual cohesion, anaphoric references and noun phrase organizers may serve as cohesive ties linking separate sentences into unified paragraphs. It was hypothesized their presence would affect paragraph comprehension and reading time. 12 experimental paragraphs were constructed. Alternate conditions incorporated noun phrase organizers and references. 119 college students read paragraphs and completed a multiple choice recognition test. Analysis of variance indicated only the noun phrase condition was significant. Within subject repeated measures analysis of variance indicated the influence of the noun phrase organizer could be attributed to its position in the initial sentence of the paragraph. No difference in time scores by paragraph condition was indicated. That lexical but not reference items influenced memory is discussed in terms of “old” and “new” information and alternate “checking” systems.
Word—Initial and Word—Final Ngram Frequencies
Authors: Rubin David C.
Published: December 2009

Every word-initial and word-final letter cluster, or ngram, that occurred in 30 or more different words in one million words of running text is listed along with the number of different words and the total number of words it appeared in. The relation of this list to other counts is discussed.
Vowel Letters and Word Recognition by Beginning Readers
Authors: Groff Patrick
Published: December 2009

Examined here were the abilities of first and second grade pupils to read true and altered spellings of words they had either previously read correctly or had misnamed. In each of these altered spellings only one vowel letter was changed. The findings of this study suggest that these beginning readers have good short-term memories for the true vowel spellings of words they can either read or not read. The evidence found here suggests further that such pupils consistently attempt to use vowel letters as cues to word recognition.
Re-Opening the Cloze Blank Issue
Authors: Rush Robert J. , Klare George R.
Published: December 2009

One aspect of cloze methodology that has received little systematic attention concerns the blanks that remain when the passage is mutilated. Taylor (1953) stated that the deleted word should be replaced by a line of a standard length. The standard length was recommended to avoid giving the subjects information on word length, i.e., the number of letters on the deleted words. The standard length line has since been general practice in cloze research, as shown by many studies.

Anderson (1971), however, compared standard-length blanks and exact-length blanks (same length as the deleted words) on three English language passages of differing levels of difficulty. Spooncer (1974) compared a standard-length blank and a blank the size of the deleted word. No significant differences were found between scores when using the two variations. This experiment was designed to examine more closely the effects of word length cues on cloze scores.
Validating a Limited — Cloze Procedure
Authors: Cunningham James W. , Cunningham Patricia M.
Published: December 2009

Data from two studies were used to compare a limited-cloze procedure with the regular cloze procedure. The limited-cloze procedure differed from the regular cloze in one feature: the words deleted were randomly ordered and placed at the top of the test. For both studies the same passage was used to construct a regular cloze passage and an identical limited-cloze passage with the deleted words at the top. Subjects in each study were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which completed the regular cloze and the other which completed the limited-cloze. The limited-cloze was found to be as valid, reliable, objective, and practical a test as regular cloze, but less interpretable.
A Methodological Critique of Fleming's Alternative for Phonemic Encoding
Authors: Miller G. R. , Coleman J. E.
Published: December 2009

Fleming (1976) criticized Rubenstein et al.'s (1971) evidence for phonemic encoding and conducted two studies of his own which he interpreted as supporting an alternative process. His alternative has considerable explanatory power, but Fleming based his evidence for it upon Rubenstein et al.'s RTs for a sample of 69 nonwords and upon being able to prove that the variance between these RTs was not explained by phonemic encoding. The Rubenstein RTs, however, had previously been re-analyzed by Clark (1973) who contended that the reported differences could not be generalized beyond the particular items used in the experiment. Thus, Fleming's evidence for his alternative suffers the same weakness that raised questions about the original experiment. In the process of examining that weakness, we were led to re-analyze the statistics of previous experiments, and we unearthed several serious errors. Our re-analyses strengthen the evidence for phonemic encoding and suggest that Fleming's “alternative” should be considered as another source of variance affecting recognition RTs, not as a mutually exclusive alternative to phonemic encoding.
Evidence for a Literary Dialect: Speaker Judgments
Authors: Richek Margaret Ann
Published: December 2009

The existence of a “literary dialect” was postulated on several grounds. Specific syntactic structures were hypothesized to be literary or nonliterary. This hypothesis was tested by obtaining judgments from adults on hypothesized literary and nonliterary structures, each presented at two levels of vocabulary difficulty. Results confirmed that the two structure types could be reliably differentiated statistically, and showed large absolute differences in the percentage of times they were judged as being literary. In addition, vocabulary exhibited a significant main effect, with structures containing infrequent vocabulary being judged as literary more often. Finally, there was a significant structure by vocabulary interaction, where literary structures with infrequent vocabulary were judged to be particularly literary.
The Effect of Meaningful versus Nonmeaningful Reading Material on Oral Reading Errors in First through Third Grade Children
Authors: Hocevar Susan Page , Hocevar Dennis
Published: December 2009

This experiment was designed to determine whether beginning readers read with fewer oral reading errors if the reading materials have content directly related to the reader's existing cognitive structure (i.e., reading based on recent concrete experiences). Fifty-four children, 18 each at basal reading levels one, two, and three, were given meaningful and nonmeaningful reading materials. Meaningfulness was manipulated by basing the reading materials on an audio-tutorial science program. Results indicated that the beginning readers read with 25 percent fewer oral reading errors ( p < .001) when the content was meaningfully related to recent concrete experiences. Such results are taken as support for the hypothesis that beginning readers use semantic information.
The Effect of Three Methods of Presentation and Socioeconomic Class on Recognition Performance in the Presentation of Low Frequency Words to Kindergarteners
Authors: Dollinger Roberta A. , Walker David N.
Published: December 2009

A word recognition task was presented to 72 lower social class and 72 upper-middle social class kindergarteners who were randomly assigned to one of 3 methods (Word, Word Picture, or Word Object) and were asked to learn to recognize eight low frequency words. There were significant differences between lower and upper socioeconomic levels and among the three methods ( p < .01). The Word Method was superior to the Word Picture and Word Object Methods ( p < .05) for children from both lower and middle class schools and students from upper socioeconomic level schools scored higher than those from the lower socioeconomic schools ( p < .01).
Instructional Events and Comprehension: Generalization across Passages
Authors: Gagné Ellen D. , Memory David
Published: December 2009

Sixth graders read one of sixteen randomly selected cause-effect passages after receiving one of six communications from an adult: (1) read carefully, (2) try to form an image of the material being read, (3) read for a specific detail, (4) read for the general causal relationship, (5) read to see how the passage is like a familiar example described by the adult, and (6) background information. Students who were told to read for a specific detail remembered that detail better following reading. General comprehension, as measured by the quantity and quality of free recall, was better for students told to form an image, given a familiar example, or given background information, than for students reading the same passages with instructions to read carefully. It was concluded that instructions that encourage the reader to relate old and new information are most effective in enhancing comprehension. The uniqueness of the study in randomly sampling from a population of passages was noted.
Memory for Prose: Development of Mnemonic Strategies and Use of Higher Order Relations
Authors: Christie Daniel J. , Schumacher Gary M.
Published: December 2009

The study sought to determine (a) if age-related increases in memory for prose are, in part, due to deliberate mnemonic strategies, and (b) if older children use the high order relations in prose more efficiently than younger children. Tape-recorded passages were presented to 40 first and 40 fourth grade children. To induce deliberate mnemonic strategies, half of the children from each grade were informed that there would be a memory task; the rest were not told. Additionally, half of the children from each grade were presented contextual information which made the high order relations in prose apparent; the remaining children were not presented contextual information. After passage presentation, each child was asked to reconstruct the story. The analysis of variance indicated that older but not younger children exhibited higher reconstruction scores if they were told versus not told about the memory task. These results suggest that older children engaged in deliberate strategies. Additionally, reconstruction scores were higher if contextual information was presented than withheld. Apparently if contextual information is available, older as well as younger children efficiently retain the analysis of the high order relations extracted from prose.
Curriculum Biases in Reading Achievement Tests
Authors: Jenkins Joseph R. , Pany Darlene
Published: December 2009

The extent and direction of curriculum bias in standardized reading achievement tests are examined. Bias is estimated by comparing the relative overlap in the contents of five separate reading achievement tests with the content of seven commercial reading series at first and second grade levels. Overlap between each achievement test and each reading series is reported in terms of achievement test grade equivalent scores that would be expected given mastery of the words which appear both as content in a reading series and as achievement test items. Results indicate clear discrepancies between the grade equivalent scores obtained both between tests for a single curriculum and on a single test for different reading curricula. The implications of the apparent curriculum bias of achievement tests are discussed as they relate to teacher, child, and curriculum evaluation, to reading replacement, and to applied educational research.
Conceptual Tempo as a Predictor of First-Grade Reading Achievement
Authors: Margolis Howard , Peterson Nedra , Leonard H. Skipton
Published: December 2009

The primary purposes of this study were to (1) ascertain the effects of kindergarten conceptual tempo classification on middle of first-grade reading performance; (2) compare the results obtained by the traditional Matching Familiar Figures Test double median split classification procedure with results obtained by computing a linear score for each child which combined his MFF standard scores for latency and errors. Regardless of the classification procedure, conceptual tempo did not significantly influence reading achievement at the .05 level. When equated for kindergarten reading readiness scores, significant vocabulary and comprehension differences were not found for tempo, sex, or interaction. It was concluded that the conceptual tempo of kindergartners does not appear of utility in predicting their middle of first-grade reading performance.
Psycholinguistic Approaches to a Theory of Punctuation
Authors: Baldwin R. Scott , Coady James M.
Published: December 2009

The study consisted of two repeated measures experiments which explored the relationship between punctuation and grammatical expectations. In the first experiment, 20 above average fifth-grade readers were exposed to sets of isolated sentences. Word order conditions were manipulated to vary the criticalness of individual punctuation cues. The second experiment was identical to the first except that adult subjects were used. The combined results of the experiments indicated (a) that individual punctuation marks varied from critical to redundant as a function of preceding word order, and (b) that fifth graders, in contrast to adults, tended to ignore grammatically critical punctuation cues. The experimental outcomes suggested that punctuation is a late developing cue system in reading. In addition, the results were interpreted to mean that traditional punctuation rules are empty conventions which neither predict nor explain reading behaviors involving punctuation. Specific psycholinguistic rules are proposed to account for the variable importance of individual punctuation cues.
Word Identification Abilities of Severely Disabled Readers: A Comparison in Isolation and Context
Authors: Allington Richard L.
Published: December 2009

Examines the strong vs. weak relationships between word recognition in isolation and in context hypotheses. Reports a lack of specific relationships for a group of severely disabled readers. Although the performance on these tasks was correlated at .68, a detailed analysis of individual performances demonstrated the inconsistent and idiosyncratic nature of the responses. The data, while not as clearcut as some reported earlier, seem nevertheless to support the weak relationship argument. In addition, two distinct types of disabled readers emerged from the analysis (those whose word recognition was superior in isolation and those whose word recognition was superior in context). Examination of individual response patterns suggest many traditional diagnostic assessment procedures may provide little useful information for instructional decisions.
Some Inter-Relationships of Readability, Cloze and Multiple Choice Scores on a Reading Comprehension Test
Authors: Entin Eileen B. , Klare George R.
Published: December 2009

Seven passages of a published reading comprehension test were administered to college students to compare the regular multiple chioce test scores with scores on two forms of a cloze test, standard blank and dash (dashed-line) blank, and with readability formula values. The mean on the dash form was significantly higher than on the standard form and subjects' scores on both were significantly related to their scores on the multiple choice test. Regression equations were derived to predict multiple choice scores from cloze scores. At the passage level, mean scores on (both) cloze forms correlated with readability values, but multiple choice means were correlated with neither. In a supplementary study college students answered the multiple choice questions without reading the passages, in order to determine prior knowledge on each passage. When the multiple choice scores were corrected for this, they correlated positively with scores on both forms of the cloze test and with readability values.
Children's Written Language Awareness and Its relation to Reading Acquisition
Authors: Evans Martha , Taylor Nancy , Blum Irene
Published: December 2009

Describes the development of an instrument which identifies what children who are just beginning first grade reading instruction know about the written language code and relates this knowledge to beginning reading achievement. A battery of seven tasks was developed to assess (a) discrimination of real writing from geometric shapes and letter-like forms; (b) segmentation of aurally presented sentences; (c) segmentation of visually presented sentences; (d) equation of oral written word lengths; (e) ability to predict from pictures; (f) completion of aural sentences with and without graphic cues and (g) competence with the metalinguistic aspect of reading. Tasks were administered to 53 first grade children and scores were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression on standardized reading test scores. Findings indicate that linguistic awareness tasks do predict reading achievement, particularly those tasks which stress the interrelationship between oral and written codes rather than those which tap characteristics specific to the writing system.
The Interactive Nature of Reading Acquisition
Authors: Doehring Donald G. , Aulls Mark W.
Published: December 2009

Recent theories of reading have provided only partial explanations of reading acquisition. A comprehensive theory should stress the interaction of the properties of the text with the acquisition of reading skills and strategies, the development of cognitive and linguistic skills, the influence of instruction, and the effects of cultural, motivational, and language variables. The present paper discusses how these interactions may occur, illustrates the complex nature of the interactions by describing three stages of acquisition, and suggests how the study of certain individual differences can help to disclose the essential characteristics of reading acquisition.
Learning to Read Words: Effects of Overlearning and Similarity on Stimulus Selection
Authors: Spring Cail , Gilbert Nancy , Sassenrath Julius
Published: December 2009

Kindergarten children needed more trials to learn a list of similar than dissimilar words but made fewer over-generalization errors on subsequent transfer tasks. A third group of children, trained on the dissimilar list, was given overlearning trials to make up for the additional training trials needed by the similar group. While the overlearning and similar groups did not differ on over-generalization errors, both made fewer errors than were made by the dissimilar group. The authors conclude that over-generalization errors fade with over-learning and should not unduly alarm teachers.
The Relative Merits of Item Transformations and the Cloze Procedure for the Measurement of Reading Comprehension
Authors: Berk Ronald A.
Published: December 2009

The relative merits and potential of item transformations and the cloze procedure are evaluated. The two strategies for assessing reading comprehension were reviewed in terms of three criteria: (1) the extent to which literal comprehension skills are validly measured; (2) the extent to which the issue of passage dependency is addressed; (3) utility for classroom teachers, reading specialists, and evaluators of reading programs. The analysis revealed that the cloze procedure offers several distinct advantages over six sentence-derived transformations. They include the assessment of both semantic and syntactic relationships, dependency on contextual clues, and ease of development, administration, and scoring. Both item generation methods were applicable to only content domains that could be decomposed into passages and sentences. Unfortunately, this limitation encompasses many of the functional skills and minimum competencies that are in the process of being measured in 38 states.
Word Mediation and Generalization in Beginning Readers
Authors: Schworm Ronald W.
Published: December 2009

It has been theorized that children learning to read identify, retain, and use regular spelling-to-sound vowel and consonant combinations to decode unknown words. Some research indicates that the use of letter combinations to mediate unknown words is developmental, and generated by reading experience. One hundred and seventy-seven first and second grade students were administered a reading achievement test and three spelling pattern tests of vowel combinations to determine if accelerated beginning readers learning to recognize words with and without formal instruction differ from average and low beginning readers in the kind and amount of grapheme-phoneme correspondences they can pronounce.

The data indicate that beginning readers with advanced word recognition skills may use different word mediation strategies, identify letter combinations that are rule related, and recognize spelling patterns that are defined as higher ordered correspondences. Previous method of instruction, age, and school did not influence test performance. Advanced readers at first and second grade induced more spelling patterns regardless of presentation. The study supports several contentions made by different theorists about how children learn to read, and specifically, endorses the position of Gibson (1971) that some form of perceptual learning occurs without intention and instruction as the child's reading experiences increase.
The Effect of Orthographic Anomalies upon Reading Behavior
Authors: Strange Michael
Published: December 2009

This investigation attempted to determine if the perceptual unit in reading was the letter or some other unit larger than the letter. Good readers in two grades read material changed to include particular types of orthographic anomalies. Subjects read seven passages. One passage contained no anomalies, the remaining six contained anomalies varying in degree and position. The dependent variable was the time necessary to read each passage.

The results indicated that fifth grade subjects read all passages less rapidly than sixth grade subjects. The results also indicated that anomalized passages were read less rapidly than non-anomalized passages and that anomalies in the final position were less disruptive than anomalies in the beginning and middle position. No differences were found when anomalies in the middle position were compared to anomalies in the beginning position or when major anomalies were compared to minor anomalies.

The results of the present study support a conclusion that word recognition while reading connected discourse is different from word recognition in isolation. The results also lend support for a left to right analysis of letter features within words until the word is identified, at which point the reader discards the unused letters.
Miscue Analysis: A Critical Review
Authors: Wixson Karen L.
Published: December 2009

Miscue analysis procedures are becoming increasingly popular for both research and evaluation purposes. Although there are no normative data available to guide the interpretation of a reader's oral reading miscues, there are a number of studies which may be used for this purpose. However the evidence also suggests that miscue patterns are subject to considerable variation as a function of a complex interaction among several factors including instructional method, the reader's background, skills, and purpose for reading, and the nature and content of the written material. The information reported to date suggests that both the assumptions underlying miscue analysis and the procedures used to analyze miscues require additional rigorous empirical explication and validation.
The Effect of Background Knowledge on Young Children's Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Information
Authors: Pearson P. David , Hansen Jane , Gordon Christine
Published: December 2009

To investigate the applicability of schema-theoretic notions to young children's comprehension of textually explicit and inferrable information, slightly above-average second grade readers with strong and weak schemata for knowledge about spiders read a passage about spiders and answered wh-questions tapping both explicitly stated information and knowledge that necessarily had to be inferred from the text. Main effects were found for strength of prior knowledge ( p < .01), and question type ( p < .01). Simple effects tests indicated a significant prior knowledge effect on the inferrable knowledge ( p < .025) but not on explicitly stated information. A follow-up study was conducted to verify the fact that the question type effect was not due to the chance allocation of inherently easier questions to one of the two question types. We found a reliable decrease in question difficulty attributable to cueing prepositional relations explicitly in the text ( p < .01). These data were interpreted as supporting and extending the arguments emerging from various “schema theories”.
Reading Speed and Memory for Prose
Authors: Dee-Lucas Diana
Published: December 2009

The effects of reading speed on the quantity and type of information recalled from text were investigated. Subjects read passages under payoff conditions emphasizing either fast reading or information retention. Free recalls were obtained and scored according to a proposition-based structural analysis of the text. Results indicate a trade-off between reading speed and information retention. Additionally, the information least likely to be extracted during slow reading is the information that is most susceptible to further recall decrement when reading is speeded up. Propositions best recalled tend to express case relationships; propositions recalled most poorly express descriptive relationships. There are no differences in the number of recall errors or general cohesiveness of the recalls of fast and slow readers, but fast readers are not as likely to pick up relations that are implicit in the text. The implications of these findings for the types of processing activities used by people reading quickly and slowly are discussed.
The Processing Strategies of average and below Average Readers Answering Factual and Inferential Questions on Three Equivalent Passages
Authors: Wilson Molly M.
Published: December 2009

This study examines the processing strategies of average and below average readers in response to factual and inferential questions. Thirty-six sixth and seventh grade students were given three equivalent passages of 1500 words to read. With each passage, Ss were given four factual and four inferential questions, placed as pre-questions, post-questions, or interspersed questions. The Ss, tested individually, answered the adjunct questions orally and were probed for explanations of their answers. The study concludes that average readers perform better than below average readers on inferential, but not on factual questions on two of the three passages. Ability to synthesize and organize a response, and sensitivity to the author's style and message are cited as plausible explanations for these results.
Fifth Grade Readers' Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Connective Propositions
Authors: Irwin Judith Westphal
Published: December 2009

Because many writers eliminate explicit connective words in order to reduce syntactic complexity and thereby increase comprehensibility, these studies were designed to investigate the effects of this elimination on reading comprehension. Sixty-four fifth graders of average reading ability each participated in one of two experiments. The explicitness of “because” in each of three experimental passages was manipulated in Experiment I by stating it explicitly in one version and implicitly in the other; in Experiment II, the explicitness of “after” was similarly manipulated. On the basis of current research in the area of discourse comprehension, it was predicted that the groups reading the passages in which the connectives were removed from the surface structure would recognize fewer of the connective concepts and recall fewer of the connected ideas than would the groups reading the passages in which the connective concepts were explicitly stated. The results indicated that the subjects did not generally comprehend the causal relationships regardless of their explicitness or implicitness and that they did generally comprehend the time-sequence relationships regardless of their explicitness or implicitness. Limited support was found for the hypothesis that the recall of a connective would be associated with a higher level of recall of the connected ideas.
Changes in the Use of Graphic and Contextual Information as Functions of Passage Difficulty and Reading Achievement Level
Authors: Biemiller Andrew
Published: December 2009

This paper presents results from a study of oral reading errors. The purpose of the study was to compare strategies of information use by readers of differing levels of reading achievement as they read passages of increasing difficulty. The study included 59 first graders from two different reading programs. Four passages were used ranging from preprimer to second grade levels. Achievement groups were formed on the basis of the most difficult passage a child could read without making more than 25% errors. Results indicated that with increasing passage difficulty, children made proportionately more non-response, and graphic substitution errors. On their most difficult passages, the most able readers made higher proportions of graphic errors than other children. These results are interpreted as indicating that when faced with increasingly difficult reading material (for their reading level), children increase their use of graphic information strategies. The results do not support the view that able readers make less use of graphic information than less able readers.
Eye Movement Dynamics of Good and Poor Readers: Then and Now
Authors: Lefton Lester A. , Nagle Richard J. , Johnson Gwendolyn , Fisher Dennis F.
Published: December 2009

While reading text, the eye movements of good and poor reading fifth graders, third graders and adults were assessed. Subjects were tested in two sessions one year apart. Dependent variables included the duration and frequency of forward going fixations and regressions; an analysis of individual differences was also made. Results showed that poor reading fifth graders have relatively unsystematic eye movement behavior with many more fixations of longer duration than other fifth graders and adults. The eye movements of poor readers are quantitatively and qualitatively different than those of normal readers.
An Improved Design for Examining the Importance of Context Dependence
Authors: Hanna Gerald S.
Published: December 2009

Few investigators have sought to determine, rather than merely to assume, the importance of context dependence. It is contended that those who have empirically studied the issue have not addressed the most appropriate research question. The rationale of a research design for estimating the importance of context dependence is presented. Two pilot studies are provided to illustrate the method of investigating the importance of context dependence and of comparing aspects of utility and validity of competing passage dependence indices.
Effects of Embedded Anomalies and Oral Reading Errors on Childen's Understanding of Stories
Authors: Nicholson Tom , Pearson P. David , Dykstra Robert
Published: December 2009

The basic question asked by this study was, “Do mistakes made while reading interfere with comprehension?” A secondary aim was to clarify the competing views of Gough (1972) who argues that the unskilled reader would not make hypotheses about what words in the text should be, and Goodman (1976a), who argues that the generation of tentative hypotheses about meaning is an inevitable part of the reading process. Three experiments were conducted. The first two were simulations in which skilled readers, about 9 years of age, read stories which varied according to embedded error type, difficulty, error rate, text access, and set strength. The third experiment was a naturalistic comparison study, using unskilled readers. Overall, the results offered support for both Gough and Goodman, depending on the kind of comprehension tested and the criterion for acceptability of responses. It seems that accuracy is necessary for atomistic precision; less so for global interpretation.
Comprehension Monitoring: Identifying and Coping with Text Confusions
Authors: Baker Linda
Published: December 2009

Comprehension monitoring was investigated by asking college students to read and answer probed recall questions about passages that contained intentionally introduced confusions. Subjects were then told that confusions had been present and were asked to describe them and comment on how they affected comprehension. Subjects failed to report a surprisingly large proportion of the confusions. Confusions involving main points were detected more frequently than those involving details and confusions of inconsistent information and unclear reference were more often reported than inappropriate connectives. Retrospective reports revealed that failures to report confusions were often not due to failures to monitor comprehension but rather to the use of repair stategies to resolve the potential problems.
Reading Comprehension Test Performance and Hierarchical Classification
Authors: Gillet Jean Wallace , Richards Herbert C.
Published: December 2009

Items from a widely used standardized reading achievement test were rated by trained judges according to the degree to which they required an understanding of hierarchical classification. 2 subtests were constructed from subsets of items that were identified by their extreme ratings: Subtest A was judged to require classification operations from respondents; Subtest B, not to require them. 22 third graders were assessed on 5 types of Piagetian classification tasks. After Guttman scaling, each was assigned a single score for classification ability. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that classification ability was significantly predictive of Subtest A performance, even when performance on Subtest B was controlled statistically. The results were interpreted to mean that reading test performance is partially influenced by one's mastery of hierarchical classification because some test items require this ability. Such items probably discriminate among children on the basis of developmental maturity rather than on instruction-related knowledge.
Phonological Recoding in Lexical Decision at Recognition Threshold
Authors: Bias Randolph G. , McCusker Leo X.
Published: December 2009

The phonological recoding model of lexical access was tested in two experiments. In Experiment 1, college students were presented words and nonwords at recognition threshold for lexical decision. Nonwords homophonous with real words (homophonous nonwords) and nonwords nonhomophonous with real words (nonhomophonous nonwords) were used. The phonological recoding model predicts more errors on homophonous nonwords as a result of false matches in the subjects' internal lexicons. Blocks of items with homophonous nonwords led to significantly poorer performance as measured by percent correct and d'. Experiment 2 was a replication of Experiment 1 with the addition of a spelling test to eliminate poor spellers. The d' measure again supported the phonological recoding model. These data were compared to those of Stanovich and Bauer (1978) which led to a conclusion against phonological recoding. This discrepancy was considered in light of the task differences, and the presence of a mask was thought to be important. The possible masking effect of successive fixations in reading was considered.
Utilization of Imposed Structure: The Impact of Reading Competence and Grade Level
Authors: Grabe Mark
Published: December 2009

Fourth and sixth grade students grouped as good or poor readers were asked to read a story from a certain perspective or with instructions to read carefully. The ability to take a perspective, as measured by skill in differentiating important material on a highlighting task or in reproducing it on a later recall test, was present in both age groups. Reading skill was found to produce significant differences on both types of dependent measures. Further analysis indicated that reading ability differences in recall were related to, but could not be totally accounted for, by the ability to identify important material. A model is proposed claiming that poor readers are too overburdened by lower level reading skills to engage in this type of cognitive processing.
Two Letter Discrimination Sequences: High-Confusion-Alternatives First versus Low-Confusion-Alternatives First
Authors: Carnine Douglas W.
Published: December 2009

The procedure of sequencing visual discriminations (the letters b, d, p, and q) in an easy to difficult progression was investigated. In a low-confusion-alternatives first sequence only one choice in an inital match-to-sample task was similar to the target letter. In a high-confusion-alternatives first sequence all the choices in the initial task were similar to the target letter. Twenty preschoolers were randomly assigned to either a low-confusion-alternatives first or a high-confusion-alternatives first group. The preschoolers who began with the low-confusions alternatives reached criterion on a subsequent successive match-to-sample task in significantly fewer trials, M = 31.0 versus 69.1.
Teacher Questioning: A Verification and an Extension
Authors: Hare Victoria Chou , Pulliam Cynthia A.
Published: December 2009

The state of the art of teacher questioning was explored in this study. Elementary school teachers' questions for selected passages were first analyzed using the question categories which Guszak had developed for his 1967 questioning study. This analysis suggested that teachers have not substantially changed their questioning practices in the last decade. Reanalysis of the same teachers' question-response sequences using Pearson and Johnson's (1978) taxonomy reveals a different pattern of results and raises an interesting line of inquiry regarding the validity of question taxonomies.
Size of Processing Unit during Reading and Retention of Prose by Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Martinez Patricia R. , Ghatala Elizabeth S. , Bell John A.
Published: December 2009

Seventh-grade good and poor readers read a story while performing one of three orienting tasks that induced semantic encoding of individual words, sentences, or short paragraphs. Other students (control) read the story normally. Idea units in the story had previously been rated for structural importance and recall of the idea units at each of four levels of importance was measured. Results indicated that for both types of readers, recall was positively related to level of importance, however, the relationship was stronger for good readers. The order of orienting task conditions was the same for both groups: sentence—paragraph—word. However, the positions of these conditions vis-a-vis the control was qualified by type of reader and level of importance. For good readers, the sentence task was equivalent to the control, the word task was inferior at all levels of importance and the paragraph task was slightly inferior at higher levels of importance. For poor readers, the sentence task facilitated and the word task depressed recall of important ideas while the paragraph task did not differ from the control at any level of importance. One important conclusion from the study is that comprehension and hence recall of poor readers can be enhanced by inducing them to process text in meaningful units.
The Use of Graphic and Contextual Information by Average and Below-Average Readers
Authors: Leslie Lauren
Published: December 2009

The use of graphic and contextual information by average and below-average readers was inferred by examining their oral reading miscues. It was hypothesized that inconsistent findings of previous studies comparing children of differing reading abilities were due to unequal miscue rates between the groups. The present study equated miscue rate of average and below-average readers and examined the effects of different miscue rates on the use of graphic and contextual information. Forty second-grade average readers and forty below-average readers in third to sixth grades read two selections of second grade readability. Three levels of miscues per hundred words which span the functional reading levels were examined: 1–5, 6–10, and 11–15. The results show that miscue rate effects the use of contextual information: miscues which are not syntactically correct increase as miscue rate increases, and miscues which are syntactically correct but change the author's meaning decrease as miscue rate increases. Below-average readers made proportionally more miscues which changed the author's meaning and showed greater dependence on graphic cues; a dependence which was unsuccessful in decoding unknown words. Average readers made proportionally more miscues which made no changes in the author's meaning. Instructional implications were discussed.
On the Acquisition of Reading Fluency
Authors: Schreiber Peter A.
Published: December 2009

The acquisition of reading fluency crucially involves the beginning reader's tacit recognition that s/he must learn to compensate for the absence of graphic signals corresponding to certain prosodie cues by making better use of the morphological and syntactic cues that are preserved. It is argued that the success of the method of repeated readings and similar reading instruction techniques results from the fact that these methods facilitate discovery of the appropriate syntactic phrasing in the written signal. It is suggested that the crucial step comes with the beginning reader's recognition that parsing strategies other than those which rely on prosody or its somewhat haphazard graphic analogues are required in order to read with sense.
Another Look at Secondary School Students' Attitudes toward Reading
Authors: Lewis Ramon , Teale William H.
Published: December 2009

Argues that secondary school students' attitudes toward reading may be conceptualized multi-dimensionally as consisting of Individual Development, Utilitarian, and Enjoyment factors. Describes the development of self-report scales designed to measure each of these dimensions of reading attitude. Factor analyses showed the dimensions to be distinguishable empirically one from the other. The three scales were found to be internally consistent (α = .69-.92) and stable (α = .72-.90). Concurrent validity data based on peer ratings are also provided. Implications for pedagogical and research issues arising from this conceptualization of attitude toward reading are also discussed.
Children'S Knowledge and Use of Organizational Patterns of Prose in Recalling What They Read
Authors: Elliott Stephen N.
Published: December 2009

This investigation focused on what sixth graders know about organizational features of prose and whether use of specific organizational patterns (top-level structures) facilitates written recall of expository prose. Students were given one of two versions of a well-organized passage of expository text; one version was written with an adversative top-level structure, the other with an attribution top-level structure. Students who read the adversative version recalled slightly more of the passage than students who read and recalled the attribution version. This difference in recall for the two versions was not statistically significant. What was important and also contributed to significantly greater recall was the students use of the top-level structures to organize their written recall. Students' knowledge and intentional use of organizational features of prose as mnemonic strategies are discussed.
Applying a Compare/Contrast Process to Identifying Polysyllabic Words
Authors: Cunningham Patricia M.
Published: December 2009

To investigate the theory that readers might mediate the identification of an unfamiliar-in-print word by comparing and contrasting that word to known words, a population of readers was identified who were able to correctly pronounce common one- and two-syllable words but unable to pronounce common polysyllabic words. From 117 fourth and fifth graders screened, forty subjects met the established criteria. Once randomly assigned, the 20 experimental subjects participated in 7 1/2 hours of instruction designed to (1) teach them a cognitive word store of polysyllabic words and (2) develop a mind set towards identifying an unfamiliar word by comparing and contrasting an unknown word to known words. Post-test measures administered to both experimental and control subjects indicated that experimental subjects correctly identified more untaught polysyllabic words in isolation (p < .05) and in context (p < .01) than did control subjects. It was concluded that, within stated limitations, the results supported the hypothesis that readers might identify an unfamiliar word by using an analogue or compare/contrast strategy.