bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Correspondence of Self-Concept Measures with Levels of Reading Achievement
Authors: Lund Paul A. , Ivanoff John M.
Published: December 2009

This investigation, utilizing 227 incoming college freshmen as subjects, was designed to determine differences in measured self-concept among college freshmen grouped by demonstrated reading ability, by sex, and by enrollment in a reading skills program. It was found that there were significant differences in measured self-concept between the various groups; the greatest differential being between those that did and those that did not enroll in a reading skills course.
The Effects of Different Types of Teaching Methods and Verbal Feedback on the Performance of Beginning Readers
Authors: Nelson Rosemery O.
Published: December 2009

Initial reading acquisition was taught to 64 kindergarten children for 11 weeks utilizing a two × two × four factorial design. The two antecedent conditions were the Lippincott (phonics — Ph) and Scott-Foresman (sight recognition — SR) Series. The two consequent conditions were positive verbal feedback following correct reading responses (R-N) and negative verbal feedback following incorrect reading responses (N-W). Four experimenter-teachers (ET) were used. Utilizing standardized tests of reading achievement, it was found that Ph produced a reading response of letter-sound combinations, whereas SR produced recognition of a limited number of words. There were no consistent differences for the variables of teacher, IQ, or sex.
Reading: A Potential Source of Academic Difficulty in Medical School
Authors: Ambrosino Robert J. , Brading Paul L. , Noval Lorraine K.
Published: December 2009

The assumption that students entering medical school have successfully developed adequate reading skills was tested empirically in a limited setting. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test was administered to 268 entering freshmen medical students at the Albany Medical College. Preliminary results indicated that this assumption was violated in an unexpected number of cases as evidenced by substandard performance on the test. Examination of student records revealed that deficiencies in reading skills may be contributing to academic failures in medical school. Further research in this area was encouraged not only to enhance student success but ultimately to improve the quality of medical education itself.
False Prerequisites in the Teaching of Reading
Authors: McNeil John D.
Published: December 2009

This study is an attempt to identify false pre-requisites to the task of reading aloud passages which are novel to the readers. Of 15 skills, generally considered pre-requisites for independence in recognizing and pronouncing written words, at least three skills were found to be false pre-requisites; four skills were identified as possibly necessary, but not sufficient; seven skills were associated with competency on the reading aloud task.
Transformational Phonology and Reading Acquisition
Authors: Simons Herbert D.
Published: December 2009

This study examined the hypothesis by Chomsky and Halle (1968) and C. Chomsky (1970) that English spelling corresponds to an underlying lexical level of representation rather than to a surface phonetic level, i.e., pronunciation. And that learning to read involves learning the spelling-lexical level correspondences. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the performance of 87 second and third grade Ss on a paired-associate and reading task composed of a morphologically related list of word pairs (REL), e.g., hide—hid and an unrelated (UNR) list of word pairs, e.g., pine—pin. Both sets of pairs exhibit vowel alternations but are stored differently in the internal lexicon. It was predicted that REL would be superior on the tasks to UNR for all Ss and that the difference would be greater for the better readers over poorer readers and the grade 3 Ss over the grade 2 Ss. A multivariate and univariate analysis of the difference scores between the REL and UNR lists on three criterion measures failed with one exception to confirm these predictions. This study did not offer much support for the predictions of transformational theory about reading acquisition.
Newfoundland Dialect Interference in Oral Reading
Authors: Walker Laurence
Published: December 2009

The hypothesis that dialect differences exert an interference effect in the acquisition of literacy skills remains unproven on the basis of research into the relationship between Black English and reading. Supplementary evidence was sought by studying the oral reading performance of grade three students in Newfoundland where a distinct dialect prevails. A comparison was made of oral reading performances of subjects reading Standard English material and equivalent material containing validated syntactic structures of the local dialect. Significant differences favouring the Standard English readings were revealed for three measures of oral reading proficiency so the interference hypothesis was not supported. The findings showed the language flexibility possessed by eight-year old dialect speakers and pointed to the research hazards of inferring written language ability on the basis of oral performances.
Sensory Integration Skills as Predictors of Reading Acquisition
Authors: Whiton Mary Beth , Singer David L. , Cook Harold
Published: December 2009

This research investigated the relative importance of auditory and visual intra-sensory, as compared with audiovisual cross-sensory integration skills for reading acquisition in first grade boys. Stimuli for the sensory integration tasks were presented both sequentially and simultaneously so that the effect of timing of presentation upon difficulty level of the tasks could also be studied.

Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that for each of the five reading subscores and for the Total score an audiovisual cross-sensory task emerged as the best single predictor. For two key reading measures (Word Attack subtest and Total Reading Score) cross-sensory integration scores were significantly better simple predictors than intra-sensory integration scores. Both cross-sensory and intra-sensory integration skills were significantly correlated with other reading scores.

Simultaneously and sequentially presented tasks did not differ significantly in their degree of correlation with reading measures; however, subjects' scores on the simultaneously presented tasks were significantly higher than on sequentially presented tasks for both intra- and cross-sensory modalities.
Revised Procedures for Developing Reading-Input Materials and Reading-Storage Tests
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

Reading-input and reading-storage are two new, completely objective techniques, useful for measuring certain aspects of reading. Reading-input is similar to the cloze technique. Reading-storage appears to provide a good measure of reading comprehension. Reading-input and reading-storage materials are produced from prose materials using algorithms. A revised algorithm is presented for preparing reading-input materials which is easier to implement than the earlier version. A new algorithm is also presented for preparing reading-storage tests. This new algorithm produces a test quite different from that of its forerunner, and one much easier to implement. These two new techniques are compared to the multiple-choice and cloze techniques and found to encompass most of their advantages while compensating for most of their disadvantages.
Textual Organization, Advance Organizers and the Retention of Prose Material
Authors: Schumacher Gary M. , Liebert Dale , Fass Warren
Published: December 2009

In order to study the interaction of passage structure and advance organizers a prose passage containing information about 6 obscure American Presidents was presented to 144 college students either in 1 long paragraph or 6 separate paragraphs. Half of the subjects in each condition were given an advance organizer describing the passage organization and half were not. Contrary to expectation, subjects given a passage with neither paragraph cues nor an advance organizer recalled better than subjects given paragraph cues but no advance organizer. Subjects given advance organizers were intermediate regardless of paragraph structure. Results were interpreted from an activity or levels of processing position.
Hierarchical Organization of Reading Subskills: Statistical Approaches
Authors: Stennett R. G. , Smythe P. C. , Hardy Madeline
Published: December 2009

This article describes a number of alternate methodological solutions to the problem of isolating reading subskills and establishing the nature of their hierarchical organization. The authors briefly review and evaluate Stepwise Multiple Regression, Factor Analysis, Cluster Analysis, Scaling Methods, Analysis of Variance and Transfer Designs, as potential tools in research on the hierarchical organization of reading subskills. With the exception of transfer-type experimental designs, none of the approaches seems satisfactory, the authors conclude.
Relationship among Reading Subskills: A Hierarchical Hypothesis
Authors: Filp Johanna
Published: December 2009

A set of 6 grapheme-morpheme correspondence skills measured by the Kennedy Institute Phonics Test (KIPT) (Guthrie, 1973) was tested for goodness of fit to the Quasi-Markov Simplex model for hierarchical structures among variables (Joreskog, 1970). The hierarchical order from simple to complex was hypothesized to be: single letter production, initial letter recognition, consonant-cluster recognition, nonsense word recognition, consonant-cluster production, nonsense word production. The correlation matrices for these variables reported by Guthrie (1973) for normal and slow readers respectively, were tested for goodness of fit to the hierarchical model by means of the maximum likelihood estimation method proposed by Joreskog (1970). The Ss were 7 year old children ( N = 19) and 9 year old children ( N = 19), both reading at the grade 2 level. The null hypothesis of no difference between observed and estimated variance-covariance structure was not rejected for normal or slow readers using the chi-square statistic ( p = .073 and p =.132, respectively) or the Mann-Whitney U test (.05 < p < .10 for normal readers, p = .10 for slow readers). The implications of a hierarchical model of reading subskills for planning reading instruction in the beginning stages were discussed.
Manipulation of Attention during Reading Using Programmed Prose
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

Programmed prose, a new technique similar in some ways to the cloze technique, was investigated as a method for manipulating attention during reading. It was anticipated that programmed prose would act to increase attention in low motivation conditions, where attention would be expected to wane, and thereby facilitate learning. It was also expected that programmed prose would act as a distractor under high motivation conditions, where attention would not be expected to wane, and thereby inhibit learning. Fifty-eight college students were presented a 1720 word passage to read. Two groups received the passage in a regular prose format. One of these groups was told they would be paid on the basis of how well they did on the retention test. Two other groups received the passage in a programmed prose format. One of these two groups was also told that they would be paid on the basis of how well they did on the retention test. The programmed prose facilitated learning under the low motivation conditions and inhibited learning under the high motivation condition, as had been anticipated.
The Seer Technique: A Non-Computational Procedure for Quickly Estimating Readability Level
Authors: Singer Harry
Published: December 2009

A sample-methods scales technique, analogous to Thomdike's procedure for rating handwriting, was used to determine readability levels of eight randomly arrayed paragraphs selected from children's literature covering the range from grades 1 through 6. Readability levels were arrived at by having judges match the randomly arrayed paragraphs either to a scale constructed for the study from paragraphs taken from children's literature or to a scale of paragraphs taken from Spache's Diagnostic Reading Scales. Validity of the technique was established by the chi-square finding that judged versus computed readability levels of the randomly arrayed paragraphs were not significantly different. Moreover, the average readability estimates for the 32 judges deviated less than an average of 1.0 grade levels from their computed readability levels. Comparisons with other simplified readability procedures revealed the technique was more valid than McLaughlin's computational procedure and as valid as Fry's graphed estimate for determining readability, but quicker, requiring approximately only two minutes per paragraph to estimate readability level. The paper concludes with discussion of a rationale for the technique's effectiveness.
A Qualitative Analysis of Oral Reading Errors of Reflective and Impulsive Second Graders: A Follow-Up Study
Authors: Hood Joyce , Kendall Janet Ross
Published: December 2009

This study investigates differences between reflective (REF) and impulsive (IMP) second-graders in number and category of oral reading errors and their correction. Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures test (MFF) was employed in selecting extreme groups of 25 REF and 25 IMP Ss from all 166 second-graders in one midwestern city using the same second-grade basal reader for reading instruction. The Ss' oral reading and their answers to questions over two stories (of second- and third-grade readability levels) were audio-tape-recorded. Five scorers were trained to code the oral reading errors. The scores for each error category were based on the combined stories, and were means of the errors coded by the five scorers. Reliabilities of error scores ranged from .84 to .99. Results indicate: (a) more REF than IMP Ss with low error scores but insignificant differences in mean number of errors, (b) proportionately more graphically similar errors for REF than for IMP Ss but no significant differences in any other category, (c) more corrections by REF Ss overall and within the categories of graphically dissimilar errors and errors appropriate to the preceding but not the following context, (d) no significant differences between REF and IMP Ss in number of repetitions, rate of reading, nor in comprehension scores.
Perceptual Span of Poor Readers
Authors: Spring Carl , Farmer Robert
Published: December 2009

A model is described attributing narrow perceptual spans of poor readers to abnormally slow phonological coding speed. In a test of the model with elementary-age school boys, (1) poor readers were slower than average readers on a digit naming task; (2) perceptual span for random digits was impaired for poor readers; (3) a linear relation was found between perceptual span and naming speed; and (4) within the limits of reliability, perceptual span and naming speed accounted for the same portion of reading ability variance. Discrepant results are also presented, and possible modifications of the model are discussed.
Alternative Interpretations of Evidence for Phonemic Recoding in Visual Word Recognition
Authors: Fleming James T.
Published: December 2009

Two groups of 35 paid graduate students were presented nonsense words grouped as (a) orthographically and phonologically illegal and unpronounceable; (b) orthographically and pronologically illegal and pronounceable; and (c) orthographically and phonologically legal. The first group was directed to rate each item for pronounceability. The second group was to guess what each word was before it had been slightly distorted. The results of the first group's ratings appear to indicate that there may be alternatives to a phonemic recoding explanation. The second study indicates that a graphemic encoding explanation may be more appropriate. This study concludes that the coding processes employed may be contingent upon the tasks required in varying situations.
Cognitive Structure Variables in Prose Learning
Authors: Jenkins Joseph R. , Bausell R. Barker
Published: December 2009

Four experiments were performed to determine the relationship between knowledge of meanings for key terms and the acquisition of information from prose. In Experiment I knowledge of meanings significantly influenced prose learning. Control group performance indicated that meaning knowledge did not independently influence test performance. In Experiment II with different materials the same factor, knowledge of meaning, did not facilitate learning from prose as measured by a verbatim-type test. A conceptual measure, however, revealed a facilitative effect attributed to meaning knowledge. Differences in the results of the two experiments are discussed. Experiments III and IV were designed to investigate the discrepancies from the first experiments. Neither the number of unfamiliar key terms nor the ratio of terms to prose, but the ratio of terms to related discussion was a factor which interacted with knowledge of meanings in its effect on learning from prose.
A Second Look at the Validityl of Readability Formulas
Authors: Klare George R.
Published: December 2009

In this paper major factors interacting with readability measures in validity studies are identified and described. The basis for the analysis presented are thirty-six experimental studies of the effect of readability variables upon reader comprehension and/or retention. Emphasis is placed on the interacting nature of the factors involved.
Visual Rhythms: Report on a Method for Facilitating the Teaching of Reading
Authors: Martin James G. , Meltzer Richard H.
Published: December 2009

Sentences were prepared such that they appeared on a TV screen with each syllable timed, syllable-by-syllable, as though it were spoken. This was accomplished by synchronizing the onset timing of each syllable as it appeared on the screen with the onset timing of the same syllable as it was heard through the speaker. The result was a sentence which “grew” left-to-right across the screen and which could be presented either visually by itself or in combination with its auditory counterpart. Primary-school children were exposed in training sessions to these sentences in “visual rhythm.” Their pre-to-post-experimental change in reading fluency was compared with that of other children in a control condition whose training was the same except that the sentences they saw were not rhythmic, but static. Positive results encouraged the discussion and rationale for further applications of the method.
The Use of Varying High-Confusion versus Low-Confusion Sequences to Teach Letter Discrimination
Authors: Nelson Rosemery O. , Wein Kenneth S.
Published: December 2009

Within Gibson's framework of teaching children to discriminate the distinctive features of letters, 28 preschool children were trained in letter discrimination using three different types of matching-to-sample alternatives: (1) high-confusion alternatives; (2) low-confusion alternatives; or (3) a sequence of low-, middle-, and high-confusion alternatives. On posttest 1, given after a criterion of two consecutive errorless training days, only the high-confusion and sequence groups significantly improved over their pretest scores as compared with the no-treatment control group. On posttest 2, however, given after a standard number of 20 training days, the performance of all three training groups, including low-confusion, was superior to the control group; no differences were found among the three training groups. The implications of these and other findings for letter discrimination training were discussed.
Overgeneralization in Learning to Read
Authors: Mason Jana M.
Published: December 2009

An acquisition model of decoding is proposed to explain the kinds of errors children make as they try to read. The model is based on data gathered from pronunciation errors of words presented in isolation. An analysis of the errors reveals that the kinds of errors made vary with reading competency. Less able readers make errors that appear to reflect reliance on a one-to-one correspondence between single letters and their sounds. More able readers make errors that suggest an understanding of letter-cluster-to-sound rules. The less able readers rely on less effective rules than do the more able readers. Differential understanding of the structure of letter-to-sound correspondences, particularly of vowel to sound patterns, is proposed to be the primary source of disparity in reading performance among beginning readers.
Color as an Attentional Cue in Discrimination Learning
Authors: Allington Richard L.
Published: December 2009

Previous studies have shown that while multiple hue color cues can have a facilitative effect on initial learning, they can produce negative effects on a non-cued criterion task. The present study was designed to determine if single hue color cues could facilitate initial learning without being disruptive at transfer. Manipulations involved condition of availability of these cues. 102 S's, in three treatment groups were presented with a learning sequence. Availability was varied in no color, maximum color, and vanished color conditions. Achievement was measured on three tasks, visual memory, visual discrimination, and a paried-associate task. Results indicated that vanished single hue color cues can facilitate learning without interference.
Word Length, Prose Difficulty, and Reading Rate
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

In Study 1, the functional relationship between word length and passage difficulty was determined to be linear from Grade 1 to Grade 17 difficulty levels. A total of 360 passages were studied; the passages were sampled from curriculum materials used in all school levels ranging from Grade 1 to graduate school. Average word length was measured in both character spaces per word and letters per word. The newly developed Rauding Scale was used to estimate passage difficulty. In Study 2, the reading rate of college students was found to decrease from about 315 to 200 words per min. as difficulty increased from about Grade 2 to about Grade 17. However, when measured in standard length words per min. reading rate was approximately constant at about 250–260 words per min. as difficulty increased from about Grade 5 to about Grade 14. These data were interpreted as providing no support for certain current theory relating redundancy to reading rate and eye movements.
Some Conditions Surrounding the Effectiveness of Advance Organizers for Children's Retention of Orally Presented Prose
Authors: Christie Daniel J. , Schumacher Gary M.
Published: December 2009

The study was designed to (a) isolate some of the conditions under which advance organizers facilitate the retention of prose, and (b) identify processes children employ when preparing to recall prose. First and fourth grade children either received or did not receive an advance organizer prior to the presentation of a passage. The passage was difficult to comprehend without knowledge of the advance organizer and contained an equal number of sentences which were relevant and irrelevant to the main theme of the story. Results showed that older children who did not receive the advance organizer actively generated their own advance organizer at an earlier sentence during passage presentation than younger children. Additionally, older children who did not receive the advance organizer recalled a greater amount of relevant than irrelevant thematic information. Hence, two factors must be taken into account in order to assess accurately the relationship between advance organizers and children's recall of prose: the possibility that children generate their own thematic structure or advance organizer for a passage and the effect of advance organizers on the recall of relevant versus irrelevant thematic information.
Dimensional Dominance Hierarchies and the Matching of Letters and Words
Authors: May Richard B. , Oliver Peter B. , Fernandez Don
Published: December 2009

Dimensional dominance was assessed by having kindergarten children make similarities judgments about geometric figures varying in form, color, and size. Children who were classified as form dominant performed better than children who were not form dominant when given a test of letter matching ability in Experiment 1 and in repeated tests of word matching ability in Experiment 2. Data from the retest in Experiment 2 supported the hypothesis that dimensional dominance progresses from color dominance to form dominance, and then to mixed responding.
Causal Priorities between Comprehension Subskills: Word Meaning and Paragraph Meaning
Authors: Arlin Marshall
Published: December 2009

Causal priorities between word meaning ability and paragraph meaning ability were examined in three types of readers across a period of nine months. Subjects were 180 pupils in grades 7 and 8. They were categorized by relative performance in word and paragraph meaning into three groups (n = 60 each) defined as “balanced”, “word dominant” and “paragraph dominant”. Cross-lagged correlation analysis supported the causal priority of word meaning in balanced and word dominant readers and a different pattern in the paragraph dominant readers. For most readers, the conventional wisdom hypothesis of word meanings as building blocks of paragraph meaning received empirical support.
Contextual Information and Prose Comprehension
Authors: Sherman Jay L.
Published: December 2009

One hundred forty-four high school students read four 70-word passages describing fictitious scenes. A partial or complete, verbal or graphic context was presented before or after each passage. The retention measures were total words recalled, idea units correctly recalled, and number of high-thematic intrusions produced. In all cases, subjects receiving graphic contexts recalled more than those receiving verbal contexts. Recall was greated for concrete passages than for abstract passages. Thus, contextual information was shown to have facilitative effects on comprehension and retention of prose material. Also, the degree to which recall was facilitated varied as a function of the type of contextual information provided.
Criterion-Referenced Reading Assessment in a Large City School District
Authors: Olson Margot A.
Published: December 2009

The test-development process used to develop criterion-referenced tests in reading for a large-city school district's system-wide testing program is described. Two types of instruments were developed: (a) a measure of students' ability to read textbooks at their assigned grade levels and (b) tests of enabling skills emphasized in the basal reading program. Item construction and selection techniques are described as well as the strategy underlying the use of the two types of tests. The paper is especially relevant to situations where criterion-referenced testing is applied outside the context of instructional development models.
The Effect of Specificity of Reading Purposes on Children's Reading Achievement
Authors: Jones Margaret B.
Published: December 2009

The effect of establishing purposes for reading upon reading comprehension was investigated. It was predicted that children's comprehension of prose material would be higher when purposes for reading were more precisely defined than simply asking children to read in order to be able to answer questions. This investigation attempted to replicate aspects of an earlier study (Rothkopf & Kaplan, 1972) and to extend other aspects of that study. Learning of intentional and incidental information was compared when purpose setting directions for reading were varied as to specificity. Children identified as reading at, above, or below the sixth grade level were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: “specific directions” which focused on single facts; “general directions” which focused on two or more facts; or a “read to be tested direction” which simply told children to read because they would be tested. Findings were: (a) significant differences in the performance of those reading at, above, and below grade level; (b) neither specific nor general reading directions appeared to affect performance; (c) purpose setting directions served to discriminate between intentional and incidental information only for above grade level readers.
Reading Skill and Memory for Spoken and Written Discourse
Authors: Berger Natalie S. , Perfetti Charles A.
Published: December 2009

One aspect of the relationship between reading comprehension and language comprehension was investigated through the comparison of listening and reading for two memory tasks differing in the extent to which organization appears to be required. Fifth grade children matched on IQ but representing two levels of reading achievement heard and read passages and were tested by literal questions and paraphrase recall. Performance of the skilled readers exceeded that of less-skilled readers by equal amounts for reading and listening and by equal amounts for paraphrase recall and literal question answering. The results suggest (a) that reading comprehension and listening comprehension depend on the same general language processing skills and that (b) localized processing skills, i.e., encoding more immediate language units, rather than global organizational skills, i.e., organizing and integrating larger language units into meaningful relationships, are a major source of individual differences in language processing.
Strategic Processes in Beginning Reading
Authors: Schwartz Robert M.
Published: December 2009

A presentation is given of a strategic-process perspective on the development of reading skills. The approach integrates reading research with developmental findings in cognitive psychology (Brown, 1975). An explication of the main concepts of the system is provided along with re-interpretation of a variety of reading research. Analysis of strategic demands and the factors affecting strategic behavior yield a framework for conceptualizing the development of reading fluency. Implications of this approach are suggested for the subskills analysis of reading processes, remediation procedures and beginning instruction.
Normal and Disabled Readers Can Locate and Identify Letters: Where's the Perceptual Deficit?
Authors: Fisher Dennis F. , Frankfurter Anthony
Published: December 2009

In a backward masking letter identification and localization task, performance of children with reading disabilities was compared to that of normal readers matched for age and reading level. On all measures, the performance of the disabled reader group was superior to that of the control groups. This included: correct identification, correct localization, absolute number correct and fewer intrusions. The data are interpreted as indicating that previous hypotheses about visual perceptual difficulties are inadequate in explaining reading disabilities. Alternatively, it is suggested that a reorientation of remedial techniques should be implemented. These should include phonics and graphemic to phonemic encoding, both of which compensate for losses in higher order verbal cognitive processing ability.
Reading Cue Utilization by Low-Achieving College Freshmen
Authors: Otto Jean
Published: December 2009

Recent research has questioned the role of graphic analysis (decoding) in reading. In this study the utilization of graphic cues by low-achieving college freshmen is described in its relationship to syntactic and semantic factors. Cue utilization was evidenced by varying probabilities of correcting word substitutes across levels of these three dimensions. The results indicate that use of graphics is associated with syntactic and semantic characteristics of the substitutes. There was also evidence that use of graphic and grammatical cues varies with difficulty of the passage. These results confirm multiple use of linguistic cues as described by Goodman.
Ease of Comprehension of Standard and Readable Automobile Insurance Policies as a Function of Reading Ability
Authors: Kincaid J. Peter , Gamble Louis G.
Published: December 2009

Standard automobile policies which are hard to understand were compared with passages from the new readable policies. Passages were selected from policies issued by two major insurance companies. Comprehension of the passages was tested using the cloze procedure. One hundred and fifty college and high school students were divided into three reading ability groups using the comprehension section of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, Form F. The best readers could understand all passages [according to a thirty-five percent score on the cloze test). The average readers could understand the readable but not the standard passages. The poor readers could not understand any of the passages. All groups did better with the readable passages than with the standard passages.
A Measure of Student Attitude toward Reading and Self as Reader — A Summary Report
Authors: Waller Michael I. , Trismen Donald A. , Wilder Gita
Published: December 2009

Reports on the relationship among attitude towards reading, participation in compensatory reading programs and reading achievement. Results of a massive descriptive and analytic study of compensatory reading programs in grades two, four and six in U.S. public schools are summarized. The development of attitude scales is described. Overall, students in compensatory programs showed greater attitude gains than students not participating in such programs, even though in many cases the opposite was true for gains in reading achievement.
Validating Criterion-Referenced Reading Tests
Authors: Sheehan Daniel S. , Marcus Mary
Published: December 2009

Validation is an important step in the developmental process of any reading test. Yet traditional approaches to reliability and validity assessment are not relevant for criterion-referenced reading tests. A more relevant approach defines reliability in terms of the consistency of decision-making across repeated test administrations and validity in terms of the accuracy of decision-making between an administration of a reading test and an administration of a criterion measure. A technique for measuring this type of reliability and validity is described in this paper along with an example of how it was used with a criterion-referenced reading battery.
Chinese Ideograms as Intermediaries to Reading
Authors: Nelson T. M. , Ladan C. J.
Published: December 2009

Chinese characters presented tachistoscopically to young readers of minimal reading ability and to young readers of better ability produce reliable differences in recognition thresholds in favor of the good readers. Simultaneous presentations of compared characters also reduces perceptual thresholds as compared to successive presentation with minimal readers being inferior to good readers on the successive task. Chinese characters have been used as intermediaries in reading and improved performance attributed to the fact that the Chinese characters are related to words as units rather than to phonemic elements as in the Roman alphabet. However, since visual factors also appear to be involved in recognition of Chinese characters in a manner distinguishing between minimal and good young readers, absence of phonemic word structure may not be responsible for the improvement arising from substitution of the Chinese for Roman script.
Readability Parameters of Basal Readers
Authors: Bradley John M. , Ames Wilbur S.
Published: December 2009

Using the Fry Readability Graph, parameter readability values were (a) obtained for the 21 reader, and the 4th reader of one basal series; (b) obtained from the 31 readers of three basal series; (c) obtained for stories or selections drawn randomly from the readers studied; (d) compared with the readability values of randomly drawn sample sets of varying sizes. Results showed (a) substantial [at least seven grade levels) intrabook readability variation; (b) agreement between Fry book parameter means and book grade designations for all books studied except one; (c) substantial intrabook story differences in average readability and readability variation; (d) no pattern of intrabook story difficulty; (e) a set of 24 samples necessary to adequately predict book parameter readability values.
Effects on Prose Learning of Frequency of Adjunct Cues and the Difficulty of the Material Cued
Authors: Bausell R. Barker , Jenkins Joseph R.
Published: December 2009

The extent to which underlining as an adjunct study aid influenced recall was investigated. Subjects were 64 tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students and 61 college sophomores assigned to one of 5 conditions. The 5 conditions varied on amount of underlining and difficulty of material underlined. For each condition, exposure time was held constant. No significant differences among groups were found. The data indicate that, with time held constant, underlining is of limited value and may only manipulate which parts of a passage may be learned at the expense of other parts.
Cross Modal Functioning and Reading Achievement
Authors: Derevensky Jeffrey L.
Published: December 2009

The relationship between cross modal functioning and reading achievement was examined. A review of the literature supports the contention that sensory integration and cross modal functioning appears to be related to reading achievement. The degree of this relationship was found to be highly dependent upon the child's developmental level, sex, socio-economic background, and the task requirements. Inconsistencies in results were often a function of differences in methodology and instrumentation. The available hypotheses concerning intersensory functioning and their concomitant educational implications are discussed.
Words and Pictures: A Test of Samuel's Findings
Authors: Montare Alberto , Elman Elaine , Cohen Joanne
Published: December 2009

This work is concerned with a study of the graphemic-phonemic associations formed during beginning reading responses and with the heuristic value of viewing the formation of such associations as a classical conditioning process. The study consists of two experiments designed as replication and extension of earlier work done by Samuels (1967). S's drawn from grades one and three were tested with a range of picture/no-picture-word association tasks.

Experiment I concludes that Samuels' 1967 study was not a test of attentional processes and was not a proper test of whether pictures act as distractors. However, within the visual modality, pictorial representations of extraneous objects may have distracting effects upon reading responses to specific words. Experiment II results suggest that in 1st and 3rd grades there are no significant differences in acquisition of reading responses to printed words between groups that have learned with pictures present and those that have learned in the absence of pictures. Concluding observations are made regarding limitations of the Samuels 1967 design.
Sample Frequency in Application of Dale-Chall Readability Formula
Authors: Burkhead Marie , Ulferts Greg
Published: December 2009

Using 48 college texts, comparisons were made of Dale-Chall Readability Formula results based on samples taken from various page intervals. Results indicate that for the 48 textbooks examined, samples taken at 20, 30, 40, and 50-page intervals are as reliable as samples taken from 10 page intervals.
The Relationship of Reading Comprehension to Written Production of Transformationally Lengthened Prose
Authors: Evans Ronald V.
Published: December 2009

No studies have investigated whether the writing of certain transformations can predict comprehension of prose written in them. In studying this possibility, 90 subjects, 30 from each grade level, were asked to read three major prose forms, each written in three transformed versions, and to respond to each immediately on Cloze tests. Every subject also rewrote a simple sentence paragraph using his own sentence combining techniques. The Cloze test scores were then compared to sentence-lengthening criteria in a multiple regression analysis. Cloze tests did not satisfactorily predict sentence length. Yet there was strong evidence to suggest that Cloze tests are less valid measures of advanced reading comprehension and that the higher Cloze scores predicted lower sentence-lengthening criteria.
Learning Concepts from Contexts and Definitions
Authors: Crist Robert L. , Petrone Joseph M.
Published: December 2009

Two groups of college students learned the meanings of 15 unfamiliar words. One group (N=35) learned them through the pairing of word and definition; the second group (N=35) learned them through analysis of each word as it appeared in one-sentence contexts. Two posttests were given both groups. One posttest consisted of one-sentence contexts similar to those seen by the context group. The second test consisted of the definitions seen only during training by the definition group. On the context posttest the group that had seen only contexts did significantly better than the group that had seen the definitions (p < .01). On the definitions-only test there was no difference. The results indicate the conceptual meanings of the words were best acquired through an analysis of contexts.
Pictures and Young children's Prose Learning: A Supplementary Report
Authors: Lesgold Alan M. , De Good Hildrene , Levin Joel R.
Published: December 2009

Facilitative effects of illustration activity on prose learning have been previously established for young (first grade) children in a listening task. The present study tested for illustration effects with passages of varying complexity and length. Positive effects were found for long and short passages (100 vs. 50 words) that were either simple (one locational setting) or complex (two settings). The pattern of results for cued and free recall suggested that illustration facilitates individual sentence comprehension more than passage integration for these children. Analysis of subject-constructed illustrations showed a clear relationship between illustration content and passage recall.
Effects of Rule-Consistent Examples in Learning Letter-Sound Correspondences
Authors: Surber John R. , Mason Jana M.
Published: December 2009

Groups of preschool children receiving either whole word instruction or letter-sound instruction were taught a vowel cluster-to-sound decoding rule. Half of each group learned to recognize (read) a list of words which followed the rule while the other half learned words which contained the vowel but did not obey the rule. Those who were trained with the rule-bound list transferred the rule to a new set of words which followed the rule while those trained with the inconsistent list did not transfer the rule to the new list. An interaction between letter instruction and the rule-bound example treatment for the vowel transfer measure indicated a limited effect of instruction.
Modal Preferences and Strengths: Implications for Reading Research
Authors: Derevensky Jeffrey L.
Published: December 2009

In recent years, much research has been engendered concerning sensory modality functioning and its relationship to the reading process. The approaches to studying sensory modality preferences and its relationship to individual learning patterns have been numerous. The present review is designed to integrate the research findings on modal preferences, to attempt to arrive at some reasonably sound principles through a systematic synthesis of the literature, and to suggest some areas in need of further research.
Sense and Nonsense about Generalizing to a Language Population
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

Certain researchers have been advocating the use of special research designs so as to be able to apply tests of statistical significance when attempting to generalize beyond the particular language samples used in an experiment. It makes a great deal of sense to attempt to design research so as to be able to generalize beyond the particular reading passages used in an experiment but the suggestion that tests of statistical significance are a necessary part of making valid generalizations is nonsense. The nonsensical aspects of the “generalizing to a language population” position are discussed in detail and illustrated by reference to a particular reading research study. An important, but usually unnoticed, form of replication is also discussed.
Influence of Topic Interest on Children's Reading Comprehension
Authors: Asher Steven R. , Hymel Shelley , Wigfield Allan
Published: December 2009

Previous research indicates that children comprehend more of high-than low-interest material when each child is given a mixture of both types of material. This effect could be due to a contrast effect whereby children selectively respond to the more appealing topics in their set of passages. In the present study fifth grade children each received either all high-interest cloze passages or all low-interest cloze passages but not both. Children's cloze responses were scored by the exact replacement method and by a method which included synonyms as correct. Results were that children comprehended more of high- than low-interest material, indicating that the interest effect is not dependent on a contrast phenomenon. Synonym production data indicated that high-achieving children generated more synonyms than low-achieving children and that boys produced more synonyms than girls. Thus, scoring synonyms as correct appears to have informational value.
Learning Style and other Correlates of Performance on a Scanning Experiment
Authors: Maxwell Martha
Published: December 2009

20 high school students were administered an 80-trial scanning experiment which involved locating and responding to target phrases randomly embedded in a page of connected prose discourse. Both fast and slow scanners significantly improved their speed of scanning during the experiment, but the gains attained by S's who were initially faster scanners were greater. Speed of scanning on the initial trials correlated with Smith's Impulsivity Scores (.65) and Skimming and Scanning scores on the Reading Versatility Test. S's scores at the conclusion of the experiment were significantly correlated with Reading Versatility sub-scores and Nelson-Denny Rate and Vocabulary Scores.
Cognition and Instruction of Poor Readers
Authors: Guthrie John T. , Tyler S. Jane
Published: December 2009

Literature on deficiencies of poor readers is reviewed and criticized. Based on studies of oral reading errors and instructional effects, the major problem for beginning readers is learning to decode printed words to oral language accurately. Low decoding accuracy persists into secondary school and is derived mainly from inadequate early development of auditory and phonological skills. Poor readers older than about 8 were found to be inferior to good readers in: 1) decoding accuracy, 2) decoding speed, 3) perception of orthographic regularity, 4) segmenting sentences and paragraphs sematically, and 5) constructing meaning at sentence and paragraph levels. Optimal teaching for poor readers should include a substantial commitment of time to directed, well-integrated instruction aimed toward improving all cognitive deficiencies related to reading. Instructional principles should be adapted differently to poor readers at primary and intermediate levels.
Linking-Media Syntax in Children's Sentence Comprehension
Authors: Nix Don
Published: December 2009

Sentence comprehension can not adequately be characterized in terms of syntactic features alone, even when considering young children's comprehension, and only simple, easily comprehended sentences. The current study describes a means of characterizing one of many semantic aspects of comprehension (referred to as “Necessity for Linking”). This semantic aspect is then used to experimentally clarify sentence processing results that are ambiguous at the syntactic level.