bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Relationship of Eyemovement Measures to Psychomotor Skills and other Elemental Skills Involved in Learning to Read
Authors: Stennett R. G. , Smythe P. C. , Pinkney June , Fairbairn Ada
Published: December 2009

The results of the three studies reported indicate that a measure of simple oculomotor skill, relatively uncomplicated by cognitive and motivational factors, can be obtained by photographing Ss' eyemovements as they read digits with a set for speed. This simple oculomotor skill is apparently well developed in students who are beginning reading instruction.

Simple psychomotor tests probably cannot be used as substitutes for direct eyemovement measures and neither such tests nor measures of simple oculomotor skill relate very well to several measures of the elemental sub-skills involved in learning to read.

Efficient eyemovement behavior during reading is primarily a result rather than a cause of good reading. Studies which attempt to isolate the key skills explaining the variability in children's success in beginning reading can, therefore, safely ignore measures of eyemovement.
Relations between Teachers' Ratings of Abnormal Motor Behavior in Poor Readers and Performance on a Reaction-Time Test
Authors: Spring Carl , Greenberg Lawrence
Published: December 2009

Poor readers, 7 to 12 years old with normal intelligence, were rated by their teachers on a fifteen-item inventory of abnormal motor behavior. Three rotated factors, obtained from factor analysis of the ratings, were interpreted as an Activity-Level Factor, an Attention-Span Factor, and a Motor-Coordination Factor. The children had previously been given a reaction-time test. Reaction-times, which were unusually slow for the poor readers, were significantly correlated with scores on the Motor-Coordination Factor. Reminiscence scores from the reaction-time test, which were unusually large for the poor readers, were significantly correlated with scores on the Attention-Span Factor. Neither reaction-time nor reminiscence scores were related to the Activity-Level Factor. An interpretation of “hyperactivity,” and an explanation of the high incidence of motor-coordination problems in poor readers are proposed.
A Comparative Study of Three Beginning Reading Programs for the Spanish-Speaking Child
Authors: Wooden Sharon Lee , Pettibone Timothy J.
Published: December 2009

Teaching reading skills to first grade students who primarily speak Spanish poses some special problems.

This study utilized 24 classrooms involving 522 students. Three methods were used to investigate 18 independent variables which in a broad sense covered the areas of primary mental abilities, primary reading profiles, and Hawthorne concepts-symbolization tests.

The results, in part, stress the importance of careful diagnosis for each child. Working with such related skills as listening comprehension, spatial relations, and auditory association, the overall effectiveness of reading programs may be increased significantly.
Categorization of Paradigmatic Syntagmatic Oral Responses
Authors: Dinnan James A.
Published: December 2009

Research reports using a variable of paradigmatic or syntagmatic oral responses have been reported over a ten-year period. To date there has been no serious attempt to assess the base data that might account for these two different types of productions.

Paradigmatic responses are traced, in this report, to a formal structure of Units, Relations, Classes, and Systems products of the intellect.

Syntagmatic responses are traced to the base reference used by the subject to produce his response to the stimulus. These base references are reported as reference to a cloze response, or a response dealing with the structure of oral language.

The response data used for this analysis were collected from subjects ranging from 3 years of age to 63 years of age. Over 5000 individual samples involving some 150,000 responses comprised the data base for this study.
An Investigation of Factors Related to Change in Attitude toward Reading
Authors: Rowell C. Glennon
Published: December 2009

This article describes a study conducted to determine the relationship between change in attitude toward reading and (1) achievement in the basic word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills, (2) sex, (3) socioeconomic status, and (4) age. While the students in the experimental group made significantly greater gains than the students in the control group in both change in attitude toward reading and achievement in most of the skills tested, statistically significant relationships were found in only four areas. These were between change in attitude toward reading and achievement in (1) recognition of words in isolation, (2) level of comprehension, (3) recognition of letter sounds, and (4) syllabication. No significant relationships were found between change in attitude toward reading and sex, socioeconomic status, and age of the students in the study.
Visual Imagery as a Prose-Learning Process
Authors: Levin Joel R. , Divine-Hawkins Patricia
Published: December 2009

The viability of visual imagery as a prose-learning process was evaluated in two experiments with elementary school children. In the first experiment, it was found that when a passage was presented at a normal rate, the effect of imagery instructions on substance recall was relatively greater under listening than under reading conditions. This finding was replicated in the second experiment, in which it was also found that reported imagery generation was more frequent in listening than in reading conditions when a faster presentation rate was employed. Possible interpretations of the results with respect to a “compatibility” hypothesis are offered.
The Simplest Experimental Design that Permits Multiple Generalization
Authors: Coleman Edmund B. , Miller Gerald R.
Published: December 2009

Recently, several methodological critiques have pointed out that most experiments in verbal learning fail to present statistical evidence that their results could be replicated using a different sample of language materials. Consequently, many of the studies have little scientific point because their conclusions have to be restricted to the specific language items used in the experiment. All these critiques are summarized, the various solutions to the problem are evaluated, and procedures to arrive at the simplest solution are described. This solution should present no difficulties to anyone who has had a course in analysis of variance.
A Factor Study of the Literal Reading Comprehension Test and the Inferential Reading Comprehension Test
Authors: Pettit Neila T. , Cockriel Irvin W.
Published: December 2009

Literal and Inferential reading comprehension was assessed for 533 sixth grade students. The tests used are new instruments for measuring reading comprehension. Each test provides subscale scores: six subscales for literal reading comprehension and five subscales for inferential reading comprehension. The total data were factor analyzed using principal components and maximum likelihood procedures. The results indicate the two tests are measuring distinct factors.
The IRI and RMI Diagnostic Concepts Should Be Synthesized
Authors: Williamson Leon E. , Young Freda
Published: December 2009

Thirty intermediate-grade subjects, who by the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) criteria demonstrated in basal materials a fifth grade instructional level in reading, used their intuitive knowledge of language, when reading, as effectively as Biemiller and Weber found first-grade subjects using theirs. These subjects' miscues were analyzed according to concepts set forth in the Reading Miscue Inventory (RMI) which are very similar to the ideas used by Biemiller and Weber. Subjects' performances demonstrated that reading behavior is different when reading at the instructional and frustrational levels. When reading at the frustrational level, subjects tended to adhere more closely to the sound and graphic materials represented in the text than when reading at their instructional level. Miscues made at the frustrational level had a higher frequency of having the same grammatical function as that intended in the text than when reading at the instructional level. Grammatical and semantic miscues acceptable to a paragraph or the whole text are more apt to occur at the instructional level of reading. Grammatical and semantic miscues acceptable only in the sentence or phrase in which they occur are produced more often when reading at the frustrational level. The RMI concepts are very powerful for analyzing oral reading errors made within the boundary set by IRI concepts. The concepts in these two techniques should be synthesized.
Measuring the Primary Effect of Reading: Reading-Storage Technique, Understanding Judgments, and Cloze
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

The newly developed reading-storage (RS) type of test was evaluated by comparing it to a modified version of the cloze test in three experiments involving 48 college students reading passages at four levels of difficulty. The experiments involved the following conditions: reading versus non-reading of passages, varying degrees of passage deletion, and varying amounts of interpolated activity between passages and tests. The RS test seemed to be more reliable and equally valid as the cloze test in measuring gain in understanding during reading. The RS type of test appears to offer a better objective technique for measuring the primary effect of reading.
Creativeness: Its Meaning and Measurement
Authors: Lynch Mervin D. , Kaufman Maurice
Published: December 2009

Sixty-seven subjects Q-sorted 47 written messages according to creativeness. Message ratings were factor analyzed. Subjects were tested for creative aptitude on the Remote Associates Test. The predominate factor, creativeness, accounted for 11 percent of the common factor variance. The thirteen subjects salient on this factor had moderate to high RAT scores, indicating that creativeness aptitude provides a basis for judging creativeness of writing. The creativeness factor scores and 24 stylistic measures of each message were correlated. The correlations were factor analyzed. Three factors having moderate-sized loadings on creativeness emerged. Four stylistic indices loaded highly on one of these factors. The multiple correlation between these four indices and creativeness factor scores was .67. A multiple regression equation was generated, which may be used as a stylistic correlate measure of creativeness.
The Effect of Three-Dimensional Stimuli versus Two-Dimensional Stimuli on Visual Form Discrimination
Authors: Towner John C. , Evans Howard M.
Published: December 2009

The experiment was designed to examine the effects of distinctive feature training using two-dimensional letter-like forms as compared with distinctive feature training using three-dimensional letter-like forms. Subjects were 40 kindergarten children who were randomly assigned to either the two-dimensional training group or the three-dimensional training group. The transfer task involved visual discrimination among two-dimensional letter-like forms. It was hypothesized that those in the three-dimensional group would make fewer confusion errors than those in the two-dimensional group on the transfer task. Results of the experiment confirmed the hypothesis, suggesting that the learning of distinctive features is enhanced through the use of three-dimensional training materials.
An Empirical Structure for Reading Objectives
Authors: Roudabush Glenn E.
Published: December 2009

An empirical way to determine contingencies among reading objectives is presented. The technique discussed is applied to objectives underlying four forms of the Prescriptive Reading Inventory. The resulting empirical structures are presented and discussed.
Dialect in Relation to Oral Reading Achievement: Recoding, Encoding, or Merely a Code?
Authors: Lucas Marilyn S. , Singer Harry
Published: December 2009

The Gates-McKillop Reading, the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, and the Children's Apperception Test were administered to 30 Mexican-American children in grades 1 and 3. Also, a Language Background Scale was used to rate degree of bilingualism in their homes. Results indicated, at the third grade only, a significant negative correlation between degree of Spanish heard in the home and syntactic ability, and a significant positive relationship between syntactic ability and oral reading. But, the direct relationship between Spanish heard in the home and oral reading was not significant. The evidence supports the theoretical position that dialect tends to interfere in oral reading on the syntactical, but not on the phonological level. However, the interference for Mexican-American children is likely to be transitory, diminishing as more competence in English syntax is acquired.
Test-Retest and Inter-Analyst Reliability of the Automated Readability Index, Flesch Reading Ease Score, and the Fog Count
Authors: Thomas Georgelle , Hartley R. Derald , Kincaid J. Peter
Published: December 2009

Using six analysts, test-retest and inter-analyst reliabilities were determined for the Automated Readability Index (ARI), the Flesch Reading Ease Score, and the Fog Count. All coefficients, with the exception of one Flesch measure, were above .94.

Analysis of variance applied to measured working times indicated that the Flesch takes significantly longer to use than the ARI and Fog.
Phonological Pairing as a Reading Aid for Retarded Children
Authors: Miller Brenda Booker
Published: December 2009

Thirty-three educable mentally retarded children were exposed to one of three modes of word presentation: phonologically paired words in the content-function order; phonologically paired words in the function-content order; serial list with words randomly assigned. The results of the investigation indicated that the demonstrated learning performance of mentally retarded children was significantly enhanced by the phonological pairing of words, phonological pairing in the content-function word order being superior to phonological pairing in the function-content word order. It was concluded that the incorporation of new words into the educable mentally retarded child's reading vocabulary can be enhanced by the phonological pairing of content and function words.
Further Research on the Reading-Storage Test as a Measure of Gain during Reading
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

The sensitivity of the reading-storage technique as a measure of gain during reading was investigated. Gains on this test were related to three other variables–passage difficulty, reader ability, and the understanding judgments of readers themselves. Reading-storage tests on 16 prose passages were administered to about 600 students in Grades 4–12. The passages ranged in difficulty from beginning reader level to college level. After reading a passage, the 5s made understanding judgments and took a reading-storage test on the passage. The same tests were given to other Ss who had not had the opportunity to read the passage first. The gain on the reading-storage test between nonreading and reading was highly correlated with understanding judgments. It was concluded that the reading-storage test was sensitive to the gain due to reading as long as the difficulty level of the material was approximately equal to the reading ability level of the individual.
Type of Verbatim Question Interspersed in Text: A New Look at the Position Effect
Authors: Rickards John P.
Published: December 2009

Verbatim adjunct questions were developed from sentences rated by college students as high or low in importance to the overall meaning or structure of the experimental passage. The high structural importance pre- and postquestion groups were equal in recall of the questioned statements, and both groups outperformed the reading only control group. On the other hand, subjects who were given low structural importance prequestions recalled more questioned material than those who received low structural importance postquestions, and, in this case, only the prequestion treatment excelled the control condition. Finally, low structural importance prequestions depressed incidental recall below that of the control group. No other questioning treatment influenced incidental recall. These results support earlier research using a different question typology in suggesting that the generalization that postquestions yield greater retention than prequestions does not hold for all types of verbatim adjunct questions.
Early First-Grade Skills Related to Subsequent Reading Performance: A Seven Year Followup Study
Authors: Muehl Siegmar , Nello Mario C. Di
Published: December 2009

Reports seven-year followup study of 56 Ss to assess contributions of first-grade skills to subsequent reading performance. The Harrison-Stroud Reading Readiness Profiles and WISC were administered to Ss early in first grade to form a pool of 19 skill tests. Multiple regression analyses were used to screen the skill tests to arrive at a set of independent and significant reading predictors. Results showed that two slightly different sets of skills emerged as short- and long-term predictors. In grade one and two, the ability to understand that printed words stand for ideas and the ability to make visual discriminations were important. Information background and reasoning ability emerged as significant predictors for the long term beginning in second and third grades. The ability to name letters proved a significant and independent predictor at every grade level. An analysis of the relationship of letter naming to other skills revealed that letter-naming ability in early first grade was related to a variety of skills involved in the reading process including sensory and intellectual skills. Related research suggested that individual differences in letter-naming performance in kindergarten and early first grade may reflect, in part, maturational differences among children.
The Relationship of Conceptual Tempo to Reading Readiness Test Performance
Authors: Shapiro Jon E.
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to investigate the relationship of reflection-impulsivity to performance on a standardized readiness measure. 90 first grade boys were administered the Matching Familiar Figures test to determine their conceptual tempo. 37 boys were classified as impulsive while 30 were determined to have a reflective conceptual tempo. After determining that no pre-existing differences on chronological age, mental age, or intelligence quotients were evident between the two groups, the 67 subjects were administered the Gates-MacGinitie Readiness Skills Test. Results of the statistical analyses revealed that the reflective subjects were significantly superior on overall test perfromance and on six of eight subtests. Implications for beginning reading instruction and for further research were drawn.
A Remedial Program for Poor Decoders in an Inner-City High School
Authors: Simon Louis H. , Hansen Richard A. , Kelstein Ilah , Porterfield Robert
Published: December 2009

This pilot study, utilizing 66 tenth-grade Ss who were 4 or more years below grade placement in both oral reading and reading comprehension, was designed to determine whether a treatment combining a taped echoic response method (TERM) and segmented print materials in which polysyllables were spatially divided (SP) would be effective in improving oral reading and comprehension. Gains over a 3-month span of instruction were compared for the TERM-SP group, a group receiving the TERM treatment in non-segmented materials (TERM-NSP) and a control group receiving neither treatment. Gains in oral reading were 8.7, 6.4 and 1.6 months respectively for the TERM-SP, TERM-NSP and control groups. An analysis of covariance indicated that the post-tests scores were significantly different (p <.01). A Tukey method of analyzing contrasts indicated that the TERM-SP scores were significantly greater than control scores (p <.05), while the TERM-NSP scores were not. Post-test scores for total reading comprehension, although they were in the hypothesized direction, did not differ significantly. It was concluded that the experimental treatment warrants replication and further study.
Modification of the Coleman Readability Formulas
Authors: Liau Ta Lin , Bassin Carolyn B. , Martin Clessen J. , Coleman Edmund B.
Published: December 2009

In 1965, Coleman published four readability formulas which yielded relatively high multiple Rs in predicting readability for college level adults. Four new formulas that account for an even higher percentage of variance were derived by (1) using a more reliable criterion and (2) a better selection of predictors. Predictors were selected according to ease of scoring as well as according to percentage of variance explained. In fact, the three major predictors (certainly the two major predictors) could probably be scored by an easily developed optical scanning device. If such a scanner were developed, it might lower cost to the point that a central agency could routinely score all books for readability. A cross-validation study supported the modified formulas and indicated that they could also be used for readers below college level.
A Comparison of the Test Performance of Average and below Average Readers on the Mccarthy Scales of Children's Abilities
Authors: Johnson David A. , Wollersheim Janet P.
Published: December 2009

The MSCA was used to compare the pattern of tests results for below average readers distinct from a matched group of average readers. Two groups of 24 second-grade boys were selected and differentiated on the basis of their reading achievement scores. The two groups were carefully matched according to age level, IQ and socioeconomic status. Each S was individually administered the MSCA and a comparison of mean scale scores between the groups on each of the six MSCA scales was attempted. Analyses revealed non-significant differences between groups on all scales. The possible influence of methodological factors on the present results as well as the implications for diagnostic usefulness of the MSCA with reading disabled subjects were discussed.
Psycholinguistic Processing in Reading and Listening among Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Guthrie John T. , Tyler S. Jane
Published: December 2009

Differences in psycholinguistic processing of written and spoken language, and psycholinguistic deficiencies of poor readers were studied by giving meaningful, anomalous and random word strings to 18 good and 18 poor readers. In both spoken and written conditions the order of recall was meaningful > anomalous > random (p < .001), suggesting that syntactic and semantic demands of spoken and written sentences were similar. Poor readers were inferior to good readers on written presentations (p > .05). The groups were similar on spoken presentations. The reading comprehension deficiency could not be attributed to inadequate psycholinguistic processing, memory or automaticity in decoding. Incomplete decoding during silent reading by poor readers was supported as an explanation.
The Effects of a Visual Perception Training Program on Reading Achievement
Authors: Seaton Hal W.
Published: December 2009

This investigation attempted to determine the effects of visual perception training on beginning first grade reading achievement with children diagnosed as being deficient in visual perceptual skills and potential future reading problems. Further, the study sought to determine if such training would have a greater effect on the reading achievement of females than males, as well as of children at several levels of measured intelligence. Three groups were selected for the study. The experimental group received visual perception training while the control groups received traditional first grade instruction. The groups were compared through analysis of covariance on the Metropolitan Achievement Tests. The results showed no significant differences and suggest that visual perception training for all children must be seriously questioned.
The Differential Effects of Phonics versus Sight-Recognition Methods of Teaching Reading on the Eye Movements of Good and Poor Second-Grade Readers
Authors: Peoples Arthur C. , Nelson Rosemery O.
Published: December 2009

Four groups of second-grade subjects, good or poor readers who were respectively being taught reading by phonics or sight-recognition methods (N = 5 per group), were tachistoscopically shown and requested to read four replications of 20 four-letter stimulus words. Three aspects of eye movements were recorded. It was found that total number of eye movements, direction of the reading scan, and total scanning time were sensitive to an interaction of reading achievement and method of initial reading acquisition.
The Role of Phonetic Processing in Silent Reading
Authors: Kerst Stephen , Vorwerk Katherine E. , Geleta Nick
Published: December 2009

In a study designed to test whether the meaning of printed words is perceived directly or by means of phonetic recoding, subjects named pictures on which words or nonwords were superimposed as distractors. In a Stroop task of this kind, the meanings of distractor words which conflict with the names of the pictures on which they appear are known to interfere with picture-naming, even when subjects are not asked to read the words. Instructions in the present study required subjects to either ignore the distractors, read them silently, pronounce them covertly, or say them aloud. The phonetically novel nonwords retarded picture-naming performance more than did real words when phonetic processing was explicitly required, but not during silent reading. In addition, covert pronunciation required more time than silent reading. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that access to the meaning of printed words does not require a phonetic recoding stage. Alternative explanations based on weaker forms of the phonetic recoding hypothesis were discussed.
Naturalistic, Decision—Oriented Evaluation of a District Reading Program
Authors: Talmage Harriet , Walberg Herbert J.
Published: December 2009

The selection of basal reading series for a school district is a serious curriculum decision; in effect, the selected series becomes the district's reading curriculum. This study addresses methodological problems confronting decision-oriented evaluation of reading materials within a naturalistic setting. Effects of selected process and attitude variables on reading achievement are reported to illustrate the feasibility of responding to the methodological problems.

With the intent of selecting a basal reading series and exploring factors that may increase reading achievement, five series were pilot tested in four grades (1,2,3, and 6) in a total of 60 classes. In addition to pre and post achievement, process and attitude data were included as well as characteristics of teacher, classroom learning environment, and instruction.

Regression analysis showed that achievement was unaffected by series or by teacher's years of teaching, amount of inservice preparation, number of formal reading courses, or awareness of the series' design. The learning environment contributed the only significant predictor variable of achievement, specifically the degree of competitiveness perceived by students in their reading classes. These findings supported by additional process data on implementation of the series led to selection procedures that differ widely from traditional reading selection criteria.
The Syntactic Complexity of Primary Grade Children's Oral Language and Primary Grade Reading Materials: a Comparative Analysis
Authors: Glazer Susan Mandel , Morrow Lesley Mandel
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this research was to assess and compare the syntax in the oral language of six-, seven-, and eight-year-olds with the syntax found in the written language of reading instruction materials prepared for children of the same age. Ninety students, presumed to speak standard English, were selected through restricted random sampling from a middle class community. These students were the subjects for the oral language sample. Four reading series whose approaches to instruction differed, were selected for the comparative analysis. The Botel, Dawkins, and Granowsky Syntactic Complexity formula, based on transformational grammar, was used to analyze all language samples. The results of the study showed that the reading series were more complex syntactically than the oral language of the children.
Oral Reading, Silent Reading, and Listening Comprehension: a Comparative Study
Authors: Elgart Denise B.
Published: December 2009

Comprehension is achieved through three different modes of reception — oral reading, silent reading, and listening. The relative effectiveness of each of the three modes has been examined, but has yielded conflicting results due to intersubject variation and difference in degree of reading materials. The purpose of this study was to use a research design which eliminated those two sources of error as they affect a comparison of the three modes of reception — oral reading, silent reading, listening on comprehension. Forty-five third-grade students were selected. The pupils read orally, read silently, and listened to selections taken from the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Test-Primary C, Form 2. An Analysis of Variance using a Latin Square Design with repeated measures was used. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between the three modes of reception with oral reading significantly more effective than silent reading in comprehending material.
The New and Given in Children's Comprehension of Presuppositive Negatives in Two Modes of Processing
Authors: Mosenthal Peter
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not children, grades 2, 4, and 6, make consistent use of the Given-New Strategy (cf. Haviland & Clark, 1974) in visually and aurally comprehending pre-suppositive negatives. Following de Boysson-Bardies' (1977) procedure of having children manifest their interpretation of the scope of the negative under different sentential definite-indefinite article conditions by graphically representing nonnegated subjects and/or objects, it was found that children tend to treat more information as Given when aurally processing than when visually processing. And conversely, children tend to treat more information as New when visually processing than when aurally processing. The significance of these findings are discussed in terms of ordinal and nominal interpretations of levels-of-processing.
Generalization Tests: A Terminology That Focuses Attention on Fixed-Effect Restrictions
Authors: Coleman Edmund B. , Morris Garry
Published: December 2009

A failure to generalize a finding when theoretically-irrelevant procedural changes are made is discussed from the viewpoint of experimental logic (two experiments showed that the finding that stimulus imagery is more facultative than response imagery does not generalize to a paired-associate task of considerable economic importance—children learning the sounds of the letters). It is pointed out that the typical experiment is a weak building block for constructing general theory since it only tests a limited null hypothesis—the specific null whose sampling variance is represented in the error term. It is suggested that “generalization test” be substituted for “significance test” to focus E's attention on his obligation to remove the more serious restrictions on generality in subsequent experiments.
Sensitivity to Orthographic Structure as a Function of Grade and Reading Ability
Authors: Allington Richard L.
Published: December 2009

Good and poor readers at two grade levels were presented with zero-order and fourth-order approximations of English words. They were directed to select the one item in each pair that was most wordlike. Results show significant differences were found between older poor readers and younger good readers whose reading ability was equivalent. These results were interpreted as providing support for the hypothesis that orthographic sensitivity is a direct function of reading achievement level, not age or school experience in general.
Vocabulary — Building Blocks of Comprehension?
Authors: Yap Kim Onn
Published: December 2009

This paper describes an investigation designed to probe the causal ordering between vocabulary and comprehension skills of primary grade pupils. Five causal methods were used to analyze a set of reading data obtained in a panel situation from second- and third-graders. The results suggest that the two reading components are probably causally related and that vocabulary is likely to be the predominant causal factor. There is strong evidence that the causal links are congruent. Similar patterns of results were obtained from the second- and third-grade samples included in the study. Considerable convergent validity was obtained through the use of the five causal methods.
Aren't Standards Always Used? A Reply to Kingston and Lovelace
Authors: Johnson Carole Schulte , Greenbaum Gloria R.
Published: December 2009

A presentation is given refuting the arguments presented in an earlier article that guidelines dealing with sexism and racism are a new form of censorship. It is suggested that the guidelines, never meant for fiction, have created an awareness of the lack of variety and balance in both fiction and textbooks. One function of the guidelines is to develop a consensus of what is meant when sexist and/or racist qualities are attributed to material. Since textbooks are not freely chosen by students, it is appropriate that sexism/racism be included as part of the criteria for selection. Educational materials should affirm and encourage all children to probe and develop to their fullest potential.
Word Recognition by Second Graders: The Unit of Perception and Interrelationships among Accuracy, Latency, and Comprehension
Authors: McCormick Christine , Samuels S. Jay
Published: December 2009

Two issues were investigated: the first examined the relationships among accuracy and latency of word recognition and comprehension by non-fluent readers, and the second examined whether component letter or holistic processing was used in word recognition by these same readers. Speed and accuracy of word recognition were measured on individual words. Literal comprehension was measured for the same words presented in meaningful context. The unit of perception was measured by the relationship between latency of word recognition and word length. If students were using component processing, latency would increase with word length, but if holistic processing were used, there would be no increase in latency with length. Results of this study indicated that accuracy and latency were each significantly related to comprehension for both first- and second-grade words, with evidence for latency influencing comprehension scores to a greater extent on the first-grade words. With regard to the unit of perception, in general there was evidence of component letter processing for all subjects with the highly accurate readers showing a tendency towards more holistic processing.
The Development of Automatic Word Recognition Skills
Authors: West Richard F. , Stanovich Keith E.
Published: December 2009

Kindergarteners, first graders, and third graders performed a discrete-trial Stroop task in which they named the colors of stimuli that either matched or did not match items that were being concurrently held in memory. Letters, high-frequency words, and low-frequency words were used as stimuli. There was a developmental trend toward the color being named faster when the stimulus matched the item held in memory. This finding was unexpected. While the color-naming times of the first and third graders did not depend on stimulus type, the kindergarteners named colors slower when the stimuli were letters and showed a tendency to respond slower to high-frequency words than to low-frequency words. Apparently, the kindergarteners had fully automated the recognition of only the letters and were beginning to automate the recognition of high-frequency words. In contrast, the older children had automated the recognition of letters, high-frequency words, and low-frequency words to an equal extent.
Effects of Notetaking and Studying on the Retention of Prose
Authors: Santa Carol Minnick , Abrams Lindsay , Santa John L.
Published: December 2009

College students, equally divided between good and poor readers used one of five study-notetaking strategies for retaining prose information. Students just read, or read and took either restricted or unlimited notes on a passage. After reading, subjects directly or mentally reviewed their notes before taking a recognition and recall examination. Recall and recognition performance was measured immediately and one week later. None of the notetaking-study strategies helped for the recognition test or for the recall of main ideas, but the various strategies led to considerable differences in performance on a general recall test of detailed ideas.
Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading Easy and Difficult Text: Two Tests of an Allocation of Attention Hypothesis
Authors: Britton Bruce K. , Ziegler Robbie , Westbrook Robert
Published: December 2009

Use of cognitive capacity in reading easy and difficult text was observed with a secondary task technique in 2 experiments. Previous experiments had shown that easy text filled cognitive capacity more completely than difficult text. One hypothesis for this effect is that attention was allocated differentially to easy passages at the expense of difficult ones. Contrary to this hypothesis, in both of the present experiments, content tests showed that a large amount of detailed information was learned from both easy and difficult texts. When the memory load was reduced to reduce the motivation for differential allocation of attention, easy texts continued to fill cognitive capacity more completely than difficult texts. These results were not consistent with an allocation of attention hypothesis. Other hypotheses were considered.
Schema Activation in Memory for Prose
Authors: Townsend Michael A. R.
Published: December 2009

Forty-eight college students listened to two ambiguous passages about familiar topics under one of four context conditions. Half of the students were given appropriate contextual information about the passages either just before or just after hearing the passages. The remaining students either received no contextual information or received inappropriate contextual information about the passages. Following an interpolated activity, recall of the passage information was significantly lower for those subjects who were not able to activate an appropriate schema at the time of acquisition of the material. Students given inappropriate contextual information recalled less material than students given no contextual information. The results extend previous research with sentences to larger units of connected discourse and are discussed within the framework of schema shifting, a cognitive process essential in the comprehension of continuous prose.
Word Frequency as a Predictor of Students' Reading Vocabularies
Authors: Graves Michael F. , Boettcher Judith A. , Peacock Judith L. , Ryder Randall J.
Published: December 2009

This paper reports the results of a study of word frequency as a predictor of students' reading vocabularies and the effects of grade, ability, and sex on word knowledge. Subjects, 432 seventh through twelfth grade students, received an 86 item vocabulary test on which each word represented a frequency block of 1,000 words (1st thousand most frequent, 2nd thousand most frequent … 86th thousand most frequent). Results indicated that correct responses tend to decline rapidly with less frequent words (regression slope = −.47) but that the relationship between frequency and word knowledge is not a strong one ( r = .44). Results further indicated significant differences (p < .001) due to frequency, grade and ability but none due to sex. Implications for using frequency to control word difficulty and questions raised about vocabulary development are discussed.
The Effect of Linguistic Cohesion on Prose Comprehension
Authors: Irwin Judith Westpbal
Published: December 2009

This study examined the relationship between the number of cohesive ties in a passage, as defined by Halliday and Hasan (1976), and free and prompted recall scores. Two versions of a passage on gibbons were developed, with one version containing about twice as many ties as the other. Sixty college students participated; each read one of the passage-versions and then, either immediately or after 20 minutes, recorded his/her free recall and answered the prompted-recall questions. Though there were no differences between the treatment groups in terms of the numbers of micro-level propositions recalled, there were significant differences between these groups in terms of the theoretical reading time/100-propositions-recalled ratios, the numbers of reported macro-level statements, and the numbers of prompted-recall questions answered correctly in the delayed condition. These results support theories stressing the importance of coherent links in the comprehension process and suggest a new “readability” variable.
Comprehension Monitoring, memory, and study strategies of Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Paris Scott G. , Myers Meyer
Published: December 2009

Comprehension and memory skills of fourth grade good and poor readers were compared in two studies. Their ability to monitor comprehension of difficult and anomalous information was measured in three ways; by spontaneous self-corrections during oral reading, by directed underlining of incomprehensible words and phrases, and by study behaviors. Poor readers engaged in significantly less monitoring on all three measures and this was correlated with poorer comprehension and recall scores. An additional metacognitive measure of perceived reading strategy effectiveness indicated that poor readers are often unaware of the negative influences of some strategies. The patterns of responses on the multiple measures suggest that poor readers may adopt decoding rather than meaning comprehension goals during reading and they are less accurate in applying monitoring skills towards resolving comprehension failures.
Prereading/Language Development in Two Day Care Centers
Authors: Nurss Joanne R. , Hough Ruth A. , Goodson Millie S.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to analyze the language of eight 4-year-old children from two day care centers as they described a picture and told a story from pictures in a wordless picture book. The children's oral language was analyzed for vocabulary, syntax, completeness, and accuracy. Their stories were assessed for Applebee's narrative conventions and structure. Comprehension of the picture and the book was assessed by questions. The children's descriptions and stories, although short, contained a variety of vocabulary words and an above average number of words per T-unit for their age. However, their stories did not contain any narrative conventions nor did the children demonstrate that they had achieved a sense of the story. The children's descriptions were only partially accurate, and they demonstrated limited comprehension of the picture and story. These results are discussed in relation to the day care and pre-school language curriculum and environment. Implications are drawn for the children's prereading development and their readiness for beginning reading instruction.
A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Automatic Recognition Skills in First Graders
Authors: Stanovich Keith E. , Cunningham Anne E. , West Richard F.
Published: December 2009

Experiment 1 was a study in which three times during the school year (in September, February, and April) first graders performed a discrete-trial Stroop task in which they named the colors of stimuli that were either letters, high-frequency words, or low-frequency words. The amount of interference caused by these stimuli was assessed by comparing the naming times to a control condition where the subject named a series of X's. In each testing period the interference caused by letters exceeded that caused by high-frequency words. There was also a nonsignificant tendency for interference caused by high-frequency words to exceed that caused by low-frequency words. There was a marked increase in interference between September and February, but very little change between February and April, indicating that the automaticity function had already flattened out by the end of first grade. There was a tendency for better readers to display more interference and to show interference earlier in the year. Experiment 2 replicated the developmental trends displayed in Experiment 1 and explored the relationship between interference and the speed and accuracy with which subjects named the stimuli. The overall pattern of results in the two experiments was reasonably consistent with the automaticity model of reading developed by LaBerge and Samuels (1974).
Effects of the Cloze Procedure on Good and Poor Readers' Comprehension
Authors: Mcgee Lea M.
Published: December 2009

The effects of a cloze procedure developed from transfer feature theory of processing in reading on immediate and delayed recall of good and poor readers were studied. Easy cloze passages were generated so all cloze deletions were successfully supplied by approximately 75% of 78 students used in a norming process. Twenty third-grade good and twenty fifth-grade poor readers read and recalled an easy cloze and a normal, non-cloze version of two expository passages. Recalls were scored according to an analysis of discourse procedure. Results indicated that fifth-grade poor readers remember more than third-grade good readers immediately after reading and after a one-week delay. Moreover, fifth-grade poor readers remember more from reading an easy cloze passage than from reading a normal passage in immediate recall. Implications for the use of this cloze procedure as an instructional technique are discussed.
Effects of Document Simplification on the Reading Comprehension of the Elderly
Authors: Walmsley Sean A. , Scott Kathleen M. , Lehrer Richard
Published: December 2009

Good and poor readers (aged 60+) were tested on three versions of documents describing social services—the original document, a version simplified by a readability formula, and a version simplified ‘subjectively’ by skilled writers. Results indicate that in only one of the four documents (the longest one) was comprehension improved by subjective rewriting; simplification by readability formula had no effect on comprehension. Reading ability, however, was a significant covariate for comprehension. The study concludes that the ‘readability’ of a document is a poor indicator of its comprehensibility for aged subjects, and that simplifying the language of documents may not be sufficient in easing their comprehension difficulties.
A Study of Performance on Word Boundary Tasks as Related to Reading Ability
Authors: Hecker Nelly M.
Published: December 2009

The study examines how level of reading acquisition is related to performance on word boundary tasks written at four differing readability levels. It also explores the validity of using word boundary tasks as measures of reading ability by comparing student performance on a word boundary measure to performance on both a cloze procedure task and on a word recognition task. Level of reading acquisition, level of passage readability, and grade placement of students were found to affect performance on the word boundary task. A multitrait-multimethod matrix of intercorrelations between the three measures showed that the word boundary task used for this study appeared to be a reliable and valid measure of reading performance for these subjects and that the three methods measure some of the same traits.