bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Massed versus Spaced Formats in Teaching Sound-Symbol Correspondences to Young Children
Authors: Kryzanowski John , Carnine Douglas
Published: December 2009

Twenty-eight first graders were taught letter-sound correspondences according to massed and spaced formats. One group received a spaced format on i and massed format on e, and the other received a spaced format on e, and massed format on J. A paired associated format required children to produce the appropriate sounds in response to visually presented letters ( e, m, s, c, i). Compared to the massed format, correct responses to the letter presented according to the spaced format were more frequent on the posttest (72% versus 38%), though less frequent during training (56% versus 74%). The findings extended the superiority of spaced presentations to younger subjects and academically relevant stimuli.
The Predictability of Oral Reading Behaviors on Comprehension in Learning Disabled and Normal Readers
Authors: Pflaum Susanna W.
Published: December 2009

This study examined a method of studying the unique contributions to comprehension from different oral reading behaviors determined in the reading of a group of learning disabled children compared with that of a group of normal readers. Seventy-six (36 LD; 40 non-LD) elementary children participated in the task which required them to read orally a story and then retell all recalled information. Reading level was controlled, and, using a proportion of story propositions retold as the dependent variable, regression analyses were computed. With the non-LD group, no contributions to comprehension of any magnitude were due to the oral reading behaviors. With the LD group, however, two oral reading behaviors were found to provide unique contributions to the variance in comprehension. Higher rates of meaning-change errors predicted lowered comprehension, and higher rates of high phonic cue use predicted higher comprehension in the LD group. Recommendations included suggestions for further study of processing differences between disabled and normal readers.
Primary Children's Attitudes toward Reading in Male and Female Teachers' Classrooms: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Shapiro Jon E.
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to investigate the effects of teachers' gender on primary children's attitudes toward reading. 141 children, second grade boys and girls, from male and female teacher classrooms, were administered the Survey of School Attitudes. Results of statistical analysis revealed significant differences in attitude dependent upon teacher gender.
Inference at Comprehension: Fact or Artifact?
Authors: Miller Raymond B.
Published: December 2009

It is argued that previous research examining the presence of inferential elaborations in subject responses to memory tasks failed to determine the locus of inference production, (i.e., comprehension or retrieval). Three experiments are reported which were designed to make this determination. Each experiment used a different paradigm: (1) cued recall, (2) recognition, and (3) reaction time. The particular inferences of concern were instruments and/or consequences of action implied by the text. The results of the three experiments support the position that such inferences are made during comprehension.
The Relationship of Logical Reasoning Ability, Oral Language Comprehension, and Home Experiences to Preschool Children's Print Awareness
Authors: Hiebert Elfrieda H.
Published: December 2009

The study examined the relationship of logical reasoning ability, oral language comprehension, and home experiences to preschoolers' print awareness. Measures of print awareness were: letter naming, visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, and two measures which assessed concepts about print (knowledge about the purposes of print in the environment and knowledge about the processes involved in using print). Sixty three-, four-, and five-year-olds were tested on the measures of print awareness, logical reasoning ability, and lexical and grammatical comprehension of oral language. Information on home experiences was obtained by surveying parents on their own reading habits and the reading-related activities in which they participated with their children. Three measures—logical reasoning ability, lexical comprehension, and home teaching activites—provided the best overall model in accounting for differences in children's performances across the print awareness measures.
The Effect of Context on the Size of the Perceptual Unit Used in Word Recognition
Authors: Patberg Judythe P. , Dewitz Peter , Samuels S. Jay
Published: December 2009

Good and poor readers from the second and fourth grades read words which varied in length from 3 to 6 letters under three exposure conditions; context, miscue and no-context. Word recognition latency for the nouns in each word length category was recorded. An increase in latency relative to word length would suggest component-letter processing, while no increase would suggest holistic processing. Results indicated that under all conditions poor second grade readers used holistic processing. Poor fourth grade readers used holistic processing with context but component-letter processing in no-context and miscue conditions. These findings suggest that the size of the word recognition unit is sensitive to reader skill and context condition.
Effect of Ideational Prominence on Children's Reading Comprehension of Expository Prose
Authors: Baumann James F.
Published: December 2009

The efficacy of the levels hypothesis (the prediction that ideas residing at superordinate positions in a text hierarchy are most memorable) was evaluated as a suitable descriptor of children's reading comprehension of expository prose. Third-and sixth-grade students read expository passages taken from extant curricular materials and responded to either a paper and pencil comprehension test (an open ended or multiple choice test) or produced an oral free recall. Results revealed that in only one instance (third-graders responding to the multiple choice test) did the children respond in the predicted manner: greater comprehension of main idea, gist information. The findings were interpreted as indicating little support for the levels hypothesis as a singular, accurate predictor of the information children will remember after reading expository prose. Other text-based and reader-based factors were discussed as possible explanations for the results. Implications for future research and educational practice were also discussed.
Active Response Modes: Comprehension “Aids” in Need of a Theory
Authors: Anderson Terrence N. , Glover John A.
Published: December 2009

The literature in active response modes was reviewed indicating generally negative results. However, an investigation of the theoretical perspectives involved in the research indicated that only a small number of papers had employed a theoretical basis for constructing the active response modes under investigation. These studies generally reported facilitative effects of active response modes. The atheoretical nature of the active response mode literature was discussed and one theoretical perspective, “levels of processing/distinctiveness of encoding,” was suggested as a possible heuristic for future research.
Effects of Corrective Feedback on Comprehension Skills of Remedial Students
Authors: Pany Darlene , Mccoy Kathleen M. , Peters Ellen E.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Corrective Feedback during oral reading on reading comprehension performance. A total of 34 students were classified by reading skill level into two groups: Primary (skill range 1.5–3.0) and Intermediate (skill range 3.5–5.5). Within each group half of the students were randomly assigned to either a Corrective Feedback condition or to a No Correction condition. Four dependent variables were obtained from the results of a miscue analysis, story retell, comprehension questions and oral reading errors. Few significant differences occurred between students' comprehension performance at either skill level under either condition. Overall comprehension performance was good under both conditions. The results of this study do not support the position that corrective feedback is detrimental to reading comprehension.
The Inferential Operations of Children across Text with Narrative and Expository Tendencies
Authors: Bridge Connie A. , Tierney Robert J.
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to examine the effects of two different discourse types upon the amount and kind of explicit and inferred information in the free and probed recalls of good and poor third grade readers following their reading of a selection with expository/informative tendencies and a selection with narrative/entertaining tendencies. Findings indicated that different text types do influence the amount and kind of information recalled by good and poor readers in that both groups recalled a higher proportion of explicitly stated information, generated more connectors, and were better able to preserve the original order of propositions in the narrative than in the expository selections. Reader ability level also produced some general differences in recall across discourse types in that good readers recalled more explicit information and generated more inferred information than poor readers. Furthermore, good readers' tendency to include most of the explicit information they remembered in their free recalls and to generate inferred information primarily in response to probes indicates that they may possess greater metacognitive awareness and are better able to separate explicit and inferred information. However, within groups the effects were not stable across text type and reader ability level for individual readers who frequently varied considerably in the amount and kind of explicit and inferred information recalled after reading the two types of texts. Thus, it was concluded that it is not possible to reliably predict an individual's recall patterns from one type of text to another due to the potential influence of a variety of specific text and reader characteristics within varying contextual situations.
The Validity of the Instantiation Hypothesis
Authors: Dreher Mariam Jean , Singer Harry
Published: December 2009

The instantiation hypothesis explains that as people read, they spontaneously infer and store contextually appropriate instances for general terms in sentences. Anderson et al. (1976) found support for this hypothesis with college subjects. Although Dreher (in press) adduced evidence that fifth-, sixth-, and eighth-graders can instantiate when asked to do so, and can store and use instantiations already provided in sentences which they are expected to remember, she also discovered that unlike college students, they do not spontaneously instantiate general terms. Consequently, Dreher hypothesized that the results with children may represent a point on a developmental trajectory toward the spontaneous instantiation found at the college level.

The purpose of the present work was to test the developmental trajectory hypothesis by using the same set of sentences and conditions at the college level as had been used by Dreher with children. College subjects were also tested with the same set of sentences used by Anderson et al. so that a comparison could be made between college students' performances on the Dreher and on the Anderson et al. tasks. The results indicated that college students instantiated with both sets of sentences. Hence, the two sets of sentences are functionally equivalent at the college level. Thus, the results confirmed the validity of the instantiation hypothesis at the college level. When coupled with Dreher's previous work, and the evidence of this study that the two sets of sentences are functionally equivalent, these results add support to the developmental gradient-shift explanation for differences between children and college students.
The Function of Metaphor in Children's Recall of Expository Passages
Authors: Pearson P. David , Raphael Taffy E. , Tepaske Norma , Hyser Charles
Published: December 2009

In a series of three studies, the facultative effect of metaphors on children's recall of expository passages was evaluated. In Experiment 1, with sixth grade subjects and an unfamiliar passage, metaphor target structures were recalled better than their literal paraphrases. In Experiment II, using third grade subjects and a more familiar passage, there were no differences between metaphor and literal versions of passage in terms of the recall of target structures. In Experiment III, which was designed to eliminate the passage familiarity × grade level × experiment confounding, there was a significant passage familiarity by version (metaphor or literal) interaction. Metaphors facilitated target structure recall only for unfamiliar passages. These data were interpreted as supporting the view that metaphors can serve the function of bridging new and old information in unfamiliar textual settings.
Flexibility in the Use of Graphic and Contextual Information by Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Schwartz Robert M. , Stanovich Keith E.
Published: December 2009

Two studies are reported that investigate the use of graphic and contextual information in word recognition. Subjects orally read stories that contained ten words that were altered by substituting a single letter, so that another word was formed that was anomalous within the sentence. The critical dependent variable was the proportion of times the subject read the contextually appropriate word rather than the actual stimulus word. The first study used different orienting instructions to manipulate subjects' response set. In the second experiment, instructions for either contextually appropriate reading or accurate reading were given in order to examine the relationships between information processing demands and reading ability. The results indicated that good and poor readers were equally able to conform to task demands for contextually appropriate reading responses, but poor readers were less able to suppress contextual information when accurate reading was required.
Recognition of Orthographic Structure during Beginning Reading
Authors: Leslie Lauren , Shannon Albert J.
Published: December 2009

The development of knowledge of orthographic structure among beginning readers was examined by testing their ability to discern which word in a pair looked most like a word. One hundred forty-five children in preschool, kindergarten, first and second grades were given three tasks measuring knowledge of orthographic structure and tests of letter, numeral and word recognition on two occasions six months apart. One orthographic task assessed the knowledge that words did not contain numbers; another assessed knowledge that certain consonant clusters do not occur in English. Results showed that word-recognition ability, rather than grade level, correlated highly (.80) with orthographic knowledge. Letter recognition correlated (.66) with knowledge that words do not contain numbers. The results of a discriminant-function analysis indicated an early second-grade level of word recognition predicted above-chance performance on the third orthographic task. The results were discussed in relation to an interactive-compensatory model of reading.
The Effects of Some Known Sources of Reading Difficulty on Metacomprehension and Comprehension
Authors: Raphael Taffy E. , Myers Ann C. , Tirre William C. , Fritz Mary , Freebody Peter
Published: December 2009

This study represents an exploration into the relationship between comprehension and metacomprehension. The effects of variables known to be sources of reading difficulty were compared on a measure of reading comprehension and one of metacomprehension. One hundred and twenty seventh grade students each read four versions of thirty-six passages which differed in level of familiarity, goodness of structure, and vocabulary difficulty. Then students either rated the comprehensibility of each passage or responded to ten comprehension probes for each of the passages. Both comprehensibility judgments and comprehension performance were positively related to topic familiarity and good story structure. Vocabulary difficulty was negatively related to performance on the comprehension measure only. Implications for research are discussed.
Effects of Modified Deletion Strategies and Scoring Procedures on Cloze Test Performance
Authors: Henk William A.
Published: December 2009

Most cloze testing research has centered on the traditional model of deleting every-nth word, accepting only exact word replacements in scoring, and providing blanks of standard length. In the present study, alternative cloze forms derived from selected deletion strategies (every-5th versus total random), scoring procedures (verbatim versus synonymic), and blank conditions (standard versus cued) were analyzed for respective effects on the cloze test performance of 80 college-level readers. Increased performance was generally observed across the every-5th, cued, and synonymic levels of the independent variables. Of the eight alternative cloze formats examined, the total random/cued/verbatim condition generated mean scores most similar to the traditional model while averting, in theory, the sampling biases that can accompany approximated deletions. In this format, context distances of less than four were as effective in producing correct responses as context distances of four, the equivalent of an every-5th word deletion pattern. High positive correlations were found to exist between verbatim and synonymic scoring systems in total, and for each of four individual cloze formats.
The Reliability of Diagnostic and Remedial Decisions of Reading Specialists
Authors: Weinshank Annette B.
Published: December 2009

This study empirically assessed whether reading specialists' written diagnoses and written remedial plans were reliable and reliably associated. Eight experienced reading specialists, four trained in Michigan and four trained in Illinois, were observed as they diagnosed three simulated cases of reading difficulty. Two of the cases were thinly disguised versions of the same reading problem. The third represented a different reading problem. The study demonstrated that (1) the bulk of the diagnostic and remedial statements/associations for a given case were made only once; identical cases were not diagnosed as such. (2) Examination of common case information led neither to common diagnoses, common remediations, nor common associations between remediation and diagnosis. Only by aggregating diagnostic and remedial statements/associations across clinicians could the outlines of consensus on each case be discerned. (3) Agreement between individual clinicians on diagnostic and remedial statements seen as characterizing a case ranged from very little to none whatever. (4) Clinicians never followed their stated plans regarding information collection procedures and the writing of the diagnosis and remediation. (5) There was no difference in performance between the Michigan-trained and Illinois-trained subjects.
Comprehension Monitoring and the Error Detection Paradigm
Authors: Winograd Peter , Johnston Peter
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the conditions which were likely to facilitate error detection. It was hypothesized that poor readers' comprehension monitoring abilities would improve if they were given assistance in selecting the appropriate schema for understanding a passage. In order to test the hypothesis, we used a standard paradigm: the error detection task. No evidence was found to support the notion that schema activation would significantly improve poor readers' error detection abilities. However, results did indicate that, while good readers were significantly better at this task than were poor readers, a surprising number of children failed to report some very blatant errors. Although these results are in agreement with earlier studies using the same task, we felt uneasy in drawing the conclusion that sixth graders are lacking in metacognitive abilities. Instead, we have expanded the discussion to include our thoughts on the limitations and difficulties in the use of the error detection paradigm itself. Five major concerns were identified and suggestions for improving future comprehension monitoring studies were made. Some alternative methodologies were also considered.
Preassessment of Topical Knowledge: A Validation and an Extension
Authors: Hare Victoria Chou
Published: December 2009

Prior to reading a passage about planets, sixth-graders' free associations about key words taken from the passage were solicited. Free associations were scored both qualitatively and quantitatively to find out which scoring of topical knowledge better predicted students' comprehension of the planet passage. Both measures successfully predicted overall recall, independent of IQ and reading level, although quantitative prior knowledge was a better predictor. Recall predictions made by the students themselves typically exhibited limited insights into metamemorial processes, demonstrating that students did not specifically consider their prior knowledge about planets in making their predictions.
Factors Contributing to Teachers' Judgments about Students and Decisions about Grouping Students for Reading Instruction
Authors: Borko Hilda , Niles Jerome
Published: December 2009

In a policy-capturing study of the planning of reading instruction, teachers and student teachers read descriptions of 32 hypothetical students who varied on five dimensions: standardized reading achievement score, self-correction of errors during oral reading, class participation, social competence, and classroom behavior. They judged each student's probable mastery of the reading curriculum and impact on classroom life, placed the students in three reading groups, and described the reading groups and strategies used to form these groups. While most participants used the academic cues in judging mastery and forming reading groups and the nonacademic cues in estimating impact on classroom life, decision policies differed with respect to the number of cues used and size of each cue's effect. Some variability in cue use was explained by teaching experience and conceptions of reading. For example, teachers' policies were more complex than those of student teachers for the mastery and grouping decisions. However, no differences were apparent for the impact judgment. Additional insight into differences in grouping strategies was provided by participants' written descriptions of reading groups and strategies used to form these groups.
The Relationship of Selected Text Variables to Miscue Scores of Second Graders
Authors: Hood Joyce
Published: December 2009

Miscue scores are said to reflect an interaction between the language of a reader and the language of an author. Although reader differences in miscue patterns have been studied extensively, less is known about the influence of author language, or text characteristics, on oral reading behavior. The selection of subjects and the ANOVA design of the present study made it possible to assess the effects of accuracy level and of selected text characteristics on miscue scores. Fifty-two second-graders were selected from among 161 who read aloud two stories which differed in familiarity of vocabulary and in redundancy. The children represented specified accuracy levels of oral reading on the two stories. Findings were that contextual appropriateness and meaning loss scores were associated most strongly with accuracy level differences. Types of errors, percent of corrections, and comprehension were associated most strongly with differences in text characteristics. When interpreting miscue data, the possible influence of these two sources of variance should be kept in mind.
Verbal-Report Data on Reading Strategies
Authors: Garner Ruth
Published: December 2009

This study provides information about reading and summarizing strategies among expert readers, and tests the effect of manipulating processing-verbal report interval. Twenty undergraduates read and summarized an expository text, while being observed, on day one. Half of the subjects reported their thoughts and actions immediately afterward. The other 10 subjects reported two days later. Ten reading-summarizing strategies were reported more than once by undergraduates. Most summarization “rules” discussed in the literature appeared in the list. Clear processing-verbal report interval completeness effects were found, favoring the subjects who reported immediately following processing. Research implications are drawn.
Flexibility of Schema Shifting in Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Townsend Michael A.R.
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to see whether good and poor readers show similar facility in shifting between familiar schemata in a listening comprehension task. Similar flexibility would mitigate an explanation of comprehension differences based on mediational control mechanisms in the deployment of cognitive structures. Twenty good and twenty poor readers at the third grade level listened to two short passages about very familiar daily activities. Comprehension of the second passage demanded a shift in schemata and only half of the children were explicitly cued to this shift. Analyses of free recall and interview responses indicated that although good readers recalled more information, there was similar flexibility of schema shifting for good and poor readers.
Measuring Metacognition in Reading by Detectability of Cloze Accuracy
Authors: Hosseini Jinoos , Ferrell William R.
Published: December 2009

Knowing when one has understood is an important metacognitive skill in reading and in making use of what one has read. It is defined here as the ability to detect failures of comprehension processing. This is measured operationally, using a signal detection model, as the extent to which a respondent's judgments of confidence discriminate between accurate and inaccurate responses on cloze tests. The reliability of the measure is investigated and, as an illustration, it is applied to reading in native and second languages. It is concluded that this new augmented form of cloze testing may be a useful tool in reading research.
Black English Vernacular and Reading Comprehension: A Cloze Study of Third, Sixth, and Ninth Graders
Authors: Steffensen Margaret S. , Reynolds Ralph E. , Mcclure Erica , Guthrie Larry F.
Published: December 2009

This study was concerned with the reading comprehension of speakers of Black English Vernacular (BEV). Third, sixth, and ninth graders were rated as BEV or Standard English (SE) speakers using a sentence repetition task. They were then asked to complete passages which had been clozed for content words and verbs in the past and present tenses. This task used a multiple-choice format: Verb distractors were other forms of the clozed verb; content word distractors were words that were anomalous in that context. In a second task, subjects supplied time adverbials for 15 short paragraphs written in the past, present, or future tenses. On the cloze task, BEV speakers had significantly more errors for verbs than for content words compared to SE speakers. They also had significantly more errors in selecting the appropriate time adverbial on the basis of tense. These findings can be attributed to differences that exist in the verbal systems of SE and BEV.
An Analysis of the Cognitive Processes Underlying Problems in Reading Comprehension
Authors: Hess Andrew M.
Published: December 2009

Previous research has argued that children who experience difficulties in reading comprehension are less skilled in either speed of verbal processing or speed of decoding. Little explanatory power or research has been given to variables from developmental memory research such as the child's ability to draw inferences, to elaborate or “go beyond the information given,” or to the child's sensitivity to text-structure variations. Eighty-three fourth- and sixth-graders composed of groups of good and poor comprehenders were presented with a battery of semantic processing and speed of processing tasks. The results of the analyses yield support for several specific semantic processing deficits for poor comprehenders and for a generalized speed of processing deficiency. Implications for remedial interventions are discussed.
The Effect of Details on the Recall of Major Ideas in Text
Authors: Phifer Sandra J. , McNickle Bruce , Ronning Royce R. , Glover John A.
Published: December 2009

Four experiments were conducted to examine the effect of details on readers' recall of major ideas in text. With both artificial and natural texts, the presence of details enhanced recall of major idea units. Results are discussed in terms of an elaboration hypothesis.
Predicting Learning from Text: A Comparison of Two Procedures
Authors: Piché Gene L. , Slater Wayne H.
Published: December 2009

Much research focused on learning from text is concerned with the effect of level of information on recall. To determine information levels, hierarchical text analyses are used to parse texts, and a number of these have been shown to correlate with recall. This study compares two such procedures, the Johnson (1970) and Meyer (1975) procedures, to determine their power to predict recall of information from texts. In two experiments, a total of 194 university freshmen read one of two expository passages and wrote a recall protocol. These protocols were then analyzed by independent raters for the presence of information from the passages read. Johnson and Meyer analyses were used to examine recall patterns. The main effect of hierarchical level was significant for both analyses, but the mean percentage of recall increased as a function of hierarchical level as determined by the Johnson analysis and decreased as a function of hierarchical level as determined by the Meyer analysis. Implications derived from the study are discussed.
The Design of Reading Research
Authors: Calfee Robert C.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of factorial design methods for research on reading and reading instruction. I will begin with a brief sketch of the historical context behind the present state of affairs in experimental research on reading. Next comes a section separating the concepts of “experiment” and “design”—the remainder of the paper focuses on the topic of factorial design. While my remarks emphasize applications to reading research, it will be obvious that the issues hold for most areas of the social sciences.
Enhancing Children's Reading Comprehension through Instruction in Narrative Structure
Authors: Fitzgerald Jill , Spiegel Dixie Lee
Published: December 2009

Twenty average and below average fourth grade readers identified as lacking a keen sense of narrative structure were randomly assigned to one of two treatments: special instruction designed to develop knowledge of story structure or instruction in dictionary usage and word study. There were two phases of instruction, a short-term intensive phase and a long-term intermittent phase. The instruction in narrative structure did enhance story structure knowledge and had a strong positive effect on reading comprehension when compared to the dictionary usage and word study group. The effects were realized by the end of phase one; they were maintained during phase two, but the group differences did not increase over time.
Main Idea Prequestions as Adjunct Aids with Good and Low-Average Middle Grade Readers
Authors: Memory David M.
Published: December 2009

A technique for helping sixth-grade readers understand the main ideas of cause-effect passages was assessed. During each of three practice sessions, 48 low-average and good readers in the experimental group read a passage accompanied by written directions to read carefully and by a why prequestion and then answered main idea and literal follow-up questions. During the same sessions, 48 students in the control group were given identical directions to read carefully but did not receive prequestions. During the first of two testing sessions, each group read two passages following these same procedures. During the second testing session, the students read two additional passages, but the experimental group received only general directions like the control group. Results from the two testing sessions indicated that the why prequestions helped the low-average readers, but not the good readers, to understand main ideas and did not interfere with learning of other significant passage information.
The Detection of Reader-Based versus Text-Based Inconsistencies and the Effects of Direct Training of Comprehension Monitoring among Upper-Grade Poor Comprehenders
Authors: Reis Ron , Spekman Nancy J.
Published: December 2009

This paper reports the results of two studies which focus on the comprehension monitoring abilities of middle-grade poor comprehenders. In Experiment 1, the ability of 54 middle-school students to detect and correct text-based and reader-based inconsistencies was compared. The results indicated that the students could detect and correct reader-based inconsistencies to a significantly greater degree than text-based inconsistencies. Twenty-four of the same students participated in Experiment 2, which was designed to investigate the effects of direct training of comprehension monitoring. One-half of the students received direct instruction in two sessions; the other half served as a control group. Following training, the experimental group scored significantly higher on reader-based inconsistencies than the control group, but no significant group differences were found for text-based inconsistencies. Implications for future research are discussed.
Reading Achievement and Attitude Productivity among 17-Year Olds
Authors: Walberg Herbert J. , Tsai Shiow-ling
Published: December 2009

To probe the association of reading achievement and attitude with productive factors in learning, the scores of 2,300 17-year-old students from a National Assessment of Educational Progress sample were regressed on 18 indices of seven factors. The achievement correlations with the factors are close to the averages revealed by recent quantitative syntheses of bivariate studies. A considerable amount of the reliable or adjusted variance in achievement, 51%, is accounted for by motivation, frequency of spare time reading, radio listening, socioeconomic status, home environment, the use of English at home, race, and public-school attendance. Enjoyment of reading and self-concept as a reader are similarly accountable, but attitudes about the importance of reading and freedom to read are less predictable.
Attention Allocation and Performance in Goal-Directed Reading: Age Difference in Reading Flexibility
Authors: Ramsel Dee , Grabe Mark
Published: December 2009

One hundred and seventeen fourth-grade, sixth-grade, and college-age students studied stories with two different sets of instructions. One set of instructions asked the students to read carefully (control condition); the other set of instructions directed the students to prepare to answer previously-memorized assigned questions (question-cued treatment condition). Viewing times were recorded for story segments both relevant and irrelevant to the assigned questions. Students were then asked to respond to the assigned (relevant) and unassigned (irrelevant) questions. All age groups in the question-cued treatment condition were similar in spending more time on the segments containing answers to assigned questions; however, only sixth-grade and college-age readers in the question-cued treatment condition recalled significantly more relevant than irrelevant information. The results suggest that an age change in the differential retention of relevant and irrelevant information, when questions are known beforehand, is not necessarily contingent upon a similar age change in attention allocation, as measured by the recorded viewing time. These results are interpreted as supporting developmental differences in the ability to effectively engage in purposive processing, a metacognitive skill.
The Effect of Prior Knowledge on the Question Answering of Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Holmes Betty C.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the question answering of good and poor readers when their prior knowledge for the answers to questions was determined before reading to be accurate, inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. Fifty-six fifth-grade students with equivalent I.Q.'s, but varying in reading ability and extent of general prior knowledge for the passage topics, participated in the study. Subjects read an expository passage written on their approximate instructional reading level. The results indicated that poor readers did not use prior knowledge to the same extent as did good readers. This was especially true when students were learning new information. The results also suggest that poor readers have difficulty answering text implicit questions even if they possess adequate prior knowledge for passage topics.
Differential Word Knowledge and Reading Comprehension
Authors: Stahl Steven
Published: December 2009

This study examined the effects of vocabulary pre-instruction on reading comprehension. Two vocabulary training treatments, chosen on the basis of a theoretical framework for vocabulary instruction, and a control were used with 28 average fifth-grade readers. For two of three order groups, both training treatments produced significantly higher scores on passage tests, and, for all children, both training treatments produced significantly higher scores on two sentence comprehension measures and a multiple-choice synonym test, indicating that pre-instruction had a significant effect on both comprehension and vocabulary learning. In addition, a mixed method of vocabulary instruction, or one which provided both definitional and contextual information about the taught words, produced significantly higher comprehension scores than did a definitional method.
The Effects of Cohesive Conjunctions, Reference, Response Rhetorical Predicates, and Topic on Reading Rate and Written Free Recall
Authors: Roen Duane H.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the effects of four textual variables on two dependent measures. Subjects, 240 university freshmen, each read one of 24 passage versions. The 24 versions included all possible combinations of four variables: topic (Neanderthals, Pre-Neolithic Farming), cohesive conjunctions (low, moderate, high), reference (high, low), and response rhetorical predicates (present, absent). The two dependent measures employed were reading rate and written free recall. Results revealed statistically significant differences in recall due to topic and cohesive conjunctions. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.
The Frequency and Placement of Main Ideas in Children's Social Studies Textbooks: A Modified Replication of Braddock's Research on Topic Sentences
Authors: Baumann James F. , Serra Judith K.
Published: December 2009

Braddock (1974) evaluated adult, expository reading materials for the frequency and placement of topic sentences (main ideas). Results indicated that relatively infrequently were main ideas directly stated in expository prose, and that paragraphs opened with a simple topic sentence only 13% of the time. This study was a modified replication of Braddock's research in which second-, fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade social studies textbooks were examined for the presence of explicit and implicit main ideas in paragraphs and short passages. Results were generally consistent with Braddock's findings on topic sentences: only 27% of all short passages that were examined in the social studies textbooks contained explicit passage main ideas; only 44% of all paragraphs contained explicit main ideas; and only 27% of all paragraphs opened with a directly-stated main idea. Implications for teachers, publishers, and reading researchers are discussed.
Topicalization and Memory for Main Ideas in Prose
Authors: Bridge Connie A. , Belmore Susan M. , Moskow Susan P. , Cohen Sheila S. , Matthews Patricia D.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments compared the effects of text structure and processing task requirements on memory for the main idea of a passage. College students identified as good or poor readers read a series of short passages in which an initial topic sentence was either present (topicalized) or absent (non-topicalized). In Experiment 1, all subjects were required to generate a title for each passage during reading and then were given a forced-choice recognition test for the main idea of each passage. The results showed that subjects performed better on topicalized passages than non-topicalized passages in both the title generation task and recognition memory. In the second experiment, subjects performed one of three meaningful processing tasks: rating comprehensibility of the passage, choosing the most appropriate main idea, or generating the main idea in their own words. There were no differences due to passage type for either processing task performance or recall of the main ideas, nor were good and poor readers differentially affected by passage type. Generating a main idea sentence following reading resulted in significantly better memory for both good and poor readers than did rating comprehensibility. These results support the position that generative activities facilitate learning of main ideas, even for passages with poor text structure. This finding is important in view of recent studies indicating that the majority of paragraphs written for both children and adults lack an explicit main idea sentence.
Content Coverage and Contextual Reading in Reading Groups
Authors: Allington Richard L.
Published: December 2009

Teacher logs for 600 reading group sessions from grades 1, 3, and 5 were analyzed in an effort to identify whether the amount and mode of assigned contextual reading differed systematically between reading groups. Analyses indicated that groups designated as good readers read more total words and more words silently than groups designated as poor readers ( p < .01). There were, however, no significant differences in the number of words read orally by the two groups, which indicated that the greater amounts of silent reading done by good reader groups account primarily for differences in amount of contextual reading noted. These data reinforce and extend the findings of other research on differences in content coverage and the pacing of students through reading materials.
The Effect of Related and Unrelated Details on the Recall of Major Ideas in Prose
Authors: Mohr Patricia , Glover John A. , Ronning Royce R.
Published: December 2009

A series of three experiments was conducted to examine the effect of related and unrelated details on the recall of major ideas in text. Experiment 1 varied the number of related and unrelated details supporting major ideas within paragraphs and found recall determined by the number of related and unrelated details. Experiment 2 was designed to determine if directions given readers that required them to process unrelated details would influence recall. The results suggested that the number of related and unrelated details had an effect on the recall of major ideas similar to that seen in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 was constructed such that readers were required to carefully process unrelated details in a categorizing task. The results supported those of Experiments 1 and 2.
Discourse Structure: Expectations of Beginning Readers and Readability of Text
Authors: Gourley Judith W.
Published: December 2009

This paper examines discourse factors as sources of difficulty in texts for beginning readers. The least readable portions of three primer and trade texts were identified through miscue data from nine beginning readers. Analysis of children's miscues and retellings showed patterns of difficulty related to (a) connective devices, (b) narrative voice, (c) patterned repetition, and (d) the role of pictures. Results suggested that beginning readers were more successful when text met their expectations about the use of connective and rhetorical devices and when patterned repetition and pictures were related to discourse structure. This study challenges conventional notions of readability and indicates the need for a broader consideration of text characteristics which support learning to read.
Students' Self-Questioning and Summarizing as Reading Study Strategies
Authors: King James R. , Biggs Shirley , Lipsky Sally
Published: December 2009

The effects of student-generated prequestions and summaries were compared as reading study strategies for college-age subjects. Eighty-seven freshmen and sophomores from several sections of a developmental reading course were trained to use one of two study approaches: (a) phrasing and answering higher level questions while reading or (b) constructing and checking summary statements while reading. An additional number of students from the same population served as members of a control group. The results of three post-treatment tests–free recall, an objective test, and an essay test–were used as dependent measures. The results indicated that training in summary generation as an adjunct study activity significantly increased college students' free recall as well as performance on the objective test and, especially, on the essay test. Training in the interspersed prequestioning significantly facilitated students' performance on the objective test recall but not on free recall or the essay test. It was concluded that college students benefited from engaging in encoding strategies during reading and that specific strategies may be strongly related to posttest measures.
Does Environmental Print Identification Lead Children into Word Reading?
Authors: Masonheimer Patricia E. , Drum Priscilla A. , Ehri Linnea C.
Published: December 2009

The question under study was whether context-free word reading skill evolves out of extensive experience with environmental print. Selected for the study were preschoolers aged three to five years who could identify at least 8 out of 10 samples of environmental print, such as a McDonald's sign in a photograph of the restaurant, and hence were environmental print “experts.” Their ability to read various types of print samples was examined. They were shown signs and labels printed either with full context cues or only with logos or without any context cues or logos. These stimuli were printed with and without color cues. Also, letters in the print were altered to assess subjects' awareness of specific graphic cues in the labels and signs (e.g., OcDonald's for McDonald's). Results revealed that subjects' ability to read print declined somewhat when full contexts were removed and only logos remained. Performance dropped dramatically when logos were removed and only stylized print remained. Color cues made no contribution to identification. Letter alterations were not detected, even when subjects were prompted to look for errors. Assessment of word reading ability revealed not a continuous distribution of scores but rather a bimodal distribution indicating two distinct groups of subjects: 96 who could read few if any words, and 6 who could read most of the words. The pattern of failure on the print samples characterized only the prereaders. The readers identified print correctly regardless of context, and they detected letter errors easily. Since most subjects exhibited little awareness of graphic cues and little word reading skill, it is concluded that environmental print experience does not by itself lead subjects into word reading.