Short-term retention of discourse during reading.

In 2 experiments, 68 3rd, 4th, and 6th graders at different reading levels were given a probe memory task assessing the availability in working memory of recently read discourse segments. During oral and silent reading (Exp I), retention was related to segment length and the occurrence of a sentence boundary. The limits on retention were tested by increasing segment length and difficulty (Exp II). For these segments, performance of less skilled readers was uniformly low, whereas that of the skilled and older readers continued to be affected by length and sentence boundary. Relationships between individual differences in verbal coding processes and short-term retention of discourse as well as implications for text comprehension models are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overcoming inefficient reading skills.

Although experienced readers vary considerably in reading skill, skill measures often are uncorrelated with literal comprehension. According to the Compensatory-Encoding Model of reading, less automated reading skills and a small verbal working-memory capacity can be surmounted by slowing reading rate, pausing, looking back, and by other means. This important prediction is largely untested. In the present study, 76 readers were assessed on their levels of verbal efficiency. They were also recorded thinking aloud while reading text. Protocols were analyzed for evidence of compensation deployment. Analyses revealed that those with less automated reading skills deployed them more often. As expected, verbal efficiency was uncorrelated with literal comprehension but verbal working-memory capacity was positively correlated with inferential comprehension. Educational implications are derived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill: Some adult comparisons.

Three groups of college readers were compared on several information-processing and language comprehension tasks that tap the cognitive components of reading. The groups were skilled readers with high verbal and nonverbal abilities, low-skilled readers with a disparity between verbal and nonverbal abilities, and low-skilled readers who were low in both verbal and nonverbal ability. Results confirm the importance of word processing and general language comprehension in distinguishing skilled from less skilled readers. Results also support the view that reading ability is best described as a continuous function and provide evidence of the reemergence of lower level processing skills in adults as a function of text difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading comprehension and working memory in learning-disabled readers: Is the phonological loop more important than the executive system?

This investigation explores the contribution of two working memory systems (the articulatory loop and the central executive) to the performance differences between learning-disabled (LD) and skilled readers. Performances of LD, chronological age (CA) matched, and reading level-matched children were compared on measures of phonological processing accuracy and speed (articulatory system), long-term memory (LTM) accuracy and speed, and executive processing. The results indicated that (a) LD readers were inferior on measures of articulatory, LTM, and executive processing; (b) LD readers were superior to RL readers on measures of executive processing, but were comparable to RL readers on measures of the articulatory and LTM system; (c) executive processing differences remained significant between LD and CA-matched children when measures of reading comprehension, articulatory processes, and LTM processes were partialed from the analysis; and (d) executive processing contributed significant variance to reading comprehension when measures of the articulatory and LTM systems were entered into a hierarchical regression model. In summary, LD readers experience constraints in the articulatory and LTM system, but constraints mediate only some of the influence of executive processing on reading comprehension. Further, LD readers suffer executive processing problems nonspecific to their reading comprehension problems.     

Print exposure as a predictor of word reading and reading comprehension in disabled and nondisabled readers.

The relation of print exposure, measured by a revised version of A. E. Cunningham and K. E. Stanovich's (1990) Title Recognition Test (TRT), to word reading and reading comprehension was examined in disabled and nondisabled readers, Grades 5–9. In disabled readers, the TRT was a significant predictor of word reading when phonological skill was accounted for but not when orthographic ability was added to the regression equation, suggesting that the TRT overlaps considerably with orthographic skill. The TRT significantly predicted nondisabled readers' word reading after both phonological and orthographic skills were accounted for. The TRT contributed significantly to reading comprehension once variance was partialed from higher order reading processes for disabled readers only. The TRT's power to predict comprehension may be ascribed to the effects of print exposure on automaticity of word recognition, knowledge, or familiarization with text structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of word identification speed in skilled and less skilled beginning readers.

Three phases comprise the development of word reading skill: accuracy, automaticity, and speed. The 3rd phase is reached when components of the identification process (i.e., graphic, phonological, semantic) are unitized in memory for particular words. Attainment of this final phase was explored with 2 experiments. In Exp I with Ss from 1st-, 2nd-, and 4th-grade classes, skilled and less skilled readers identified familiar printed words, CVC nonwords, digits, and pictures. Attainment of unitized speeds to printed words was inferred if Ss identified words as rapidly as digits. This level was exhibited by skilled readers in all grades but by less skilled readers only in 4th grade. Unitized speed with CVCs was evident among 2nd- and 4th-grade skilled readers, but not among less skilled readers at any grade. In Exp II, 18 1st-grade and 19 2nd-grade poor readers practiced reading familiar words and CVCs. Practice boosted RTs to CVCs but not to words read accurately before training, and RTs to both remained slower than digit RTs, indicating that practice promotes the development of unitized speeds very slowly in less skilled readers. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigating differences in general comprehension skill.

For adults, skill at comprehending written language correlates highly with skill at comprehending spoken language. Does this general comprehension skill extend beyond language-based modalities? And if it does, what cognitive processes and mechanisms differentiate individuals who are more versus less proficient in general comprehension skill? In our first experiment, we found that skill in comprehending written and auditory stories correlates highly with skill in comprehending nonverbal, picture stories. This finding supports the hypothesis that general comprehension skill extends beyond language. We also found support for the hypotheses that poorer access to recently comprehended information marks less proficient general comprehension skill (Experiment 2) because less skilled comprehenders develop too many mental substructures during comprehension (Experiment 3), perhaps because they inefficiently suppress irrelevant information (Experiment 4). Thus, the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in capturing and representing the structure of comprehensible information provide one source of individual differences in general comprehension skill. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes as predictors of word recognition and reading comprehension in learning-disabled and skilled readers: Revisiting the specificity hypothesis.

Examines how cognitive processes interrelate as well as predict learning-disabled (LD) readers' word recognition and reading comprehension performance. Correlations between phonological, orthographic, semantic, metacognitive, and working memory measures with reading performance were examined in LD and skilled readers (aged 8–12 yrs). LD Ss were deficient on all cognitive processes compared with skilled Ss, but these differences do not reflect IQ scores. Reading ability group differences emerged on a component composed primarily of working memory measures (referred to as "g") as well as unique components, suggesting that these differences emerge on both general and specific (modular) processes. G best predicts reading comprehension for both groups, and phonological awareness best predicts skilled Ss' pseudoword reading, whereas g best predicts LD Ss' pseudoword performance. Overall, LD Ss' information processing difficulties were described within a general working memory model that views such children as having difficulty accessing and coordinating both general and specific processes. Results suggest that the cognitive processes that contribute to reading deficits are best understood in the context of their combination with other operations rather than in isolation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive significance of early giftedness: The case of precocious reading.

Results of a longitudinal study of 59 10–22 year olds who had been precocious readers when first tested at 5–6 years of age suggest that extraordinary early achievement in reading predicts above-average, but not necessarily extraordinary, ability in reading and related skill areas during the middle elementary school years, as measured by performance on Level 18 of the California Achievement Test (CAT). Median CAT subtest scores were between 1 and 2 SDs above age-appropriate grade norms. Verbal Ability at 5–6 years of age predicted individual differences in precocious readers' later reading comprehension accuracy as well or better than initial reading skills did. General Reading Ability, reading Speed, and letter naming speed at 5–6 years were associated with speed to complete the reading comprehension subtest of the CAT. This study illustrates theoretical and methodological issues that must be addressed in other investigations of early development of giftedness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill as a source of individual differences in the processing of instructional texts.

Evidence was found in support of the hypothesis that skilled readers are more likely than less skilled readers to successfully retrieve an appropriate procedure by reading an instructional text. Subjects completed a standardized reading comprehension test and a test designed to reflect their processing of an instructional text and an example. The instructional text and the example either described the same procedure for answering test items (no conflict) or described different and mutually exclusive procedures (conflict). Subjects who had higher scores on the reading test were more likely to notice the conflict between the instructional text and the example, and those who noticed the conflict were more likely to use the instructional text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences for self-regulating task-oriented reading activities.

The goal of this study is to analyze the self-regulation processes present in task-oriented reading activities. In the 1st experiment, we examined the following self-regulation processes in the context of answering questions about an available text: (a) monitoring the comprehension of the question, (b) self-regulating the search process, and (c) monitoring the decision to search. Skilled and less skilled comprehenders from 7th and 8th grades read 2 texts and answered 16 questions while all their actions were recorded on a computer. We hypothesized that skilled comprehenders would differ from less skilled comprehenders on the 1st 2 processes on the basis of their general comprehension skills but that their superiority in the 3rd process would be based on specific characteristics of the interaction between the reader and the text. The results support our hypotheses. In the 2nd experiment, we hypothesized that monitoring the decision to search would be equivalent to judgments of learning (JOLs). Eighth graders made JOLs before answering every question, and then they decided whether to search the text. Our hypothesis was confirmed. Our study reveals that task-oriented reading places specific demands on readers related to metacognitive monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential utilization of syntactic and semantic information by skilled and less skilled readers in the intermediate grades.

Administered to 270 4th–6th graders the Culture Fair Intelligence Test and the Comprehension subtest of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. Matched pairs of skilled and less skilled readers then read aloud a variety of material in cloze procedure format and printed in geometric transformations. The extent to which the syntactic and semantic constraints of the text guided their performance was assessed. Both on the cloze procedure and the transformed texts, skilled readers made greater use of grammatical and contextual information. Furthermore, there was no significant improvement across grade levels in the proportions of syntactically and semantically appropriate responses. The stability of differences between skilled and less skilled readers suggests the possibility that differential utilization of syntactic and semantic cues by beginning readers might contribute to differences among them in the development of reading skill. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the interplay between automatic processes and cognitive resources in reading.

An account was tested of the development of the interplay between automatic processes and cognitive resources in reading. According to compensatory-encoding theory, with advancing skill, readers increasingly keep automatic processes from faltering and provide timely, accurate data to working memory by pausing, looking back, rereading, and compensating in other ways when automatic processes fail. Reading skill profiles (e.g., word naming, semantic access, working memory capacity) were obtained from 71 third graders, 68 fifth graders, and 72 seventh graders from a university lab school or a public school (ages 7 to 15; 146 Caucasians, 61 African Americans, 2 Native Americans, 2 Latino Americans). Children participated in an unrestricted reading task (no time or performance pressure) and were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 levels of 3 experimental manipulations of restriction on reading: time pressure or no pressure, constant reading rate or variable reading rate, read silently or read aloud. Regression analyses revealed that developmental level and restriction moderated the reading skill level-comprehension relationship, and restriction lowered comprehension when it overwhelmed skills, especially for younger readers. Verbally inefficient readers compensated most often, and older readers compensated most efficiently. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between single word decoding and reading comprehension skill.

Conducted a study with 64 3rd and 5th graders from a predominantly White, working-class neighborhood. Ss classified as skilled and less skilled in reading comprehension, on the basis of their scores on the Reading Subtest of the Metropolitan Achievement Test, differed in vocalization latencies to single printed words. Overall, vocalization latencies were shorter for the skilled group than the less skilled group, and there was an interaction between word type and comprehension skill. Comprehension groups showed large vocalization latency differences for pseudowords and for low frequency English words but smaller differences for high frequency English words. Knowledge of word meanings may be a less significant factor in vocalization latency for the skilled group than for the unskilled group. It is suggested that at least some unskilled comprehenders may have failed to develop automatic decoding skills and that this failure may lead to diminished comprehension skills sharing a common processing capacity with nonautomatic decoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recall of thematically relevant material by adolescent good and poor readers as a function of written versus oral presentation.

36 7th grade good and poor readers read one prose passage and listened to a 2nd one. They were tested, following each passage, for comprehension and recall of that passage. Under both reading and listening conditions, good readers recalled a greater proportion of the stories, and the likelihood of their recalling a particular unit was a clear function of the units's structural importance; poor readers recalled less of the stories, and their recall protocols were not as clearly related to variations in structural importance. Performance following reading was significantly correlated with performance following listening. Results indicate that poor readers suffer from a general comprehension deficit and that similar processes are involved in reading and listening comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Syllable coding in printed-word recognition by children and adults.

Studied phonological coding in printed-word recognition in English by examining the use made of syllable information by skilled and less skilled readers in 2 experiments using 32 2nd graders and 81 undergraduates. Stimuli were bisyllabic frequent nouns. Syllable coding was used by the less-skilled 2nd graders but not by either the better 2nd graders or adults in lexical decision tasks. However, adults did make use of syllable information when the direct use of letter information was slowed by presenting items in alternating upper- and lowercase letters. Differences between children and adults in their use of the syllable information in pseudowords are interpreted as indicating that for skilled adult readers, the major focus of activity in word recognition is at the letter level. For immature readers, the process of word recognition is less analytic and involves a more extensive lexical search based on a reduced amount of letter information. The results are discussed in terms of an interactive model of reading. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of reading achievement to verbal processing abilities.

Examined the relationship between reading achievement and ability to process verbal information in 67 achieving and 67 nonachieving readers drawn from 4th-grade classes. Verbal processing abilities were evaluated with 10 instruments, which included measures of memory span, associative learning, semantic association, automatic word processing, and time taken to name pictures, read words, and recode (pronounce) pseudowords. Achieving readers performed better on all measures except automatic word processing. Factor analysis yielded 3 factors, labeled Verbal Coding Speed, Memory Span, and Verbal Operations. Reading comprehension had high loadings on the 1st and 3rd factors but had a low loading on Memory Span. Results suggest that 1 primary component of the reading achievement of 4th-grade children is the ability to perform operations or manipulations on verbal material. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognitive differences between skilled and less skilled readers: Remediating deficits through story grammar and attribution training.

Designed a metacognitive intervention program to remediate the failures of 42 4th-grade boys in using metacognitive skills to aid their reading comprehension. The program consisted of 2 components: story grammar training, designed to increase comprehension monitoring; and attribution training, designed to increase awareness of effort in efficient reading. Ss were assigned to 3 groups: 1 group received both components and the other 2 groups each received one component alone. 14 skilled 4th-grade male readers served as a contrast group. Maintenance was assessed through free and probed recall; generalization was assessed through a metareading test and an error detection and correction task. Results indicate that strategy training produced dramatic gains in comprehension. Only Ss receiving attribution training alone showed poorer performance than skilled readers. Partial support was obtained for generalization on the metareading assessment. It is concluded that strategy training improved poor readers' comprehension by providing them with metacognitive skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading disability: The role of language deficiencies.

This article summarizes the role of language deficiencies in reading disability, focusing on two areas that appear particularly critical to reading skill: language processing abilities and the awareness of phonological structure. The distinguishing characteristics of disabled readers are shown to be consistent with theoretical and experimental findings about skilled reading. These characteristics also provide direction for the remediation of reading problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships of three components of reading fluency to reading comprehension.

This study examined the relationships of 3 levels of reading fluency--the individual word, the syntactic unit, and the whole passage--to reading comprehension among 278 5th graders heterogeneous in reading ability. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that reading fluency at each level related uniquely to performance on a standardized reading comprehension test in a model including inferencing skill and background knowledge. The study supports an automaticity effect for word recognition speed and an automaticity-like effect related to syntactic processing skill. In addition, hierarchical regressions using longitudinal data suggest that fluency and reading comprehension have a bidirectional relationship. The discussion emphasizes the theoretical expansion of reading fluency to 3 levels of cognitive processes and the relations of these processes to reading comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)