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)     

Working memory and individual differences in comprehension and memory of text.

Attempted to determine whether working memory processes measured by the Reading Span Test would be strongly associated with the ability to integrate information from different parts of a passage to infer an idea not explicitly stated in the passage. The study also assessed the influence of working memory processes on ability to encode explicitly stated and inferred information into long-term memory. 29 undergraduates were administered a letter span test and a reading span test. The ability to store and process information in working memory was shown to be positively related to (a) scores on a standardized reading comprehension test, (b) long-term memory encoding and retrieval of explicitly stated text information, and (c) integration of text information for the purpose of drawing inferences. Variations in only the storage capacity of working memory were not related to these measures. It is concluded that the ability to coordinate storage and process functions in working memory may be an important determinant of text processing skill, especially with respect to encoding information into long-term memory. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's Reading Comprehension Ability: Concurrent Prediction by Working Memory, Verbal Ability, and Component Skills.

The authors report data from a longitudinal study that addresses the relations between working memory capacity and reading comprehension skills in children aged 8, 9, and 11 years. At each time point, the authors assessed children's reading ability, vocabulary and verbal skills, performance on 2 working memory assessments (sentence-span and digit working memory), and component skills of comprehension. At each time point, working memory and component skills of comprehension (inference making, comprehension monitoring, story structure knowledge) predicted unique variance in reading comprehension after word reading ability and vocabulary and verbal ability controls. Further analyses revealed that the relations between reading comprehension and both inference making and comprehension monitoring were not wholly mediated by working memory. Rather, these component skills explained their own unique variance in reading comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of functional working memory in the reading span test.

Two issues were investigated in 2 experiments: (1) the validity of a reading span test that combined a knowledge verification task with a secondary task of word memorization and (2) the hypothesis that word recall reflects the amount of working memory that is functional in reading. In Exp 1, the validity and reliability of the reading span measure were determined. In Exp 2, it was reasoned that if word recall reflected functional working memory in reading, then 2 results should be observed. The 1st predicted result was that prior exposure to sentences used in the reading span test would release working memory resources and improve word recall. The 2nd was that word recall, though correlated with general working memory and verbal knowledge measures, would add to these scores in predicting comprehension. Both sets of results were obtained, supporting the hypothesis that the reading span test measures functional working memory in reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is "working memory capacity" just another name for word knowledge?

This study is concerned with whether the correlation between complex working memory spans and reading comprehension occurs because the complex spans reflect the capacity of a structural working memory that plays a causal role in comprehension or because a 3rd factor, word knowledge, plays a causal role in both the span tasks and comprehension. If the latter hypothesis is correct, the correlation between word span and reading comprehension should be large when span is tested with low-frequency words but should not occur when span is tested with very familiar words. 90 college students were tested on a simple and a complex version of the word span task with high- and low-frequency words. The Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (VSAT) was used as a measure of reading comprehension. The correlation between span and VSAT was somewhat higher when span was tested with low-frequency words, but was significant with both low- and high-frequency words. This suggests that both word knowledge and a content-free working memory play a causal role in the relationship between word span and higher level cognitive tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term longitudinal change in cognitive performance in later life.

Changes in mean performance on memory, information processing, and intellectual ability tasks over a 3-yr period were examined. The sample consisted of 328 community-dwelling men and women (from an original sample of 484 individuals) aged 55–86 yrs. Ss completed tasks yielding measures of verbal processing time, working memory, implicit memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, world knowledge, reading comprehension, word recall, and text recall. The results showed significant average decline on working memory, verbal fluency, and world knowledge. There were also interactions for 2 processing time measures and working memory, showing greater decline in the earlier-born cohort group than in the later-born cohort group. A step-down analysis revealed that covarying declines in other variables, including processing time, did not eliminate significant declines in working memory, verbal fluency, and world knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new tool for measuring and understanding individual differences in the component processes of reading comprehension.

We propose a new measure of individual differences in reading comprehension ability that is theoretically motivated, is easy to administer, and that has high predictive power. Participants read 3-sentence paragraphs that describe the relations among a set of real and artificial terms, and then they respond to true–false statements that assess their ability to access and integrate long-term memory knowledge with text information, to make text-based inferences, and to recall text. The components of our task predict performance on a test of global reading comprehension and on a range of specific comprehension tests, each of which draws more heavily on one particular component. Our task is better at predicting reading comprehension than is a typical working memory span task and has the potential for advancing researchers' understanding and measurement of a range of linguistic and cognitive tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual Differences in the Inference of Word Meanings From Context: The Influence of Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Knowledge, and Memory Capacity.

Two studies investigated the ability to use contextual information in stories to infer the meanings of novel vocabulary by 9-10-year-olds with good and poor reading comprehension. Across studies, children with poor reading comprehension were impaired when the processing demands of the task were greatest. In Study 2, working memory capacity was related to performance, but short-term memory span and memory for the literal content of the text were not. Children with poor reading comprehension were not impaired in learning novel vocabulary taught through direct instruction, but children with both weak reading comprehension and vocabulary were. Implications for the relation between vocabulary development and text comprehension are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in the efficiency of word recognition.

Examined the hypothesis that the attentional demands of word recognition covary with other measures of reading efficiency. Individual differences in efficiency were indexed by (1) speed and accuracy of lexical access, (2) obligatory activation of phonological codes, and (3) working memory capacity. The attentional demands of word recognition were measured with a dual-task technique. Ss performed naming and probe-detection tasks separately (single task) and in combination (dual task). The results showed that single-task to dual-task decrements in performance on the naming and probe tasks were predicted by measures of the speed and accuracy of lexical access, obligatory activation of phonological codes, and efficiency of working memory. These findings provide support for the widespread assumption that the attentional demands of basic reading processes are a source of individual differences in reading skill. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Relation among error detection, sentence verification, and low-level reading skills of fourth graders.

The author explored the relation among low-level reading skills, sentence verification, and error detection in 4th graders. Literal text comprehension was measured with the Sentence Verification Technique (J. M. Royer, in press) procedure. A higher (strategic) level of text comprehension was assessed with the error detection paradigm. Thus low- and high-level text comprehension were correlated with low-level reading skill: decoding, lexical access, verbal working memory span, and each other. Although literal text comprehension and low-level reading measures were correlated, both were uncorrelated with error detection. A second study deomonstrated that 4th graders' error detection was best predicted by their tendency to generate inferences while reading. These data suggest that although literal text comprehension is dependent on low-level reading processes, strategic reading competence reflects the 4th grader's tendency to go beyond literal information in a text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cognitive and linguistic foundations of early reading development: A Norwegian latent variable longitudinal study.

The authors present the results of a 2-year longitudinal study of 228 Norwegian children beginning some 12 months before formal reading instruction began. The relationships between a range of cognitive and linguistic skills (letter knowledge, phoneme manipulation, visual–verbal paired-associate learning, rapid automatized naming (RAN), short-term memory, and verbal and nonverbal ability) were investigated and related to later measures of word recognition in reading. Letter knowledge, phoneme manipulation, and RAN were independent longitudinal predictors of early reading (word recognition) skills in the regular Norwegian orthography. Early reading skills initially appeared well described as a unitary construct that then showed rapid differentiation into correlated subskills (word decoding, orthographic choice, text reading, and nonword reading) that showed very high levels of longitudinal stability. The results are related to current ideas about the cognitive foundations of early reading skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resilient readers? University students who are poor recoders but sometimes good text comprehenders.

The authors screened 194 university students to determine whether some could comprehend text well despite very poor recoding skills, measured by pseudoword reading. Most of the 17 poorest recoders had never been identified as reading disabled. We classified 6 poor recoders as "resilient readers" because their text comprehension scores were average or above, relative to the sample as a whole. They were indistinguishable from 6 matched typical readers on measures of text comprehension derived from oral-reading think-aloud protocols. There was no evidence that the resilient readers relied on superior verbal ability or working memory to compensate for poor recoding. The resilient readers were poor at spelling, reading isolated words, and reading text rapidly, but they showed adequate phonemic awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses.

A relationship has consistently been found between measures of working memory and reading comprehension. Four hypotheses for this relationship were tested in 3 experiments. In the 1st 2 experiments, a moving window procedure was used to present the operation–word and reading span tasks. High- and low-span Ss did not differentially trade off time on the elements of the tasks and the to-be-remembered word. Furthermore, the correlation between span and comprehension was undiminished when the viewing times were partialed out. Exp 3 compared a traditional experimenter-paced simple word-span and an S-paced span in their relationship with comprehension. The experimenter-paced word-span correlated with comprehension, but the S-paced span did not. The results of all 3 experiments support a general capacity explanation for the relationship between working memory and comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are general resource notions still viable in reading research?

Conducted 2 experiments to explore the interplay between reading subcomponent efficiency and comprehension processes in terms of resource competition. In Exp 1, adults were tested on the efficiency of lexical access, semantic memory access, verbal working memory span, contextual priming, and the efficiency with which anaphors are resolved. The profile was used to predict the efficiency of high-level inference generation when readers control the pace of reading. In Exp 2, this profile was used to predict the efficiency of high-level inferencing as text was presented at a preset rate. The data suggest that when readers control reading rate, they compensate for subcomponent inefficiency such that high-level comprehension is unrelated to this inefficiency. However, when they must follow along, those who possess more efficient reading subcomponents make high-level inferences more efficiently. (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)     

What's meaning got to do with it: The role of vocabulary in word reading and reading comprehension.

There is at present no clear consensus as to the nature of the relations between oral vocabulary and specific literacy skills. The present study distinguished between vocabulary breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge to better explain the role of oral vocabulary in various reading skills. A sample of 60 typically developing Grade 4 students was assessed on measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary breadth, depth of vocabulary knowledge, decoding, visual word recognition, and reading comprehension. Concurrent analyses revealed that each distinct reading skill was related to the vocabulary measures in a unique manner. Receptive vocabulary breadth was the only oral vocabulary variable that predicted decoding performance after controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence. In contrast, expressive vocabulary breadth predicted visual word recognition, whereas depth of vocabulary knowledge predicted reading comprehension. The results are discussed in terms of interrelations between phonological and semantic factors in the acquisition of distinct reading skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of nonword repetition as a test of phonological memory in children with Down syndrome

Recent research suggests a significant relationship between verbal short-term memory and normal language development. Although poor short-term memory and impaired language are features of Down syndrome there has been little investigation of the relationship between these functions in this population, and no studies have included the nonword repetition test devised by Gathercole and Baddeley on which much of the evidence from normal development is based. This study reports the use of nonword repetition with 33 children and teenagers with Down syndrome aged from 5 to 18 years, and investigates the relationship between this test and other memory and language measures. Word repetition was included as an indirect control for the perceptual and speech impairments often associated with this group. Words were repeated significantly more successfully than nonwords and both these tasks were sensitive to word length. Nonword repetition was significantly correlated with age, and when age and nonverbal cognitive ability were controlled, nonword repetition was significantly correlated with all other language-based memory measures, i.e. auditory digit span, word span, sentence repetition, and fluency, and also with memory for a sequence of hand movements, but not with memory for faces or a visual digit span task. There was also a significant relationship between nonword repetition and receptive vocabulary, language comprehension, and reading. When performance on the word repetition task was controlled in addition to age and nonverbal ability, significant correlations between nonword repetition and word span, sentence memory, hand movements, language comprehension, and reading remained. Fewer relationships between auditory digit span and these other measures were established; in particular, there was no association between digit span and the language and reading measures. Results suggest that nonword repetition is a reliable measure of phonological memory in Down syndrome and can predict language comprehension and reading ability.     

Early first-language reading and spelling skills predict later second-language reading and spelling skills.

This prospective study examined early first-language (L1) predictors of later second-language (L2) reading (word decoding, comprehension) and spelling skills by conducting a series of multiple regressions. Measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, and listening comprehension administered in the 1st through 5th grades were used as predictors of L2 reading (word decoding, comprehension) and spelling skills in high school. The best predictor of L2 decoding skill was a measure of L1 decoding, and the best predictors of L2 spelling were L1 spelling and L1 phonological awareness. The best predictor of L2 reading comprehension was a measure of L1 reading comprehension. When L2 word decoding skill replaced L1 word decoding as a predictor variable for L2 reading comprehension, results showed that L2 word decoding was an important predictor of L2 reading comprehension. The findings suggest that even several years after students learn to read and spell their L1, word decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension skills transfer from L1 to L2. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)