Sources of vocalization latency differences between skilled and less skilled young readers.

Vocalization latencies of 16 skilled and 16 less skilled 3rd-grade readers were found to be a function of set size, number of syllables, and stimulus material. Differences between skilled and less skilled readers were absent for naming colors, digits, and pictures. Differences were found for words, and differences increased with number of syllables (and letters). While set-size effects were observed equally for skilled and less skilled Ss for colors and digits, only less skilled readers were substantially affected by set-size increases with words. Inefficiency in alphabetic verbal coding rather than use of information constraint or word retrieval seems to be the major source of reader differences in vocalization latencies. (18 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, memory, and metacognition.

Investigated relations among reading skills, metareading (knowledge about reading), memory, and metamemory (knowledge about memory) as they relate to reading ability (good vs poor readers), operativity, and grade level. 40 2nd graders (aged 7.25–9.83 yrs) and 40 4th graders (aged 9.42–22.00 yrs) were interviewed to assess the reading–memory variables. Significant but low correlations were obtained between metareading and reading, metamemory and memory, metareading and metamemory, and reading and memory. Significant effects of operativity were revealed on all dependent measures. Operative Ss had higher scores on the metareading and metamemory tasks, read at higher levels, and remembered more items on the memory tasks than did nonoperative Ss. Effects of grade level were revealed on most dependent measures. Fourth-grade Ss received higher scores on the metareading and metamemory tasks and read at higher levels than did 2nd-grade Ss. An interaction between operativity and grade level revealed that operative 2nd-grade and both groups of 4th-grade Ss made fewer total reading errors than did nonoperative 2nd-grade Ss. The effects of operativity, experience, and metacognition on reading and memory skills are discussed. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill and memory scanning.

Four experiments using a total of 48 3rd–4th graders investigated differences between skilled and less skilled readers in the rate with which they scan memory. In each experiment, Ss read 1–3 unrelated statements, then answered a yes–no question pertaining to 1 of the statements. The primary result from Exps I and II, in which Ss read all material aloud, was that skilled readers answered questions approximately .6 sec faster than less skilled readers when reading time was partialed out. In Exp III, similar results were found for silent reading. In Exp IV, the difference in answering time found in Exps I–III was no longer significant when the scan component in answering was minimized. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate spatial order memory and item memory in sixth-grade children as a function of reader ability.

16 good and 16 poor 6th-grade readers served as Ss. Exp I tested immediate order memory for strings of 4 and 6 consonants that were either redundant (R) or nonredundant (NR) based on positional frequencies of letters in printed English. Both reader groups were better in retrieving order for R strings; poor readers were inferior to good readers on both R and NR 6-letter strings. Exp II tested for immediate order memory and immediate item memory for strings of 8 digits and strings of 8 consonants. Good readers were better than poor readers on all tasks. However, order memory appeared to be more strongly related to reading ability than was item memory. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The tongue-twister effect in reading Chinese.

Two studies demonstrate a visual tongue-twister effect (TTE) in Chinese and add support to the assumption that reading in any writing system engages a phonological memory system. Exp 1 showed that for both oral and silent reading, Ss took longer to read texts with repeated initial phonemes (IPs) than to read control stories with mixed IPs. Exp 2 verified the phonemic nature of the TTE in a dual task situation in which Ss had to retain a string of digits while reading a sentence. The results showed a specific-phoneme interference such that Ss took longer to read the texts when digits and words had the same IPs than when they had different phonemes. Both studies provide evidence that the source of the TTE in both Chinese and English is phonological interference rather than visual confusion. They confirm the highly general nature of phonological involvement in skilled sentence reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's ability to appraise their own and another person's communication performance.

Previous research has found that younger children are less accurate communicators to a listener. In the present research, children's ability to appraise or evaluate the quality of communication performance was investigated. In Exp I, 90 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-grade children communicated messages for 15 referents. Half of the Ss then appraised their own messages, and half appraised the messages of a yoked age-mate. In the self-appraisal condition, Ss were asked to indicate whether or not each of their messages was effective. In the other-appraisal condition, Ss indicated whether or not each of a peer's messages was effective. Results indicate that younger Ss were less accurate appraisers of performance as well as less accurate communicators. Within a particular grade level, Ss were similar in their self-appraisal and other-appraisal accuracy. Exp II controlled the quality of messages that Ss judged across grade level. 15 Ss appraised a standard set of messages half of which were effective and half of which were ineffective. Younger Ss were less accurate evaluators of good and poor messages. Results from both studies are considered in light of evidence that younger children do not compare the association of messages to referents and nonreferents. Failure to engage in comparison activity would result in poor appraisal accuracy as well as poor communication accuracy. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill and the role of verbal experience in decoding.

Previous studies have shown that decoding speeds are generally faster for skilled readers than for less skilled readers. In Exp I with 66 3rd and 4th graders, this reader difference was found to be greater for pseudowords and 2-syllable units than for English words and 1-syllable units. Exps II and III, with 20 4th and 12 3rd graders, respectively, provided skilled and less-skilled readers with various types of experience with pseudowords prior to 2 decoding tests, vocalization latency and same–different decisions. Aural and printed experience with pseudowords provided significant increases in decoding speeds for both reader groups, but providing meanings for pseudowords as a part of the experiences added nothing. These effects were still present after 10 wks. Results suggest that decoding differences are not wholly attributable to prior experience with word units and that processes involving phonetic components may be involved. (12 ref) (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)     

Reading achievement and creativity as related to open classroom experience.

From 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-grade classes selected for their open characteristics, 49 children were matched on IQ, socioeconomic status, sex, age, and grade with 49 Ss from classrooms identified as traditional. Reading achievement and creativity were assessed with a 2 * 2 factorial analysis of variance, open and traditional * high and low IQ. All 98 Ss were administered the reading test, and 39 pairs were given the creativity measures. Both reading and figural creativity analyses showed significant main effects for IQ and significant interactions. Among low IQ groups, open and traditional Ss could not be distinguished on reading achievement or creativity. Among high IQ Ss, traditional Ss had significantly higher reading and figural creativity scores. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category-order effects in memory span.

When Ss are required to recall lists containing both words and digits, memory span is higher when the digits precede the words than when the words precede the digits. In Exp 1, both forward and backward recall were tested; it was demonstrated that this category-order effect reflects the input position, and not the output position, of the items. Exp 2 revealed that this effect was not eliminated by a filled retention interval. Exp 3 showed that the effect was eliminated when lists were presented at a fast presentation rate. In Exp 4, the effect was eliminated when Ss engaged in articulatory suppression. A 5th experiment extended the findings of Exp 4 to the case in which lists are composed of semantically related or unrelated words. These results suggest that category-order effects reflect mnemonic activity that Ss engage in during list presentation and do not arise from structural characteristics of the memory system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between early reading acquisition and word decoding with and without context: A longitudinal study of first-grade children.

The speed and accuracy with which 56 skilled or less skilled readers read words in and out of context was assessed in the fall and spring of the 1st grade by having both groups read random lists of words and coherent paragraphs. The context of the coherent paragraph facilitated word recognition performance to a greater degree in the spring than in the fall, and this developmental trend was similar for both groups. Although the word recognition performance of the skilled readers was superior to that of the less skilled readers on the coherent paragraphs, the former were also better at reading random lists of words. Data indicate that the less skilled readers were getting as much contextual facilitation from the coherent paragraph as were the skilled readers when the latter were at a similar level of context-free decoding ability. This finding, combined with other research, indicates that less skilled readers of this age perform relatively poorly on coherent paragraphs because of poor decoding skills, not because of a strategic inability to use context to facilitate word recognition. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading ability and single-letter orthographic redundancy.

Two experiments investigated the role of one form of intraword orthographic redundancy: the characteristic asymmetric spatial distributions of letters of the alphabet across serial positions within words. In Exp I, 81 college students demonstrated recognition knowledge of these distributions when given only the letter name, word length, and serial position information with no other context. Ss were correct more often for those letters which are least variable across serial positions. In Exp II, 28 5th graders who were skilled readers demonstrated a sensitivity to letter positional distributions similar to that of the adults; 20 poor readers did not. However, performance was equivalent for both good and poor readers on a subset of letters relatively unpredictable with respect to serial position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of word imagery on reading performance as a function of reader ability.

Conducted 3 experiments on the effects of word imagery, length, and frequency on reading difficulty. Ss were 27 8-10 yr old poor readers in Exp I, 24 8-11 yr old good readers in Exp II, and 10 poor and 10 good readers (mean age 9 yrs 6 mo) in Exp III. High frequency words were found to be easier to read for both good and poor readers. High-imagery words were easier to read for poor readers only. Word length had little effect on reading difficulty for either good or poor readers. The differential effect of word imagery on reading difficulty for good and poor readers is interpreted in terms of the types of reading strategy used--phonics for good readers and whole word reading for poor readers. When children are forced to learn to read words by a whole word method, word imagery predicts ease of learning for both good and poor readers. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Echoic memory processes in good and poor readers.

Conducted 4 experiments to determine whether echoic memory plays a role in differences between good and poor readers. In Exp I, with 9 poor (mean age 11.05 yrs) and 9 good (mean age 10.9 yrs) readers, and Exp II, with 12 poor (mean age 10.85 yrs) and 12 good (mean age 10.7 yrs) readers, a suffix procedure was used in which the S was read a list of digits with either a tone control or the word go appended to the list. For lists that exceeded the length of the Ss' memory span by 1 digit (i.e., that avoided ceiling effects), poor readers showed a larger decrement in the suffix condition than did good readers. In Exp III, with 14 poor (mean age 10.64 yrs) and 14 good (mean age 10.83 yrs) readers, Ss shadowed words presented to 1 ear at a rate determined to give 75–85% shadowing accuracy. The item presented to the nonattended ear were words and an occasional digit. At various intervals after the presentation of the digit, a light signaled that the S was to cease shadowing and attempt to recall any digit that had occurred in the nonattended ear recently. Whereas good and poor readers recalled the digit equally if tested immediately after presentation, poor readers showed a faster decline in recall of the digit as retention interval increased. In Exp IV, using Ss from Exp II, bursts of white noise were separated by 9–400 msec of silence, and the S was to say whether there were 1 or 2 sounds presented. There were no differences in detectability functions for good and poor readers. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Pessimistic noise effects": The perception of reaction times in noise.

Used a between-group design to examine the effect of loud noise on a 2-choice discrete reaction task and the judgments Ss made about self-produced RTs under these conditions. In Exp I, 70 Ss (aged 26–39 yrs) completed a 2-choice RT task and a concurrent RT rating task of speed. White noise was presented to Ss in the experimental groups. RTs were unexpectedly faster in noise, but Ss used more "slow" categories in describing them. The effect was not apparent when the same RTs were rerated a 2nd time under instructions that indicated that they were random time intervals. Also, the effect was not apparent when a new group of 14 undergraduates in Exp II rated the original RT data, again in noise. Exp III showed that when asked to predict average RTs produced by a hypothetical S in noise, 30 uniformed Ss (aged 26–39 yrs) predicted slow RTs. Results are considered in the light of the hypothesis that pessimistic expectancies about likely effects of noise may be a factor influencing performance. (French abstract) (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between word decoding speed, general name-retrieval ability, and reading progress in first-grade children.

A discrete-trial RT methodology was employed to measure the speed with which 22 skilled and less-skilled 1st grade readers named colors, pictures, numbers, letters, and words (Wide Range Achievement Test and the Stanford Early School Achievement Test). Words were the only stimulus type that skilled Ss named more rapidly. The equality of naming times for colors, pictures, and numbers suggests that a general name retrieval deficit, suggested by earlier studies of dyslexic Ss (M. B. Denekla and R. G. Rudel, see PA, Vol 59:1307; C. Spring and C. Capps, PA, Vol 53:7713), did not appear to be characteristic of less-skilled nondyslexic Ss. The marked word decoding speed difference, in conjunction with the lack of a letter naming difference between the 2 groups, supports previous research that has suggested that phonological analysis skills may be important determinants of early reading acquisition (R. M. Golinkoff, 1978; P. Rozin and L. R. Gleitman, 1977; and F. R. Vellutino, see record 1978-25485-001). (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Black children's use of nonstandard grammar: Two years later.

A Berko-type task requiring Ss to derive the present, plural, possessive, and time extension forms of nonsense syllables was administered to 115 Black and White 2nd graders and readministered to a subsample of these same children upon their reaching the 4th grade. At both 2nd- and 4th-grade levels, White Ss supplied significantly more standard English responses and Black Ss significantly more hypothesized nonstandard English responses to each of the 4 tasks. Additionally, Ss of both races showed significant increases in standard English usage and significant decreases in nonstandard English usage over the 2-yr period. The possibility that grammatical differences between Black Ss and White Ss might disappear given more time is discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading in Arabic orthography: the effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and isolated words

This study investigated the effect of vowels and context on the reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and words. Central to this study is the belief that reading theory today should consider additional variables, especially when explaining the reading process in Arabic orthography among poor and normal/skilled readers. This orthography has not been studied. Reading theory today is the sum of conclusions from studies conducted in Latin orthography. The subjects were 77 native Arabic speakers, 34 of them poor readers and 44 normal/skilled readers. The subjects had to read in Arabic 15 paragraphs, 60 sentences, and 210 words. There were three reading conditions: fully vowelized, partially vowelized, and unvowelized texts. The results showed that vowels and contexts were important variables to facilitate word recognition in poor and normal/skilled readers in Arabic orthography.