Predictable texts and interactive-compensatory hypotheses: Evaluating individual differences in reading ability, context use, and comprehension.

Examined the word-recognition and comprehension processes of 36 1st graders as they read a predictable text. Interactive-compensatory predictions related to comprehension were evaluated. Results suggest that when reading predictable texts, attention for both good and poor readers is available for comprehension processing but for different reasons. Consistent with predictions from the interactive-compensatory model by K. E. Stanovich (1980), good readers were able to attend to the meaning of a story because of automatic, context-free word-recognition skills. Poor readers were able to attend to the meaning of a story because of their automatic use of repetitive sentence context to facilitate word recognition. Thus, predictable texts may be appropriately used to provide comprehension opportunities for poorer readers. Predictable texts may give these students opportunities to engage in inferential reasoning and other comprehension processes, opportunities that infrequently occur because poor readers' attention is usually occupied by word-recognition demands. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)