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Effects of Contextual Constraints upon Rate and Accuracy
... By this reasoning, a good reader was one who used the fewest cues possible in order to reach the correct meaning of a word (Goodman, 1965(Goodman, , 1967. Allington (1978) was the first to directly compare the effect of context on good and poor fourth grade readers. In doing so, he found support for the claim that context aided reading accuracy although it was in the opposite direction of Goodman's predictions. ...
... In a more recent set of investigations, Nicholson and his colleagues (Nicholson, 1991;Nicholson, Bailey & McArthur, 1991) extended the findings of both Pearson (1978) and Allington (1978) by counterbalancing the order of presentation between context and list conditions, with children of different ages and abilities. They reported that only poor readers and young readers (6 and 7-year old average readers; Nicholson, 1991) performed better in context regardless of the order of presentation. ...
... Thus, the results of Archer and Bryant (2001) add to the literature suggesting that young and/or poor readers benefit from the effects of contextual facilitation (see also Allington, 1978;Kim & Goetz, 1994;Nation & Snowling, 1998;Nicholson, 1991;Stanovich, 1980Stanovich, , 1994. Importantly, this is not akin to the ''psycholinguistic guessing game'' first advanced by Goodman (1967). ...
While fluent reading is recognized as a primary goal of educational instruction, the methods that best promote the development of fluency remain unclear. Two experiments are reported that examined increases in reading fluency of a novel passage following two types of training. In the context training condition, children learned to read a set of target words in a story context, while in the isolated word training condition, fluency with a target word set was gained from a computerized word naming game. Transfer of fluency to reading these words in a new context was then measured by gains in reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of a novel story. Results indicated that young readers showed speed benefits on transfer stories following both context and isolated word training, but the increases were larger following context training.
... The question of individual differences was raised by Allington (1978) who found, in a study of fourth graders, that when he gave the same task as in Goodman's (1965) classic study but in counterbalanced order context benefited poor readers but made no difference for good readers. Since then, Stanovich (1980Stanovich ( , 1986 and Nicholson (1986) have summarized many other studies that have found similar individual differences in which poor readers gained more from context than did good readers. ...
... The children's reading levels were then checked by comparing the children's relative performance on the prose-reading test used in the actual study. The prose test combined sets of informally graded passages from three different prose tests (Department of Education, 1981, 1983, 1985a. ...
Replicated the classic K. S. Goodman (1965) study, which found that children's reading accuracy improved 60–80% in context, in comparison with a list. In Exp 1, 100 children read words in context, then in lists. In Exp 2, 97 children read words in lists, then in context (the testing order used in the classic study). Results showed that the poor readers and the 6- and 7-yr-old average readers showed statistically reliable context gains in both experiments. However, the 6-yr-old good readers and the 8-yr-old average readers only gained reliably with context in Exp 2. The 7-yr-old good readers did not gain reliably with context in either experiment. The 8-yr-old readers made no reliable context gains in Exp 2 but gained reliably with the list in Exp 1. In conclusion, the classic study gave an overly optimistic impression of the benefits of context, especially with regard to good readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... However, in contrast to the consistent findings of reaction-time studies, research on context facilitation under more naturalistic reading conditions has produced varying results. Oral-reading studies comparing performance in longer texts and word lists also find evidence for context facilitation (e.g., faster reading speeds in context), but unlike reaction-time studies, less skilled readers do not always show greater context facilitation of oral-reading times (Allington, 1978;Bowey, 1984Bowey, , 1985Cochrane, 1974;Jenkins, Fuchs, van den Broek, Espin, & Deno, 2003). ...
... We also compared reading word lists with reading strings of randomly ordered words, presented in paragraph format without punctuation. The former task is used more frequently in the actual measurement of reading skills; the latter, however, is more prevalent in context-facilitation research (e.g., Allington, 1978). ...
This study examined the common and distinct contributions of context-free and context reading skill to reading comprehension and the contributions of context-free reading skill and reading comprehension to context fluency. The 113 4th-grade participants were measured in reading comprehension, read aloud a folktale, and read aloud the folktale's words in a random list. Fluency was scaled as speed (words read correctly in 1 min) and time (seconds per correct word). Relative to list fluency, context fluency was a stronger predictor of comprehension. List fluency and comprehension each uniquely predicted context fluency, but their relative contributions depended on how fluency was scaled (time or speed). Results support the conclusion that word level processes contribute relatively more to fluency at lower levels while comprehension contributes relatively more at higher levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... The effects of context are often contingent on reader skill (Stanovich, 1980). Good readers rarely use context to aid word recognition under normal reading conditions (e.g., Allington, 1978;Nicholson, 1991;Perfetti & Roth, 1981); in contrast, effects of contextual facilitation are commonly reported in poor readers (e.g., Allington, 1978;Archer & Bryant, 2001;Jenkins, Fuchs, van den Broek, Espin, & Deno, 2003;Nicholson, 1991;Perfetti & Roth, 1981). Consequently, an age matched design with readers of different ability was used to examine interactions between reader skill and method of training. ...
... The effects of context are often contingent on reader skill (Stanovich, 1980). Good readers rarely use context to aid word recognition under normal reading conditions (e.g., Allington, 1978;Nicholson, 1991;Perfetti & Roth, 1981); in contrast, effects of contextual facilitation are commonly reported in poor readers (e.g., Allington, 1978;Archer & Bryant, 2001;Jenkins, Fuchs, van den Broek, Espin, & Deno, 2003;Nicholson, 1991;Perfetti & Roth, 1981). Consequently, an age matched design with readers of different ability was used to examine interactions between reader skill and method of training. ...
Word reading fluency, as indexed by the fast and accurate identification of single words, predicts both general reading ability and reading comprehension. This study compared the effects of context training and isolated word training on subsequent measures of word reading fluency. Good and poor readers were given 12 repetitions of two sets of words; 48 new words were learned in each condition. Words were presented in a story during context training and on a computer screen during isolated word training. Target words were read in isolation at test, randomly displayed within a series containing 72 untrained words. Results show that words trained in isolation are remembered longer and read faster when presented in isolation at test compared to words trained in context. Theoretical implications are discussed in relation to transfer appropriate processing.
... The evidence regarding the Wrst factor, word identiWcation, is clear. A number of studies have shown that children are more successful at reading words in context than at reading words in lists (Allington, 1978; Biemiller, 1970; Briggs, Austin, & Underwood, 1984; Juel, 1980; Nicholson, 1991; Nicholson, Bailey, & McArthur, 1991; Perfetti & Roth, 1981; Stanovich, 1980; Stanovich, West, & Freeman, 1981; Wong & Underwood, 1996). However, the evidence regarding the second factor, word learning, is mixed. ...
... The fact that children often read more accurately in context is one of the only sources of empirical support for the whole language movement (Goodman, 1965). Although several investigators have questioned the magnitude of the contextual facilitation eVect (Allington, 1978; Nicholson, 1991; Pearson, 1978 ), we are reporting the inverse eVect, namely, that the additional cues provided by context impede word reading accuracy for words that initially were learned in isolation. Nemko (1984) also found that when words were Wrst shown in isolation and then presented in context at test, the results were much less favorable than when words were presented in isolation at both study and test. ...
Successful reading instruction entails not only acquiring new words but also remembering them after training has finished and accessing their word-specific representations when they are encountered in new text. We report two studies demonstrating that acquisition, retention, and transfer of unfamiliar words were affected differentially by isolated word and context training. Materials were individualized to include only those words that average readers in second grade were unable to name in context. Different words were trained in each condition; context training presented words in stories, and isolated word training presented words on flashcards. Together, the studies show that context training promotes word acquisition beyond that experienced from reading words in isolation. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, memory performance for words trained in context and in isolation did not differ; children demonstrated excellent retention over an 8-day interval in both conditions. Finally, transfer was maximized when the congruency between training and testing was high. Therefore, when reading trained words in novel circumstances, the best method of training was mediated by the transfer task employed at test.
... Some naturalistic studies have found that good readers are context driven (Clay 1968, Goodman and Burke 1973, Au 1977, Rousch and Cambourne 1979. But these are not consistent findings (Biemiller 1970, Allington 1978, Nicholson 1978, Biemiller 1979, Potter 1980, perhaps because of methodological problems such as differences in error rates and text material used by good and poor readers (Leu 1982), as well as the confounding effect of using text material which children may have heard before and partly memorised. ...
The notion that we read words more easily in story context than in isolation owes much to the influence of a study by Goodman (1965), who found a 60‐80 per cent improvement in reading accuracy when children read words in context rather than in isolation. This study has been widely cited in the reading literature, even though its validity has at times been questioned. In the present .study, Goodman's findings were re‐examined by conducting three experiments. The first involved asking 60 children, all eight years of age, to read stories which varied in difficulty and contextual completeness, and within which target words occurred in varying sentence position. The second experiment, using easy stories, sought to find out whether the results for the first experiment would also be similar for ten good and ten poor readers, also about 8 years of age. The third experiment, involving a further 8 good and 8 poor readers, at the same age level, extended the search for context effects by using difficult stories as well. The results of this series of experiments suggest that Goodman was wrong about the effects of context on word recognition. What seems to separate good readers from poor is the ability to decode words independently of context.
Although several different reading fluency intervention approaches appear promising for adolescents who are struggling readers, few studies have directly compared various approaches. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine the relative effects of word-oriented, fluency-oriented, comprehension-oriented, and multi-component interventions on the reading fluency performance of fifth and sixth grade struggling readers; and 2) to examine the concomitant effects of each intervention approach on comprehension. A within participant design, where all 29 participants received all interventions, was used. Outcomes were measured using instructional and transfer materials. The results provide support for a fluency-oriented and multi-component approach.
A suitable correlation can be made to represent the simulated distillation of heavy oils starting from thennoaravimetric measurements. This method is applicable to hydrocarbons having an initial boiling point equal or greater than 200°C.The simulated thermogravimetric distillation fit was obtained from experiments with the standard compounds obtained from ASTM D-2887-83 (Boiling range distribution of petroleum fractions by gas chromatography). This method is simple, fast and without problems when applied to heavy feedstocksThe data were used in the determination of average boiling temperatures of products from thermal cracking and thermal hydrocracking. It was also possible to quantify coke yieldsAverage relative molecular masses of products from the above processes correlated well with the average boiling point temperatures. It indicates that, with respect to the hydrocarbon types, thermal cracking is not selective in comparison with thermal hydrocrackingThe equation applied to find the average boiling temperature is following: T = (1/al) (Ttg-a2). T is the boiling temperature, al and a2 are the correction factors, Ttg is the thermogravimetric temperature.
After years of confusion, the literature on individual differences in reading ability is finally beginning to coalesce around a small set of general conclusions that are endorsed by the vast majority of researchers. The most fundamental is that word decoding ability accounts for a very large proportion of the variance in reading ability at all levels. Variation in word decoding skill is primarily the result of differences in phonological abilities, rather than visual processes. Less-skilled readers are not characterized by a general inability to use context to facilitate word recognition. However, situations where such readers fail to utilize context to facilitate word recognition will arise when their slow and inaccurate decoding of words renders the context useless. Less-skilled readers display performance deficits on a wide variety of short-term memory tasks, probably due to an inability to efficiently employ various memory strategies, and most certainly due to inadequate phonological coding. Less-skilled readers may have comprehension deficits that are partially independent of word decoding skill. These problems probably arise because syntactic abilities and metacognitive strategies are inadequately developed.
This paper presents results from a study of oral reading errors. The purpose of the study was to compare strategies of information use by readers of differing levels of reading achievement as they read passages of increasing difficulty. The study included 59 first graders from two different reading programs. Four passages were used ranging from preprimer to second grade levels. Achievement groups were formed on the basis of the most difficult passage a child could read without making more than 25% errors. Results indicated that with increasing passage difficulty, children made proportionately more non-response, and graphic substitution errors. On their most difficult passages, the most able readers made higher proportions of graphic errors than other children. These results are interpreted as indicating that when faced with increasingly difficult reading material (for their reading level), children increase their use of graphic information strategies. The results do not support the view that able readers make less use of graphic information than less able readers.
The principle of developmental dissociations is illustrated as a technique for studying functional brain organization in developing children with and without frank brain damage. Specific developmental dissociations described include disparities between (a) the cognitive and motor systems; (b) declarative and procedural knowledge; (c) fine motor, orthographic, oral language, reading, and writing function; (d) corresponding orthographic-phonological code connections; and (e) lexical analysis and lexical selection in reading. The educational implications of these dissociations are discussed. First, the developmental dissociations observed between the cognitive and motor systems and between declarative and procedural knowledge in motorically impaired individuals suggest that sensorimotor experience may not be a prerequisite for all intellectual development, as Piaget claimed, and that an abnormal sensorimotor period may impair the acquisition of procedural knowledge relatively more than the acquisition of declarative knowledge. Second, the dissociations observed among fine motor, orthographic, oral language, reading, and writing function support a model of noncontingent, normal variation or developmental independence in acquiring neurodevelopmental skills and academic skills, which fall along a continuum in a range typically found in normally developing readers and writers and which vary considerably within and across individuals in their relative level of development. Third, the dissociations between corresponding orthographic-phonological codes can contribute to problems in acquiring word recognition skills. Finally, the dissociation between lexical analysis and lexical selection accounts for children who can extract meaning from silent reading of text but whose oral reading is dysfluent. We argue, in keeping with the spirit of the Piagetian tradition, that developmental dissociations offer a technique for dissecting the components of biofunctional brain systems and thus for studying the constructive processes of the learner whose nervous system continually interacts with the environment.
Forty Israeli adults, fluent readers of Hebrew, and 40 Israeli children, age 11‐12, participated in two studies which investigated the contextual facilitation and word frequency effects upon word recognition accuracy and reading rate while reading two types of Hebrew texts (pointed and unpointed). In the first experiment pointed Hebrew text was read more accurately and rapidly than unpointed text by both groups, but only the children's performances were significantly different on the two text types.In the second experiment both groups displayed significant effects for context richness, word frequency and type of Hebrew text based upon an analysis of errors made when reading experimental sentences. These results challenge Levy's (1943) contention that unpointed Hebrew text is superior to pointed text and add support to the universality of contextual facilitation effects upon word recognition.
Second- and sixth-grade children named words preceded by either congruous, neutral, or incongruous contexts that were either one or three sentences long, and were drawn from second-grade reading materials. Both groups displayed significant contextual facilitation and contextual inhibition effects on naming time. The effects did not depend upon the length of the prior context, indicating that within the limits of the manipulation employed in this experiment, the contextual effects on word recognition arose primarily from within the sentence containing the target word. The second-grade subjects displayed larger context effects than the sixth-grade subjects. The implications of these findings for current model of context effects on word recognition are discussed./// [French] Des enfants de sixième et dixième ont nommé des mots précédés de contextes incongrus, neutres ou congrus dont la longueur était d'une ou trois phrases, ceux-ci étaient tirés de matériel de lecture de la dixième. Les deux groupes ont montré une facilité contextuelle significative et des effets d'inhibition contextuelle sur la désignation temporelle. Les effets ne dépendaient pas de la longueur du contexte précédent, indiquant que dans les limites de la manipulation employée dans cette expérience, les effets contextuels sur la reconnaissance de mots provenaient essentiellement de la phrase contenant le mot à objectif. Les sujets de dixième ont montré des effets de contexte plus grands que ceux des sujets de sixième. On a discuté les conséquences de ces découvertes pour les modèles courants des effets de contexte sur la reconnaissance de mots./// [Spanish] Alumnos de segundo y sexto grado recitaron palabras precedidas por contextos congruentes, neutros, o incongruentes, de una o tres oraciones de longitud, y que eran extraídas de textos de lectura de segundo grado. Ambos grupos mostraron efectos significativos de facilidad y dificultad contextual durante el tiempo de recitación. Los efectos no dependieron de la longitud del contexto previo, indicando que dentro de los límites de la manipulación empleada en este experimento, los efectos contextuales en el reconocimiento de palabras originaron principalmente dentro de la oración conteniendo la palabra clave. Los alumnos de segundo grado mostraron efectos contextuales mayores que los alumnos de sexto grado. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados sobre los modelos actuales de efectos de contexto en el reconocimiento de palabras.
The interactive-compensatory model of reading was developed primarily to explain developmental and individual differences in the use of context to facilitate word recognition during reading. The work leading up to the model is summarized, and more recent empirical studies are described. One major implication derived from these studies and other recent research is that the Goodman-Smith psycholinguistic "guessing game" is an inaccurate conceptualization of individual differences in context use. When a context is adequately instantiated, less-skilled readers utilize context to facilitate word recognition just as much, if not more, than skilled readers.
Acquiring and retaining a large foreign language lexicon is difficult for military linguists, especially if the lexicon contains technical and military terms used on the job. The shortage of instructors to teach job- specific foreign language, as well as demonstrated shortcomings of available paper-and-pencil methods, has stimulated exploratory development of computer- based programs for foreign language learning. This report analyzes the problem of learning job-specific lexicons in a foreign language, addressing both practical and cognitive-theoretical aspects. It describes the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences' (ARI'S) in-house development of a series of computer programs for learning foreign language vocabulary, justifying the structure of each program in terms of cognitive needs identified in the problem analysis. In particular, the report shows how the choice of hypertext software as a learning environment and development tool supports the structure of expert and emerging lexical knowledge as demonstrated in cognitive and psycholinguistic research. Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Computer-based instruction, Intelligent tutoring systems.
Naturalistic studies have reported contextual facilitation of oral reading in passage‐length materials, but inconsistent results have been obtained in studies of sentence‐long contexts. While studies of intrasentence contextual facilitation effects constitute conservative tests of top‐down reading theories, failure to observe such effects raises serious doubts concerning the scope of those theories. The present study examined both quantitative and qualitative aspects of children's oral reading of words in isolation and in sentence‐length contexts. Results indicated that, although sentence‐long context did not facilitate reading accuracy, children did appear to be exploiting contextual information in their reading of sentences, with a relatively high proportion of reading errors being contextually acceptable. Introspective data suggested that children may have adopted different reading strategies in the two context conditions, using a slower, bottom‐up strategy for words in isolation and a fluent, top‐down strategy for the sentences.
The aim of this study was to determine whether 11-year-old children in Singapore, from English Dominant or English Non-Dominant backgrounds, read better orally when words were presented in list or text. The children read words in passage and in list form presented in counterbalanced order. In a study of good, average and poor readers, Nicholson (1991) found that context was of more benefit to poorer readers and to younger readers. With the English Non-Dominant readers in the present study regarded as less proficient readers of English, these children should be expected to show the greatest gains from passage presentations. Error analyses showed that English Non-Dominant readers performed less well in list readings relative to text readings, while the English Dominant readers produced no difference in performance for these conditions. This indicates that readers with less exposure to English relied more on contextual information than the more experienced readers. Thus, Goodman's (1965) idea of enlightened guessing was again questioned in this study for the case of bilingual readers. Additionally, reading miscues were found to vary in type according to whether the same words were being read in list or in context.
An experiment was designed to test the interactive reading theory prediction that children's reading strategies vary with the availability of higher-level information. Third- and fourthgrade children (aged 8 and 9 years, respectively) were assigned to one of three context conditions and one of three experimental instructions conditions. Results supported the hypothesis the children adopt different oral reading speed strategies, depending on the amount of contextual information available, in order to maximize reading accuracy and, where appropriate, ongoing comprehension. When reading meaningful materials, children adopt a fluent, top-down reading strategy that is relatively resistant to modification. Although a slower, bottom-up strategy is preferred in the reading of words in isolation, children are able to modify this strategy in accordance with experimental instructions. These results are consistent with an interactive theory of reading.
Four experimental tasks were devised to locate the nature of memory processing limitations in fourth-grade children's oral reading comprehension. Experiment 1 showed that in the reading of very simple prose children can consciously bring memory strategies into play. Even in simple and short prose passages, however, memory limitations upon performance are operative. Experiment 2 showed that in prose of moderate difficulty “executive” memory processes are impaired, such that children can no longer employ memory strategies to facilitate subsequent recall. Experiment 3 showed that in the reading of passages high in difficulty, even short-term recall is impaired. These results were interpreted as consistent with the La Berge and Samuels theory of automatic information processing in reading.
This research investigated children's use of context to facilitate word recognition and comprehension-monitoring processes in the oral reading of connected prose as a function of grade level and decoding skill. Results indicated no overall contextual facilitation of word recognition accuracy, even in less skilled decoders, although there was evidence that less skilled decoders were assisted by context in decoding some content words. Children read word lists 50% more slowly than comparable selections of prose. The adoption of different and compensatory reading speed strategies in children's reading of prose and word lists renders the oral reading task an insensitive test of the contextual facilitation of word recognition accuracy. A qualitative analysis of the errors made in reading the prose passage showed that skilled decoders made (relative to less skilled decoders) a lower proportion of reading errors which, as first uttered, violated prior context, and a higher rate of contextually obligatory self-corrections, thus making a higher overall rate of contextually acceptable oral reading errors. These data were interpreted as suggesting that children's oral reading incorporates processing that occurs after lexical access, and that skilled decoders use context more effectively to monitor comprehension. In an oral reading task, this may counteract the tendency of less skilled decoders to rely more on context in the process of word recognition.
For those who missed last issue's introduction to the Topical Review series, this new monthly feature is designed to provide a continuing series of authoritative reviews on topics of central importance to the field of learning disabilities. While some reviews may focus on basic research on the physiological, cognitive, or social characteristics of learning disabled children, others will examine evidence for the efficacy of various remedial techniques. The present article is a continuation of last month's discussion of individual differences in cognitive processes related to reading. The article contains an excellent presentation of recent research that demonstrates several different ways the ability to use context can influence reading performance.---J.K.T.
The literature on individual differences in cognitive processes that operate at the text level is reviewed. Less-skilled readers display performance deficits on a wide variety of short-term memory tasks, probably due to an inability to efficiently employ various memory strategies, and most certainly due to inadequate phonological coding. Poor readers are not characterized by a general ability to use contextual information to facilitate word recognition. However, situations where such readers fail to utilize context to facilitate ongoing word recognition will arise when their slow and inaccurate decoding of words renders the context useless. Poor readers do display comprehension deficits that are independent of word-decoding skill, due to deficient syntactic abilities and to more general metacognitive strategies. The general conclusions from this review and from Part I are discussed.
Two experiments examined the effects of knowing the syntactic structure of a sentence before reading it. In Exp I, 24 college students were required to remember a sequence of numbers before reading a sentence displayed at a constant rate. When the syntactic structure was known beforehand, Ss were able to devote more effort to rehearsing the numbers while reading the sentence. Consequently, their recall of the number sequence was superior. In Exp II, 8 undergraduates were timed while reading individual sentences. When the syntactic structure was known beforehand, reading times decreased. Results are explained in terms of linguistic decisions, memory storage during reading, and reading as an interactive process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conducted a study of the relations between perceptual and syntactic factors in reading using the eye-voice span technique. Each S read aloud 54 passages projected on a screen. At a fixed point in the text the screen was blacked out, but S continued to read as far as he could. Measures of average number of words read after light-out (eye-voice span) and number of times S stopped at a phrase boundary (stops) were used. There were 4 groups of Ss: 3rd and 5th graders, undergraduates under standard conditions, and undergraduates under a perceptual strain condition created by projecting the slide upside down. Both eye-voice span and stops increased from 3rd grade-college under standard conditions, but college Ss under perceptual strain performed like 3rd graders. For college strain Ss there was a high correlation between eye-voice span and stops; for the other groups there was no significant correlation. Results are consonant with the theory that perceptual control is necessary for syntactic control to develop, but that the latter is learned independently and does not develop automatically as perceptual skill increases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Kenneth and Yetta Goodman argue that reading, like speaking and writing, is an active language process in which readers display their sophistication as functional psycholinguists. The authors note, however, that it is difficult to gain access to and understand these active, underlying processes. To make such processes accessible,the authors advocate the use of oral reading as a data base. The Goodmans maintain that when oral readers depart from the written text—when miscues occur—the underlying processes of reading begin to be revealed. Using examples from children and adults, the authors present a typology of miscues and demonstrate how miscues provide a window on reading and other language processes. Throughout the article the Goodmans note the implications of miscue analysis for research and teaching.