scholarly journals Psycholinguistic Processing in Reading and Listening among Good and Poor Readers

1976 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Guthrie ◽  
S. Jane Tyler

Differences in psycholinguistic processing of written and spoken language, and psycholinguistic deficiencies of poor readers were studied by giving meaningful, anomalous and random word strings to 18 good and 18 poor readers. In both spoken and written conditions the order of recall was meaningful > anomalous > random (p < .001), suggesting that syntactic and semantic demands of spoken and written sentences were similar. Poor readers were inferior to good readers on written presentations (p > .05). The groups were similar on spoken presentations. The reading comprehension deficiency could not be attributed to inadequate psycholinguistic processing, memory or automaticity in decoding. Incomplete decoding during silent reading by poor readers was supported as an explanation.

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Horowitz ◽  
S. Jay Samuels

Poor reading comprehension may result from a general comprehension problem, a decoding problem, or a combination of these problems. Using a counterbalanced design, 38 good and poor sixth-grade readers read aloud and listened to easy and hard texts. Immediately after reading and listening, students orally retold what they had read or heard. Their recalls were scored for number of idea units produced. Results indicated no difference in listening comprehension between good and poor readers for either easy or hard texts, but a significant difference in oral reading comprehension in favor of good readers on both easy and hard texts. The finding of no difference in listening suggests that the poor readers in this sample did not have a general comprehension problem, while their poor oral reading performance indicates that they did have a decoding problem. These findings support a more complex comprehension process model of listening and reading than has typically been described in the literature.


1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary W. Olson

This study investigated good and poor readers' ability to answer text-based inference and paraphrase questions after reading two narrative stories and two expository passages. Subjects were selected that differed only on reading comprehension, not decoding accuracy or language comprehension, and were asked text-based informational and logical inference questions which were classified according to the Warren, Nicholas, and Trabasso (1979) inference taxonomy. Subjects were also asked questions that paraphrased the verbatim information in the text. Dependent measures were researcher-designed questions and reading times for each text. Results indicate that (a) logical text-based inference questions were significantly more difficult to answer than either informational inference questions or paraphrase questions, but only after reading narrative stories; (b) paraphrase questions were as difficult to answer as informational inference questions on both types of text; (c) expository passages were significantly more difficult for the children to understand than narrative stories; (d) good readers answered significantly more text-based inference questions and paraphrase questions than poor readers on both types of text; and (e) good readers read the texts faster than poor readers.


1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-France Ehrlich ◽  
Beth Kurtz-Costes ◽  
Catherine Loridant

Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational factors were examined as predictors of individual differences in the reading comprehension abilities of good and poor readers. Two hundred twenty seventh graders were measured on reading comprehension, and the top 30% and bottom 30% were identified as good and poor readers, respectively. Subjects were then measured on word recognition, metacognitive knowledge about text processing, perceived competence, and attributional beliefs about the reasons underlying academic outcomes. The results indicated that good readers in comparison to poor readers scored higher on the word recognition measure, possessed richer metacognitive knowledge, and had more positive beliefs about their academic abilities. Regression analyses indicated that word recognition and metacognition predicted reading comprehension in the whole sample; however, regression analyses within subgroups indicated that word recognition was the most important predictor variable for poor readers, whereas perceived competence predicted the reading comprehension abilities of good readers.


1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Corrinne A. Wiss ◽  
Wendy Burnett

The Boder Test of Reading-Spelling Patterns (Boder & Jarrico, 1982) is a widely used method for screening and defining reading problems at the level of the word. In order to apply this method in another language, in this case French, criteria for determining what constitutes a good phonetic equivalent for a misspelled word are required. It is essential to know which errors differentiate good and poor readers since errors that are commonly made by good readers are not diagnostic. This paper reports guidelines which have been developed by analyzing spelling errors in a sample of good and poor French immersion readers. These criteria for good phonetic equivalents can be applied, along with the method outlined in the Boder test manual, and used as an assessment tool for screening decoding and encoding problems in French immersion children. When used in conjunction with the English test, the assessment provides bilingual comparisons and guidelines for remedial programming.


1983 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty C. Holmes

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the question answering of good and poor readers when their prior knowledge for the answers to questions was determined before reading to be accurate, inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. Fifty-six fifth-grade students with equivalent I.Q.'s, but varying in reading ability and extent of general prior knowledge for the passage topics, participated in the study. Subjects read an expository passage written on their approximate instructional reading level. The results indicated that poor readers did not use prior knowledge to the same extent as did good readers. This was especially true when students were learning new information. The results also suggest that poor readers have difficulty answering text implicit questions even if they possess adequate prior knowledge for passage topics.


1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne T. Smith ◽  
Paul Macaruso ◽  
Donald Shankweiler ◽  
Stephen Crain

ABSTRACTChildren with specific reading disability fail to understand some complex spoken sentences as well as good readers. This investigation sought to identify the source of poor readers' comprehension difficulties. Second-grade good and poor readers were tested on spoken sentences with restrictive relative clauses in two experiments designed to minimize demands on working memory. The methodological innovations resulted in a high level of performance by both reader groups, demonstrating knowledge of relative clause structure. The poor readers' performance closely paralleled that of the good readers both in pattern of errors and in awareness of the pragmatic aspects of relative clauses. The findings suggest that limitations in processing account for comprehension difficulties displayed by some poor readers in previous investigations.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Zabrucky ◽  
Hilary Horn Ratner

Good and poor readers in the sixth grade ( M age = 11.92 years) were videotaped reading inconsistent stories presented one sentence at a time. Children's comprehension evaluation was assessed with on-line (reading times) and verbal report measures; comprehension regulation was assessed by examining look-backs during reading. All children read inconsistencies more slowly than consistent control information but good readers were more likely than poor readers to look back at inconsistencies during reading, to give accurate verbal reports of passage consistency following reading, and to recall text inconsistencies. Results highlight the importance of using multiple comprehension monitoring measures in assessing children's abilities and of treating comprehension monitoring as a multidimensional process.


1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Byrne

ABSTRACTGroups of good and poor readers at second-grade level were tested for comprehension of adjectival constructions of the John is eager/easy to please types and of center-embedded relative clause constructions. The poor readers were inferior to good readers in understanding O-type adjectives (easy) but not S-type (eager). As well, they were poorer at comprehending embedded sentences, but only when the sentences described improbable events, ones which reversed the normal subject/object roles. When either noun could, on pragmatic grounds, assume either role, both groups fared equally well. The results are interpreted as casting doubt on recent assertions that deficient use of a phonetic memory code underlies the syntactic inferiority often seen in poor readers. A more pervasive linguistic immaturity is suggested as being involved.


1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne T. Amlund ◽  
Janet Gaffney ◽  
Raymond W. Kulhavy

Two experiments evaluated the effect of map feature content on recall of text auded by subjects of varying reading skill levels. In Experiment 1, elementary students with below average reading skill studied a map with features represented by labels, symbols with labels, or mimetic drawings with labels before listening to text. Students who studied the mimetic map recalled significantly more map-featured text information than students who studied label or symbol maps. In Experiment 2, good and poor readers studied a mimetic or a label map prior to listening to text. While good readers recalled more map-featured and nonfeatured information than poor readers, no differences were found between map feature content conditions. Map-featured information was better recalled than nonfeatured information by all groups in both experiments. Data from both experiments provide support for the conjoint retention hypothesis.


1971 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Oakan ◽  
Morton Wiener ◽  
Ward Cromer

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document