Reading-Level-Match Designs: Myths and Realities

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Ewald Jackson ◽  
Earl C. Butterfield
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Reading Acquisition ◽  
Design Principles ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Performance Level ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Sampling Procedures ◽  
Matching Criteria ◽  
Underlying Processes

Investigators of individual differences in reading acquisition sometimes compare groups of different ages matched on some aspect of reading performance level. These reading-level-match (RL-match) designs can provide a convenient, powerful, and appropriate way to study atypical performance. However, their usefulness has been diminished by researchers' acceptance of myths about the designs' characteristics. RL-match designs have been used as if they (a) were more similar to true experiments than other correlational designs, (b) required only informal sampling procedures, (c) were improved by case-by-case matching, (d) made unequal groups equal, (e) served unique theoretical purposes, (f) created equality between groups in underlying processes whenever a performance-level match existed, (g) yielded some patterns of results that always were interpretable and others that never were interpretable, and (h) were equally valid across all possible matching criteria. Examples from the reading literature are given to illustrate the hazards of accepting these myths and to suggest more realistic alternatives. Relevant statistical and design principles are summarized.

scholarly journals Multisensory Spatial Attention Deficits Are Predictive of Phonological Decoding Skills in Developmental Dyslexia

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1011-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Facoetti ◽  
Anna Noemi Trussardi ◽  
Milena Ruffino ◽  
Maria Luisa Lorusso ◽  
Carmen Cattaneo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Decoding Skills ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Phonological Decoding ◽  
Decoding Accuracy ◽  
Deficit Theory

Although the dominant approach posits that developmental dyslexia arises from deficits in systems that are exclusively linguistic in nature (i.e., phonological deficit theory), dyslexics show a variety of lower level deficits in sensory and attentional processing. Although their link to the reading disorder remains contentious, recent empirical and computational studies suggest that spatial attention plays an important role in phonological decoding. The present behavioral study investigated exogenous spatial attention in dyslexic children and matched controls by measuring RTs to visual and auditory stimuli in cued-detection tasks. Dyslexics with poor nonword decoding accuracy showed a slower time course of visual and auditory (multisensory) spatial attention compared with both chronological age and reading level controls as well as compared with dyslexics with slow but accurate nonword decoding. Individual differences in the time course of multisensory spatial attention accounted for 31% of unique variance in the nonword reading performance of the entire dyslexic sample after controlling for age, IQ, and phonological skills. The present study suggests that multisensory “sluggish attention shifting”—related to a temporoparietal dysfunction—selectively impairs the sublexical mechanisms that are critical for reading development. These findings may offer a new approach for early identification and remediation of developmental dyslexia.

Second language acquisition research and the second language acquisition of French

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
Richard Towell
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
First Language ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Language L ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Key Issues

AbstractPrior to the late 1960s second language acquisition was thought to be a relatively uninteresting phenomenon; it involved transferring grammatical properties already activated in the first language (L 1) onto second language (L 2) vocabulary. Successful L 2 learners were those who could capitalise on the similarities between the L 1 and the L 2, and eradicate the differences; and successful language teaching involved training learners to overcome the L 1-L 2 differences. Today, perceptions of second language acquisition are more sophisticated and nuanced. Second language acquisition researchers are interested in questions bearing not only on the influence of the L 1, but also on the degree of systematicity in L 2 development, the role that L 1, but also on the degree of systematicity in L 2 development, the role that conscious knowledge plays, the sources of variability in second language speaker performance, the ultimate levels of success achieved by L 2 learners of different ages, and individual differences between learners. The purpose of this article is to present what the authors believe to be some of the key issues which characterise current second language acquisition research, and to consider those issues within the specific context of the acquisition of French as second language.

Etiology of individual differences in reading performance: A test of sex limitation

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maricela Alarcón ◽  
J. C. DeFries ◽  
D. W. Fulker
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Sex Limitation

scholarly journals A person-centered approach to punishment: Reprimand and avoidance are differentially directed towards adult and child transgressors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindel White ◽  
Mark Schaller ◽  
Elizabeth G. Abraham ◽  
Josh Rottman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Moral Transgressions ◽  
Person Centered Approach

Three studies (N = 867) investigated how adults’ and children’s punitive responses to moral transgressions differ depending on whether transgressors are adults or children. Adults judged the transgressions of fellow adults as substantially more wrong, and as more worthy of avoidance and punishment, than identical actions performed by children. This difference was partially mediated by the perception that adults’ actions are considered to be more wrong, more harmful, and stranger than children’s identical actions, and by greater anxiety about the negative consequences of confronting adults about their bad behavior. Despite viewing children’s actions as less wrong, adults were more likely to reprimand children than adults who engaged in identical behavior, and this difference became more pronounced when statistically controlling for the wrongness and strangeness of actions. Adults’ nurturant tendencies towards children, as well as their perceptions of children’s moral character as more changeable, also predicted relatively greater reprimand and less avoidance of child transgressors. These differences between reprimand and avoidance of child and adult transgressors was robust to the type of transgression (including harm- and purity-related norms), several individual differences, and a global pandemic. In contrast, 4- to 9-year-old children were equally likely to avoid and reprimand adult and child transgressors, suggesting that different processes are engaged when adults judge children compared to when children evaluate their own peers. Together, these findings indicate how diverse responses to moral transgressions are differentially adapted for norm violators of different ages.

scholarly journals Reading Profiles in Adolescents with Fragile X Syndrome and Down Syndrome

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 660
Author(s):  
Anibal Puente ◽  
Jesús M. Alvarado ◽  
Virginia Jiménez ◽  
Lourdes Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Fragile X Syndrome ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Fragile X ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Reading Tests ◽  
Verbal Skills ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Basic Reading Skills

<p>Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and Down Syndrome (DS) read better than expected for their mental age. We have measured three basic reading skills (word recognition, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension), and two standard intellectual and verbal measures: the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Tests. The tests were applied to 16 adolescents classified as FXS (<em>M</em> = 14.74 years old, <em>SD</em> = 4.03) and 16 adolescents classified as DS (<em>M</em> = 15.59 years old, <em>SD</em> = 2.35). For comparison purposes, the reading tests were also applied to a typical develop group of 70 children aged between 4.8 and 7.0 years (<em>M</em> = 6.11, <em>SD</em> = 0.71).  Children with DS and FXS exhibited verbal skills superior to their cognitive development, especially in the FXS group. In reading performance, FXS showed a reading level corresponding to 5/6 their age, and for SD 6/7 of the equivalent reading age, however, both groups exhibited a similar reading performance in the three reading skills measured, when nonverbal mental age was controlled.</p>

Putting Transfer Back on Trial: Modeling Individual Differences in the Transfer of Decoding-Skill Gains to Other Aspects of Reading Acquisition.

2005 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Compton ◽  
Natalie G. Olinghouse ◽  
Amy Elleman ◽  
Jan Vining ◽  
Amanda C. Appleton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Reading Acquisition

The Effects of Individual Differences in Working Memory on Multimedia Learning

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (13) ◽  
pp. 1256-1260
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Batka ◽  
Scott A. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Design Principles ◽  
Multimedia Presentation ◽  
Instructional Technologies ◽  
Multimedia Design ◽  
Presentation Formats ◽  
Educational Pursuits

With the advance of instructional technologies, multimedia presentation formats have become increasingly common in business, military, and educational pursuits. Previous research has found that the use of certain multimedia design principles may alleviate demands on working memory and thus improve the learning process (Mayer, 2001). Our study examined the utility of three of these principles: the contiguity, redundancy and modality principles (Mayer & Moreno, 2003), in the design of a multimedia presentation explaining the formation of hail. Results indicated that use of the contiguity, redundancy, and modality principles tended to increase learning outcomes for individuals with low working memory capacities but decrease learning outcomes for those with higher working memory capacities. These findings call into question the generality of these design principles, and suggest that multimedia designers should carefully consider the effects of individual differences in the human learner

Individual differences in responses of piglets to weaning at different ages

2003 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon P Mason ◽  
Susan Jarvis ◽  
Alistair B Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Different Ages
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