Higher-order units in reading instruction

Gibson and her colleagues have presented arguments and evidence suggesting that the most appropriate unit to teach in reading is neither the single letter nor the whole word but a higher-order unit determined from examining grapheme-phoneme correspondences. The present study employed a computer analysis of the most frequently occurring (approximately 18,000) words in the English language. All letter strings from two to seven letters in length (here after called ngrams) were output with all the words in which the ngram appeared printed beneath the ngram. In addition type and token frequencies of each ngram were calculated and printed in separate rank order and alphabetic lists. Preliminary analysis of the consistency of mappings of various ngrams suggests that many are potentially useful for reading instruction. Current research with the computer is designed to extend the preliminary analysis.     

On the theory and measurement of reading comprehension

This paper suggests that reading comprehension must involve an interaction between the reader's world knowledge and the incoming linguistic message. We call this the minimal comprehension principle. After examining the measurement of reading comprehension from the perspective of the minimal comprehension principle, we conclude that most existing tests of reading comprehension are likely to be unsatisfactory for the purposes of assessing educational gain and diagnosing reading difficulty. We suggest several techniques which might be more suitable for these purposes.     

The relationship between reading level and retention in average and supra readers

Research which indicates a relationship between reading level and memory has generally focused on the performance of average and delayed readers, leaving open the question of performance by above average (supra) readers. The present study considered the performance of average and supra readers on a partial report task with a variable interstimulus interval. The results demonstrated that the two groups do not differ when the interval is less than 200 ms, but the supra readers perform better when the interval extends beyond that point. The results are interpreted as supporting the concept of a continuous relationship between memory and reading level.     

Cognitive processing, language awareness, and reading in Grade 2 and Grade 4 children

The role of cognitive processing and language awareness in relation to reading is discussed. The framework for cognitive processing was Luria's (1966a, Higher cortical functions in man, New York: Basic Books; 1966b, Human brain and psychological processes, New York: Harper & Row) simultaneous and successive syntheses. Language awareness involved understanding of phonological representation, ambiguities, and incongruities. The sample of 56 Grade 2 and 64 Grade 4 children was administered a battery of seven “simultaneous-successive” tasks. Principal component and promax oblique factor analyses and factor scores were used to classify the children as low-low, low-high, high-low, and high-high simultaneous-successive “processors.” A series of ANOVAs showed significant differences by grade and level of cognitive processing for the three language awareness tasks and for reading. These tasks and factor scores derived from the simultaneous and successive components of the within correlation matrix for the total sample of 120 children after removing covariance associated with the two grades were subjected to stepwise multiple regression analyses and a path analysis to tease out the contribution of these components to reading. Results showed a much greater direct effect from language awareness on reading than simultaneous and successive syntheses. Ability to reflect on language and to use language as “disembedded modes of thinking” are seen as central to reading acquisition and development.     

The rule-assessment approach and education

This paper describes the rule-assessment approach to cognitive development and summarizes work using it that is relevant to education. The basic question that motivated the rule-assessment approach is how people's existing knowledge influences their ability to learn. Addressing this issue requires a means of assessing what people already know, a means for studying how they learn, and a means for examining basic processes that may underlie developmental differences in knowledge and learning. Research using the rule-assessment approach is summarized in terms of eight conclusions about these issues. Each of the conclusions is illustrated with empirical examples.     

Use of a mnemonic technique to teach young children foreign language vocabulary

Children 3 to 6 years of age learned simple Spanish vocabulary items using an adaptation of the keyword method of foreign language vocabulary learning. Using this version of the keyword method, the learner remembered a picture of the translation referent of the vocabulary item interacting with the referent of a concrete English word which sounded like part of the foreign word (the keyword). Children who used the keyword method remembered more vocabulary translations than children who were not instructed in keyword method usage.     

Population differences in constructive memory

An experiment was conducted to evaluate constructive memory in fourth-grade low-SES black and middle-SES white children. The children were read nine short passages; each passage was composed of two premise statements and a filler sentence. The children were tested by a recognition procedure. Thirty-six test sentences were presented randomly. Four sentences were associated with each passage (true premise, false premise, true inference, and false inference). Subjects were asked to make yes/no recognition decisions based on whether the test sentence was identical to a sentence presented at study. Middle-SES white children made few errors, except to true inference test sentences. This pattern of performance is consistent with the constructive view of memory. Low-SES black children also had a high error rate to true inference items. However, this outcome may not reflect constructive memory because they also had a high error rate to some of the other types of test sentences.     

Effects of delayed retention on multiple-choice test performance

In two experiments, immediate feedback defined as feedback following the completion of a 40-item multiple-choice test and delayed feedback (received 48 hr later) were examined in a simulated classroom situation with college students. As defined, delayed feedback was not superior to immediate feedback, as would be predicted by the delayed retention effect. Also, feedback in the form of correct answer only was superior to correct answer plus distractors lending partial support to the frequency theory of recognition memory. In addition to not finding the delayed retention effect, an analysis of errors in experiment two did not support the interference—perseveration hypothesis as an explanation for the type of error committed following immediate feedback.     

The effect of modifying the cognitive tempo of reading disabled children on reading comprehension

The present investigation was concerned with teaching poor readers to use a reflective cognitive style. It was hypothesized that such a strategy would facilitate the reading ability of poor readers. To test this hypothesis, approximately half the poor readers and half the average readers were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group of children was taught to delay their responses and to use more efficient search and scanning techniques. All groups were tested before and after training on the Matching Familiar Figures test and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. Poor readers' vocabulary and comprehension scores and level of reflectivity improved following training. It was concluded that imposing slow reading strategies on impulsive children is an important factor in developing educational programs for children with reading disabilities and that teaching poor readers a reflective cognitive strategy may have important consequences on the child's reading performance.     

Rule learning and complexity in simulated reading

Three approaches (Rule, Higher-order Unit, Whole Word) to decoding in a simulated reading task were studied. Rule complexity was varied in three experiments employing symbols ($, @, etc.) as stimuli and numbers as responses. CAI was the experimental vehicle. The 110 fifth and sixth grade boys and girls from an inner-city school were randomly assigned to one of the 11 groups in the three experiments. When the rule was simple (one-to-one correspondence) the rule approach was superior, but when the rule was complex (simulation of the final e rule in reading) the higher-order unit approach was superior. Higher-order unit subjects studied examples composed of the fewest stimuli possible to illustrate the rule.     

Visual and auditory memory: Relationships to reading achievement

In two experiments, visual and auditory memory was tested for good and for poor readers from the upper elementary grades. Under experimenter-blind conditions, no reading group differences existed for single mode presentation in recognition frequency or recognition latency. With a multimodal presentation, latencies for poor readers were similar to those for the single mode presentation. Good readers, however, had significantly faster latencies with multiple input. Generally, results supported dual coding and self-terminating memory search hypotheses for previously encoded stimuli. Implications of the latency differences between reader groups were discussed with respect to the reading process and reading theory.     

Cooperative-competitive social orientation and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children

Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cultural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality predictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican-American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between-culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between-culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed.     

A historical overview of educational psychology

A historical review of educational psychology might improve understanding of current status and problems. Before American development of the field, the Greeks, Juan Vives in the 16th century, and Pestalozzi and Herbart in the 19th century applied psychological views to educational problems. Despite the absence of scientific psychology in 19th century America, normal schools offered courses purporting to be psychological in content; these courses were supported by textbooks on the subject. James began, and Thorndike developed, the discipline that by the mid-1920s had assumed much of its current form. Journals and academic departments appeared in the first quarter of the century also. The continuing search through the middle of the century for a satisfying professional organization reflected educational psychology's difficulties in establishing an identity. It is not clear even today that the field has “crystallized,” as one writer described it in the 1920s.     

The episodic/semantic memory distinction as an heuristic in the study of instructional effects on cognitive structure

Previous attempts to measure the effects of instruction on students' cognitive structure have produced inconsistent and ambiguous findings. One reason may be that researchers have not distinguished between well-learned, abstracted information and memorized facts or formulas. Using the distinction between episodic and semantic memory as an heuristic, a procedure was designed to increase the likelihood that student performance on structure tasks was indicative of semantic rather than episodic memory. Significant correlations between measures of cognitive structure and performance on achievement test items were observed. In addition, partial correlations revealed that the measures of cognitive structure are correlated with the achievement items tapping higher-order cognitive processes and not with items tapping lower-order processes. These results are interpreted as supporting the argument that related research needs to be guided by theory-based definitions of cognitive structure.