Flexibility in the Use of Graphic and Contextual Information by Good and Poor Readers

Schwartz, R.; Stanovich, Keith E.

doi:10.1080/10862968109547413

Cited by 49 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…When skilled and less-skilled readers are reading materials of comparable difficulty (an important control, see Stanovich, 1986) the reliance on contextual information relative to graphic information is just as greatin many cases greaterfor the less-skilled readers (Allington and Fleming, 1978;Biemiller, 1970Biemiller, , 1979Harding, 1984;Juel, 1980;Lesgold, Resnick, and Hammond, 1985;Leu, DeGroff, and Simons, 1986;Nicholson and Hill, 1985;Nicholson, Lillas, and Rzoska, 1988;Perfetti and Roth, 1981 ;Richardson, DiBenedetto, and Adler, 1982;Simons and Leu, 1987;Whaley and Kibby, 1981). The results from studies of text disruption effects, timed text reading, and a variety of other paradigms also display a similar pattern (Allington and Strange, 1977;Biemiller, 1977Biemiller, -1978Ehrlich, 1981;Lovett, 1986;Nicholson, 1991;Schwartz and Stanovich, 1981;Stanovich, Cunningham, and Feeman, 1984;Strange, 1979).…”

Section: The Role Of Context In Word Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 75%

How research might inform the debate about early reading acquisition

Stanovich

1995

Journal Research in Reading

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The so-called 'reading wars' that have characterized education in most Englishspeaking countries have seen their latest incarnation in the whole language versus phonics emphasis controversy of the last ten years (e.These disputes have generated acrimony, sapped the field's energies, and most important of all, have confused and demoralized educators. As one scholar said to the senior author: "The longstanding either/or, black white of reading may spark lively debate on an intellectual level; but when we consider the more pragmatic aspects of our field, that is, teaching reading to children or adults, dualism becomes dangerous. We stand to hurt innocent bystanders!" (Stanovich, 1990a, p. 221).In this paper we attempt to outline a strategy for resolving the disputes between the whole-language and phonics camps in reading instruction. The strategy has five steps: 1. First look for points of agreement between opposing positions. 2. When doing so, invoke a 'spirit of charity' whereby all sides are encouraged to stretch their principles to the maximum to accommodate components of the other position. 3.Step back and take a look at what might be a larger degree of agreement than anyone supposed. Use the convergence to foster trust and a willingness to let the remaining disputes be settled by empirical evidence. 4. Next, isolate the crucial differences. Try to make these few in number but clearly defined so that they are amenable to scientific test. 5 . Agree to let the evidence adjudicate the critical testable predictions that differ between the two camps.We will argue here that such a strategy can contribute to some degree of rapprochement between the factions of the reading wars. Perhaps more importantly it will clarify the state of the evidence for educational practitioners who have had to endure the overheated rhetoric that has become common in reading publications (see McKenna et al., 1994). 1959). Sources of contextual constraint upon words in ADAMS. M. J. (1990). Beginning fo read: Thinking and /earning aboutprint. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ADAMS, M. J. (1991). Why not phonics and whole language? In W. Ellis (Eds.), All language and the creation of literacy (pp. 40-52). Baltimore, MD: Orton Dyslexia Society. ADAMS, M. J., and BRUCK. M. (1993). Word recognition: The interface of educational policies and scientific research.

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Section: The Role Of Context In Word Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 75%

How research might inform the debate about early reading acquisition

Stanovich

1995

Journal Research in Reading

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“…For example, studies of oral reading errors (Allington & Fleming, 1978;Batey & Sonnenschein, 1981;Biemiller, 1970Biemiller, , 1979Cohen, 1974Cohen, -1975Coomber, 1972;Juel, 1980;Lesgold & Resnick, 1982;Perfetti & Roth, 1981;Richardson, DiBenedetto, & Adler, 1982;Weber, 1970;Whaley & Kibby, 1981), timed text reading (Allington, 1978;Biemiller, 1977Biemiller, -1978Doehring, 1976), text disruption manipulations (Allington & Strange, 1977;Ehrlich, 1981;Schwartz & Stanovich, 1981;Siler, 1973Siler, -1974Strange, 1979), single-word priming (Schvaneveldt, Ackerman, & Semlear, 1977;Simpson, Lorsbach, & Whitehouse, 1983), and paragraph priming (Perfetti, Goldman, & Hogaboam, 1979;Schwantes, 1981Schwantes, , 1982). One of the most important is that Smith's developmental hypothesis regarding context use at the word level is falsified.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interactive-Compensatory Model of Reading

Stanovich

1984

Remedial and Special Education

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131

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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. 11-19 (1984) 0741-9325/84/0053-0011$2.00©PRO-ED Inc. 11 going reading, and, more specifically, on how this interaction changes as reading fluency develops. During the early stages of conceptualizing this research problem, Frank Smith's (1971) book Understanding Reading was particularly influential. He imaginatively synthesized some basic research in cognitive psychology and some educational observations into one of the most important "top-down" models of the reading process. Not surprisingly, given this top-down perspective, Smith emphasized the importance of contextual redundancy at all stages of the reading process. One clear developmental prediction deriving from his work is that the performance of the more fluent reader should be more dependent on contextual information. Levels of ProcessingApproaching this topic from an information processing perspective, we wondered whether Smith's developmental hypothesis was equally tenable at all levels of processing in reading, as Smith had argued. A review of the literature at the time (the mid-1970s) increased our curiosity. There was indeed considerable evidence that skilled readers were more facile at using contextual information at the level of text-integration and comprehension. However, there was a general lack of evidence relevant to the accuracy of the prediction at the level of word recognition. Also, there was considerable looseness and confusion revolving around the use of the term "context effect." Miscitation was rampant.Our background in cognitive psychology may have helped in our reading and organization of the educational literature. One major lesson of modern cognitive psychology (cf. Lachman, Lachman, & Butterfield, 1979) is that human performance can be analyzed, predicted, and explained by specific instantiations of models deriving from the general idea that human information processing results from the exchange of information between processing subroutines that operate at different levels in a partially hierarchical system. Thus, when discussing a particular variable, it is important to distinguish the level, or levels, in the processing system that are affected by the variable.Generally, reading researchers have not been careful in specifying what level in the processing system was being tapped by the particular contextual manipulation employed in a given experiment. The point is that there can be m...

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“…We expected to find reading time differences for the two groups of readers, given that several studies found that less skilled readers rely more on context for word identification than do more skilled readers (Perfetti & Lesgold, 1979;Schwartz & Stanovich, 1981;Stanovich, 1984). Although the interactive-compensatory model proposed that less skilled readers rely on context more, the effectiveness of these compensatory word identification processes is still an open question.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Eye Movements of Highly Skilled and Average Readers: Differential Effects of Frequency and Predictability

Ashby

Rayner

Clifton

2005

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A

267

231

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This study offers a glimpse of the moment-by-moment processes used by highly skilled and average readers during silent reading. The eye movements of adult readers were monitored while they silently read sentences. Fixation durations and the spatial-temporal patterns of eye movements were examined to see whether the two groups of readers exhibited differential effects of frequency and/or predictability. In Experiment 1, high- and low-frequency target words were embedded in nonconstraining sentence contexts. In Experiment 2, the same participants read high- and low-frequency target words that were either predictable or unpredictable, embedded in highly constraining sentence contexts. Results indicated that when target words appeared in highly constraining sentence contexts, the average readers showed different effects of frequency and predictability from those shown in the highly skilled readers. It appears that reading skill can interact with predictability to affect the word recognition processes used during silent reading.

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Flexibility in the Use of Graphic and Contextual Information by Good and Poor Readers

Cited by 49 publications

References 3 publications

How research might inform the debate about early reading acquisition

How research might inform the debate about early reading acquisition

The Interactive-Compensatory Model of Reading

Eye Movements of Highly Skilled and Average Readers: Differential Effects of Frequency and Predictability

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