Text Readability Level and Developmental Differences in Context Effects

1991

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Third-, sixth-, and college-grade students were presented with entire sentences for silent reading and were asked to monitor these sentences either for the presence of nonwords or for meaningfulness. The sentence forms were of three types: semantically coherent, syntactically intact (but nonmeaningful), and incoherent (nonmeaningful, nongrammatical). Three developmental differences were obtained in the speed of analyzing these sentences for words/nonwords versus meaningfulness/nonmeaningfulness. First, facilitation produced by the addition of semantic information (semantically coherent sentence condition) to syntactic information (syntactically intact condition) during word level analysis was greater for children as compared to adults. Second, the addition of syntactic information to nongrammatical incoherent strings of words again facilitated word level analysis for the children. Third, the difference in decision speed between monitoring sentences for words versus meaningfulness was negligible for adults, but was very robust for children. These results are consistent with the notion that sentential (syntactic as well as semantic) information is relied upon to a relatively greater extent by children, as compared to adults, for word level analyses. Adult readers, on the other hand, appear to utilize syntactic and semantic information as much at the level of sentential analysis as at the level of word recognition.Investigations of reading skill development have been conducted within a variety of different reading models. The various models share the common notion that processing written text takes place at many different levels and utilizes a number of different informational sources. For example, visual information is analyzed, individual words are recognized, syntactical relationships are evaluated, meanings of words are combined, and an overall meaning of the text is ascertained. Hypothesized relationships between these levels of text processing have served as the impe-335

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…This approach provides a framework for developmental research on children's ability to generate hypotheses about forthcoming print and on their ability to direct attention to facilitate processing of the hypothesized print (Pearson & Studt, 1975;Schwantes, 1982).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's Use of Semantic and Syntactic Information for Word Recognition and Determination of Sentence Meaningfulness

1991

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“…The deleted last word is then presented and the latency to naming this last word is measured. It is usually found in these studies (e.g., Schwantes, 1982Schwantes, , 1985 that younger readers, relative to more experienced readers, show greater contextual facilitation for naming semantically congruous 395 …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Rapid Word Recognition Training on Sentence Context Effects in Children

Raduege

1987

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Two experiments were conducted to investigate the degree to which practice in isolated word recognition would affect children's speed of recognizing words presented within a sentence context. In the first experiment, it was found that both isolation and context methods of word recognition practice, relative to a control group, increased the speed with which second and third graders read words presented within a sentence context. In the second experiment, isolation practice was used to increase the speed of word recognition and the effect of this practice on developmental differences in the magnitude of sentence context effects was examined. Results indicated that word recognition practice had a marked impact on the benefit derived from reading words presented within a congruous versus a neutral sentence context and that this impact was relatively greater for younger readers. Specifically, the degree of facilitation ordinarily produced by congruous context in third graders was significantly reduced for those words on which practice had been given. In contrast, the effect of practice on the degree of contextual facilitation observed in sixth graders was much smaller. The results suggest that increased speed of word recognition per se interacts in a compensatory fashion with reliance upon context as an aid to facilitate word recognition.The purpose of the present study was to examine predictions derived from the time-locked assumption of the interactive-compensatory model proposed by Stanovich and West (1979). More specifically, this study investigated the effects of rapid word recognition training on the magnitude of sentence context effects in children. In studies investigating sentence context effects, the subject is instructed to read an incomplete sentence that serves as the context (e.g., "They went to the lake to do some"). The deleted last word is then presented and the latency to naming this last word is measured. It is usually found in these studies (e.g., Schwantes, 1982Schwantes, , 1985 that younger readers, relative to more experienced readers, show greater contextual facilitation for naming semantically congruous 395

“…First, sentence context factors that typically affect speed of recognizing words within a sentence were found to affect speed of recognizing words encountered following a complete sentence (e.g., Schwantes, 1982;Stanovich, West, & Feeman, 1981). Target words that were either repetitions of, associates of, or whose meanings were inferable from the integration of words in a previously read sentence were all read significantly faster than target words that were unrelated to the previously read sentence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic-Spreading Activation Effects following Children's Reading of Complete Sentences

Vitek

1989

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Third-, sixth-, and college-grade level students participated in an on-line reading task that incorporated both a naming latency and a subsequent cued-recall memory requirement. Following reading of a complete sentence, latency for naming a target word was measured in which the target word was either (a) a repetition of a word in the previous sentence, (b) an associate of a word in the previous sentence, (c) inferable from the integrated meaning of words in the previous sentence, or (d) unrelated to words in the previous sentence. Increased speed was found for naming words presented in the repeated, associated, and inferred target conditions as compared to the unrelated word condition. In each case, the observed facilitation effect was of greater magnitude for the younger readers. In the cued-recall task, singleword cues resulted in better recall memory performance when the cue had been explicitly presented in a prior sentence as compared to cues which were only inferable from previously read material. Results were interpreted in terms of context effects which extend beyond sentence completion boundaries and in terms of developmental differences in automatic expectancy and semantic integration effects.Research on the effect of previously read information on later word recognition has focused on the manner whereby different types of expectancies are generated and differentially affect various components of stimulus processing (e.g., LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). In particular, researchers have examined the Posner and Snyder (1975) two-process model of expectancies as it applies to lexical access. The premise of such studies is that expectancies generated from prior relevant information can be used to produce faster word recognition as compared to conditions in which prior information is not available. The two-process model postulates that, as material is read, two expectancy processes become operational that have different prop-181