VISUAL WORD CUES, RESPONSE TIMES, AND INCORRECT RESPONSES OF UNSKILLED READERS ON WORD-RECOGNITION TASKS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate cue salience, a predisposition for the deployment of attention, in the word-recognition performances of adult remedial readers who differed in their ability to pronounce isolated words. The hypotheses tested in relation to response times of subjects and the number of errors made were as follows: There is no significant difference in the response times of subjects nor in the number of errors made on visual word-recognition tasks as a function of (a) word pronunciation ability level, (b) cue type: orthographic regularity, word beginning, and word ending, or (c) word length. There is no significant interaction in he response times of subjects nor in the number of errors made on visual word-recognition tasks between (a) word pronunciation ability level and cue type, (b) word pronunciation ability level and word length, (c) cue type and word length, or (d) word pronunciation ability level, cue type, and word length. The word pronunciation ability level--high, medium, or low--of the 36 remedial readers, ages 17 to 24, with reading comprehension scores below the 11th grade, was determined by performance on a word pronunciation test; cue salience was determined by performance on a test of match-to-sample tasks manipulated according to cue condition. Results of a three-way analysis of variance with repeated measures on two factors showed that significant factors in the response time scores were (a) cue type: orthographic regularity, word beginning, and word ending, (b) word length, (c) the interaction between word pronunciation ability level and word length, and (d) the interaction between cue type and word length. Significant factors in the error scores were (a) cue type, (b) word length, (c) the interaction between word pronunciation ability level and cue type, (d) the interaction between cue type and word length, and (e) the interaction between word pronunciation ability level, cue type, and word length. The most salient word-recognition cue was word beginning; the next, word ending; and the least, orthographic regularity. Word length was a significant cue singly and in interaction with the other cues. Word pronunciation ability level interacted principally with orthographic regularity and word length. These findings suggest that familiarity with middle-letter sequences in words is important for adult remedial readers.
Subject Area
Literacy|Reading instruction
Recommended Citation
LEACH, LEONORA MILDRED, "VISUAL WORD CUES, RESPONSE TIMES, AND INCORRECT RESPONSES OF UNSKILLED READERS ON WORD-RECOGNITION TASKS" (1984). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8409261.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8409261
