Many children struggle to learn to read, and these difficulties can persist well into adulthood. To address this problem, researchers have investigated the processes that underlie reading. An informative body of work has thus identified basic skills (e.g., decoding, vocabulary knowledge) as necessary for successful reading. Researchers also have…

Sentences convey relationships between the meanings of words, such as who is accomplishing an action or receiving it. Functional neuroimaging based on positron-emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging has been used to identify areas of the brain involved in structuring sentences and determining aspects of meaning associated…

In the influential "simple view of reading" (Gough & Tunmer, 1986), Reading Comprehension (R) = Decoding (D) x Linguistic Comprehension (C). To evaluate this model, this article explores the performance of 15-year-olds with severe reading delays. Results showed that D and C described reading comprehension better than D and verbal cognitive ability…

The effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention with teacher and parent scaffolding were investigated in an experimental study. A total of 24 teachers and 400 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: control, books only, books with oral reading scaffolding, and books with oral reading and…

Elementary and middle school children were given a large battery of tests evaluating reading subskills and reading-related cognitive abilities. These measures were used to define latent representing skills and abilities believed to be important components of reading comprehension. Hypothesized relationships among these constructs were specified…

We examined the validity of the comprehension component of the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT; Wiederholt & Bryant, 1992, 2001) by assessing whether reading really is required to answer its questions. The extent to which GORT questions are passage independent was assessed by having participants answer them without reading the passages. Most…

The relationship between word knowledge and reading comprehension has been well documented in research; however, the nature of this relationship remains unclear. Researchers usually distinguish between 2 aspects of an individual's word knowledge: breadth and depth. In addition to these 2 factors, it may be important to also consider fluency in the…

Addresses lack of overlap and intercommunication between research on early reading and reading comprehension. Discusses metacognitive control in reading and learning processes. Suggests the emancipation of attentional resources by the automatization of lower level word identification and higher level basic comprehension skills. Concludes with…

The research examined the extent to which (a) Grade 2 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) and English-as-a-first-language (EL1) children resemble each other on word and text reading efficiency and (b) whether individual differences in word and text reading efficiency in the two language groups can be understood in terms of similar underlying…

The present study used latent semantic analysis (LSA) to analyze verbal protocols that were collected while participants read expository passages. In the study, participants were asked to type their thoughts after reading each sentence of 2 scientific texts. The semantic similarity between the protocols and the current sentence and prior causal…

Considers how a person unaware of the text and choosing not to make meaning from it obtains little comprehension. Examines a motivational-cognitive model of reading that contributes to text comprehension. Notes that the motivational process is divided into five parts: (1) Task Mastery Goals; (2) Intrinsic Motivation; (3) Self-Efficacy; (4)…

Finds that the variation in literacy activity found among undergraduate college students is associated with the ability to interpret texts by enhancing the ability to deal with subtle distinctions among mental-state verbs; however, the view that print exposure fosters decontextualized reasoning, as typified in syllogistic reasoning, received only…

Finds (1) positive phonemic-masking effects occurred for dominant homophones; (2) null phonemic-masking effects occurred for subordinate homophones; and (3) subordinate homophones were much more likely to be falsely identified as their dominant mate. Suggests the source of these null phonemic-masking is itself a phonology effect. Concludes…

Research on how the brain implements reading has produced results of remarkable consistency, especially on the functional anatomy of single word reading. We examine the general features of this emerging knowledge and draw attention to the extent to which it converges with results from other methods of reading science in several areas: reading…

This article is based on the presidential address I delivered at the 12th annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, held in June 2005 in Toronto. I trace the development of my interest in instructional research in, first, beginning reading and, more recently, in comprehension, and I describe studies designed to improve the…