The Posner-Snyder two-process theory of expectancy explains results of studies on the effect of sentence context on ongoing word recognition. Three studies tested the applicability of the theory to the performance of fluent adult readers. Difficult words displayed larger context effects than did easy words. (Author/RD)

Illustrates and compares skills and process orientations for reading instruction. Tips for teachers of reading are provided. (RH)

Reading ability is a combination of four major skills (word identification, vocabulary, comprehension, study skills), internal influences (experiences, interests, language and cognitive abilities, health goals), and external influences (material complexity, reading environment). Teachers can enhance their students' reading capability by…

Notes that speech intelligibility has traditionally been measured by presenting words mixed in noise to listeners for identification at different signal-to-noise ratios. The words are produced in isolation or in sequence contexts where the predictability of specific items can be varied. Emphasizes that the technique provides valuable data about…

Some current ideas concerning the brain mechanisms of reading are presented. An impediment to educational applications of brain research is the remoteness of the classroom from brain research laboratories. An international plan is outlined to bring scientists and educators together to examine current knowledge about brain mechanisms involved in…

The influence of selected cognitive factors on age-related changes in speech recognition was examined by measuring the effects of recall task, speech rate, and availability of contextual cues on the recognition performance of 10 young listeners (ages 18-40) and 10 older listeners (ages 65-76). Hearing loss affected performance. (Author/CR)

Correlations between phonological, orthographic, semantic, metacognitive, and working memory measures were studied for 40 learning-disabled students and 40 skilled readers ages 8 to 12. Results suggest that the cognitive processes that contribute to reading deficits are best understood in the context of their combination with other operations.…

A parallel distributed processing model of visual word recognition and pronunciation is described. A key feature is the assumption that there is a simple, uniform procedure for computing a phonological representation from an orthographic representation for irregular words as well as regular words. (SLD)

Focuses on a subgroup of nonconcept-aware readers--children who have sufficient concept knowledge, but who rely excessively on the processing of the data on a printed page. Discusses the nature, contexts, and how to assess overreliance on data processing. (MS)

Two experiments compared recognition memory of 85 nonretarded and 85 mildly mentally retarded adolescents immediately and 1 week after presentation of word stimuli of semantic incidental, nonsemantic incidental, or intentional orienting instructions. Results suggest similar processing in mildly retarded and nonretarded persons, with longer…

Explored the contribution of two working memory systems, the articulatory loop and the central executive, and short-term memory to the word recognition and comprehension deficits of children with learning disabilities. Results of 2 experiments with 150 children support the idea that poor word recognition and comprehension reflect deficits in a…

The traditional view of the lexical system stipulates word-specific representations and separate pathways for regular and exception words, while an alternative approach views lexical knowledge as developing from general principles applied to mappings among distributed representations of written and spoken words and their meanings. In this study,…

Examined three-year-old children's ability to generalize novel words to new instances. Suggested that children's similarity judgments and feature selection in name generalization are guided by nonstrategic attentional processes that are minimally influenced by new conceptual information. Proposed that these findings may explain the extraordinary…

Presented successive auditory time gatings of unfamiliar words--familiar, phonologically-related words and familiar, phonologically-unrelated words--to school-age children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). The groups did not differ significantly in the point at which they recognized familiar words, but the subjects with SLI…

This article reports 3 experiments in which effects of orthographic and phonological word length on memory were examined for short lists shown at rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and short-term memory (STM) rates. Only visual-orthographic length reduced RSVP serial recall, whereas both orthographic and phonological length lowered recall for…