Using first- and second-grade students, this study examined the use of sentence contexts for word identification by beginning readers. (HOD)

Results of two studies of the ability to use specific context clues and possible academic correlates of this ability are reported. In the first study, a five-form data-gathering instrument, using categories of context clues derived from Artley, Betts, and McCullough, was administered to 315 tenth-grade students in Seattle, Washington. Simulated…

Discusses four experiments that examine the influence of script contexts on the visual recognition of words. Findings indicate that script contexts exert an influence over the processes involved in visual word recognition and that this influence is sustained longer than would be predicted from simple word priming. (SED)

Studies are reviewed on the interactive-compensatory model of reading, which explains developmental and individual differences in the use of context to facilitate word recognition. One major implication reported is that, with context adequately instantiated, less-skilled readers utilize context to facilitate word recognitions as much, if not more,…

A study shows that word shape information, when combined with knowledge of the syntactic and semantic structure of the passage being read, more often than not specifies unique words among all of the alternative high frequency words of English. (MKM)

A study extended word association methodology beyond isolated word stimuli to investigate the effects of written context on the meanings that proficient readers impart to words. A repeated-measures design was used to assess the responses of 62 sixth grade readers to target words at three levels: no context, limited context, and expanded context.…

Describes a study in which one of three neutral contexts inhibited word recognition, indicating that interpretation of context effects depends largely on the kind of neutral context employed. (HTH)

Examines the strong vs the weak relationships between word recognition in isolation and in context hypotheses. (HOD)

Listeners shadowed lists of words or parts of sentences, and shadowing latencies were recorded. The effect of attended context was interpreted as a result of strategical manipulation of response bias (a resource-limited process), whereas unattended context may be effective through spreading excitation in semantic memory (a data-limited process).…

Finds that orthographic information dominated word recognition of both good and poor readers and that both semantic contexts and text difficulty influenced the reading of target words. Shows that good readers used orthographic information more than did poor readers, whereas poor readers used semantic context more than good readers. Finds support…

Investigates context effects for words with more than one meaning. Finds that younger children (third graders) were more sensitive to the sentence context in which an ambiguous word appears, whereas the processing of older children (sixth graders) was determined more by the relative frequencies of the word meanings. (RS)

Results from studies of language identification in noise and of word identification from tachistoscopic presentation clearly indicate that contextual information can be used to facilitate word identification under inadequate stimulus conditions. But these results do not provide strong evidence that such an interaction is occurring during normal…

The hypothesis that there would be a significant difference in correct responses between a group of junior college retarded readers seeing words in context and another seeing isolated words in favor of the words-in-context group was investigated. A group of 42 retarded readers enrolled in reading and writing classes of the academic skills lab in…

The aim of this study was to determine whether a general or specific context facilitation mechanism should be incorporated into information-processing models of reading. General facilitation models claim that a context can facilitate recognition of any word that is related to it. Specific facilitation models claim that a context will facilitate…

A study explored the combined effects of morphological clues and contextual clues in the interpretation of novel words while reading in a second language. More specifically, it examined the ability of 74 less-proficient English-speaking learners of Japanese (college students learning Japanese during a summer intensive language program in Japan) to…