Why Reading? Because it's there

Three papers (V. A. Mann, Reading skill and language skill. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 1–15; G. Wolford & C. A. Fowler, Differential use of partial information by good and poor readers. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 16–35; F. J. Morrison, Reading disability: A problem in rule learning and word decoding. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 36–47) are critiqued from the standpoint of their adequacy in advancing our understanding of a problem as complex as reading disability. Experimenters should be explicit about their guiding theoretical assumptions, and should think through the relations, if any, between their laboratory tasks and the actual processes of reading. The reading protocol of a dyslexic child is provided, and is interpreted within the frameworks of the Mann, Wolford and Fowler, and Morrison viewpoints.     

Short-term memory function in young readers

Twelve good readers and 12 poor readers, 10-y4-olds, were given memory span tests, and memory scanning tests, in both auditory and visual modalities. Their concept of a letter pattern was also tested. The major finding was that short-term memory (STM) function deteriorated over time in the poor reading group. When modality was switched the good readers showed a release from proactive inhibition (PI); the poor readers did not. Among good readers, memory scanning in the auditory modality occurred at about the same speed as memory scanning in the visual modality; among the poor readers, auditory speed gradually lagged relative to visual rates. Poor readers were more likely (than good readers) to lack the concept of a letter pattern. Stepwise regressions showed that different patterns of variables were assocated with different types of reading errors. Implicatios for model construction were discussed.     

Retention of visually presented information in children’s spelling

Memory & Cognition - One hundred and thirty-six 8-year-old children participated in two studies of their ability to spell familiar or nonsense words which they had seen or heard for 2–5...