In order to apply appropriate modes of instruction based on readers' learning characteristics, including modality preferences, the diagnostician must evaluate the reading abilities of the individual pupil on tests of word recognition, psycholinguistic abilities, and learning modes. The Dolch Basic Word Test is a tool for evaluating word…

A study was conducted to test the thesis that teaching word recognition skills in a manner compatible with the learner's auditory or visual modality preference would facilitate beginning reading instruction. A group of 62 students in two first grade classrooms was studied; one class stressed the presentation of words as whole units, the other…

This study sought to determine whether an individual learns relatively better from pictures than from words and whether such information can be applied to the learning of prose materials. A paired-associate learning task consisting of both pictorial and verbal items from which different types of learners could be reliably identified was developed.…

In six experiments subjects saw and pronounced, either aloud or silently, seven-item lists made from vocabularies of phonologically identical items. These materials were used to test the predictions of a precategorical and a postcategorical hypotheses for the modality effect in immediate memory. (Author/SW)

A vocabulary list of 50 words based on children's spoken language was divided into six groups. For each group specific materials incorporating different modality presentations (pictures, tapes, transparencies, and word cards providing tactile emphasis) were developed. The modality preferences of 128 first graders were identified by The New York…

The article reviews 22 studies concerned with learning disabled children under 10 years old in which there was a clear attempt to compare auditory and visual modality preferenes to visual and/or auditory methods of teaching words or other written verbal symbols. (PHR)

Describes an experiment where 15 adults received a computer presented "Cognitive Styles Analysis" to assess their positions on two cognitive style dimensions: Wholist-Analytic and Verbal-Imagery. The subjects then completed word association and identification tasks while their electroencephalograph readings were monitored. The readings…

Intended to help dispel several unsupported "myths" about reading instruction, this book analyzes a selected group of teaching practices that have been supported by reading experts but not by research findings. The "myths" discussed in the first 12 chapters of the book are as follows: (1) phonics hinders comprehension; (2) unpredictable spelling…