It is well established that phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) tasks reliably predict children's developing word reading abilities across a wide range of languages. However, existing research has not yet demonstrated unequivocally whether RAN and PA are independently and causally linked to reading, nor has it fully…

Previous research has revealed conflicting results with regard to the role of the magnocellular visual system in reading and dyslexia. In order to investigate this further, the present study examined the relationship between performance on two magnocellular tasks (temporal gap detection and coherent motion), reading rate (oral and silent), and…

This research synthesis examines whether the association between print exposure and components of reading grows stronger across development. We meta-analyzed 99 studies (N = 7,669) that focused on leisure time reading of (a) preschoolers and kindergartners, (b) children attending Grades 1-12, and (c) college and university students. For all…

Concludes that letter-sound learning, word recognition, and reading ability do not appear to be affected by letter-name instruction. (RB)

Reports a study intended to examine whether there is a relationship between reading ability and the size of the visual units attended to during visual word processing. Concludes that both good and poor readers read holistically but that poor readers are deficient in analyzing a word's components. (JAD)

Concludes that speed in identifying letters and graphonemes correlates highly with reading achievement. (RB)

In a partial replication of Samuels' (1972) experiments, 60 first grade pupils were assigned to a letter name group, a letter discrimination group, or a control group to investigate the effect of letter name knowledge on learning to read words. Artificial letters formulated by Gibson, et al. (1962) were used instead of those of Samuels, and…

Previous research has demonstrated that readers utilize orthographic structure in their perceptual recognition of letter strings. Two experiments were conducted to assess whether this utilization varied with reading ability. Anagrams of words were made to create strings that orthogonally combined high and low single letter positional frequency and…

Study examined whether phonemic sensitivity is limited to alphabetically literate individuals. Children not exposed to reading instruction were given pairs of phonological sensitivity tasks. Novice readers scored higher in phonological sensitivity than nonreaders of equivalent letter knowledge, when controlled for verbal ability; among nonreaders,…

Results agreed with previous findings that good and poor readers did not differ in mean scan rate when words instead of letters had been used as stimuli. (Authors)

Differences in perceptual processes of good and poor readers relevant to single word perception have been studied in a series of experiments. The major differences between good and poor readers have been shown to occur at the level of the single word; other differences occur in knowledge of spelling patterns and ability to make use of letters'…

Reversals in poor and normal second-grade readers were studied in relation to their whole phonological error pattern in reading real words and nonsense syllables. Error categories included sequence and orientation reversals, other consonants, vowels, and total error. Reversals occurred in quantity only in poor readers, with large individual…

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent the knowledge of letter names, letter sounds, or the combination of both facilitates the acquisition of word recognition ability. Forty-eight first graders were pretested and posttested on their knowledge of letter names and sounds, and measures of auditory and visual discrimination…

This study investigated the predictive value of certain tests in relationship to first grade reading success. The Metropolitan Readiness Test, Naming Letters Test, Light Response Test, and Matching Symbol Test were administered to 70 first grade students during the first two weeks of school. The Teacher's Reading Readiness Rating Scale was filled…