Sentences recorded by four speakers with dysarthria and two control speakers were presented to listeners at three different rates: habitual, a 30% slower rate and a 30% higher rate. Rate changes were made by digitally manipulating the habitual sentences. Thirty young normal adult listeners rated the sentences for intelligibility (per cent correct…

Research with adults has shown that the distortion of visual word features, and in particular of the multiletter features within words, hampers word recognition. In this study, "CaSe MiXiNg" was employed to examine the effect of disrupting visual word features on the acquisition of orthographic knowledge in children. During the training, 18…

A prototype of a biofeedback system designed to treat dyslexia by improving heart-rate variability was evaluated in a single blind study of dyslexic adults. Treatment consisted of four 15 minute exposures to a visual display synchronized with either the participant's own cardiac cycle (intervention condition), or of a synthesized cardiac cycle…

This study focused on teacher-education students taking a special-education language-arts course in which information about English word structure was taught. The relationship between students' component reading-related abilities and their performance on three measures of word-structure knowledge, before and after course instruction about word…

This is a study of the utility of Lexile scores for predicting adequate oral reading accuracy and oral reading rate in a tradebook. A Lexile score is a quantitative measure of readability that can be applied to texts and also a metric for describing reading achievement through the use of standardized reading comprehension measures. Participants…

An account was tested of the development of the interplay between automatic processes and cognitive resources in reading. According to compensatory-encoding theory, with advancing skill, readers increasingly keep automatic processes from faltering and provide timely, accurate data to working memory by pausing, looking back, rereading, and…

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the use of a reinforcement package with four middle school students who were below grade level in reading. Data were gathered, independently by two observers, for on-task behavior for the number of correct words read for a two-minute timed trial, and for book pre- and posttests. These data were…

A study assessed the effectiveness of a peer tutoring intervention for sight-word acquisition, and determined whether any progress was matched by improvement in reading fluency. Four primary students were selected based upon teacher referral for poor reading fluency. Flashcards were used to determine accuracy of recognition of vocabulary words…

A study compared native and nonnative reading styles in order to see whether Japanese readers process text differently than readers whose native language uses a phonetic alphabet. Subjects, 29 native readers of Japanese, 37 advanced-level nonnatives and 39 intermediate-level nonnatives enrolled in Japanese language courses were randomly assigned…

Two groups of 27 adult braille readers and one group of 10 large print readers (mean age 13 years) were given 2-week workshops to allow them to develop rapid reading skills. (Author)

During the past century, most research addressing the legibility of text in print has used adult subjects. The study reported in this paper investigated differences in reading rate and comprehension scores of eighth grade students reading from paper copy or computer screen. Three hundred eighth grade students in computer literacy classes were…

Content and critical analyses of 40 speed reading books were undertaken to determine to what extent discussion and teaching reflected current research. Particular attention was given to the information provided on eye movements, span of recognition, and the upper rates of speed attainable through practice. Content analysis revealed the following:…

A study examined the influence of the computer management feature of a commercially prepared speed reading software package on the reading rate and attitudes of college students towards computers as instructional tools. Subjects, 66 college freshman from lower-middle to middle socio-economic brackets (and divided into control and experimental…

Two experimental studies were conducted to compare two typical reading tasks--critical reading and proofreading--on computer display and on hard copy. Ten college freshmen with less than 10 total hours spent on a computer prior to the experiments were trained on the computer system for approximately three hours in two sessions before beginning the…