Abstract
Simple printed sentences with a highly predictable word missing were presented to normal readers from Grades 1 through 11. The children had to say the missing word as rapidly as possible. Error rates were low enough that response latency could be assessed from Grade 2 on. There was a steady decrease in latency from the lower to the higher grades, and latency was highly correlated with the speed of oral reading of letters, words, nonsense syllables, and sentences. The results are discussed with regard to mechanisms underlying sentence comprehension.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, R. C. How to construct achievement tests to assess comprehension. Review of Educational Research, 1972, 42, 145–170.
Bickley, A. C., Ellington, B. J., & Bickley, R. T. The cloze procedure: A conspectus. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1970, 2, 232–239.
Bradshaw, J. L. Three interrelated problems in reading: A review. Memory & Cognition, 1975, 3, 123–134.
Doehring, D. G. Acquisition of rapid reading responses. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1976, 41, Serial number 165.
Ferguson, G. A. Statistical analysis in psychology and education (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Gibson, E. J., & Levin, H. The psychology of reading. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1975.
Golinkoff, R. M. A comparison of reading processes in good and poor comprehenders. Reading Research Quarterly, 1975–1976, 11, 623–659.
La Berge, D., & Samuels, S. J. Toward a theory of automatic information processing. Cognitive Psychology, 1974, 6, 293–323.
Perfetti, C. A., & Hogaboam, T. The relationship between single word decoding and reading comprehension skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975, 67, 461–469.
Smith, F. Comprehension and learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1975.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by Grants 604-7-858 from the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare and MA-1652 from the Medical Research Council of Canada. The writers wish to thank the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal and the staffs of Herbert Symonds, Willingdon, and lona Elementary Schools and Montreal West High School for their cooperation, and Bonnie Bryans, Agnes Ling, and Daniel Ling for comments on the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Doehring, D.G., Hoshko, I.M. A developmental study of the speed of comprehension of printed sentences. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 9, 311–313 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337008
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337008