Effects of Rapid Word Recognition Training on Sentence Context Effects in Children

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the degree to which practice in isolated word recognition would affect children's speed of recognizing words presented within a sentence context. In the first experiment, it was found that both isolation and context methods of word recognition practice, relative to a control group, increased the speed with which second and third graders read words presented within a sentence context. In the second experiment, isolation practice was used to increase the speed of word recognition and the effect of this practice on developmental differences in the magnitude of sentence context effects was examined. Results indicated that word recognition practice had a marked impact on the benefit derived from reading words presented within a congruous versus a neutral sentence context and that this impact was relatively greater for younger readers. Specifically, the degree of facilitation ordinarily produced by congruous context in third graders was significantly reduced for those words on which practice had been given. In contrast, the effect of practice on the degree of contextual facilitation observed in sixth graders was much smaller. The results suggest that increased speed of word recognition per se interacts in a compensatory fashion with reliance upon context as an aid to facilitate word recognition.