Abstract Geographical maps are one of the most common types of graphical displays, yet relatively... more Abstract Geographical maps are one of the most common types of graphical displays, yet relatively little is known about how we process or produce the information contained in a map. This paper reviews recent evidence regarding the cognitive processes involved in map use. Recent research points toward two approaches to map processing, holistic and analytic. In the holistic strategy, maps are dealt with spatially, as concrete objects. In the analytic strategy, maps are dealt with more verbally and abstractly. Three studies are reviewed which bear on this issue. It is argued that holistic and analytic are dimensions of map processing, and that the optimal strategy is usually one in which holistic and analytic processing are integrated and used flexibly. Resume Bien que les cartes geographiques constituent un des types les plus communs de representations graphiques, on sait relativement peu de choses sur la facon dont sont traitees ou produites les informations contenues dans une carte. Cet article examine des donnees recentes concernant les processus cognitifs impliques dans ľutilisation de cartes. Les recherches actuelles sont axees sur deux approches du traitement des cartes; ľapproche holistique et ľapproche analytique. Dans la strategic holistique, les cartes sont traitees spatialement, en tant qu'objet concret. Dans la strategic holistique, les cartes sont traitees plus verbalement et plus abstraitement. Trois recherches se rapportant a cette question sont examinees. On propose que les deux approches, holistique et analytique, soient considerees comme des dimensions du traitement de cartes, et que la strategic optimale consiste habituellement en ľintegration et ľutilisation souple des strategies holistiques et analytiques.
This paper examines the relationship between readinq comprehension and semantic integration (as m... more This paper examines the relationship between readinq comprehension and semantic integration (as measured by inferencing in a recall task) in various aqe qroups. Results are discussed in terms of a model in which inferencinq occurs in response to two individual difference variables: the ability to recode or integrate information (which increases with developmental level), and the need to recode or integrate (which decreases with developmental level). It is concluded that the relationship between reading ability and semantic integration will depend upon task demands and subjects' perceptions of task demands, in addition to developmental level.
This study investigated the effectiveness of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) pro... more This study investigated the effectiveness of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) programme, which integrates play-based learning and team teaching, in promoting 32,027 kindergarteners' self-regulation (SR), literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Outcome measures derived from teacher reports of students' school readiness in the Early Development Instrument were analysed in separate hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for individual and school-level characteristics. Results revealed essentially no benefit for students participating in the FDELK programme when compared to peers in Half-Day Kindergarten (HDK) or Alternate-Day Kindergarten programmes. Being older, female, and in higher socioeconomic status schools with a history of higher achievement predicted more positive SR, literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Findings suggest the FDELK programme requires improvement. Play-based learning programmes, such as the FDELK, might be enhanced by incorporating evidence-based guidelines and goals for play, reducing class sizes to more effectively scaffold learning, and revising curriculum expectations to include a greater focus on SR, literacy, and numeracy skills.
This study investigates the relationship between English listening comprehension and English and ... more This study investigates the relationship between English listening comprehension and English and Chinese phonological awareness (PA), and the crosslinguistic transfer of PA in 48 Grade 2 and 47 Grade 4 Chinese English-immersion students. The results of the study indicate a correlation between English PA and English listening comprehension. English listening comprehension had a significant effect on English PA in both grades; this effect is evident after considering Chinese PA, but only in Grade 4. A similar pattem is found for the effect of English PA on English listening comprehension. Only weak evidence exists pertaining to a connection between cross-linguistic transfer from Chinese PA (LI) to English listening comprehension (L2).
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, Jul 1, 2015
This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of th... more This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of the stability, cumulative, and compensatory models in reading comprehension development. Archival government-mandated assessments of reading comprehension at Grades 3, 6, and 10, and the Canadian Test of Basic Skills measure of reading comprehension administered at Grade 10 were used. The probabilities of later-grade reading achievement based on earlier-grade reading achievement were computed, and tests of regression to the mean were conducted. Most changes in relative achievement were attributed to regression toward the mean. Overall, results suggest considerable stability across time.
Page 1. A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO INTELLIGENCE: ATTENTION, CODING AND PLANNING JOHN R. KIRBY Queen&... more Page 1. A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO INTELLIGENCE: ATTENTION, CODING AND PLANNING JOHN R. KIRBY Queen's University, Kingston JP DAS University of Alberta, Edmonton ABSTRACT The development of PASS ...
A 2-year longitudinal study investigated the causal contributions of phonological processing to e... more A 2-year longitudinal study investigated the causal contributions of phonological processing to early reading competency. Subjects, 161 kindergarten children, were tested with a battery of measures assessing letter knowledge, reading ability, and 5 phonological constructs: rapid naming ability, rhyming ability, phonological memory (successive processing), phonological synthesis (blending), and phonological analysis. Of *
Previous research has shown that children do not monitor their own comprehension very well when r... more Previous research has shown that children do not monitor their own comprehension very well when reading. Theories have been advanced which emphasize the roles of capabilities and strategies in inhibiting monitoring; at least one crucial factor is that children often do not perceive that errors are possible in text. This paper describes the development of a task, the inserted cloze task, in which children are required to judge the correctness of another child's comprehension. This task elicits comprehension monitoring quite easily. An empirical study of above and below average readers in Years 3 and 4 is reported. Their performance indicates that use of prior context within the sentence poses little difficulty for either group of readers. However use of within-sentence following context is most likely in simple texts, and is the only measure which differentiates the better readers from the less able. These results demonstrate that comprehension can be elicited from even less skilled readers, but that the amount of context which must be considered is an important factor. A possible hierarchy of comprehension skills is discussed, and suggestions for the teaching of these skills are presented. It is concluded that the inserted cloze task would be useful in teaching comprehension monitoring.
Despite decades of research conducted to explain the etiology of reading disabilities, it remains... more Despite decades of research conducted to explain the etiology of reading disabilities, it remains unclear why some individuals develop dyslexia whereas others do not. Currently, the most established theory is the phonological deficit hypothesis, which proposes that dyslexia is caused by a deficit in the consolidation and/or retrieval of phonological or sound based codes (Stanovich, 1988). A second factor that has accounted for variability in reading achievement is naming speed (NS) or rapid automatized naming (RAN; Kirby, Georgiou, Martinussen, & Parrila, 2010; Norton & Wolf, 2012). NS tasks measure how quickly and accurately participants can name highly familiar stimuli (e.g., letters) presented in a visual display. Performance on these tasks has been shown to be an independent source of variance in predicting concurrent and future reading ability in poor and developing readers (Compton,
This study explored the relationship between two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, that is, bre... more This study explored the relationship between two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, that is, breadth of vocabulary (the number of words known) and depth of vocabulary (the richness of word knowledge), and their effects on different aspects of English reading in Chinese high school students learning English as a second language. Two hundred and forty-six Grade 8 students in China were administered measures of word reading, vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and reading comprehension. Results showed that breadth and depth of vocabulary were moderately correlated. They both contributed to word reading, but breadth of vocabulary had a stronger effect than depth of vocabulary. When reading comprehension was the outcome measure, vocabulary breadth significantly predicted a multiple-choice reading comprehension measure, which requires general understanding of the text, while vocabulary depth contributed to summary writing, a measure of deeper text processing. Discussion focuses on the important roles of different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge for different types of second language reading.
The & watched series of one, two, three, four, or six letters presented visually, one every 300 m... more The & watched series of one, two, three, four, or six letters presented visually, one every 300 msec., and then decided if a probe letter, presented 600 msec, later, was or was not in the original list. Decision time increased with the number of letters in a series; the increase was more pronounced for YES than for NO decisions. Within the four-and six-letter sequences, there were pronounced primacy and recency effects. These results favor a theory that 5 has direct access to an internal representation of the probe letter and decides YES or NO depending on its memory strength. They are inconsistent with theories which hold that 5 scans through the series to discover whether the probe is there.
British Journal of Educational Psychology, Dec 1, 2003
Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Semices services ... more Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Semices services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K I A O N 4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non-L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seIl reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de tnicrofiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur consenre la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts £kom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation.
We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validi... more We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validity. We describe the SVR as an abstract framework for understanding the relationship between global linguistic comprehension and word-reading abilities in reading comprehension (RC). We argue that the SVR is neither a full theory of reading nor a blueprint for instruction. Nevertheless we argue that the model is helpful in conceptualising these broad skills and thus in planning for teaching and learning. We review empirical evidence concerning the SVR, suggesting that it provides a good fit to much scientific data on typical and atypical development, and variation among students across the school age range. We also indicate several areas in which we think the SVR is incomplete or in need of further empirical support. These include the way in which word decoding is conceptualised, the ways in which RC is measured, RC strategies, the role of reading fluency, reading with illustrations and second-language reading.
Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examine... more Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examined the roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading. This 4-year longitudinal study (Grades 2-5) compared these two factors in three aspects of reading development: pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, and single word reading. Morphological awareness contributed significantly to pseudoword reading and reading comprehension, after controlling prior measures of reading ability, verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and phonological awareness. This contribution was comparable to that of phonological awareness and remained 3 years after morphological awareness was assessed. In contrast, morphological awareness rarely contributed significantly to single word reading. We argue that these results provide evidence that morphological awareness has a wide-ranging role in reading development, one that extends beyond phonological awareness.
Australian journal of human communication disorders, Jun 1, 1988
This paper reviews current evidence linking language processes with reading problems and presents... more This paper reviews current evidence linking language processes with reading problems and presents an information processing model which reconceptualises these relationships. Five areas of language oriented studies of reading are discussed: analyses of errors committed during oral reading, studies of syntactic ability and syntactic complexity, language structure training studies, studies of language flow and studies of lexical access. The results of these studies are discussed in terms of Das, Kirby and Jarman's (1979) model of information processing. Studies of brain damaged, learning disabled and normal subjects are used to support the linking of simultaneous processing with direct lexical access and semantic comprehension, and of successive processing with decoding and syntactic skills. Studies of children with reading problems indicate that their major difficulty is the use of simultaneous processing when successive is more appropriate. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect of p...
Abstract Geographical maps are one of the most common types of graphical displays, yet relatively... more Abstract Geographical maps are one of the most common types of graphical displays, yet relatively little is known about how we process or produce the information contained in a map. This paper reviews recent evidence regarding the cognitive processes involved in map use. Recent research points toward two approaches to map processing, holistic and analytic. In the holistic strategy, maps are dealt with spatially, as concrete objects. In the analytic strategy, maps are dealt with more verbally and abstractly. Three studies are reviewed which bear on this issue. It is argued that holistic and analytic are dimensions of map processing, and that the optimal strategy is usually one in which holistic and analytic processing are integrated and used flexibly. Resume Bien que les cartes geographiques constituent un des types les plus communs de representations graphiques, on sait relativement peu de choses sur la facon dont sont traitees ou produites les informations contenues dans une carte. Cet article examine des donnees recentes concernant les processus cognitifs impliques dans ľutilisation de cartes. Les recherches actuelles sont axees sur deux approches du traitement des cartes; ľapproche holistique et ľapproche analytique. Dans la strategic holistique, les cartes sont traitees spatialement, en tant qu'objet concret. Dans la strategic holistique, les cartes sont traitees plus verbalement et plus abstraitement. Trois recherches se rapportant a cette question sont examinees. On propose que les deux approches, holistique et analytique, soient considerees comme des dimensions du traitement de cartes, et que la strategic optimale consiste habituellement en ľintegration et ľutilisation souple des strategies holistiques et analytiques.
This paper examines the relationship between readinq comprehension and semantic integration (as m... more This paper examines the relationship between readinq comprehension and semantic integration (as measured by inferencing in a recall task) in various aqe qroups. Results are discussed in terms of a model in which inferencinq occurs in response to two individual difference variables: the ability to recode or integrate information (which increases with developmental level), and the need to recode or integrate (which decreases with developmental level). It is concluded that the relationship between reading ability and semantic integration will depend upon task demands and subjects' perceptions of task demands, in addition to developmental level.
This study investigated the effectiveness of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) pro... more This study investigated the effectiveness of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) programme, which integrates play-based learning and team teaching, in promoting 32,027 kindergarteners' self-regulation (SR), literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Outcome measures derived from teacher reports of students' school readiness in the Early Development Instrument were analysed in separate hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for individual and school-level characteristics. Results revealed essentially no benefit for students participating in the FDELK programme when compared to peers in Half-Day Kindergarten (HDK) or Alternate-Day Kindergarten programmes. Being older, female, and in higher socioeconomic status schools with a history of higher achievement predicted more positive SR, literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Findings suggest the FDELK programme requires improvement. Play-based learning programmes, such as the FDELK, might be enhanced by incorporating evidence-based guidelines and goals for play, reducing class sizes to more effectively scaffold learning, and revising curriculum expectations to include a greater focus on SR, literacy, and numeracy skills.
This study investigates the relationship between English listening comprehension and English and ... more This study investigates the relationship between English listening comprehension and English and Chinese phonological awareness (PA), and the crosslinguistic transfer of PA in 48 Grade 2 and 47 Grade 4 Chinese English-immersion students. The results of the study indicate a correlation between English PA and English listening comprehension. English listening comprehension had a significant effect on English PA in both grades; this effect is evident after considering Chinese PA, but only in Grade 4. A similar pattem is found for the effect of English PA on English listening comprehension. Only weak evidence exists pertaining to a connection between cross-linguistic transfer from Chinese PA (LI) to English listening comprehension (L2).
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, Jul 1, 2015
This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of th... more This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of the stability, cumulative, and compensatory models in reading comprehension development. Archival government-mandated assessments of reading comprehension at Grades 3, 6, and 10, and the Canadian Test of Basic Skills measure of reading comprehension administered at Grade 10 were used. The probabilities of later-grade reading achievement based on earlier-grade reading achievement were computed, and tests of regression to the mean were conducted. Most changes in relative achievement were attributed to regression toward the mean. Overall, results suggest considerable stability across time.
Page 1. A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO INTELLIGENCE: ATTENTION, CODING AND PLANNING JOHN R. KIRBY Queen&... more Page 1. A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO INTELLIGENCE: ATTENTION, CODING AND PLANNING JOHN R. KIRBY Queen's University, Kingston JP DAS University of Alberta, Edmonton ABSTRACT The development of PASS ...
A 2-year longitudinal study investigated the causal contributions of phonological processing to e... more A 2-year longitudinal study investigated the causal contributions of phonological processing to early reading competency. Subjects, 161 kindergarten children, were tested with a battery of measures assessing letter knowledge, reading ability, and 5 phonological constructs: rapid naming ability, rhyming ability, phonological memory (successive processing), phonological synthesis (blending), and phonological analysis. Of *
Previous research has shown that children do not monitor their own comprehension very well when r... more Previous research has shown that children do not monitor their own comprehension very well when reading. Theories have been advanced which emphasize the roles of capabilities and strategies in inhibiting monitoring; at least one crucial factor is that children often do not perceive that errors are possible in text. This paper describes the development of a task, the inserted cloze task, in which children are required to judge the correctness of another child's comprehension. This task elicits comprehension monitoring quite easily. An empirical study of above and below average readers in Years 3 and 4 is reported. Their performance indicates that use of prior context within the sentence poses little difficulty for either group of readers. However use of within-sentence following context is most likely in simple texts, and is the only measure which differentiates the better readers from the less able. These results demonstrate that comprehension can be elicited from even less skilled readers, but that the amount of context which must be considered is an important factor. A possible hierarchy of comprehension skills is discussed, and suggestions for the teaching of these skills are presented. It is concluded that the inserted cloze task would be useful in teaching comprehension monitoring.
Despite decades of research conducted to explain the etiology of reading disabilities, it remains... more Despite decades of research conducted to explain the etiology of reading disabilities, it remains unclear why some individuals develop dyslexia whereas others do not. Currently, the most established theory is the phonological deficit hypothesis, which proposes that dyslexia is caused by a deficit in the consolidation and/or retrieval of phonological or sound based codes (Stanovich, 1988). A second factor that has accounted for variability in reading achievement is naming speed (NS) or rapid automatized naming (RAN; Kirby, Georgiou, Martinussen, & Parrila, 2010; Norton & Wolf, 2012). NS tasks measure how quickly and accurately participants can name highly familiar stimuli (e.g., letters) presented in a visual display. Performance on these tasks has been shown to be an independent source of variance in predicting concurrent and future reading ability in poor and developing readers (Compton,
This study explored the relationship between two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, that is, bre... more This study explored the relationship between two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, that is, breadth of vocabulary (the number of words known) and depth of vocabulary (the richness of word knowledge), and their effects on different aspects of English reading in Chinese high school students learning English as a second language. Two hundred and forty-six Grade 8 students in China were administered measures of word reading, vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and reading comprehension. Results showed that breadth and depth of vocabulary were moderately correlated. They both contributed to word reading, but breadth of vocabulary had a stronger effect than depth of vocabulary. When reading comprehension was the outcome measure, vocabulary breadth significantly predicted a multiple-choice reading comprehension measure, which requires general understanding of the text, while vocabulary depth contributed to summary writing, a measure of deeper text processing. Discussion focuses on the important roles of different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge for different types of second language reading.
The & watched series of one, two, three, four, or six letters presented visually, one every 300 m... more The & watched series of one, two, three, four, or six letters presented visually, one every 300 msec., and then decided if a probe letter, presented 600 msec, later, was or was not in the original list. Decision time increased with the number of letters in a series; the increase was more pronounced for YES than for NO decisions. Within the four-and six-letter sequences, there were pronounced primacy and recency effects. These results favor a theory that 5 has direct access to an internal representation of the probe letter and decides YES or NO depending on its memory strength. They are inconsistent with theories which hold that 5 scans through the series to discover whether the probe is there.
British Journal of Educational Psychology, Dec 1, 2003
Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Semices services ... more Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Semices services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K I A O N 4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non-L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seIl reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de tnicrofiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur consenre la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts £kom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation.
We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validi... more We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validity. We describe the SVR as an abstract framework for understanding the relationship between global linguistic comprehension and word-reading abilities in reading comprehension (RC). We argue that the SVR is neither a full theory of reading nor a blueprint for instruction. Nevertheless we argue that the model is helpful in conceptualising these broad skills and thus in planning for teaching and learning. We review empirical evidence concerning the SVR, suggesting that it provides a good fit to much scientific data on typical and atypical development, and variation among students across the school age range. We also indicate several areas in which we think the SVR is incomplete or in need of further empirical support. These include the way in which word decoding is conceptualised, the ways in which RC is measured, RC strategies, the role of reading fluency, reading with illustrations and second-language reading.
Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examine... more Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examined the roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading. This 4-year longitudinal study (Grades 2-5) compared these two factors in three aspects of reading development: pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, and single word reading. Morphological awareness contributed significantly to pseudoword reading and reading comprehension, after controlling prior measures of reading ability, verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and phonological awareness. This contribution was comparable to that of phonological awareness and remained 3 years after morphological awareness was assessed. In contrast, morphological awareness rarely contributed significantly to single word reading. We argue that these results provide evidence that morphological awareness has a wide-ranging role in reading development, one that extends beyond phonological awareness.
Australian journal of human communication disorders, Jun 1, 1988
This paper reviews current evidence linking language processes with reading problems and presents... more This paper reviews current evidence linking language processes with reading problems and presents an information processing model which reconceptualises these relationships. Five areas of language oriented studies of reading are discussed: analyses of errors committed during oral reading, studies of syntactic ability and syntactic complexity, language structure training studies, studies of language flow and studies of lexical access. The results of these studies are discussed in terms of Das, Kirby and Jarman's (1979) model of information processing. Studies of brain damaged, learning disabled and normal subjects are used to support the linking of simultaneous processing with direct lexical access and semantic comprehension, and of successive processing with decoding and syntactic skills. Studies of children with reading problems indicate that their major difficulty is the use of simultaneous processing when successive is more appropriate. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect of p...
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