In a study of elementary children required to read factual or fictitious passages with or without relevant pictures, recall performance revealed a pictorial facilitation effect which differed according to passage type. Pictures with story passages enhanced recall of illustrated text while pictures with factual passages enhanced illustrated and…

Two studies of children learning to read (one before the introduction of phonics instruction, the other while phonics instruction was being given) found that error-target similarity increased with reading attainment. This suggests that while reading aloud, considerable knowledge of spelling develops independently of explicit use of phonics. (CMG)

Results of three visual sequential memory tests and a group reading test given to 19 elementary students are discussed in terms of task analysis and structuralist approaches to analysis of reading skills. Relation of visual sequential memory to other reading subskills is considered in light of current reasearch. (CMG)

Children completed a perspectives task involving before-behind and left-right relationships, in which two-dimensional arrays were used to eliminate masking effects that might facilitate the task. The results suggested that children perform equally well on each type of spatial relationship. (Author/MJL)

Research on the use of linguistic context (prediction of a word by using the text) in reading showed that children were better at using the preceding context and good readers used the suceeding context better. The study could not determine whether good readers used better strategies or were more skillful at using strategies. (Author/MJL)

Children aged 7 to 9 were tested for their recall after hearing, orally reading, and silently reading comparable stories. Boys exhibited very poor recall performance after silent reading compared with their recall after listening and after oral reading. Girls showed comparable recall performance across all three language reception modes.…

Age trends in ideational fluency were investigated by subjecting English schoolchildren to three tests. Consistent increases with age were found on the verbal divergent and Draw a Man tests but not on the figural divergent test. Sex did not significantly affect the results. (Author/MJL)