The Selective Encoding of Sentential Information in Normal Reading Development

Abstract

LOVETT, MAUREEN W. The Selective Encoding of Sentential Information in Normal Reading Development. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 897-900. Current reading theory predicts that a higher-order processing of sentential information will be jeopardized when increased attention is allocated specific lexical operations such as decoding. The developmental implications of this prediction were tested with a sample of 80 grade 1 and grade 2 children selected to represent 4 levels of early reading competence. Performance on a sentence-memory task revealed that these children possessed clear informational priorities during prose reading; the hierarchical status of semantic, syntactic, and lexical information was established at 3 retention intervals, with the relative impact of these linguistic features changing over time. The successful and selective encoding of sentential information did not vary as a function of decoding competence. The need for an interactional model of early reading behavior is discussed.