A Study of Association, Reinforcement, and Transfer in Beginning Reading

Abstract

A CHILD, as he enters school, is immediately I confronted with the major task of his elementary school career. He must learn to read, not only to read quickly and effectively, absorbing material in a short time, but also to read for meaning and to correlate what he reads with what he has previous ly read. The beginning reader must acquire the skills of recognizing printed words, associating a mean ingful concept with these printed symbols, and in terpreting them in many different sentences. Fa cile, independent, meaningful reading that brings enjoyment is the teacher's aim. Although every teacher of reading strives to provide the right type of instruction to develop the necessary skills, independence might profitably be encouraged sooner in first graders. A belief that the three basic processes of association, reinforce ment, and transfer could be a key to progress in the development of reading skills and independence prompted the present study. These factors could even be emphasized at the pre-primer level where, in the writer's experience, beginning readers often do not develop or use these processes. Materials and methods designed so that maximum opportuni ties occur for transfer, reinforcement, and asso ciation, if successful, would develop desirable at titudes and substantially ease the teacher load. From the review of the literature came guides for the design of the materials and their use. The psy chology of language and thought (2, 8, 9,15) and the Gestalt theory of learning (4, 5, 6,16) offer strong support for the sentence method of presentation. This method of presentation emphasizes meaning and organization which are important informing as sociations according to Bartlett (1), Sigel (12), and Staiger (13). The reinforcing effect of knowledge of success and the effect of failure on performance have been pointed out by Sears (11), and Lantz (7). Reading studies related to association were available but none were reported on transfer or re inforcement in beginning reading. Rivkind (10) found | that children differ in their response to different kinds of stimuli. Finally, Vernon's studies (14) and those of Gray (3) suggest the word and the sentence as the unit of presentation for the beginning reader.