Abstract
Abstract The ability of beginning readers to respond to the symbolic meaning of written words was investigated. Symbolic meaning was defined as “operative understanding” and was contrasted with perceptual recognition defined as “figurative understanding.” First-grade boys and girls (N = 42) who represented two contrasting reading programs were instructed to read aloud and to classify vocabulary words of familiar objects. Results indicated that although the written words were read accurately by both groups, neither consistently classified the words according to operatively based meanings. However, those children participating in a Piaget-based curriculum were significantly more likely to adopt classification strategies which focused on the operative aspect of written words than were children from a “traditional” curriculum. When these same items were presented in a pictorial rather than the written-verbal mode, a shift to responses based on operative similarity occurred for both groups.
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