Word Recognition by Second Graders: The Unit of Perception and Interrelationships among Accuracy, Latency, and Comprehension

Abstract

Two issues were investigated: the first examined the relationships among accuracy and latency of word recognition and comprehension by non-fluent readers, and the second examined whether component letter or holistic processing was used in word recognition by these same readers. Speed and accuracy of word recognition were measured on individual words. Literal comprehension was measured for the same words presented in meaningful context. The unit of perception was measured by the relationship between latency of word recognition and word length. If students were using component processing, latency would increase with word length, but if holistic processing were used, there would be no increase in latency with length. Results of this study indicated that accuracy and latency were each significantly related to comprehension for both first- and second-grade words, with evidence for latency influencing comprehension scores to a greater extent on the first-grade words. With regard to the unit of perception, in general there was evidence of component letter processing for all subjects with the highly accurate readers showing a tendency towards more holistic processing.