This study examines the visual “confusability” of selected high-frequency words. Beginning readers were presented 120 words in a match-to-sample task in an attempt to provide data on the relative discriminability of each. The results indicate these young subjects had mastered this task to a high level of proficiency. Nevertheless, selected words accounted for a majority of the confusions. The implications for teachers of beginning readers are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Allington, R.L.: An evaluation of the use of color cues to focus attention in discrimination and paired-association learning. Read. Res. Quart., 1975, 10, 244–247.
2.
Allington, R.L., Gormley, K., and Truex, S.: Poor and normal readers' achievement on visual tasks involving high frequency low discriminability words. J. Learning Disabil., 1976, 9, 292–296.
3.
Biemiller, A.J.: The development of the use of graphical and contextual information as children learn to read. Read. Res. Quart., 1970, 6, 75–96.
4.
Davidson, H.P.: A study of the confusing letters, BDPQ. J. Genet. Psychol., 1935, 47, 45S-468.
5.
Dolch, E.W.: A basic sight vocabulary. Elementary School J., 1936, 36, 456–460.
6.
Dunn-Rankin, P.: The similarity of lower-case letters of the English alphabet. Journal of Verbal Learning Behavior, 1968, 1, 990–995.
7.
Durr, W.K.: A computer study of high frequency words in popular trade juveniles. Reading Teacher, 1973, 27, 37–42.
8.
Goodman, K.S.: A linguistic study of cues and miscues in reading. Elementary English, 1965, 42, 639–643.
9.
Goodman, Y.M.: Using children's reading miscues for new teaching strategies. Reading Teacher, 1970, 23, 455–459.
10.
Groff, P.: The mythology of reading: Sight words. Reading Horizons, 1975, 15, 208–211.
11.
Harris, A.J., and Jacobsen, M.: Basic Elementary Reading Vocabularies. New York: MacMillan, 1972.
12.
Hyman, J., and Cohen, S.A.: The effect of verticality as a stimulus property on letter discrimination of young children. J. Learning Disabil., 1975, 8, 98–107.
13.
Iig, F.L., and Ames, L.B.: Developmental trends in reading behavior. J. Genet. Psychol., 1950, 76, 291–312.
14.
Johns, J.: The Dolch basic word list: Then and now. J. Reading Behavior, 1971, 3, 35–40.
15.
Knafle, J.D.: Color cues in word perception. J. Reading Behavior, 1974, 6, 233–247.
16.
Marchbanks, G., and Levin H.: Cues by which children recognize words. J. Educat. Psychol., 1965, 56, 57–61.
17.
Mason, G.E.: A second report on word confusion: Sequence and duration of instruction in the mis-learning of words. J. Reading Behavior, 1971, 3, 41–46.
18.
Muehl, S.: The effects of visual discrimination pretraining on learning to read: A vocabulary list in kindergarten children. J. Educat. Psychol., 1960, 51, 217–221.
Samuels, S.J., Begy, G., and Chen, C.C.: Comparison of word recognition speed and strategies of less-skilled and highly-skilled readers. Read. Res. Quart, 1976, 11, 72–86.
21.
Samuels, S.J., and Jeffrey, M.E.: Discriminability of words and letter cues used in learning to read. J. Educat. Psychol., 1966, 57, 337–340.
22.
Schell, L.M.: Preventing and correcting word identification problems. In Durr (Ed.): Reading Difficulties: Diagnosis, Correction, and Remediation. Netwark, Del.: Internatl. Reading Assn., 1970, 164–179.
23.
Shankweiler, D., and Lieberman, I.: Misreading: A search for causes. In Kavanagh and Mattingly (Eds.): Language by Ear and by Eye. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972.
24.
Smythe, P.C., Stennet, R.G., Hardy, M., and Wilson, H.R.: Developmental patterns in elemental reading skills: Visual discrimination of primary type upper-case and lower-case letters. J. Reading Behavior, 1970-71, 3, 6–13.
25.
Stott, D.H.: Some less obvious cognitive aspects of learning to read. Reading Teacher, 1973, 22, 374–383.
26.
Vellutino, F.R., Steger, J.A., and Kandel, G.: Reading disability: An investigation of the perceptual deficit hypothesis. Cortex, 1972, 8, 106–118.