The application of reading skill in eye exams where we’re asked “How many letters can you see in the bottom row?” works in a peculiarly sociocultural, scientific way.
This study is an eye opener. I remember reading a similar study done on New York several years earlier… the design of this Wisconsin study is exquisite. It’s very cool that these games can serve as a bridge to academic performance. I was worried at first that these students were not building disciplinary knowledge until I realized that without these games they might never build such knowledge without the bridge. Could you imagine the uproar if teachers started using video games in remedial reading programs?
Your comments mirror the professor who shared it with me. The design is brilliant.
I have it on good authority that this study was rejected by literacy research organizations for publication because it didn't fit within the current paradigm at the time. Uproar indeed!
A short summary: adolescent boys could read texts on websites related to the video games six levels above their current reading level. Motivation and interest to learn how to achieve that next level seemed to be a driving factor in exceeding expectations.
I am not sure how or if this fits within this conversation, but I thought it was worth sharing.
It absolutely fits. All of the eye movement research looks at automatic behavior that occurs without a lot of higher order thinking. Eye movements are regulated below conscious awareness in mature reading. In beginning or intermediate readers, motivation is important just to get visual processing working—actually recognizing the words and making lexical access (opening the mental dictionary). Higher order processing is heavily dependent on purpose, intention. Kids who really want to understand a text will use every resource available even if it’s effortful. I’d say all forms of language driven cognitive processing functions better with high motivation and clarity of purpose.
This study is an eye opener. I remember reading a similar study done on New York several years earlier… the design of this Wisconsin study is exquisite. It’s very cool that these games can serve as a bridge to academic performance. I was worried at first that these students were not building disciplinary knowledge until I realized that without these games they might never build such knowledge without the bridge. Could you imagine the uproar if teachers started using video games in remedial reading programs?
Your comments mirror the professor who shared it with me. The design is brilliant.
I have it on good authority that this study was rejected by literacy research organizations for publication because it didn't fit within the current paradigm at the time. Uproar indeed!
Thanks Terry for this explanation. A helpful perspective for understanding reading from an entry point I had not thought about much until now.
When you posed the question, "Does context make a difference in word recognition?", I thought about Constance Steinkueler's unpublished research study on young readers and video games: https://wcer.wisc.edu/docs/working-papers/Working_Paper_No_2011_03.pdf
A short summary: adolescent boys could read texts on websites related to the video games six levels above their current reading level. Motivation and interest to learn how to achieve that next level seemed to be a driving factor in exceeding expectations.
I am not sure how or if this fits within this conversation, but I thought it was worth sharing.
It absolutely fits. All of the eye movement research looks at automatic behavior that occurs without a lot of higher order thinking. Eye movements are regulated below conscious awareness in mature reading. In beginning or intermediate readers, motivation is important just to get visual processing working—actually recognizing the words and making lexical access (opening the mental dictionary). Higher order processing is heavily dependent on purpose, intention. Kids who really want to understand a text will use every resource available even if it’s effortful. I’d say all forms of language driven cognitive processing functions better with high motivation and clarity of purpose.