Underlying Changes in Repeated Reading: An Eye Movement Study

This research was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A100496 to the University of Georgia. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. Special thanks to Carolyn Nemier, Mount Holyoke College, for her many contributions to this research project.

Abstract.

Past research supports the use of repeated reading but does not provide conclusive evidence as to the mechanisms through which RR takes effect. Eye movement studies allow for precise examination of intervention effects. The current study examined underlying changes in elementary students' (N = 43) reading behavior across four consecutive readings of the same passage. Passage-level analyses revealed that rereading yielded significant decreases in measures thought to reflect early processing (i.e., first fixation duration, gaze duration) and higher level processing (i.e., total fixation time, number of regressions, average number of fixations per word). Analyses based on embedded high- and low-frequency target words suggested that repeated reading mainly facilitates reading of low-frequency words, but that children remain sensitive to word frequency after rereading. Finally, results indicated that children who have completed repeated reading continue to focus on word-level (vs. passage-level) reading but devote less overall attention to individual words with repeated practice.

Notes

1 Of note, one participant's scores were drawn from testing results about 2 months prior because of the fact that this student's scores at the time of data collection were not believed to accurately reflect her level of achievement based upon previous performance. The student's previous testing results (standard scores of 99, 102, 97, and 100 on the four WJ-III subtests) suggest that this student resembled the other participants sampled in terms of achievement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tori E. Foster

Tori Foster, MA, is a doctoral student in the school psychology program at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include reading instruction and intervention.

Scott P. Ardoin

Scott P. Ardoin, PhD, is a professor in the school psychology program within the College of Education at the University of Georgia. His research activities focus on applying the principles of behavioral analysis to improving the quality of assessment and interventions provided to students in elementary schools. Specifically, the three areas in which he has conducted research include improving the accuracy and treatment utility of progress monitoring procedures used in the assessment of students' response to instruction, increasing the extent to which supplemental reading interventions generalize across materials and time, and improving the generalization and external utility of behaviorally based interventions into the regular education classroom.

Katherine S. Binder

Katherine Binder, PhD, is a professor in the Psychology and Education Department at Mount Holyoke College. Her research interests include how skilled readers use various sources of contextual information in the service of word recognition and comprehension, how functionally illiterate adults acquire literacy skills, and more recently, how children learn to read. She has published more than 20 papers across these areas. Her research with adult literacy students is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and her work with beginning readers is supported by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences.