Progress in Understanding Reading: Scientific Foundations and New Frontiers

The last 25 years have seen tremendous advances in the study of psychological processes in reading. Our growing body of knowledge on the reading process and reading acquisition has applications to such important problems as the prevention of reading difficulties and the identification of effective instructional practices. This volume summarizes the gains that have been made in key areas of reading research and provides authoritative insights on current controversies and debates. From one of the most accomplished and widely cited scholars in the field, the volume is divided into seven parts. Each part begins with a new introductory chapter presenting up-to-date findings on the topic at hand, followed by one or more classic papers from the author's exemplary research program. Significant issues covered include phonological processes and context effects in reading, the "reading wars" and how they should be resolved, the meaning of the term "dyslexia," and the cognitive effects and benefits of reading.

Table of Contents:
Contents Foreword, Isabel L. Beck Preface I. The Role of Context Effects in Models of Reading 1. Early Applications of Information Processing Concepts to the Study of Reading: The Role of Sentence Context 2. Automatic Contextual Facilitation in Readers of Three Ages Richard F. West and Keith E. Stanovich 3. Toward an Interactive Compensatory Model of Individual Differences in the Development of Reading Fluency 4. The Interactive Compensatory Model of Reading: A Confluence of Developmental, Experimental, and Educational Psychology II. Phonological Sensitivity and the Phonological Core Deficit Model 5. Early Reading Acquisition and the Causes of Reading Difficulty: Contributions to Research on Phonological Processing 6. Assessing Phonological Awareness in Kindergarten Children: Issues of Task Comparability with Anne E. Cunningham and Barbara Cramer 7. Explaining the Differences between the Dyslexic and the Garden-Variety Poor Reader: The Phonological-Core Variable-Difference Model 8. The Phenotypic Performance Profile of Reading-Disabled Children: A Regression-Based Test of the Phonological-Core Variable-Difference Model with Linda S. Siegel III. Matthew Effects in Reading 9. Tying It All Together: A Model of Reading Acquisition and Reading Difficulty 10. Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy IV. The Importance of Word Recognition in Models of Reading 11. The Word Recognition Module 12. Concepts in Developmental Theories of Reading Skill: Cognitive Resources, Automaticity, and Modularity V. The Cognitive Consequences of Literacy 13. Measuring Print Exposure: Attempts to Empirically Track Rich Get Richer Effects 14. Exposure to Print and Orthographic Processing, with Richard F. West 15. Does Reading Make You Smarter?: Literacy and the Development of Verbal Intelligence 16. Literacy Experiences and the Shaping of Cognition, Stanovich, with Anne E. Cunningham and Richard F. West VI. Discrepancy Definitions of Reading Disability 17. Reading Disability Classification: Are Reforms Based on Evidence Possible? 18. Discrepancy Definitions of Reading Disability: Has Intelligence Led Us Astray? VII. The Reading Instruction Debate: Comments on the Reading Wars 19. Putting Children First by Putting Science First: The Politics of Early Reading Instruction 20. Romance and Reality 21. 25 Years of Research on the Reading Process: The Grand Synthesis and What It Means for Our Field