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S TUDIES
Theories
IN
WRITTEN
LAN GUAGE
AN D
LITERACY of Reading
15
Development
edited by
Kate Cain,
Donald L. Compton
and Rauno K. Parrila
John Benjamins Publishing Company

Theories of Reading Development
Studies in Written Language and Literacy
issn 0929-7324
A multi-disciplinary series presenting studies on written language, with special

emphasis on its uses in different social and cultural settings. The series combines
sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic accounts of the acquisition and transmission
of literacy and brings together insights from linguistics, psychology, sociology,
education, anthropology and philosophy.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/swll
Editors
Ludo Verhoeven Paul van den Broek
Radboud University Nijmegen Leiden University
Volume 15
Edited by Kate Cain, Donald L. Compton and Rauno K. Parrila
Edited by
Kate Cain
Lancaster University
Donald L. Compton
Florida State University
Rauno K. Parrila
University of Alberta
John Benjamins Publishing Company

Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/swll.15
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2017007488 (print) / 2017030260 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 1811 7 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6564 7 (e-book)
© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
Introduction 1
Kate Cain, Donald L. Compton and Rauno K. Parrila
Part I. Big questions

Introduction to big questions 7
Integrating word processing with text comprehension:
Theoretical frameworks and empirical examples 9
Joseph Z. Stafura and Charles A. Perfetti
Genetic and environmental influences on the development of reading
and related skills 33
Richard K. Olson, Janice M. Keenan, Brian Byrne and Stefan Samuelsson
Early literacy across languages 55
Catherine McBride
Learning to read alphasyllabaries 75
Sonali Nag
Opening the “black box” of learning to read: Inductive learning
mechanisms supporting word acquisition development with a focus
on children who struggle to read 99
Laura M. Steacy, Amy M. Elleman and Donald L. Compton
Part II. Typical development of word reading and underlying processes

Introduction to word reading 125
Donald L. Compton, Kate Cain and Rauno K. Parrila
Orthographic mapping and literacy development revisited 127
Linnea C. Ehri
Putting the learning into orthographic learning 147
Kate Nation and Anne Castles
vi Theories of Reading Development
Orthographic learning is verbal learning: The role of spelling pronunciations 169

Carsten Elbro and Peter F. de Jong
Learning to read morphologically complex words 191
Joanne F. Carlisle and Devin M. Kearns
Learning to read in a second language 215
Ludo Verhoeven
Part III. Typical development of comprehension and underlying processes

Introduction to reading comprehension 237
Vocabulary, morphology, and reading comprehension 239
Mercedes Spencer, Jamie M. Quinn and Richard K. Wagner
Reading comprehension: What develops and when? 257
Kate Cain and Marcia A. Barnes
Development of reading comprehension: Change and continuity
in the ability to construct coherent representations 283
Paul van den Broek and Panayiota Kendeou
Part IV. Atypical reading development

Introduction to atypical reading development 309
Rauno K. Parrila, Donald L. Compton and Kate Cain
Early identification of reading disabilities 311
Hugh W. Catts
Dyslexia and word reading problems 333
Rauno K. Parrila and Athanassios Protopapas
Children with specific text comprehension problems 359
Jane Oakhill and Kate Cain
Part V. Instruction and intervention

Introduction to instruction and intervention 379
Donald L. Compton, Rauno K. Parrila and Kate Cain
Starting from home: Home literacy practices that make a difference 383
Monique Sénéchal, Josée Whissell and Ashley Bildfell
Table of contents vii
Early reading interventions: The state of the practice, and some

new directions in building causal theoretical models 409
Robert Savage and Emilie Cloutier
Morphological instruction and literacy: Binding phonological,
orthographic, and semantic features of words 437
John R. Kirby and Peter N. Bowers
Reading comprehension instruction and intervention: Promoting
inference making 463
Kristen L. McMaster and Christine A. Espin
Theoretically guided interventions for adolescents who are poor readers 489
Sharon Vaughn and Colby Hall
Child characteristics by instruction interactions, literacy,
and implications for theory and practice 507
Carol McDonald Connor and Frederick J. Morrison
Index525
Introduction

Lancaster University / Florida State University / University of Alberta
Printed words are one of the most remarkable inventions of humankind, and learning
to read them is one of the most remarkable achievements of human individuals. In
recent decades, how people learn to read and reason with printed text has been studied
intensively in genetics, education, psychology, and cognitive science, and both the
volume of research papers and breadth of the topics examined have increased expo-
nentially. At the same time, we feel that the rapid expansion of empirical research into
new topics and questions has not been accompanied by matching access to theoretical
advances. Partly the blame rests on current and former journal editors (including
the three of us) who focus on publishing new empirical research, and partly with
researchers who publish their theories in separate books, if at all. As a result, there
is a mass of high quality empirical studies on reading development and disabilities,
but integrative theoretical reviews of the literature are much more difficult to locate.
Inspired by a Special Issue of Scientific Studies of Reading in 2014 (vol. 18, issue 1),
which included four papers focused on theories, the purpose of Theories of Reading
Development is to collect, in one place, the latest descriptions of various important and
complementary theories of reading development and disabilities. Theoretical reviews
provide critically important lenses through which to interpret the accumulating, and
sometimes conflicting, empirical findings. They provide necessary routes into the
increasingly complex field of reading research, providing the reader with frameworks
through which to evaluate and synthesize new findings and arguments.
The 22 chapters in this volume are grouped into five sections. In Part 1, five chap-
ters tackle big questions and current debates about literacy acquisition and its de-
velopment. The other four sections focus on the development of word reading and
underlying processes (Part 2), the development of comprehension and component
skills (Part 3), atypical development of word reading and reading comprehension
(Part 4), and reading instruction and interventions (Part 5). Separate introductions
to each section below provide summaries of their content; here we highlight some of
the main themes that emerge across the different chapters and sections in this volume.
A core theme running through this volume is the critical role of knowledge. In
the first chapter of Part 1, Stafura and Perfetti examine word knowledge, and how the
quality of information encoded about a word’s phonology, orthography, and semantics
influences both word recognition and text comprehension. In the same section, Steacy,
doi 10.1075/swll.15.int
© 2017 John Benjamins Publishing Company
2 Kate Cain, Donald L. Compton and Rauno K. Parrila
Elleman, and Compton also consider the importance of knowledge for these two aspects
of reading, focusing on how knowledge about a word’s form is acquired, and how the vo-
cabulary and general knowledge that support comprehension of content develop. These
two chapters provide excellent foundation to the three chapters in Part 3, which focus
on reading comprehension development. Each has knowledge at its core: the role of
vocabulary, including morphological, knowledge in reading comprehension (Spencer,
Quinn, & Wagner); how and when information that underpins knowledge-based in-
ferences about time, space, and causality is acquired (Cain & Barnes); and the critical
role of knowledge for ensuring coherence (van den Broek & Kendeou). Knowledge is
also considered in the discussion of reading comprehension difficulties in Part 4, where
impoverished knowledge or knowledge structures are examined as contributors to the
inference making difficulties of poor comprehenders (Oakhill & Cain).
The knowledge bases we draw on for reading are acquired; they are not innate.
As a consequence, theories of reading development often resemble as much learning
theories as they resemble developmental theories. Some of this learning takes place
through literacy instruction, and some outside of formal instruction, and even be-
fore formal schooling, through our exposure to language (e.g., Catts in Part 4) and
different home literacy practices, as explained by Sénéchal, Whissell, and Bildfell in
their chapter (Part 5). The theme of learning, in both formal and informal contexts,
is at the core of this volume. Indeed, as Nation and Castles (Part 2) conclude “… to
understand more about reading development, we need to understand more about how
learning happens.”
How we learn and acquire new word knowledge is the focus of Steacy et al.’s chap-
ter in Part 1 and how we learn to read words is the central theme of Part 2; indeed,
each chapter features ‘learning’ in its title. Ehri’s chapter on the development of sight
word reading considers the changing nature of representations between the spoken
and written language, and how this is influenced by instruction; Nation and Castles
consider how we can advance our understanding of orthographic learning by situating
our theory and methods in a more general framework of learning and memory; and
Elbro and de Jong discuss learning to read words as an example of verbal learning
where the critical content to be learned are the connections between spelling and
standard pronunciations of words. Finally, Carlisle and Kearns focus on how little we
know about learning to read morphologically complex words, and Verhoeven exam-
ines reading acquisition in L2. In turn, Parrila and Protopapas (Part 4) are concerned
with children who fail to learn to read words at an expected rate, and Catts (Part 4)
extends this concern to reading comprehension disabilities. Oakhill and Cain (Part
4) then provide a closer look at poor comprehenders, children who do not develop
comprehension skills commensurate with their word reading skills.
How we learn to comprehend is the underlying theme in the chapters in Part 3,
and how we can design and deliver better comprehension instruction is the explicit
focus of both McMaster and Espin (Part 5) who examine the role of learning mecha-
nisms in comprehension instruction and intervention, and Vaughn and Hall (Part 5)
who examine why reading development often stagnates in adolescence and what can
Introduction 3
be done about it. All of these chapters argue for stronger connections between theo-
ry and practice, and for better understanding of fundamental learning mechanisms
needed to develop skilled reading comprehension. Similar arguments about the cen-
tral role of theory are made by Savage and Cloutier (Part 5) who examine early reading
interventions and advocate strongly for more and better randomized-controlled trials,
and Kirby and Bowers (Part 5) who examine both theoretical and empirical arguments
for explicit instruction in morphology.
The context in which development and learning take place is a central theme for
several chapters in this volume. Different languages exist across cultures and envi-
ronments, and McBride (Part 1) considers the similarities and differences in learning
to read words across languages, scripts, and cultures and how this shapes both the
process and the outcomes. In the same section, Nag reviews reading acquisition re-
search in Indic languages and highlights the specific and general learning challenges
that children face when learning to read in orthographies that use an extended sym-
bol set of mixed granularity. In his chapter on learning to read in a second language,
Verhoeven discusses how specific features of the L1 and L2 interact with learner char-
acteristics to influence transfer and learning. The environment in which learning takes
place is considered in depth in Part 5, in which the influence of variation in both the
classroom (Morrison & Connor) and the home environment (Sénéchal, Whissell, &
Bildfell) are considered.
Perhaps the final underlying theme that runs across the chapters is complexity.
Stafura and Perfetti (Part 1) note that reading itself is too complex to be captured by a
single theory, and the complexities of word reading and comprehension development,
processes that contribute to them, and instructional interventions that we hope to
improve them are evident throughout the chapters. In Part 1, Olson, Keenan, Byrne,
and Samuelsson add heritability to the consideration and provide a highly accessible
review of the state of knowledge in behaviour genetics of reading. The topic of herita-
bility is picked up in Part 3 on reading disabilities, both in Catts’ examination of using
family risk to guide early identification, and in Parrila and Protopapas’ exposition of a
developmental systems approach to dyslexia. A better understanding of the complex
interactions between our predispositions and environmental factors will enhance our
understanding of protective and risk factors alike. This point is well made by Catts and
by Parrila and Protopapas who consider reading disabilities within the risk-resilience
framework, and how good instruction or intervention may moderate the effects of risk.
Fittingly, the last chapter in the book by Morrison and Connor discusses a theoretical
framework for examining child-instruction interactions and explicitly calls for adap-
tive systems thinking to guide instructional studies. Morrison and Connor suggest
that we think of learning environments as complex adaptive systems where various
agents, each with the specific individual characteristics, act and interact simultaneous-
ly to implement developmental change (better reading). In this formulation, the next
generation of theories of reading development move from static descriptive theories
of individual differences in reading skills to theories describing and modelling the
developmental processes and the agents driving it.
Our aim was to bring together theoretical reviews of the literature on reading
development and difficulties to provide frameworks and inspiration to guide current
and future researchers in the field. We hope that this volume meets that aim. All that
remains is to thank each of the authors who contributed, the reviewers who provided
constructive comments on each chapter, and Nicola Currie for her careful checking
of each chapter.
Part I
Big questions
Introduction to big questions

Lancaster University / Florida State University / University of Alberta
The first five chapters tackle some of the big questions in reading research: the role of
words in text comprehension, the influence of environment and genetics on reading
development, reading across different orthographies, and the mechanisms by which
word knowledge is acquired. Three of these chapters are extended from papers pub-
lished in a Special Issue of Scientific Studies of Reading in 2014 (vol. 18, issue 1), which
inspired this volume.
Stafura and Perfetti’s chapter is an extension of one of the papers that appeared
in the special issue. The authors argue for a more central role for word knowledge in a
theory of comprehension. They first suggest that reading comprehension is too broad
a construct to enable researchers to specify the types of testable models that guide
research on word reading. As a result, they argue, reading comprehension research
has been guided mainly by flexible general frameworks, such as the Reading Systems
Framework they go on to present. The main focus of their chapter is an examination
of the influence of word-level processes on comprehension, specifically word-to-text
integration, which they suggest has been neglected by most reading comprehension
frameworks due to their focus on higher level processes. Stafura and Perfetti present
evidence that skilled readers are better able than less skilled readers to integrate new
words into their mental models and that the skill differences in integration processes
in general may depend on knowledge of word meanings.
Olson, Keenan, Byrne and Samuelsson’s paper is an extended version of an earlier
paper that appeared in the special issue. In this chapter, Olson et al. review the main
results from their two large-scale behaviour genetic studies and examine the consis-
tency of the results across other similar projects in developed countries. Perhaps the
most critical points arise in their discussion of what these results (frequently showing
a high genetic influence on individual differences) show and don’t show, and how
they are currently interpreted and frequently misinterpreted. Irrespective of the read-
er’s expertise in behaviour genetic research methods and findings, these discussions
should be compulsory pre-readings for any discussion on the role of genetic studies
in education.
While the first two papers focus mostly (but not exclusively) on studies complet-
ed with English-speaking subjects reading or learning to read English, the next two
chapters expand the coverage to other orthographies. These two chapters are new
doi 10.1075/swll.15.01cai
and were written specifically for this volume. McBride provides first an overview of
the larger context of the early reading and writing development in different orthog-
raphies by discussing possible interactions between various dimensions of orthogra-
phies, cognitive dimensions of children, and the contexts within which learning takes
place. She then focuses specifically on how critical phonological (both segmental and
suprasegmental), semantic, and orthographic information is conveyed in different
scripts, and how these differences may affect the tasks of learning to read and write.
Throughout the chapter, her discussion is anchored in her expertise in both Chinese
and English orthographies. She concludes that the comparison of multiple scripts can
not only greatly enhance our understanding of the universals and specifics in literacy
learning, but also lead to discovering new aspect of literacy development that may be
relevant to literacy learning across scripts.
In the fourth chapter, Nag turns the focus on learning to read Indic alphasylla-
baries using aksharas, which are visually complex symbols of mixed granularity, as
the orthographic units. A brief introduction to the akshara writing systems succinctly
illustrates both how different they are from alphabetic and character based writing
systems, but also the heterogeneity among various akshara systems. When compared
to alphabetic writing systems, akshara orthographies and their learning contexts pres-
ent new challenges, which are rare or nonexistent in alphabetic orthographies and in
contexts where they are learned. Nag presents evidence that learning to read in ak-
shara orthographies requires both the same and some additional cognitive-linguistic
processes than what are needed to learn to read an alphabetic orthography. A further
intriguing possibility remains that the relationships between cognitive-linguistic pre-
dictors and reading outcomes that statistically appear similar are based on different
effective mechanisms. Herein may lie the biggest promise of cross-linguistic studies
helping us to both develop new and to test existing theoretical models of literacy
acquisition. Perhaps the main take-home message from the chapters by McBride and
Nag is that the bar for claiming universality needs to be set much higher than when
the focus is solely on alphabetic orthographies.
In the final chapter of Part 1, Steacy, Elleman and Compton develop further the
ideas outlined in their contribution to the SSR special issue. Similar to the first chap-
ter of this section, they focus on word knowledge and how it is acquired, specifically
orthographic and semantic knowledge. As a result, this chapter speaks to the influence
of words on comprehension, as well as word recognition processes. They marshal a
range of evidence to support the role of inductive learning mechanisms in word ac-
quisition and how these interact with other knowledge structures to support general
development and individual differences in reading. They argue that the limited success
of many interventions designed to ameliorate reading difficulties is likely because the
teaching methods are not aligned to how words are learned. Thus, a critical message
from this chapter, and one that is central to the work represented in this volume, is
that theory of reading development and difficulties should play a central role in the
development of instruction and intervention.
Integrating word processing
with text comprehension
Theoretical frameworks and empirical examples
Joseph Z. Stafura and Charles A. Perfetti

University of Pittsburgh
We previously observed that “there is no theory of reading, because reading has too
many components for a single theory” (Perfetti & Stafura, 2014, p. 1). 1 In the pursuit
of studying reading and reading development, then, research has largely been driven
by flexible frameworks and specific problems rather than by precise theoretical testing.
How readers comprehend and how skill differences arise are intertwined prob-
lems in reading theory. We suggest that the reintroduction of a broad-scope, general
framework for reading can aid the formulation of specific hypotheses about reading
expertise and reading problems. Following the presentation of the framework we take
a closer look at on-line text-based comprehension processes. In this section, we dis-
cuss current work in our lab addressing the functionality of word knowledge and
word processing in text and discourse comprehension. First, we consider the broader
context for comprehension theories.
Theories of reading comprehension
Two complementary ideas shaped the modern study of reading comprehension, one
that described an enriched level of comprehension beyond the literal meaning of a
text – the reader’s situation model (Van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983) – and one that described
the cognitive dynamics of text comprehension, the construction-integration (C-I)
model (Kintsch, 1988). The C-I model made general assumptions about the reader’s
cognitive architecture (e.g., limited memory) and cognitive procedures (e.g., retrieval
and carry-over operations) as well as text devices (e.g., argument overlap) that sup-
port comprehension. The C-I theory was critical in explaining text comprehension by
an interactive combination of top-down (knowledge-driven) and bottom-up (word-
based) processes.
1. The article by Perfetti and Stafura (2014) provides the original material from which this
chapter is based.
doi 10.1075/swll.15.02sta
10 Joseph Z. Stafura and Charles A. Perfetti
Prior to this, ideas about text comprehension had been dominated by demonstra-
tions of knowledge-driven, top-down procedures guided by scripts (Shank & Abelson,
1977) and other forms of schemata (Anderson, 1978; Bartlett, 1932). Following van
Dijk and Kintsch (1983) and Kintsch (1988), text comprehension research headed in
new directions, building on these models of text-knowledge interaction and devel-
oping enriched variations (Goldman & Varma, 1995) and updates on the basic idea
(Kintsch & Rawson, 2005). Theories tackled one or more aspects of comprehension
(for a review, see McNamara & Magliano, 2009). The landscape model (Van den Broek
et al., 1996) targeted the “landscape” of activation patterns that wax and wane during
reading and how the reader’s goal of maintaining coherence guided these patterns.
The structure building theory (Gernsbacher, 1990) also assumed a central role for
coherence, which was viewed as the result of the structures built and connected by
the reader, and provided hypotheses about individual differences in comprehension.
The event-indexing model (Zwaan, Langston, & Graesser, 1995) elaborated the idea
of the situation model toward a more comprehensive multidimensional tracking of
various aspects of narrativity. Among the many issues targeted in these theories, an
especially important one concerned inferences: that they were necessary for compre-
hension and how and when they were made (Graesser, Singer, & Trabasso, 1994). A
specific contribution of this research was to show that readers make inferences that
maintain coherence, including causal inferences that connect actions in narratives
(Graesser & Kruez, 1993).
The current empirical status of these and other theories (e.g., embodied compre-
hension; Zwaan, 2003) remains under study and is beyond the scope of the present
article. The point here is that broadly-defined contrasts – for example, verbatim ver-
sus gist memory, literal versus inferential text processing, coherent versus incoherent
texts – can be addressed in models that include interactions among knowledge sources
that are initiated by written word reading, rather than solely by top-down knowl-
edge-generating inferences. Still, it is fair to say that attention to how word processes
actually contribute to comprehension has been minimal, with a few notable exceptions
that include the role of word meaning selection in the structure building framework
(Gernsbacher, 1990) and word activation processes in the construction phase of the
C-I model (e.g., Kintsch & Mross, 1985).
The theories just discussed are global frameworks rather than specific theoret-
ical models. The value of a framework for something as complex as comprehension
is that it provides a set of interconnected claims that, with the addition of specific
assumptions, can lead to theoretical models with testable propositions and impli-
cations. Nevertheless, in contrast to well-defined models of word reading that make
precise predictions (e.g., Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001), reading
comprehension is too broad a target for precise models. As we illustrate in the next
section, there is value in capturing this breadth in a general framework that provides
a view of the component subsystems of reading comprehension.
Integrating word processing with text comprehension 11
Linguistic and Writing System Knowledge

Orthographic System Linguistic System
Mapping to Phonology/Morphology Phonology, Syntax, Morphology
Comprehension Processes
Lexicon
Orthographic
Units
Meaning and From

Meaning Parser
Identification
Identification
Visual Input
Morphology
Word
Syntax
- argument Text
structure Representation
Linguistic
Inferences
- thematic
Units
roles
Situation
Model
General Knowledge (including text structure)
Figure 1. The Reading Systems Framework. Note. The components of reading within
a language-cognitive architecture from visual processing through higher level
comprehension. The key elements are knowledge sources, basic cognitive and language
processes, and interactions among them. The framework allows the development of
specific models (e.g., word identification models, models of inferences) and allows
hypotheses about both the development of reading expertise and reading weaknesses.
A particular point of focus is the lexicon, which is a central connection point between
the word identification system and the comprehension system. Based on Perfetti (1999).
The Reading Systems Framework
A general framework of reading systems must reflect reading more fully by adding
word level processes to the higher level processes that are the focus of comprehension
research. Figure 1 presents a variation of such a framework, derived from a “blueprint”
of the reader (Perfetti, 1999) and used to frame problems in comprehension (Perfetti,
Landi, & Oakhill, 2005). This Reading Systems Framework makes the following claims
about reading:
1. Three classes of knowledge sources are used in reading: linguistic knowledge,
orthographic knowledge, and general knowledge (knowledge about the world,
including knowledge of text forms, e.g., text genres).
2. The processes of reading – decoding, word identification, meaning retrieval, con-

stituent building (sentence parsing), inferencing, and comprehension monitor-
ing – use these knowledge sources in both constrained ways (e.g., decoding uses
orthographic and phonological knowledge but not general knowledge) and in
interactive ways (e.g., inferences use general knowledge and propositional mean-
ing extracted from sentences).
3. These processes take place within a cognitive system that has pathways between
perceptual and long-term memory systems and limited processing resources.
This framework finds support in neurobiological models of language. Hagoort’s (2005;

2013) MUC model posits a functional core of memory, unification, and control opera-
tions in language processing. In terms of reading comprehension, these are functional
during encounters with words, as input from the visual orthographic system drives
memory operations in the temporal lobes that retrieve associated linguistic and gen-
eral knowledge from long-term memory. Unification operations in the left inferior
frontal gyrus act to integrate the word-level syntactic and semantic knowledge into
the ongoing context (e.g., into a sentence). Finally, control operations seated in the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex guide efficient processing
with limited resources. This neurobiological framework is broadly consistent with
C-I models (Kintsch, 1988) of comprehension in its focus on bottom-up activity and
incremental integration into ongoing higher level, coherent text representations.
The Reading Systems Framework can also guide the formation of novel theories
and hypotheses of reading problems. Readers can show weaknesses in specific knowl-
edge sources, which then affect processes that use these knowledge sources in reading.
An alternative view, the dominant one, is that it is weaknesses in the processes them-
selves that lead to comprehension breakdown. It is typically difficult to choose between
these two views. Is a measured weakness in decoding due to a processing problem
involving the conversion of orthography to phonology? Or is it due to a knowledge
weakness about phonology or the rules that link orthography to phonology? A weak-
ness in these links could result in difficulty accessing what are actually high quality
phonological representations (Boets et al., 2013). Is an observed problem in inference
making due to a weak inference process or to a lack of knowledge that is needed to
make the inference? To a limited extent these are empirical questions. For example,
in the case of the inference/knowledge debate, one can try to control for knowledge
(Cain, Oakhill, Barnes, & Bryant, 2001). However, even with the best of efforts it is
difficult to persuasively assess processes in isolation of other processes and, especially,
in isolation of the knowledge sources on which they rely.
The Reading Systems Framework is useful in the generation of hypotheses about
the sources of comprehension problems in several ways. One is to identify reading
problems by measureable weaknesses within one or more of the components (knowl-
edge and processes) of the framework. This works especially well with lower level
processes, where failure in decoding defines basic reading disability or dyslexia. More
specific hypotheses then focus on even more fine-grained components in the visual
or phonological subsystems as sources of reading disability, with the bulk of the ev-
idence showing phonological processing problems (Vellutino, Fletcher, Snowling, &
Scanlon, 2004).
This strategy does not work nearly as well with higher level processes, because
these depend on receiving high-quality input from word-level and sentence-level
sources. Thus, careful testing of higher level sources of comprehension problems
must attempt to control for some of the lower level components (e.g., Cain, Bryant,
& Oakhill, 2004; Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2000; Oakhill, Cain, & Bryant, 2003). The
result is the identification of specific reading comprehension difficulties, of which
several have been proposed, with no single difficulty emerging as definitive (Cain,
2010; Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Nation, 2005).
Another strategy is to hypothesize pressure points in the reading system. For ex-
ample, the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007; Perfetti & Hart, 2002) assumes
that the lexicon is a critical pressure point in reading comprehension. The lexicon sits
astride two reading systems: one, the word identification system, requires high-quality
linguistic and orthographic information to enable rapid word identification; the sec-
ond, the comprehension system, takes its input from the word identification system to
build meaning units (propositions). Knowledge of written word forms and meanings,
then, is central to reading and thus a pressure point for reading comprehension – a
prime candidate for a cause of reading comprehension difficulty, and a critical level
of analysis for extending theory.
As a scaffold for theory development and hypotheses testing, the Reading Systems
Framework allows other hypotheses about pressure points and about the interactions
between reading subsystems. In what follows, however, we focus on the lexical com-
ponent and its interaction with text and discourse representations.
Comprehension skill within the lexical system of the Reading Systems

Framework
The focus on a lexical subsystem in reading arises from the centrality of word mean-
ings (represented in a long-term memory) as (a) the output of word identification
and (b) the input to comprehension processes. This leads to research on the relations
between lexical processes and comprehension processes and the following two com-
plementary hypotheses:
1. Text comprehension depends on understanding words and integrating their
meaning into a mental model of the text, and more skilled comprehenders do
this better than less skilled comprehenders (Perfetti, Yang, & Schmalhofer, 2008;
Yang, Perfetti, & Schmalhofer, 2005, 2007; Stafura & Perfetti, 2014).
2. Learning words depends on acquiring information about both word forms and
meanings from word-learning events, and more skilled comprehenders do this
better than less skilled comprehenders (Bolger, Balass, Landen, & Perfetti, 2008;
Perfetti, Wlotko, & Hart, 2005; Van Daalen-Kapteijns & Elshout-Mohr, 1981).
Both hypotheses are now empirical generalizations insofar as they are consistent with
available evidence: correlational evidence for the first and correlational and interven-
tion-based experimental evidence for the second. In the next section, we examine
more closely the nature of this evidence and its implications for hypotheses about the
sources of reading comprehension problems.
Comprehending texts includes comprehending words

In the Reading Systems Framework, a key set of processes links lexical outcomes with
comprehension (Figure 1; “meaning and form selection”). Early sentence compre-
hension processes that build sentence constituents (e.g., noun phrases, verb phrases)
and propositions (elementary meaning units) make use of this link. (Notice also the
bidirectional link, which allows word learning to result from comprehension.)
These links can be studied only by on-line measures that expose word level reading
comprehension while it happens and not by observations made after a text has been
read. There are three important methods for obtaining such measures: (a) word-by-
word reading controlled by the reader, (b) eye-tracking, and (c) event-related potentials
(ERPs) during text reading. The first has ease of instrumentation, but it allows reader
strategies some influence. Eye-tracking and ERPs, which are measures taken without
overt decisions required by the reader, provide the clearest evidence of word-to-com-
prehension links. Each has its advantages: Eye-tracking allows natural movements of
the eyes. ERPs, which generally require that the eyes not move, allow multiple word pro-
cessing components (e.g., visual attention, orthographic recognition, meaning process-
es, syntactic processes) to be observed on a single word. Next we focus on ERP studies.
Word-to-text integration
We assume that, for a motivated reader, understanding entails a mental representation
of the “situation” described by a text (Van Dijk & Kinstch, 1983). In terms of structure,
for our initial purpose we assume only that an unfolding narrative text asserts situa-
tions and events and that the reader builds and updates a situation model accordingly
(Zwaan & Madden, 2004). For now, we also postpone our discussion of the potential
effects of older non-updated information remaining in memory (O’Brien, Rizzela,
Albrecht, & Halleran, 1998).
A key additional assumption is that comprehension proceeds along multiple
input units. For example, a noun is understood through lexical meaning retrieval,
a noun phrase is understood through additional referential processes, and a clause
that includes the noun phrase is understood through additional lexical and parsing
processes. So, for example, in reading the sentence, “The rain ruined her beautiful
sweater,” the following comprehension processes are centered on the understanding
the word “rain”: (a) retrieval of meaning of “rain,” (b) establishing definite situational
reference of “the rain” (cf. “a rain would ruin the picnic”), and (c) extracting a prop-
osition in which “the rain” is the subject of “ruin her beautiful sweater” and thus the
cause of the ruining event. Of course, only the first two operate on the reading of “the
rain” with the predication about ruining the sweater requiring additional reading. It
is these two processes that are in focus in the following analysis. Of specific interest
is what happens across a sentence boundary, which is a paradigm case of text inte-
gration processes. We begin with a single sentence, from which a situation model can
be constructed:
(1) While Cathy was riding her bike in the park, dark clouds began to gather, and it
started to storm. 2
In Figure 2, a simple scheme represents a possible situation model a reader might

have from the reading of (1). The situation includes four referential entities – Cathy,
the park, the bike, and dark clouds – and an event – the storm. Referents are essential
in the model, because referents are eligible (unequally) for elaboration. Events are
normally but not necessarily established through verbs, and these events also become
eligible for elaboration. With this situation established, the text adds a new sentence:
<EVENT>
- IN THE PARK - STORM - STORM

- CATHY ON BIKE - CATHY ON BIKE
- DARK CLOUDS
< SITUATION 1> < SITUATION UPDATE>
Figure 2. A situation model. Note. The model represents what a reader might
understand after reading the sentence While Cathy was riding her bike in the park,
dark clouds began to gather, and it started to storm. The general form of the model is
SITUATION + EVENT. Adapted from Perfetti and Stafura (2014).
(1) While Cathy was riding her bike in the park, dark clouds began to gather, and it
started to storm. The rain ruined her beautiful sweater.
The noun phrase that begins the new sentence – the rain – is understood immediate-
ly in relation to the situation model. It refers to the storm event, to which it can be
integrated as part of the model. Figure 2 would now incorporate the new event – the
ruination of the sweater.
Experiments summarized in Perfetti et al. (2008), using sentences similar to (1),
measured the ERP responses initiated by a target word – “rain” in the current example.
When the target word appeared, the N400 component, an indicator of the degree of
fit between the word and its context experienced by the reader (Kutas & Federmeier,
2000), was reduced in amplitude relative to a baseline condition (2):
2. Our discussion relies on relatively simple narrative texts, which contain clear event structures
to expose examples of integration processes. However, our theoretical framework and the word-
to-text integration processes we examine apply to texts of all types.
(2) When Cathy saw there were no dark clouds in the sky, she took her bike for a ride
in the park. The rain that was predicted never occurred.
Here, the N400 on the word “rain” has a more pronounced negative deflection, be-
cause initially it requires more processing for meaning activation, meaning integration
(with the text), or both. There is no antecedent for “rain” in the preceding sentence.
Equivalently, the situation model contains no referent to which the new event, “the
rain,” can be attached. Unlike in (1), there is no “storm” event to support the integra-
tion of “the rain” into the model. Instead the reader must build a structure around
this new event.
It is important to emphasize that the difference between texts (1) and (2) is not
about their sensibility or coherence. Text (2) is fully sensible. Thus, the N400 compari-
son of texts (1) and (2) on “rain” is quite subtle compared with the more typical studies
of the N400, which use anomalous sentences (e.g., “related anomaly” paradigm; Amsel,
DeLong, & Kutas, 2015). For example, in a classic N400 study, an ERP recorded on
“eat” in “The pizza was too hot to eat” was compared with the ERP recorded on the
anomalous “drink” in “The pizza was too hot to drink” (Kutas & Hillyard, 1980). In
these conditions, the N400 differences are dramatic and may be explained by expec-
tancy violations (Kutas & Federmeier, 2000; Lau, Almeida, Hines, & Poeppel, 2009;
Van Petten & Luka, 2012). However, in our case, a comparison is made across sensible
texts that differ only in the degree to which they invite an immediate word-to-text
integration process. (See Brown & Hagoort, 1993, for an N400 interpretation based on
post-lexical integration processes.) Expecting a certain word across a sentence bound-
ary seems unhelpful to comprehension; nearly any grammatical sentence beginning
can continue with coherent ties to the preceding sentence. Thus the reduction of the
N400 in our case is not likely about expectancy violations, but about integration.
The paraphrase effect and comprehension skill

The word “rain” is better integrated with text (1) than with text (2). We refer to this
as the paraphrase effect, with the understanding that this is not exactly the everyday
sense of “paraphrase,” that is, expressing an idea in words different from its original
expression. In our usage, paraphrase is an implicit co-referential relation between
a word or phrase in one sentence and a word or phrase in a following sentence. The
co-referential relation is defined by the contents of the mental representation of the
enriched semantic content of the text – the situation model. The paraphrase can up-
date the situation model modestly (or merely reinforce the salience of a referent) while
maintaining coherence. Thus, in text (1), “rain” is not another way of saying “storm.”
Rather, “rain” fine-tunes – or elaborates – the mental model by identifying a correlate
or consequence of the storm, which was established in the first sentence.
The paraphrase effect reflects online comprehension, an updating of the situation
model that integrates a word with a text representation. In addition to evidence for
this integration process in ERP records, we discovered that skilled comprehenders
showed the paraphrase effect more robustly than less skilled comprehenders, who
were described as showing sluggish word-to-text integration (Perfetti et al., 2008).

This sluggishness can have consequences for maintaining coherence across sentenc-
es, as memory resources, which are required for comprehension repairs, become less
available. Recent work has supported this view of individual differences, finding that
the paraphrase effect occurred only among highly skilled readers (Stafura & Perfetti,
2014). Thus, these anaphoric elaboration processes – centered on word level process-
ing – are sensitive to reading ability.
Word-to-text integration can involve inferences. Indeed, one might argue that the
paraphrase effect is a kind of bridging inference (Haviland and Clark. 1974; Graesser,
Singer, & Trabasso, 1994; Singer & Halldorson, 1996). In our previous example, a
bridging inference could link “the rain” back to the storm, preserving coherence. On
this description, we could say that skilled comprehenders make this bridging inference
more readily than less skilled comprehenders. However, such a description seems
incomplete without a focus on its lexical basis, and, further, it would beg the question
of what makes this bridging inference more likely for the skilled comprehenders.
Instead, we think describing the rain-to-storm link-up as a lexically based integration
process (word-to-text) better captures the cognitive operations involved and frames
a hypothesis for why there is a skill difference. Thus, instead of focusing on “broken”
bridging processes one focuses on word knowledge and context-sensitive meaning
selection that are required for the integration process.
There is an important role for bridging inferences in this kind of word-to-text
integration, however. If the text of the first sentence has only an implication of rain
rather than establishing a rain-related event (storm), the integration process requires
bridging, as in text (3):
(3) While Cathy was riding her bike in the park, dark clouds began to gather. The
rain ruined her beautiful sweater.
When the reader encounters “rain” in (3), there is no storm event in the mental model
to which “rain” can be attached. Instead, the reader makes a bridging inference, con-
structing a new event: Rain. This bridging inference (e.g., Graesser et al., 1994; Singer
& Halldorson, 1996) is readily made, although with some cost to processing efficiency.
Yang et al. (2007) observed that for texts of this type, the N400 amplitude was not
significantly different from baseline. Thus, reading “The rain …” in sentence (3) was
similar to reading “The rain …” in sentence (2) as far as the ERP record was concerned.
The costly bridging inference is unnecessary if, in the first sentence, the reader
makes a forward or predictive inference. Such an inference would occur while reading
the first sentence of (3), specifically the segment “… dark clouds began to gather.” This
inference is a prediction (it will rain) the reader might make (Graesser et al., 1994).
The inference has little warrant, however, so adding rain to the mental model is a risky
move. Certainly the comprehension of “dark clouds” in the first sentence allows “the
rain” to be easily understood when it does appear in the next sentence. (Hence, the
N400 to (3) is not more negative than in (2).) However, it does not compel a forward
inference (McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992). The N400 results of Yang et al. (2007) strongly
suggest that skilled readers do not make the forward inference consistently, and thus
had to make a bridging inference when they came to the word “rain.”. (For further
discussion that connects inferences and word-to-text integration processes see Perfetti
& Stafura, 2015)
To summarize: Word-to-text integration processes are central to comprehension
because they recur with each phrase. They reflect a close coupling of word identification
with representations of the meaning of the text, mediated by the retrieval and selection
of word meanings. Word-to-text integration processes are pervasive, and the process-
es that produce the paraphrase effect are only part of the integration picture. Other
anaphoric processes, ranging from simple pronoun binding through more complex
co-referential expressions are also relevant, as are bridging inferences. All these process-
es maintain coherence at variable costs to comprehension efficiency. Comprehension
skill depends in part on these word-to-text integration processes. Those processes that
depend on word meanings are especially likely to show individual differences, because
knowledge and use of word meanings is highly variable across individuals.
Explaining further the association between reading skill and the paraphrase
effect requires more research. Candidate explanations within the Reading Systems
Framework include (a) individual differences in the lexicon, either vocabulary size
(in a familiarity or passive knowledge sense) or more finely tuned word knowledge
that supports the use of words in specific contexts; (b) cognitive architecture factors,
including working memory limitations (Just & Carpenter, 1992); and (c) problems
in executive functioning (e.g., Cutting, Materek, Cole, Levine, & Mahone, 2009)
that can cause less effective inhibition of irrelevant word level semantic information
(Gernsbacher, 1990).
Functional mechanisms of word-to-text integration

More research is needed to understand the mechanisms of word-to-text integration,
aside from skill differences. The cross-sentence paraphrase effect is a general language
process, found in listening comprehension as well as reading (Adlof & Perfetti, 2011).
Stafura and Perfetti (2014) explored the question of whether the message level of com-
prehension (what the text means) or the lexical level (the association between prior
words and the word being read), or both, are responsible for the paraphrase effect.
Although the message level must be involved if the effect is about comprehension, lex-
ical processes initiated by word identification, including associations that a word has
with other words in memory and with other words in the text are part of the process.
In the C-I model, associations are activated through rapid, automatic processes in the
construction stage and may have no consequences for the later integrative stages of
comprehension. However, if the text contains words that take advantage of the asso-
ciations that are evoked unconsciously, then associations may provide a head start on
message-level comprehension.
Stafura and Perfetti (2014) compared ERP responses to critical words (e.g., rain)
that were either strong (4) or weak (5) associates of the referentially-related antecedent
words (italicized) in the first sentence.
(4) While Cathy was riding her bike in the park, dark clouds began to gather, and
it started to storm. The rain…
it started to shower. The rain…
Similar to the original reports of the paraphrase effect (Perfetti et al., 2008; Yang et al.,
2005; 2007), critical words in both strong association and weak association conditions
elicited reduced N400 responses relative to the same critical words in baseline sen-
tences such as (2). Crucially, there were no differences between the strong association
and weak association conditions. This finding suggests that, within the parameters
of these materials, the message level is the dominant locus for the paraphrase effect.
An additional question is whether the lexical component of the text integration
process takes advantage of forward association processes or uses memory based back-
ward processes (Stafura, Rickles, & Perfetti, 2015). In our example, does “storm” in
the first sentence evoke “rain” as an associate, which is then available to support in-
tegration when “rain” is encountered in the next sentence? Or is the more important
process that when “rain” is read in the second sentence it resonates with the memory
of “storm” from the first sentence. The critical comparison is between forward asso-
ciation conditions like (4) with backward association conditions like (6);
it started to rain. The storm ruined her beautiful sweater.
Stafura and colleagues (Stafura et al., 2015) analyzed both mean evoked amplitudes
and principal components extracted from the ERP data, finding both similarities
and differences in critical word processing depending on the dominant direction of
association. Consistent with the paraphrase effect findings in the past, both association
conditions elicited reduced mean N400 amplitudes over central electrodes relative to
baseline conditions. Additionally, forward and backward association conditions elic-
ited ERPs that differed in both earlier (~200ms) and later (≥425ms) time-windows. We
interpreted the late component in terms of memory processes (Rugg et al., 1998; Rugg
& Curran, 2007), specifically, those involved in discourse updating (Burkhardt, 2007).
These may be passive resonance processes (O’Brien et al., 1998) leading to activation
of the co-referential information in the first sentence. This activity was greatest in
the backward association condition wherein the critical word could act as a retrieval
cue for the preceding sentences’ meaning structure (e.g., propositional; Ericsson &
Kintsch, 1995; O’Brien, Plewes, & Albrecht, 1990; Ratcliff & McKoon, 1988) leading
to long-lasting positivity in the ERP wave.
Together, this evidence supports a message level locus for the paraphrase effect,
at least within the parameters of the short, sensible materials used in these studies.
At the same time, there are some tentative indications that lexical level processes play
distinct functional roles in word-to-text integration, with words potentially acting as
retrieval cues for the meaning of the preceding text.
Structural aspects of text and word-to-text integration

Identifying the structure and situational dimensions of mental representations of text
(e.g., Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998) and how they interact as the reader builds an un-
derstanding of the text (Rapp & Taylor, 2004) are important topics of comprehension
research. One area in which we have begun exploring the effects of text and discourse
level factors on word level processing relates to the semantic – or structural – centrality
of a text (van den Broek, Helder, & Van Leijenhorst, 2013). A given word’s structural
centrality is defined as the degree to which that word is central to the semantic struc-
ture of the text. Readers are typically better at recalling information that is central
to the semantic structure of texts, compared to non-central information. However,
studies on centrality to this point have measured comprehension off-line, after reading
(for a review see van den Broek et al., 2013).
We recently carried out an experiment to test the effects of structural centrality on
on-line, word level processing using ERPs (Helder, Stafura, Calloway, van den Broek,
and Perfetti, 2015). Table 1 provides an example narrative in 3 conditions used in this
study. The Theme Conditions have semantic structures that differ in terms of their
central themes. In Table 1, Theme 1 has “Weather” as a central theme, and Theme 2
has “Clothes” as a central theme. Critical words from which ERPs were measured are
bolded if they are related to the first theme (e.g., Weather), and bolded and underlined
if they are related to the second theme (e.g., Clothes). Baseline passages that are neutral
regarding the experimental themes were used in the first critical word analysis only
(due to constraints in making the texts sensible and coherent).
Table 1. Example passages. From Helder et al., 2015.

Condition Example passage
Theme 1 – Weather Cathy likes to check the weather all the time on her iPhone.
She is always very excited when stormy weather is predicted.
While Cathy was riding her bike in the park, dark clouds began
to gather, and it started to storm.
The rain ruined her beautiful sweater.
Theme 2 – Clothes Cathy loves clothes and bought herself a new wardrobe.
She is getting ready to go outside and decides to wear her new
outfit today.
She noticed that a lot of people were looking at her clothes
while it started to storm.
The rain ruined her beautiful sweater.
Baseline Cathy lives close to a park.
She likes to be there as much as she can during the summer.
When Cathy saw there were no dark clouds in the sky, she took
her bike or a ride in the park.
The rain that was predicted never occurred.
Helder et al (2015) found no effect of centrality at the first critical word (e.g., rain);
baseline passages elicited greater average N400 responses than the experimental con-
ditions, which did not differ. However, text-final words (e.g., sweater) revealed effects
of centrality with not-thematically-related words eliciting greater average P600 re-
sponses relative to thematically-related words. Thus, structural centrality influences
on-line word-to-text integration processes at the text-final position.
This evidence suggests that the message level influences on-line comprehen-
sion processes at the lexical level. At earlier positions in a sentence, local opera-
tions such as co-referential binding seem to have a dominant role. At the end of the
sentence(/text) message-level processes appear dominant. Here, the P600 effect may
reflect the ease of mental model updating when words are related to the central theme of
the passage, compared to when they are not related to the central theme (but sensible).
Memory updating and word-to-text integration

Text and discourse research has demonstrated that “outdated” discourse information
(information no longer available in working memory) can influence later comprehen-
sion processes (Albrecht & O’Brien, 1993; O’Brien & Albrecht, 1992; O’Brien et al.,
1998). However, it is unclear whether comprehenders are sensitive to this outdated
information at the point of the first potentially conflicting word, or only at a later
point in reading, as previous methods have almost completely relied on self-paced
reading of entire sentences.
Currently, our lab is carrying out ERP studies to test the influence of outdated
discourse inconsistencies on a word-by-word basis. Findings of immediate sensitivity
at the word-level would provide insight into on-line processing connections between
message- and word-levels across large stretches of text. Specific ERP components
can then allow us to zero-in on mechanisms that may be functional in this process.
For example, inconsistent words may attract attention or updating processes related
to information in working memory, eliciting larger P300 responses than consistent
words (Donchin & Coles, 1998). Additionally, inconsistent words may lead to ex-
tended memory retrieval and analysis related to the earlier conflicting “episode”,
perhaps through passive resonance mechanisms (Myers & O’Brien, 1998) that have
been shown to selectively improve memory of information surrounding inconsistent
material (O’Brien & Myers, 1985). These extended processes may lead to a prominent
late positivity (P600) at the critical word in inconsistent relative to consistent condi-
tions, such as was seen in the directional association study by Stafura et al. (2015).
On the other hand, the findings of Helder et al. (2015) suggest that, in some condi-
tions, effects of message level factors may be delayed, eliciting effects on sentence- or
text-final words. We are currently pursuing these and other connections between
word level processing and message level processes engaged during on-line reading
of longer, relatively natural texts.
Knowledge of word meanings is instrumental in reading comprehension
The paraphrase effect, and word-to-text integration processes in general, demonstrate

subtle roles of word meanings in comprehension (in addition to their obvious role
in allowing comprehension) and leads to the question of what kinds of word knowl-
edge are responsible for integration and comprehension success. The Lexical Quality
Hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007; Perfetti & Hart, 2002) assumes that word knowledge (both
form and meaning) is central to reading skill. High-quality form knowledge includes
phonological specificity, the lack of which has been linked to problems in reading
and word learning (Elbro, 1998; Elbro & Jensen, 2005). It also includes orthographic
precision, which has been shown by Andrews and colleagues to have specific conse-
quences beyond the effects of reading skill. Spelling-based lexical expertise effects are
seen in lexical access (Andrews & Hersch, 2010; Andrews & Lo, 2012) and spelling/
vocabulary lexical expertise effects can show subtle effects in the balance of top-down
and bottom-up processes in comprehension (Hersch & Andrews, 2012).
The semantic constituent of lexical quality has a close connection to comprehen-
sion, as is well established by correlations between vocabulary and reading compre-
hension (e.g., Adlof, Catts, & Little, 2006; Cromley & Azevedo, 2007). The impact of
vocabulary on reading is usually assumed to be indirect through its role in general
language comprehension. However, it is possible that vocabulary also has a direct effect
on reading itself. An observation by Braze, Tabor, Shankweiler, and Mencl (2007) is
interesting on this point. Across a range of adolescent and adult readers, Braze et al.
(2007) found that vocabulary accounted for reading comprehension to a greater degree
than it did listening comprehension. They argued that this reflects the fact that written
words are more likely to fail to activate lexical representations than are spoken words.
In effect, a stronger semantic connection (a more integrated set of word constituents)
can compensate for lower orthographically initiated activation.
Consistent with this possibility are the results of other cross-sectional and longi-
tudinal studies. Protopapas, Sideridis, Mouzaki, and Simos (2007) in a study of 534
children in Grades 2, 3, and 4 in Greek schools in Crete found a strong relationship
among reading comprehension, vocabulary, and decoding. However, the unique con-
tribution of decoding, relative to its shared variance with vocabulary, was negligible
with vocabulary taken into account, especially beyond Grade 2. In a longitudinal study
that followed 2,143 Dutch children through Grade 6, Verhoeven and Van Leeuwe
(2008) found that at Grade 1 reading comprehension was accounted for by a structural
model that combined word decoding and listening comprehension. Examining later
grades with time-lagged correlations, they found that earlier vocabulary predicted
later reading comprehension, whereas earlier listening comprehension did not.
Accounting for word meaning knowledge as part of reading provides a challenge
for the assumption that decoding a word unlocks all the knowledge associated with
the spoken word. The Simple View of Reading (Hoover & Gough, 1990), an expres-
sion of this assumption, would need to accommodate the direct effects of vocabulary
on reading comprehension by allowing vocabulary knowledge to influence decoding
(Tunmer & Chapman, 2012). Word meaning would thus contribute to reading both
as a component of language comprehension and through word reading. Indeed, re-
cent structural equation models of language ability among children in grades 1–3
support indirect effects of vocabulary on both word reading and listening compre-
hension (Language and Reading Research Consortium, 2015). Although the spoken
language may be the main carrier of word meanings, it is the retrieval of word mean-
ings through orthographic representations (and their integration with text meaning)
that is critical in reading.
A second aspect of the word knowledge – comprehension connection concerns
learning new words. (Figure 1 shows this connection by arrows from comprehension
back to the lexicon.) During reading, readers implicitly infer meanings from imper-
fectly understood text, allowing the establishment of a new lexical entry or the refine-
ment of an existing one. Readers of greater skill, word knowledge, and experience are
more effective at this learning. Experimental evidence for this conclusion spans studies
of children and adults and reveals skill differences in learning new words implicitly
from text, as well as from direct instruction (e.g., Cain, Oakhill, & Lemmon, 2004;
Perfetti, Wlotko, & Hart, 2005).
In the present context, the relevance of these twin aspects of the word knowledge –
comprehension relationship is the centrality of word knowledge in a theory of compre-
hension. The word-to-text integration evidence is that skilled readers are better able
to integrate words into their mental models of the text, and that word level processing
reveals text level factors on-line. The correlational evidence on the word knowledge –
comprehension relationship and the experimental evidence on learning new words
together suggest that skill differences in the integration processes may depend on
knowledge of word meanings or the use of this knowledge during text reading.
In the final section, we return to the theoretical concerns we raised at the begin-
ning, showing how the Reading Systems Framework can guide more specific hypoth-
eses about comprehension and differences in comprehension skill.
Word comprehension within the Reading Systems Framework
Word reading in context is about word comprehension, which is at the center of the
Reading Systems Framework. Word comprehension is the output of the word iden-
tification system and the input to the comprehension systems (sentence, text, and
situation). Figure 3 is a wide-angle lens view of this part of the framework, showing
(in an altered spatial orientation) the word identification system on top and the word
comprehension system on the bottom. Word comprehension is word-to-text inte-
gration in this view. Word meanings stored in memory (the lexicon) are only part of
word comprehension, as they (and other memory-driven associations) are activated
during reading and then tuned to what the context (the representation of the situation)
demands.
WRITTEN
TEXT
Orthographic units Phonological units
Word identification
Semantic units
Sentence representation
Word- to-text
integration
Text model Situation model
Prior Knowledge
Figure 3. The connection between two systems that support comprehension, “The word
identification system and the word comprehension system,” is illustrated. As words
are identified, they are comprehended in relation to the representation of the text. The
comprehension process links the word to an existing referent (or event) in a mental
model or extends the mental model to include a new or updated referent (or event).
Semantic units activated with word identification are part of this process (the activation
phase of the CI model), but the selection of meaning is influenced by the reader’s
immediate representation of the text. From Perfetti and Stafura (2014).
To return to the review of comprehension theories, we see that the word comprehen-
sion model corresponds roughly to the construction (upper part of Figure 3) and inte-
gration phases (lower part of Figure 3) of the C-I model (Kintsch, 1988). However, we
do not assume that this integration is necessarily an active process. It is at least partly
(if not mainly) a memory-driven process, in which words from the recently read text
and the propositions they encode (the text model) are highly accessible in memory. A
word, as it is read, “resonates” with these memories, and connections are made without
an active construction process, which can later tune and correct the representation.
This process is adaptive for comprehension insofar as what is activated in memory is

relevant and consistent with the current state of the situation model. However, even
information that has been updated and is no longer relevant can continue to exert an
influence on comprehension (O’Brien, Cook, & Guéraud, 2010; O’Brien et al., 1998).
Active construction may become necessary when coherence breaks down and requires
new structures to be built (Gernsbacher, 1990). However, the value of a more passive
memory process is that text integration can occur at low cost to processing resources,
and this may be the default integration processing mode within and across sentences.
It is not completely clear whether immediate updating of the situation model
is sufficient to protect comprehension from the intrusion of no-longer relevant in-
formation (O’Brien et al., 2010; Zwaan & Madden, 2004). This issue may not matter
much for word-to-text integration in short texts (e.g., ~2 sentences). This is because
the relevant memory traces have been established just prior to the word to be read
(although across a sentence boundary) and there is not much contradictory discarded
information to produce interference. However, with longer stretches of text to contrib-
ute more information in memory, interference may be more likely. This is an active
area of research in our lab.
There is an advantage of localizing a small part of the comprehension process
for theoretical focus within the Reading Systems Framework: It allows a tractable
number of comprehension processes to be considered. Here is the minimum set of the
overlapping processes required for fluent word-to-text integration.
1. Rapid, automatic lexical access based on word form;
2. Rapid, automatic activation of associated knowledge from memory;
3. Access to memory for recently read text at the level of text model, situation model,
or both;
4. Knowledge of context-relevant meaning associated with the lexical entry and its
rapid retrieval; and
5. Word-to-text integration resulting from the overlapping of these processes.
For an expert reader with knowledge of word meanings and sufficient experience,
these are not effortful processes. Indeed, each overlapping phase of integration can be
executed with minimal resource demands, approaching automaticity. These processes
can be modeled through word activation networks with feedback from semantics and
memories for recently read text segments. To perform robustly over text variations,
models would need to include syntactic processes, which are usually ignored in text
comprehension models. The point is that the basics of a testable theory that assumes
individual differences in word-to-text integration processes arise from lexical knowl-
edge. Alternative hypotheses can be tested, for example, that such comprehension skill
differences arise from memory limitations or word identification processes that are
resource demanding. Furthermore, one can examine the deeper question of wheth-
er sluggish word-to-text integration (Perfetti et al., 2008) propagates upward to the
higher levels, and thus helps to explain retention and higher level as well as lower level
comprehension problems.
Conclusion
Theories (or more accurately, frameworks) of reading comprehension have moved

from ideas of broad scope to more specifically targeted aspects of the overall problem
of comprehension. This has allowed progress in the study of components of compre-
hension, from the role of memory, the use of inferences, and the updating of men-
tal models. We reintroduced a wide-angle framework that makes central the role of
the lexicon, a somewhat neglected component in text comprehension research. The
Reading Systems Framework represents the broad set of knowledge sources, and pro-
cesses that act on these knowledge sources, allowing researchers to examine specific
systems and subsystems and the interactions among them.
Within this framework, we target a seemingly small yet central and recurring
comprehension process, the integration of the currently read word into a mental struc-
ture that represents the current understanding of the text (the situation model). These
word-to-text integration processes allow readers to continuously tune and update their
current understanding. The paraphrase effect reflects a text integration process that is
initiated by reading a word whose activated meanings include one that is congruent
with the current model of the text, and thus can be integrated into that model. The
lexical nature of this process distinguishes it from other integrating processes, such
as bridging inferences, which also allow updating and keep the text coherent but at
some cost to processing effort.
Individual differences in reading comprehension are seen during these word-to-
text processes, specifically in the lexically driven paraphrase effect. This fact invites
closer examination of whether subtle differences in knowledge of word meanings or
the conditions of word use might affect word-to-text integration, as well as more global
measures of comprehension. The general relationships between global comprehension
skill and vocabulary and between comprehension skill and new word learning also
suggest this possibility. Additionally, less skilled readers may require more bridging
inferences compared to skilled readers more fluid, incremental word-to-text integra-
tion processes. These questions can be addressed through additional assessment and
the development of new text and discourse stimuli.
Finally, research should continue to probe the on-line nature of text and dis-
course processes, using methods that allow for word level measurement and anal-
ysis. Theoretically, our argument entails a closer view, within the Reading Systems
Framework, of the interaction between the word identification system and the compre-
hension system that is mediated by lexical knowledge and manifest in word meaning
processing.
Acknowledgments
Research discussed in this article was supported by NICHD award R01HD058566–02 to the
University of Pittsburgh, Charles Perfetti, PI. We graciously acknowledge the helpful reviewers
of Perfetti and Stafura (2014), who greatly improved that manuscript through their critiques and
comments, and, therefore, this chapter.
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Genetic and environmental influences on
the development of reading and related skills
Richard K. Olson1, 2, Janice M. Keenan3, Brian Byrne2, 4

and Stefan Samuelsson2
1University of Colorado Boulder / 2Linköping University /
3University of Denver / 4University of New England
Modern behavior-genetic studies of twins in the U.S., Australia, Scandinavia, and the
U.K. show that genes account for most of the variance in children’s reading ability
by the end of the first year of formal reading instruction. Strong genetic influences
continue across the grades; however, the relevant genes vary for reading words and
for comprehending text. Strong genetic influences do not diminish the importance
of the environment for reading development; in fact, some of the genetic influence
comes through a gene – environment correlation. They do, however, question setting
the same minimal performance criterion for all children.
Why do children differ in their development of reading and related skills? A casual
perusal of reading research over the past 20 years reveals answers that are predomi-
nantly environmental, including preschool language and print exposure, quality and
quantity of reading instruction in school, peer and family influences, socioeconomic
level, and learning to read in a second language. This environmental focus is under-
standable from the obvious fact that reading is a learned skill that initially depends on
formal instruction. The environmental focus is also supported by many experiments
showing significant effects from manipulating the reading environment, and by stud-
ies reporting correlations between reading and related skills, such as phonological
awareness and phonological decoding. Indeed, these studies are often interpreted as
implying an environmentally-based causal pathway from phonological skills to the
individual differences and deficits observed in reading.
A different perspective on the etiology of individual differences in reading and
related skills has been provided by behavior-genetic studies that compare similarities
between large samples of identical (monozygotic or MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic or
DZ) twin pairs who share their home and school environment, yet differ in their
additive genetic similarity (100% for MZ pairs, 50% of segregating genes on average
for DZ pairs). This natural experiment is unique in its ability to estimate the average
influence on individual differences in reading and related skills that arise from genes,
from shared environments that make twins in a pair similar (e.g., books in the home,
doi 10.1075/swll.15.03ols
34 Richard K. Olson et al.
general family support for reading, shared teachers, classrooms, peers), and from
non-shared environments that make twins different (e.g., different peers, teachers,
classrooms, illnesses, birth problems, accidents, and measurement error) (Plomin,
DeFries, McClearn, & McGuffin, 2008).
In addition to assessing genetic and environmental influences on individual vari-
ation in specific reading and related skills, behavior-genetic research can also address
genetic and environmental influences on the correlations between different skills, such
as between word recognition, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension
(cf., Keenan, Betjemann, Wadsworth, DeFries, & Olson, 2006). This knowledge can
provide a deeper understanding of why children differ, not only for genetic reasons,
but also for reasons related to environmental influences.
Before we explore the results from recent behavior-genetic studies of reading, we
need to clarify some important general qualifications and limitations of behavior-ge-
netic research using data from identical and fraternal twins reared together. First,
we sometimes hear concerns that our behavior-genetic results might imply a genetic
basis for mean differences between racial, ethnic, or regional groups’ reading ability.
It is important to emphasize that behavior-genetic studies cannot address the etiology
of group mean differences. They are assessments of the sources of variance between
individuals in a sample, not mean performance of that sample. Thus, environmental
differences may completely account for any mean group differences, even when genetic
influences explain individual differences within those groups.
Second, it is important to understand that estimates of genetic and environmental
influence from twin studies are specific to the behaviorally relevant environmental
range in the sampled populations. Twin samples with low environmental variation
are likely to yield higher genetic and lower environmental estimates when compared
to samples with high environmental variation.
Third, behavior-genetic studies only describe the average current balance of ge-
netic and environmental influences on individual differences within a sample. They do
not specify the genetic and environmental etiology for any individual in that sample.
Fourth, estimates of genetic and environmental influences from behavior-genetic
studies do not speak to the possibility for changing the average reading level in a popu-
lation by manipulating the quantity and quality of reading instruction or practice. Nor
do they speak to the potential benefits of extraordinary environmental interventions
for reading disabilities.
Fifth, genes express themselves through the environment. For example, we will
present evidence that genes related to reading ability influence the amount of reading
practice, resulting in a positive gene – environment correlation. This correlation likely
accounts for at least part of our estimates of genetic influence from twin studies. It
has important implications for environmental intervention that we will consider in
the concluding section.
Regardless of these limitations and qualifications, we will argue that considered
together, the results of modern behavior-genetic twin studies of individual differences
and deficits in reading provide the best evidence for why, on average, children differ in
Why children differ in reading ability 35
their reading and related skills. Following a brief overview of the major behavior-ge-
netic studies of reading conducted over the past 20 years, we will turn to what we think
are some of the most important results from those studies. In the final section of our
review, we will consider the implications of the behavior-genetic results for education
and directions for future research.
Overview of modern behavior-genetic studies of reading
In 1992, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began providing substantial fund-
ing for twin research focused on the genetic and environmental etiology of learning
difficulties in reading (e.g., “dyslexia”), and more recently on ADHD and math defi-
cits, through the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center (CLDRC) (DeFries
et al., 1997; Olson, 2004; 2006). Beginning around 2000, NIH also began funding
longitudinal twin studies of individual differences in pre-reading and early-reading
development that are being conducted in Colorado, Florida, and Ohio. These longi-
tudinal studies in the U.S. are complemented by others being conducted in Australia,
Scandinavia, and the U.K. Together, these longitudinal studies provide important
cross-language and cross-cultural perspectives on the etiology of individual differenc-
es in reading development. Our goal in this chapter is to highlight the most important
themes from modern behavior-genetic research on reading and discuss their broader
implications. We will concentrate on longitudinal studies of individual differences
in unselected population samples, but we will first discuss a few key findings from
research on twin pairs wherein at least one member was selected for reading disability.
The genetic and environmental etiology of reading disability
Prior to 1985, the limited behavior-genetic research on reading disability used a cat-
egorical definition. Evidence for genetic influence was based simply on a comparison
of diagnostic concordance rates for MZ and DZ twin pairs (both “dyslexic” or just
one member “dyslexic”). Subsequently, DeFries and Fulker (1985) recognized that the
continuous normal distribution of reading ability in the population could be used to
support a continuous regression method for assessing the average genetic and envi-
ronmental etiology of twins’ reading disability, based on the similarity of the MZ
and DZ cotwins’ regression to the population mean. This “DF” model yielded more
statistically powerful and accurate estimates of genetic and environmental influence
on group deficits in reading and related skills.
When the DF model has been applied to study the etiology of reading disability
group membership in the CLDRC and an independent study in the U.K., we find
broadly similar results. In describing the results, we will follow behavior-genetic con-
vention and label additive genetic influence as A, shared environment influence as C,
36 Richard K. Olson et al.
and non-shared environment influence as E. Together these three influences account

for 100% of the total phenotypic variance, so we can express the A, C, and E influences
as accounting for percentages of the phenotypic variance. Here and in the rest of the
paper, we only report A (genetic) and C (shared environment) percentages, because E
(non-shared environment including measurement error) simply equals 100% – (A% +
C%). So for example, if A has been estimated at 40% and C has been estimated at 50%,
then it can be assumed that E has been estimated at 10%.
Friend, DeFries, and Olson (2008) applied the DF model to a composite of reading
and spelling data from 545 same-sex twin pairs at mean age 11.4 years in which at
least one member of each pair scored below the 10th percentile. The average influ-
ence on reading-disability group membership in this CLDRC sample was A = 61%
for genetic and C = 30% for shared environment. Harlaar, Spinath, Dale, and Plomin
(2005) found very similar results in their large and representative population sample
of seven-year-old twins tested on a composite of word and nonword reading near the
end of first grade in the U.K. (A = 59%, C = 30%). In both the Friend et al. and Harlaar
et al. studies, genetic, shared environment, and non-shared environment influences
were all statistically significant for reading disability, but the average influence of genes
was about twice as strong as the shared environment influence.
Of course we would like to know the specific genetic and environmental etiology
for individual children, but behavior-genetic data cannot provide this answer; it only
provides information about the average etiology of reading-disability group member-
ship. It is therefore possible that for some individual children within the group with
reading disability, environmental factors may have been the major or only influence,
while for others, genes may have been the major or only influence. However, it is
possible to expand the DF model to ask if the degree of genetic and environmental
influences on reading disability is significantly related to individual differences on
other variables, thus bringing us closer to an understanding of differential genetic
and environmental etiology within the reading disabled group. Friend et al. (2008)
did this using parents’ years of education to explore the possibility of a “genetic-in-
fluence by environment” interaction. They found that genetic influence was signifi-
cantly higher on average for children with reading disability who had parents with
higher education, compared to children with lower parent education. For children
with lower parent education, shared family environment and genes were, on average,
about equally influential. One interpretation of these results is that children who fail
in reading in spite of having highly educated parents (and likely a better environment
for learning to read) are more likely to have genetic than environmental constraints
on their reading development.
The interaction between parent education and genetic influence on reading has
also been explored for high-reading group performance using the same DF model
(Friend et al., 2009). Twin pairs with at least one member performing at least one
standard deviation above the population mean on the TOWRE word and nonword
reading efficiency composite (Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, 1999) were selected from
representative population twin samples in Colorado and the U.K. Genetic influence
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To the first sympathetic friend to whom I poured forth my story, I
found myself presenting a plan which had been developing almost
without conscious mental direction on my part. It was doubtless the
accumulation of many reflections inspired by acquaintance with the
patients in the hospital wards, and now, with the Ludlow Street
experience, resistlessly impelling me to action.
Within a day or two a comrade from the training-school, Mary
Brewster, agreed to share in the venture. We were to live in the
neighborhood as nurses, identify ourselves with it socially, and, in
brief, contribute to it our citizenship. That plan contained in embryo
all the extended and diversified social interests of our settlement
group to-day.
We set to work immediately to find
quarters—no easy task, as we clung
to the civilization of a bathroom, and
according to a legend current at the
time there were only two bathrooms in
tenement houses below Fourteenth
Street. Chance helped us here. A
young woman who for years played
an important part in the life of many
East Side people, overhearing a
conversation of mine with a fellow-
student, gave me an introduction to
two men who, she said, knew all
about the quarter of the city which I
wished to enter. I called on them
immediately, and their response to my need was as prompt. Without
stopping to inquire into my antecedents or motives, or to discourse
on the social aspects of the community, of which, I soon learned,
they were competent to speak with authority, they set out with me at
once, in a pouring rain, to scour the adjacent streets for “To Let”
signs. One which seemed to me worth investigating my newly
acquired friends discarded with the explanation that it was in the “red
light” district and would not do. Later I was to know much of the
unfortunate women who inhabited the quarter, but at the time the
term meant nothing to me.
After a long tour one of my guides, as if by inspiration, reminded
the other that several young women had taken a house on Rivington
Street for something like my purpose, and perhaps I had better live
there temporarily and take my time in finding satisfactory quarters.
Upon that advice I acted, and within a few days Miss Brewster and I
found ourselves guests at the luncheon table of the College
Settlement on Rivington Street. With ready hospitality they took us
in, and, during July and August, we were “residents” in stimulating
comradeship with serious women, who were also the fortunate
possessors of a saving sense of humor.
Before September of the year 1893 we found a house on
Jefferson Street, the only one in which our careful search disclosed
the desired bathtub. It had other advantages—the vacant floor at the
top (so high that the windows along the entire side wall gave us sun
and breeze), and, greatest lure of all, the warm welcome which came
to us from the basement, where we found the janitress ready to
answer questions as to terms.
Naturally, objections to two young women living alone in New York
under these conditions had to be met, and some assurance as to our
material comfort was given to anxious, though at heart sympathetic,
families by compromising on good furniture, a Baltimore heater for
cheer, and simple but adequate household appurtenances. Painted
floors with easily removed rugs, windows curtained with spotless but
inexpensive scrim, a sitting-room with pictures, books, and restful
chairs, a tiny bedroom which we two shared, a small dining-room in
which the family mahogany did not look out of place, and a kitchen,
constituted our home for two full years.
The much-esteemed bathroom, small and dark, was in the hall,
and necessitated early rising if we were to have the use of it; for, as
we became known, we had many callers anxious to see us before
we started on our sick rounds. The diminutive closet-space was
divided to hold the bags and equipment we needed from day to day,
and more ample store-closets were given us by the kindly people in
the school where I had first given lessons to East Side mothers. Any
pride in the sacrifice of material comfort which might have risen
within us was effectually inhibited by the constant reminder that we
two young persons occupied exactly the same space as the large
families on every floor below us, and to one of our basement friends
at least we were luxurious beyond the dreams of ordinary folk.
The little lad from the basement
was our first invited guest. The simple
but appetizing dinner my comrade
prepared, while I set the table and
placed the flowers. The boy’s mother
came up later in the evening to find
out what we had given him, for
Tommie had rushed down with eyes
bulging and had reported that “them
ladies live like the Queen of England
and eat off of solid gold plates.”
We learned the most efficient use of
the fire-escape and felt many times
blessed because of our easy access
to the roof. We also learned the
infinite uses to which stairs can be
put. Later we achieved “local color” in
our rooms by the addition of
interesting pieces of brass and copper purchased from a man on
Allen Street whom we and several others had “discovered.” His little
dark shop under the elevated railway was fitfully illuminated by the
glowing forge. On our first visit the proprietor emerged from a still
darker inner room with prayer-shawl and phylactery. He became one
of our pleasant acquaintances and lost no occasion of
acknowledging what he considered his debt to the appreciative
customers who had helped to make him and his wares known to a
wider circle than that of the neighborhood.
The mere fact of living in the tenement brought undreamed-of
opportunities for widening our knowledge and extending our human
relationships. That we were Americans was wonderful to our fellow-
tenants. They were all immigrants—Jews from Russia or Roumania.
The sole exception was the janitress, Mrs. McRae, who at once
dedicated herself and her entire family to the service of the top floor.
Dear Mrs. McRae! From her basement home she covered us with
her protecting love and was no small influence in holding us to
sanity. Humor, astuteness, and sympathy were needed and these
she gave in abundance.
It was vouchsafed us to know many fine personalities who
influenced and guided us from the first few weeks of residence in the
friendly college settlement through the many years that have
followed. The two women who stand out with greatest distinction
from the first are this pure-souled Scotch-Irish immigrant and
Josephine Shaw Lowell. Both, if they were here, would understand
the tribute in linking them together.
Occasionally Mrs. McRae would feel impelled to reprove us for
“overdoing” ourselves, and from our top story we were hard pushed
to save visitors from being sent away when she thought we needed
to finish a meal or go to bed. Cautious as we were not to make any
distinctions in commenting upon the visitors who came to see us,
she made her own deductions. At whatever hour we returned, she
would be at the door to welcome us and to report on the happenings
during our absence. “So-and-
so was here”: shrewd
descriptions which often
enabled us to identify
individuals when names were
forgotten. “Lots of visitors to-
night,” she would report. “Were
messages left, or names?” we
would naturally inquire. “No,
darlints, nothing at all. I know
sure they didn’t bring you
anything.”
The key to our apartments,
usually left with her, was one
day forgotten, and when, upon
unlocking the door, we saw a
well-known society woman
seated in our little living-room,
we were naturally puzzled to
know how she had arrived there. Mrs. McRae explained that she had
taken her up the fire-escape!—no slight venture and exertion for the
inexperienced. We suggested that other ways might have been more
agreeable and safer. “Whisht,” said Mrs. McRae, with a smile and a
wink, “it’s no harm at all. She’ll be havin’ lots of talk for her friends on
this.”
When her roving husband died at home, the funeral arrangements
were given a last touch by Mrs. McRae, who placed on the casket
his tobacco and pipe and ordered the procession to pass his
tenement home twice before driving to the cemetery, “So he’d not
think we were not for forgivin’ him and hurryin’ him away.”
Her first love went to my comrade, whose beauty and humor and
goodness captured her Celtic heart. During our second year in the
tenement Miss Brewster was taken seriously ill, and one evening we
had at last succeeded in forcing Mrs. McRae to go home and had
locked the door. Unknown to us the dear friend remained on the floor
outside all through the night, trying to catch the sound of life from the
loved one.
Bringing up a large family, with no help from the “old man,” and
with stern ideals of conduct and integrity, was not easy. Some of her
children, endowed with her character, gave her solace, but she was
too astute not to estimate each one properly.
When we moved from the tenement to our first house Mrs. McRae
and her family gave up the basement rooms, which were rent free
because of her janitor service, in order to be near us, and she
spread her warmth over the new abode. When, some years later,
she was ill and we knew that the end was near, one close to me in
my own family claimed my attention. Torn between the two
affections, I was loath to leave the city while Mrs. McRae was so ill.
She guessed the cause of my perturbed state and advised me to go.
“Darlin’, you ought to go. You go. I promise not to die until you come
back.”
Letters kept up this assurance and the promise was fulfilled.
Times were hard that year. In the summer the miseries due to
unemployment and rising rents and prices began to be apparent, but
the pinch came with the cold weather. Perhaps it was an advantage
that we were so early exposed to the extraordinary sufferings and
the variety of pain and poverty in that winter of 1893-94, memorable
because of extreme economic depression. The impact of strain,
physical and emotional, left neither place nor time for self-analysis
and consequent self-consciousness, so prone to hinder and to dwarf
wholesome instincts, and so likely to have proved an impediment to
the simple relationship which we established with our neighbors.
It has become almost trite to speak of the kindness of the poor to
each other, yet from the beginning of our tenement-house residence
we were much touched by manifestations of it. An errand took me to
Michael the Scotch-Irish cobbler as the family were sitting down to
the noonday meal. There was a stranger with them, whom Michael
introduced, explaining when we were out of hearing that he thought I
would be interested to meet a man just out of Sing Sing prison. I
expressed some fear of the danger to his own boys in this
association. “We must just chance it,” said Michael. “It’s no weather
for a man like that to be on the streets, when honest fellows can’t get
work.”
When we first met the G⸺ family they were breaking up the
furniture to keep from freezing. One of the children had died and had
been buried in a public grave. Three times that year did Mrs. G⸺
painfully gather together enough money to have the baby disinterred
and fittingly buried in consecrated ground, and each time she gave
up her heart’s desire in order to relieve the sufferings of the living
children of her neighbors.
Another instance of this unfailing goodness of the poor to each
other was told by Nellie, who called on us one morning. She was
evidently embarrassed, and with difficulty related that, hearing of
things to be given away at a newspaper office, she had gone there
hoping to get something that would do for John when he came out of
the hospital. She said, “I drew this and I don’t know exactly what it is
meant for,” and displayed a wadded black satin “dress-shirt
protector,” in very good condition, and possibly contributed because
the season was over! Standing outside the circle of clamorous
petitioners, Nellie and the woman next her had exchanged tales of
woe. When she mentioned her address the new acquaintance
suggested that she seek us.
Nellie proved to be a near neighbor. There were two children: a
nursing baby “none so well,” and a lad. John, her husband, was
“fortunately” in the hospital with a broken leg, for there were “no jobs
around loose anyway.” When we called later in the day to see the
baby, we found that Nellie was stopping with her cousin, a widower
who “held his job down.” There were also his two children, the widow
of a friend “who would have done as much by me,” and the wife and
two small children of a total stranger who lived in the rear tenement
and were invited in to meals because the father had been seen
starting every morning on his hunt for work, and “it was plain for
anyone with eyes to see that he never did get it.” So this one man,
fortunate in having work, was taking care of himself and his children,
the widow of his friend, Nellie and her children, and was feeding the
strangers. Said Nellie: “Sure he’s doing that, and why not? He’s the
only cousin I’ve got outside of Ireland.”
Mrs. S⸺, who called at the settlement a few days ago, reminded
me that it was twenty-one years since our first meeting, and brought
vividly before me a picture of which she was a part. She was the
daughter of a learned rabbi, and her husband, himself a pious man,
had great reverence for the traditions of her family. In their extremity
they had taken bread from one of the newspaper charities, but it was
evidently a painful humiliation, and before we arrived they had
hidden the loaf in the ice-box. My visit was due to a desire to
ascertain the condition of the families who had applied for this dole.
Both house and people were scrupulously clean. It was amazing that
under the biting pressure of want and anxiety such standards could
be maintained. Yet, though passionately devoted to his family, the
husband refused advantageous employment because it necessitated
work on the Sabbath. This would have been to them a desecration of
something more vital than life itself.
We found that winter, in other instances, that the fangs of the wolf
were often decorously hidden. In one family of our acquaintance the
father, a cigarmaker, left the house each morning in search of work,
only to return at night hungrier and more exhausted by his fruitless
exertions. One Sabbath eve I entered his tenement, to find the two
rooms scrubbed and cleaned, and the mother and children prepared
for the holy night. Over a brisk fire fed by bits of wood picked up by
the children two covered pots were set, as if a supper were being
prepared. But under the lids it was only water that bubbled. The
proud mother could not bear to expose her poverty to the gossip of
the neighbors, the humiliation being the greater because she was
obliged to violate the sacred custom of preparing a ceremonious
meal for the united family on Friday night.
If the formalism of our neighbors in religious matters was
constantly brought to our attention, instances of their tolerance were
also far from rare. A Jewish woman, exhausted by her long day’s
scrubbing of office floors, walked many extra blocks to beg us to get
a priest for her Roman Catholic
neighbor whose child was dying. An
orthodox Jewish father, who had been
goaded to bitterness because his
daughter had married an “Irisher” and
thus “insulted his religion,” felt that the
young husband and his mother were
equally wronged. This man, when I
called on a Sabbath evening, took one
of the lights from the table to show the
way down the five flights of dark
tenement stairs, and to my protest,—
knowing, as I did, that he considered it
a sin to handle fire on the Sabbath,—
he said: “It is no sin for me to handle a
light on the Sabbath to show respect
to a friend who has helped to keep a
family together.”
With Prayer-shawl and Phylactery
There was the story of Mary, eldest daughter, as we supposed, of

an orthodox family. When we went to her engagement party we were
surprised to see that the young man was not of the family faith. The
mother told us that Mary, “such a pretty baby,” had been left on their
doorstep in earlier and more prosperous days in Austria. “The
Burgomeister had made proclamation,” but no one came to claim
her, and the husband and wife, who as yet had no children of their
own, decided to keep her. “God rewarded us and answered our
prayers,” said Mrs. L⸺, for many children came afterward; but
Mary, blonde and blue-eyed, was always the most cherished, the
first-comer who had brought the others. When she was quite a
young girl she was taken ill—a cold following exposure after her first
“grown-up” party, for which her foster-mother had dressed her with
pride. It seemed that nothing could save her, and the foster-mother
in her distress thought with pity of the woman who had borne this
sweet child. Surely she must be dead. No living mother could have
abandoned so lovely a baby. And if she were dead and in the
Christian heaven, she would look in vain there for her daughter. “So I
called the priest and told him,” said Mrs. L⸺, “and he made a
prayer over Mary, and said, ‘Now she is a Krist.’ The doctor, we
called him too, and he said to get a goat, for the milk would be good
for Mary; and she get well, but no so strong, as you see, and that is
why she don’t go out to work like her brothers and sisters. We lose
our money, that’s why we come to America, and Mary, now she
marry a Krist.”
Gradually there came to our knowledge difficulties and conflicts
not peculiar to any one set of people, but intensified in the case of
our neighbors by poverty, unfamiliarity with laws and customs, the
lack of privacy, and the frequent dependence of the elders upon the
children. Workers in philanthropy, clergymen, orthodox rabbis, the
unemployed, anxious parents, girls in distress, troublesome boys,
came as individuals to see us, but no formal organization of our work
was effected till we moved into the house on Henry Street, in 1895.
So precious were the intimate relationships with our neighbors in
the tenement that we were reluctant to leave it. My companion’s
breakdown, the persuasion of friends who had given their support
and counsel that there was an obligation upon us to effect some kind
of formal organization without further delay, finally prevailed. As
usual the neighborhood showed its interest in what we did; and
though my comrade and I had carefully selected men from the ranks
of the unemployed to move our belongings, when all was
accomplished not one of them could be induced to take a penny for
the work.
From this first house have since developed the manifold activities
in city and country now incorporated as the Henry Street Settlement.
I should like to make it clear that from the beginning we were most
profoundly moved by the wretched industrial conditions which were
constantly forced upon us. In succeeding chapters I hope to tell of
the constructive programmes that the people themselves have
evolved out of their own hard lives, of the ameliorative measures,
ripened out of sympathetic comprehension, and, finally, of the social
legislation that expresses the new compunction of the community.
CHAPTER II
ESTABLISHING THE NURSING SERVICE
When I first entered the training-school my outpourings to the

superintendent,—a woman touched with a genius for sympathy,—my
youthful heroics, and my vow to “nurse the poor” were met with what
I deemed vague reference to the “Mission.” Afterwards when I
sought guidance I found that in New York the visiting (or district)
nurse was accessible only through sectarian organizations or the
free dispensary.
As our plan crystallized my friend and I were certain that a system
for nursing the sick in their homes could not be firmly established
unless certain fundamental social facts were recognized. We tried to
imagine how loved ones for whom we might be solicitous would
react were they in the place of the patients whom we hoped to serve.
With time, experience, and the stimulus of creative minds our
technique and administrative methods have naturally improved, but
this test gave us vision to establish certain principles, whose
soundness has been proved during the growth of the service.
We perceived that it was undesirable to condition the nurse’s
service upon the actual or potential connection of the patient with a
religious institution or free dispensary, or to have the nurse assigned
to the exclusive use of one physician, and we planned to create a
service on terms most considerate of the dignity and independence
of the patients. We felt that the nursing of the sick in their homes
should be undertaken seriously and adequately; that instruction
should be incidental and not the primary consideration; that the
etiquette, so far as doctor and patient were concerned, should be
analogous to the established system of private nursing; that the
nurse should be as ready to respond to calls from the people
themselves as to calls from physicians; that she should accept calls
from all physicians, and with no more red-tape or formality than if
she were to remain with one patient continuously.
The new basis of the visiting-
nurse service which we thus
inaugurated reacted almost
immediately upon the
relationship of the nurse to the
patient, reversing the position
the nurse had formerly held.
Chagrin at having the
neighbors see in her an agent
whose presence proclaimed
the family’s poverty or its
failure to give adequate care to its sick member was changed to the
gratifying consciousness that her presence, in conjunction with that
of the doctor, “private” or “Lodge,”[1] proclaimed the family’s liberality
and anxiety to do everything possible for the sufferer. For the
exposure of poverty is a great humiliation to people who are trying to
maintain a foothold in society for themselves and their families.
My colleague and I realized that there were large numbers of
people who could not, or would not, avail themselves of the
hospitals. It was estimated that ninety per cent. of the sick people in
cities were sick at home,—an estimate which has been corroborated
(1913-14) by the investigation of the Committee of Inquiry into the
Departments of Health, Charities, and Bellevue and Allied Hospitals
of New York,—and a humanitarian civilization demanded that
something of the nursing care given in hospitals should be accorded
to sick people in their homes.
The Nurse in the Tenement
Ninety per cent. of the sick of the city remain at home
We decided that fees should be charged when people could pay. It

was interesting to discover that, although nominal in amount
compared with the cost of the service, these fees represented a
much larger proportion of the wage in the case of the ordinary
worker who paid for the hourly service than did the fee paid by a
man with a salary of $5,000, who engaged the full time of the nurse.
Our plan, we reasoned, was analogous to the custom of “private”
hospitals, which give free treatment or charge according to the
resources of the ward patients. Both private hospitals and visiting
nursing are thereby lifted out of “charity” as comprehended by the
people.
We felt that for economic reasons
valuable and expensive hospital
space should be saved for those for
whom the hospital treatment is
necessary; and an obvious social
consideration was that many people,
particularly women, cannot leave their
homes without imperiling, or
sometimes destroying, the home
itself.
Almost immediately we found

patients who needed care, and
doctors ready to accept our services with probably the least amount
of friction possible under the circumstances; for those doctors who
had not been internes in the hospitals were unfamiliar with the
trained nurse, whose work was little known at that time outside the
hospitals and the homes of the well-to-do.
Despite the neighborhood’s friendliness, however, we struggled,
not only with poverty and disease, but with the traditional fate of the
pioneer: in many cases we encountered the inevitable opposition
which the unusual must arouse. It seems almost ungracious to relate
some of our first experiences with doctors. No one can give greater
tribute than do the nurses of the settlement to the generosity of
physicians and surgeons when we recall how often paying patients
were set aside for more urgent non-paying ones; the counsel freely
given from the highest for the lowliest; the eager readiness to
respond. Occasionally sage advice came from a veteran who knew
the people well and lamented the economic pressure which at times
involved, to their spiritual disaster, doctors as well as patients.
The first day on which we set out to discover the sick who might
need a nurse, my comrade found a woman with high temperature in
an airless room, more oppressive because of the fetid odor from the
bed. Service with one of New York’s skilled specialists had trained
the nurse well and she identified the symptoms immediately. “Yes,
there was a Lodge doctor.—He had left a prescription.—He might
come again.” With fine diplomacy an excuse was made to call upon
the doctor and to assume that he would accept the nurse’s aid. My
colleague presented her credentials and offered to accompany him
to the case immediately, as she was “sure conditions must have
changed since his last visit or he would doubtless have ordered” so-
and-so,—suggesting the treatment the distinguished specialists were
then using. He promised to go, and the nurse waited patiently for
hours at the woman’s bedside. When he arrived he pooh-poohed
and said, “Nothing doing.” We had ascertained the financial condition
of the family from the evidence of the empty push-cart and the fact
that the fish-peddler was not in the market with his merchandise.
Five dollars was loaned that night to purchase stock next day.
My comrade and I decided to visit the patient early the next
morning, to mingle judgments on what action could be taken in this
serious illness with due respect to established etiquette. When we
arrived, the Lodge doctor and a “Professor” (a consultant) were in
the sickroom, and our five dollars, left for fish, was in their
possession. Cigarettes in mouths and hats on heads, they were
questioning husband and wife, and only Dickens could have done
justice to the scene. We were not too timid to allude to the poverty
and the source of the fee, and felt free when we were told to “go
ahead and do anything you like.” That permission we acted upon
instantly and received, over the telephone, authority from the
distinguished specialist to get to work. We were prudent enough to
report the authority and treatment given, with solemn etiquette, to the
physician in attendance, who in turn congratulated us on having
helped him to save a life!
Not all our encounters with this class of practitioner were fruitful of
benefit to their patients. Heartbreaking was the tragedy of Samuel,
the twenty-one-year-old carpenter, and Ida, his bride. They had been
boy and girl sweethearts in Poland, and the coming to America, the
preparation of the clean two-roomed home, the expectation of the
baby, made a pretty story which should have had happy succeeding
chapters, the start was so good. Samuel knocked at our door,
incoherent in his fright, but we were fast accustoming ourselves to
recognize danger-signals, and I at once followed him to the top floor
of his tenement.
Plain to see, Ida was dying. The midwife said she had done all she
could, but she was obviously frightened. “No one could have done
any better,” she insisted, “not any doctor”; but she had called one
and he had left the woman lacerated and agonizing because the
expected fee had been paid only in part. It was Samuel’s last dollar.
The septic woman could only be sent to the city hospital. The
ambulance surgeon was persuaded to let the boy husband ride with
her, and he remained at the hospital until she and the baby died a
few hours later.
Here my comrade and I came against the stone wall of
professional etiquette. It seemed as if public sentiment ought to be
directed by the doctors themselves against such practices, but
although I finally called upon one of the high-minded and
distinguished men who had signed the diploma of the offending
doctor, I could not get reproof administered, and my ardor for
arousing public indignation in the profession was chilled. Later, when
I heard protests from employers against insistence by labor
organizations on the closed shop, it occurred to me that they failed to
recognize analogies in the professional etiquette which conventional
society has long accepted.
However, many friendly strong bonds were made and have been
sustained with a large majority of the doctors during all the years of
our service. We have mutual ties of personal and community
interests, and work together as comrades; the practitioners with high
standards for themselves and ideals for their sacred profession
comprehend our common cause and strengthen our hands. It is rare
now, although at first it was very frequent, that the physician who has
called in the nurse for his patient demands her withdrawal when he
himself has been dismissed. He has come to see that although the
nurse exerts her influence to preserve his prestige, for the patient’s
sake as well as his own, nevertheless, emotional people,
unaccustomed to the settled relation of the family doctor, may and
often do change physicians from six to ten times in the course of one
illness. The nurse, however, may remain at the bedside throughout
all vicissitudes.
The most definite protest against the newer relationship came
from a woman active in many public movements, who was a stickler
for the orthodox method of procuring a visiting nurse only through
the doctor. To illustrate the importance of freedom for the patients, I
cited the case of the L⸺ family. A neighbor had called for aid.

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Theories of Reading Development 1st

Edition Rauno K. Parrila

Concepts and Theories of Human Development 4th Edition

Chinese Economic Development: Theories, Practices and

International Development Socio Economic Theories

Foreign Direct Investment in China Theories and

Applying Student Development Theories Holistically

African Successes: Four Public Managers of Kenyan Rural

The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social

Life Span Human Development 4th Edition Carol K.

John Benjamins Publishing Company

A multi-disciplinary series presenting studies on written language, with special

John Benjamins Publishing Company

© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.

Part I. Big questions

Part II. Typical development of word reading and underlying processes

Orthographic learning is verbal learning: The role of spelling pronunciations 169

Part III. Typical development of comprehension and underlying processes

Part IV. Atypical reading development

Part V. Instruction and intervention

Early reading interventions: The state of the practice, and some

Kate Cain, Donald L. Compton and Rauno K. Parrila

Kate Cain, Donald L. Compton and Rauno K. Parrila

Joseph Z. Stafura and Charles A. Perfetti

Theories of reading comprehension

Linguistic and Writing System Knowledge

Meaning and From

General Knowledge (including text structure)

The Reading Systems Framework

2. The processes of reading – decoding, word identification, meaning retrieval, con-

This framework finds support in neurobiological models of language. Hagoort’s (2005;

Comprehension skill within the lexical system of the Reading Systems

Comprehending texts includes comprehending words

In Figure 2, a simple scheme represents a possible situation model a reader might

- IN THE PARK - STORM - STORM

< SITUATION 1> < SITUATION UPDATE>

The paraphrase effect and comprehension skill

were described as showing sluggish word-to-text integration (Perfetti et al., 2008).

Functional mechanisms of word-to-text integration

Structural aspects of text and word-to-text integration

Table 1. Example passages. From Helder et al., 2015.

Memory updating and word-to-text integration

Knowledge of word meanings is instrumental in reading comprehension

The paraphrase effect, and word-to-text integration processes in general, demonstrate

Word comprehension within the Reading Systems Framework

Orthographic units Phonological units

Text model Situation model

This process is adaptive for comprehension insofar as what is activated in memory is

Theories (or more accurately, frameworks) of reading comprehension have moved

Richard K. Olson1, 2, Janice M. Keenan3, Brian Byrne2, 4

Overview of modern behavior-genetic studies of reading

The genetic and environmental etiology of reading disability

and non-shared environment influence as E. Together these three influences account

There was the story of Mary, eldest daughter, as we supposed, of

When I first entered the training-school my outpourings to the

Ninety per cent. of the sick of the city remain at home

We decided that fees should be charged when people could pay. It

Almost immediately we found

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