Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1987

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Donald J. Dickerson

Committee Members

Robert L. Williams

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to relate the acquisition of reading skills by first-grade students to assessed sequential and simultaneous cognitive processing abilities. Eighty-six students from five first-grade classrooms at Alcoa Elementary School, Alcoa, Tennessee, were selected as subjects.

An ex post facto research design was used to test 11 hypotheses. Psychometric data were obtained from fall and spring administrations of the California Achievement Tests—Reading subtests and fall testing on the mental processing scales of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. Classroom achievement levels (groups) were determined by obtaining, in interviews with the first-grade teachers, information on student mastery of reading objectives and performance in the classroom.

In general, the results of the research indicated that sequential-and simultaneous-processing abilities are significant factors in accounting for the variability in first-grade students' reading performance. Both factors were found to be involved equally in the reading process, but they did not differ in their relationship to reading skill acquisition. It was also indicated that a discrepancy between sequential- and simultaneous-processing abilities existed with students at all classroom performance levels (i.e.. Levels 1, 2, 3, 4). The students with assessed sequential- and simultaneous-processing abilities at a high or low level also achieved a corresponding high or low level of performance in the classroom. The prediction of spring CAT reading subtest scores was found to be as accurate with fail sequential and simultaneous measures as with the fall CAT reading test scores. End-of-the-year placement in achievement groups, based on classroom performance on the reading curriculum, was predicted equally well by fall CAT total reading scores and the K-ABC mental processing factor scores.

Measures of sequential and simultaneous processing are useful in the development of an understanding of the underlying cognitive processes involved in reading. Results of the research also have implications for use of cognitive processing measures with beginning readers in the prediction of reading development. The early identification of children's needs can affect how the initial reading experience is shaped via the curriculum and instructional processes.

Although this investigation confirms the significance of information processing skills' relationship to the reading process, researchers must continue to explore the differential effects of these factors on reading subskills. This is important if a causal relationship is to be hypothesized and psychometric measures of intelligence are to advance beyond their present use in predicting future achievement in school.

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