What’s in a name depends on the type of name: The relationships between semantic and phonological access, reading fluency and reading comprehension

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

The present study investigated the relationships between lexical access, reading fluency and comprehension. Two components of speed of lexical access were studied: phonological and semantic. Previous studies have mainly investigated these components of lexical access separately. The present study examined both components in naming tasks – with isolated letters (phonological) and pictures (semantic). Seventy-five Grade 5 students were administered measures of letter and picture naming speed, word and nonword reading fluency, reading comprehension, together with control measures of vocabulary. The results showed that letter naming was a unique predictor of word reading fluency, while picture naming was not. Conversely, picture naming speed contributed unique variance to reading comprehension, while letter naming did not. The results indicate that phonological and semantic lexical access speed are separable components that are important for different reading subskills.
Original languageEnglish
JournalScientific Studies of Reading
Volume17
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)303-314
ISSN1088-8438
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

ID: 38068317