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Updated: May 19, 2026

Decomposing the Variance in Reading Comprehension to Reveal the Unique and Common Effects of Language and Decoding
Published on: October 11, 2018
Are there universals of reading? We don't believe so
1Centre for Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. max.coltheart@mq.edu.au
Abstract:
There are universals of language; but is it also true, as the target article claims, that there are universals of reading? We believe there are no such universals, and invite others to refute our claim by providing a list of some universals of reading. If there are no universals of reading, there cannot be a universal model of reading.
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