Improving word reading speed: individual differences interact with a training focus on successes or failures

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Poor reading skills significantly impact academic achievement.
• Targeted interventions are crucial for improving reading speed in struggling readers.
• Understanding the nuances of training methods can optimize reading development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of two distinct training procedures on improving reading speed in poor readers.
• To examine the impact of informing children about the training focus (successes vs. failures).
• To explore potential Aptitude-Treatment Interactions (ATI) between initial reading level and training effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 79 poor readers.
• Computerized flashcard training focusing on either correctly (successes) or incorrectly (failures) read words.
• Variable exposure duration to maintain constant accuracy.
• Assessment of reading speed improvement and transfer to untrained words.

Main Results:

• Reading speed improved significantly and transferred to more complex words.
• Aptitude-Treatment Interaction observed: low-level readers benefited more from success-focused training, while high-level readers improved more with failure-focused training.
• Informing children about the training focus enhanced training efficiency.

Conclusions:

• Neither success- nor failure-focused training is universally superior for improving reading speed.
• Optimal training depends on the individual child's initial reading level and word familiarity.
• Informing children about training goals positively influences outcomes in transparent orthographies.