A Fact Retrieval Account of the Acceleration Phenomenon

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Literacy Studies book series (LITS, volume 12)

Abstract

Breznitz (J Educ Psychol 89:289–297, 1987a; Fluency in reading: synchronization of processes. Erlbaum, Mahwah, 2006) demonstrated that a fading manipulation, which continuously erases text based on the individual reading rate, results in improved reading performance. Several studies using this fading procedure showed that children as well as adults with different reading proficiency levels and in different languages were able to increase their reading rate and reading comprehension in a fading condition, characterizing the Acceleration Phenomenon. Considering the close interconnection of reading fluency and reading comprehension, a fact retrieval account for achievement enhancements induced by the fading manipulation is presented in this chapter. It is hypothesized, that if information can be processed at a high level of automaticity and available lexical entries can be accessed rapidly, reading performance can be improved by means of imposing a time limitation. Hence, the nature of the fading manipulation may induce a shift to faster and more elaborated strategies, such as direct fact retrieval, resulting in improved performance. Different empirical outcomes from the reading and the arithmetic domain are demonstrated and the generalizability of the Acceleration Phenomenon across academic domains is discussed.

Keywords

Reading fluency Intervention Training Reading acceleration Acceleration phenomenon Reading-disability 
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Telse Nagler
    • 1
    • 2
  • Sven Lindberg
    • 1
    • 3
  • Marcus Hasselhorn
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA)Frankfurt am MainGermany
  2. 2.Department of Education and Human DevelopmentGerman Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF)Frankfurt am MainGermany
  3. 3.Faculty of Arts and HumanitiesPaderborn UniversityPaderbornGermany

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