Effects of Grapheme Substitutions in Text

Abstract

It has been suggested that good readers make better use of semantic/syntactic information than do poor readers and that the former group uses relatively less graphic information compared to the latter group. To test these hypotheses, minor visual alterations were inserted in words in connected text. Fifteen good and 15 poor readers at the fourth grade level orally read two of these altered passages. Results indicated the good readers’ rate of reading was significantly faster and that this group made fewer miscalls in overall word identification. However, there were no differences in ratio of textually acceptable miscalls, and poor readers’ responses to altered words seemed less bound to graphic cues than those of the good readers. Neither comparison supported the above hypothesis.