SAGE Journal Articles

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Journal Article 1: West, R. F., & Stanovich, K. E. (1979). The development of automatic word recognition skillsJournal of Reading Behavior, 11, 211–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862967909547325

Abstract: Kindergarteners, first graders, and third graders performed a discrete-trial Stroop task in which they named the colors of stimuli that either matched or did not match items that were being concurrently held in memory. Letters, high-frequency words, and low-frequency words were used as stimuli. There was a developmental trend toward the color being named faster when the stimulus matched the item held in memory. This finding was unexpected. While the color-naming times of the first and third graders did not depend on stimulus type, the kindergarteners named colors slower when the stimuli were letters and showed a tendency to respond slower to high-frequency words than to low-frequency words. Apparently, the kindergarteners had fully automated the recognition of only the letters and were beginning to automate the recognition of high-frequency words. In contrast, the older children had automated the recognition of letters, high-frequency words, and low-frequency words to an equal extent.

Journal Article 2: Smith, M. D., Zingale, S. A., & Coleman, J. M. (1978). The influence of adult expectancy/child performance discrepancies upon children’s self-concepts. American Educational Research Journal, 15, 259–265. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312015002259

Abstract: Parents and teachers expect children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds to excel academically, relative to socioeconomically disadvantaged children. When children from high socioeconomic homes experience academic failure, the discrepancy between adult expectations and child performance is comparatively large. This expectancy/performance discrepancy results in lowered self-concepts. On the other hand, children with disadvantaged backgrounds do not experience lowered self-concept as a result of academic failure, since the adult expectancy/child performance discrepancy is comparatively small.