Theoretically Based Decoding Measures

Abstract

The information-processing model developed in the last chapter identified several processes thought sensitive to individual differences in reading competence. These processes may be divided into two categories: those primarily involved in decoding and those that exert their influence on comprehension. In this chapter, decoding is broadly defined to include all skills necessary to categorize print into meaningful units as well as those skills necessary to organize these units into interprétable sequences. This last skill involves retaining order information in short-term memory. Memory for the order of events is quite different from the abilities generally believed to underlie comprehension (drawing inferences, abstracting the main idea, imputing cause and effect)—all of which seem to require logical reasoning skills. For this reason, memory for order is considered part of decoding rather than comprehension.