Joseph Wisenbaker

Becoming a Fluent Reader: Reading Skill and Prosodic Features in the Oral Reading of Young Readers.

Prosodic reading, or reading with expression, is considered one of the hallmarks of fluent reading. The major purpose of the study was to learn how reading prosody is related to decoding and reading comprehension skills. Suprasegmental features of oral reading were measured in 2nd- and 3rd-grade children (N = 123) and 24 adults. Reading comprehension and word decoding skills were assessed. Children with faster decoding speed made shorter and less variable intersentential pauses, shorter intrasentential pauses, larger sentence-final fundamental frequency (F(0)) declinations, and better matched the adult prosodic F(0) profile. Two structural equation models found evidence of a relationship between decoding speed and reading prosody as well as decoding speed and comprehension. There was only minimal evidence that prosodic reading was an important mediator of reading comprehension skill.

A Monte Carlo Study Investigating the Impact of Item Parceling on Measures of Fit in Confirmatory Factor Analysis

A simulation study was conducted to examine the effect of item parceling on goodness-of-fit indices at different levels of sample size, number of indicators per factor, factor structure/pattern coefficients, interfactor correlations, and item-level data distribution. Results revealed that the use of item parcels yielded more nonconverged solutions and Heywood cases than individual items. The likelihood of nonconverged solutions and Heywood cases increased as the number of indicators per factor (more items per parcel) decreased. Meanwhile, parcel solutions as compared with item solutions resulted in better fit as measured by the chi-square to degrees-of-freedom ratio, Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), Expected Cross-Validation Index (ECVI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), as well as two incremental fit indices, the Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) and Comparative Fit Index (CFI). The same pattern of results was found with data that varied in terms of skewness and kurtosis at the item level. However, the likelihood of nonconverged solutions and Heywood cases was more pronounced when data were extremely skewed/kurtotic at the item level.

Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary school years.

The goals of this study were to (a) develop an empirically based model regarding the development of fluent and automatic reading in the early elementary school years and (b) determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided benefits for reading comprehension beyond those accounted for by fluent word decoding. First-, second-, and third-grade children completed a series of reading tasks targeting word and nonword processing, text reading, spelling knowledge, autonomous reading, and reading comprehension. Structural equation modeling was carried out to evaluate how these skills operated together to produce fluent text reading and good comprehension. Evidence supported a simple reading fluency model for the early elementary school years suggesting that fluent word and text reading operate together with autonomous reading to produce good comprehension.

Depression and Anxiety in Two Groups of Adults with Learning Disabilities

Adults with learning disabilities seeking services from state rehabilitation agencies and/or university/college support programs present a challenge to professionals attempting to identify effective academic, vocational, and social/emotional interventions that lead to long-term employment. The purpose of this study was to add to the small body of empirical research pertaining to the presence of depression and anxiety in two groups of adults with learning disabilities based on self-report measures (i.e., Beck Depression Inventory; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983; IPAT Anxiety Scale; Krug, Scheier, & Cattell, 1976a). A group of college students not demonstrating learning disabilities was used for descriptive and comparison purposes. Results showed that females with learning disabilities served in a rehabilitation setting were the only group that demonstrated significant signs of depression. College students with learning disabilities had increased anxiety-related symptoms. Implications for diagnosis and service are drawn from these findings.

Gender differences in temperament at six months and five years

This investigation was designed to help clarify the literature on gender differences in temperament. A birth cohort was sampled at 6 months and at 5 years. Gender differences in factor structure were not expected and were not found. Large and significant gender differences were obtained for the infant sample for Distress to Novelty, with smaller differences obtained for Biological Irregularity and Stimulation Threshold. In all cases girls had higher (less socially desirable) scores than boys. For the preschool sample, gender differences were obtained for Activity Level and Nonadaptability (boys higher), and for Threshold (girls rated as more sensitive). No moderating effects of family or maternal characteristics were obtained.

The Performance of Regression-Based Variations of the Visual Scree for Determining the Number of Common Factors

The accuracy and consistency of four regression-based variations of the visual scree (Cattell-Nelson-Gorsuch, multiple regression, t-value index, and standard error scree [SEscree]) were examined using artificial data with known characteristics. The results indicated that in general, the SEscree was more accurate than the other three procedures. The observation-to-variable ratio was most influential on the accuracy and the consistency of the number of factors yielded by the SEscree followed by the magnitude of factor structure and pattern coefficients. Unlike the other regression variations of the scree, the SEscree performed equally well whether the factors were correlated or uncorrelated.

Category Typicality, Cultural Familiarity, and the Development of Category Knowledge.

This study examined the role of cultural familiarity with instances might play in the development of category knowledge cross-culturally in kindergarten, 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-grade children from Taiwan and the United States.

Variable Importance in Multivariate Group Comparisons

Three views of relative variable contribution in a multivariate analysis of variance context are discussed: contribution to (a) latent construct definition, (b) linear discriminant function scores, and (c) grouping variable effects. It is argued that the third view is most meaningful. The problem of assessing the relative importance of a set of outcome variables is reviewed. Two numerical ranking methods are proposed. The bootstrap approach is used to compare the methods utilizing two real data sets. No definitive preference is advanced. The variable-ordering problem in two other multivariate analysis contexts is briefly discussed.

Assessing Predictive Accuracy in Discriminant Analysis

The estimation of probabilities of correct classification is a primary concern in predictive discriminant analysis. Three such probabilities are: (a) the optimal hit rate, that obtained when the classification rule is based on known parameters; (b) the actual hit rate, that obtained by applying a rule based on a particular sample to future samples; and (c) the expected actual hit rate. Methods of estimating these hit rates include formulas (in the two-group case), resubstitution, and external analyses. The methods are tentatively compared via Monte Carlo sampling from two real data sets.

Nausea during pregnancy : Relation to early childhood temperament and behavior problems at twelve years

Associations between maternal nausea during pregnancy and child behavioral outcomes were investigated in a large birth cohort. Generally, 2nd- and 3rd-trimester nausea were more predictive of child outcomes than 1st-trimester nausea. Children whose mothers reported nausea in middle or late pregnancy had lower sensory thresholds and higher levels of activity and emotional intensity in infancy and were reported to be lower in task persistence at age 5. At age 12, these children were viewed by teachers as more careless with their school work and as having more attentional and learning problems.