Beyond Decoding: The Behavioral and Biological Foundations of Reading Comprehension

What cognitive processes and skills do children draw on to make meaning from text? How are these capacities consolidated over the course of development? What puts some learners at risk for comprehension difficulties? This authoritative volume presents state-of-the-science research on the behavioral and biological components of successful reading comprehension. Uniquely integrative, the book covers everything from decoding, fluency, and vocabulary knowledge to embodiment theory, eye movements, gene–environment interactions, and neurobiology. The contributors are prominent investigators who describe their methods and findings in depth and identify important implications for the classroom.

Richard K. Wagner, PhD, is Robert G. Lawton Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at Florida State University and Associate Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. His major area of research interest is the acquisition of complex cognitive knowledge and skills. In the domain of reading, Dr. Wagner’s research has focused on the role of reading-related phonological processing abilities in the normal and abnormal development of reading skills; the prediction, prevention, and remediation of dyslexia; and understanding the origins of individual and developmental differences in reading comprehension.

Christopher Schatschneider, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Florida State University and Associate Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. His research focuses on early reading development and reading disabilities. Dr. Schatschneider is also a trained methodologist who frequently provides assistance to investigators around design and analysis issues that arise when designing experiments and analyzing data from studies of early reading development. He is the Editor of Annals of Dyslexia and serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals.

Caroline Phythian-Sence, PhD, engages in research and pilot development for Reading Is Fundamental, UK, at the National Literacy Trust, in London, England. Previously, Dr. Phythian-Sence was a doctoral student of Richard Wagner at Florida State University and the Florida Center for Reading Research, where she studied vocabulary knowledge and its relation to comprehension.