Abstract

Many researchers have endeavoured to clarify whether children are more successful when learning words in context or in isolation. However, the cognitive processes elicited during contextual and isolated-word reading have yet to be examined in children. The current study investigated whether semantic and perceptual processes are differentially activated when words are read in context and isolation. Twenty-two younger children (7- 9 years old), 21 older children (11 -13 years old), and 24 undergraduates (18 - 35 years old) were exposed to a total of 20 target words: 10 words were read in a story (context) and 10 different words were read in a list (isolation). Participants then completed a surprise explicit recall task as a gauge of semantic processing and an implicit word stem-completion task as a gauge of perceptual processing. Words read in isolation were both explicitly recalled and used on the implicit word-stem task to a greater extent than words read in context. The results are discussed in terms of their relation to semantic and perceptual processes.