The Reasoning Abilities of Normal and Learning Disabled Readers on Measures of Reading Comprehension

Standardized measures were used to identify and compare the reasoning abilities of normal and learning disabled readers. The study employed techniques modeled from protocol-analysis methods used in problem-solving research. Obtained protocols indicated that reasoning abilities could be operationally defined as identifiable sequences representing reasoning strategies . Group comparisons revealed significant differences in the magnitude and variety of reasoning strategies used. The responses of normal readers revealed more applications and successes with the most often used efficient strategies overall and for individual question types. Learning disabled readers revealed greater variability in reasoning-strategy use and more often applied either no strategy or less efficient strategies resulting in more incorrect responses. Further analysis revealed that learning disabled readers' failures were associated with a greater number of word recognition and vocabulary errors suggesting that learning disabled readers were unable to extract enough relevant information to apply a successful line of reasoning.