Inferencing unknown words in reading
We've probably all had the experience, when reading, of coming across an unfamiliar word and trying to guess some of its meaning. This thesis is a study of the guessing strategy used. Independent variables are: word meaning (known/unknown), form of presentation (cloze/pseudoword), word class (noun/verb), amount of information (3 amounts), orders of types of information (6). Dependent variables are: accuracy, confidence (belief in one's accuracy) and uncertainty (the number of alternative hypotheses held). Subjects are native speaker university students. The main result is that subjects tend not to guess unknown meanings. They treat them as known meanings (I e. they guess a familiar single word rather than a new meaning) by regarding the meaning cues, as they appear across varying amounts of information, as inconsistent items of information. Whilst there are interesting differences for form, the presence or absence of an unfamiliar form does not materially affect this process. There are also interesting differences for order. However, an interpretation of this finding in terms of a principle of costs and benefits suggests subjects would not employ an order based strategy in real life. The effectiveness of guessing
Davies, David Rees
Reading and word forming
Inferencing unknown words in reading. We've probably all had the experience, when reading, of coming across an unfamiliar word and trying to guess some of its meaning. This thesis is a study of the guessing strategy used. Independent variables are: word meaning (known/unknown), form of presentation (cloze/pseudoword), word class (noun/verb), amount of information (3 amounts), orders of types of information (6). Dependent variables are: accuracy, confidence (belief in one's accuracy) and uncertainty (the number of alternative hypotheses held). Subjects are native speaker university students. The main result is that subjects tend not to guess unknown meanings. They treat them as known meanings (I e. they guess a familiar single word rather than a new meaning) by regarding the meaning cues, as they appear across varying amounts of information, as inconsistent items of information. Whilst there are interesting differences for form, the presence or absence of an unfamiliar form does not materially affect this process. There are also interesting differences for order. However, an interpretation of this finding in terms of a principle of costs and benefits suggests subjects would not employ an order based strategy in real life. The effectiveness of guessing
unknown word reading probably experience reading come across unfamiliar word try guess meaning study guess strategy_use independent_variable word_meaning known unknown form presentation word_class noun verb amount information amount order type information dependent variable accuracy confidence belief accuracy uncertainty number alternative hypothesis hold subjects native_speaker university_student main subject tend guess unknown meaning treat know meaning guess familiar single_word rather new mean regard mean cue appear across vary amount information inconsistent item information whilst interesting difference form presence_absence unfamiliar form materially affect process also interest difference order however interpretation finding term principle cost_benefit suggest subject would employ_order base strategy real_life effectiveness guess