Date of Award

4-1980

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Jack L. Michael

Second Advisor

Dr. Lonnie Hannaford

Third Advisor

Dr. David Lyon

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Wayne Fuqua

Abstract

A Trial and Error and an Errorless procedure were used to teach phonically-irregular words to remedial readers. Subjects were six elementary-school students enrolled in a tutorial program. The Errorless procedure consisted of the use of an echoic prime, prompting and cumulative review over words mastered while the Trial and Error procedure consisted of the use of corrections for errors. Five subjects both mastered and retained more words with the Errorless procedure. The average percent of words mastered across all subjects was greater for the Errorless procedure (73% versus 43%), as was the average percent of words mastered on the six-week follow-up probe (43% versus 38.3%). The decrease in word mastery for the Errorless condition after training ended may reflect the lack of cumulative review trials in between probe sessions. The mean duration of the sessions was less than nine minutes for both procedures. The Errorless procedure required fewer retraining trials and is recommended as a viable classroom procedure for increasing the sight-word vocabulary of students in the primary grades.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

Included in

Psychology Commons

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