'Speed and automaticity' of word recognition is a standard collocation. However, it is not clear whether speed and automaticity (i.e., effortlessness) make independent contributions to reading comprehension. In theory, both speed and automaticity may save cognitive resources for comprehension processes. Hence, the aim of the present study was to assess the unique contributions of word recognition speed and automaticity to reading comprehension while controlling for decoding speed and accuracy.
Method: 139 Grade 5 students completed tests of reading comprehension and computer-based tests of speed of decoding and word recognition together with a test of effortlessness (automaticity) of word recognition. Effortlessness was measured in a dual task in which participants were presented with a word enclosed in an unrelated figure. The task was to read the word and decide whether the figure was a triangle or a circle. The measure taken was the decision time. Speed of word recognition (word-specific orthographic knowledge) was measured in a word recognition task with brief (150 ms) word exposures.
Results: The measures involving word decoding and recognition were strongly interrelated suggesting shared developmental sources. However, multiple regression analyses indicated that both automaticity (effortlessness) and speed of word recognition (word-specific orthographic knowledge) contributed unique variance to reading comprehension when word decoding accuracy and speed was controlled.
Conclusion: The results suggest that word recognition speed and automaticity (effortlessness) are related but separable aspects of advanced word recognition and that they both contribute independently to reading comprehension ability.