visual learning studies

• Masonheimer, Drum and Ehri (1984)


  preschoolers could 'read' some signs, but not by using letters

  
• Gough, Juel, and Griffith (1992)


  taught 4 & 5 year-olds four words, one with thumbprint

  
• Seymour & Elder (1986)


  errors are visual/semantic

  
• HOWEVER, strategy 'short-lived' - Berninger, Abbott, and Shurtleff (1990)'s longitudinal study

  • most words do not have ‘salient’ features
  • no strategy for reading novel words
  • too many words to learn (Share,1995)