Modeling the length effect: Specifying the relation with visual and phonological correlates of reading

Beginning readers' reading latencies increase as words become longer. This length effect is believed to be a marker of a serial reading process. We examined the effects of visual and phonological skills on the length effect. Participants were 184 second-grade children who read 3- to 5-letter words and nonwords. Results indicated that reading latencies could be decomposed into a length effect and an overall reading speed. Individual differences in the length effect were predicted by phonological awareness and visual attention span. Rapid naming accounted only for differences in overall reading speed.