It is generally agreed that comprehension ability
and reading volume are in a reciprocal relationship.
In an attempt to tease apart this reciprocal
relationship, we explored the linkages between
children’s first-grade reading and cognitive abilities
and eleventh-grade outcomes in a unique
ten-year longitudinal study (Cunningham and
Stanovich, 1997). Most of our earlier studies
involved assessing contemporaneous relations,
but in this study, we examined the performance
of a sample of students who had been tested as
first graders (see Stanovich, Cunningham, and
Feeman, 1984). About one half of these students
were available ten years later for testing
as eleventh graders. At this time, we administered
a set of reading comprehension, cognitive
ability, vocabulary, and general knowledge tasks,
as well as several measures of reading volume.
Additionally, some standardized test scores from
the intervening period were available. We were
therefore able to examine what variables in the