The Interactive-Compensatory Model of Reading

Abstract
The interactive-compensatory model of reading was developed primarily to explain developmental and individual differences in the use of context to facilitate word recognition during reading. The work leading up to the model is summarized, and more recent empirical studies are described. One major implication derived from these studies and other recent research is that the Goodman-Smith psycholinguistic "guessing game" is an inaccurate conceptualization of individual differences in context use. When a context is adequately instantiated, less-skilled readers utilize context to facilitate word recognition just as much, if not more, than skilled readers.