Compensatory Encoding Theory

    (Walczyk)
     Compensatory mechanisms are a form of remediation or metacognition techniques that older readers use to comprehend text.  They can be used to overcome inefficient subcomponents such as decoding and limited resources such as attention and working memory.  Examples of compensatory mechanisms are: slowing the reading rate, looking back in text and rereading earlier portions or pausing to consolidate information in memory.
     In the article there are weak correlations between lower level reading processes and comprehension in older children and adults.  Students that are above the third grade level are usually efficient at decoding and can have efficient semantic memory access.  With these students decoding comes naturally to most of them and they do not have to focus on this.  Students that have inefficient subcomponents need interventions to help them improve. students of upper levels into adulthood, often have a harder time grasping this concept.
     According to Walczyk, there is a stronger correlation only in situations such as testing.  In situations such as timed tests and there is pressure on students, their compensatory mechanisms are tested.  Students do not tend to use strategies for reading, but rather use strategies for test taking and because of this, their reading comprehension is not as good as it could be.     
     In this article, it is stated that older readers and adults compensate for inefficient lower level processes, limited resources, or difficulty of text when reading under normal conditions. This is because it is harder for long time readers to adpat their own reading strategies to euipt themselves with newer better strategies of learning and comprehending.