The study investigated the relationship between reading ability and the missing-letter effect. 180 children in grades 1-5 were asked to read texts silently and circle any instances of a target letter. They then answered comprehension questions and took a reading achievement test. Children were divided into good and poor readers based on reading test scores. The missing-letter effect was found to be related to reading ability for grades 1-4, with good readers detecting more missing letters than poor readers. The study used a correlational design to analyze the relationship between the missing-letter effect and reading ability test scores.