The purpose of this study was to judge the viability of an operational approach aimed at assessing response styles in reading using the hypothesis of sensory hierarchical organization. A sample of 103 middle-class children from a New York City public school, between the ages of five and seven, took part in a three phase experiment. Phase one sought to determine the existence of a hierarchical relationship among three reading performance objectives--word recognition and meaning (RT 1), auditory discrimination (RT 2), and tactile discrimination of letters (RT 3). Phase two consisted of determining the existence of a hierarchical relationship among six sets of operationalized sensory perceptual conflict tasks. Phase three sought the relationship between the reading task hierarchy and the sensory perceptual hierarchy. Statistical analysis for phase one was significant at the .05 level, showing a dependency relationship between tasks. On the basis of this relationship a hierarchical relationship could be inferred in which RT 1 was at the apex, RT 2 occupied the center, and RT 3 occupied the base. Phase two revealed no statistically significant result. Phase three could not be carried out since the hypothesis in phase two was not accepted. (Author/MKM)