What can we learn from learning models about sensitivity to letter-order in visual word recognition?

A computational account of item-based directed forgetting for nonwords: Incorporating orthographic representations in MINERVA 2

Recent research on item-method directed forgetting demonstrates that forget instructions not only decrease recognition for targets, but also decrease false recognition for foils from the same semantic categories as targets instructed to be forgotten. According to the selective rehearsal account of directed forgetting, this finding suggests that remember instructions may engage elaborative rehearsal of the category-level information of items. In contrast to this explanation, Reid and Jamieson (Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 76(2), 75-86, 2022) proposed that the differential rates of false recognition may emerge at retrieval when foils from "remember" and "forget" categories are compared to traces in memory. Using MINERVA S, an instance model of memory based on MINERVA 2 that incorporates structured semantic representations, Reid and Jamieson successfully simulated lower false recognition for foils from "forget" categories without assuming rehearsal of category-level information. In this study, we extend the directed forgetting paradigm to categories consisting of orthographically related nonwords. Presumably participants would have difficulty rehearsing category-level information for these items because they would have no pre-experimental knowledge of these categories. To simulate the findings in MINERVA S, we imported structured orthographic representations rather than semantic representations. The model not only predicted differential rates of false recognition for foils from "remember" and "forget" categories, but also predicted higher rates of false recognition overall than what was observed for semantic categories. The empirical data closely matched these predictions. These data suggest that differential rates of false recognition due to remember and forget instructions emerge at retrieval when participants compare recognition probes to traces stored in memory.

Tracking second language immersion across time: Evidence from a bi-directional longitudinal cross-linguistic fMRI study

Parallel cohorts of Hebrew speakers learning English in the U.S., and American-English speakers learning Hebrew in Israel were tracked over the course of two years of immersion in their L2. We utilised a functional MRI semantic judgement task with print and speech tokens, as well as a battery of linguistic and cognitive behavioural measures prior to and after immersion, to track changes in both L1 and L2 processing. fMRI activation for print tokens produced a similar network of activation in both English and Hebrew, irrespective of L1 or L2 status. Significant convergence of print and speech processing was also observed in both languages across a network of left-hemisphere regions joint for both L1 and L2. Despite significant increases in behavioural measures of L2 proficiency, only a few signs of longitudinal change in L2 brain activation were found. In contrast, L1 showed widespread differences in processing across time, suggesting that the neurobiological footprint of reading is dynamic and plastic even in adults, with L2 immersion impacting L1 processing. Print/speech convergence showed little longitudinal change, suggesting that it is a stable marker of the differences in L1 and L2 processing across L2 proficiency.

Masked transposition priming effects are observed in Korean in the same-different task

Research suggests that readers of Korean Hangul demonstrate precise orthographic coding. In contrast to findings from many other languages, the identification of Hangul words is not speeded by prior masked presentation of transposition primes relative to substitution primes. The present studies asked whether evidence for precise orthographic coding is also observed in the same–different task—a task claimed to reflect pre-lexical orthographic representations. Experiments tested whether masked transposed-letter (Experiment 1) or transposed-syllable-block (Experiment 2) primes facilitate judgements about whether a target matches a reference stimulus. In contrast to previous results using lexical decision, significant transposition effects were observed in both cases. These findings add weight to the proposition that apparent differences across writing systems in the precision of orthographic coding may reflect demands of the word identification process rather than properties of orthographic representations themselves.

Is letter position coding when reading in L2 affected by the nature of position coding used when bilinguals read in their L1?

Using four-character Chinese word targets, Yang, Chen, Spinelli, and Lupker (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(8), 1511-1526, 2019) and Yang, Hino et al. (Journal of Memory and Language, 113, 104017, 2020) demonstrated that backward primes (Roman alphabet example-dcba priming ABCD) produce large masked priming effects. This result suggests that character position information is quite imprecisely coded by Chinese readers when reading in their native language. The present question was, If Chinese readers have evolved a reading system not requiring precise position information, would Chinese-English bilinguals show more extreme transposed letter priming effects when processing English words than both English monolinguals and other types of bilinguals whose L2 is English? In Experiment 1, Chinese-English bilinguals, but not English monolinguals, showed a clear backward priming effect in a lexical decision task. In Experiment 2, the parallel backward priming effect was absent for both Spanish-English and Arabic-English bilinguals. Apparently, the orthographic coding system that Chinese-English bilinguals use when reading in their L2 leans heavily on the flexible/imprecise position coding process that they develop for reading in their L1.

Neurobiological signatures of L2 proficiency: Evidence from a bi-directional cross-linguistic study

Recent evidence has shown that convergence of print and speech processing across a network of primarily left-hemisphere regions of the brain is a predictor of future reading skills in children, and a marker of fluent reading ability in adults. The present study extends these findings into the domain of second-language (L2) literacy, through brain imaging data of English and Hebrew L2 learners. Participants received an fMRI brain scan, while performing a semantic judgement task on spoken and written words and pseudowords in both their L1 and L2, alongside a battery of L1 and L2 behavioural measures. Imaging results show, overall, show a similar network of activation for reading across the two languages, alongside significant convergence of print and speech processing across a network of left-hemisphere regions in both L1 and L2 and in both cohorts. Importantly, convergence is greater for L1 in occipito-temporal regions tied to automatic skilled reading processes including the visual word-form area, but greater for L2 in frontal regions of the reading network, tied to more effortful, active processing. The main groupwise brain effects tell a similar story, with greater L2 than L1 activation across frontal, temporal and parietal regions, but greater L1 than L2 activation in parieto-occipital regions tied to automatic mapping processes in skilled reading. These results provide evidence for the shifting of the reading networks towards more automatic processing as reading proficiency rises and the mappings and statistics of the new orthography are learned and incorporated into the reading system.

Reading and the Neurocognitive Bases of Statistical Learning1

The processes underlying word reading are shaped by statistical properties of the writing system. According to some theoretical perspectives (e.g. Harm & Seidenberg, 2004) reading acquisition should be understood as an exercise in statistical learning. Statistical learning (SL) involves the extraction of organizing principles from a set of inputs. Several lines of research provide convergent evidence supporting the connection between SL and reading acquisition (e.g., Arciuli & Simpson, 2012; Frost et al., 2014; Bogaerts et al., 2015). An obstacle to fully appreciating the theoretical and educational implications of these findings is that SL is itself not well understood. In this paper, we review the current literature on SL with a particular focus on organizing this literature by grounding it in theories of learning and memory more generally. This approach can clarify the nature of SL and provide a framework for understanding its role in reading, reading acquisition, and reading disorders.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Advancing the State-of-the-Science in Reading Research through Modeling

Reading research is increasingly a multi-disciplinary endeavor involving more complex, team-based science approaches. These approaches offer the potential of capturing the complexity of reading development, the emergence of individual differences in reading performance over time, how these differences relate to the development of reading difficulties and disability, and more fully understanding the nature of skilled reading in adults. This special issue focuses on the potential opportunities and insights that early and richly integrated advanced statistical and computational modeling approaches can provide to our foundational (and translational) understanding of reading. The issue explores how computational and statistical modeling, using both observed and simulated data, can serve as a contact point among research domains and topics, complement other data sources and critically provide analytic advantages over current approaches.

Towards a Theory of Variation in the Organization of the Word Reading System

The strategy underlying most computational models of word reading is to specify the organization of the reading system-its architecture and the processes and representations it employs-and to demonstrate that this organization would give rise to the behavior observed in word reading tasks. This approach fails to adequately address the variation in reading behavior observed across and within linguistic communities. Only computational models that incorporate learning can fully account for variation in organization. However, even extant learning models (e.g., the triangle model) must be extended if they are to fully account for variation in organization. The challenges associated with extending theories in this way are discussed.

Relative meaning frequencies for 578 homonyms in two Spanish dialects: A cross-linguistic extension of the English eDom norms

Relative meaning frequency is a critical factor to consider in studies of semantic ambiguity. In this work, we examined how this measure may change across the European and Rioplatense dialects of Spanish, as well as how the overall distributional properties differ between Spanish and English, using a computer-assisted norming approach based on dictionary definitions (Armstrong, Tokowicz, & Plaut, 2012). The results showed that the two dialects differ considerably in terms of the relative meaning frequencies of their constituent homonyms, and that the overall distributions of relative frequencies vary considerably across languages, as well. These results highlight the need for localized norms to design powerful studies of semantic ambiguity and suggest that dialectal differences may be responsible for some discrepant effects related to homonymy. In quantifying the reliability of the norms, we also established that as few as seven ratings are needed to converge on a highly stable set of ratings. This approach is therefore a very practical means of acquiring essential data in studies of semantic ambiguity, relative to past approaches, such as those based on the classification of free associates. The norms also present new possibilities for studying semantic ambiguity effects within and between populations who speak one or more languages. The norms and associated software are available for download at http://edom.cnbc.cmu.edu/ or http://www.bcbl.eu/databases/edom/ .

Reconsidering the role of orthographic redundancy in visual word recognition

Humans are known to continuously extract regularities from the flow of stimulation. This occurs in many facets of behavior, including reading. In spite of the ubiquitous evidence that readers become sensitive to orthographic regularities after very little exposure to print, the role of orthographic regularities receives at best a peripheral status in current theories of orthographic processing. In the present article, after the presentation of previous evidence on orthographic redundancy, the hypothesis that orthographic regularities may play a prominent role in word perception is developed.