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Lukács Á, Dobó D, Szőllősi Á, Németh K, Lukics KS. Reading fluency and statistical learning across modalities and domains: Online and offline measures. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0281788. [PMID: 36952465 PMCID: PMC10035921 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 03/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The vulnerability of statistical learning has been demonstrated in reading difficulties in both the visual and acoustic modalities. We examined segmentation abilities of Hungarian speaking adolescents with different levels of reading fluency in the acoustic verbal and visual nonverbal domains. We applied online target detection tasks, where the extent of learning is reflected in differences between reaction times to predictable versus unpredictable targets. Explicit judgments of well-formedness were also elicited in an offline two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task. Learning was evident in both the acoustic verbal and visual nonverbal tasks, both in online and offline measures, but learning effects were larger both in online and offline tasks in the verbal acoustic condition. We haven’t found evidence for a significant relationship between statistical learning and reading fluency in adolescents in either modality. Together with earlier findings, these results suggest that the relationship between reading and statistical learning is dependent on the domain, modality and nature of the statistical learning task, on the reading task, on the age of participants, and on the specific language. The online target detection task is a promising tool which can be adapted to a wider set of tasks to further explore the contribution of statistical learning to reading acquisition in participants from different populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ágnes Lukács
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-BME Momentum Language Acquisition Research Group, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Budapest, Hungary
| | - Dorottya Dobó
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-BME Momentum Language Acquisition Research Group, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ágnes Szőllősi
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Budapest, Hungary
- Centre for Cognitive Medicine, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Kornél Németh
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Krisztina Sára Lukics
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
- MTA-BME Momentum Language Acquisition Research Group, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Budapest, Hungary
- * E-mail:
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Hulme RC, Shapiro LR, Taylor JSH. Learning new words through reading: do robust spelling-sound mappings boost learning of word forms and meanings? ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:210555. [PMID: 36533201 PMCID: PMC9748498 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
High-quality lexical representations depend on robust representations of written form (orthography), spoken form (phonology) and meaning (semantics), and strong bonds between them. Quality of lexical representations may be affected by amount of print exposure and the form of individual words. Words that are harder to decode (print-to-sound) may lead to fuzzy representations of the orthographic and phonological forms, potentially creating less stable foundations for semantic knowledge. These factors are difficult to disentangle in natural language research; in this registered report, we experimentally manipulated decoding ease and exposure at the item level. Adults read paragraphs describing invented meanings of pseudowords. Pseudowords appeared two or six times in a paragraph, and had easy (e.g. bamper) or hard (e.g. uzide) to decode spelling-sound mappings. Post-tests assessed word-form knowledge, orthography-semantic mappings and semantic-phonology mappings. Results showed that greater decoding ease improved learning of word forms and consequently also impacted on word meanings. Higher exposure frequency improved learning of word forms but not meanings. Exposure frequency also modulated the effect of decoding ease on word-form learning, with a stronger effect of decoding ease for fewer exposures. Disentangling effects of decoding ease from print exposure has important implications for understanding potential barriers to vocabulary learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachael C. Hulme
- Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment and School of Psychology, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Laura R. Shapiro
- Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment and School of Psychology, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
| | - J. S. H. Taylor
- Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment and School of Psychology, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK
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Schmalz X, Mulatti C, Schulte-Körne G, Moll K. Effects of complexity and unpredictability on the learning of an artificial orthography. Cortex 2022; 152:1-20. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Revised: 03/23/2022] [Accepted: 03/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Coch D, Mahoney MR. When two vowels go walking: An ERP study of the vowel team rule. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13870. [PMID: 34086295 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Revised: 03/31/2021] [Accepted: 05/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In an event-related potential (ERP) study of the vowel team rule in American English ("when two vowels go walking, the first does the talking"), we used a visual lexical decision task to determine whether words that do (e.g., braid) and do not (e.g., cloud) follow the rule elicit different processing, and to determine if this extends to nonwords (e.g., braip, cloup). In 32 young adults, N1 amplitude distinguished between rule-following and rule-breaking items: N1 amplitude was more negative to rule-breaking words and nonwords. In contrast, there were no significant effects of vowel team rule adherence on N400 amplitude. Behaviorally, participants responded more quickly and accurately to rule-following words, a pattern not observed for nonwords. These findings demonstrate that adherence to the vowel team rule can be indexed by both neural and behavioral measures in fluently reading young adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Donna Coch
- Department of Education, Reading Brains Lab, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
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A new type of pictorial database: The Bicolor Affective Silhouettes and Shapes (BASS). Behav Res Methods 2021; 53:2558-2575. [PMID: 33963497 PMCID: PMC8613164 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01569-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We introduce the Bicolor Affective Silhouettes and Shapes (BASS): a set of 583 normed black-and-white silhouette images that is freely available via https://osf.io/anej6/. Valence and arousal ratings were obtained for each image from US residents as a Western population (n = 777) and Chinese residents as an Asian population (n = 869). Importantly, the ratings demonstrate that, notwithstanding their visual simplicity, the images represent a wide range of affective content (from very negative to very positive, and from very calm to very intense). In addition, speaking to their cultural neutrality, the valence ratings correlated very highly between US and Chinese ratings. Arousal ratings were less consistent between the two samples, with larger discrepancies in the older age groups inviting further investigation. Due to their simplistic and abstract nature, our silhouette images may be useful for intercultural studies, color and shape perception research, and online stimulus presentation in particular. We demonstrate the versatility of the BASS by an example online experiment.
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The dynamics of morphological processing in developing readers: A cross-linguistic masked priming study. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 208:105140. [PMID: 33831608 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Revised: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Empirical evidence from masked priming research shows that skilled readers can rapidly identify morphological structure in written language. However, comparatively little is known about how and when this skill is acquired in children. The current work investigated the developmental trajectory of morphological processing in a 2-year longitudinal study involving two large cohorts of German and French primary school children. The masked priming paradigm was used within an experimental design that allowed us to dissociate effects of (a) nonmorphological embedded word activation, (b) morpho-orthographic decomposition, and (c) morpho-semantics. Four priming conditions were used: affixed word (farmer-FARM), affixed nonword (farmity-FARM), nonaffixed nonword (farmald-FARM), and unrelated control (workald-FARM). The results revealed robust embedded word priming effects across both languages. However, morpho-orthographic and morpho-semantic effects were evident only in the French sample. These findings are discussed in the context of a theoretical framework that specifies the distinct roles played by embedded words and affixes, their distinct developmental trajectories, and how the intrinsic linguistic properties of a given language may affect morphological processing.
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Brennan C, Kiskin J. Distinct Benefits Given Large Versus Small Grain Orthographic Instruction for English-Speaking Adults Learning to Read Russian Cyrillic. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2020; 49:915-933. [PMID: 31873833 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-019-09684-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Initial instruction emphasizing large grain units (i.e., words) showed distinct advantages over small grain instruction for English-speaking adults learning to read an artificial orthography (Brennan and Booth in Read Writ 28(7):917-938, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-015-9555-2 ). The current study extends this research by training 34 English-speaking adults to read Russian Cyrillic given initial instruction emphasizing either large or small units (words or letters). Results reveal no differences on word learning, but higher accuracy on letter-phoneme matching given letter-based instruction and higher accuracy on rime-rhyme matching given word-based instruction. Differences in phonological awareness (PA) skill showed that higher PA skill resulted in higher accuracy and slower reaction times only for the adults given the instruction with the word emphasis, suggesting that adults with high PA skill given word-based instruction may engage in time intensive small grain analyses (e.g., grapheme-phoneme correspondence) even when their attention is directed to larger grain units. Overall, these results extend previous findings and reveal that word and letter-based instruction each have distinct advantages for facilitating increased sensitivity to either letters/phonemes or rimes/rhymes when adults are learning a natural second (L2) consistent alphabetic orthography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Brennan
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, 2501 Kittredge Loop Drive, 409 UCB, Boulder, CO, 30809-0409, USA.
| | - Jennifer Kiskin
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, 2501 Kittredge Loop Drive, 409 UCB, Boulder, CO, 30809-0409, USA
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Root N, Bhattacharyya P, Ramachandran VS. Grapheme-Color Synesthesia in an Abugida: a Bengali Case Study. Multisens Res 2020; 34:187-218. [PMID: 33706269 DOI: 10.1163/22134808-bja10036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Grapheme-color synesthetes experience graphemes (e.g., letters of the alphabet) as having a specific, consistent color. Most studies of grapheme-color synesthesia have only examined synesthetes in English, leaving underexplored the question of how synesthetic phenomenology might differ in languages that do not use alphabets. In particular, grapheme-color synesthesia in an abugida (a segmental writing system in which vowels are added to consonant graphemes using 'accent'-like diacritical marks) has never been studied. Here, we present a case study of a Bengali synesthete, MJ, the first report of a grapheme-color synesthete in an abugida. First, we show that for MJ, diacritics influence the overall color of the consonant grapheme they modify, 'pulling' it toward the color she experiences for the vowel. Second, we describe and analyze the complex synesthetic experiences reported by MJ for conjunct graphemes, a unique orthographic feature of Brahmi-derived scripts (such as Bengali) in which multiple graphemes are visually combined into a single 'merged' grapheme. Finally, we show that in addition to these language-specific features, MJ's synesthetic associations are influenced by some of the same linguistic properties (such as orthography and phonology) that influence synesthetic associations in other languages. We conclude that the idiosyncratic features of MJ's synesthesia reflect unique properties of the Bengali writing system, that more studies of synesthesia in non-alphabetic scripts are needed, and that synesthetic phenomenology can offer insights into how linguistic properties shape grapheme representation in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas Root
- Department of Psychology, University of California, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA
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Zaretsky E. English spelling acquisition by English Language Learners from Spanish-speaking background: The role of cognitive and linguistic resources and L1 reading status. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Georgiou GK, Parrila R. What mechanism underlies the rapid automatized naming-reading relation? J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 194:104840. [PMID: 32172942 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2019] [Revised: 02/12/2020] [Accepted: 02/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
We examined why rapid automatized naming (RAN) is related to reading by manipulating one aspect of the RAN task at a time and by inspecting the changes occurring in the RAN-reading relation. In total, 136 Grade 2 English-speaking children and 121 university students were assessed on serial and discrete RAN, cancellation, and yes/no naming as well as on oral and silent reading fluency. The results of regression analyses indicated that seriality, access to phonological representations, and articulation play an important role in the RAN-reading relation. However, their effects were not equal for the two age groups or across the two reading outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- George K Georgiou
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G5, Canada.
| | - Rauno Parrila
- Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia
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Schmalz X, Porshnev A, Marinus E. Two distinct parsing stages in nonword reading aloud: Evidence from Russian. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2017; 70:2548-2559. [DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1247895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Word reading partly depends on the activation of sublexical letter clusters. Previous research has studied which types of letter clusters have psychological saliency, but less is known about cognitive mechanisms of letter string parsing. Here, we take advantage of the high degree of context-dependency of the Russian orthography to examine whether consonant–vowel (CV) clusters are treated as units in two stages of sublexical processing. In two experiments using a nonword reading task, we use two orthogonal manipulations: (a) insertion of a visual disruptor (#) to assess whether CV clusters are kept intact during the early visual parsing stage, and (b) presence of context-dependent grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs; e.g., л[а] → /l/; л[я] → /lj/), to assess whether CV clusters remain intact or are split during the print-to-speech conversion stage. The results suggest that although CV clusters are initially processed as perceptual units in the early visual parsing stage, letters and not CV clusters drive print-to-speech conversion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xenia Schmalz
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Alexander Porshnev
- General and Strategic Management Department, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
| | - Eva Marinus
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Schmalz X, Robidoux S, Castles A, Coltheart M, Marinus E. German and English Bodies: No Evidence for Cross-Linguistic Differences in Preferred Orthographic Grain Size. COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1525/collabra.72] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have found that words and nonwords with many body neighbours (i.e., words with the same orthographic body, e.g., cat, brat, at) are read faster than items with fewer body neighbours. This body-N effect has been explored in the context of cross-linguistic differences in reading where it has been reported that the size of the effect differs as a function of orthographic depth: readers of English, a deep orthography, show stronger facilitation than readers of German, a shallow orthography. Such findings support the psycholinguistic grain size theory, which proposes that readers of English rely on large orthographic units to reduce ambiguity of print-to-speech correspondences in their orthography. Here we re-examine the evidence for this pattern and find that there is no reliable evidence for such a cross-linguistic difference. Re-analysis of a key study (Ziegler et al., 2001), analysis of data from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007), and a large-scale analysis of nine new experiments all support this conclusion. Using Bayesian analysis techniques, we find little evidence of the body-N effect in most tasks and conditions. Where we do find evidence for a body-N effect (lexical decision for nonwords), we find evidence against an interaction with language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xenia Schmalz
- Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, AU
- Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, IT
| | - Serje Robidoux
- Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, AU
| | - Anne Castles
- Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, AU
| | - Max Coltheart
- Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, AU
| | - Eva Marinus
- Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, AU
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