Naturalistic memory in learning-disabled and skilled readers

Three experiments compared learning-disabled and skilled readers' performance on naturalistic memory measures, as well as investigated the relationship between memory performance on everyday and laboratory tasks. In Experiment 1, the laboratory task (sentence span task) and everyday memory measures were correlated moderately for both ability groups. Compared to skilled readers, disabled readers performed poorly on the sentence span task, and were less likely than skilled readers to remember information related to common objects and consequential events. Disabled readers were also less likely to rely on external prompts to help them recall everyday information. Experiment 2 extended the previous findings to older subjects and found that the majority of significant correlations between the laboratory (word span task) and everyday memory tasks were isolated to disabled readers. When compared to chronological-age-matched subjects, disabled readers were inferior in recency performance on the laboratory (word span) and natural serial recall (e.g., recall of U.S. presidents) tasks. Experiment 3 showed that under conditions that facilitate item accessibility, ability group differences in recall were comparable. Taken together, the findings indicate that disabled readers' memory deficits are pervasive across naturalistic and laboratory measures at the younger age, but these deficits diminish for older students. Further, the deficits that occur at the older age are due to problems in accessing knowledge.     

Executive processing differences between learning-disabled,mildly retarded,and normal achieving children

This study examined possible executive processing differences between mildly retarded, learning-disabled, and normal achieving children. To this end, the groups were compared as to their ability to recall central and secondary words from base and elaborative sentences under conditions of high and low encoding effort. Executive processing was inferred from the children's ability to maintain optimal recall performance for central and secondary words. Groups were comparable in central recall, but differences in secondary recall occurred for the high- effort encoding condition. Qualitative differences related to the prioritizing of resources (as reflected in the correlation between central and secondary recall) and monitoring the transfer of information (as reflected from central and secondary recall insertions) were found between groups. The results were discussed in terms of an executive processing frame-work that views retarded children as suffering from inefficiencies related to the sharing of resources, whereas the learning-disabled children's inefficiencies were related to the discrimination of resources.The author is indebted to Karl Schemdli, Director of Special Education and Susan Swaim, Research Director, University of Northern Colorado Laboratory School, for their administration assistance in providing children for this study. The author is indebted to Dr. Jim Nicholes for his assistance in the data collection.     

Information processing and speech lateralization in learning-disabled children

The relationship between information processing and speech lateralization was investigated in learning-disabled children. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) assessed simultaneous and successive processing while a dichotic listening paradigm with free recall and directed attention conditions assessed speech lateralization. A three-factor ANOVA design conducted on the dichotic data revealed that normal children demonstrated stronger right ear advantage (REA); whereas learning-disabled showed weaker right ear advantage. Further, lambda analyses conducted on individual subjects revealed that the learning-disabled did not demonstrate the REA, were not biased attenders, and did not get more right ear than left ear items when attention was directed to one ear. Multiple-regression analysis was used to predict sequential processing from the dichotic data for both groups. Learning-disabled children demonstrated a substantial deficit in sequential processing as compared to normal children. These results indicate that learning-disabled children may not have adequate cerebral lateralization of receptive speech processes, shift their attention more readily, and are more inadequate in sequential processing that presumably subserves language functioning. Perhaps learning-disabled children have deficiencies of processor capacity of salient areas of the left (language) hemisphere.     

Changes in letter processing in beginning readers

Letter pairs were tachistoscopically presented to children from grades 1, 2 and 6 (85.6, 99.4, and 147.8 months of age, respectively). They were required to determine whether the letters had a same name by pressing one of two response keys as fast as possible. Also a letter detection task was presented where letter matching was either based on physical or name characteristics. The name match in both tasks was slower than the match of letters which shared the same visual form. The name-physical match differences changed significantly as a function of grade level. Shifts in latency differences over grades can be considered as a fundamental correlate of reading ability. Children increasingly employ strategies of processing based on nominal cues and become efficient in extracting the invariant features of letters amongst irrelevant variations such as type face.     

Temporal processing ability in above average and average readers

In the present study, we compared the rapid visual and auditory temporal processing ability of above average and average readers. One hundred five undergraduates participated in various visual and auditory temporal tasks. The above average readers exhibited lower auditory and visual temporal resolution thresholds than did the average readers, but only the differences in the auditory tasks were statistically significant, especially when nonverbal IQ was controlled for. Furthermore, both the correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed a relationship between the auditory measures and the wide range achievement test (WRAT) reading measure and a relationship between the auditory measures and a low spatial frequency visual measure and the WRAT spelling measure. Discriminant analysis showed that together both the visual and auditory measures correctly classified 75% of the subjects into above average and average reading groups, respectively. The results suggest that differences in temporal processing ability in relation to differences in reading proficiency are not confined to the comparison between poor and normal readers.     

Executive processing in free recall of categorized lists

The present study examines the cognitive processes that operate in free recall of categorized lists by manipulating semantic structure of the lists and using a dual task methodology to restrict the processes that make demands on limited-capacity resources, the central executive resources. Relying on the assumption that, in free recall of categorized lists, the search for category names is a strategic controlled process that demands executive resources, lists with different numbers of categories ranging from 2 to 6 were employed. The results showed an effect of a secondary task on retrieval in the 4- and the 6-category list conditions, but not in the 2-category list condition. In contrast to retrieval, the secondary task interference at encoding produced an effect on recall of all three types of lists. An interesting finding was that an effect on clustering was found only when interference was present at encoding, not when it was at retrieval. This finding was in line with the suggestion (Troyer, Moscovitch, Winocur, Alexander, & Stuss, 1998) that switching (shifting between different category items) rather than clustering is related to executive functioning, and suggested that clustering may be a measure of two different types of processing: (1) executive processing at encoding and (2) automatic processing at retrieval. In addition, a different pattern of results was obtained when low frequency category words were used, indicating that the frequency of category words is an important determinant in free recall of categorized lists. Overall, the present results support the two-process account of retrieval of category words (Rosen & Engle, 1997) and the view that there are fundamental differences between encoding and retrieval processes (Naveh-Benjamin, Craik, Guez, & Dori, 1998; Naveh-Benjamin & Guez, 2000).     

What readers bring to the processing of fictional texts

Research on text processing has generally focused on the types of inferences that all readers draw in common. Our research examines aspects of processing that depend on the particular relation of the reader to the text. Students read fictional stories that contained weak and unsupported assertions and that were set either at their own school or at another school. We expected that they would be prompted to process the story information thoroughly enough to reject the assertions only if they were familiar with the story setting. Consistent with this expectation, the results showed that the away-school story, but not the home-school story, had a significant impact on students’ beliefs. These results support the view that readers must actively construct disbelief when processing fictional information.     

Phonological processing in reading Chinese among normally achieving and poor readers

Ninety-four children in grades one to six (7 to 12 years old) in Hong Kong were individually administered a Chinese reading test consisting of 80 characters that varied in frequency (high or low) and orthographic structure (simple or complex). Phonological processing tasks, including short-term memory, pseudo-character recognition, and tone discrimination, were also administered. During reading, younger normal and poor readers made more semantic and visual errors, whereas older and normally achieving children made more phonologically related errors. Normally achieving readers also performed at a higher level than poor readers on short-term memory, pseudo-character recognition, and tone discrimination tasks. Phonological processing apparently plays a significant part in the development of reading skills in Chinese.     

Syntactic processing of Hebrew sentences in normal and dyslexic readers: electrophysiological evidence

The authors examined differences in brain activity as measured by amplitudes and latencies of event-related potential (ERP) components in Hebrew-speaking adult dyslexic and normal readers. The participants were measured while processing words' syntactic functions during reading of sentences with subject-verb-object syntactic order. The results suggested that among dyslexic and normal readers, N100 and P300 ERP components were sensitive to certain constituents of syntactic analysis for target words in accordance with their grammatical roles. The findings further demonstrated significant differences in ERP measures between dyslexic and normal readers. Compared with normal readers, dyslexic readers exhibited consistently higher amplitudes and longer latencies in both ERP components for the subject of the sentence. Significant, though less consistent, ERP variations were observed for other sentence elements. In addition, dyslexic readers differed from normal readers in their processing strategies. For normal readers, the verb-oriented, morphologically based strategy was found to be the most efficient for sentence processing in Hebrew, whereas the dyslexic readers demonstrated a more primitive mode of identification of words' grammatical roles, namely, the word-order strategy. The results support the hypothesis that there is a syntactic processing "weakness" in dyslexics.     

ERPs reveal comparable syntactic sentence processing in native and non-native readers of English

L2 syntactic processing has been primarily investigated in the context of syntactic anomaly detection, but only sparsely with syntactic ambiguity. In the field of event-related potentials (ERPs) syntactic anomaly detection and syntactic ambiguity resolution is linked to the P600. The current ERP experiment examined L2 syntactic processing in highly proficient L1 Spanish-L2 English readers who had acquired English informally around the age of 5 years. Temporary syntactic ambiguity (induced by verb subcategorization information) was tested as a language-specific phenomenon of L2, while syntactic anomaly resulted from phrase structure constraints that are similar in L1 and L2. Participants judged whether a sentence was syntactically acceptable or not. Native readers of English showed a P600 in the temporary syntactically ambiguous and syntactically anomalous sentences. A comparable picture emerged in the non-native readers of English. Both critical syntactic conditions elicited a P600, however, the distribution and latency of the P600 varied in the syntactic anomaly condition. The results clearly show that early acquisition of L2 syntactic knowledge leads to comparable online sensitivity towards temporal syntactic ambiguity and syntactic anomaly in early and highly proficient non-native readers of English and native readers of English.     

Executive functions and social information processing in adolescents with severe behavior problems

One tradition in research for explaining aggression and antisocial behavior has focused on social information processing (SIP). Aggression and antisocial behavior have also been studied from the perspective of executive functions (EFs), the higher-order cognitive abilities that affect other cognitive processes, such as social cognitive processes. The main goal of the present study is to provide insight into the relation between EFs and SIP in adolescents with severe behavior problems. Because of the hierarchical relation between EFs and SIP, we examined EFs as predictors of SIP. We hypothesized that, first, focused attention predicts encoding and interpretation, second, inhibition predicts interpretation, response generation, evaluation, and selection, and third, working memory predicts response generation and selection. The participants consisted of 94 respondents living in residential facilities aged 12–20 years, all showing behavior problems in the clinical range according to care staff. EFs were assessed using subtests from the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Test battery. Focused attention was measured by the Flanker task, inhibition by the GoNoGo task, and working memory by the Visual Spatial Sequencing task. SIP was measured by video vignettes and a structured interview. The results indicate that positive evaluation of aggressive responses is predicted by impaired inhibition and selection of aggressive responses by a combination of impaired focused attention and inhibition. It is concluded that different components of EFs as higher-order cognitive abilities affect SIP.     

Conceptual development in learning-disabled and normal boys

In two related studies, a pictorial sorting task served as the means of measuring conceptual development in LD and normal boys. The studies found no differences in the bases on which groups were formed (perceptible attributes, function, or nominal class membership) or in the manner in which groups were structured (thematically, in complexive groups or superordinate groups). Furthermore, parallel developmental trends were found in both LD and normal subjects groups. These findings are not consistent with early studies of concept formation in brain-damaged subjects, most of whom were retarded. Subjects in the present studies were selected on the basis of clinical diagnosis of LD and average IQ. The findings of the present studies suggest that generalizations about conceptual abilities of LD children of normal intelligence should not be based on early studies of the effects of brain damage.     

Modification of impulsive tempo in learning-disabled pupils

Thirty-three impulsive learning- disabled males, aged 9–12 years, were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (a) Modeling, in which subjects were exposed to a videotape of a boy demonstrating reflective problem-solving activities and instructing himself to perform cautiously; (b) Modeling Plus Self-Verbalization, in which subjects observed the same videotape and were additionally required to verbalize similar reflective instructions; and (c) Control, in which subjects were shown a videotape of the task materials used in the modeling videotape, but without the model. Subjects were tested immediately after exposure to treatment, and again 3 weeks later, on different forms of the Matching Familiar Figures test. Both Modeling and Modeling Plus Self-Verbalization conditions were superior to Control in reducing errors on the immediate test, but the three treatments did not differ on the delayed test. No significant differences among the three conditions were found with regard to response latency. Discrepancies between the present results and those of previous related studies were noted, and potential research directions were suggested.The authors appreciate the cooperation and support of Mr. Dan Hurd, superintendent of DeKalb County Special Education Association.     

How orthographic transparency affects morphological processing in young readers with and without reading disability

This study investigates how orthographic modifications to the stems of complex words affect morphological processing in proficient young Spanish readers and children with reading deficits. In a definition task all children, irrespective of their reading skill, were worse at defining derived words that had an orthographic alteration of the base stem than words with no orthographic alteration. In a go/no‐go lexical decision task, an interaction between base frequency and orthographic alteration was found: base frequency affected derived words with no orthographic alteration more than words with alterations, irrespective of reading skill. Overall, results show that all children benefit from a high frequency base, skilled children outperform children with reading deficits and morphological processing is affected by orthographic alterations similarly in proficient and impaired readers.     

Orthographic and phonological preview benefits: Parafoveal processing in skilled and less-skilled deaf readers

Many deaf individuals do not develop the high-level reading skills that will allow them to fully take part into society. To attempt to explain this widespread difficulty in the deaf population, much research has honed in on the use of phonological codes during reading. The hypothesis that the use of phonological codes is associated with good reading skills in deaf readers, though not well supported, still lingers in the literature. We investigated skilled and less-skilled adult deaf readers' processing of orthographic and phonological codes in parafoveal vision during reading by monitoring their eye movements and using the boundary paradigm. Orthographic preview benefits were found in early measures of reading for skilled hearing, skilled deaf, and less-skilled deaf readers, but only skilled hearing readers processed phonological codes in parafoveal vision. Crucially, skilled and less-skilled deaf readers showed a very similar pattern of preview benefits during reading. These results support the notion that reading difficulties in deaf adults are not linked to their failure to activate phonological codes during reading.     

Morphological processing during visual word recognition in developing readers: evidence from masked priming

Masked priming studies with adult readers have provided evidence for a form-based morpho-orthographic segmentation mechanism that "blindly" decomposes any word with the appearance of morphological complexity. The present studies investigated whether evidence for structural morphological decomposition can be obtained with developing readers. We used a masked primed lexical decision design first adopted by Rastle, Davis, and New (2004), comparing truly suffixed (golden-GOLD) and pseudosuffixed (mother-MOTH) prime-target pairs with nonsuffixed controls (spinach-SPIN). Experiment 1 tested adult readers, showing that priming from both pseudo- and truly suffixed primes could be obtained using our own set of high-frequency word materials. Experiment 2 assessed a group of Year 3 and Year 5 children, but priming only occurred when prime and target shared a true morphological relationship, and not when the relationship was pseudomorphological. This pattern of results indicates that morpho-orthographic decomposition mechanisms do not become automatized until a relatively late stage in reading development.     

Encoding of logical connective rules in learning-disabled children

Using a modified reception paradigm, normal and learning-disabled children were required to solve unidimensional, disjunctive, or conditional connectives under standard attending or enforced attending instructions. The major result was that enforced attending procedures facilitated solution of disjunctive and conditional concepts for normal children, while having minimal effects on rule attainment for the disabled. Within Sternberg's (1979) model, a number of subcomponent analyses were made on attribute combinations (e.g., TT, TF...), but only in the FF instance was there a difference between instructional conditions. Disabled were deficient in TT, TF, FF instances regardless of attending instructions. Results support a “reductive coding deficiency” in that learning-disabled children were unable to effectively utilize attentional instructions to encode certain attribute combinations.     

预测性对快速读者和慢速读者词汇加工的影响

本研究借助眼动仪通过两个实验考察了熟练阅读中快速读者与慢速读者对语境预测性的利用是否有差异。实验1比较快速组与慢速组在中央凹加工高、低预测词的差异。实验2对比两组读者利用副中央凹预视(相同、相似假字、低预测词和不相似假字)加工高预测词的差异。实验1结果显示两组读者有相似的预测性效应：对高预测词的注视时间比低预测词更短。实验2结果显示两组读者的预视效应存在差异：慢速组在相同预视下对目标词的跳读率高于低预测预视,而快速组在这两种预视下的跳读率差异不明显但高于慢速组;慢速组在低预测和不相似预视下注视目标词的时间分别长于相同预视,而快速组的这两种效应较小。结果表明,两组读者利用预测性的差异表现在副中央凹加工阶段,即慢速读者比快速读者利用相似预视激活预测性信息的效率更低,且在低预测或无效预视下对词汇的识别和语义整合更困难,这说明慢速读者在词汇加工中更依赖语境且对无关信息的抑制更弱。这些结果支持词汇质量假说。