The nature of phonological processing in oral reading: Evidence from surface dyslexia

Investigation of a neurological patient (PT) who presents with a relatively pure disorder of reading was carried out. His performance on a number of oral reading tasks was very similar to that of the surface dyslexic patient (HTR) reported by Shallice, Warrington and McCarthy (1983). Both patients showed an effect of “degree” of regularity in terms of accuracy of reading response. PT did not, however, show an effect of “typicality of divergence”, which was considered by Shallice and his colleagues to be responsible for the former effect. The size of orthographic-phonological unit operational in PT's oral reading was experimentally determined. PT appeared to rely on grapheme-phoneme correspondences that were assigned in a probabilistic rather than an “all-or-none” manner. No evidence for the existence of the sub-syllable as an independent unit was found. In contrast, this unit apparently mediated the performance of skilled adult readers. Implications of these results for models of the phonological route are discussed.     

Incrementality in naming and reading complex numerals: evidence from eyetracking

Individuals speak incrementally when they interleave planning and articulation. Eyetracking, along with the measurement of speech onset latencies, can be used to gain more insight into the degree of incrementality adopted by speakers. In the current article, two eyetracking experiments are reported in which pairs of complex numerals were named (arabic format, Experiment 1) or read aloud (alphabetic format, Experiment 2) as house numbers and as clock times. We examined whether the degree of incrementality is differentially influenced by the production task (naming vs. reading) and mode (house numbers vs. clock time expressions), by comparing gaze durations and speech onset latencies. In both tasks and modes, dissociations were obtained between speech onset latencies (reflecting articulation) and gaze durations (reflecting planning), indicating incrementality. Furthermore, whereas none of the factors that determined gaze durations were reflected in the reading and naming latencies for the house numbers, the dissociation between gaze durations and response latencies for the clock times concerned mainly numeral length in both tasks. These results suggest that the degree of incrementality is influenced by the type of utterance (house number vs. clock time) rather than by task (reading vs. naming). The results highlight the importance of the utterance structure in determining the degree of incrementality.     

Incrementality in naming and reading complex numerals: evidence from eyetracking

Individuals speak incrementally when they interleave planning and articulation. Eyetracking, along with the measurement of speech onset latencies, can be used to gain more insight into the degree of incrementality adopted by speakers. In the current article, two eyetracking experiments are reported in which pairs of complex numerals were named (arabic format, Experiment 1) or read aloud (alphabetic format, Experiment 2) as house numbers and as clock times. We examined whether the degree of incrementality is differentially influenced by the production task (naming vs. reading) and mode (house numbers vs. clock time expressions), by comparing gaze durations and speech onset latencies. In both tasks and modes, dissociations were obtained between speech onset latencies (reflecting articulation) and gaze durations (reflecting planning), indicating incrementality. Furthermore, whereas none of the factors that determined gaze durations were reflected in the reading and naming latencies for the house numbers, the dissociation between gaze durations and response latencies for the clock times concerned mainly numeral length in both tasks. These results suggest that the degree of incrementality is influenced by the type of utterance (house number vs. clock time) rather than by task (reading vs. naming). The results highlight the importance of the utterance structure in determining the degree of incrementality.     

Seriality of phonological encoding in naming objects and reading their names

There is a remarkable lack of research bringing together the literatures on oral reading and speaking. As concerns phonological encoding, both models of reading and speaking assume a process of segmental spellout for words, which is followed by serial prosodification in models of speaking (e.g., Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999). Thus, a natural place to merge models of reading and speaking would be at the level of segmental spellout. This view predicts similar seriality effects in reading and object naming. Experiment 1 showed that the seriality of encoding inside a syllable revealed in previous studies of speaking is observed for both naming objects and reading their names. Experiment 2 showed that both object naming and reading exhibit the seriality of the encoding of successive syllables previously observed for speaking. Experiment 3 showed that the seriality is also observed when object naming and reading trials are mixed rather than tested separately, as in the first two experiments. These results suggest that a serial phonological encoding mechanism is shared between naming objects and reading their names.     

Orthographic and phonological facilitation in speech production: new evidence from picture naming in Chinese

Picture naming is facilitated when a target picture (e.g. of a cat) is accompanied by a form-related context word (e.g. CAP) relative to an unrelated word (e.g. PEN). Because in alphabetic languages phonological and orthographic similarity are confounded, Chinese, a logographic language, has been employed to study these two effects in isolation. The results obtained suggest that the orthographic facilitation effect is localized at an earlier processing level than the phonological facilitation effect. In the present study we examine this issue again, using an experimental design in which the context words in the related and unrelated conditions are optimally matched. In contrast to the earlier studies Experiments 1 and 2 fail to show differences in the time course of the two context effects. Moreover, Experiment 3 provides direct evidence against an early, conceptual locus of orthographic facilitation. Our findings indicate that in Chinese language production both orthographically and phonologically related context words have their effect at the rather late level of word-form encoding.     

The interaction between phonological processing, syntactic awareness, and naming speed in the reading and spelling performance of first-grade children

The performance of 267 first-grade children was examined on tasks assessing phonological processing, syntactic awareness, and naming speed. The children were also given several measures of word and pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, and pseudoword and dictation spelling. A series of hierarchical analyses indicated that three variables (phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, and naming speed) were still predictors of reading and spelling performance after variance in the others had been controlled for. The results, which confirm that syntactic awareness can account for variance in written language after phonological ability had been controlled for, support the hypothesis concerning the relationships between naming-speed processes and written language, and challenge the unitary phonological theory of reading difficulty.     

Speed of phonological and orthographic processing as factors in dyslexia: electrophysiological evidence

The author investigated the hypothesis that speed of processing in the phonological and orthographic systems is one of the underlying variables of word-reading effectiveness. Speed of processing was assessed using measures of behavioral reaction time and electrophysiological latencies during phonological and orthographic task performance. Participants were 20 dyslexic and 20 normal-reading, male college students. An electrophysiological component complex (N1-P2-N2), as well as 2 other components (P3 and N4), was identified in both groups on each of the experimental tasks. Significant group differences were obtained only on the phonological tasks. Speed of processing during phonological judgment tasks was significantly prolonged among the dyslexic readers compared with the controls as reflected by P2, P3, and N4 latencies and reaction time. Between-task comparisons revealed significantly prolonged P2, P3, and N4 latencies on phonological compared with orthographic tasks in both dyslexic and normal readers, indicating that phonological classification of words may demand more time than orthographic classification. However, the gap score between speed of processing on the phonological and orthographic tasks was larger among the dyslexic readers and was observed mainly in P3 latency and reaction time. The highest correlation between word-reading accuracy score and the experimental measures was obtained in the dyslexic group with P3 latency gap score and in the control group with P2 latency gap score. The author proposes that slow phonological processing may cause "asynchrony" between the processing speeds within and between phonological and orthographic systems and may lead to a lack of efficient integration among the various subprocesses activated in reading, may slow down reading rate, and may impair word-reading effectiveness.     

The activation of phonological representations by bilinguals while reading silently: evidence from interlingual homophones

These experiments investigated whether bilinguals activate phonological representations from both of their languages when reading silently in one. The critical stimuli were interlingual homophones (e.g., sank in English and cinq in French). French-English and English-French bilinguals completed an English lexical decision task. Decisions made by French-English bilinguals were significantly faster and more accurate for interlingual homophones than for matched English control words. In subsequent experiments, the homophone facilitation effect in the latency data disappeared when distractors were changed to pseudohomophones, when cognates and interlingual homographs were added to the experiment, and when the proportion of critical stimuli was decreased. However, the homophone effect in the error data remained. In contrast, English-French bilinguals revealed little evidence of an interlingual homophone effect. Several attempts were made to increase the saliency of the nontarget language, however these manipulations produced only a small effect in the error data. These results indicate that the activation of phonological representations can appear to be both language-specific and nonspecific depending on the proficiency of the bilinguals and whether they are reading in their weaker or stronger language.     

Simultaneous activation of reading mechanisms: evidence from a case of deep dyslexia

We report the performance of LC, a deep dyslexic. We investigated extensively her errors according to serial cognitive neuropsychological models of oral reading. Initial evaluation of her reading suggested impaired access to the phonological output lexicon (POL). Impaired grapheme-to-phoneme conversion (GPC) and semantic errors in reading suggested that LC read via an impoverished semantic route. However, a serial model of oral reading could not explain error differences in reading, picture naming, spontaneous speech, and repetition. Neologisms occurred in oral reading but not in spontaneous speech and repetition. Semantic errors in naming exceeded those in oral reading. To account for these different error patterns we propose that the semantic route, the direct route from the orthographic input lexicon to the POL, and GPC activate simultaneously during reading, converging at the POL to constrain phonological selection. These routes are modular but not functionally encapsulated. For LC, the POL receives ambiguous information due to degradation of all routes, causing reading errors.     

Activation of phonological codes during reading: evidence from errors detection and eye movements

This experiment explored the role of phonology in the activation of word meanings when homophonic and nonhomophonic errors were embedded in meaningful texts. The resulting data supported the position that phonological codes are activated very early in eye fixation and are compatible with the verification model of Van Orden (1987).     

The influence of spelling on phonological encoding in word reading, object naming, and word generation

Does the spelling of a word mandatorily constrain spoken word production, or does it do so only when spelling is relevant for the production task at hand? Damian and Bowers (2003) reported spelling effects in spoken word production in English using a prompt-response word generation task. Preparation of the response words was disrupted when the responses shared initial phonemes that differed in spelling, suggesting that spelling constrains speech production mandatorily. The present experiments, conducted in Dutch, tested for spelling effects using word production tasks in which spelling was clearly relevant (oral reading in Experiment 1) or irrelevant (object naming and word generation in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively). Response preparation was disrupted by spelling inconsistency only with the word reading, suggesting that the spelling of a word constrains spoken word production in Dutch only when it is relevant for the word production task at hand.     

The simultaneous activation hypothesis: explaining recovery from deep to phonological dyslexia

Deep dyslexia evolved into phonological dyslexia in one patient. Semantic errors resolved while phonological and derivational errors persisted in reading. Nonword reading improved but remained inferior to word reading. Despite a residual semantic deficit naming improved. The Simultaneous Activation Hypothesis explains recovery from deep to phonological dyslexia and the continued dissociation between reading and naming errors. Partial recovery to all three reading routes increased constraints for word selection at the phonological output lexicon (POL) improving word reading. With recovery, the POL receives additional supportive information from the partially recovered direct oral reading route and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion (GPC) eliminating semantic errors in oral reading. Nonword reading also improved because of partial recovery to all three routes. Semantic errors in naming persisted because additional constraints were unavailable at the POL to activate a phonological entry. Phonological and derivational errors were more frequent in reading than in naming the result of incomplete GPC recovery. Residual nonword reading deficits resulted from incomplete GPC recovery, indicated by the persistence of neologisms in nonwords. The Simultaneous Activation Hypothesis readily accounts for the evolution from deep to phonological dyslexia.     

Impaired activation of the phonological lexicon: effects upon oral reading

The role of the phonological lexicon in oral reading is examined in a patient with a small focal left hemisphere lesion. Impaired access to the patient's phonological lexicon is suggested by a number of findings, including the production of phonemic errors across a variety of tasks; increasing difficulty in word production with increasing word length; and difficulty on tests of homophone and rhyme judgments. Two competing models of reading are tested: the nonlexical ("rules") and the lexical ("no-rules") models. The rules model predicts that a disturbance in the phonological lexicon will result in surface alexia; the no-rules model predicts phonological alexia. Results indicate that the patient's reading is most similar to phonological alexia, providing support for the no-rules model. The applicability of the no-rules model to other forms of acquired alexia is explored.     

Neural dissociation of phonological and visual attention span disorders in developmental dyslexia: FMRI evidence from two case reports

A dissociation between phonological and visual attention (VA) span disorders has been reported in dyslexic children. This study investigates whether this cognitively-based dissociation has a neurobiological counterpart through the investigation of two cases of developmental dyslexia. LL showed a phonological disorder but preserved VA span whereas FG exhibited the reverse pattern. During a phonological rhyme judgement task, LL showed decreased activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus whereas this region was activated at the level of the controls in FG. Conversely, during a visual categorization task, FG demonstrated decreased activation of the parietal lobules whereas these regions were activated in LL as in the controls. These contrasted patterns of brain activation thus mirror the cognitive disorders’ dissociation. These findings provide the first evidence for an association between distinct brain mechanisms and distinct cognitive deficits in developmental dyslexia, emphasizing the importance of taking into account the heterogeneity of the reading disorder.     

Influence of oral language and phonological awareness on children's bilingual reading

The purpose of this study was to assess the roles of oral language and phonological awareness on reading performance in grade 3 bilingual students. Several hierarchical models assessed the best predictors of third grade English and Spanish word attack, word identification and reading comprehension. Predictor variables were measures of phonological awareness, expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, and syntax in both English and Spanish. The results showed that within language contributions of expressive vocabulary and syntax best predicted literacy when compared to phonological awareness measures.     

Pseudoname learning by German-speaking children with dyslexia: evidence for a phonological learning deficit

In 2 experiments, German-speaking dyslexic children (9-year-olds) showed impaired learning of new phonological forms (pseudonames) in a variety of visual-verbal learning tasks. The dyslexic deficit was also found when phonological retrieval cues were provided and when the to-be-learned pseudonames were presented in spoken as well as printed form. However, the dyslexic children showed no name-learning deficit when short, familiar words were used and they also had no difficulty with immediate repetition of the pseudowords. The dyslexic children's difficulty in learning new phonological forms was associated with pseudoword-repetition and naming-speed deficits assessed at the beginning of school, but not with phonological awareness and visual-motor impairments. We propose that the difficulty in learning new phonological forms may affect reading and spelling acquisition via impaired storage of new phonological forms, which serve as phonological underpinnings of the letter patterns of words or parts of words.     

Syllable-internal structure and the sonority hierarchy: Differential evidence from lexical decision,naming, and reading

Treiman (1983) and others have argued that spoken syllables are best characterized not as linear strings of phonemes, but as hierarchically organized units consisting of an onset (initial consonant or consonant cluster) and a rime (the vowel and any following consonants) and that the rime is further divided into a peak or nucleus (the vowel) and a coda (the final consonants). It has also been argued that the sonority (or vowel-likeness) of the consonant closest to the peak, which is a function of its phonetic class, may have an effect on the strength of boundaries determined by the hierarchical division of the syllable (e.g., Treiman, 1984). We examined the evidence for syllable-internal structure and for sonority in two experiments that employed visually presented stimuli and lexical decision, naming, and reading tasks. Our results provide support for the breakdown of the rime into a peak and a coda and for an effect of the sonority of the postvocalic consonant on that break. This pattern occurred only in our lexical decision tasks, so the effect is assumed to be postlexical. We did not find an effect of the onset-rime boundary, perhaps because of an unanticipated effect of word frequency. Our results are discussed in terms of phonological coding in short-term memory.