Phonological priming and orthographic analogies in reading

Recent work has demonstrated that children can use orthographic analogies between the spelling patterns in words to help in decoding new words (e.g., using beak to read peak; Goswami, 1986, 1988). However, one objection has been that these analogy effects may be due to phonological priming. Two experiments examined the phonological priming alternative. In Experiment 1, a single word reading task compared the use of analogies to read words that shared both orthography and phonology (e.g., most-post), that shared orthography only (e.g., most-cost), or that shared phonology only (e.g. most-toast--the phonological priming condition). Limited effects of phonological priming were found. Experiment 2 then presented the same words embedded in prose passages--"real reading." While the orthographic analogy effect remained robust, the small phonological priming effect disappeared. It is argued that phonological priming is an insufficient explanation of the analogy effect at the single word level, and plays no role in the use of analogies in story reading.     

The influence of consistency, frequency, and semantics on learning to read: an artificial orthography paradigm

Two experiments explored learning, generalization, and the influence of semantics on orthographic processing in an artificial language. In Experiment 1, 16 adults learned to read 36 novel words written in novel characters. Posttraining, participants discriminated trained from untrained items and generalized to novel items, demonstrating extraction of individual character sounds. Frequency and consistency effects in learning and generalization showed that participants were sensitive to the statistics of their learning environment. In Experiment 2, 32 participants were preexposed to the sounds of all items (lexical phonology) and to novel definitions for half of these items (semantics). Preexposure to either lexical phonology or semantics boosted the early stages of orthographic learning relative to Experiment 1. By the end of training, facilitation was restricted to the semantic condition and to items containing low-frequency inconsistent vowels. Preexposure reduced generalization, suggesting that enhanced item-specific learning was achieved at the expense of character-sound abstraction. The authors' novel paradigm provides a new tool to explore orthographic learning. Although the present findings support the idea that semantic knowledge supports word reading processes, they also suggest that item-specific phonological knowledge is important in the early stages of learning to read.     

Testing the Role of Phonology in Reading: Focus on Sentence Processing

Most reading research investigating the role of phonology in word recognition has focused on studies employing an individual word as the sole stimulus. The bulk of such research has offered support for the phonological recoding hypothesis, the conjecture that access to a printed word’s meaning requires activation of the word’s phonology (i.e., meaning is not typically activated via orthography alone). A criticism of such studies is that by presenting participants with only a single word on each experimental trial (a nonecological manipulation), participants may alter their typical strategy of reading in such a way as to artificially favor the phonological recoding hypothesis. The present study avoided a focus on single words by requiring participants to read sentences and paragraphs for comprehension. Experiment 1 showed that, in reading a paragraph of connected sentences, eliminating a letter in a word that altered the phonology was more deleterious than eliminating a letter that did. Experiment 2 focused on the reading of each sentence itself rather than on the paragraph and provided additional control conditions. The results were similar to those of Experiment 1, consistent with the phonological recoding hypothesis.     

A ROWS is a ROSE: Spelling,sound, and reading

Skilled readers generally are assumed to make little or no use of words’ phonological features in visual word identification. Contrary to this assumption, college students’ performance in the present reading experiments showed large effects of stimulus word phonology. In Experiments 1 and 2, these subjects produced larger false positive error rates in a semantic categorization task when they responded to stimulus foils that were homophonic to category exemplars (e.g., ROWS for the category A FLOWER) than when they responded to spelling control foils. Additionally, in Experiment 2, this homophony effect was found under brief-exposure pattern-masking conditions, a result consistent with the possibility that phonology is an early source of constraint in word identification. Subjects did, however, correctly reject most homophone foils in Experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 3 investigated the source of this ability. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that subjects detected homophone impostors, such as ROWS, by verifying target foil spellings against their knowledge of the correct spellings of category exemplars, such as ROSE.     

Strategy choices by young Braille readers

The hypotheses that in Braille learning coding strategies change with reading level, and coding differs between normal and retarded readers were tested with oddity judgments by blind children. Experiment 1 showed that strategy choices varied with reading level only in association with mental age. By contrast, shape neglect and preference for phonological strategies were shown by retarded readers rather than by matched normal readers. Experiment 2 showed that under instructions to use given coding strategies the retarded were as accurate as normal readers. Accuracy for all forms of coding increased with reading level, but coding word shape was significantly less accurate than other forms of coding, and even correct coding of shape was no faster than semantic or phonological coding. It is concluded that coding the shape of Braille words is unlikely to be a major factor in producing faster Braille reading, and retarded Braille readers differ from normal readers in their spontaneous choice of strategy rather than in the ability to use the relevant codes.     

Prosodic phonological representations early in visual word recognition

Two experiments examined the nature of the phonological representations used during visual word recognition. We tested whether a minimality constraint (R. Frost, 1998) limits the complexity of early representations to a simple string of phonemes. Alternatively, readers might activate elaborated representations that include prosodic syllable information before lexical access. In a modified lexical decision task (Experiment 1), words were preceded by parafoveal previews that were congruent with a target's initial syllable as well as previews that contained 1 letter more or less than the initial syllable. Lexical decision times were faster in the syllable congruent conditions than in the incongruent conditions. In Experiment 2, we recorded brain electrical potentials (electroencephalograms) during single word reading in a masked priming paradigm. The event-related potential waveform elicited in the syllable congruent condition was more positive 250-350 ms posttarget compared with the waveform elicited in the syllable incongruent condition. In combination, these experiments demonstrate that readers process prosodic syllable information early in visual word recognition in English. They offer further evidence that skilled readers routinely activate elaborated, speechlike phonological representations during silent reading.     

The role of phonology during visual word learning in adults: An integrative review

Throughout their lifetime, adults learn new words in their native lannguage, and potentially also in a second language. However, they do so with variable levels of success. In the auditory word learning literature, some of this variability has been attributed to phonological skills, including decoding and phonological short-term memory. Here I examine how the relationship between phonological skills and word learning applies to the visual modality. I define the availability of phonology in terms of (1) the extent to which it is biased by the learning environment, (2) the characteristics of the words to be learned, and (3) individual differences in phonological skills. Across these three areas of research, visual word learning improves when phonology is made more available to adult learners, suggesting that phonology can facilitate learning across modalities. However, the facilitation is largely specific to alphabetic languages, which have predictable sublexical correspondences between orthography and phonology. Therefore, I propose that phonology bootstraps visual word learning by providing a secondary code that constrains and refines developing orthographic representations.

     

The role of phonology in the activation of word meanings during reading: evidence from proofreading and eye movements.

Six experiments explored the role of phonology in the activation of word meanings when words were embedded in meaningful texts. Specifically, the studies examined whether participants detected the substitution of a homophone mate for a contextually appropriate homophone. The frequency of the incorrect homophone, the frequency of the correct homophone, and the predictability of the correct homophone were manipulated. Also, the impact of reading skill was examined. When correct homophones were not predictable and participants had a range of reading abilities, the evidence indicated that phonology plays a role in activating the meanings of low-frequency words only. When the performance of good and poor readers was examined separately, the evidence indicated that good readers primarily activate the meanings of words using the direct route, whereas poor readers primarily activate the meanings of words using the phonological route.     

The role of assembled phonology in reading comprehension

The contribution of assembled phonology to phonological effects in reading comprehension was assessed. In Experiment 1, subjects judged the acceptability of sentences with regular, exception, and nonword homophone substitutions and orthographic controls. Significantly more errors occurred to sentences with regular-word homophones than to exception words, and error rates for nonword homophones were low and not significant. Experiment 2 showed that this was not due to differences in the sentence frames. In Experiment 3, the subjects judged as unacceptable those sentences containing an exception word that sounded correct when read according to spelling-to-sound rules. Significantly higher error rates occurred only for low-frequency exception words. Experiment 4 showed that task conditions affect semantic-categorization error rates for nonword homophones. These results indicate that both assembled and addressed phonology contribute to sentence and word comprehension, but the low error rate for nonwords suggests that an early lexical check may be applied.     

The effect of phonological neighborhood density on eye movements during reading

Recent research has indicated that phonological neighbors speed processing in a variety of isolated word recognition tasks. Nevertheless, as these tasks do not represent how we normally read, it is not clear if phonological neighborhood has an effect on the reading of sentences for meaning. In the research reported here, we evaluated whether phonological neighborhood density influences reading of target words embedded in sentences. The eye movement data clearly revealed that phonological neighborhood facilitated reading. This was evidenced by shorter fixations for words with large neighborhoods relative to words with small neighborhoods. These results are important in indicating that phonology is a crucial component of reading and that it affects early lexical processing.     

Automatic activation of phonology in silent reading is parallel: evidence from beginning and skilled readers

The picture-word interference paradigm was used to shed new light on the debate concerning slow serial versus fast parallel activation of phonology in silent reading. Prereaders, beginning readers (Grades 1-4), and adults named pictures that had words printed on them. Words and pictures shared phonology either at the beginnings of words (e.g., DOLL-DOG) or at the ends of words (e.g., FOG-DOG). The results showed that phonological overlap between primes and targets facilitated picture naming. This facilitatory effect was present even in beginning readers. More important, from Grade 1 onward, end-related facilitation always was as strong as beginning-related facilitation. This result suggests that, from the beginning of reading, the implicit and automatic activation of phonological codes during silent reading is not serial but rather parallel.     

Vowel processing during silent reading: evidence from eye movements

Two eye movement experiments examined whether skilled readers include vowels in the early phonological representations used in word recognition during silent reading. Target words were presented in sentences preceded by parafoveal previews in which the vowel phoneme was concordant or discordant with the vowel phoneme in the target word. In Experiment 1, the orthographic vowel differed from the target in both the concordant and discordant preview conditions. In Experiment 2, the vowel letters in the preview were identical to those in the target word. The phonological vowel was ambiguous, however, and the final consonants of the previews biased the vowel phoneme either toward or away from the target's vowel phoneme. In both experiments, shorter reading times were observed for targets preceded by concordant previews than by discordant previews. Implications for models of word recognition are discussed.     

新词词素熟悉性影响视觉词切分线索在新词学习中的促进作用

为考察词素熟悉性是否会影响视觉词切分线索在新词学习中的作用,本研究中新词由两类假词构成：第一类假词由两个高频字（高熟悉性词素）组成,第二类假词由两个低频字（低熟悉性词素）组成。实验采用学习-测试范式,将新词镶嵌在句子中供大学生被试阅读。结果发现,相比由低熟悉性词素构成的新词,词间空格在由高熟悉词素构成的新词中起到的促进作用更大。表明在汉语阅读过程中,词素熟悉性可能作为一种线索参与词切分。     

Phonological Short-term Memory and the Learning of Novel Words: The Effect of Phonological Similarity and Item Length

The investigation of a patient with a selective impairment of phonological short-term memory has recently provided evidence that this system may be involved in long-term learning of novel words, for which a pre-existing semantic representation is not available (Baddeley, Papagno, & Vallar, 1988). The present series of experiments in normal subjects explored this hypothesis. We assessed the effects of phonological similarity and item length, which reflect the operation of the phonological short-term store and the rehearsal component of verbal memory, upon paired associate long-term learning of auditorily presented words and non-words. Phonological similarity affected the learning of novel words more than known words (Experiment 1); when a delay was interposed between presentation and recall, the disruptive effect was confined to novel words (Experiment 2). Also word length disrupted the learning of novel words, but not of known words (Experiment 3). These results tie in with neuropsychological evidence to suggest a role for phonological short-term memory in the learning of new words, and they have developmental implications for the study of language acquisition.     

The /O/ in OVER is different from the /O/ in OTTER: phonological effects in children with and without dyslexia

First-letter naming was used to investigate the role of phonology in printed word perception in children with and without dyslexia. In 2 experiments, all children showed faster first-letter-naming times in a congruent condition than in an incongruent condition, which suggests that phonology is a fundamental constraint in the printed word perception of readers of all levels and all skills. An explanation in terms of a recurrent network put forward by G. C. Van Orden and S. D. Goldinger (1996) is discussed to account for the apparent paradox in the reading behavior of readers with dyslexia, that is, that in first-letter naming, dyslexic readers appear to show phonological congruity effects, whereas in pseudoword reading, their phonological knowledge appears to be deficient or absent.     

Becoming a written word: Eye movements reveal order of acquisition effects following incidental exposure to new words during silent reading

We know that from mid-childhood onwards most new words are learned implicitly via reading; however, most word learning studies have taught novel items explicitly. We examined incidental word learning during reading by focusing on the well-documented finding that words which are acquired early in life are processed more quickly than those acquired later. Novel words were embedded in meaningful sentences and were presented to adult readers early (day 1) or later (day 2) during a five-day exposure phase. At test adults read the novel words in semantically neutral sentences. Participants’ eye movements were monitored throughout exposure and test. Adults also completed a surprise memory test in which they had to match each novel word with its definition. Results showed a decrease in reading times for all novel words over exposure, and significantly longer total reading times at test for early than late novel words. Early-presented novel words were also remembered better in the offline test. Our results show that order of presentation influences processing time early in the course of acquiring a new word, consistent with partial and incremental growth in knowledge occurring as a function of an individual’s experience with each word.     

Isolating phonological components that increase tip-of-the-tongue resolution

Three experiments investigated the role of specific phonological components in priming tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) resolution. When in a TOT state, participants read a list of words that included phonological primes intermixed among unrelated words. The phonological primes contained either the same first letter as the target (Experiment 1), a single syllable (first, middle, or last) of the target (Experiment 2), or the first phoneme or first syllable of the target (Experiment 3). Reading first-letter primes in Experiment 1 did not help to resolve TOTs, whereas reading first-syllable primes significantly increased word retrieval in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiments 1 and 2 using first-phoneme primes instead of first-letter primes and using two primes instead of three, although first-syllable priming occurred only for primes read silently. The results of these experiments support a transmission deficit model, where TOTs are caused by weak connections among phonological representations and can be resolved through internal or overt production of specific phonology.     

Is a "Phoenician" reading style superior to a "Chinese" reading style? Evidence from fourth graders

This study compared normally achieving fourth-grade "Phoenician" readers, who identify nonwords significantly more accurately than they do exception words, with "Chinese" readers, who show the reverse pattern. Phoenician readers scored lower than Chinese readers on word identification, exception word reading, orthographic choice, spelling, reading comprehension, and verbal ability. When compared with normally achieving children who read nonwords and exception words equally well, Chinese readers scored as well as these children on word identification, regular word reading, orthographic choice, spelling, reading comprehension, phonological sensitivity, and verbal ability and scored better on exception word reading. Chinese readers also used rhyme-based analogies to read nonwords derived from high-frequency exception words just as often as did these children. As predicted, Phoenician and Chinese readers adopted somewhat different strategies in reading ambiguous nonwords constructed by analogy to high-frequency exception words. Phoenician readers were more likely than Chinese readers to read ambiguous monosyllabic nonwords via context-free grapheme-phoneme correspondences and were less likely to read disyllabic nonwords by analogy to high-frequency analogues. Although the Chinese reading style was more common than the Phoenician style in normally achieving fourth graders, there were similar numbers of poor readers with phonological dyslexia (identifying nonwords significantly more accurately than exception words) and surface dyslexia (showing the reverse pattern), although surface dyslexia was more common in the severely disabled readers. However, few of the poor readers showed pure patterns of phonological or surface dyslexia.     

Age of acquisition, word frequency, and the role of phonology in the lexical decision task

In five experiments, we examined the respective roles of word age of acquisition (AoA) and frequency in the lexical decision task. The two variables were manipulated orthogonally (while controlling for concreteness and length) in fully factorial designs. Experiment 1 was a conventional lexical decision task, and Experiments 2-5 involved various attempts to interfere with reliance upon phonology. In Experiment 2, only orthographically illegal nonwords were used; in Experiment 3, pseudohomophone nonwords; in Experiment 4, articulatory suppression by the recitation of a nursery rhyme; and in Experiment 5, articulatory suppression by the repetition of a single word. The same basic pattern of results was observed in all experiments: There were main effects of both AoA and frequency, which interacted in such a way that the AoA effect was larger for low- than for high-frequency words. Although the AoA effect was reduced by manipulations intended to interfere with phonological processing, the manipulations did not eliminate the effect. The results are discussed in terms of current models of reading in which it is proposed that AoA has its primary effect on the retrieval of lexical phonology, which appears to be consulted automatically in the lexical decision task.