A study of hyperlexia

Twelve children with early intense reading and superior word recognition skills coupled with disordered language and cognitive behavior are described. Cognitive, linguistic, and reading measures evidenced a generalized cognitive deficit in forming superordinate schemata which was not specific to visual or auditory modalities. Positive family histories for reading problems were present for 11 of the 12 children, suggesting a relationship between hyperlexia and dyslexia.     

Detection errors on the word the: evidence for reading units larger than letters.

In four experiments, subjects read 100-word passages and circled instances of the letter t. Subjects missed a disproportionate number of ts in the word the. Evidence was provided against explanations of this effect involving the location and pronunciation of the t in the and against an explanation in terms of the redundancy of the. Rather the high frequency of the appeared to be critical, and it was suggested that high-frequency words are read in terms of units larger than the letter.     

Short-term recall of order information: Influence of encoding and generation processes on distinctiveness,isolation, and background effects

We examined the influence of encoding and generation processes on distinctiveness, isolation, and background effects in short-term recall of order information. Adults recalled the order of letters in one of two segments following a distractor task, knowing in advance the identity of the letters. A distinctive letter was one that was either in red or absent and replaced with a red dash, thereby requiring generation. On trials with a distinctive letter, the letter was primed in advance. A negative generation effect was found; in addition, there was a positive distinctiveness effect but a negative background effect on trials in which generation was required. These effects can be explained in terms of the extra processing given to distinctive items when they need to be generated.     

A blank look in reading: the effect of blank space on the identification of letters and words during reading

Two experiments investigated the effect of visual blank space on reading by varying the amount of interletter and interline blank space in prose passages. Increasing interletter blank spacing slowed the reading process overall, presumably because it disrupted the unitization of words and word identification, but it also improved the identification of the letters within words. By contrast, increasing interline blank spacing sped up the reading process overall, while also improving the identification of words and the letters within words, presumably because the extra spacing reduced the amount of visual information that was processed during reading. The latter finding supports the conclusion that information from surrounding lines of single-spaced text may interfere with reading.     

Effects of prolonged work on data entry speed and accuracy

In 2 experiments, participants used a keyboard to enter 4-digit numbers presented on a computer monitor under conditions promoting fatigue. In Experiment 1, accuracy of data entry declined but response times improved over time, reflecting an increasing speed-accuracy trade-off. In Experiment 2, the (largely cognitive) time to enter the initial digit decreased in the 1st half but increased in the 2nd half of the session. Accuracy and time to enter the remaining digits decreased across though not within session halves. The (largely motoric) time to press a concluding keystroke decreased over the session. Thus, through a combination of facilitation and inhibition, prolonged work affects the component cognitive and motoric processes of data entry differentially and at different points in practice.     

Looking on the One We Have Pierced: Repentance,Resurrection, and Winnicott's “Capacity for Concern”

This work presents a view of Christian repentance as a process analogous to the development of Winnicott's capacity for concern and illuminated by Rowan Williams' theology of the Resurrection. One begins with fear of forfeiting one's attachment to the divine good mother, confronts the evidence of one's destructiveness in the Passion of Christ, experiences the risen Christ's object survival and acceptance of reparations, and attains a desire to contribute-in to God and neighbor.     

Effects of training with added difficulties on RADAR detection

Three experiments simulating military RADAR detection addressed a training difficulty hypothesis (training with difficulty promotes superior later testing performance) and a procedural reinstatement hypothesis (test performance improves when training conditions match test conditions). Training and testing were separated by 1 week. Participants detected targets (either alphanumeric characters or vehicle pictures) occurring among distractors. Two secondary tasks were used to increase difficulty (a concurrent, irrelevant tone‐counting task and a sequential, relevant action‐firing response). In Experiment 1 , involving alphanumeric targets with rapid displays, tone counting during training degraded test performance. In Experiment 2, involving vehicle targets with both sources of difficulty and slower presentation times, training under relevant difficulty aided test accuracy. In Experiment 3, involving vehicle targets and action firing with slow presentation times, test accuracy tended to be worst when neither training nor testing involved difficult conditions. These results show boundary conditions for the training difficulty and procedural reinstatement hypotheses. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.