Lexical and sublexical processes in the perception of transposed-letter anagrams

Evidence from priming and lexical decision tasks suggests that nonwords created by transposing adjacent letter pairs (TL nonwords) are very effective in activating lexical representations of their base words, because the process of orthographic matching tolerates minor changes in letter position. However, this account disregards the possible role of sublexical processing in reading. TL nonwords are perceptually ambiguous, with lexical and sublexical processing giving rise to conflicting interpretations. The consequences of this ambiguity were investigated in a lexical decision experiment with primes that were either high or low bigram frequency TL versions of target words. Priming effects were much larger for low BF primes (e.g., pucnh-PUNCH) than for high BF primes (e.g., panit-PAINT). This finding is interpreted as evidence that lexical activation can be inhibited by competing output resulting from sublexical processing of TL letter string. We conclude that phonological processing is an important determinant of responses to TL stimuli, and we consider how this interpretation might be accommodated within the dual-route cascaded (DRC) model of word recognition.     

Improving adolescents' standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat

Standardized tests continue to generate gender and race gaps in achievement despite decades of national attention. Research on “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995) suggests that these gaps may be partly due to stereotypes that impugn the math abilities of females and the intellectual abilities of Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. A field experiment was performed to test methods of helping female, minority, and low-income adolescents overcome the anxiety-inducing effects of stereotype threat and, consequently, improve their standardized test scores. Specifically, seventh-grade students in the experimental conditions were mentored by college students who encouraged them either to view intelligence as malleable or to attribute academic difficulties in the seventh grade to the novelty of the educational setting. Results showed that females in both experimental conditions earned significantly higher math standardized test scores than females in the control condition. Similarly, the students—who were largely minority and low-income adolescents—in the experimental conditions earned significantly higher reading standardized test scores than students in the control condition.     

Prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness in children’s reading

This study examined the relationships among prosodic sensitivity, morphological awareness, and reading ability in a sample of 104 8- to 13-year-olds. Using a task adapted from Carlisle (Applied Psycholinguistics, 9 (1988) 247-266), we measured children’s ability to produce morphological derivations with differing levels of phonological complexity between stem and derivation: No Change, Phonemic Change, Stress Change, and Both Phonemic and Stress Change. A 3 (Grade) × 4 (Derivation Type) analysis of variance showed that children perform significantly more poorly on both types of derivations that involve stress changes than on phonemic change and no change derivations. Regression analyses showed that both prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness, especially in derivations that require manipulation of stress, are significant predictors of reading ability after controlling for age, verbal and nonverbal abilities, and phonological awareness.     

On the segmentation of Chinese words during reading

Given that there are no spaces between words in Chinese, how words are segmented when reading is something of a mystery. Four Chinese characters, which either constituted one 4-character word or two 2-character words, were shown briefly to subjects. Subjects were quite accurate in reporting the 4-character word, but could usually only report the first 2-character word, demonstrating that word segmentation influences character recognition. The results suggest that even with these simple 4-character strings, there is an element of seriality in reading Chinese words: processing is initially focused at least to some extent on the first word. We also found that the processing of characters that are not consistent with the context is inhibited, suggesting inhibition from word representations to character representations. A simple model of Chinese word segmentation and word recognition is presented to account for the data.     

In search of a science‐based application: A learning tool for reading acquisition

This is a story about the fate of a psychological application: from its conception to the optimistic vision surrounding its future. We hope that this application – an enjoyable learning game (www or mobile phone‐based, available free of charge to the end users) for children – can at best help millions of children in their reading acquisition in the future. Its basis was created by following intensively the development of children with (N = 107) and without (N = 92) genetic (familial) risk for dyslexia from birth to puberty in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD)‐project. We summarize some of the major findings of the JLD in order to facilitate understanding of the reasons and logic behind the development of the game. Originally intended as a research tool for reading acquisition, its potential for prevention of reading difficulties was quickly recognized.     

The pars triangularis in dyslexia and ADHD: A comprehensive approach

Limited research has been conducted on the structure of the pars triangularis (PT) in dyslexia despite functional neuroimaging research finding it may play a role in phonological processing. Furthermore, research to date has not examined PT size in ADHD even though the right inferior frontal region has been implicated in the disorder. Hence, one of the purposes of this study was to examine the structure of the PT in dyslexia and ADHD. The other purposes included examining the PT in relation to overall expressive language ability and in relation to several specific linguistic functions given language functioning often is affected in both dyslexia and ADHD. Participants included 50 children: 10 with dyslexia, 15 with comorbid dyslexia/ADHD, 15 with ADHD, and 10 controls. Using a 2 (dyslexia or not) × 2 (ADHD or not) MANCOVA, findings revealed PT length and shape were comparable between those with and without dyslexia. However, children with ADHD had smaller right PT lengths than those without ADHD, and right anterior ascending ramus length was related to attention problems in the total sample. In terms of linguistic functioning, presence of an extra sulcus in the left PT was related to poor expressive language ability. In those with adequate expressive language functioning, left PT length was related to phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory and rapid automatic naming (RAN). Right PT length was related to RAN and semantic processing. Further work on PT morphology in relation to ADHD and linguistic functioning is warranted.     

Does degree of asymmetry relate to performance? An investigation of word recognition and reading in consistent and mixed handers

Is it advantageous to be strongly lateralized? The current study investigated this question by examining the relationship between visual field asymmetries for lexical tasks and reading performance in a sample of 200 young adults. Larger visual field asymmetries were associated with better reading performance, but this relationship was obtained primarily in those with strong and consistent hand preferences. Among mixed handers, variation in visual field asymmetry accounted for little or no variance in reading skill. In addition, correlations between visual field asymmetry and reading performance were observed for word recognition tasks, but not for tasks requiring controlled semantic retrieval. The results are consistent with the idea that consistent and mixed handers may represent differing neurobehavioral populations. Because greater lateralization was associated with better reading skill only for consistent handers, reduced behavioral asymmetry cannot be assumed to be a risk factor for reading dysfunction in the population as a whole.     

The role of low-spatial frequencies in lexical decision and masked priming

Spatial frequency filtering was used to test the hypotheses that low-spatial frequency information in printed text can: (1) lead to a rapid lexical decision or (2) facilitate word recognition. Adult proficient readers made lexical decisions in unprimed and masked repetition priming experiments with unfiltered, low-pass, high-pass and notch filtered letter strings. In the unprimed experiments, a filtered target was presented for 105 or 400 ms followed by a pattern mask. Sensitivity (d′) was lowest for the low-pass filtered targets at both durations with a bias towards a ‘non-word’ response. Sensitivity was higher in the high-pass and notch filter conditions. In the priming experiments, a forward mask was followed by a filtered prime then an unfiltered target. Primed words, but not non-words, were identified faster than unprimed words in both the low-pass and high-pass filtered conditions. These results do not support a unique role for low-spatial frequency information in either facilitating or making rapid lexical decisions.     

Use of derived fact strategies by children with mathematical difficulties

339 children aged 6 and 7 at Oxford primary schools took part in a study of arithmetic. 204 of the children had been selected by their teachers as having mathematical difficulties and the other 135 children were unselected. They were assigned to an Addition Performance Level on the basis of a calculation pretest, and then given Dowker's (1998) test of derived fact strategies in addition, involving strategies based on the Identity, Commutativity, Addend + 1, Addend − 1, and addition/subtraction Inverse principles. The exact arithmetic problems given varied according to the child's previously assessed calculation level and were selected to be just a little too difficult for the child to solve unaided. The technique was used of giving children the answer to a problem and then asking them to solve another problem that could be solved quickly by using this answer, together with the principle under consideration. The children were also given the WISC Arithmetic subtest and the British Abilities Scales Basic Number Skills Subtest. Performance on the standardized arithmetic tests was independently affected by both Addition Performance Level and group membership (unselected children versus those with mathematical difficulties). Derived fact strategy use was affected by Addition Performance Level, but there was no independent effect of group membership.