Rapid Automatized Naming and Learning Disabilities: Does RAN Have a Specific Connection to Reading or Not?

This work is an extension of a study by Waber, Wolff, Forbes, and Weiler (2000 Waber, D. P., Wolff, P. H., Forbes, P. W. and Weiler, M. D. 2000. Rapid automatized naming in children referred for evaluation of heterogeneous learning problems: How specific are naming speed deficits to reading disability?. Child Neuropsychology, 6: 251–261. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in which the specificity of naming speed deficits to reading disability (RD) was examined. One hundred ninety-three children (ages 8 to 11) evaluated for learning disabilities were studied. It was determined how well rapid automatized naming (RAN) discriminated between different diagnostic groups (learning impaired [LI] with and without RD) from controls and from each other. Whereas Waber et al. concluded that RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning disabilities in general, the results of the present study point to a more specific connection between RAN and RD.     

Uncovering Substantive Patterns in Student Responses in International Large-Scale Assessments—Comparing a Latent Class to a Manifest DIF Approach

In this study, we contrast results from two differential item functioning (DIF) approaches (manifest and latent class) by the number of items and sources of items identified as DIF using data from an international reading assessment. The latter approach yielded three latent classes, presenting evidence of heterogeneity in examinee response patterns. It also yielded more DIF items with larger effect sizes and more consistent item response patterns by substantive aspects (e.g., reading comprehension processes and cognitive complexity of items). Based on our findings, we suggest empirically evaluating the homogeneity assumption in international assessments because international populations cannot be assumed to have homogeneous item response patterns. Otherwise, differences in response patterns within these populations may be under-detected when conducting manifest DIF analyses. Detecting differences in item responses across international examinee populations has implications on the generalizability and meaningfulness of DIF findings as they apply to heterogeneous examinee subgroups.     

The effects of ageing and visual noise on conceptual integration during sentence reading

The effortfulness hypothesis implies that difficulty in decoding the surface form, as in the case of age-related sensory limitations or background noise, consumes the attentional resources that are then unavailable for semantic integration in language comprehension. Because ageing is associated with sensory declines, degrading of the surface form by a noisy background can pose an extra challenge for older adults. In two experiments, this hypothesis was tested in a self-paced moving window paradigm in which younger and older readers’ online allocation of attentional resources to surface decoding and semantic integration was measured as they read sentences embedded in varying levels of visual noise. When visual noise was moderate (Experiment 1), resource allocation among young adults was unaffected but older adults allocated more resources to decode the surface form at the cost of resources that would otherwise be available for semantic processing; when visual noise was relatively intense (Experiment 2), both younger and older participants allocated more attention to the surface form and less attention to semantic processing. The decrease in attentional allocation to semantic integration resulted in reduced recall of core ideas in both experiments, suggesting that a less organized semantic representation was constructed in noise. The greater vulnerability of older adults at relatively low levels of noise is consistent with the effortfulness hypothesis.     

Older readers can be distracted by embellishing graphics in text

In most research on graphics in text students learn the content for a test (e.g., Mayer, 2002). The present study examined whether one of the principles from that literature, namely the deleterious effect of extraneous graphic information, would apply to adults who were consulting a leaflet to answer questions. The study used a mixed factorial design with 48 participants from three age bands (young-adult, young-old, old-old). Participants used two leaflets to answer questions, one without graphics and the other with either extraneous embellishing or supportive explanatory graphics. Relative to leaflets without graphics, the old-old participants were significantly slower finding information when leaflets contained embellishing but not explanatory graphics. The graphics had no effect on the other age groups. These findings suggest that either the reading task or the thematic relevance of the extraneous graphics may limit their negative effects for most adults but that negative effects recur for older readers.     

Sentence context modifies compound word recognition: Evidence from eye movements

Two eye movement experiments are reported that examine the influence of sentence context on morphological processing. English compound words which vary in beginning lexeme frequency (Experiment 1) and ending lexeme frequency (Experiment 2) were embedded into sentence contexts that were either predictive of the compound word or were neutral with respect to the compound. A predictable sentence context reduced the effect of beginning lexeme frequency on first fixation and single fixation durations. However, sentence context did not modify effects of beginning and ending lexeme frequency in later fixation measures. These results further support the theoretical position that morphology plays a role at multiple levels within readers' mental lexicons. In addition, these results suggest that access to early morpho-orthographic processes can be influenced by sentence context, a finding that suggests an interactive relationship between sentence context and word recognition.     

Frequency and predictability effects in the Dundee Corpus: An eye movement analysis

Analyses carried out on a large corpus of eye movement data were used to comment on four contentious theoretical issues. The results provide no evidence that word frequency and word predictability have early interactive effects on inspection time. Contrary to some earlier studies, in these data there is little evidence that properties of a prior word generally spill over and influence current processing. In contrast, there is evidence that both the frequency and the predictability of a word in parafoveal vision influence foveal processing. In the case of predictability, the direction of the effect suggests that more predictable parafoveal words produce longer foveal fixations. Finally, there is evidence that information about word class modulates processing over a span greater than a single word. The results support the notion of distributed parallel processing.