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The study about the phonological code and the orthographic code that the readers use during the Word Identification process is very useful in the theoretical and practical aspects to both reading and reading instruction. Each Chinese character or word is the combination of its shape, sound and meaning and from the combination of the shape and sound to the recognition of meaning is a unique process in reading. Meanwhile, strong results about the phonological and orthographic code have been achieved on learning Chinese as the native language. By analyzing these research achievements, there are many inconsistent results appeared. Basing on the illustration of these problems, the thesis points out some existing problems and provides the solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Journal on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities is the property of American Association on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Numerous studies have shown that a visually presented word is processed most easily when participants initially fixate just to the left of the word's center. Fixating on this optimal viewing position (OVP) results in shorter response times and a lower probability of making additional within-word refixations (OVP effects), but also longer initial-fixation durations (an inverted-OVP or I-OVP effect), as compared to initially fixating at the beginning or the end of the word. Thus, typical curves are u-shaped (or inverted-u-shaped), with a leftward bias. Most researchers explain the u-shape in terms of visual constraints, and the leftward bias in terms of language constraints. Previous studies have demonstrated that (I)-OVP effects are not specific to words, but generalize to object viewing. We further investigated this by comparing the strength and (a)symmetry of (I-)OVP effects for words and objects. To this purpose, we gave participants an object- versus word-naming task in which we manipulated the position at which they initially fixated the stimulus (i.e., a line drawing or the written name of an object). Our results showed that object viewing, just as word viewing, resulted in u-shaped (I-)OVP curves. However, the effect was weaker than for words. Furthermore, for words, the curves were biased to the left, whereas they were symmetrical for objects. This might indicate that part of the (I-)OVP effect for words is language specific, and that (I-)OVP effects for objects are a purer measure of the effect of visual constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of implementing word boxes as a supplemental instruction method on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of word identification and spelling. Word box intervention consists of using manipulatives to learn phonological decoding skills. The participants were three African-American urban first graders identified as at risk. A multiple probe across participants design was used to demonstrate that word box instruction was functionally related to increased acquisition of CVC words read and spelled correctly for two out of the three participants. These participants also demonstrated maintenance for three to seven weeks after acquisition and some generalization to untaught CVC words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study describes the development, piloting and validation procedures for PRAP, an assessment tool created to evaluate Spanish word recognition abilities in Chilean students in grades Kindergarten through third. The central premise of the approach is that successful silent reading comprehension at every level of text difficulty requires three abilities: word identification, language comprehension, and print processing. In the current study we describe the procedures employed to establish construct and concurrent validity for the PRAP, and show that automatic word recognition is Spanish is strongly related to reading comprehension. The use of assessment tools to monitor the development of word recognition skills with validity and reliability is extremely useful in countries such as Chile, especially because there are only a handful of Spanish word recognition assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a long-lasting dispute whether serif or sans serif fonts are more legible. However, different fonts vary on numerous visual parameters, not just serifs. We investigated whether a difference in word identification can be attributed to the presence or absence of serifs or to the contrast of the letter stroke. Participants performed a word-recognition two-interval, forced-choice task (Exp. 1) and a classic lexical decision task (Exp. 2). In both experiments the word stimuli were set with four new fonts, which were developed to isolate the stylistic features of serif and letter-stroke contrast. Two measures (i.e., font-size threshold & sensitivity) were analysed. The threshold measure of both experiments yielded a single significant main effect of stroke contrast such that low stroke contrast elicited lower than high stroke contrast. The sensitivity measure of Experiment 1 yielded a single significant effect of the interaction between serifs and stroke contrast. Specifically, at the sans-serif level, low stroke contrast revealed better sensitivity, relative to high stroke contrast. At the serif level, the opposite stroke contrast pattern was observed. Sans serif fonts with low stroke contrast yield better performance and if a serif font is used, high stroke contrast yields better performance than low stroke contrast. Limitations and future directions are discussed. • We investigated if word-identification performance varied as a function of the presence or absence of serifs and low or high letter-stroke contrast. • Sans serif fonts were read at smaller font sizes when they had low stroke contrast • The data for the serif fonts followed the reverse pattern; identifiable at smaller font sizes when they had high stroke contrast. • The study moves away from an often-seen recommendation of specific fonts for reading, towards a recommendation of font characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to comprehend speech, listeners have to combine low-level phonetic information about the incoming auditory signal with higher-order contextual information to make a lexical selection. This requires stable phonological categories and unambiguous representations of words in the mental lexicon. Unlike native speakers, second language (L2) speakers, who perceive nonnative sounds through the prism of their first language (L1), operate with fuzzy phonological categories, which lead to phonologically ambiguous lexical representations (e.g., the words rock and lock can be confused if phonological representations for /r/ and /l/ are not sufficiently robust). The present study uses the AX discrimination task to establish the degree of sensitivity of L2 listeners to the Russian hard/soft phonological contrast. The same phonological contrasts are then used in the stimuli for the second task-listening comprehension task with word identification-to mark semantic, syntactic, and morphological distinctions in words. The goal of the study is to examine the contributions and relative efficiency of different contextual constraints (semantic, syntactic, and morphological) to the resolution of phonolexical ambiguity in L2 auditory sentence processing. The results suggest that when L2 phonological contrasts present a discriminability problem and create phonolexical ambiguity, L2 listeners rely on morphological constraints for disambiguation of word forms and syntactic constraints for disambiguation of words belonging to different parts of speech to a greater extent than on semantic constraints for disambiguation of nouns in the same form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] AA1, with VWFA damage, exhibited a reading deficit characteristic of pure alexia. [•] AA1 was unable to learn an artificial orthography comprising face-phoneme pairs. [•] AA1 was able to learn and decode an orthography comprising face-syllable mappings. [•] Impaired FaceFont acquisition supports a linguistic bridge account of the VWFA. [•] Pure alexia has a phonological aspect and is not strictly a visuo-perceptual deficit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A thorough understanding of monosyllabic-word-recognition processes, in contrast with multisyllabic-word processing, has accumulated over the past decades. One fundamental challenge regarding multisyllabic words concerns their parsing into smaller units and the nature of the cues determining the parsing. We propose that the organization of consonant and vowel letters provides powerful cues for parsing, and we present data from a new task showing that a word’s orthographic structure, as determined by the number of vowel-letter clusters, influences estimations of its length. Words were briefly presented on a computer screen, and participants had to estimate word length by drawing a line on the screen with the mouse. In three experiments, participants estimated words comprising fewer orthographic units as shorter than words comprising more units even though the words matched for number of letters. Further results demonstrated that the length bias was driven by orthographic information and not by phonological structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined the effect of emphasis and word position on word identification by postlingually deafened adult cochlear implant (CI) listeners ( n = 20). These participants performed an identification task where Swedish (quasi-) minimal pairs were drawn from sentences and presented in a carrier sentence framework. It was found that emphasised stimuli were not identified more accurately than unemphasised stimuli. A regression analysis revealed a significant main effect for words drawn from the initial position in a sentence, however there was no interaction between original word position and emphasis. Post hoc analysis of the stimuli revealed that variations in the mean intensity of items arising from their original position in the sentence or emphasis status were unlikely to account for these results. These findings have implications for those who communicate regularly with CI listeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Alphanumeric RAN is more strongly related to word-specific than general orthographic knowledge. [•] Non-alphanumeric RAN is more strongly related to general than word-specific orthographic knowledge. [•] Phonological recoding is more strongly related to word-specific than general orthographic knowledge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The study investigated the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and novel word reading. Fourth-grade students were assessed on standardized measures of word identification, decoding, and receptive vocabulary, as well as on an experimental word identification measure using words that students in the fourth grade are unlikely to have seen before in print. In the experimental measure, pairs of words were matched on printed frequency and orthographic pattern (with a variety of spelling patterns represented), but differed in terms of the frequency of expected oral exposure for children (i.e., higher vs. lower). Results showed that students' receptive vocabulary knowledge was significantly related to performance on both the standardized and experimental measures of word identification, even after accounting for the substantial amount of variance explained by decoding ability. Students performed better reading the words with higher expected oral frequencies on the experimental task than on those items with lower expected oral frequencies. The results point to the benefits, albeit modest, of oral word familiarity for reading words when they are first encountered in print and suggest that this top-down effect is not limited to exception words, as has been suggested, but has a wider scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent research with college-aged skilled readers by Adelman and colleagues revealed that contextual diversity (i.e., the number of contexts in which a word appears) is a more critical determinant of visual word recognition than mere repeated exposure (i.e., word frequency) (Psychological Science, 2006, Vol. 17, pp. 814–823). Given that contextual diversity has been claimed to be a relevant factor to word acquisition in developing readers, the effects of contextual diversity should also be a main determinant of word identification times in developing readers. A lexical decision experiment was conducted to examine the effects of contextual diversity and word frequency in young readers (children in fourth grade). Results revealed a sizable effect of contextual diversity, but not of word frequency, thereby generalizing Adelman and colleagues’ data to a child population. These findings call for the implementation of dynamic developmental models of visual word recognition that go beyond a learning rule by mere exposure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We report a boundary paradigm eye movement experiment to investigate whether the linguistic category of a two-character Chinese string affects how the second character of that string is processed in the parafovea during reading. We obtained clear preview effects in all conditions but, more importantly, found parafoveal-on-foveal effects whereby a nonsense preview of the second character influenced fixations on the first character. This effect occurred for monomorphemic words, but not for compound words or phrases. Also, in a word boundary demarcation experiment, we demonstrate that Chinese readers are not always consistent in their judgements of which characters in a sentence constitute words. We conclude that information regarding the combinatorial properties of characters in Chinese is used online to moderate the extent to which parafoveal characters are processed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Optimal Viewing Position (OVP) effect shows that word identification is best when the eyes first fixate near the centre of words. While this effect has been extensively studied in normal reading conditions, it has not been much investigated for words in the periphery. Here, we compared, in a perceptual identification task, the OVP effect for words presented either on the line of sight or in the lower visual field. Results confirmed the existence of an OVP effect for both central and vertically-shifted words but this effect was significantly weaker in the lower visual field. This finding provides further evidence for an important role of letter visibility in determining the shape of the OVP phenomenon. It also indicates that aligning the eyes with the centre of words is not as critical for vertically-shifted words. Implications for patients with central field loss who are forced to read in the periphery are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study aimed at examining sensitivity to lateral linguistic and nonlinguistic information in third and fifth grade readers. A word identification task with a threshold was used, and targets were displayed foveally with or without distractors. Sensitivity to lateral information was inferred from the deterioration of the rate of correct word identification when displayed with distractors. Results show that the two reader groups were sensitive to both right and left lateral information. The area of sensitivity to this information was more extended for the identification of easy words than difficult words. Examination of the detrimental effect of distractors suggests that in both third and fifth graders, the impact of lateral information on foveal processing is the result of a general distraction effect, but also of linguistic processing whose nature remains to be clarified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

While prior knowledge of a passage topic is known to facilitate comprehension, little is known about how it affects word identification. We examined oral reading errors in good and poor readers when reading a passage where they either had prior knowledge of the passage topic or did not. Children who had prior knowledge of the topic were matched on decoding skill to children who did not know the topic so that the groups differed only on knowledge of the passage topic. Prior knowledge of the passage topic was found to significantly increase fluency and reduce reading errors, especially errors based on graphic information, in poor readers. Two possible mechanisms of how prior knowledge might operate to facilitate word identification were evaluated using the pattern of error types, as was the relationship of errors to comprehension. Implications of knowledge effects for assessment and educational policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various phenomena in tachistoscopic word identification and priming (WRODS and LTRS are confused with and prime WORDS and LETTERS) suggest that position-specific channels are not used in the processing of letters in words. Previous approaches to this issue have sought alternative matching rules because they have assumed that these phenomena reveal which stimuli are good but imperfect matches to a particular word such imperfect matches being taken by the word recognition system as partial evidence for that word. The new Letters in Time and Retinotopic Space model (LTRS) makes the alternative assumption that these phenomena reveal the rates at which different features of the stimulus are extracted, because the stimulus is ambiguous when some features are missing from the percept. LTRS is successfully applied to tachistoscopic identification and form priming data with manipulations of duration and target-foil and prime-target relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The self-teaching hypothesis suggests that children learn orthographic structure of words through the experience of phonologically recoding them. The current study is an individual differences analysis of the self-teaching hypothesis. A total of 40 children in Grades 2 and 3 (7–9years of age) completed tests of phonological recoding, word identification, and orthographic knowledge. The relation of phonological recoding and word identification was significantly mediated by orthographic knowledge. Furthermore, two aspects of orthographic knowledge (perhaps word-specific and general orthographic knowledge) mediated different variance shared between phonological recoding and word identification. Results support an individual differences version of the self-teaching hypothesis and emphasize the importance of phonological recoding in the primary curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In a previous study, we demonstrated that word recognition performance was reduced when the low-frequency components of speech (0–1.2kHz) were distorted by temporal jittering, but not when they were distorted by spectral smearing (). Temporal jittering distorts the fine structure of the speech signal with negligible alteration of either its long-term spectral or amplitude envelope characteristics. Spectral smearing simulates the effects of broadened auditory filters that occur with cochlear hearing loss (). In the present study, the high-frequency components of speech (1.2–7kHz) were distorted with jittering and smearing. Word recognition in noise for both distortion conditions was poorer than in the intact condition. However, unlike our previous study, no significant difference was found in word recognition performance in the two distorted conditions. Whereas temporal distortion seems to have a deleterious effect that cannot be attributed to spectral distortion when only the lower frequencies are distorted, when the higher frequencies are distorted both temporal and spectral distortion reduce speech intelligibility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Secondary-level students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds who struggle with reading need strategies for aligning new information with their previous knowledge as well as for obtaining and retaining essential information from the text. Important components of all secondary literacy support must include instruction in word identification, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sibley et al. (2008) report a recurrent neural network model designed to learn wordform representations suitable for written and spoken word identification. The authors claim that their sequence encoder network overcomes a key limitation associated with models that code letters by position (e.g., CAT might be coded as C-in-position-1, A-in-position-2, T-in-position-3). The problem with coding letters by position (slot-coding) is that it is difficult to generalize knowledge across positions; for example, the overlap between CAT and TOMCAT is lost. Although we agree this is a critical problem with many slot-coding schemes, we question whether the sequence encoder model addresses this limitation, and we highlight another deficiency of the model. We conclude that alternative theories are more promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between cognitive and reading measures in third and fourth grade children were analyzed using path modeling. Third graders were tested in word identification, pseudo word reading, orthographic speed, rapid naming, and oral vocabulary knowledge. In third and fourth grades, the students were tested in oral reading fluency and in reading comprehension with a statewide reading test. Path modeling using word identification, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension as dependent variables indicated a very good fit (normed fit index of .99 for both third and fourth grades). The pattern of predictors differed depending on the reading outcome variable. The independent predictors of oral reading fluency were oral vocabulary knowledge, pseudo word reading, rapid naming, and a novel test of orthographic speed. The test of orthographic speed also made a unique contribution to word identification. Oral vocabulary knowledge was a unique predictor of reading comprehension for both models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Six kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties were taught to tutor each other and provide accurate feedback with the use of a prerecorded sight word model. Students were taught the components of reciprocal peer tutoring and were asked to tutor each other on unknown, phonetically irregular sight words. An A-B-A-B reversal design embedded within a multiple baseline design showed that prerecorded sight words increased students' accurate feedback during peer tutoring and testing. In addition, most students' word identification scores increased from pre- to posttests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We distinguish between grasping gestures associated with using an object for its intended purpose (functional) and those used to pick up an object (volumetric) and we develop a novel experimental framework to show that both kinds of knowledge are automatically evoked by objects and by words denoting those objects. Cued gestures were carried out in the context of depicted objects or visual words. On incongruent trials, the cued gesture was not compatible with gestures typically associated with the contextual item. On congruent trials, the gesture was compatible with the item’s functional or volumetric gesture. For both gesture types, response latency was longer for incongruent trials indicating that objects and words elicited both functional and volumetric manipulation knowledge. Additional evidence, however, clearly supports a distinction between these two kinds of gestural knowledge. Under certain task conditions, functional gestures can be evoked without the associated activation of volumetric gestures. We discuss the implication of these results for theories of action evoked by objects and words, and for interpretation of functional imaging results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In reading, fixation durations are longer when the eyes fall near the center of words than when fixation occurs toward the words' ends--the inverted-optimal viewing position (I-OVP) effect. This study assessed whether the I-OVP effect was based on the fixation position in the word or the fixation position in the visual stimulus. In Experiments 1-3, words were presented at variable locations within longer strings of symbols. On trials with short fixation durations, there were effects of fixation position in the string. When long fixations were made, there were effects of fixation position in the word. In Experiment 4, an I-OVP effect was found for meaningless number strings, and its strength depended on the task's processing demands. The findings show that (a) the I-OVP effect is unrelated to orthographic informativeness and (b) the eyes are not constrained to spend more time at the center of visual stimuli. These results support a perceptual-economy account: Fixations are held longer when the eyes are estimated to be at locations in words/stimuli in which greater amounts of information are anticipated. Implications for eye movements in reading are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psychologie Française is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examined word identification skills between two groups of college students with different first language (L1) backgrounds (Chinese and Korean) learning to read English as a second language (ESL). Word identification skills were tested in a naming experiment and an auditory category judgment task. Both groups of ESL learners demonstrated faster and more accurate naming performance on high-frequency words than low-frequency words and faster and more accurate naming performance on regular words than exception words. Moreover, for both groups, the difference in naming accuracies between regular and exception words was more pronounced for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words. An L1 effect was observed: The Korean students were overall more accurate than were the Chinese students in naming all categories of words. Furthermore, the Korean students showed a higher percentage of regularization errors in naming low-frequency exception words than did Chinese students. The Korean students were also more accurate and faster in auditory meaning retrieval than were the Chinese students. These findings contribute to current knowledge about whether learning to read a second language (L2) involves universal or language-specific processes. Our findings suggest that L2 readers with different L1 orthographic backgrounds engage in both universal and language-specific processes. On the one hand, properties of the L2 writing system affect L2 processing similarly across learners irrespective of L1 backgrounds. On the other hand, L1 reading experiences also come into play in L2 reading. Particularly, systematic differences exist in L2 processing among learners with alphabetic and nonalphabetic L1 backgrounds, as would be predicted from crossinguistic analyses. We argue for an interactive view of L2 reading. The properties of both L1 and L2 interact with one another, jointly contributing to L2 reading processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This current study introduced a new method to investigate the prevalence and correlates of significant imbalances in the relative accuracy with which eighth-graders read nonwords (e.g., prauma) and exception words (e.g., vaccine). Substantial proportions of students showed imbalanced word-reading profiles, but these were not strongly tied to differences in reading and spelling achievement. Of the students without reading difficulties, 19% had imbalanced word-reading profiles favoring exception words and 17% had imbalanced word-reading profiles favoring nonwords. Of the poor readers, 39% met the criterion for phonological dyslexia (with imbalanced word-reading profiles favoring exception words) and 14% met the criterion for surface dyslexia (with imbalanced word-reading profiles favoring nonwords) in relation to the eighth-grade benchmark readers, but the incidence of these types of dyslexia varied with verbal ability. Of the poor readers with normal verbal ability, 60% were classified as phonological dyslexics and none was classified as surface dyslexic. In students low in verbal ability, surface dyslexia was more common. However, when imbalanced word-reading profiles were defined in relation to fourth-grade reading-level controls, only 12 phonological dyslexics and 1 surface dyslexic were identified. Relatively few cases of either type of developmental dyslexia appeared to be “pure.” [Copyright &y& Elsevier]