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Copyright of Dirasat: Educational Sciences is the property of University of Jordan 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.)

Background: The evidence-base of therapy studies for reading difficulties is notably sparse, particularly for individuals with deep dyslexia. Research using grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence approaches to remediate the non-lexical reading route in deep dyslexia have been reported but with limited therapy success. The approach of bigraph-syllable blending training has met with some success enabling individuals with deep dyslexia to read single words containing these bigraphs. Aims: This study compares the effects of the bigraph-syllable pairing training method on oral reading for mid-high and low-frequency bigraphs in training and generalization items in an individual with deep dyslexia (DT). To inform the clinical practice, we also analysed DT's ability to engage with the therapy cues (i.e. ability to process, generate and utilize the cues) to determine the most responsive component of the cueing hierarchy. Methods & Procedures: Detailed assessment indicated that DT showed deep dyslexia with severe difficulties reading non-words, alongside imageability effects and production of semantic errors. A single-subject multiple probe across behaviour design was employed to evaluate the efficacy of bigraph-syllable pairing therapy for training and generalization of bigraph sets containing mid-high and low-frequency bigraphs. DT's engagement with the therapy cues were tracked across each of the therapy sessions. Generalisation effects were evaluated by measuring performance on untrained bigraph stimuli and change in performance from pre- to post-therapy on single word reading subtests. Outcomes & Results: Results reveal that post-therapy DT showed improvement in reading aloud for both mid-high and low frequency trained bigraphs, albeit to a different degree. Mid-high frequency bigraphs showed greater therapy effects than the low-frequency bigraphs. DT demonstrated that writing and copying were the most beneficial cues in supporting DT's oral reading of bigraphs. He did not show any generalization to untrained bigraphs, but illustrated a reduction in imageability effects with improved reading accuracy for low-imageability single words, and improved ability to name letters. Post-therapy, he showed a significant reduction in omission errors and a significant increase in unclassifiable errors in reading aloud. Conclusions & Implications: This study demonstrated the efficacy of bigraph-syllable pairing training for improving oral reading abilities and reducing the imageability effects in an individual with deep dyslexia. The findings from client's responsiveness with different cues during the therapy showed that writing and coping is a useful strategy for improving reading aloud abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep dyslexia is characterized by the production of semantic errors (e.g., reading the word weird aloud as odd) during oral reading and greater difficulty reading aloud abstract words than concrete words. In this paper, we examine whether deep dyslexia affects higher-order semantic processing; namely, metaphor comprehension. To that end, we asked GL, a participant with deep dylexia, to rate novel metaphors (e.g., language is a bridge) for comprehensibility. The topics of the metaphors (e.g., " language" in the item above) varied on concreteness, such that they were either abstract or concrete. Also, the semantic neighbourhood density (SND) of the constituent nouns (e.g., " language ", " bridge ") was manipulated. In addition to metaphors, GL also rated literal (e.g., a gorilla is an ape) and semantically anomalous sentences (e.g., arrival is a shoestring). GL rated the literal sentences as maximally comprehensible and he also rated the abstract-low SND metaphors as comprehensible. However, other, more semantically rich metaphors (i.e., those with concrete constituents or high-SND constituents) were treated as non-comprehensible with ratings indistinguishable from ratings given to anomalous sentences. We discuss how GL's data align with models of deep dyslexia and metaphor processing. • GL, a participant with deep dyslexia, rated metaphors varying in semantic richness for comprehensibility • Semantically sparse metaphors were rated comprehensible whereas semantically rich metaphors were rated anomalous. • Established theories of deep dyslexia and metaphor processing are considered in interpreting the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this case study was to test the failure of inhibition theory of deep dyslexia (FIT; Buchanan, McEwen, Westbury, & Libben, 2003) with concrete and abstract words. FIT proposes that in deep dyslexia, errors to abstract words are the result of an impairment in phonological output lexicon selection rather than a semantic deficit for abstract words. FIT also proposes a dissociation between explicit phonological lexicon production (can be compromised) and implicit access of representations (is intact). With such assumptions it follows that in phonologically implicit tasks where controls demonstrate either concreteness or abstractness effects, a participant with deep dyslexia would similarly show concreteness or abstractness effects. However, for explicit tasks where production is involved, a participant with deep dyslexia would only show concreteness effects due to difficulty with abstract word production, indicative of their difficulty with phonological output lexicon selection which is more compromised for abstract words because semantic content cannot guide the selection. Experiments 1–3 used phonologically implicit tasks (i.e., concrete categorization task, semantic relatedness task, and iconicity judgment task) and Experiment 4 used an explicit task (i.e., oral word-reading task). The results supported the hypotheses and are consistent with FIT as an explanation for the locus of impairment in deep dyslexia. • In a deep dyslexic, implicit semantic processing of abstract words was intact. • Both abstractness and concreteness effects were demonstrated in implicit tasks. • Only concreteness effects were demonstrated in an explicit task. • Results support the failure of inhibition theory of deep dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arabic orthography is complex, partly as a consequence of variations in orthographic connectivity. In this article, we present the case study of CHS, an Arabic individual with deep dyslexia associated with letter-by-letter reading. In the experimental study, we specifically explored the influence of orthographic connectivity on CHS's word recognition and reading abilities. Our results show that CHS's performance was better preserved for words and non-words made up of connected letters than made up of non-connected letters. CHS demonstrated impairment of visuoperceptual mechanisms, which affected the processing of complex orthographic material. These results provide insight into the cognitive processes associated with reading Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on KJ, a patient with acquired dyslexia due to cerebral artery infarction. He represents an unusually clear case of an “output” deep dyslexic reader, with a distinct pattern of pure semantic reading. According to current neuropsychological models of reading, the severity of this condition is directly related to the degree of impairment in semantic and phonological representations and the resulting imbalance in the interaction between the two word processing pathways. The present work sought to examine whether an innovative eye movement supported intervention combining lexical and segmental therapy would strengthen phonological processing and lead to an attenuation of the extreme semantic over-involvement in KJ's word identification process. Reading performance was assessed before (T1) between (T2) and after (T3) therapy using both analyses of linguistic errors and word viewing patterns. Therapy resulted in improved reading aloud accuracy along with a change in error distribution that suggested a return to more sequential reading. Interestingly, this was in contrast to the dynamics of moment-to-moment word processing, as eye movement analyses still suggested a predominantly holistic strategy, even at T3. So, in addition to documenting the success of the therapeutic intervention, our results call for a theoretically important conclusion: Real-time letter and word recognition routines should be considered separately from properties of the verbal output. Combining both perspectives may provide a promising strategy for future assessment and therapy evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep dyslexia is a written language disorder characterized by poor reading of non-words, and advantage for concrete over abstract words with production of semantic, visual and morphological errors. In this single case study of an Arabic patient with input deep dyslexia, we investigated the impact of graphic features of Arabic on manifestations of reading impairments through experimental tasks. Semitic languages like Arabic have particular graphic features allowing the assessment of the influence of global word form on manifestations of deep dyslexia. Our results suggest that reading Arabic relies on the global visual word form when the phonological route no longer functions, as in deep dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of acquired dyslexias in Spanish speakers have been the subject of intense debate due to the effect of the orthographic transparency of Spanish. For some authors, this transparency implies that reading must always be phonologically mediated and that the dual-route reading models and patterns of acquired dyslexia described in English-speaking patients are not applicable to Spanish speakers. Other authors have reported on cases of Spanish speakers that fit into the cognitive typology. We reviewed all publications on acquired dyslexia in Spanish speakers with three intentions: to verify if the patterns observed were in keeping with the cognitive typology mentioned above; to analyse the influence of the method of study on findings; and to consider which theoretical approach best explains them. As a result of the review, we could unmistakably identify cognitive acquired dyslexia patterns and conclude that cognitive dual-route models can explain the characteristics of acquired dyslexia in Spanish-speaking patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first reports of phonological, surface and deep dyslexia come from orthographies containing quasi-regular mappings between orthography and phonology including English and French. Slovakian is a language with a relatively transparent orthography and hence a mostly regular script. The aim of this study was to investigate impaired oral reading in Slovakian. A novel diagnostic procedure was devised to determine whether disorders of Slovakian reading resemble characteristics in other languages. Slovakian speaking aphasics showed symptoms similar to phonological dyslexia and deep dyslexia in English and French, but there was no evidence of surface dyslexia. The findings are discussed in terms of the orthographic depth hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is not clear how compound words are represented within the influential framework of the lemma-lexeme theory. Theoretically, compounds could be structured through a multiple lemma architecture, in which the lemma nodes of both the compound and its constituents are involved in lexical processing. If this were the case, syntactic properties of both the compound and its constituents should play a role when performing tasks involving compound processing, e.g., compound-word reading. This issue is investigated in the present study through an assessment of the performance of a deep dyslexic patient (GR) in three compound-reading experiments. In the first experiment, verb–noun (VN) compound nouns (e.g., lavapiatti, “dishwasher”, lit. wash-dishes) were employed as stimuli, while in the second, VN compound stimuli were embedded in sentences, and were compared to paired verb phrases (e.g., lui lava piatti, “he washes dishes”). Position-specific effects were ruled out by means of a third experiment, which investigated the retrieval of noun-noun compounds (e.g., pescespada, “swordfish”, lit. fishsword). In experiment 1, GR made errors on the verb constituent more frequently than on the noun, an effect that did not emerge in Experiment 2: when embedded in sentences, VN compounds were read significantly better than verb-phrases and no grammatical-class effect emerged. In Experiment 3, the first and the second constituent were read with the same level of accuracy. The disproportionate impairment, which emerged in reading the verb component of nominal VN compounds, indicates that the grammatical properties of constituents are being retrieved, and thus confirms access to the constituent lemma-nodes. However, the results suggested a whole-word representation when compounds are embedded in sentences; since the sentence context affects the access to compounds through syntactic constraints, whole-word representation is arguably at the lemma level as well (multiple-lemma representation). Experiment 3 indicates that these effects cannot be accounted for by a position-specific impairment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This investigation moves beyond the traditional studies of word reading to identify how the production complexity of words affects reading accuracy in an individual with deep dyslexia (JO). We examined JO’s ability to read words aloud while manipulating both the production complexity of the words and the semantic context. The classification of words as either phonetically simple or complex was based on the Index of Phonetic Complexity. The semantic context was varied using a semantic blocking paradigm (i.e., semantically blocked and unblocked conditions). In the semantically blocked condition words were grouped by semantic categories (e.g., table, sit, seat, couch), whereas in the unblocked condition the same words were presented in a random order. JO’s performance on reading aloud was also compared to her performance on a repetition task using the same items. Results revealed a strong interaction between word complexity and semantic blocking for reading aloud but not for repetition. JO produced the greatest number of errors for phonetically complex words in semantically blocked condition. This interaction suggests that semantic processes are constrained by output production processes which are exaggerated when derived from visual rather than auditory targets. This complex relationship between orthographic, semantic, and phonetic processes highlights the need for word recognition models to explicitly account for production processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We studied the reading performance of 340 consecutive, Italian-speaking aphasics in order to evaluate the clinical features of deep dyslexia, the functional impairments underlying semantic paralexias, and their neuranatomical correlates. Semantic paralexias were observed in 9/340 subjects (2.4%). Our data and a review of the literature show that most deep dyslexics suffer from superficial and deep vascular damage in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery, and that they are relatively young, well-educated individuals, in the chronic stage of their disease. In these subjects, perisylvian damage might be mainly responsible for damage to sublexical grapheme–phoneme Conversion (GPC) procedures, and extrasylvian damage for lexical–semantic impairment. Semantic paralexias might originate in the right hemisphere, or in left perilesional regions. The functional impairment underlying deep dyslexia was analyzed with specific reference to the summation hypothesis, i.e., to the hypothesis that in reading, GPC procedures interact with lexical–semantic information, thus blocking semantically incorrect responses. On this account, semantic paralexias should only occur when, in the presence of lexical–semantic damage, GPC rules are disrupted to the point that the interaction can no longer take place. In agreement with the hypothesis, only cases with co-occurring lexical–semantic and GPC damage produced semantic paralexias; and, these were the subjects with the most severe GPC damage. The inability to apply approximately 45% GPC mappings is the critical level of sublexical damage that no longer allows GPC procedures to interact with lexical–semantic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adult oral reading in consistent orthographies, like Spanish, is argued to proceed through sublexical spelling-to-sound conversion. Hence, it was surprising that Davies and Cuetos (2005) observed a Spanish-speaking aphasic patient, MJ, who showed some capacity to read words aloud—producing many semantic errors—alongside an inability to read nonwords. MJ's symptoms are congruent with deep dyslexia. We investigated whether her reading could be improved through therapy addressing those deep dyslexic symptoms (de Partz, 1986). Aims: We expected to see joint improvement in word and nonword reading if therapy aimed at facilitating improvement in nonword reading succeeded, due to the consistency of the orthography. We hypothesised that occurrence of semantic paralexias in reading should decrease as reading skills improved. Alternatively, if therapy had led to the establishment of a lexical-semantic reading strategy not available to the patient before injury, then we anticipated the possibility that semantic errors could actually increase in occurrence as more therapy was received over time. Methods & Procedures: Our study began 18 months after MJ's brain injury, and continued over 2 years. Training was given in completing spelling-sound mappings at the level of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, syllables and words, in phoneme awareness and the combination of phonemes, and in word-picture association. We tested oral reading with the same word and nonword stimuli at four time points through the period of our investigation. We analysed accuracy and error types. Outcomes & Results: By the end of our investigation, MJ presented near-normal word reading and greatly improved, though still impaired, nonword reading. Production of semantic errors disappeared. Thus, adding to some previous case studies (Friedman, 1996), our patient's symptoms evolved from those typical of deep dyslexia to those typical of phonological dyslexia. Conclusions: Our findings show that, even in a language with a transparent orthography, readers can be aided by therapy addressing both lexical and non-lexical reading. The implication is that premorbid reading in a transparent orthography may depend on lexical and non-lexical reading. This conclusion is supported by the superior improvement of word compared to nonword reading, and by the decline in production of semantic paralexias accompanying the improvement in reading performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acquired deep dyslexia is characterised by impairment in grapheme-phoneme conversion and production of semantic errors in oral reading. Several theories have attempted to explain the production of semantic errors in deep dyslexia, some proposing that they arise from impairments in both grapheme-phoneme and lexical-semantic processing, and others proposing that such errors stem from a deficit in phonological production. Whereas both views have gained some acceptance, the limited evidence available does not clearly eliminate the possibility that semantic errors arise from a lexical-semantic input-processing deficit. Aims: To investigate semantic processing in deep dyslexia this study examined the typicality effect in deep dyslexic individuals, phonological dyslexic individuals, and controls using an online category verification paradigm. This task requires explicit semantic access without speech production, focusing observation on semantic processing from written or spoken input. Methods & Procedures: To examine the locus of semantic impairment, the task was administered in visual and auditory modalities with reaction time as the primary dependent measure. Nine controls, six phonological dyslexic participants, and five deep dyslexic participants completed the study. Outcomes & Results: Controls and phonological dyslexic participants demonstrated a typicality effect in both modalities, while deep dyslexic participants did not demonstrate a typicality effect in either modality. Conclusions: These findings suggest that deep dyslexia is associated with a semantic processing deficit. Although this does not rule out the possibility of concomitant deficits in other modules of lexical-semantic processing, this finding suggests a direction for treatment of deep dyslexia focused on semantic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cases of acquired deep dyslexia have not clearly and consistently supported any of the theoretical models. We report on a case of a 51-year-old right-handed female, L.S., with a developmental history of deep dyslexia in order to test the neuropsychological models using a visual half-field semantic priming paradigm. Word targets were primed either by a highly associated word (e.g., CLEAN-DIRTY), a weakly associated word (e.g., CLEAN-TIDY), or an unrelated word (e.g., CLEAN-FAMILY) projected to either the same or opposite visual field (VF) as the target. In normals, RVF-left hemisphere primes result in high associate priming regardless of target location (ipsilateral or contralateral to the prime), whereas LVF-right hemisphere primes produce both high and low associate priming across both target location conditions (Hutchinson, Whitman, Abeare & Raiter, 2003). In contrast, L.S. showed hyperpriming to both high and low associates only in the left hemisphere with inhibition of high associates in the right hemisphere. This case represents a variation of developmental deep dyslexia in which the patient's left hemisphere functions like a normal right hemisphere. However, the lack of exclusively high associate priming in the opposite (right) hemisphere may not provide the necessary narrowing of semantic activation necessary for normal reading and thus, may lead to semantic reading errors. Theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Japanese-speaking stroke patient with disrupted phonology but relatively good semantics was severely impaired in nonword reading, with better preserved and imageability-modulated word-reading in both kanji and kana. This basic similarity of reading in the two Japanese scripts was accompanied by the following differences: (i) distinct error patterns (prominent semantic errors for kanji vs. phonological errors for kana); (ii) a more pronounced imageability effect for kanji; and (iii) a remarkable pseudohomophone advantage for kana. The combination of deep dyslexia for kanji and phonological dyslexia for kana in a single patient suggests that these are not two distinct reading disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study directly compared four patients who, to varying degrees, showed the characteristics of deep dyslexia, dysphasia and/or dysgraphia—i.e., they made semantic errors in oral reading, repetition and/or spelling to dictation. The “primary systems” hypothesis proposes that these different conditions result from severe impairment to a common phonological system, rather than damage to task-specific mechanisms (i.e. grapheme-phoneme conversion). By this view, deep dyslexic/dysphasic patients should show overlapping deficits but previous studies have not directly compared them. All four patients in the current study showed poor phonological production across different tasks, including repetition, reading aloud and spoken picture naming, in line with the primary systems hypothesis. They also showed severe deficits in tasks that required the manipulation of phonology, such as phoneme addition and deletion. Some of the characteristics of the deep syndromes – namely lexicality and imageability effects – were typically observed in all of the tasks, regardless of whether semantic errors occurred or not, suggesting that the patients’ phonological deficits impacted on repetition, reading aloud and spelling to dictation in similar ways. Differences between the syndromes were accounted for by variation in other primary systems—particularly auditory processing. Deep dysphasic symptoms occurred when the impact of phonological input on spoken output was disrupted or reduced, either as a result of auditory/phonological impairment, or for patients with good phonological input analysis, when repetition was delayed. ‘Deep’ disorders of reading aloud, repetition and spelling can therefore be explained in terms of damage to interacting primary systems such as phonology, semantics and vision, with phonology playing a critical role. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We report a patient (FBI) in whom a category specific deep dyslexia was demonstrated. The patient was globally dysphasic with dyslexia and dysgraphia, and his dyslexic syndrome was characterised by a dramatic loss of phonological processing together with a partial loss of whole word reading. In the context of an overall poor level of reading accuracy, concrete words were read better than abstract words. Within this concrete word vocabulary, living items were read more accurately that non-living items. Perhaps most strikingly, he also had a remarkably preserved written proper noun vocabulary. A series of experiments explored the relationship between FBI's comprehension of the spoken and written word, and in each a significant category-by-modality interaction was demonstrated. His comprehension of the written word was impaired significantly more than his comprehension of the spoken word, but only for the impaired semantic category. This pattern of performance is interpreted as evidence for a degree of autonomy for the semantic processing of written words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Deep dyslexia is an acquired reading disorder in which a previously literate adult produces semantic errors during reading and demonstrates impaired nonword reading. Most models of the syndrome account for the reading errors observed in deep dyslexia in terms of multiple loci of damage. In contrast, Buchanan, McEwen, Westbury, and Libben [(2003). Semantic and semantic error: Implicit access to semantic information from words and nonwords in deep dyslexia. Brain & Language. Special Issue: Meaning in language, 84, 65–83] proposed in their Failure of Inhibition Theory (FIT) that reading errors result from damage in the phonological output lexicon alone. According to this formulation, semantic errors result from impaired explicit access and production due to failure of inhibition. In contrast, implicit processing is assumed to be intact in deep dyslexia. In the current manuscript, we tested several predictions that develop from the FIT in order to localize damage in the functional architecture of the language system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The failure of inhibition hypothesis posits a theoretical distinction between implicit and explicit access in deep dyslexia. Specifically, the effects of failure of inhibition are assumed only in conditions that have an explicit selection requirement in the context of production (i.e., aloud reading). In contrast, the failure of inhibition hypothesis proposes that implicit processing and explicit access to semantic information without production demands are intact in deep dyslexia. Evidence for intact implicit and explicit access requires that performance in deep dyslexia parallels that observed in neurologically intact participants on tasks based on implicit and explicit processes. In other words, deep dyslexics should produce normal effects in conditions with implicit task demands (i.e., lexical decision) and on tasks based on explicit access without production (i.e., forced choice semantic decisions) because failure of inhibition does not impact the availability of lexical information, only explicit retrieval in the context of production. This research examined the distinction between implicit and explicit processes in deep dyslexia using semantic blocking in lexical decision and forced choice semantic decisions as a test for the failure of inhibition hypothesis. The results of the semantic blocking paradigm support the distinction between implicit and explicit processing and provide evidence for failure of inhibition as an explanation for semantic errors in deep dyslexia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We use a false memory paradigm to investigate the extent to which phonologically relations of a target word may be implicated in semantically driven access of that target word. We are specifically interested in understanding how access to orthography may limit the scope of this implication. Our interest in these questions is directly motivated by the claim that the probability of deep dyslexics making a semantic error in reading a word is affected by the number of close phonological relations of the word (Buchanan, L., Hildebrandt, N., & MacKinnon, G. E. (1994). Phonological processing of non-words by a deep dyslexic patient: A rowse is implicitly a rose. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 8, 163–181; Buchanan, L., Hildebrandt, N., & MacKinnon, G. E. (1996). Phonological processing of non-words in deep dyslexia: Typical and independent? Journal of Neurolinguistics, 9, 113–133). We use the study list in a false memory paradigm to semantically prime words. We look for false recognition effects among phonological relations of the semantically primed words in both modalities, with and without simultaneous orthographic overlap. The critical lures of interest in the experiments are words that are related by orthographic or phonological overlap to the unseen semantic target. We found increased false recognition rates for phonological associates of the unseen semantically-primed target in the auditory modality, only among words with no orthographic overlap with the unseen semantically-primed target. The locus of overlap and the phonological neighborhood size of the phonological relation also plays a role in the false memory rate. In a related experiment, we showed that the phonological neighborhood and concreteness of critical lures also mediates the probability of a semantic false memory. These results are discussed with respect to a frontal lobe disconnection theory of deep dyslexia, which posits that semantic errors in deep dyslexia are result from impoverished constraints to prefrontal regions that are implicated in semantic and phonological access of written words. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Readers and writers of Spanish use an orthography that is highly transparent. It has been proposed that readers of Spanish can rely on grapheme-phoneme correspondences, alone, to access meaning or phonology from print. In recent years, a number of case studies have yielded evidence inconsistent with this idea. We review these studies with particular focus on those that report evidence for reading based on direct lexical mappings between print, orthographic representations, and meaning or phonology. We report a new case of acquired literacy impairment in Spanish, MJ, who presents a pattern of preserved abilities and deficits symptomatic of deep dyslexia. The patient is unable to read nonwords, but can read a substantial number of words. Her reading is characterized by the production of semantic, visual, and derivational errors. We argue that MJ has a deficit in her lexical selection ability, common to both her reading and her naming problems. We propose that MJ, and the other cases we review, demonstrate that lexical reading is adopted by skilled readers even in a transparent language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we defend our views against claim that the criticism of the ease of predication hypothesis (Jones, 1985) made by de Mornay Davies and Funnell (2000) is "fundamentally flawed." Jones raises five issues concerning the content of the text, the reliability of effects of ease of predication, the generation of predicates, semantic features, and memory retrieval. We address each of these issues in turn and show that either a critical point raised is not made, or the point is mistaken. More importantly we show that our empirical findings, which are entirely overlooked by Jones, unequivocally support the view that ease of predication does not account for imageability effects in performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe dissociations of implicit versus explicit access to semantic information in a patient with deep dyslexia. This acquired reading disorder is characterized by the production of morphological (e.g., SLEEP read as SLEEPING) and semantic errors (e.g., HEART read as BLOOD) and consequently provides a potential window into the operation of both aspects of the language system. The deep dyslexic patient in this study (JO) demonstrated implicit semantic access to items in a number of tasks despite the fact that she was unable to correctly read these items aloud. The findings from this study are consistent with a model of lexical deficits that distinguishes between explicit and implicit access to lexical representations on the basis of inhibitory processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It was proposed by Jones (1985) that the apparent influence of a word's imageability upon the probability of the word being read correctly by a deep dyslexic person could be understood in terms of an underlying semantic variable, ease of predication (also termed predicability). In a recent critique, de Mornay Davies and Funnell (2000) claim to have identified a number of problems with the ease of predication proposal. It is shown here, however, that it is the critique itself which is fundamentally flawed. In contrast, the predicability approach continues to identify correctly the semantic substrate of apparent effects of imageability upon reading and memory retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simulation of the selective deficits and the partial breakdown patterns characteristic of the oral reading performance of deep dyslexics. The most striking symptom of deep dyslexia — usually considered its defining characteristic — is the occurrence in oral reading tasks of semantic paralexias: the vocalization of a word semantically related to an isolated, printed target word. The pattern of simulated paralexic errors by the neural model is strongly controlled by the similarity structure of the training set stimuli and, to a lesser extent, the frequency of presentation of stimuli during learning by the model. This result fits well with effects of stimulus type on patterns of paralexic error among deep dyslexics. Further, the model very naturally reproduces the patterns of partial breakdown observed in deep dyslexics, including a slow response time (RT) and within subject variation of response to a particular target word in successive test sessions.

The acquisition of reading by children is supported by deep changes in the brain systems devoted to vision and language. The left temporal lobe contributes critically to both systems, and lesions affecting it may therefore cause both peripheral vision-related and central language-related reading impairments. The diversity of peripheral dyslexias reflects the anatomical and functional division of the visual cortex into early visual regions, whose lesions have a limited impact on reading; ventral regions, whose lesions are mostly associated to Pure Alexia; and dorsal regions, whose lesions may yield spatial, neglect-related, and attentional dyslexias. Similarly, central alexias reflect the broad distinction, within language processes, between phonological and lexico-semantic components. Phonological and surface dyslexias roughly result from impairment of the former and the latter processes, respectively, while deep dyslexia may be seen as the association of both. In this chapter, we review such types of acquired dyslexias, their clinical features, pathophysiology, and anatomical correlates., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Naming responses to 1944 isolated single kanji (Japanese logographic characters) made by average students from middle and high schools (Japan National Language Institute, 1988) were analysed. Results showed that a substantial number of deep dyslexic-type errors including semantic errors and visual errors were produced. These results suggest that the script (i.e. kanji) induces such errors owing to the very weak and unstable association between kanji and phonology. The nature of phonological access in kanji and some implications are briefly discussed in the light of the summation hypothesis. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a case study of an acquired dyslexic subject, who on tasks standardly used to assess acquired dyslexia showed no evidence of having any access to sublexical phonological information. However, on a lexical decision task, he showed normal effects of spelling regularity for low-frequency words. Since this effect is typically attributed to the use of sublexical phonological information in word recognition, it appears that sublexical phonological processing is occurring for this subject. The spelling regularity effect is discussed with respect to models of written word recognition and to acquired dyslexia. It is suggested that the reason for the discrepancy in test results may be that the types of explicit tasks previously used in the neuropsychological literature on dyslexia, which require conscious awareness of phonological representations, are not sensitive to implicit processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]