Search

Behavioral studies have shown that short letter strings are read faster than long letter-strings and words are read faster than nonwords. Here, we describe the dynamics of letter-string length and lexicality effects at the cortical level, using magnetoencephalography, during a reading task in Finnish with long (eight-letter) and short (four-letter) word/nonword stimuli. Length effects were observed in two spatially and temporally distinct cortical activations: (1) in the occipital cortex at about 100 msec by the strength of activation, regardless of the lexical status of the stimuli, and (2) in the left superior temporal cortex between 200 and 600 msec by the duration of activation, with words showing a smaller effect than nonwords. A significant lexicality effect was also evident in this later activation, with stronger activation and longer duration for nonwords than words. There seem to be no distinct cortical areas for reading words and nonwords. The early length effect is likely to be due to the low-level visual analysis common to all stimulus letter-strings. The later lexicality and length effects apparently reflect converging lexico-semantic and phonological influences, and are discussed in terms of dual-route and single-route connectionist models of reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 17(6) of Emotion (see record 2017-18585-001). In the article, the copyright attribution was incorrectly listed and the Creative Commons CC-BY license disclaimer was incorrectly omitted from the author note. The correct copyright is "© 2017 The Author(s)" and the omitted disclaimer is below. All versions of this article have been corrected. "This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant(s) the American Psychological Association the exclusive right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher."] Emotions are a vital component of social communication, carried across a range of modalities and via different perceptual signals such as specific muscle contractions in the face and in the upper respiratory system. Previous studies have found that emotion recognition impairments after brain damage depend on the modality of presentation: recognition from faces may be impaired whereas recognition from voices remains preserved, and vice versa. On the other hand, there is also evidence for shared neural activation during emotion processing in both modalities. In a behavioral study, we investigated whether there are shared representations in the recognition of emotions from faces and voices. We used a within-subjects design in which participants rated the intensity of facial expressions and nonverbal vocalizations for each of the 6 basic emotion labels. For each participant and each modality, we then computed a representation matrix with the intensity ratings of each emotion. These matrices allowed us to examine the patterns of confusions between emotions and to characterize the representations of emotions within each modality. We then compared the representations across modalities by computing the correlations of the representation matrices across faces and voices. We found highly correlated matrices across modalities, which suggest similar representations of emotions across faces and voices. We also showed that these results could not be explained by commonalities between low-level visual and acoustic properties of the stimuli. We thus propose that there are similar or shared coding mechanisms for emotions which may act independently of modality, despite their distinct perceptual inputs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Given that inhibition interacts with visual temporal processing (VTP), the past evidence regarding the influence of VTP on the Chinese character reading of children with dyslexia may not disclose the whole picture without considering inhibition. Thus, the present study is among the first to investigate VTP and cognitive inhibition as well as their relationships to Chinese character reading. We compared the performances of 62 Chinese-speaking children with dyslexia in primary school (n = 62, M age = 11.36 years) on VTP and inhibition tasks to those in a chronological-age-matched group (CA; n = 62, M age = 11.57 years) and reading-level-matched group (RL; n = 62, M age = 8.98 years). The results revealed that children with dyslexia performed worse than both the CA-matched and RL-matched groups in VTP and inhibition after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, and attention. Moreover, the relationship between VTP and Chinese character reading was moderated by inhibition in children with dyslexia. VTP is positively related to Chinese character reading, but this relationship is observed only at higher levels of inhibition. Our results suggest that inhibition plays a potential role in VTP and Chinese character reading, especially for those with dyslexia whose proficiency in inhibition is not as intact as that of typically developing children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The above studies indicate that the SCZ animal model has abnormal gamma oscillations and abnormal functional coupling ability of brain regions at the cortical level. However, few researchers have focused on the correlation between brain complexity and connectivity at the cortical level. In order to provide a more accurate representation of brain activity, we studied the complexity of electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals and the information interaction between brain regions in schizophrenic rats, and explored the correlation between brain complexity and connectivity. Methods: We collected ECoG signal from SCZ rats. The frequency domain and time domain functional connectivity of SCZ rats were evaluated by magnitude square coherence and mutual information (MI). Permutation entropy (PE) and permutation Lempel-Ziv complexity (PLZC) were used to analyze the complexity of ECoG, and the relationship between them was evaluated. In addition, in order to further understand the causal structure of directional information flow among brain regions, we used phase transfer entropy (PTE) to analyze the effective connectivity of the brain. Results: Firstly, in the high gamma band, the complexity of brain regions in SCZ rats is higher than that in normal rats, and the neuronal activity is irregularity. Secondly, the information integration ability of SCZ rats decreased and the communication of brain network information was hindered at the cortical level. Finally, compared with normal rats, the causal relationship between brain regions of SCZ rats was closer, but the information interaction center was not clear. Conclusion: The above findings suggest that at the cortical level, complexity and connectivity are valid biomarkers for identifying SCZ. This bridges the gap between peak potentials and EEG. This may help to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms at the cortical level in schizophrenics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuropsychological diagnosis and assessment of alexia remain formidable due to its multifaceted presentations and the intricate neural underpinnings involved. The current study employed a mixed-method design, incorporating cluster and thematic analyses, to illuminate the complexities of alexia assessment. We used the Web of Science and Scopus to retrieve articles spanning from 1985 to February 2024. Our selection was based on identified keywords in relation to the assessment and diagnosis of alexia. The analysis of 449 articles using CiteSpace (Version 6.3.R1) and VOSviewer (Version 1.6.19) software identified ten key clusters such as 'pure alexia' and 'posterior cortical atrophy', highlighting the breadth of research within this field. The thematic analysis of the most cited and recent studies led to eight essential categories. These categories were synthesized into a conceptual model that illustrates the interaction between neural, cognitive, and diagnostic aspects, in accordance with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICFDH) framework. This model emphasizes the need for comprehensive diagnostic approaches extending beyond traditional reading assessments to include specific tasks like character identification, broader visual processing, and numerical tasks. Future diagnostic models should incorporate a diverse array of alexia types and support the creation of advanced assessment tools, ultimately improving clinical practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral and neuropsychological studies have suggested that the right hemisphere has a special advantage in the visual recognition of logograms. While this long-standing 'right hemisphere hypothesis' has never been investigated systematically by previous neuroimaging studies, a candidate neural substrate of such asymmetry might be found within the occipitotemporal cortex that is known to exhibit lateralized response to a certain class of stimuli, such as letters and faces. The present study examined the hemispheric specialization of brain activation during naming of objects, logograms and phonograms using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The three types of stimuli overall produced left-predominant activation of the perisylvian and inferior parietal regions relative to the resting baseline. This inter-hemispheric difference was significant irrespective of the stimuli type. In the occipitotemporal cortex, six subregions showing lateralized response were identified. That is, the three stimuli commonly produced left-lateralized response in the posterior fusiform and superior temporal gyri and right-lateralized response in the extrastriate cortex. Only logograms and objects produced a distinct cluster showing right-lateralized activation in the medial anterior fusiform gyrus associated with semantic knowledge, whereas only phonograms produced a left-lateralized activation in the posterior middle temporal cortex close to the site associated with visual perception of alphabetical letters. These findings suggest that while these stimuli similarly recruit the left perisylvian language area as a common neural component for naming, processing of objects and logograms becomes left-lateralized only in the downstream of the occipitotemporal cortex. By contrast, visual processing of phonograms is specialized to the left hemisphere in earlier stages of the area. The present data provide further evidence suggesting that both the left-right and anterior-posterior axes of the occipitotemporal cortex are differentially tuned according to the specific features of visual stimuli.

Three experiments investigated whether reading aloud is affected by a semantic variable, imageability. The first two experiments used English, and the third experiment used Japanese Kanji as a way of testing the generality of the findings across orthographies. The results replicated the earlier findings that readers were slower and more error prone in reading low-frequency exception words when they were low in imageability than when they were high in imageability (Strain, Patterson, & Seidenberg, 1995). This result held for both English and Kanji even when age of acquisition was taken into account as a possible confounding variable, and the imageability effect was stronger in Kanji compared to English.

Previous work has predominantly focused on word reading in studying literacy difficulties; very little work has focused on spelling difficulty instead. The present study adopted spelling (dictation) as the criterion to classify poor literacy skills in Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. We examined the cognitive-linguistic skills profiles across four groups of children with different spelling abilities. Based on performances on Chinese and English dictation (criterion = below 25% in a larger sample), four groups were identified, 21 poor spellers of Chinese (PC), 18 poor spellers of English (PE), 27 poor spellers of both languages (PB), and 30 good spellers of both scripts (GB). Measures on language-specific tests of cognitive-linguistic skills (phonological awareness, lexical decision, morphological awareness, rapid naming, and delayed copying) were included to compare the degree of deficit exhibited by each group. With age, grade, and non-verbal intelligence controlled, one-way ANCOVA results revealed that, compared to GB, PC manifested significant deficits in Chinese-delayed copying but scored similarly on all English cognitive-linguistic skills. PE and PB showed significant deficits in Chinese and English phonological awareness compared to PC; they were significantly weaker in English-delayed copying, morphological awareness, and rapid naming (RAN). The PB group was significantly slower in both Chinese and English RAN compared to GB. Findings highlight the critical role of delayed copying in distinguishing poor spellers in both Chinese and English, the importance of phonological awareness for spelling in English but not in Chinese, and the role of automaticity in bilingual spelling difficulties., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The International Dyslexia Association.)

Magnocellular (M) deficit theory indicates that individuals with developmental dyslexia (DD) have low sensitivity to stimuli with high temporal frequencies (HTF) and low spatial frequencies (LSF). However, some studies found that temporal processing and spatial processing were correlated with different reading-related skills. Chinese is a logographic language, and visual skills are particularly important for reading in Chinese. It is necessary to investigate the temporal and spatial processing abilities in the M pathway of Chinese children with DD. Using electrophysiological recordings, the present study examined the mean amplitude and latency of P1 during a grating direction judgment task in 13 children with DD and 13 age-matched normal children. Dyslexic children showed a low amplitude and long latency of P1 in the HTF condition and LSF condition compared with age-matched children. In the HTF condition, the amplitude of P1 correlated with phonological awareness, and the latency of P1 correlated with reading fluency and rapid naming of digits. The amplitude of P1 in the LSF condition correlated with reading accuracy. This result suggested that Chinese children with DD had difficulties in both temporal and spatial processing in the M pathway. However, temporal processing and spatial processing played different roles in Chinese reading., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Although there is evidence that recognizing pseudowords is more difficult than recognizing words during childhood, adulthood, and early old age (60–75 years), it is not yet clear what happens during advanced aging or the fourth age, a stage when the decline of fluid intelligence strongly affects processing speed, but a good performance of crystallized intelligence is described through an increase in vocabulary and knowledge. The objective of this study was to determine the lexicality effect in advanced aging, specifically exploring how the ability to recognize words and pseudowords (ortho-phonologically plausible for Spanish) is affected during the third and fourth-ages. The lexicality effect was measured using naming and lexical decision tasks. Response time and accuracy were compared between a fourth-age group (80+ years) and two third-age groups (60–69 and 70–79 years) through linear regression models. The results showed that, in general, the fourth-age group had longer response times and reduced accuracy when recognizing words and pseudowords. Moreover, they showed a significant lexicality effect (which increases from the third- age onwards), reflected in higher costs during pseudoword recognition, especially when the task required more cognitive effort (lexical decision task). These results were consistent with the impact of the deterioration of fluid intelligence on the speed of lexical recognition and with the better performance that crystallized intelligence can generate on accuracy, especially in the early stages of old age. Additionally, this study supports the fact that pseudoword recognition resists cognitive decline, as accentuated deterioration is visualized only after 80 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study explores the graduated perception of apparent social traits in virtual characters by experimental manipulation of perceived affiliation with the aim to validate an existing predictive model in animated wholebody avatars. Methods: We created a set of 210 animated virtual characters, for which facial features were generated according to a predictive statistical model originally developed for 2D faces. In a first online study, participants (N = 34) rated mute video clips of the characters on the dimensions of trustworthiness, valence, and arousal. In a second study (N = 49), vocal expressions were added to the avatars, with voice recordings manipulated on the dimension of trustworthiness by their speakers. Results: In study one, as predicted, we found a significant positive linear (p < 0.001) as well as quadratic (p < 0.001) trend in trustworthiness ratings. We found a significant negative correlation between mean trustworthiness and arousal (t = -.37, p < 0.001), and a positive correlation with valence (t = 0.88, p < 0.001). In study two, wefound a significant linear (p < 0.001), quadratic (p < 0.001), cubic (p < 0.001), quartic (p < 0.001) and quintic (p = 0.001) trend in trustworthiness ratings. Similarly, to study one, we found a significant negative correlation between mean trustworthiness and arousal (τ = -0.42, p < 0.001) and a positive correlation with valence (τ = 0.76, p < 0.001). Discussion: We successfully showed that a multisensory graduation of apparent social traits, originally developed for 2D stimuli, can be applied to virtually animated characters, to create a battery of animated virtual humanoid male characters. These virtual avatars have a higher ecological validity in comparison to their 2D counterparts and allow for a targeted experimental manipulation of perceived trustworthiness. The stimuli could be used for social cognition research in neurotypical and psychiatric populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Japanese Journal of Learning Disabilities / LD Kenkyu is the property of Japan Academy of Learning 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.)

Emotional facial expression recognition is a key ability for adequate social functioning. The current study aims to test if the differential outcomes procedure (DOP) may improve the recognition of dynamic facial expressions of emotions and to further explore whether schizotypal personality traits may have any effect on performance. 183 undergraduate students completed a task where a face morphed from a neutral expression to one of the six basic emotions at full intensity over 10 s. Participants had to press spacebar as soon as they identified the emotion and choose which had appeared. In the first block, participants received no outcomes. In the second block, a group received specific outcomes associated to each emotion (DOP group), while another group received non-differential outcomes after correctly responding (NOP group). Employing generalized linear models (GLMs) and Bayesian inference we estimated different parameters to answer our research goals. Schizotypal personality traits did not seem to affect dynamic emotional facial expression recognition. Participants of the DOP group were less likely to respond incorrectly to faces showing Fear and Surprise at fewer intensity levels. This may suggest that the DOP could lead to better identification of the main features that differentiate each facial expression of emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Research has suggested that exposure to reading can act positively on vocabulary development and other cognitive skills required in the early-school years. This paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that analyses the relationship between exposure to reading aloud to children and the development of basic cognitive skills, which are essential from the first days of school for the acquisition of all subsequent learning. This research has two objectives: first, to highlight the benefits of reading aloud in the first years of schooling, with particular reference to cognitive skills; second, to propose the Cognitive Assessment System Second Edition (CAS-2) as an instrument able to monitor and quantify the cognitive effects of this practice. Methods. This research involved a sample of 152 children from primary schools in Italy. After thorough teacher training on the proposed method of reading aloud, the teachers undertook daily reading training for approximately 3 months. The children in the experimental and control groups underwent ex ante and ex post individual administration of the CAS-2 test. A mixed model with a 2 × 2 design was used to verify the effect of the training. Results. With regard to the first aim, this study confirmed the hypotheses by highlighting the benefits of reading aloud training. The results on the Full CAS-2 Scale show significant increases in the experimental group compared to the control group. Furthermore, the improvement of the experimental group is evident in all the sub-dimensions investigated (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive). Conclusions. These results confirm the effect of reading aloud on cognitive skills development and the sensitivity of the CAS-2 as an instrument to detect its effects. Future research could explore the use of the CAS-2 battery in student populations of higher school grades, as well as observe the stability of the benefits over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid and implicit letter‐to‐sound conversion is a remarkable ability that develops during school years, which is reflected in the left lateralization of the print‐tuned N170 event‐related potential. Previous studies have shown that elementary school children learning alphabetic scripts elicit bilateral N170, which reflects their underdeveloped phonological conversion processing. However, children learning Japanese hiragana, which has better letter–sound correspondence compared with alphabetic scripts, may acquire the automatic phonological conversion in the early stages of learning to read. To test this notion, we investigated the developmental change of the print‐tuned N170 by comparing 4th–6th grade elementary school children with college students. Participants were required to detect infrequent blue stimuli among a series of black‐colored hiragana words, nonwords, and foreign letter strings. College students showed typical left‐lateralized N170. In contrast, children elicited bilateral N170 for print stimuli, indicating that the implicit phonological conversion was still not established. The finding suggests that the automatization of letter‐to‐sound conversion requires a relatively long learning period even in orthographically transparent scripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate whether the laws of isochrony and homothety hold for Japanese characters by measuring handwriting movements using a liquid crystal display tablet. The law of isochrony means that handwriting time is constant regardless of handwriting size. The law of homothety means that the time required for each character is consistent regardless of the overall time required during continuous handwriting. The twenty-two participants made three shapes, four hiragana characters (Japanese phonetic alphabets), and four kanji characters (Chinese characters) on a tablet at various sizes and speeds. Total handwriting time was longer when character size increased for all character types. This result suggests that the law of isochrony does not hold for Japanese character types. When the characters were written sequentially, the partial handwriting time ratio was indefinite and, varied by character. This result suggests that the law of homothety might not hold for some characters. In summary, this study suggests that the spatiotemporal dynamics of handwriting in Japanese differ by character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While developmental dyslexia has been extensively studied in children, research on adults is still rather limited. This paper aims to bridge the gap in existing research by presenting the findings of a study that examined the reading and spelling skills of adults with dyslexia and assessed the effectiveness of a linguistic intervention designed to improve their literacy abilities. To address this issue, we first compared the profiles of 44 adults with dyslexia (age range: 16-30 y.o.) and 44 age-matched typical readers across tasks assessing reading, spelling, phonological awareness, morphological awareness and lexical access in Italian. The findings underscored pervasive impairments in dyslexia across all measured dimensions, reaffirming the persistent nature of language and literacy challenges into adulthood. In pursuit of the second objective, the study explored the potential for literacy skill improvement in adults with dyslexia through the implementation of a specialized intervention proposed to 24 dyslexic adults and delivered via a web application. The intervention program yielded positive outcomes in the experimental group, demonstrating significant improvements in word and text reading, spelling, and speed of phonological elaboration. This study, hence, contributes not only to our understanding of developmental dyslexia in adulthood but also emphasizes the tangible benefits of targeted linguistic interventions, thereby offering practical implications for the amelioration of literacy skills in this population., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

While research has identified multiple deficits that may lead to dyslexia, the profiles of adolescents with dyslexia and dyslexia subtypes are yet fully understood. This study examined the profiles of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and identified dyslexia subtypes. Adolescents from grades 7 to 9 (n = 184, 92 with dyslexia) were evaluated on morphological skills, visual‐orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, working memory, word reading, word spelling, reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results revealed that adolescents with dyslexia performed less well on the cognitive‐linguistic and literacy measures than typically developing adolescents. A logistic regression analysis also showed that morphological skills, visual‐orthographic knowledge and rapid naming were significantly predictive of dyslexia status. Using cluster analysis and guided by the multiple deficit hypothesis, this study identified four dyslexia subtypes: morphological deficit, visual‐orthographic knowledge deficit, rapid naming deficit and global deficit showing multiple cognitive‐linguistic and literacy problems. Understanding the profiles and subtypes of dyslexia could enable educational psychologists and educators to select appropriate assessment measures and develop intervention strategies to support the learning of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic accommodations for students experiencing disabilities are increasingly available at postsecondary institutions. More studies of the efficacy of accommodations for student success are warranted, however. Given the increased gender gap in university participation, more focus on the unique impact of gender is also needed. Using a sample of students registered with Access and Inclusion Services with learning disabilities (LD), attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and combined LD/ADHD at a Canadian undergraduate university (N = 661), we explored the impact of gender on academic performance and accommodation usage. Next, we examined how gender intersected with the impact of academic accommodations on academic performance. Women, on average, demonstrated better academic performance. Academic strategies and assistive technologies were not associated with higher academic performance. However, testing accommodations (extended time and environmental accommodations) were positively associated with academic performance for men with LD or ADHD, but not for the combined group LD/ADHD. For the former two, the more tests accommodated, the higher the academic performance. Furthermore, this gender association was most prominent for students experiencing ADHD. Interpretations and policy recommendations related to these findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the ways in which words are pronounced and spelled has been shown to affect spoken word processing, and a consistent relationship between pronunciation and spelling has been reported as a possible cause of unreduced pronunciations being easier to process than reduced counterparts although reduced pronunciations occur more frequently. In the present study, we investigate the effect of pronunciation-to-spelling consistency for reduced and unreduced pronunciations in L1 and L2 listeners of a logographic language. More precisely, we compare L1 and L2 Japanese listeners to probe whether they use orthographic information differently when processing reduced and unreduced speech. Using pupillometry, the current study provides evidence that extends the hypothesis about the role of orthography in the processing of reduced speech. Orthographic realization matters in processing for L1 and L2 advanced listeners. More specifically, how consistent the orthographic realization is with its phonological form (phonology-to-orthography consistency) modulates the extent to which reduced pronunciation induces additional processing costs. The results are further discussed in terms of their implications for how listeners process reduced speech and the role of the orthographic form in speech processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the early growth of morphological awareness and its predictors. We followed 172 English-speaking Canadian children (82 girls, 90 boys, M age = 75.56 months at the first assessment point) from Grade 1 to Grade 3 and assessed them on nonverbal IQ, phonological short-term memory, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary at the beginning of Grade 1 and on morphological awareness at the end of Grade 1, beginning and end of Grade 2, and beginning of Grade 3. Results of growth curve modeling showed different growth patterns for Word Analogy and Sentence Analogy. In addition, vocabulary and phonological awareness were associated with the initial status of morphological awareness, and phonological awareness and letter knowledge predicted the growth rate of morphological awareness. These findings suggest that code-related skills drive the development of morphological awareness during the early years of literacy instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a computer simulation model of reading in Japanese syllabic kana and morphographic kanji. The model was based on the simulation model developed by Harm and Seidenberg for reading in English. The purpose of building the current model was to verify the validity of the hypothesis of granularity and transparency (HGT) postulated by Wydell and Butterworth, focusing on the granularity dimension. The HGT was developed in order to explain the behavioral dissociation between excellent reading skills in Japanese and poor reading skills in English of an English–Japanese bilingual individual as well as the relatively low incidence of developmental dyslexia in Japan. The current model was successful in simulating the granularity dimension of the HGT. The study also identified several limitations, which need to be addressed in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine whether there are common or specific deficits of reading disability (RD) in first (L1) and second languages (L2), Chinese children (9-11 years, N = 76) with or without RD who learn English as an L2 were studied during a visual word rhyming judgment task. Evidence was found for common deficits in L1 and L2 in visuo-orthographic processes in left inferior temporal gyrus and left precuneus, as well as in phonological processes in left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus as children with RD showed less activation than controls in both languages. Furthermore, the visuo-orthographic deficit appears to be a RD effect, whereas the phonological deficit appears to be a reading/performance effect. Some weak evidence for language specific effects was also found., (© 2020 Society for Research in Child Development.)

When students with dyslexia enter higher education, studying often creates challenges at different levels. Universities differ in the way they facilitate students with dyslexia in their educational careers. This study focusses on studying with dyslexia from a value‐driven perspective. The aim of the study is to investigate valuable goals of students with dyslexia in higher education and the conversion factors that are stimulating and inhibiting in the realization of these valuable goals. Data were collected during focus groups: five focus groups of students with dyslexia (23 participants) and two focus groups of student counsellors (10 participants). Important values for students are their personal development and to prove they can succeed at university level. Not all students are able or being enabled to show their knowledge and skills and to grow within the educational system. Different personal and environmental factors are described that inhibit or facilitate the realization of valuable goals. The results are presented from two perspectives: of students and student counsellors. The implications of the results and guidelines for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor readers have lower academic achievement and increased anxiety, including reading anxiety, which may perpetuate lower academic achievement. We explored reading anxiety in university students, investigating whether the association between reading ability and academic achievement is mediated by reading anxiety (independent of general anxiety). Participants were students (n = 169, 69% female, age = 20.70) at an Australian university who completed an online reading assessment (decoding skills, phonological awareness, orthographical knowledge and comprehension), and a survey examining reading anxiety, trait anxiety and self‐reported reading history. Academic achievement was based on university grades. Two reading anxiety factors (social and non‐social) were identified; both factors were distinct from trait anxiety. Reading ability was negatively correlated with reading anxiety and positively correlated with academic achievement. Reading anxiety was not correlated with academic achievement and it did not mediate the relationship between reading ability and academic achievement as expected. As this was the first study to explore reading anxiety in adults, further research is required to determine the impact reading anxiety may have on university students beyond academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Using a 1‐year longitudinal design, we evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention programme to improve reading attainments among Chinese‐as‐a‐second‐language (CSL) learners. Using the simple view of reading as a theoretical framework, the intervention focused on students' orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension to facilitate reading comprehension. Method: A total of 186 Grade 4 CSL students (mean age = 9.22, SD = 0.56) participated in the study and were grouped into the treatment (N = 96) and control (N = 90) groups. A range of Chinese language and literacy skills were assessed before and after the intervention. Results: The path analysis showed that the intervention significantly affected orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension directly and reading comprehension indirectly through the three componential skills after controlling for nonverbal reasoning, vocabulary and autoregressors. Conclusions: The findings suggest that orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension may be promising targets for instructing young CSL learners. Highlights: What is already known about this topic: The simple view of reading (SVR) has been successfully adapted as the theoretical underpinning of literacy research and intervention design.SVR has also been widely used in studying literacy development in native‐speaking and Chinese‐as‐a‐second‐language (CSL) learners.Evidence supporting the contribution of orthographic and morphological skills, decoding and linguistic comprehension to Chinese reading development is established. What this paper adds: The results supported the effectiveness of the SVR model‐based intervention in promoting orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension for CSL reading comprehension.Direct treatment effects on Chinese orthographic knowledge and word reading were established, suggesting the usefulness of instruction on orthographic and morphological knowledge for Chinese literacy learning.The significant treatment effect on Chinese oral comprehension skills indicated a close association with metalinguistic skills and considerably affected Chinese literacy. Implications for theory, policy or practice: The findings support the usefulness of the SVR model as both a descriptive theoretical model and a prescriptive intervention model for CSL literacy development.CSL curriculum for young learners would have a more balanced curriculum built on a listening comprehension foundation and with due emphasis on Chinese orthography.CSL teachers may consider adopting an explicit and systematic progressive approach to Chinese literacy instruction to promote orthographic and morphological skills for literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Japanese Journal of Learning Disabilities / LD Kenkyu is the property of Japan Academy of Learning 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.)

In a recent systemic review of research on Disabled*1 students in Higher Education (HE), Kutscher and Tuckwiller (2019) highlighted the lack of any intersectional examination of disability and argued that research examining the intersections of disability and gender, race, sexuality, et cetera. are urgently needed. In the UK, a House of Lords Committee released a report that highlighted the many disadvantages still faced by Disabled students in UK HE, highlighting issues around access, support, and performance - finding that there is an attainment gap for Disabled students in UK HE (Hector et al., 2020). This article uses intersectionality as critical social theory (Collins, 2019) in the examination of the success (or otherwise) of Disabled women in HE in the UK. Defining "success" as completing a degree and attaining "Good Honours", the aim is to identify how the success of Disabled women students in the UK compares to non-disabled women, Disabled men, and nondisabled men. The findings suggest that there are intersectional disadvantages for Disabled women students; suggesting that there is an attainment gap for Undergraduate students and differences in the likelihood they continue and gain their intended award at postgraduate taught level. This paper is the first to examine the intersectional effects of gender and disability in UK HE students, and as well demonstrating this it highlights areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion 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.)

Copyright of Japanese Journal of Special Education / Tokushu Kyoikugaku Kenkyu is the property of Japanese Association of Special Education 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.)

We performed a meta-analysis to examine if children with dyslexia experience deficits in morphological awareness (MA) and if the effect sizes are influenced by different moderators (age, aspect of MA measured, type of MA task, language, modality input, semantic knowledge, and selection criteria). We reviewed 40 studies published in English between January 1990 and August 2021, representing a total of 5,018 participants (age range = 5.1–13.9 years). Studies with adults or English language learners were excluded. There were 49 independent samples in the chronological-age (CA) – dyslexia (DYS) comparison and 18 independent samples in the comparison between DYS and reading–level (RL) controls. A random-effects model analysis revealed a large effect size for the CA–DYS comparison (g = 1.11) and a non-significant effect size for the RL–DYS comparison (g = −0.08). Age was the only significant moderator of the effect sizes. These findings suggest, first, that individuals with dyslexia experience significant difficulties in MA and second, that the effect sizes are as large as those reported for phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and orthographic knowledge. The lack of a significant RL-DYS difference indicates that MA is not a core causal feature of dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In opaque orthographies, such as English, children with low reading skills tend to rely more on semantic information due to their inadequate acquisition of sub‐lexical knowledge. This tendency has also been reported for kanji, a non‐alphabetic and opaque Japanese orthography. However, previous studies on this phenomenon have had methodological limitations, such as a small number of stimuli in reading tests and insufficient investigation of a consistency effect. This study addressed these limitations and aimed to clarify whether Japanese children with low reading accuracy are characterised by a stronger reliance on semantic information and a smaller contribution to the reading process based on character‐to‐sound correspondences to the kanji word‐reading performance than children with high reading accuracy in reading kanji words. Methods: A total of 129 Japanese students in the fifth and sixth grades participated in this study, and 11 of them had been previously diagnosed with developmental dyslexia. They read an experimenter‐created list of kanji words. We tested how frequency, imageability and consistency of character‐to‐sound correspondences affected children's reading accuracy and error types and how the effects of these variables were modulated by reading accuracy level. Results: For children with lower reading accuracy, the frequency and consistency effects on reading accuracy decreased, whereas the imageability effect was stronger. Children with low reading accuracy frequently did not respond, whereas children with high reading accuracy made word substitution and legitimate alternative reading of component (LARC) errors frequently. Conclusions: The reading processing of children with low reading accuracy is characterised by a stronger reliance on semantic information and a smaller contribution of a reading process based on character‐to‐sound correspondences to reading performance than that of children with high reading accuracy. Reading characteristics of children with low reading accuracy might be due to their inadequate lexical and sub‐word knowledge. Highlights: What is already known about this topicJapanese children with developmental dyslexia show a larger imageability effect than children without reading deficits, thus suggesting a heavier reliance on semantic information when reading kanji words (Akashi et al., 2013).Compared with Japanese children without reading deficits, Japanese children with developmental dyslexia frequently make two types of errors: word substitution errors (i.e. reading a target word as another word) and no response (Akashi et al., 2013).The percentage of legitimate alternative reading of component (LARC) errors in Japanese children with developmental dyslexia was lower compared with their peers without reading deficits, which suggests a lack of sub‐word knowledge, that is, character‐to‐sound correspondences (Akashi et al., 2013). What this paper addsIn addition to a larger imageability effect and fewer LARC errors, the reading performance of children with low reading scores was characterised by smaller effects of frequency and consistency on reading accuracy compared with children with high reading scores.In addition to LARC errors, children with high reading scores made word substitution errors more frequently than those with low reading scores, which is inconsistent with Akashi et al. (2013).This study showed that a process using semantic information and one based on character‐to‐sound correspondences could affect reading accuracy in Japanese children. Implications for theory, policy or practiceThis study elucidated the kanji word‐reading characteristics of children with low reading scores. The results will enable teachers to identify children who have difficulty reading kanji words based on their reading characteristics.Our findings suggest that we should develop kanji word‐reading interventions to improve sub‐word and lexical reading skills in Japanese children with low reading accuracy because their reading characteristics are mostly affected by a lack of orthography–phonology correspondences at the word and sub‐word levels. To improve sub‐word reading skills, teachers can teach multiple pronunciations of each character and which pronunciation of a character is the most frequent among compound words with the character. To improve lexical reading skills, focusing on orthography–phonology and orthography–semantics associations at the word level by looking at a printed word, pronouncing it and saying its meaning multiple times may be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial expressions are evolutionarily acquired social signals that are processed rapidly by the receiver when deciding to either approach or avoid the person sending the signal. The predominance of the approach or avoidance responses has been examined for various facial expressions. Similar to facial expressions, the approach‐avoidance response to affective voice may have been acquired evolutionarily. However, studies examining approach‐avoidance to an affective voice are limited. This study used the approach‐avoidance task framework developed for facial expressions to determine the dominant behavioural responses to affective voices that indicate either happiness or anger. The results show that the approach response was dominant for the happy voice, while the avoidance response was dominant for the angry voice. This tendency was observed even without the presence of any facial stimuli. These results suggest that an affective voice may be an evolutionarily acquired approach‐avoidance‐inducing social signal, similar to facial expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of connectionism emphasize the mappings of orthography, phonology, and semantics in the process of word recognition and production. Chinese has a logographic writing system, which is markedly different from alphabetic languages. The current study investigated how orthography, phonology, and semantics contribute to Chinese character production among Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. This study collected 33,856 Chinese characters in a sample of 2,116 CSL learners with 7 diverse L1s. ANOVA was conducted to examine the effect of Chinese character error type on 7 L1s and three Chinese proficiency levels. The results of ANOVA revealed that successful CSL learners' Chinese character production was derived from connections between orthography, semantics, and phonology. Semantics, especially the orthography-semantics connection, was the key point for production skills. Furthermore, connectionist models of languages rather than language distance affected production. These findings indicate that Chinese character production is associated with not only orthographic knowledge but also representation mechanisms of orthography, phonology, and semantics between different language writing systems. The results contribute to a better understanding of literacy skills in CSL learners. Future research could further address how CSL learners transform perceptive skills into production skills and the correlation between reading and writing skills by examining and controlling other important cognitive variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the study 'Retrograde Amnesia During Transient Global Amnesia,' by H. Kazui, H. Tanabe, M. Ikeda, M. Hashimoto, N. Yamada, J. Okuda and T.N. Wydell, published in the 1996 issue of 'Neurocase.'

Presents an abstract of the article 'Interpreting a Case of Japanese Phonological Alexia: The Key is in Phonology,' by K. Patterson, T. Suzuki and T.N. Wydell which appeared in the 1996 issue of the 'Cognitive Neuropsychology' journal.

Background: The present study aimed to examine and compare the relative contributions of three facets of metalinguistic awareness (phonological awareness, orthographic awareness and morphological awareness) and lexical inferencing ability to Chinese reading comprehension across upper elementary grades. Method: Fifty‐three third graders, 79 fourth graders and 108 fifth graders were administered a battery of tests including non‐verbal intelligence, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, lexical inference and reading comprehension. Results: The multivariate analyses across grade groups revealed the continued progress in children's performances on morphological awareness but not on phonological and orthographic awareness. More important, hierarchical regressions exhibited the same pattern across grades, suggesting that morphological awareness was the sole consistent indicator of reading comprehension in all grades. Finally, lexical inferencing ability contributed to reading comprehension only in fifth‐grade students after accounting for the effects of metalinguistic awareness. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of morphological awareness as the most potent meaning‐building metalinguistic skill that can consistently predict Chinese reading comprehension in upper elementary children and indicate that the contribution of lexical inferencing ability differs as a function of children's reading skills. Results were discussed in relation to the Reading Systems Framework and implications for educational instruction were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ADHD and Chinese developmental dyslexia (DD) have a very high comorbidity rate; however, which cognitive deficits characterize the comorbidity and when they occur during cognitive processing are still under debate. Methods: Rapid automatic naming (RAN) tasks with eye-movement tracking were conducted with 75 children who were typically developing, had comorbid ADHD and DD, had only ADHD, and had only DD. Results: The clinical groups had longer first fixation durations than the control for RAN digits. Temporal eye-movement measures, such as gaze duration and total reading time, were found to vary between the comorbidity and ADHD groups. Spatial eye-movement measures, such as regression probability and incoming saccade amplitude, differed between the comorbidity and DD groups. Conclusions: These results indicate that investigation with eye-movement measures combined with RAN tasks can strengthen the understanding of the pathogenesis of comorbid ADHD and DD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay aims to compare specific language impairment (SLI) and sensorineural hearing loss (SNH), and to identify how these developmental disorders might shape children's learning to read and spell, which will, in turn, shed light upon a satisfactory understanding of how these skills typically develop in childhood or later (Hulme & Snowling, 2009). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, 2 studies are presented comparing English and bilingual Welsh speaking university students', including those who experience dyslexia on their speed and accuracy of segmenting Wordchains. In the pilot study, a Welsh translation of the standardised assessment, Wordchains, was evaluated with a group of students. The results indicated that this version was more difficult than the English version because of the longer length of the Welsh words. For the main study, the stimulus was adjusted for length and a comparison made of the performance on Welsh and English forms. The results indicated that the Welsh test was more difficult overall with the poorest performance from Welsh speaking dyslexics followed by Welsh speaking controls than the English test equivalent. The results have implications for countries across the world where bilingualism is common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some individuals with developmental dyslexia show dissociation in reading skills between languages. The occurrence of dissociation depends on differences in the orthographic characteristics and cognitive demands of languages. This article reports on a Korean-Japanese bilingual and biliterate boy, SJ, with developmental dyslexia (aged 11 years), who displayed dissociation between Korean and Japanese in reading and writing accuracy. This study aimed to discuss possible accounts for the profile of his literacy skills from orthographic and cognitive perspectives. To accomplish this aim, we measured SJ's literacy skills, receptive vocabulary, and cognitive abilities (i.e., phonological skills, naming speed, and visual skills) in both Korean and Japanese. Then, we compared his skills to those of monolingual and bilingual children. In terms of accuracy, his reading skills in Korean did not differ significantly from those of bilinguals, although they were lower than Korean monolinguals. His spelling skills were within the average range for Korean monolinguals and bilinguals. In contrast, his reading and writing accuracy levels in Japanese were low compared to both Japanese monolinguals and bilinguals. Moreover, his reading and writing deficits were more remarkable in Japanese kanji. However, his cognitive profile was similar between languages. Specifically, he showed deficits in phonological skills and naming speed in both languages, as well as deficits in visual skills. These results were explained by the facts that visual skills are one of the significant predictors of reading and writing accuracy in Japanese but not in Korean, and that visual skills are a key in learning kanji. Thus, our case, SJ, supports the cognitive account, namely, the idea that different cognitive demands on the development of literacy skills can cause dissociation in literacy skills (especially in terms of accuracy) in bilingual children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dorsal stream is an important pathway for visual information transmission. As a part of the dorsal pathway, the middle temporal visual motion areas (V5/MT+) are mainly responsible for visual motion processing and the ability of visual motion processing is closely related to reading. Compared with alphabetic scripts, the visual structure of Chinese characters is more complex and there are no clear grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules. So the ability of visual analysis plays an important role in Chinese character processing. This study first investigated the brain activation of Chinese dyslexic children and children of the same chronological age when they observed coherent motion stimuli. ROI analysis indicated that only the activation of left V5/MT+ was significantly weaker in dyslexics than that in the control group. The activity of the magnocellular-dorsal stream was closely related to orthographic awareness in the combined data (two groups) and the typical children. In dyslexia group, the stronger the activation of V5/MT+ was, the worse the phonological awareness, rapid naming performance and orthographic awareness were. In short, Chinese dyslexic children were deficient in the activation of the left V5/MT+ and the activity of the magnocellular-dorsal pathway was closely related to orthographic awareness in Chinese pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) has been shown to be a strong correlate of reading abilities. RAN also predicts future reading across different ages, ability levels, and languages, and is often used in literacy screening. Thus, understanding the specific relations between early RAN and later reading difficulties is important, particularly for screening. This systematic review and meta‐analysis (with N = 60 samples; k = 373 effect sizes; n = 10,513 participants), was the first to test the extent to which measures of RAN assessed before grade school predict future reading performance in English‐speaking children. We also tested whether characteristics of the RAN tasks, reading measures, or sample demographics moderate this relationship. We found that overall, kindergarten/preschool RAN is correlated with grade‐school reading at r = −.38, similar in magnitude to previous concurrent meta‐analyses that included various ages and languages. We found that alphanumeric RAN tasks were more strongly related to future reading than were non‐alphanumeric tasks, as well as that RAN significantly predicts all types of reading measures tested, but more strongly predicts real word than nonword reading. To assess the role of RAN's unique predictive power, we also meta‐analyzed the semipartial correlations of early RAN with later reading when controlling for phonological awareness (PA); the result of rsp = −.25 demonstrates RAN's significant, unique contribution beyond PA. These results support shared cognitive resource models in which the similarity between RAN and reading tasks accounts for their correlation. We provide practical guidelines for based on these data for early screening for reading difficulties and dyslexia. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) has been shown to be a strong correlate of reading abilities. RAN also predicts future reading across different ages, ability levels, and languages, and is often used in literacy screening. Thus, understanding the specific relations between early RAN and later reading difficulties is important, particularly for screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have explored the link between how well youth recognize emotions and their internalizing problems, but a consensus remains elusive. This study used a three-level meta-analysis model to quantitatively synthesize the findings of existing studies to assess the relationship. A moderation analysis was also conducted to explore the sources of research heterogeneity. Through a systematic literature search, a total of 42 studies with 201 effect sizes were retrieved for the current meta-analysis, and 7579 participants were included. Emotion recognition was negatively correlated with internalizing problems. Children and adolescents with weaker emotion recognition skills were more likely to have internalizing problems. In addition, this meta-analysis found that publication year had a significant moderating effect. The correlation between emotion recognition and internalizing problems decreased over time. The degree of internalizing problems was also found to be a significant moderator. The correlation between emotion recognition and internalizing disorders was higher than the correlation between emotion recognition and internalizing symptoms. Deficits in emotion recognition might be relevant for the development and/or maintenance of internalizing problems in children and adolescents. The overall effect was small and future research should explore the clinical relevance of the association., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)