Individual Differences in Phonological Feedback Effects: Evidence for the Orthographic Recoding Hypothesis of Orthographic Learning

Share (1995) has proposed phonological recoding (the translation of letters into sounds) as a self-teaching mechanism through which readers establish complete lexical representations. More recently, McKague et al. (2008) proposed a similar role for orthographic recoding, i.e., feedback from sounds to letters, in building and refining lexical representations. We reasoned that an interaction between feedback consistency measures and spelling ability in a spelling decision experiment would lend support to this hypothesis. In a linear mixed effects logistic regression of accuracy data this interaction was significant. Better spellers but not poorer spellers were immune to feedback effects in deciding if a word is spelled correctly, which is consistent with McKague et al.’s prediction that the impact of phonological feedback on word recognition will diminish when the orthographic representation for an item is fully specified. The study demonstrates the importance of considering individual differences when investigating the role of phonology in reading

Lexical Stress and Linguistic Predictability Influence Proofreading Behavior

There is extensive evidence that the segmental (i.e., phonemic) layer of phonology is routinely activated during reading, but little is known about whether phonological activation extends beyond phonemes to subsegmental layers (which include articulatory information, such as voicing) and suprasegmental layers (which include prosodic information, such as lexical stress). In three proofreading experiments, we show that spelling errors are detected more reliably in syllables that are stressed than in syllables that are unstressed if comprehension is a goal of the reader, indicating that suprasegmental phonology is both active during silent reading and can influence orthographic processes. In Experiment 1, participants received instructions to read for both errors and comprehension, and we found that the effect of lexical stress interacted with linguistic predictability, such that detection of errors in more predictable words was aided by stress but detection of errors in less predictable words was not. This finding suggests that lexical stress patterns can be accessed prelexically if an upcoming word is sufficiently predictable from context. Participants with stronger vocabularies showed decreased effects of stress on task performance, which is consistent with previous findings that more skilled readers are less swayed by phonological information in decisions about orthographic form. In two subsequent experiments, participants were instructed to read only for errors (Experiment 2) or only for comprehension (Experiment 3); the effect of stress disappeared when participants read for errors and reappeared when participants read for comprehension, reconfirming our hypothesis that predictability is a driver of lexical stress effects. In all experiments, errors were detected more reliably in words that were difficult to predict from context than in words that were highly predictable. Taken together, this series of experiments contributes two important findings to the field of reading and cognition: (1) The prosodic property of lexical stress can influence orthographic processing, and (2) Predictability inhibits the detection of errors in written language processing.NICHD grant R01HD058566-02 Author fees paid for by the Northern Illinois University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fun

Universal reading processes are modulated by language and writing system

The connections among language, writing system, and reading are part of what confronts a child in learning to read. We examine these connections in addressing how reading processes adapt to the variety of written language and how writing adapts to language. The first adaptation (reading to writing), as evidenced in behavioral and neuroscience data, is achieved through a universal constraint that language places on writing and through the tuning of reading procedures imposed by specific features of writing systems. Children acquire skill in reading through increasing specialization of procedures tuned to their writing system, while also acquiring more general (universal) procedures that serve language mapping and cognitive control. For the second adaption (writing to language), we present examples from several languages to suggest that writing systems tend to fit their linguistic properties, thus providing adaptive variation in writing-to-language mapping. We suggest that this writing-language fit facilitates the child’s learning how his or her writing system works

Error-related negativities during spelling judgments expose orthographic knowledge

In two experiments, we demonstrate that error-related negativities (ERNs) recorded during spelling decisions can expose individual differences in lexical knowledge. The first experiment found that the ERN was elicited during spelling decisions and that its magnitude was correlated with independent measures of subjects’ spelling knowledge. In the second experiment, we manipulated the phonology of misspelled stimuli and observed that ERN magnitudes were larger when misspelled words altered the phonology of their correctly spelled counterparts than when they preserved it. Thus, when an error is made in a decision about spelling, the brain processes indexed by the ERN reflect both phonological and orthographic input to the decision process. In both experiments, ERN effect sizes were correlated with assessments of lexical knowledge and reading, including offline spelling ability and spelling-mediated vocabulary knowledge. These results affirm the interdependent nature of orthographic, semantic, and phonological knowledge components while showing that spelling knowledge uniquely influences the ERN during spelling decisions. Finally, the study demonstrates the value of ERNs in exposing individual differences in lexical knowledge

Reasoning from multiple texts: An automatic analysis of readers' situation models

In reading multiple texts, a reader must integrate information from the texts with his or her background knowledge. The resulting situation model represents a rich elaborated structure of events, actions, objects, and people involved in the text organized in a manner consistent with the reader's knowledge. In order to evaluate a reader's situation model, a reader's summary must be analyzed in relation to texts the subject has read as well as to more general knowledge such as an expert's knowledge. However, this analysis can be both time-consuming and difficult. In this paper, we use an automatic approach called Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) for evaluating the situation model of readers of multiple documents. LSA is a statistical model of word usage that generates a high-dimensional semantic space that models the semantics of the text. This paper describes three experiments. The first two describe methods for analyzing a subject's essay to determine from what text a subject learned the information and for grading the quality of information cited in the essay. The third experiment analyzes the knowledge structures of novice and expert readers and compares them to the knowledge structures generated by the model. The experiments illustrate a general approach to modeling and evaluating readers' situation models

Why Semantics Lags Behind Phonology in Word Indentification

Because meaning is both the common outcome and the typical goal of language processing, including reading, semantic processes have received a privileged position, especially in cognitive science accounts that emphasize semantic, goal driven components in language. Even in accounts of written word identification, a "low-level" process, it is typical to assume that semantic outputs are achieved with optional contributions of phonology. Our goal here is to present evidence for an alternative perspective, one that gives phonology a central rather than a peripheral, optional role in word identification. W e first briefly discuss a writing system comparison that is important to this perspective. W e then summarize recent published and unpublished research that gives definition to our conclusion that phonology is a central and universal component of word reading

Writing quality predicts Chinese learning

To examine the importance of manual character writing to reading in a new writing system, 48 adult Chinese-as-a-foreign-language students were taught characters in either a character writing-to-read or an alphabet typing-to-read condition, and engaged in corresponding handwriting or typing training for five consecutive days. Prior knowledge of orthography and phonology was assessed before training. At the end of each training day, improved orthographic quality was assessed via increased skill in producing Chinese characters at both the component and global levels. In addition, pretests and posttests were administered at each training day, and the proportional changes were used as the measure of learning gains. Outcomes replicated earlier findings of improved phonological knowledge following pinyin-typing practice and improved semantic knowledge following handwriting practice. Improvement in handwriting quality played a significant role in predicting reading gains after controlling for prior knowledge

Spelling challenges in Hindi

Fourth standard students (8–10 years old) learning Hindi as an additional language played a mobile game that teaches children to identify complex akshara (akshara that contain at least two consonant components) and spell words that contain complex akshara. We analyzed the game data to identify aspects of both akshara and words that are challenging to students. We replicated some findings from previous studies: (1) students struggle with complex akshara that look different than their components (i.e., opaque complex akshara); (2) they struggle with akshara that have a nonlinear arrangement of components; and (3) they struggle to spell words when there is a mismatch between the orthographic and phonological syllable. Because we had more stimuli than previous studies, we were able to examine finer comparisons in opacity and linearity. Furthermore, we were the first to identify that students make rampant phonological errors specifically on aspirated consonants, which are relatively rare in Hindi

Writing Affects the Brain Network of Reading in Chinese: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

We examined the hypothesis that learning to write Chinese characters influences the brain’s reading network for characters. Students from a college Chinese class learned 30 characters in a character-writing condition and 30 characters in a pinyin-writing condition. After learning, functional magnetic resonance imaging collected during passive viewing showed different networks for reading Chinese characters and English words, suggesting accommodation to the demands of the new writing system through short-term learning. Beyond these expected differences, we found specific effects of character writing in greater activation (relative to pinyin writing) in bilateral superior parietal lobules and bilateral lingual gyri in both a lexical decision and an implicit writing task. These findings suggest that character writing establishes a higher quality representation of the visual–spatial structure of the character and its orthography. We found a greater involvement of bilateral sensori-motor cortex (SMC) for character-writing trained characters than pinyin-writing trained characters in the lexical decision task, suggesting that learning by doing invokes greater interaction with sensori-motor information during character recognition. Furthermore, we found a correlation of recognition accuracy with activation in right superior parietal lobule, right lingual gyrus, and left SMC, suggesting that these areas support the facilitative effect character writing has on reading. Finally, consistent with previous behavioral studies, we found character-writing training facilitates connections with semantics by producing greater activation in bilateral middle temporal gyri,whereas pinyin-writing training facilitates connections with phonology by producing greater activation in right inferior frontal gyrus