Reading segments is not reading words: Comment on Kawamoto et al. (2014)

Word production involves computing the sound of a word from its concept or visually presented form. To perform such process multiple operations are required, including lexical access, word form encoding, and articulation. With regard to articulation, a critical issue is understanding which is the minimal planning unit (henceforth MPU) to address articulatory programs and start motor implementation. Kawamoto and colleagues (2014, QJEP) have recently proposed that the MPU consists in the word initial segment. The segment as MPU hypothesis is winsome, but it is difficult to substantiate. In this commentary, we argue that, in addition to some methodological concerns, at least three issues may challenge this hypothesis. A first challenge to the segment as MPU hypothesis is how to reconcile it with the typical articulatory behavior shown by readers. A second issue questioning the generalizability of the segment as MPU hypothesis is the phonetic realization of stress in polysyllabic words, which in many languages constitute a great part of the lexicon. A third issue deals with the opacity of the orthography-to-phonology mapping. Overall, our observations suggest that the segment as MPU hypothesis is more an exceptional behavior than the behavior usually occurring at the phonology-to-phonetics interface of the reading system. We show that several findings suggest that the phonology-to-phonetics interface adopts units larger than the segment. The latter proposal can account for a bulk of phenomena such as those related to orthography-to-phonology opacity, stress assignment, and co-articulation

Priming lexical stress in reading Italian aloud.

Two naming experiments using lexical priming were conducted to investigate how stress information is processed in reading Italian aloud. In the experiments, word primes and targets either shared the stress pattern, or they had different stress patterns. The hypothesis was that lexical activation of the prime would favor the assignment of a congruent stress to the target word. Results show that participants were faster in naming low-frequency target words that had the same stress pattern as the prime, than in naming targets with a different stress than the prime. Similar effects were found on word targets that were included in lists in which primes and targets had the same stress type (experiment 1), and in lists that were mixed for stress type and congruency (experiment 2). The results indicate that, in single word reading, metrical information about stress position is activated in the lexicon, autonomously from phonemic segmental information

Lexical stress assignment in Italian developmental dyslexia.

Stress assignment to Italian polysyllabic words is unpredictable, because stress is neither marked nor predicted by rule. Stress assignment, especially to low frequency words, has been reported to be a function of stress dominance and stress neighbourhood. Two experiments investigate stress assignment in sixth-grade, skilled and dyslexic, readers. In Experiment 1, skilled readers were not affected by stress dominance. Dyslexic children, although affected by word frequency, made more stress regularisation errors on low frequency words. In Experiment 2, stress neighbourhood affected low frequency word reading irrespective of stress dominance for both skilled and dyslexic readers. Words with many stress friends were read more accurately than words with many stress enemies. It is concluded that, in assigning stress, typically developing and developmental dyslexic Italian readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language

Lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in bilingual children reading Italian as a second language

In Italian, developing readers exhibit lexicality and frequency effects, and are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. But how do bilingual children with different ages of first L2 (Italian) exposure and L2 vocabulary sizes read L2 words and pseudowords? Two reading aloud experiments investigated lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in fourth- and fifth-grade bilinguals and monolinguals. Naming latencies and pronunciation accuracy were analyzed. In Experiment 1, effects of lexicality and frequency and between-group differences emerged. In Experiment 2, the word frequency effect was confirmed. Late bilinguals, characterized by a smaller L2 vocabulary size, were less accurate than early bilinguals and monolinguals in assigning non-dominant stress. As with monolinguals, lexical information seems to be employed when reading Italian as a second language. Furthermore, bilingual readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. Stress assignment is affected by the L2 lexicon size of second-language learners

Morphological processing in reading disabled and skilled Spanish children

This article presents the results of a lexical decision experiment in which the base frequency (BF)effect is explored in reading disabled children and skilled readers. Three groups of participants were created. The first group was composed of children with reading disorders, the second Group of skilled readers matched with the first group for chronological age and the third group of skilled readers matched for vocabulary size. The results of the experiment showed strong effects for Group, BF and also for the Group by BF interaction. Children matched for chronological age with children with reading disorders were significantly faster and more accurate than children of the other groups, who did not show any difference from each other. The effect of BF showed that children responded faster to stimuli composed of frequent bases than to stimuli with less frequent bases. However, the analysis of the interaction between Group and BF showed that only the skilled readers matched to children with reading disorders for chronological age benefited from the BF effect. The results of the experiment are discussed in the framework of theoretical accounts of morphological processing in children as well as considering the role played by the experimental tas

The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: A study on Italian children

In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle sufficient to read and spell most words. The present study aimed to investigate the role of morphology in the reading and spelling accuracy of Italian children as a function of school experience to determine whether morphological facilitation was present in children learning a transparent orthography. The reading and spelling performances of 15 third-grade and 15 fifth-grade typically developing children were analyzed. Children read aloud and spelled both low-frequency words and pseudowords. Low-frequency words were manipulated for the presence of morphological structure (morphemic words vs non-derived words). Morphemic words could also vary for the frequency (high vs low) of roots and suffixes. Pseudo-words were made up of either a real root and a real derivational suffix in a combination that does not exist in the Italian language or had no morphological constituents. Results showed that, in Italian, morphological information is a useful resource for both reading and spelling. Typically developing children benefitted from the presence of morphological structure when they read and spelled pseudowords; however, in processing low-frequency words, morphology facilitated reading but not spelling. These findings are discussed in terms of morpho-lexical access and successful cooperation between lexical and sublexical processes in reading and spelling

Stress assignment in reading Italian: Friendship outweighs dominance

Stress assignment to polysyllabic words is the only aspect of the pronunciation of written Italian that cannot be predicted by rule. It could be a function of stress dominance in the language or of stress neighbourhood (i.e., the number of words sharing ending and stress pattern). Two experiments investigated stress assignment in Italian adult and most importantly young readers. Word frequency and number of stress friends influenced reading times and accuracy, outweighing any effect of stress dominance. In the presence of a majority of stress friends, the reading of low-frequency words was only affected by stress neighbourhood. The effects were the same in fourth graders and adult readers. It is argued that distributional information based on the number of stress friends - rather than stress dominance - is the most effective factor in assigning stress to words in reading

Stress affects articulation planning in reading aloud.

Three experiments of pseudoword reading assessed whether stress assignment affects reading aloud at the level of articulation planning. In experiment 1 (immediate reading) both stimulus length (in syllables) and stress type affected reading latency and accuracy. Italian pseudowords were named faster and more accurately when they were assigned stress on the antepenultimate than on the penultimate syllable. In experiment 2 (delayed reading) reading aloud of the same stimuli was not affected by length but was still affected by stress type, with shorter latencies for pseudowords stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Experiment 3 replicated the results of the first two experiments with new materials and with a tightly controlled procedure. These results indicate that stress assignment exerts an effect in a processing component where articulation is planned as articulation can not start until stress is assigned. Our results also suggest that, in reading aloud, the minimal planning unit for articulation is smaller than the whole stimulus, including the first syllable up to the stressed unit