Author(s)

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Word skipping: effects of word length, predictability, spelling and reading skill

Readers eyes often skip over words as they read. Skipping rates are largely determined by word length; short words are skipped more than long words. However, the predictability of a word in context also impacts skipping rates. Rayner, Slattery, Drieghe and Liversedge (2011) reported an effect of predictability on word skipping for even long words (10-13 characters) that extend beyond the word identification span. Recent research suggests that better readers and spellers have an enhanced perceptual span (Veldre & Andrews, 2014). We explored whether reading and spelling skill interact with word length and predictability to impact word skipping rates in a large sample (N=92) of average and poor adult readers. Participants read the items from Rayner et al. (2011) while their eye movements were recorded. Spelling skill (zSpell) was assessed using the dictation and recognition tasks developed by Sally Andrews and colleagues. Reading skill (zRead) was assessed from reading speed (words per minute) and accuracy of three 120 word passages each with 10 comprehension questions. We fit linear mixed models to the target gaze duration data and generalized linear mixed models to the target word skipping data. Target word gaze durations were significantly predicted by zRead while, the skipping likelihoods were significantly predicted by zSpell. Additionally, for gaze durations, zRead significantly interacted with word predictability as better readers relied less on context to support word processing. These effects are discussed in relation to the lexical quality hypothesis and eye movement models of reading

Individual Differences in Spelling Ability Influence Phonological Processing during Visual Word Recognition.

In the research reported here, we investigated how phonological processing in the lexical decision task is influenced by individual differences in the reading and spelling abilities of participants. We used phonological neighborhood spread as a measure of phonological processing. Spread refers to the number of phoneme positions in a word that can be changed to form a phonological neighbor. Replicating previous research, we found that words forming neighbors across three positions (P3) were recognized more rapidly than those forming neighbors across only two positions (P2). Importantly, we found that this spread effect interacted with spelling ability. The difference between P3 and P2 was largest when spelling recognition was high and spelling production low. These opposing effects of spelling ability are explained in terms of a language system that consists of separate orthographic systems for reading and spelling. Although these two orthographic systems are separate, they share information through a shared response buffer (Jones & Rawson, 2016). Within this framework, it is argued that lexical decisions are made once the information in the response buffer reaches threshold and that time to reach this threshold is influenced by two sources. One is the quality of the orthographic connections in the reading system and is measured by spelling recognition. The other is the quality of the orthographic connections in the spelling system and is measured by spelling production

Inter-word and Inter-letter spacing effects during reading revisited: Interactions with word and font characteristics

Despite the large number of eye movement studies conducted over the past 30+ years, relatively few have examined the influence that font characteristics have on reading. However, there has been renewed interest in one particular font characteristic, letter spacing, which has both theoretical (visual word recognition) and applied (font design) importance. Recently published results that letter spacing has a bigger impact on the reading performance of dyslexic children have perhaps garnered the most attention (Zorzi et al. 2012). Unfortunately, the effects of increased inter-letter spacing have been mixed with some authors reporting facilitation and others reporting inhibition (van den Boer & Hakvoort, 2015). We present findings from three experiments designed to resolve the seemingly inconsistent letter-spacing effects and provide clarity to researchers and font designers and researchers. The results indicate that the direction of spacing effects depend on the size of the ‘default’ spacing chosen by font developers. Experiment 3, found that inter-letter spacing interacts with inter-word spacing, as the required space between words depends on the amount of space used between letters. Inter-word spacing also interacted with word type as the inhibition seen with smaller inter-word spacing was evident with nouns and verbs but not with function words

Stochastic drift in discrete waves of non-locally interacting-particles

In this paper, we investigate a generalised model of $N$ particles undergoing second-order non-local interactions on a lattice. Our results have applications across many research areas, including the modelling of migration, information dynamics and Muller's ratchet -- the irreversible accumulation of deleterious mutations in an evolving population. Strikingly, numerical simulations of the model are observed to deviate significantly from its mean-field approximation even for large population sizes. We show that the disagreement between deterministic and stochastic solutions stems from finite-size effects that change propagation speed and cause the position of the wave to fluctuate. These effects are shown to decay anomalously as $(\log N)^2$ and $(\log N)^{3}$, respectively -- much slower than the usual $\sqrt{N}$ factor. As a result, the accumulation of deleterious mutations in a Muller's ratchet and the loss of awareness in a population are processes that occur much faster than predicted by the corresponding deterministic models. The general applicability of our model suggests that this unexpected scaling could be important in a wide range of real-world applications.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Canada’s new Open Access Policy: what does it mean for Brock researchers?

Presentation at Brock Library Spring Symposium 2015: What's really going on?Canada’s new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy signals that Canada is embracing open research as a default position. While only funding recipients will be required to comply with the policy by making their journal articles Open Access, the policy stresses that all Canadian researchers are encouraged to follow suit. Attend this session to learn more about the policy regulations and how the Library can support Open Access to Brock research

An annotation infrastructure for the analysis and interpretation of Affymetrix exon array data

An annotation database (X:MAP) and BioConductor/R package (exonmap) have been developed to support fine-grained analysis of exon array data