Chapter 8 Flashcards
Acquired dyslexia
An impairment in reading ability due to brain damage in a person who had previously been a skilled reader
Alphabet
A writing system that represents each phoneme with a different symbol
Alphabetic principle
The process by which readers associate written symbols with speech sounds
Auditory processing deficit hypothesis
The proposal that dyslexia stems from an underlying difficulty in accurately detecting and remembering rapid sound changes
Burst
A period of active text comprehension bounded by pauses at both ends
Deep orthography
The situation in which spelling and pronunciation are poorly matched
Developmental dyslexia
A reading disability in children that cannot be attributed to a lack of intelligence, motivation, or educational opportunity
Diffusion tensor imaging
An fMRI technique that enables researchers to trace the pathways of white matter tracts
Direct route
The process of going straight from the written word to its meaning
Dual route model
The proposal that readers can either first access a word’s meaning and then its pronunciation or else access a word’s pronunciation and then its meaning
Exner’s area
A brain region located in the left frontal premotor cortex above Broca’s area the stores the motor programs for handwriting gestures
Fovea
The region of the retina directly behind the the pupil where vision is most acute
Frequency effect
The observation that low-frequency words are fixed longer than high-frequency words
Gaze contingency paradigm
An experimental procedure in which a narrow window of text surrounding the fixation point is displayed on a computer screen
Gray matter
Brain tissue that is mainly composed of neuron cell bodies and whose function is to process information
Hayes model
An influential theory of the writing process that that has guided research since the 1980s
Homographs
Words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently
Homophones
Words with the same pronunciation but different meanings
Implicit prosody hypothesis
The proposal that skilled readers organize the material they read into prosodic phrases similar to the way they would when they speak
Indirect route
The process of accessing the meaning of a written word by first reconstructing its pronunciation
Isolated spelling disorder
A specific and significant impairment in spelling skills even though reading ability is in the normal range
Letter position dyslexia
A rare form of reading disorder in which readers mix up the order of letters in words
Logogram
A written symbol that represents a word or morpheme
Missing letter effect
The observation that skilled readers skip over predictable words and thus cannot track the letters in those words
Neuronal recycling hypothesis
The proposal that brain areas designed for one function can be reorganized to perform another, somewhat similar function
Orthography
The set of rules for writing the words of a language
Parafovea
The area surrounding the fovea, where vision is less acute
Parafovea-on-fovea effect
The case in which characteristics of the following word affect the fixation duration of the current word
Perceptual span
The range of letters that can be processed during one fixation
Phonics-based approach
A method of teaching reading that explicitly trains children to recognize consistent relationships between letters and sounds
Phonological awareness
An understanding that words can be broken down into smaller sound structures
Phonological dyslexia
A condition in which reading is relatively intact but the ability to sound out unfamiliar words is lost
Predictability effect
The observation that less predictable words are fixated longer than more highly predictable words
Rapid automatized naming
A diagnostic for dyslexia in which the child is asked to name written letters, numbers, and other familiar symbols as quickly as possible
Shallow orthography
The situation in which spelling a pronunciation are closely matched
Spillover effect
The case in which processing difficulties of the preceding word cause the fixation duration of the current word to be extended
Surface dyslexia
A condition in which the ability to read regularly spelled words and pseudowords is intact while the ability to read irregularly spelled words is lost
Syllabary
A writing system that represents each syllable with a different symbol
Visual word form area
A region between the occipital and temporal lobes where the symbols of the writing system are stored, regardless of the language or type of script
White matter tracts
Bundles of fibers that connect various regions of the brain and whose function is to transmit information
