Lec 4/ TB Ch 8 Reading section

Question 1

• Lec
• Cambridge university effect
• Transpose-letter effects in English
  
  • identity prime RT
  • swapped 1 letter prime RT
  • unrelated prime RT
• Conclusion
• Issue & Hebrew replication

Answer 1

• Cambridge university effect: As long as we don’t mess up the first and last letter, we can still read things

Transpose-letter effects in English

Perea-Lupker 2004

• Perceive w/ identity priming -> target word -> fastest RT
• swapped 1 letter prime -> target word -> also fast RT
• Unrelated primes -> target word -> Slow RT
• Conclusion:
  
  • Identity and swapped 1 letter prime are comparable
• Many think hardwire “fuzzy” letter-position coding/ Cambridge uni effect explains transpose letter effect
• Issue: Cambridge university effect does not apply in Hebrew
• Replicating exactly the same manipulation, Hebrew readers are dramatically impaired compared to English Readers
  
  • Transposed prime -> way slower RT
• Disputes hardwire “fuzzy” letter-position coding

Question 2

• Lec
• What causes variability transpose letter effect across languages?
• “Stats of language”
  
  • English: diff words = ?
  • Hebrew: diff words = ?

Answer 2

What causes variability transpose letter effect across languages?

• Null: Transpose letter effects - Disputes hardwire “fuzzy” letter-position coding
• Alt: Transpose-letter effects are an emergent behavior
  
  • Related to lower lv processing, which interacts w/ language learning system (each language system has diff stat properties.)

“Stats of language” Study

• Indo-European Languages (Eng)
  
  • Many words are constructed by arbitrarily combining sets of phonemes/letters, with little constraint on which phonemes/letters are combined.
  • Different Words = Different Sets of Letters
• Semitic Languages:
  
  • Many words are formed by interleaving a set of letters/phonemes with three root consonants.
  • Thus, many words share the same letters but in different orders.
  • Different Words = Same Letters, Different Orders
• Thus, English need to know the letters
• Hebrew: Order matters

Question 3

• Lec
• Hebrew study
  
  • Method
  • 2 inputs
  • 1 output
  • Results
  • Reason

Answer 3

• the general importance of the experiment, how it relates to language, and what are the main results
• 1Method: teach computer model “English” and Hebrew language system
  
  • Input: the letters, letter positions
  • Output: semantics (same b/w English and Hebrew)
• Results: English show stronger TL priming effect
• Hebrew language pay more attention to position of letters in their language

Question 4

• Lec
• What drives the trasposition letter effect (Eng is stronger than Hebrew?) → 2 reasons

Answer 4

• What drives the trasposition letter effect (Eng is stronger than Hebrew?)
• 1 Hebrews have more anagrams than English to begin with
• 2 Word length confound among studies
  
  • Most studies
    
    • English studies: used longer words
    • Hebrew: used shorter words

Question 5

Speed read myth or truth

• Which of the following is true vs. false?
• 1. Take in more information at a time. -> ?
• 2. Eliminate subvocalization -> ?
• 3. Eliminate regressive eye movements -> ?
     * Garden Path sentences
• 4. Eliminate Eye Movements by presenting all words at the same location → ?
• Provide reason
• Solution

Answer 5

Speed read myth or truth

• Which of the following is true vs. false?
• 1. Take in more information at a time. -> False
• 2. Eliminate subvocalization -> False
• 3. Eliminate regressive eye movements -> False
• 4. Eliminate Eye Movements by presenting all words at the same location
• Myth 1: False
• Constrained by our eyes (Fovea)
• Myth 2: False
• Subvocalization lets us map spelling onto sound, one of the earliest developing and most practiced language systems.
  
  • Subvocalization helps us speed it up
• As we have seen, the brain tries to leverage lots of constraints to help reading. This proposal should, therefore IMPAIR Reading.
• Myth 3: False
• Critical to understanding Garden Path sentences:
• “The old man the boat”
  
  • Need to reread -> revise this meaning
• Myth 4: Mostly False
• For short bursts, RSVP allows reading to occur at over 2x standard reading speeds
• However:
  
  • Very fatiguing
  • (can’t go back and re-read)
  • Fails to capitalize on flexibility of the reading system to regress, slow down for low frequency words, skip short function words (e.g., “the”, “a”, etc.)
• Best Way: Read a lot of new and varied material.

Question 6

• Local combination detector (LCD) Model (hierarchy of feature detectors)
• Lv 1-7
  
  • Location
  • What it detects
• Evidence: more complex stimuli → ??

Answer 6

Hierarchical coding of letter strings in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex

Local combination detector (LCD) Model (hierarchy of feature detectors)

Upper lv -> larger receptive field

• Level 1 - Location: LGN (thalamus)
  
  • detect simple stimuli on a specific location in the visual field
• Level 2 – V1/PVC
  
  • detect line orientations
  • Receive LGN stimuli
• Level 3 – V2
  
  • detect contours
  • Receive V1 stimuli
• Level 4 – V4 (ventral occipital region)
  
  • Process color, shape
  • Maybe case/font
• Level 5 – V8 (ventral occipital region)
  
  • Abstract letter
  • Can detect size and location?
• Level 6 – left OTS (occipitotemporal sulcus)
  
  • Detect 2 letter sequences (ex. EN)
• Level 7 – Left OTS
  
  • Detect 4 letters
• Evidence
• Method: showed 6 stimuli
  
  • 1: 6 fake letters
  • 2: 6 infrequent letters
  • 3: 6 frequent letters
  • 4: bigram
  • 5: quadgram
  • 6: real world
• Result: as we progress thru more complex stimuli -> activate more anterior portions of ventral OTS
• LH bias

Question 7

• How are reading and motor regions connected?
  
  • when we read → ?? activated
• 2 areas activated when words are present

Answer 7

Box 8.1: reading printed letters activates motor region for writing the same letters

• When we read, premotor regions is activated
  
  • Premotor region is responsible for handwriting
  • Activated based on your dominant hand (left hand = right PMd)
• PMd activation helps perception
  
  • Present strokes in correct sequence -> more PMd activation
  • Writing -> recognize new letter faster, esp mirror images (d and b)
  • Left PMd lesion -> RH patient impair writing and recognizing words

The Visual Word Forma Area (VWFA)

Normal response properties

• VWFA respond to More to printed words, real words
• VWFA respond to words in any location, case, font, script (Chinese vs Eng)
• Study method
  
  • Words and shapes -> remove 50% contour
  • Words: scrambled vs not
  • Shapes: scrambled vs not
• Results: VWPA and pOTS are more active when words are presented

Question 8

• Damage
• Alexia define
• Pure alexia
  
  • issue
  • lesion at ?
• Less severe form
  
  • issue
  • lesion at?
• Is VWFA for word processing only?

Answer 8

Effects of damage

• Alexia: can’t read
• 2 types
• 1 pure alexia: can’t read at all
  
  • Lesion in lv 1-4 (b4 abstract letter detection in LCD model)
• 2 less severe: letter by letter, slow reading
  
  • Lesion in 6-7 (after abstract letter detection in LCD model)
• Other studies
  
  • Right VWFA can help out if there are lesions
  • Patients w/ VWFA lesion struggle w/ perceiving non-words (ex. faces)
  • VWFA may help out in other perceptual processes

Question 9

• neuronal recycling hypothesis
• Why is VWFA on
  
  • “lateral”?
  • “left”?
  • “OTS”?
• Study – Showed Illiterate vs literate sentences
  
  • Sentences
    
    • VWFA activity Illiterate vs literate
  • Objects
    
    • IVWFA activity lliterate vs literate
  • Conclusion?
• Metamodal theory
• Blind people read Braille using touch, not sight → activate VWFA and OTC why?

Answer 9

Developmental origins: the neuronal recycling hypothesis

• Reading ability evolved from older brain networks that has a relevant function/structure
• Ex. older brain network = register detailed shapes; this ability helps reading ability
• • VWFA is always at the “lateral” “left” “OTS” for many ppl
    
    • VWFA -> OTS
      
      • OTS -> recognize shapes
      • Reading -> identify letters (similar to shapes)
    • VWFA -> lateral
      
      • Lateral -> foveal processing (see details)
      • Reading -> see detail letters
    • VWFA -> LH bias
      
      • LH = analyze, shape processing
      • Reading -> letters = shapes
• Study – support neuronal recycling hypothesis
  
  • Method: Showed Illiterate vs literate sentences
  • Results: illiterate -> no VWFA activation
  • Literate -> better performance = more VWFA activation
  • Method: showed Illiterate vs literate face/tools (non-orthographic stimuli)
  • Results: illiterate -> VWFA activation
  • Literate -> no VWFA activation
• Conclusion:
  
  • Among illiterate, VWFA processes non-word stimuli
  • Literate: VWFA process words; non-word representations are relocated
• • Study
    
    • Blind people read Braille using tough, not sight
    • Prediction: parietal cortex is activated, not OTC
    • Results: OTC and VWFA activated
• Metamodal theory: brains regions are task oriented, not input oriented
  
  • VWFA is not activated by visual/reading
  • VWFA is activated to process spatially fine-grained shapes (regardless of sensory input – touch vs sight)

Question 10

• Cog model components
• Print = ?
• Visual feature analysis - which lv on LCD?
• Letter identification: = ?
• Orthographic lexicon: = ?
• Grapheme-phoneme conversion: = ?
• Phoneme system: = ?
• Semantic system: = ?
• Phonological lexicon: = ?
• X
• Pathways
• Letter identification -> Grapheme-phoneme conversion -> phoneme system path = ?
• Orthographic lexicon -> semantic system -> phonological lexicon path = ?
• Evidence
• Phonological dyslexia
• Surface dyslexia
• Deep dyslexia
• Neural substrates
• ventral OTC = ?
• perisylvian network = ?
• inferior temporal parietal network = ?
• x
• Phonological dyslexia “hot spots” – damage to perisylvian network → 3 areas?
• Phonological dyslexia “hot spots” – damage to grapheme-phoneme conversion pathway → 2 areas
• Surface dyslexia → 2 areas

Answer 10

From print to sound and meaning

A cognitive model for reading aloud

• Print = visual stimuli (words)
• Visual feature analysis: lv 1-4 in LCD
• Letter identification: identify abstract letters
• Orthographic lexicon: retrieve representations of the stimuli
• Grapheme-phoneme conversion: convert grapheme/abstract letters to phoneme
• Phoneme system: pronounce words
• Semantic system: concept
• Phonological lexicon: sound structure
• X
• Pathways
• Letter identification -> Grapheme-phoneme conversion -> phoneme system path
  
  • pronounce rare/pseudowords, read homophones (ex. rose vs rows)
• Orthographic lexicon -> semantic system -> phonological lexicon path
  
  • tell the meanings of the homophones apart
  • reading irregular mappings b/w print and sound (ex. choir; tough, dough)

Evidence from acquired dyslexia

• Acquired dyslexia: acquired due to brain injury
• Phonological dyslexia: can read aloud real words, not pseudowords
  
  • Pseudowords hv unfamiliar patterns, no top-down benefits
• Surface dyslexia: can read aloud real words and pseudowords, can’t do irregular words that are infrequent;
  
  • Ex. yacht
  • Semantic dementia (name)
• Deep dyslexia: can’t read aloud pseudowords, regular and irregular words
  
  • For real words: semantic errors, especially for abstract words

Neural substrates

• ventral OTC: process written word (red)
• perisylvian network: pronunciation (orange)
• inferior temporal parietal network: meaning (green)
• x
• Phonological dyslexia “hot spots” – damage to perisylvian network
  
  • Broca’s area, inferior precentral gyrus
  • Superior temporal gyrus, Wenicke’s area
  • Inferior supramarginal gyrus
• Phonological dyslexia “hot spots” – damage to grapheme-phoneme conversion pathway
  
  • Extrasylvian parietal region
  • Occipitotemporal region
• Surface dyslexia
  
  • Anterior and ventral temporal lobe
    *