Lecture 11

Question 1

Visual processing of words

Answer 1

• Fixation: 200-250 ms (80% of content words)

- Saccades: 20-40 ms (9-7 letter jumps)

Question 2

Assumptions of visual processing of words

Answer 2

• Immediacy: reader attempts to interpret each word as it is fixated
• Eye-mind: Eye remains fixated on word as long as it is still being processed

Question 3

Gaze-contigent paradigm

Answer 3

• Cover foveated letters
• WPM dropped from 300 down to 50
• Shows that fixating on words is critical

Question 4

Skipping words

Answer 4

• Usually a function word (the, and, but)

- Skip more often with easy text

Question 5

Preprocessing words

Answer 5

• If change next word during a saccade then people don’t notice
• Shows that very little of the next word is preprocessed

Question 6

Fixations and reading skills

Answer 6

• Fixation patterns differ between readers’ skill levels

- Lower skill = more fixations, backtracking, longer fixation time

Question 7

How to model word recognition

Answer 7

• Center model around robust “marker” effects

- Start to build around those effects

Question 8

Marker effect in word recognition

Answer 8

• Word frequency (common vs less common words)

- Word frequency affects fixation time, lexical decision time, and naming time

Question 9

Logogen

Answer 9

• 1 logogen per known word
• Orthographic and phonological attributions of each word
• “Information” acculmiator
• Each have resting activation level
• Each has activation threshold

Question 10

Explaining frequency effect

Answer 10

Logogen threshold lower for common words

Question 11

Repitition effects

Answer 11

• Recognition faster the second time you see a word

- No repitition effect when reading house then seeing a house

Question 12

Stimulus quality and word recognition

Answer 12

Degraded presentation results in longer retrieval time in lexicon decision time

Question 13

Role for phonological coding during reading

Answer 13

• EMG (electromyography) during silent reading, lower for easy text
• Sound priming occurs, visual priming does not
• Pseudohomophones retrieval worse than non words for naming and better than non words for lexicon decision time

Question 14

Why speech codes available during reading

Answer 14

• Keep info active in working memory
• Derive meaning in individual words
• Meaning of sentences

Question 15

Lexical route of naming non words

Answer 15

• Sensitive to frequency

- Provides correct phonological codes for regular and irregular words

Question 16

Nonlexical route of naming non words

Answer 16

• Not sensitive to frequency
• Correct code to regular words
• Incorrect code to irregular words

Question 17

Learning to read: whole words vs phonics debate

Answer 17

• Set of logographic-looking words, containing hidden alphabetic system
• Trained to read aloud: whole word vs phonics group
• Initial trials showed whole-word group was better than phonics group
• Later trials showed whole-word group performance decreased and phonics group performance increased