Lecture 9 - Reading Models

Question 1

What are two types of non-words?

Answer 1

Pronounceable and unpronounceable

Question 2

What is the dual-route model?

Answer 2

The first full model of reading, which displays two possible routes of processing of a word, in order for it to be spoken.

Question 3

Describe the typical route in the dual-route model.

Answer 3

The typical route is as follows:

• early visual processing
• letter/grapheme recognition
• orthographic input lexicon
• semantic system (if meaning of the word is known)
• OR straight to the phonological output lexicon (if the meaning of the word is unknown)
• phonological encoding (phoneme system)
• Speech

Question 4

What is the orthographic input lexicon?

Answer 4

The mental dictionary for written words

Question 5

What is the phonological output lexicon?

Answer 5

The mental dictionary for speech

Question 6

Describe the non-typical route in the dual-route model.

Answer 6

Non-typical route:

• early visual processing
• letter/grapheme recognition
• GPC system (converts letters into sounds)
• Phonological encoding (phoneme system)- Speech

Question 7

What does GPC stand for, and what is it?

Answer 7

Grapheme/Phoneme Conversion system. It converts letters into sounds as part of the non-typical route in the dual-route model of reading.

Question 8

Which route of the dual route model do regular words get processed by?

Answer 8

Either.

Question 9

Which route of the dual route model do irregular words get processed by?

Answer 9

Only the lexical (direct) orthographic input lexicon route.

why cant irregular words be processed by the GPC route? - some low frequency words ARE.

Question 10

Which route of the dual route model do non-words and novel words get processed by?

Answer 10

The GPC route, because there won’t be any matches/relevant information for irregular words in the orthographic input lexicon.

Question 11

Which is the non-lexical route in the dual route model?

Answer 11

The GPC route

Question 12

Which is the lexical (direct) route in the dual route model?

Answer 12

The typical orthographic input lexicon route.

Question 13

If the lexical route is impaired, which type of words will sufferers have difficulty with?

Answer 13

Irregular words

Question 14

What type of error would be seen if the lexical route is impaired and irregular words are presented?

Answer 14

Regularisation errors.

e.g. ‘colonel’ would be pronounced ‘ko-lo-nel’ rather than ‘kernal’.

Irregular words would be pronounced according to how they look, or according to how other similar (rhyming) words are pronounced - e.g. ‘pint’ would be pronounced like ‘mint’.

Question 15

What is surface dyslexia?

Answer 15

An acquired dyslexia, i.e occurring as a result of injury/brain trauma & stroke.

Question 16

How do individuals with surface dyslexia perform when pronouncing regular and irregular words?

Answer 16

Individuals with surface dyslexia perform well with regular words (use both routes), but have poor accuracy with irregular words.

Question 17

Which words would sufferers find difficult to pronounce if there was damage to the GPC route?

Answer 17

Non-words. No difficulty with regular words.

Question 18

What type of errors do individuals with damage to the GPC route make?

Answer 18

Lexicalisation errors

Question 19

What are lexicalisation errors?

Answer 19

Non words are pronounced as an existing word that looks alike (e.g. cet is pronounced as cat).

Question 20

Which type of acquired dyslexia is likely if damage has been sustained to the GPC, non-lexical route?

Answer 20

Phonological dyslexia.

Question 21

What is deep dyslexia?

Answer 21

Possibly a more serious form of phonological dyslexia (which results from damage to the GPC). Leads to difficulties in reading many different types of words, including non-words, function words, abstract words and more.

It’s defining feature is semantic paralexia.

Question 22

What is semantic paralexia?

Answer 22

The defining feature of deep dyslexia, a more severe form of phonological dyslexia.

Leads sufferers to produce words that are related in meaning, but not the correct word for the picture/target.

Question 23

Why are there so many symptoms in sufferers with deep dyslexias?

Answer 23

Damage to the semantic system and several associated areas - more extended damage than those with surface dyslexia.

Question 24

What did Glushko (1979) find about the lexical effects of reading non words?

Answer 24

Neighbours of the non-word TAZE all follow the same rule (maze, blaze, daze)
But neighbours of the non-word TAVE have one exception - have.

This exception leads PPS to make more ‘errors’ in pronouncing TAVE according to the exception, and take more time in doing so.

Therefore words present in the lexicon, as part of the lexical route, can influence processing of non-words in the GPC route.

Question 25

What did Glushko (1979) find about the regularity effects of reading regular words?

Answer 25

According to the dual-route model, consistent and inconsistent regular words should be processed the same, as they would both enter the lexical route.

However, Glushko (1979) found that regular consistent words were pronounced more quickly, and with fewer errors than regular inconsistent words.

This indicates that not all words are processed in the same way, even when they are in the same route/pathway.

Question 26

What is the difference between regular consistent and regular inconsistent words?

Answer 26

Regular consistent words do not have exceptions in the way that they are pronounced, whereas regular inconsistent words do.

Question 27

What is the model called that has been modified in order to accommodate the evidence found against the original dual route model?

Answer 27

The dual route cascaded model.

Question 28

What does the dual route cascaded model propose?

Answer 28

The dual route cascaded model proposes that both routes are active at the same time, and race against each other. Whichever route is faster leads to processing of that word.

If the word is in the mental lexicon and is high frequency, it is very likely that the lexicon route will be faster. If it isn’t, both routes have a chance.

Question 29

Which model has been proposed as an alternative to the dual route model, in light of evidence against it?

Answer 29

The connectionist neural network model

Question 30

What does the connectionist neural network model propose?

Answer 30

Words themselves are not represented - models learn to read aloud, and learn from feedback to develop the correct pronunciation.