Psycholinguistics : Consequences of reading

Question 1

Learning to read

Answer 1

Map written symbol onto laguage units that are phonems in latin alphabet (but could be words for logographic [Chinese] or syllables [Japanese])
>> VERBAL SYSTEM

Use the visual modality to access cerebral speaking system.
>> Via VWFA

Question 2

Writting system / orthography

Answer 2

WS : differ according to the level of spoken language wich represented in written language

Orthography : refers to the conventions used in a specific language

Question 3

Othographies
transparent / opaque

Answer 3

Transparent
simple grapheme to phoneme mapping (vice versa)
> italian, german

Opaque
Several graphemes for one phoneme (vice versa)
> English

French : intermediate position
Graph to phon (reading) : 88%
Phon to graph (spelling) : 50 %

Twice as slow for non shallow orthography

Question 4

Difficiulties of learning to read

Answer 4

Into which spoken language unit should written language be analysed (word, syllables, phonemes)

Integrate specific rules of spelling :
french /wa/ <>“oi”
“i” in english : several prononciations (bird, flight, hit)

Question 5

Becoming a fluent reader requires

Answer 5

To understand that speech is made of phonemsù
> Phonological awereness

To understand that letters/letters groups correspond to these phonemes
> alphabetical principle

To learn the grapheme-phoneme correspondances

To make word processing automatic

Question 6

Phonological awareness

Answer 6

Ability to manipulate intentionnally phonological units (non significant)

Pay attention to form, not meaning

Longitudinal studies (Lecoq, 91)
56% de la variance fin CP est expliquée par un score composite de conscience phonologique

MOST IMPORTANT PRECURSOR OF READING
especialy phonemic consciousness task

Alphabetic system makes the conscious manipulation on phonemes crucial (causal link : Bryant 83)

Question 7

Brain aspects

Answer 7

VISION
Occipital cortex

VWFA (N170)
Visiual Word form area (fusiform gyrus)

REPRESENTATIONS PHONOLOGIQUES
Planum temporale

Question 8

The Visiual Word Form Area

Answer 8

Vision involved in reading but no brain area devoted to reading

Part of the visual area which is responding more strongly to written language

Occipito temporal cortex LEFT

Responds to word and pronuncable pseudowords

reproductble in all individiuals

Accross language

A strong responsivness after some months of reading

Question 9

Recycling hypothesis

Answer 9

Dehaene

Neurons initialy devoted to to face processing are progressivly specialized into ortography processing

Question 10

Literacy

Answer 10

Set of processes and reprensenations an individiual possesses as a direct consequence of having learned to read

Set of skills related to reading and spelling

Question 11

Studies on illiterates people

Answer 11

Studies on illiterates people (and ex-illiterates) allows to better understand impact of reading on cognition and on brain, avoiding the issue of maturation.

> Determine what, in cognitive system results from learning

> Identify the factors which could originate severe reading disabilities such as developmental dyslexia

Question 12

Dyslexia

Answer 12

Of the impairment of the skill X in connection to the reading failure individuals with dyslexia.

If illiterate people perform lower than literates (including ex illiterates) on the skill X, we can not conclude that a low achievement of X is a cause of dyslexia.

By contrast, if illiterates perform within a normal range on the skill X, we can exclude the hypothesis according to which the reading level determines the performance on X

Question 13

Metaphonology

Answer 13

Conscious representatiton of phonemes

Depends on literacy - Not in general but in alphabetical system in particular

Syllables are easier to manipulate

Learning effect (feedback)
\> With training, illiterates can restore this ability

Question 14

Phonemes perception

Answer 14

96% minimal pair discrimination

Babies can discriminate stimuli that differ for only one phoneme
(succion non nutritive)

Boundaries shaped by orthography ?

> Illiterates have not really clear boundaries

Knowledge of the letter shapes the way we perceive sounds
⇒ Strong impact of an artificial ability (reading) on a natural ability (perceiving sounds)

Question 15

Illusory conjunctions

Answer 15

Illiterates also have illusions
⇒ Their brain process speech in a normal way

Question 16

Illiterates

Answer 16

Can’t manipulate phonemes

Have less precise phoneme bondaries

Perception is not so different

Question 17

Non verbal skills

Answer 17

Illiterates perform lower in picture completion, block design, picture arrangement, object assembly

pas dû à la mémoire ( présentation simultanée)

Perform less for different : they decide stimuli are different when they are identical

CC : Illiterate people do process information in a specific way as compared to literate people (and ex illiterate)

Question 18

Impact on cognition : visual processing

Face recognition

Answer 18

Face recognition

Neuronal recycling hypothesis (Dehaene 2005)

The VWFA is devoted to face recognition and becomes devoted to orthography processing (left hemisphere)

Ventura et al, 2013 - matching task (only bottom part of face)
Litterates and ex-illiterates are better to decide whether the bottom halves of faces are same or different without being disrtacted by the top part of the images.
Strongly misaligned faces were used to facilitate attention to the target part.

If the stronger congruency effect for aligned than misaligned stimuli reflects holistic processing, then illiterates rely on holistic processing more than ex-illiterates and literates

Question 19

Reliance on holistic processing

Answer 19

Thus far results are consistent with the hypothesis that acquiring literacy enables to partly reduce reliance on holistic processing

Ventura et al 2013

Question 20

Impact on cognition : visual processing

Mirror invariance

Answer 20

Dehaene 2010

Mirror invariance is the capacity to recognize a visual image as identical after a left–right inversion. Mirror invariance is useful in the natural world because a lateral reversal usually does not affect the identity of natural objects

However, mirror invariance is undesirable for reading.
it is necessary to discriminate mirror letters! such as ‘p’ and ‘q’, or ‘b’ and ‘d’. It has therefore been suggested that learning to read requires the ‘unlearning’ of mirror invariance

Left fusiformVWFA simultaneously shows a maximal effect (repetition suppression) of mirror priming for pictures and an absence of mirror priming for words

Japanese : facilitation <= no need to pay attention to orientation of symbols

Literate adults are slower in judging whether two images represent the same object if they are mirror images

Question 21

Children writting in mirror

Answer 21

Decreases when learn to read (except dyslexic)

Question 22

Impact on cognition : speech processing

Answer 22

There is accumulating evidence that orthography influences spoken language.

Metaphonological tasks (Seidenger+ 79) : rhyme judgement for spoken words better when spelling is the same (pie/rye vs pie/tie)

++ Auditory lexical decisions
++ phonological priming in spoken word recognition

Ziegler & Ferrand 98 - ERP - Lexical or post lexical (decision)?
Early inconstency 132ms ! Even prelexical

Question 23

Conclusion

Answer 23

Beign litterate has a strong impact on our brain connectivity and cognition. The way we speak and also the way we see.

Literacy affects
> Metalinguistic tasks
> Speech processing and spoken word recognition
> Visual processing

This should be taken into consideration when assessing people who may vary in there reading skills.

Question 24

Text DEHAENE

Answer 24

3 major brain systems in wich changes are observed

Early visual system
> early occipital ERPs
>
> faces

Ventral visual pathway
> Fusiform VFWA (N170)

Phonological coding system

Resume

Given the evidence discussed above, we
reach a conclusion that literacy affects brain
organization primarily by creating and auto-
mating an efficient interface between vision
and language. This broad change is medi-
ated by a reorganization of the left VOT (the
VWFA). Its putative afferents (the bilateral
occipital visual cortices) and its putative
efferents (the left superior temporal regions,
such as the PT for phonological analysis) are
also enhanced. Finally, an extended network
of surrounding temporal and occipito-
parietal areas is also improved, particularly
when effortful grapheme-to-phoneme
conversion is called for. Anatomically, the
physical connections among these areas —
notably, the posterior corpus callosum and
left arcuate — are changed in a detectable
manner. Functionally, these changes result in
fluid, bidirectional interactions between the
internal representations of written symbols
and spoken language.