Reading

Question 1

what is reading

Answer 1

the active construction of meaning: the mental representation of the situation described by the text

requires one to identify the words, activate contextually appropriate meanings, form causal connections with the text and prior knowledge to make inferences about a situation.

Question 2

what are the challenges to reading

Answer 2

need to link visual representations of letters in a word to their sound and meanings

Complex, dynamic, cognitively demanding yet feels effortlessly easy for skilled readers

Question 3

how is the reading system flexible and generalisable

Answer 3

we are able to read non-words that follow rules
can infer meaning of unfamiliar words based on their roots
we can distinguish the meaning of words with the same orthography but different phonology
we can distinguish the meaning of words with different orthographies but the same phonology

Question 4

how many words on average can skilled readers read (Brysbaert, 2019)

Answer 4

238 words per minute

Question 5

how can we explain the normal distribution curve of reading variability

Answer 5

Biologically secondary skill that’s parasitic on more primary systems

high heritability of learning skill with clear neural correlate despite reading systems being artificial inventions that are culture dependent and relatively modern. unnatural act that needs to be taught.

this suggests there has not been selection for reading genes, rather that other genetic factors affect or ability to read: language, perception, memory and learning skills.

Question 6

what is Seidenberg’s triangle model of reading

Answer 6

theoretical framework to understand learning
Reading is modelled by representations across 3 different levels: orthography, phonology & semantics with weighted connections (representations)
P-S mappings Arbitrary, meaning not predictable from sound (for morphologically simple words)
O-P mappings Systematic and quasi-regular, spelling predictable from sound and vice versa (quidditch)
O-S mappings Direct connections from spelling to meaning (sail-sale)

Question 7

what mapping is learnt first in alphabetic languages

Answer 7

Orthography to phonology

i.e. children need to learn the alphabetic principle

Question 8

what is the alphabetic principle

Answer 8

the fundamental insight that the 26 letters of the alphabet work together in systematic ways to represent the sounds of the language

Question 9

why can’t we use paired associate learning

Answer 9

doesn’t give us the ability to generalise

need a rule based system

Question 10

how do inconsistencies in mappings affect learning

Answer 10

english has a high number of inconsistencies such that after 1 year of teaching children can read 41% of words while Italian children can read 92% as their language is highly regular
(Willingham et al., 2017)
confounds age in first year of school and quality of teaching

Question 11

do children have explicit knowledge of sound structure

Answer 11

Awareness tasks require children to make explicit judgements about the sounds of words (or nonwords) or to perform manipulations of the sound structure of SPOKEN words – Counting, deletion, blending tasks (Melby-Lervag et al., 2012)

phonological awareness predicts later reading ability

Question 12

what evidence is there to support the link between phonological awareness and reading ability

Answer 12

cross-sectional data
(liberman & Shankweller, 1974) asked children to clap out number of syllables or phonemes in a word (phoneme: 0% age 4; 15% age 5; 70% age 6)
meta-analysis (Melby-lervag et al., 2012) children who find reading difficult (e.g with dyslexia) also struggle with phonological awareness r=.57

longitudinal data (muter et al., 2004)
early skills in phonological awareness age 4 predicts reading ability 1-2 years later 

training data (Hatcher et al., 1994)
training in phonological awareness and reading combined the only condition to improve outcomes 

conc: Something about PA is related to the early process of learning to read
Once children have alphabetical principle children have the fundamental insight to how letters work together to represent language via sound

Question 13

why should we question the sharp divide between the logographic and alphabetic stages of reading

Answer 13

Reading non-words relies on generalising from knowledge of how reading system work (which we can do)

phonetic cue reading (Rack et al., 1994) logographic children taught to associate abbreviations with pronunciations showed recognition was better for words with phonetic cues compared to controls

Question 14

what is Frith’s (1985) Stage Theory of reading

Answer 14

logographic –> alphabetic –> orthographic

logographic: builds slight vocab on basis of visual appearance, no attention to individual letters, can only read known words e.g Masonheimer et al., 1984 removing logos stops children being able to ‘read’ words / partial visual cues: its the long one
alphabetic: pays attention to individual letters, learns to decode, can attempt to pronounce nonwords, regularisation errors
orthographic: develops orthographic strategy, sensitivity to larger units that GPCs, notion of automatic word recognition

Question 15

what is orthographic knowledge

Answer 15

the conventions, regularities and quasi regularities that characterise each writing system

Question 16

What is Share’s 1995 Self-Teaching Hypothesis of Orthographic Learning

Answer 16

an alternative to stage models
Phonological skills are essential and fundamental
Allow children to decode or recode the printed form of a word
To translate the printed form of a word into its spoken form
Needs to be successful because it provides two key opportunities
To acquire word-specific orthographic information
Accumulate statistics about how the language words

Question 17

what support is there for the self-teaching hypothesis

Answer 17

Orthographic learning via self-teaching observed in 2nd grade children learning to read Hebrew (Share, 1999, 2004)
Children learn something specific about the form ‘yait’ after few exposures: and general too
if the phonological aspecits of decoding are prevented from happening kids don’t show orthographic learning
Reliable and equivalent learning following 1, 2 or 4 exposures in Hebrew (Share, 2004)
Reliable and equivalent learning at 3-day, 7-days and 30-day post-tests in Hebrew (Share, 2004) - durable
Evidence for rapid and durable single trial learning in 3rd grade children reading Hebrew
(retesting in english speaking found some consistencies across languages, but some differences
Exposure effect although this is moderated by a frequency effect
Durability effect although there is some decline at post-test)

Question 18

How can we learn to read through statistical learning

Answer 18

Product of acquiring orthographic knowledge akinto a statistical learning approach
Rather than a series of qualitatively distinct stages we acquire orthographic knowledge over time
Phonological skills essential and fundamental
Decoding provides an opportunity to translate a printed word into its spoken form
This successful (but potentially laborious) decoding attempt provides an opportunity to acquire word-specific orthographic information
And accumulate statistics about how the language works (statistical learning)

Question 19

what does staecy et al., 2019 propose as a statistical model for reading

Answer 19

initial reading is orthographic –> phonological –> semantic (triangle) which is dependent on the alphabetic principle (becomes o-> s with expertise)
this plus reading experience allows children to internalise probabilities, regularities and quasi-regularities and generalise this knowledge to new words

Question 20

what are connectionist models of learning to read

Answer 20

No rules and no stages
Simple associative processes learn to map distributed inputs na outputs the triangle model learns well and captures behavioural data well
top-down: context -> meaning / meaing-> orthography and phonology

bottom-up: orthography and or phonolotgy> meaning

Question 21

conclusions of reading

Answer 21

Reading is a learned skill but one that depends on language, perception, memory, learning…
the alphabetic principle at the foundation (in alphabetic systems)
phonological skills are critical
children move from something that looks logographic to skilled, but is this best characterised by stages or, are the same mechanisms involved with experience providing input that drives learning?