W3 Flashcards
what is the issue with studies examining the processes involved in recognising written words
- use a single word in isolation
- limits the generalisability of the findings to natural reading tasks
what is an alternative to studies which use a single word in isolation
have participants read sentences that contain a critical word
how do we measure the time spent reading a word
eye tracking
what is the underlying assumption of eye tracking
where people look in the text coincides with the processing of the word in that location, the time spent reading a given word reflects the processing of a word
Juhasz & Rayner (2003) aims
investigate the influence of 5 intercorrelated variables (word length, word frequency, word familiarity, concreteness, and age of acquisition[AoA]) on word reading time
if a word is highly frequent in a language is it processed faster or slower
faster and more accurately
Written word frequency norms measure?
how often a given word occurs out of a sample of 1 million words
what did William and Morris find
subjective familiarity had a significant effect on eye fixation durations for low-frequency words
what is word concreteness
a measure of the concreteness or abstractness of a word
what is the effect of a word being very abstract
named more slowly than concrete words when presented following a neutral context
when does the concreteness effect disappear
when the target words were presented following a meaningful context
what is the effect of AoA
words that are acquired earlier in life are responded to faster and more accurately than words that are acquired later in life
what is first-fixation duration
the duration of the first fixation on a word, irrespective of how many fixations the word receives- represents early word recognition processes
what is single fixation duration
the duration of the first fixation on the word if and only if the word receives only one fixation on its first-pass reading, measures word recognition time
what is gaze duration
the cumulated time spent on a word before readers move their eyes from it- presumably encompasses all word recognition stage
what is total fixation duration
the sum of all fixation durations on a word, including the time spent rereading
what did Juhasz & Rayner (2003) conclude about word frequency
Word frequency is a strong predictor for all fixation measures- confirming importance in word recognition
what did Juhasz & Rayner (2003) conclude about word familiarity
significantly predicted fixation durations
what did Juhasz & Rayner (2003) conclude about word length
Significant for gaze and total-fixation durations, consistent with findings that longer words tend to cause more refixations
what did Juhasz & Rayner (2003) conclude about concreteness
concreteness influences eye fixations during reading
what did Juhasz & Rayner (2003) conclude about AoA
AoA affects meaning activation in word recognition
Word Superiority Effect-
letters are recognized more easily when they appear in a word than when alone or in a non-word
regular words-
words that follow standard spelling and pronunciation rules (e.g., “cat”).
irregular words-
words that don’t follow normal spelling rules (e.g., “yacht”).
grapheme-
smallest unit of written language that represents a sound
phoneme-
the smallest unit of sound in speech that can distinguish words- (sh sound) in “ship”, differentiates the word from sip
semantic paralexia-
reading error where a person substitutes a word with another that has a similar meaning
how many people globally cannot read or write
796 million
Finland literacy rate
100%
Niger literacy rate
19.1%
UK illiteracy rate
15%
social impacts of illiteracy
higher likelihood of depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, incarceration, and poor physical health
what is visual word recognition
The first stage in the reading process (getting from letters to the meaning)
what is the mental lexicon
the systematic organisation of words in our brain
what is the hoax
letter position may not be as important as traditionally thought in word recognition
fovea-
central part of the retina
parafoveal vision-
the peripheral area of vision around the fovea
in what process does parafoveal processing occur
eyes jump from one fixation point to the next
boundary change paradigm-
- experimental method used to study how much letter information we process when reading
- a word is presented, and at a certain moment (often just before or after a fixation), part of the word is replaced by another word or letter
- tests how much the position of letters and the specific letters themselves matter in the word recognition process
what does parafoveal processing allow
allows the brain to “fill in the blanks” when reading, even when letters are replaced or slightly shifted in position
what have boundary change paradigm studies shown
readers don’t rely entirely on the exact letters in their exact positions when recognizing words
what did Rayner (2006) study
how changes in word structure, such as letter substitution and word transposition, affect reading speed and comprehension
substitution
replacing a letter in a word with another (cat to bat)
transposition
changing order of letters in a word (cat to cta)
what did Rayner (2006) find about substituting letters
substituting letters causes more disruption to reading than transposing letters
when does transposition cause most disruption
first letters of a word, first few letters of a word are particularly important for identifying the word quickly
why does Rayner (2006) argue the hoax is incorrect
findings suggest that changing the order of words, especially at the beginning of a sentence, does indeed slow down word processing
What did Rey (2000) find
- The task is easier when detecting the letter “a” in “brash” than in “board.”
- In “brash”, the letter “a” is a simple, standalone grapheme that is easy to recognize
- In “board”, the “a” is part of the “oa”- readers need to break down the “oa” to access the “a,”- more complex and time consuming
how are graphemes identified
as perceptual units
morphemes-
smallest meaningful unit of language, carries a specific meaning, whether it’s a whole word or part of a word
root morpheme-
the core morphemes that carry the main meaning of a word (for example, real in unreal, or house in farmhouse)
affixes-
morphemes that are attached to roots to modify their meaning, 2 types- prefixes and suffixes
prefix-
attached at the beginning (un in unreal)
suffix-
attached at the end (house in farmhouse)
pseudo suffix words-
words that appear to have affixes, but they actually don’t break down in a meaningful way (swing)
lexeme frequency-
the frequency of the individual morpheme in the language
Whole-compound frequency-
how often the entire compound word appears in language
how are compound words processed
decomposed into their constituent morphemes during initial processing, but later recognition may rely on whole-word representation
what do studies of pseudo-affix words show
we do not just recognize whole words; we also break them down into meaningful units (roots and affixes) during recognition
semantically rich words-
words that carry more meaning, or have a broader set of associations or features
semantics-
meaning of a word
orthography-
a words written form
phonology-
a word’s sound
how does semantic richness affect word recognition
semantic richness seems to affect recognition before the word’s meaning is fully accessed
explanation of a semantic richness effects on word recognition
recognition is interactive, meaning that semantic features (meaning) might actually feedback into the orthographic (spelling) and phonological (sound) layers during the recognition process
what did Reicher (1969) find
Word recognition was faster and more accurate than letter string recognition or nonword recognition, we process words as whole units during reading
example of serial model
Forster’s Search Model
serial model-
the brain searches through the mental lexicon one entry at a time to find the matching word
parallel model-
multiple words could be processed simultaneously
lexical access-
the process of retrieving a word’s meaning from the mental lexicon after recognising its form
what form do we retrieve words based on according to Forster’s Search Model
orthographic
steps of Forster’s Search Model
- a string of letters is encountered
- the brain starts searching the lexicon for matching entries, beginning with the first letter and progressing letter by letter
- If a match is found, the word is recognized
- If no match is found, the search continues, checking each possible word entry in sequence
advantages of Forster’s Search Model
simple and efficient, accounts for the faster recognition of high-frequency words
issues with Forster’s Search Model
serial nature (modern research suggests word recognition would involve parallel processing), lexicon size as model doesn’t account for how the lexicon is structured
logogen-
mental representations of words
outline Mortons logogen model
- When we hear or see a word, the corresponding logogen is activated by sensory input
- Once the activation level reaches a certain threshold, the word is recognized and retrieved from memory
- parallel model
Interactive activation-
activation of a word’s logogen can be influenced by other factors, such as content or expectation
strengths of Mortons logogen model
explains the word-frequency effect, accounts for the influence of context on word recognition
outline the Interactive Activation and Competition (IAC) model
- processes information simultaneously at different levels: features, letters, and words
- Information flows both ways between these levels, meaning that activation at one level can influence activation at another
- Different word candidates compete for activation. The word that best matches the input features and context will eventually become the most active and get recognized
- parallel model
layers of nettalk
- 1 input layer- each neuron represents a letter or a feature of the text
- 1 hidden layer- processes the input and allows the network to form connections and recognise patterns
- 1 output layer- produces the output, which in this case is the sound
number neurons and synapses in nettalk
300 neurons and 18,000 synapses
what is nettalk
NetTalk is an artificial neural network program designed to learn and pronounce written English tex
how many words did nettalk learn to pronounce in half a day
1000
outline the dual route model
- Suggests there are 2 separate cognitive pathways used to read and pronounce words
- one for regular, predictable words and another for irregular, unpredictable words
how are regular words retrieved according to dual route model
uses the letter to sound route where we directly map the written letters to their corresponding sounds
how are irregular words retrieved according to dual route model
lexical route used- word recognised as a whole unit, pronunciation is retrieved from memory
how does neuropsychology clarify cognitive processes
examines patients with brain damage
how does neuropsychology use a diagnostic approach
by analysing patterns of errors, researchers can infer how different brain areas contribute to cognitive tasks
what is the impact of damage to the lexical route
- When the lexical route (for recognizing familiar words) is impaired, reading relies on the GPC (grapheme-phoneme conversion) route
- Irregular words (e.g., “colonel”) are misread because they don’t follow standard spelling-to-sound rules
- Regular words and nonwords are read correctly using GPC
what are regularisation errors
irregular words are mispronounced based on GPC rules
surface dyslexia-
A type of acquired dyslexia caused by brain damage
impact of surface dyslexia
- Exception words such as colonel- poor pronunciation
- Regular words: Near perfect reading
phonological dyslexia-
- acquired reading disorder, often caused by brain injury or stroke
- individuals struggle to read nonwords but can still read regular and irregular words
deep dyslexia-
severe form of phonological dyslexia, where patients have broader and more complex difficulties in reading
impact of deep dyslexia
- Nonwords: Can’t read nonwords (similar to phonological dyslexia).
- Function words: Struggles with small, grammatical words (e.g., “the,” “and”).
- Visual errors: Misreads words that look similar (e.g., “think” instead of “thing”).
- Word categories: Nouns are easier to read than adjectives, and adjectives are easier than verbs.
- Abstract words: more difficult to read than concrete words
- Semantic paralexia - The patient often makes semantic errors, where they read a word that is related in meaning but not visually similar
developmental dyslexia-
- Poor reading, especially for new words
- Poor spelling and comprehension
prevalence of developmental dyslexia-
10% worldwide
cause of developmental dyselxia-
Multifactorial cause, associated with multiple genes and environmental risk factors
Phonological deficit theory of developmental dyslexia
- Patients have poor phonological awareness, which is the ability to recognise and manipulate the sound structure of language
double deficit theory of dyslexia
- An extension of the phonological deficit theory
- 2 deficits- phonological (mainly related to accuracy) and naming-speed deficit (related to fluency
magnocellular deificit theory of dyslexia
- Suggests dyslexia is caused by issues ion the magnocellular pathway in the visual system
- This pathway helps to transmit visual info from the retina to brain regions involved in visual processing (occipital and parietal lobe)
- People with dyslexia have magnocells that are 27% smaller- leads to slower visual processing and problems with temporal processing
cerebellar deficit theory of dyslexia
- Suggests dyslexia is linked to problems in the cerebellum, a brain area involved in motor control and cognitive functions
- Cerebellum has roles of motor skills such as balance, but also in cognitive tasks such as language (Fabbro et al., 2000)
- People with developmental dyslexia show reduced activation in the right cerebellum, leading to a temporal processing deficit
