Precursors of reading skill from infancy to first grade in Finnish: Continuity and change in a highly inflected language.

The course of language acquisition from infancy to public primary school was followed in a sample of 56 Finnish children to examine precursors to reading at first grade. Structural equation modeling of continuity suggested effects from growth in early vocabulary to mastery of inflectional forms at preschool age. The early language directly influenced early phonological awareness (PA) and only indirectly influenced later development in PA and word reading. The course of development in PA progressed from detecting larger multiphonemic units toward recognizing and producing phonemes in words, which, in turn, were positively associated with differences in producing new words by deleting and blending phonemes at kindergarten age. Including word reading before school entry levelled out the influence of the concurrent phonemic awareness factor on reading at first grade. Hence, in a highly inflected language with a transparent orthography, the pathway to reading consisted of skills learned in succession, the last phase being characterized by simultaneous development involving phonemic awareness and emerging reading skill. The finding led to the conclusion that, in addition to universal routes, language- and culture-specific routes to literacy must be acknowledged when searching for the precursors to reading at school age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between semantic short-term memory and immediate serial recall of known and unknown words and nonwords: Data from two Chinese individuals with aphasia.

The present study investigated verbal recall of semantically preserved and degraded words and nonwords by taking into consideration the status of one's semantic short-term memory (STM). Two experiments were conducted on 2 Chinese individuals with aphasia. The first experiment showed that they had largely preserved phonological processing abilities accompanied by mild but comparable semantic processing deficits; however, their performance on STM tasks revealed a double dissociation. The second experiment found that the participant with more preserved semantic STM had better recall of known words and nonwords than of their unknown counterparts, whereas such effects were absent in the patient with severe semantic STM deficit. The results are compatible with models that assume separate phonological and semantic STM components, such as that of R. C. Martin, M. Lesch, and M. Bartha (1999). In addition, the distribution of error types was different from previous studies. This is discussed in terms of the methodology of the authors' experiments and current views regarding the nature of semantic STM and representations in the Chinese mental lexicon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imageability effects in word naming: An individual differences analysis.

The present research was designed to extend research by Strain et al (1995) who found that imageability facilitates naming of low-frequency irregular words. The authors hypothesized that the impact of imageability on naming performance will vary with phonological reading ability. For participants who score high in phonological reading ability, the effect of imageability should be seen primarily on naming of low-frequency exception words where the orthography-to-phonology mappings are not strong. For participants who score low in phonological reading ability, the mapping of orthography onto phonology is presumably inefficient for all types of low-frequency words. Accordingly, for these participants, it was predicted that imageability would affect naming of both exception and regular words. 90 college students served as Ss. Exp 1 shows that the impact of imageability on word naming varies with phonological coding skill. In Exp 2, the effect of imageability on naming low-frequency irregular words was shown to occur across an extended set of items. Together, the present findings support the notion that semantics may play a role in phonological coding when the mappings between orthography and phonology are weak. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological Neighbors Speed Visual Word Processing: Evidence From Multiple Tasks.

The author investigated the role of phonological neighborhood on visual word recognition. Using a lexical decision task, the author showed in Experiment 1 that words with large phonological neighborhoods were processed more rapidly than those with smaller phonological neighborhoods. This facilitative effect was obtained even when the nonword fillers had the same number of phonological neighbors as the words. This finding indicates that phonological neighbors speed processing within the phonological system. In the next 2 experiments, this claim was further tested using the naming and semantic categorization tasks. In both experiments, the effect of phonological neighborhood was found to be facilitative. The results across all 3 experiments indicate that phonology is central to visual word recognition and that phonological neighborhood provides a reliable measure of phonological processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of grade, syllable segmentation, and speed of presentation on children's word-blending ability.

Subsyllabic awareness was investigated with a word synthesis task. Children from kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade attempted to blend auditorily presented CCVC word segments (where C?=?consonant and V?=?vowel) to produce words. Subsyllabic segmentation and presentation rate of the word segments were varied, and the dependent measure was percentage correct in each condition. Several posttests were administered to measure the children's preexisting ability to recognize visually presented consonants, consonant clusters, rimes, and words. Second graders performed better than 1st graders, who in turn performed better than kindergarteners. Performance of all children was best on words that were segmented between onset and rime and poorest for words that were segmented into individual phonemes. Performance for word segrnents that were presented at the fast rate was better than for those presented at the slow rate. The authors suggest that preliterate children are able to manipulate suprasegmental units such as onset and rime, and that those units should be emphasized in early reading instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: Evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study.

Although research has identified oral language, print knowledge, and phonological sensitivity as important emergent literacy skills for the development of reading, few studies have examined the relations between these aspects of emergent literacy or between these skills during preschool and during later reading. This study examined the joint and unique predictive significance of emergent literacy skills for both later emergent literacy skills and reading in two samples of preschoolers. Ninety-six children (mean age?=?41 months, SD?=?9.41) were followed from early to late preschool, and 97 children (mean age?=?60 months, SD?=?5.41) were followed from late preschool to kindergarten or first grade. Structural equation modeling revealed significant developmental continuity of these skills, particularly for letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity from late preschool to early grade school, both of which were the only unique predictors of decoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between word decoding speed, general name-retrieval ability, and reading progress in first-grade children.

A discrete-trial RT methodology was employed to measure the speed with which 22 skilled and less-skilled 1st grade readers named colors, pictures, numbers, letters, and words (Wide Range Achievement Test and the Stanford Early School Achievement Test). Words were the only stimulus type that skilled Ss named more rapidly. The equality of naming times for colors, pictures, and numbers suggests that a general name retrieval deficit, suggested by earlier studies of dyslexic Ss (M. B. Denekla and R. G. Rudel, see PA, Vol 59:1307; C. Spring and C. Capps, PA, Vol 53:7713), did not appear to be characteristic of less-skilled nondyslexic Ss. The marked word decoding speed difference, in conjunction with the lack of a letter naming difference between the 2 groups, supports previous research that has suggested that phonological analysis skills may be important determinants of early reading acquisition (R. M. Golinkoff, 1978; P. Rozin and L. R. Gleitman, 1977; and F. R. Vellutino, see record 1978-25485-001). (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive and negative affectivity in children: Confirmatory factor analysis of a two-factor model and its relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) framework that is embodied in the tripartite model of anxiety and depression has proved useful with adult populations; however, there is as yet little investigation with children concerning either the measurement of PA and NA or the relation between PA and NA and levels of adjustment. A confirmatory factor analysis was used in this study to examine the structure of self-reported affect and its relation to depressive and anxious symptoms in school children (4th to 11th grade). Results supported a 2-factor orthogonal model that was invariant across age and sex. Support for the expected pattern of relations between NA and PA with symptoms of depression and anxiety was strong for the older sample (M?=?14.2 years) but weaker for the younger sample (M?=?10.3 years). Results also provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dependency characteristics of partner assaultive men.

Men who had physically assaulted female partners (PA group; N?=?24) were compared with maritally discordant nonviolent men (DNV group; N?=?24) and happily married nonviolent men (HNV group; N?=?24) on measures of dependency and related constructs. PA men reported higher interpersonal dependency, higher spouse-specific dependency, and lower self-esteem than both contrast groups, but did not differ significantly on a measure of jealousy. Data reduction indicated 2 constructs underlying these measures: perceived personal inadequacy and emotional investment in the primary relationship. PA men were high on both, while DNV men had moderate perceived inadequacy and low emotional investment and HNV men had low perceived inadequacy and high emotional investment. The findings support the clinical observation that interpersonal dependency is an important factor in the motivational dynamics of relationship violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical selection and phonological encoding during language production: Evidence for cascaded processing.

The time course of lexicalization during production was explored using a production priming procedure. Participants were presented with pictures to name. Occasionally, a visual target word was presented following a picture, and participants named the word. In Experiments 1A and 1B, phonological priming was found for targets related to the dominant name of a picture, as well as for those related to a near-synonymous name. These results suggest that phonological activation occurs for multiple lexical candidates. In Experiments 2A and 2B, semantic priming was found to arise earlier than phonological priming. In Experiment 3, no priming was found for words phonologically related to category associates, suggesting that the activation of such items is weak. Overall, the results are supportive of a cascaded processing model of lexicalization in which activation spreads continuously from semantic to phonological levels of representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiplication by eye and by ear for Chinese-speaking and English-speaking adults.

Under two conditions, 32 English-speaking and 32 Chinese-speaking adults solved single-digit multiplication problems. In one condition, problems were presented as visual digits (e.g., 8×9). In the other condition, problems were presented as auditory number words in the participant's first language (e.g., /eit/ /taimz/ /nain/). Chinese-speaking adults made proportionately more operand-intrusion errors (e.g., 4×8=24) than English-speaking adults. Both groups made more operand-intrusion errors with auditory than with visual presentation. These findings are similar to those found when participants solve problems presented as visual number words (e.g., eight×nine), suggesting that in both cases the activation of phonological codes interferes with processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responding to threat: Hemispheric asymmetries and interhemispheric division of input.

This investigation examined how hemispheric asymmetry and interhemispheric processing contribute to attentional biases toward emotional information. Participants (n?=?88) named the color of lateralized squares presented concurrently with neutral, positive, or threatening words. A left-hemisphere advantage in color naming was reduced when distractors were emotional, suggesting right-hemisphere priming by emotional stimuli. Furthermore, the advantage of dividing the word and color across visual fields was increased for emotion words when they were frequently presented, indicating a strategic use of interhemispheric division of labor to reduce the distracting effect of emotional words. Finally, participants with high levels of anxious apprehension were most likely to make use of this interhemispheric processing strategy, supporting a processing efficiency theory of cognitive function in anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vowel Duration Affects Visual Word Identification: Evidence That the Mediating Phonology Is Phonetically Informed.

What form is the lexical phonology that gives rise to phonological effects in visual lexical decision? The authors explored the hypothesis that beyond phonological contrasts the physical phonetic details of words are included. Three experiments using lexical decision and 1 using naming compared processing times for printed words (e.g., plead and pleat) that differ, when spoken, in vowel length and overall duration. Latencies were longer for long-vowel words than for short-vowel words in lexical decision but not in naming. Further, lexical decision on long-vowel words benefited more from identity priming than lexical decision on short-vowel words, suggesting that representations of long-vowel words achieve activation thresholds more slowly. The discussion focused on phonetically informed phonologies, particularly gestural phonology and its potential for understanding reading acquisition and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's phonological awareness and nonword repetition as a function of vocabulary development.

The role of vocabulary growth in the development of two reading-related phonological processes was examined. In Experiments 1 and 2, 4- and 5-year-olds and a sample of first graders performed better on phonological awareness tasks for word versus pseudoword stimuli, and for highly familiar versus less familiar words. Three- and 4-year-olds in Experiment 3 performed better for words with many versus few similarly sounding items in a listener's lexicon. Vocabulary was strongly associated with nonword repetition scores for 3- to 5-year olds. The shared variance of this association was accounted for by phonological awareness measures and did not appear to be due to phonological short-term memory, as previously argued. The author proposes that vocabulary growth, defined in terms of absolute size, word familiarity, and phonological similarity relations between word items, helps to explain individual differences in emerging phonological awareness and nonword repetition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naming speed and phonological awareness as predictors of reading development.

This article investigates how well kindergarten phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (NS) account for reading development to Grade 5. The authors use regression analyses to predict reading development, with mental ability and prior achievement controlled, and follow the reading development of children having combinations of adequate or inadequate PA and NS. PA was most strongly related to reading in the first 2 years of school, and NS's initially weaker relationship increased with grade level. Children with weak PA and slow NS were most likely to develop reading difficulties by Grade 5, followed by children with slow NS alone. The authors discuss the roles of NS and PA in reading development and the need to clarify the constructs underlying NS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orthographic analogies and early reading: Evidence from a multiple clue word paradigm.

Two experiments using a variation of the clue word analogy task (Goswami, 1986) explored whether children can make orthographic analogies when given multiple clue words, beyond the known effects of purely phonological activation. In Experiment 1, 42 children (mean age 6 years and 8 months) were first taught 3 “clue” words (e.g., fail, mail, jail) and then shown target words sharing orthographic and phonological rimes (e.g., hail), phonological rimes (e.g., veil), orthographic and phonological vowel digraphs (e.g., wait), phonological vowel digraphs (e.g., vein), or unrelated controls (e.g., bard). All word types were advantaged at posttest over unrelated controls. A small additional advantage for orthographic and phonological rimes over phonological rimes was evident in by-participant analysis. Finally, regression analysis showed a specific relationship between onset-rime phonological awareness and orthographic rime clue word task transfer. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with 30 children (M age = 7 years, 0 months) and added a distinct group of children taught multiple clue words sharing vowel digraphs (e.g., gait, maim, maid). Results showed advantages for all words over unrelated controls and a small additional advantage for orthographic and phonological vowel digraphs over phonological vowel digraphs in the by-participant analysis. Overall, results suggest that some young children do have the ability to make orthographic analogies when given multiple exemplars but that most improvement in target word reading reflects purely phonological activation. Practical steps for identifying genuine analogy use in a subset of children are thus described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of instruction in learning to read: Preventing reading failure in at-risk children.

First and 2nd graders (N?=?285) receiving Title 1 services received 1 of 3 kinds of classroom reading programs: direct instruction in letter–sound correspondences practiced in decodable text (direct code); less direct instruction in systematic sound–spelling patterns embedded in connected text (embedded code); and implicit instruction in the alphabetic code while reading connected text (implicit code). Children receiving direct code instruction improved in word reading at a faster rate and had higher word-recognition skills than those receiving implicit code instruction. Effects of instructional group on word recognition were moderated by initial levels of phonological processing and were most apparent in children with poorer initial phonological processing skills. Group differences in reading comprehension paralleled those for word recognition but were less robust. Groups did not differ in spelling achievement or in vocabulary growth. Results show advantages for reading instructional programs that emphasize explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle for at-risk children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orthographic neighbourhood effects in parallel distributed processing models.

Studied the speed of visual word recognition in orthographic neighborhoods. In this paper, several statistical analyses of error scores from parallel distributed models revealed that low frequency words with large neighborhoods had lower orthographic, phonological, and cross-entropy error scores than low frequency words with small neighborhoods; and that low frequency words with higher frequency neighbors had lower error scores than low frequency words without higher frequency neighbors. According to these models then, processing should be more rapid for low frequency words with large neighborhoods and for low frequency words with higher frequency neighbors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological words and stuttering on function words

Stuttering on function words was examined in 51 people who stutter. The people who stutter were subdivided into young (2 to 6 years), middle (6 to 9 years), and older (9 to 12 years) child groups; teenagers (13 to 18 years); and adults (20 to 40 years). As reported by previous researchers, children up to about age 9 stuttered more on function words (pronouns, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs), whereas older people tended to stutter more on content words (nouns, main verbs, adverbs, adjectives). Function words in early positions in utterances, again as reported elsewhere, were more likely to be stuttered than function words at later positions in an utterance. This was most apparent for the younger groups of speakers. For the remaining analyses, utterances were segmented into phonological words on the basis of Selkirk's work (1984). Stuttering rate was higher when function words occurred in early phonological word positions than other phonological word positions whether the phonological word appeared in initial position in an utterance or not. Stuttering rate was highly dependent on whether the function word occurred before or after the single content word allowed in Selkirk's (1984) phonological words. This applied, once again, whether the phonological word was utterance-initial or not. It is argued that stuttering of function words before their content word in phonological words in young speakers is used as a delaying tactic when the forthcoming content word is not prepared for articulation.