Influence of speech variety on teachers' evaluation of reading comprehension.

Investigated how 2 speech varieties, standard English and Black English, used during an oral reading and recall task influenced 64 White and 8 Black teachers' (mean age 36 yrs) evaluations of reading comprehension and how teachers' attitudes toward Black English related to those evaluations. Measures included the Oral Reading and Recall Evaluation, the Reading Miscue Inventory, and the Language Attitude Scale. Although the proportion of variance accounted for by the overall model was not great (11%), significant contrasts between the evaluations of 2 readers, one a Black English speaker and one a standard English speaker, were found with teachers who held negative attitudes toward Black English. No significant contrasts were found with teachers who held positive attitudes toward Black English. Results indicate that Black English readers were rated lower in reading comprehension than equivalent standard English readers when teachers held a negative attitude toward their language. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inference during reading.

Most current theories of text processing assume a constructionist view of inference processing. In this article, an alternative view is proposed, labeled the minimalist hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the only inferences that are encoded automatically during reading are those that are based on easily available information, either from explicit statements in the text or from general knowledge, and those that are required to make statements in the text locally coherent. The minimalist hypothesis is shown to be supported by previous research and by the results of several new experiments. It is also argued that automatically encoded minimalist inferences provide the basic representation of textual information from which more goal-directed, purposeful inferences are constructed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptation of stuttering frequency during repeated readings: associated changes in acoustic parameters of perceptually fluent speech

This study is part of a series investigating the hypothesis that stuttering adaptation is a result of motor learning. Previous investigations indicate that nonspeech motor learning typically is associated with an increase in speed of performance. Previous investigations of stuttering, on the other hand, indicate that improvements in fluency during most fluency-enhancing conditions or after stuttering treatment tend to be associated with decreased speech rate, increased duration of specific acoustic segments, and decreased vowel duration variability. The present acoustic findings, obtained from 8 individuals who stutter, reveal that speech adjustments occurring during adaptation differ from those reported for other fluency-enhancing conditions or stuttering treatment. Instead, the observed changes are consistent with those occurring during skill improvements for nonspeech motor tasks and, thus, with a motor learning hypothesis of stuttering adaptation. During the last of 6 repeated readings, a statistically significant increase in articulation rate was observed, together with a decrease in word duration, vowel duration, and consonant-vowel (CV) transition extent. Other adjustments showing relatively consistent trends across individual subjects included decreased CV transition rate and duration, and increased variability of both CV transition extent and vowel duration.     

Anaphoric inference during reading.

Examined whether antecedents are reactivated by anaphor, in 3 experiments with a total of 144 undergraduates, using additional control sentences and an alternative response time measure. Ss read a series of texts each containing a target item. Immediately after the last line of each text, the item was probed using a recognition task in Exp I and a naming task in Exp II. Ss were faster to respond to the item when the last line contained an anaphoric reference to it than when the last line referred to a different item from the text. Additional control conditions ensured that the effect was not due to semantic priming and that the probed item was not in working memory when the last line was encountered. Findings in Exp III, which compared reading and naming times when the last sentence continued the established topic with times when the last sentence changed the topic, suggest that previous evidence for reinstatement reflected interference from a change of topic in the last line rather than facilitation due to reinstatement of the probed item. It is suggested that the paradigm developed by G. McKoon and R. Ratcliff (see record 1981-24997-001) requires careful control of variables. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Connecting goals and actions during reading.

Three experiments showed that reading about a character's actions can reactivate a goal of the character stated earlier in the passage and backgrounded by intervening material. Ss were slower to read a line describing an action that was inconsistent with a goal of the protagonist than they were to read about an action that was consistent with the goal, even though both lines were locally coherent. Goals were reactivated even when the intervening material did not describe attempts to achieve the goal (Exp 2) and when the intervening material described another goal of the protagonist (Exp 3). The results suggest that reading a sentence can reactivate relevant information from earlier in the text, even when the sentence is coherent with its immediate context and the reactivated information has been backgrounded by several lines of unrelated text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task effects on eye movements during reading.

The present study examined how proofreading and reading-for-comprehension instructions influence eye movements during reading. Thirty-seven participants silently read sentences containing compound words as target words while their eye movements were being recorded. We manipulated word length and frequency to examine how task instructions influence orthographic versus lexical–semantic processing during reading. Task instructions influenced both temporal and spatial aspects of eye movements: The initial landing position in words was shifted leftward, the saccade length was shorter, first fixation and gaze duration were longer, and refixation probability was higher during proofreading than during reading for comprehension. Moreover, in comparison to instructions for reading for comprehension, proofreading instructions increased both orthographic and lexical–semantic processing. This became apparent in a greater word length and word frequency effect in gaze duration during proofreading than during reading for comprehension. The present study suggests that the allocation of attentional resources during reading is significantly modulated by task demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prolonged speech and modification of stuttering: perceptual, acoustic, and electroglottographic data

Prolonged speech and its variants are a group of novel speech patterns that form the basis of a popular treatment for stuttering (Ingham, 1984). It is difficult to determine which features of prolonged speech are necessary for the elimination of stuttered speech because the speech pattern produces simultaneous changes in respiratory, laryngeal, and articulatory activity. Experimental studies have shown that the modification of phonation and of speech rate contributes to stuttering reduction, and increased duration of speech segments and reduced variability of vowel duration are known to occur as a result of prolonged-speech treatment programs. However, previous studies of prolonged speech have all instructed subjects to modify their customary speech patterns in a particular way. The aim of the present study was to investigate changes in the speech pattern of individual subjects when stuttering was modified with prolonged speech without specific instruction in how this should be done. In one experimental phase, 3 subjects showed clinically significant stuttering reductions when instructed to use whichever features of prolonged speech they needed to reduce their stuttering. The resulting perceptually stutter-free speech was judged to be natural sounding. Stuttering in a fourth subject reduced without experimental intervention. Recordings of acoustic and electroglottographic signals from the 4 subjects were analyzed. Changes in the variability of vowel duration occurred in all subjects. Theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Accessing global causes during reading.

In 4 experiments, the authors examined whether readers accessed distant causal antecedents for consequent events when the text was locally coherent and a more recent causal antecedent was available. Participants read passages that contained 2 possible causal antecedents for a consequent event; 1 appeared early in the passage, and the other appeared late. The early causal antecedent was elaborated in half of the passages, and neither causal antecedent was elaborated in the remaining half. Experiments 1A and 1B demonstrated that when the more distant, early causal antecedent had been elaborated, both it and the more recent, late causal antecedent were active in memory following the consequent event. In Experiments 2A and 2B, both causal antecedents were backgrounded prior to reading the consequent event. When neither causal antecedent had been elaborated, only the late causal antecedent was reactivated by the consequent event. However, when the early causal antecedent had been elaborated, only it was reactivated. Results are discussed in terms of several recent models of comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maintaining global coherence during reading.

Previous research demonstrated a contradiction effect: Although text currently being processed was locally coherent, readers were aware of inconsistencies between a protagonist's actions and characteristics of the protagonists that were described earlier in the text and subsequently backgrounded. In the present experiments, not only the critical characteristics but also the protagonist were backgrounded. When the protagonist was reintroduced into the narrative in the context of carrying out an inconsistent action, the contradiction effect again occurred. In Exps 1–3, we examined the effects of several variables on the onset of the effect. In Exp 4, we presented probes at various points in the passage with results that supported the conclusion that the critical characteristics had been backgrounded before the sentence that contradicted them. Results are discussed in terms of several recent models in which currently active representational elements serve as retrieval cues for other inactive, but highly related, elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of frequency altered feedback and audience size on stuttering

The effect of frequency altered feedback (FAF) and audience size on stuttering frequency was examined. Nine adults who stutter orally read to audiences of two, four and 15 people under conditions of FAF (one-half octave shift down) and non-altered auditory feedback (NAF). There was no statistically significant effect of audience size on stuttering frequency (p > 0.05). A statistically significant reduction in stuttering frequency was found under FAF relative to NAF (p < 0.5). Collapsed across audience conditions, stuttering frequency was reduced by 74%. These findings suggest that FAF may be useful as a treatment tool.     

Properties of attention during reading lessons.

Investigated the attention of 116 children in 6 2nd- and 3rd-grade classrooms while they participated in 4 lessons involving progressively more difficult stories. Analysis of videotapes of the lessons revealed that the likelihood of a lapse of attention was highest during the 1st 15 sec of attention episodes. Lapses in attention were more likely among 2nd graders than among 3rd graders, among boys than among girls, in low groups than in middle groups, and in middle groups than in high groups. The more difficult the story, the more likely were lapses in attention, especially among younger and less able students. Reading-group membership was more strongly related to attention than were reliable measures of children's individual comprehension and fluency; a leading hypothesis to explain this finding is that reading groups have subcultures that differentially support paying attention. The most newsworthy finding of the study was the sharp drop in attention after oral reading errors; this drop was observed in all reading groups in both 2nd and 3rd grades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term retention of discourse during reading.

In 2 experiments, 68 3rd, 4th, and 6th graders at different reading levels were given a probe memory task assessing the availability in working memory of recently read discourse segments. During oral and silent reading (Exp I), retention was related to segment length and the occurrence of a sentence boundary. The limits on retention were tested by increasing segment length and difficulty (Exp II). For these segments, performance of less skilled readers was uniformly low, whereas that of the skilled and older readers continued to be affected by length and sentence boundary. Relationships between individual differences in verbal coding processes and short-term retention of discourse as well as implications for text comprehension models are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reinstatement of causal information during reading.

An on-line word naming probe was used to test whether information presented earlier in a text, and then backgrounded by several sentences, would be reinstated when Ss were required to understand the cause of a currently processed action or event. In Exp 1, Ss named a probe word that represented an earlier-mentioned cause more quickly when it followed a causal coherence break than when it followed a neutral sentence. Exps 2 and 3 replicated this effect and examined 2 conditions that may affect the process of reinstating a cause: (1) inclusion of part of the context in which the cause was originally presented was not necessary to obtain reinstatement of the cause and (2) reinstatement of the cause was not evidenced when it had been disconfirmed earlier in the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integration of topic and subordinate information during reading.

Four experiments examined how readers integrate subordinate information with relevant context as they read. Ss read texts a sentence at a time with occasional interruptions lasting 30 sec. Following a distractor task, they resumed reading after being reminded of the topic sentence of the last paragraph they read (topic cue condition), being reminded of the last sentence they had read (local cue condition), or receiving no reminder of what they had been reading (no cue condition). Reading times on the 1st sentence following interruption were faster in the topic and local cue conditions than in the no cue condition (1) when the topic and local cues supplied missing referents for the target sentences, (2) when the target sentences were written to be understood as independent statements, and (3) whether the target sentences were embedded in short or long texts. Results are interpreted as demonstrating that readers integrate subordinate information with relevant topics, as well as with the immediate local context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of semantic and phonological codes during reading.

Examined coding processes involved in reading connected text in 3 experiments with 54 Ss who read text passages and occasionally responded to lexical-decision probes. Exp I focused on semantic and surface codes. Results suggest that the activation of semantic codes increased over time, whereas surface codes did not. In addition, Ss who were instructed to remember the exact wording of the passages showed stronger activation of surface codes than did Ss who read for comprehension. Exps II and III explored the role of phonological codes in reading. Results from Exp II indicate that phonological codes were activated by specific words in a passage; however, Exp III results fail to demonstrate that phonological codes were activated by the more general passage context. Combined results suggest that reading involves several coding systems that are activated according to time and reading instruction constraints. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of contingent events on stuttering and fluency.

In Study 1 with 4 male 18-20 yr old stutterers, the effect on stuttering frequency of contingent monetary gain and contingent monetary loss for stuttering was examined individually for over 12 hrs, using control periods when no contingency was present. Both contingencies resulted in decreased stuttering, suggesting that the effect of observing and recording instances of stuttering was more powerful than the money. In Study 2, monetary gain and loss was made contingent on units of fluent speech for 5 male and 1 female 17-34 yr old stutterers over 12 hrs. Fluency increased for the group during monetary gain, but monetary loss did not have the predicted effect of decreasing fluency, perhaps because the contigent events served also to enhance self-observation. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of questions on the allocation of attention during reading.

77 undergraduate readers were asked a question after every 4 pages of a 48-page oceanography text. Text information relevant to questions was learned better than text information irrelevant to questions. Reading times and probe RTs on a secondary task were longer when Ss were processing text segments containing information of the type addressed by questions. Results are discussed in the light of a theory that readers selectively allocate a greater volume of attention to question-relevant information and that a process supported by the additional attention causes more of the information to be learned. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some temporal characteristics of processing during reading.

14 college students read passages displayed on a CRT as their eye movements were being monitored. During occasional fixations, all letters to the left of the directly fixated letter or all letters more than 4 to the right of the fixated letter were replaced by other letters. This replacement occurred either for only the 1st 100 msec of the fixation or only after the 1st 100 msec of the fixation. Eye movement data indicate that the eyes could respond to change in the visual stimulus within less than 100 msec and to orthographic irregularity in the test within less than 160 msec. No evidence was found for a left-to-right attentional scan during a fixation. Results are interpreted within the framework of a chronology of processing events occurring during a fixation in reading. Eye movement patterns and the determination of fixation durations are discussed. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)