Letter Matching Research Articles

"Kartagam" media in improving readiness to read in early children

Paying attention to children's development and the need to develop the reading potential of preschool-age children, there is something that can help achieve the goal of learning to read optimally, namely through parenting. The care used in teaching preschool-age children must pay attention to their level of development. Paying attention to the level of development means also considering their developmental tasks. The objectives to be achieved in this research are: 1) Describe the ongoing process of early reading preparation learning through letter matching activities using word and picture cards (Kartagam) in early childhood, 2) Describe the magnitude of the increase in early reading preparation through letter/word matching activities using word and picture card media (Kartagam) in early childhood, and3)Describe changes in attitudes and learning behavior of young children after early reading preparation lessons were carried out through letter matching activities using word and picture cards (Kartagam). Using the media "Kartagam" (Word and Picture Cards) is hoped to improve children's literacy skills, especially early childhood reading readiness.

ANALISIS ALUR EKSPOR PT INTEGRA : TINJAUAN DARI PERSPEKTIF AKUNTASI KEUANGAN

This research analyzes the export flow of PT Integra from the perspective of financial accounting. The objective of this study is to understand how export activities affect the company's financial statements. The research methodology employed is qualitative analysis, utilizing secondary data such as the company's financial reports and export policies. The findings of the study indicate that PT Integra has a structured export sales process facilitated by the accounting department. Letter matching is conducted to ensure data consistency between the seller and the buyer. This research contributes to academic knowledge in the field of financial accounting and export activities.

Diacritic priming in novice readers of diacritics.

Recent masked priming studies investigating the recognition of letters with diacritics with native readers of the script have consistently yielded an asymmetric pattern of priming such that a base-letter prime without the diacritic speeds up the recognition of the letter with a diacritic almost as much as an identity prime, but not vice versa (e.g., á-Á ≦ a-Á, but a-A ≪á-A). Here we tested English readers unfamiliar with diacritics in a letter match task using Japanese kana and the vowel letters of the Latin alphabet, and found the asymmetry was reduced to a negligible level (á-Á ≦ a-Á, and a-A ≦ á-A) (Experiments 1 and 2). However, the diacritic novices showed the asymmetric pattern of priming like the diacritic experts when the task condition explicitly required the letters with and without diacritics to be distinguished (Experiments 3 and 4). These results are explained in terms of how expertise moderates an early letter identification process in interpreting a visual feature as noise, or a signal diagnostic of letter identity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of remotely teaching auditoryvisual matching of letters on letter-naming among children with Down syndrome or autism

The effects of remotely teaching auditoryvisual matching of letters on letter-naming among children with Down syndrome or autism

The impact of aging on interhemispheric transfer time and respective sex differences.

Age-related cognitive decline has been attributed to degeneration of the corpus callosum (CC), which allows for interhemispheric integration and information processing [22,69]. Along with decreased structural integrity, altered functional properties of the CC may cause impaired cognitive performance in older adults, yet this aspect of age-related decline remains insufficiently researched [59]. In this context, potential sex-related differences have been proposed [31,58]. A promising parameter, which has been suggested to estimate functional properties of the CC is the interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT), which is ideally obtained from event-related potentials (ERP) evoked by lateralized stimuli [45]. To examine the possible functional consequences of aging with regards to the CC, the present study investigated the IHTT of 107 older (67.69 ± 5.18y) as well as of 23 younger participants (25.09 ± 2.59y). IHTT was obtained using an established letter matching task and targeting early N170 ERP components at posterior electrode sites. The results revealed significantly elongated IHTT in older compared to younger participants, but no significant sex differences. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between IHTT and age, predominantly driven by the female participants. The present findings add support to the notion, that IHTT is subject to age-related elongation reflecting impaired interhemispheric transmission. Age-related decline in women appears to occur at a different age range compared to men.

Decision Making and Oddball Effects on Pupil Size: Evidence for a Sequential Process.

In our physical environment as well as in many experimental paradigms, we need to decide whether an occurring stimulus is relevant to us or not; further, stimuli have uneven probabilities to emerge. Both, decision making and the difference between rare and frequent stimuli (oddball effect) are described to affect pupil dilation. Surprisingly though, conjoint systematic pupillometric investigations into both factors are still rare. In two experiments, both factors as well as their interplay were investigated. Participants completed a sequential letter matching task. In this task, stimulus probability and letter matching (decision making) were manipulated independently. As dependent variables, pupil dilation and reaction time were assessed. Results suggest a clearly larger pupil dilation for target than for distractor letters, even when targets were frequent and distractors rare. When considering the data structure best, no main effect of stimulus probability was found, instead, oddball effects only emerged when stimuli were goal-relevant to participants. The results are discussed in the light of common theoretical concepts of decision making and stimulus probability. Finally, relating theories of each factor, we propose an integrated framework for effects of decision making and stimulus features on pupil dilation. We assume a sequential mechanism during which incoming stimuli are decided upon regarding their goal relevance and, about 200 ms later, relevant stimuli are appraised regarding their value.

When does rotation disrupt letter encoding? Testing the resilience of letter detectors in the initial moments of processing.

Previous research has reported that both letter and word identification are slower when the stimuli are presented at rotations above 45° than when presented in their canonical horizontal view. Indeed, influential models of word recognition posit that letter detectors in the visual word recognition system are disrupted by rotation angles above 40° or 45° (e.g., Local Combinations Detector model; Dehaene, Cohen, Sigman, & Vinckier, 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences). However, recent experiments have shown robust masked identity/form priming effects for 90° rotated words, thus calling into question this assumption. Here we aimed to isolate the degree to which letter detectors are disrupted when manipulating letter rotation in three masked identity priming letter match experiments. Probes and targets were always presented in the canonical upright position, whereas forwardly masked primes were rotated in different angles. The rotation angles were 0° versus 45° (Experiment 1), 22.5° versus 67.5° (Experiment 2), and 45° versus 90° (Experiment 3). Results showed a sizeable masked identity priming effect regardless of the rotation angle, hence demonstrating that letter detectors are not disrupted by rotations smaller than 90° in the early moments of letter processing. This pattern suggests that letter detectors are more resilient to changes in visual form than predicted by the LCD model.

Load matters: neural correlates of verbal working memory in children with autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by diminished social reciprocity and communication skills and the presence of stereotyped and restricted behaviours. Executive functioning deficits, such as working memory, are associated with core ASD symptoms. Working memory allows for temporary storage and manipulation of information and relies heavily on frontal-parietal networks of the brain. There are few reports on the neural correlates of working memory in youth with ASD. The current study identified the neural systems underlying verbal working memory capacity in youth with and without ASD using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).MethodsFifty-seven youth, 27 with ASD and 30 sex- and age-matched typically developing (TD) controls (9–16 years), completed a one-back letter matching task (LMT) with four levels of difficulty (i.e. cognitive load) while fMRI data were recorded. Linear trend analyses were conducted to examine brain regions that were recruited as a function of increasing cognitive load.ResultsWe found similar behavioural performance on the LMT in terms of reaction times, but in the two higher load conditions, the ASD youth had lower accuracy than the TD group. Neural patterns of activations differed significantly between TD and ASD groups. In TD youth, areas classically used for working memory, including the lateral and medial frontal, as well as superior parietal brain regions, increased in activation with increasing task difficulty, while areas related to the default mode network (DMN) showed decreasing activation (i.e., deactivation). The youth with ASD did not appear to use this opposing cognitive processing system; they showed little recruitment of frontal and parietal regions across the load but did show similar modulation of the DMN.ConclusionsIn a working memory task, where the load was manipulated without changing executive demands, TD youth showed increasing recruitment with increasing load of the classic fronto-parietal brain areas and decreasing involvement in default mode regions. In contrast, although they modulated the default mode network, youth with ASD did not show the modulation of increasing brain activation with increasing load, suggesting that they may be unable to manage increasing verbal information. Impaired verbal working memory in ASD would interfere with the youths’ success academically and socially. Thus, determining the nature of atypical neural processing could help establish or monitor working memory interventions for ASD.

Evidence for cross-script abstract identities in learners of Japanese kana.

The presence of abstract letter identity representations in the Roman alphabet has been well documented. These representations are invariant to letter case (upper vs. lower) and visual appearance. For example, "a" and "A" are represented by the same abstract identity. Recent research has begun to consider whether the processing of non-Roman orthographies also involves abstract orthographic representations. In the present study, we sought evidence for abstract identities in Japanese kana, which consist of two scripts, hiragana and katakana. Abstract identities would be invariant to the script used as well as to the degree of visual similarity. We adapted the cross-case masked-priming letter match task used in previous research on Roman letters, by presenting cross-script kana pairs and testing adult beginning -to- intermediate Japanese second-language (L2) learners (first-language English readers). We found robust cross-script priming effects, which were equal in magnitude for visually similar (e.g., り/リ) and dissimilar (e.g., あ/ア) kana pairs. This pattern was found despite participants' imperfect explicit knowledge of the kana names, particularly for katakana. We also replicated prior findings from Roman abstract letter identities in the same participants. Ours is the first study reporting abstract kana identity priming (in adult L2 learners). Furthermore, these representations were acquired relatively early in our adult L2 learners.

Using tablets and apps to enhance emergent literacy skills in young children

Touch screen tablets (e.g., iPads) are being increasingly used by young children due to their stimulating multimodal features and intuitive touch-based interface. However, little is known about the effects of tablets and apps on the development of emergent literacy skills. This pre-post-test randomised controlled study explored the effects of using literacy apps on emergent literacy skills in English speaking children aged 2–5 years (N=48). There were 24 children in the iPad group and 24 children in the waitlist control group. The 9-week (30min/week) iPad literacy program focussed on three new alphabet letters each week using three apps (letter matching, letter tracing, and drawing). Following the program, children in the iPad group showed significantly higher letter name and sound knowledge, print concepts and name writing skills than children in the control group. No significant group differences were found for letter writing skills or numeral knowledge. The findings showed that tablets can positively support letter name and sound learning and aspects of emergent writing development. How teachers can best utilise these digital tools in early childhood classrooms to support emergent literacy requires further investigation.

Text Translation of Scanned Hindi Document to Braille via Image Processing

Objective: Braille - a model to reduce the illiteracy rate among the visually challenged people. So, this paper focuses on text translation/ conversion of scanned Hindi document to Braille, a single mode of communication for visually challenged people via Image processing techniques. Method/Analysis: The translation of scanned Hindi text into Braille code involves the following four processes: (i) Hindi database generation of consonants and matras using image segmentation. (ii) Segmentation of test images into lines followed by words and finally into letters. This step involves three types of segmentation: (a) line segmentation (b) word segmentation (c) letter segmentation. (iii) Letter matching of segmented letters with the generated Hindi database using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). (iv) Conversion of matched letter into corresponding Braille code. The algorithm takes test documents as input and reads the letter wise and maps the letters in the corresponding Braille code. Findings: Three Hindi documents containing single, multiple lines are taken as test documents. These test documents are successfully converted into their corresponding Braille code using the proposed algorithm. A lot of research work has been conducted which emphasizes the conversion of scanned Braille code into the text, but the conversion of scanned text to Braille has not been attempted so far. These results are a step further in the field of Braille communication, adding a new way through which Hindi literature can easily be made available to visually impaired people for improving their knowledge and easy access to documents and books as needed. Improvement/Application: The results obtained will provide easy access of Hindi literature to visually challenged people as there is limited availability of Braille textbooks in the market. The memory consumption is very less as the size of each image in Hindi database is 187x128 pixels. This work can be modified for real time applications, like instant conversion of text to Braille using handheld devices.

Abstract WP174: Intensive Phonology Treatment Promotes Recovery in Reading in Chronic Aphasia Post Stroke

Therapies specifically targeting naming deficits are common because these deficits remain one of the most common and pervasive deficits seen in post-stroke aphasia (Goodglass & Wingfield, 1997). Past studies have used single lexical item retrieval (Nickels, 2002) as the framework for both semantic and phonological treatment. The efficacy of this technique is unclear when applied to reading, writing, and lexical retrieval deficits (Boyle, 2004a, 2004b; Coelho, McHugh, & Boyle, 2000). This study aimed to resolve these issues by implementing an easy to replicate design with a randomized control trial. 12 subjects enrolled in intensive speech therapy at Austin Speech Labs were selected for the study. They were randomly assigned to a Semantic (ST) (n=6) or phonological treatment (PT) (n=6) group. Subjects received comprehensive pre and post-testing using the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R), Boston Naming Test (BNT). The subject’s phonological awareness was assessed using subtests of Psycholinguistic Assessment of Language Processing in Aphasia (PALPA).Each participant attended three hours of therapy for a total of 40 hours of therapy. PT: The first eight weeks focused on mastering individual consonants and vowels and blending sounds to read single words. The second 8-week module focused on training consonants clusters, and spelling. ST: The first and second module focused on describing object attributes to aid reading, naming, and writing. An independent T-test (p-value of .05) was used to examine significant differences found in the post-test scores between each group. A paired t-test (p-value=. 05) was run to determine significant differences in pre and post-test scores across both treatment groups. The majority of participants showed increases between pre and post-testing in all subtests. The phonology group showed significant increases in letter length spelling, letter sounding, spoken and written letter matching, and syllable length reading PALPA subtests. The Semantic group showed significant increases in the WAB verbal commands and repetition subtests as well as the PALPA and spoken and written letter matching subtest. Conclusion: Phonology focused treatment appears to be beneficial despite differences in underlying impairments.

Self-Reported ADHD Symptoms and Interhemispheric Interaction in Adults: A Dimensional Approach

The present study applied the dimensional approach to test whether self-reported symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults are associated with the speed of interhemispheric interaction. A sample of first grade students (N = 112) completed Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scales and letter matching reaction time tasks. In the tasks, participants had to match a single target letter displayed below the fixation cross, either on left or right visual field, with one of two letters displayed above the fixation cross, one letter on each visual field. For each task, identical letters were presented either within the same visual field (within hemisphere condition) or across visual fields (across hemisphere condition). Interhemispheric interaction was indexed as the difference in mean reaction time between within and across hemisphere conditions. Comorbid problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress may affect task performance and are controlled for in this study. Findings indicated that self-reported ADHD symptomology, especially hyperactivity, in the presence of stress was weakly but significantly associated with fast interhemispheric interaction.

Letter and Colour Matching Tasks: Parametric Measures of Developmental Working Memory Capacity

We investigated the mediating role of interference in developmental assessments of working memory (WM) capacity across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. One hundred and forty-two participants completed two versions of visuospatial (colour matching task, CMT) and verbal (letter matching task, LMT) WM tasks, which systematically varied cognitive load in a high and low interference condition. Results showed similar developmental trajectories across high interference contexts (CMT- and LMT-Complex) and divergent developmental growth patterns across low interference contexts (CMT- and LMT-Simple). Performance on tasks requiring greater cognitive control was in closer agreement with developmental predictions relative to simple recall guided tasks that rely solely on the storage components of WM. These findings suggest that developmental WM capacity, as measured by the CMT and LMT paradigms, can be better quantified using high interference contexts, in both content domains, and demonstrate steady increases in WM through to mid-adolescence.

Rest is best: The role of rest and task interruptions on vigilance

We examined the impact task interruptions have on visuospatial vigilance in two experiments. In the first experiment participants were randomly assigned to one of three interruptions: participants were given a complete rest (rest), participants completed an alphanumeric vigilance task (letter), or participants performed the primary vigilance task (continuous). In the second experiment participants were randomly assigned to one of the conditions from the first experiment or to two further conditions, in which participants (spatial memory) performed a spatial match to sample task, or participants (verbal memory) performed a letter match to sample task. Vigilance performance post-interruption was best for rest, worst for continuous, and varied for the other interruption tasks. Overall, the results suggest the vigilance decrement is due to the repeated use of particular executive resources, but there may, in addition be domain specific interference when the primary task and activities during a break make use of the same resources.

Inter-hemispheric recruitment as a function of task complexity, age and cognitive reserve

ABSTRACTIn a behavioral divided visual field study, we investigated the efficiency of inter-hemispheric cooperation according to (1) task computational complexity (physical-identity versus name-identity letter matching), (2) age (younger versus older adults) and (3) educational attainment, used as a proxy for cognitive reserve. Overall, the results indicated a shift from within- to across-hemisphere processing advantage with increasing task complexity, suggesting that bilateral engagement leads to enhanced performance under high-demand conditions. This pattern was influenced by age, with older adults showing no within-hemisphere advantage in the simpler task and a greater across-hemisphere advantage in the more complex one, consistent with an age-compensatory view of inter-hemispheric recruitment. Moreover, for older adults, more years of education was associated with a weaker across-hemisphere advantage. Thus, we propose that cognitive reserve may account for bilateral engagement efficiency. Finally, the groups differed in terms of laterality effects, with only younger adults demonstrating a left visual field advantage in the name-identity task, lending some support to the right hemi-aging hypothesis.

Autonomic responses to correct outcomes and interaction errors during single-switch scanning among children with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy

BackgroundThe combination of single-switch access technology and scanning is the most promising means of augmentative and alternative communication for many children with severe physical disabilities. However, the physical impairment of the child and the technology’s limited ability to interpret the child’s intentions often lead to false positives and negatives (corresponding to accidental and missed selections, respectively) occurring at rates that frustrate the user and preclude functional communication. Multiple psychophysiological studies have associated cardiac deceleration and increased phasic electrodermal activity with self-realization of errors among able-bodied individuals. Thus, physiological measurements have potential utility at enhancing single-switch access, provided that such prototypical autonomic responses exist in persons with profound disabilities.MethodsThe present case series investigated the autonomic responses of three pediatric single-switch users with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, in the context of a single-switch letter matching activity. Each participant exhibited distinct autonomic responses to activity engagement.ResultsOur analysis confirmed the presence of the autonomic response pattern of cardiac deceleration and increased phasic electrodermal activity following true positives, false positives and false negatives errors, but not subsequent to true negative outcomes.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that there may be merit in complementing single-switch input with autonomic measurements to improve augmentative and alternative communications for pediatric access technology users.

Reduced interhemispheric interaction in non-autistic individuals with normal but high levels of autism traits

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show superior performance for tasks requiring detail-focused processing. Atypical neural connectivity and reduced interhemispheric communication are posited to underlie this cognitive advantage. Given recent conceptualization of autism as a continuum, we sought to investigate whether people with normal but high levels of autism like traits (AQ) also exhibit reduced hemispheric interaction. Sixty right-handed participants completed the AQ questionnaire (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner, Martin, & Clubley, 2001) and a lateralised letter matching task that assessed unilateral and bilateral performance in response to simple (physical) and complex (identity) matches. Whereas people with low self-rated AQ scores showed a bilateral advantage for the more complex task, indicating normal interhemispheric interaction, people in the high AQ group failed to show a bilateral gain for the computationally demanding stimuli. This finding of disrupted interhemispheric interaction converges with a dimensional conceptualisation of ASD, suggesting that the structural anomalies of ASD extend to non-autistic individuals with high levels of autism traits.

Influence of category identity on letter matching: Conceptual penetration of visual processing or response competition?

Participants performed same-different matching tasks, with physical-identity instructions, on letter pairs composed from the letters B, b, and p. The letters in a pair were presented simultaneously or sequentially, with the experiments differing in whether (1) the letters could appear in two or four positions, (2) two or five SOAs were used, (3) the font was Arial or one in which the two loops of the letter B were of the same size, and (4) p did or did not occur in same pairs. With sequential presentation, different RTs were longer when the letters had the same name (Bb; within-category pair) than when they did not (Bp; between-category pair), replicating a finding by Lupyan et al. (2010). However, unlike in their study, this category effect was also significant with simultaneous presentation, tending to be nonsignificantly smaller for RTs but larger for accuracy than that obtained with sequential presentation. A similar pattern was observed when we removed a bias to respond different whenever the letter p was detected in the experiments in which p did not appear in same pairs. The presence of a category effect with simultaneous presentation is predicted by a response competition account, but not by Lupyan et al.'s conceptual-penetration-of-visual-processing account.

Simulated Cataract and Low Contrast Stimuli Impair Cognitive Performance in Older Adults: Implications for Neuropsychological Assessment and Everyday Function

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate how age-related declines in vision (particularly contrast sensitivity), simulated using cataract-goggles and low-contrast stimuli, influence the accuracy and speed of cognitive test performance in older adults. An additional aim was to investigate whether declines in vision differentially affect secondary more than primary memory. Method: Using a fully within-subjects design, 50 older drivers aged 66–87 years completed two tests of cognitive performance – letter matching (perceptual speed) and symbol recall (short-term memory) – under different viewing conditions that degraded visual input (low-contrast stimuli, cataract-goggles, and low-contrast stimuli combined with cataract-goggles, compared with normal viewing). However, presentation time was also manipulated for letter matching. Visual function, as measured using standard charts, was taken into account in statistical analyses. Results: Accuracy and speed for cognitive tasks were significantly impaired when visual input was degraded. Furthermore, cognitive performance was positively associated with contrast sensitivity. Presentation time did not influence cognitive performance, and visual gradation did not differentially influence primary and secondary memory. Conclusion: Age-related declines in visual function can impact on the accuracy and speed of cognitive performance, and therefore the cognitive abilities of older adults may be underestimated in neuropsychological testing. It is thus critical that visual function be assessed prior to testing, and that stimuli be adapted to older adults' sensory capabilities (e.g., by maximising stimuli contrast).