Letter Word Research Articles

A longitudinal investigation of reading development from kindergarten to grade eight in a Spanish-speaking bilingual population

This longitudinal study used latent growth curve modeling to investigate English literacy development in a sample of Spanish-speaking language minority students from third through eighth grade. This study also compared the sample’s literacy development to the entire population of California students using state standardized test data. Second, this study examined the contributions of a variety of bilingual measures of kindergarten letter knowledge, phonological awareness, word reading, and vocabulary to literacy development. Results demonstrated the present sample scored below average in literacy compared to the overall population of California students across years, but made slight gains to narrow the achievement gap. The greatest gains were obtained between fourth and fifth grade, but plateaued thereafter. Results concerning the second research questions showed that the third grade literacy intercept was predicted by kindergarten English letter knowledge, Spanish onset, Spanish word reading, and English vocabulary. However, English literacy development through eighth grade was only predicted by kindergarten English and Spanish vocabulary. Findings support arguments for educational efforts to target oral language instruction for these students in early elementary and instruction in both languages may provide the greatest benefit. Instructional implications are discussed.

Functional changes at the preferred retinal locus in subjects with bilateral central vision loss.

Subjects with bilateral central vision loss (CVL) use a retinal region called the preferred retinal locus (PRL) for performing various visual tasks. We probed the fixation PRL in individuals with bilateral macular disease, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Stargardt disease (STGD), for localized sensitivity deficits. Three letter words at the critical print size were presented in the NIDEK MP-1 microperimeter to determine the fixation PRL and its radial retinal eccentricity from the residual fovea in 29 subjects with bilateral CVL. Fixation stability was defined as the median bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA) from 3 fixation assessments. A standard 10-2 grid (68 locations, 2° apart) was used to determine central retinal sensitivity for Goldmann size II test spots. Baseline and follow-up supra-threshold screening of the fixation PRL for localized sensitivity deficits was performed using high density (0.2° or 0.3° apart) 0dB Goldmann size II test spots. Custom MATLAB code and a dual bootstrapping algorithm were used to register test-spot locations from the baseline and follow-up tests. Locations where the 0dB test spots were not seen on either test were labeled as micro-scotomas (MSs). Median BCEA correlated poorly with the radial eccentricity of the fixation PRL. Mean (±SD) sensitivity around the PRL from 10-2 testing was 4.93±4.73dB. The average percentage of MSs was similar for patients with AMD (25.4%), STGD (20.3%), and other etiologies of CVL (27.1%). The fixation PRL in subjects with bilateral CVL frequently includes local regions of sensitivity loss.

Neuropsychological effects of occupational exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls

In the context of a health surveillance program for former PCB-exposed workers of a transformer and capacitor recycling company in Germany, their family members, employees of surrounding companies and area residents a broad range of cognitive functions covering attention, executive processing, reasoning, memory and motor performance was examined. The study aimed at identifying potential adverse effects of PCB load on cognitive functions. Detailed analysis of PCB burden of the participants revealed rather high correlations of lower and higher chlorinated as well as dioxin-like PCBs. Nearly one half of the participants exhibited increased burden in all three PCB classes whereas only 33 out of 237 participants did not show any increased PCB burden. Thus, data analysis followed a two-fold strategy: (1) Based on studies providing data on PCB exposure of the German general population the PCB burden of every participant was classified as normal (percentile rank PR <95) or increased (PR ≥95). Increased burden with respect to lower (LPCBs) and higher chlorinated (HPCBs) as well as dioxin-like (dlPCBs) PCBs was assumed if a participant showed at least one congener surpassing the PR95 criterion for the respective congener class and (2) Overall plasma PCB level per congener class was used as measure of PCB load. In a multivariate approach using structural equation modelling and multiple regression analysis we found a significant impact of PCBs on word fluency and sensorimotor processing irrespective of the measure of PCB burden (PR95 criterion or overall plasma level). However, no effect of PCB burden on memory, attention, and cognitive flexibility could be demonstrated. Particularly, an increase of LPCBs was associated with an overall reduction of verbal fluency of letter and semantic word generation as well as word production based on a single or two alternating criteria. In addition, participants with increased burden of LPCBs exhibited a time-on-task effect in terms of a stronger decline of performance with increasing duration of the verbal fluency task. Moreover, we found adverse effects of HPCBs on Aiming and of dlPCBs on Line Tracking. Results are discussed in terms of (1) a decrease of cerebral dopamine (DA) with non-coplanar PCBs resulting in an impact on fronto-striatal cerebral structures subserving verbal fluency and motor processing, (2) a PCB-induced reduction of norepinephrine leading to the time-on-task effect with verbal fluency, and (3) adverse effects of PCBs on dopaminergic receptors in the cerebellum resulting in impaired fine motor function.

Letter and symbol identification: No evidence for letter-specific crowding mechanisms.

It has been proposed that letters, as opposed to symbols, trigger specialized crowding processes, boosting identification of the first and last letters of words. This hypothesis is based on evidence that single-letter accuracy as a function of within-string position has a W shape (the classic serial position function [SPF] in psycholinguistics) whereas an inverted V shape is obtained when measured with symbols. Our main goal was to test the robustness of the latter result. Our hypothesis was that any letter/symbol difference might result from short-term visual memory processes (due to the partial report [PR] procedures used in SPF studies) rather than from crowding. We therefore removed the involvement of short-term memory by precueing target-item position and compared SPFs with precueing and postcueing. Perimetric complexity was stringently matched between letters and symbols. In postcueing conditions similar to previous studies, we did not reproduce the inverted V shape for symbols: Clear-cut W shapes were observed with an overall smaller accuracy for symbols compared to letters. This letter/symbol difference was dramatically reduced in precueing conditions in keeping with our prediction. Our results are not consistent with the claim that letter strings trigger specialized crowding processes. We argue that PR procedures are not fit to isolate crowding processes.

Volaten and Volating: Two Ghost Words in the Middle English Dictionary

THE Middle English Dictionary lists the verb volaten and the gerund volating as independent entries. The verb is said to mean ‘[t]o be nauseated; also, feel nauseated by (food and drink, or what one has already consumed), feel loathing for’, the definition for the gerund being ‘[f]eeling nauseated (by food and drink)’. As concerns the origin of the verb, the dictionary suggests, with a question mark, that it may be Medieval Latin volatus, past participle of volare.1 The etymology put forth is presumably motivated by the possibility of nausea leading to vomiting (cf. the phrasal verb throw up). The five citations for volaten and the one for volating come from a single work, Faye Getz’s edition of a Middle English translation of Gilbertus Anglicus’ Compendium medicinae.2 Several copies of the translation survive in medieval manuscripts, the one edited by Getz being found in Wellcome Library MS 537, fols 48r–310v.3 A close examination of Wellcome Library MS 537 shows that in the six example passages cited in the MED, the two words in fact begin with the letter w, not with the sequence vo. The spellings that occur on those folios are respectively wlatiþ (fol. 60r), wlaten (fol. 169r), wlate (fol. 191r), wlaten (fol. 270r), wlateþ (fol. 194v), and wlating (fol. 234v). The scribe’s way of forming the letter w is different from his shaping of the first two letters in words like voice (e.g. fols 134v and 147r) and vomeþ ‘foams’ (fol. 270v). The verb wlaten ‘become nauseated’ and the gerund wlating ‘nausea’ are frequently attested in Middle English writings.4 In Old English manuscripts, the forms wlatian, wlatung, and wlætung occur in similar senses.5 The words apparently became obsolete soon after the Middle English period, as the last citation of wlate v. in the Oxford English Dictionary is dated c. 1535, there being no recorded instances of wlating n. after the fifteenth century.6 The disappearance coincides with the falling away of the consonant group wl- in initial position, a development that took place by the sixteenth century.7

Dynamic differences in letter contrast polarity improve peripheral letter string and word recognition performance

Dynamic differences in letter contrast polarity improve peripheral letter string and word recognition performance

Education of staff in preschool aged classrooms in child care centers and child outcomes: A meta-analysis and systematic review.

Staff education is considered key to quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. However, findings about associations between staff education and children’s outcomes have been inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between ECEC staff education and child outcomes. Searches of Medline, PsycINFO, and ERIC, websites of large datasets and reference sections of all retrieved articles were conducted. Eligible studies provided a statistical link between staff education and child outcomes for preschool-aged children in ECEC programs. Titles, abstracts and paper reviews as well as all data extraction were conducted by two independent raters. Of the 823 studies reviewed for eligibility, 39 met our inclusion criteria. Research in this area is observational in nature and subject to the inherent biases of that research design. Results from our systematic review were hampered by heterogeneity in how staff education was defined, variability in whose education was measured and the child outcomes that were assessed. However, overall the qualitative summary indicates that associations between staff education and childhood outcomes are non-existent to very borderline positive. In our meta-analysis of more homogeneous studies we identified certain positive, albeit very weak, associations between staff education and children’s language outcomes (specifically, vocabulary and letter word identification) and no significant association with a mathematics outcome (WJ Applied Problems). Thus, our findings suggest that within the range of education levels found in the existing literature, education is not a key driver of child outcomes. However, since we only explored levels of education that were reported in the literature, our findings cannot be used to argue for lowering education standards in ECEC settings.

The Role of Letter Identification and Word Recognition in Early Childhood’s Reading Comprehension

The Role of Letter Identification and Word Recognition in Early Childhood’s Reading Comprehension

Is orthographic information from multiple parafoveal words processed in parallel: An eye-tracking study.

In the current study we investigated whether orthographic information available from 1 upcoming parafoveal word influences the processing of another parafoveal word. Across 2 experiments we used the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975) to present participants with an identity preview of the 2 words after the boundary (e.g., hot pan), a preview in which 2 letters were transposed between these words (e.g., hop tan), or a preview in which the same 2 letters were substituted (e.g., hob fan). We hypothesized that if these 2 words were processed in parallel in the parafovea then we may observe significant preview benefits for the condition in which the letters were transposed between words relative to the condition in which the letters were substituted. However, no such effect was observed, with participants fixating the words for the same amount of time in both conditions. This was the case both when the transposition was made between the final and first letter of the 2 words (e.g., hop tan as a preview of hot pan; Experiment 1) and when the transposition maintained within word letter position (e.g., pit hop as a preview of hit pop; Experiment 2). The implications of these findings are considered in relation to serial and parallel lexical processing during reading. (PsycINFO Database Record

Playful learning with technology: the effect of computer-assisted instruction on literacy and numeracy skills of preschoolers

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of computer-assisted instruction – framed as playful activity and presented via e-tablet – on the literacy and numeracy skills of preschoolers’ enrolled in a private, suburban childcare center in the eastern United States. Two groups [comparison (n = 23) and computer-assisted (n = 24)] participated in this 11-week study. All participants engaged in self-selected, imaginative learning centers. Additionally, the computer-assisted group completed 10 minutes of daily, individualized instruction using interactive, educational software. Scores on achievement tests were collected at the beginning of the study and immediately after the intervention. The groups were compared on achievement of literacy skills (e.g. letter–word identification, picture/definitional vocabulary, phonological awareness) and numeracy skills (e.g. number recognition, counting, sizes/comparisons, applied problems, quantitative concepts, shapes). Results revealed significant differences between the groups on post-achievement tests, indicating that playful learning through educational software may enhance literacy and numeracy skills among preschoolers.

Letter Position Coding with Fred Astaire: Inversion of Letter Position Substitution Effects in Reverse Spelled Words

ABSTRACTThe effects of letter substitutions have been linked to their position within a word (letter position effects). The current study expanded upon previous research by examining letter-position effects for letter substitutions using forward- and reverse-spelled word primes. Often substituting a letter on one side of a word will have a stronger impact on performance than substituting a letter on the other side of a word. In three experiments it was revealed that the letter-position effects of substitutions changed places when words were spelled backwards. This occurred when both the target and prime were spelled backwards. This was evidence of a congruency effect of letter-position priming. The ramifications of these results for word recognition and transfer are discussed. However, the need for future research should focus on the possibility of an inversion process/mechanism.

Evidence for Separate Contributions of High and Low Spatial Frequencies during Visual Word Recognition.

Previous studies have shown that different spatial frequency information processing streams interact during the recognition of visual stimuli. However, it is a matter of debate as to the contributions of high and low spatial frequency (HSF and LSF) information for visual word recognition. This study examined the role of different spatial frequencies in visual word recognition using event-related potential (ERP) masked priming. EEG was recorded from 32 scalp sites in 30 English-speaking adults in a go/no-go semantic categorization task. Stimuli were white characters on a neutral gray background. Targets were uppercase five letter words preceded by a forward-mask (#######) and a 50 ms lowercase prime. Primes were either the same word (repeated) or a different word (un-repeated) than the subsequent target and either contained only high, only low, or full spatial frequency information. Additionally within each condition, half of the prime-target pairs were high lexical frequency, and half were low. In the full spatial frequency condition, typical ERP masked priming effects were found with an attenuated N250 (sub-lexical) and N400 (lexical-semantic) for repeated compared to un-repeated primes. For HSF primes there was a weaker N250 effect which interacted with lexical frequency, a significant reversal of the effect around 300 ms, and an N400-like effect for only high lexical frequency word pairs. LSF primes did not produce any of the classic ERP repetition priming effects, however they did elicit a distinct early effect around 200 ms in the opposite direction of typical repetition effects. HSF information accounted for many of the masked repetition priming ERP effects and therefore suggests that HSFs are more crucial for word recognition. However, LSFs did produce their own pattern of priming effects indicating that larger scale information may still play a role in word recognition.

LEARNING MODEL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION LOCOMOTOR BASIC LEARNING IN GRADE III PRIMARY SCHOOL "MODEL PEMBELAJARAN PENJASORKES GERAK DASAR LOKOMOTOR PADA SISWA KELAS III SEKOLAH DASAR"

The purpose of this study is to produce games letter word in the learning of basic locomotor movements physical education at Elementary School third-grade students in District Gunungpati 2016. This research is the development, product development procedure includes needs analysis, literature review and observation, the initial product manufacturing, design validation by the experts, the trials I, product revision, the second large-scale trials, expert review and the final product. Data is collected using questionnaires obtained from the expert evaluation, field observations and the student questionnaire. A descriptive data analysis techniques percentage. The results of the analysis of the initial product of 91% then declared eligible. The observation and the student questionnaire on a small scale trial gained (81.6%). The test results of large-scale expert (95%) to be eligible and could be used. The observation and questionnaire on large-scale test was (86.6%) are feasible and can be used. On a small scale trials and large-scale increase in the observation and questionnaires to students of (5%). It can be concluded that the game is a good letter word that is feasible and can be used as an alternative to the basic motion locomotor learning materials in elementary school third-grade students in District Gunungpati.

Kamus Bahasa Arab sebagai Sumber Belajar (Kajian terhadap Penggunaan Kamus Cetak dan Kamus Digital)

This paper disscusses about using Arabic dictionary as one of Arabic learning source forms. Dictionary as students source to find information related to Arabic-Indonesian vocabulary or Indonesian-Arabic and giving Arabic vocabulary learning experiences. Arabic dictionary from its type divided into printed dictionary and digital dictionary. There are two ways using Arabic printed dictionary : searching word as alphabetics form of beginning letter of root word with neurology and articulation form of beginning letter of pronunciation. Generally, using printed dictionary through word searching as alphabetics is beginning letter form of root word. Meanwhile,using digital dictionary as articulation is beginning letter of pronunciation. Therefore,using online dictionary and software considered to be easily,effective and efficient without mastering neurology first.

تحليل الأخطاء الكتابية الإملائية في تعليمات المنتجات الإندونيسية

This article describes errors of writing found in ingredients of Indonesian products which are written in Arabic, for example ingredients of foods or snacks based on imla’ and non-imla’ perspective. After doing depth analysis of errors in ingredients writing, it is found that there are some errors. From Imla’ perspective, the errors are: (1) the placement of hamzah in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end of words. (2) hamzah qatha’ and hamzah washal (3) punctuations such as comma [,] full stop [.], and etc. Furthermore, based on non-imla’ perspective, the errors are: (1) the change of letter is caused by equality of sound so that it is heared the same writing, (2) another errors happen because of addition of letter in certain words which result other words that are different from Arabic dictionary, (3) The last, the errors resulted from reduction of some letter(s) in certain words in which it is literally different from dictionary meaning and do not follow the correct rule of Arabic writing.

Hurt feelings and four letter words: Swearing alleviates the pain of social distress

AbstractMethods for alleviating physical pain are increasingly found to attenuate social pain. Recent evidence suggests that swearing may attenuate sensitivity to physical pain. This study examined whether swearing similarly attenuates two consequences of social distress: social pain and exclusion‐induced hyperalgesia. Sixty‐two people wrote about an autobiographical experience of exclusion or inclusion. Then they repeated a swear or neutral word for 2 minutes followed by measures of social and physical pain. Excluded non‐swearers reported feeling more social pain and greater sensitivity to physical pain compared with included non‐swearers. Excluded swearers reported less social pain than excluded non‐swearers and no heightened sensitivity to physical pain. The findings suggest that social and physical pain are functionally similar and that swearing attenuates social pain.

IBM Poetry: Exploring Restriction in Computer Poems

In the 1960s, many years prior to the advent of personal computers and mainstream cultural accessibility to them, Emmett Williams devised a method that he felt reflected the expressive potential of algorithmic processes within a printed page’s confines. Williams’ “IBM” method serves as a “muse’s assistant,” in which a user-contrived vocabulary is employed to construct poems in which letters of words in one line are used to create subsequent lines. This article introduces the imposed conditions of Williams’ invention, comparing and placing them within a range of digital writings that appear during subsequent decades.

The impact of multisensory instruction on learning letter names and sounds, word reading, and spelling.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of simultaneous multisensory structured language instruction promoted better letter name and sound production, word reading, and word spelling for second grade children with typical development (N=6) or with dyslexia (N=5) than structured language instruction alone. The use of non-English graphemes (letters) to represent two pretend languages was used to control for children's lexical knowledge. A multiple baseline, multiple probe across subjects single-case design, with an embedded alternating treatments design, was used to compare the efficacy of multisensory and structured language interventions. Both interventions provided explicit systematic phonics instruction; however, the multisensory intervention also utilized simultaneous engagement of at least two sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile). Participant's graphed data was visually analyzed, and individual Tau-U and weighted Tau-U effect sizes were calculated for the outcome variables of letter name production, letter sound production, word reading, and word spelling. The multisensory intervention did not provide an advantage over the structured intervention for participants with typical development or dyslexia. However, both interventions had an overall treatment effect for participants with typical development and dyslexia, although intervention effects varied by outcome variable.

The effect of lexical factors on recall from working memory: Generalizing the neighborhood size effect.

The word-length effect, the finding that lists of short words are better recalled than lists of long words, is 1 of the 4 benchmark phenomena that guided development of the phonological loop component of working memory. However, previous work has noted a confound in word-length studies: The short words used had more orthographic neighbors (valid words that can be made by changing a single letter in the target word) than long words. The confound is that words with more neighbors are better recalled than otherwise comparable words with fewer neighbors. Two experiments are reported that address criticisms of the neighborhood-size account of the word-length effect by (1) testing 2 new stimulus sets, (2) using open rather than closed pools of words, and (3) using stimuli from a language other than English. In both experiments, words from large neighborhoods were better recalled than words from small neighborhoods. The results add to the growing number of studies demonstrating the substantial contribution of long-term memory to what have traditionally been identified as working memory tasks. The data are more easily explained by models incorporating the concept of redintegration rather than by frameworks such as the phonological loop that posit decay offset by rehearsal. (PsycINFO Database Record

Optimization of Memory Capacity through the Granting of Physical Activity Type with Level of Intensity Low and Medium

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the type of physical activity with low and medium intensity level of the ability of memory (short and long term memory). Physical activity is provided in the form of physical activity a variety of physical activities that are categorized as serial skill and similar activities that are categorized as skill continuous. The research method uses Experiment with 2×2 factorial design. The samples were junior high school students who are not involved in sports activities in school or in a club. The sampling technique using Two stage/Multistage-Random Sampling. These samples included 80 students divided into four groups provided treatments for 30 meetings. The instrument used is the letter test, Word test and Formative test. The results showed that physical activity diverse group in particular that of moderate intensity have average scores better than the other groups. There is an interaction between the type and level of intensity of physical activity on the ability of long-term memory only.