Letters For Length Research Articles

A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency.

Previous studies examining the link between visual word recognition and eye movements have shown that eye movements reflect the time-course of cognitive processes involved in reading. Whereas most studies have been undertaken in Western European languages written in the Roman alphabet, the present developmental study investigates a non-European language-Hebrew, which is written in a non-alphabetic (abjadic) script. We compared the eye-movements of children in Grades 4 to 6 (N = 30) and university students (N = 30) reading familiar real words and unfamiliar (pseudo)words of 3 letters and 5 letters in length. Using linear mixed models, we focused on the effects of word familiarity, word length, and age group. Our results highlight both universal aspects of word reading (developmental and familiarity (lexicality) effects) as well as language-specific word length effect which appears to be related to the unique morphological and orthographic features of the Semitic abjad.

Controle metodológico: criação de um corpus para estudos sobre o processamento lexical de indivíduos bilíngues e multilíngues

Estudos sobre o acesso lexical multilíngue utilizam tarefas de decisão lexical para comparar o processamento de palavras cognatas com não-cognatas e investigar se há co-ativação das línguas durante o processamento em uma língua só. Para entender como funciona esse processo em trilíngues Português/Inglês/Italiano a partir de uma tarefa de decisão lexical em italiano, foi elaborado um corpus seguindo as seguintes etapas: seleção de 1129 substantivos em italiano que possuem de 4 a 8 letras, e suas frequências de ocorrência; tradução das palavras italianas para o português e para o inglês; classificação das palavras como cognatas nas três línguas, cognatas italiano-português, cognatas italiano-inglês e não-cognatas nas três línguas, de acordo com um índice de similaridade ortográfica (SO); e classificação de ambiguidade lexical no italiano. Foram retiradas da lista as palavras homônimas, restando apenas palavras sem ambiguidade ou polissêmicas. A seguir, pseudopalavras foram criadas a partir de palavras existentes em italiano. Após essa etapa, separamos as palavras por condição e calculamos as médias de frequência, número de letras e de sílabas e similaridade ortográfica para averiguar, estatisticamente, se eram iguais. Por fim, a lista de palavras que irá compor a tarefa de decisão lexical em italiano conta com três condições de 22 palavras cognatas cada, uma de 66 não-cognatas e uma de 132 pseudopalavras. Essa tarefa nos permitirá verificar a co-ativação do inglês e do português no acesso lexical de palavras em italiano. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2018n46a1142

Pattern avoidance in ordered set partitions and words

We consider the enumeration of ordered set partitions avoiding a permutation pattern, as introduced by Godbole, Goyt, Herdan and Pudwell. Let opn,k(p) be the number of ordered partitions of {1,2,…,n} into k blocks that avoid a permutation pattern p. We establish an explicit identity between the number opn,k(p) and the number of words avoiding the inverse of p. This identity allows us to easily translate results on pattern-avoiding words obtained in earlier works into equivalent results on pattern-avoiding ordered set partitions. In particular, (a) we determine the asymptotic growth rate of the sequence (opn,k(p))n≥1 for every positive k and every permutation pattern p, (b) we partially confirm a conjecture of Godbole et al. concerning the variation of the sequences (opn,k(p))1≤k≤n, (c) we undertake a detailed study of the number of ordered set partitions avoiding a permutation pattern of length 3. By the way, we observe that the number of words on k letters of length n avoiding a permutation pattern of length 3 can be written as a single sum by simplifying a formula of Burstein.

Reading between Eye Saccades

BackgroundSkilled adult readers, in contrast to beginners, show no or little increase in reading latencies as a function of the number of letters in words up to seven letters. The information extraction strategy underlying such efficiency in word identification is still largely unknown, and methods that allow tracking of the letter information extraction through time between eye saccades are needed to fully address this question.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe present study examined the use of letter information during reading, by means of the Bubbles technique. Ten participants each read 5,000 five-letter French words sampled in space-time within a 200 ms window. On the temporal dimension, our results show that two moments are especially important during the information extraction process. On the spatial dimension, we found a bias for the upper half of words. We also show for the first time that letter positions four, one, and three are particularly important for the identification of five-letter words.Conclusions/SignificanceOur findings are consistent with either a partially parallel reading strategy or an optimal serial reading strategy. We show using computer simulations that this serial reading strategy predicts an absence of a word-length effect for words from four- to seven letters in length. We believe that the Bubbles technique will play an important role in further examining the nature of reading between eye saccades.

A powerful abelian square-free substitution over 4 letters

In 1961, Paul Erdös posed the question whether abelian squares can be avoided in arbitrarily long words over a finite alphabet. An abelian square is a non-empty word uv , where u and v are permutations (anagrams) of each other. The case of the four letter alphabet Σ 4 = { a , b , c , d } turned out to be the most challenging and remained open until 1992 when the author presented an abelian square-free (a-2-free) endomorphism g 85 of Σ 4 ∗ . The size of this g 85 , i.e., | g 85 ( abcd ) | , is equal to 4 × 85 (uniform modulus). Until recently, all known methods for constructing arbitrarily long a-2-free words on Σ 4 have been based on the structure of g 85 and on the endomorphism g 98 of Σ 4 ∗ found in 2002. In this paper, a great many new a-2-free endomorphisms of Σ 4 ∗ are reported. The sizes of these endomorphisms range from 4 × 102 to 4 × 115 . Importantly, twelve of the new a-2-free endomorphisms, of modulus m = 109 , can be used to construct an a-2-free (commutatively functional) substitution σ 109 of Σ 4 ∗ with 12 image words for each letter. The properties of σ 109 lead to a considerable improvement for the lower bound of the exponential growth of c n , i.e., of the number of a-2-free words over 4 letters of length n . It is obtained that c n > β − 50 β n with β = 1 2 1 / m ≃ 1.02306 . Originally, in 1998, Carpi established the exponential growth of c n by showing that c n > β − t β n with β = 2 19 / t = 2 19 / ( 8 5 3 − 85 ) ≃ 1.000021 , where t = 8 5 3 − 85 is the modulus of the substitution that he constructs starting from g 85 .

Modifying the C Index for Use With Holland Codes of Unequal Length

The concept of congruence between person and occupation lies at the core of Holland’s (1997) theory of career types. The C index is arguably the best available method for comparing the congruence of two Holland code profiles. The C index reflects the theorized hexagonal structure of the Holland RIASEC model, is sensitive to code ordering, and is simple to calculate. However, the C index is formulated to only make comparisons between Holland code profiles three letters in length. Although this is consistent with the instrumentation and supporting materials developed by Holland and his colleagues, it is inconsistent with both the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), each of which assigns Holland codes of one to three letters. Consequently, the C index cannot be easily used with either the SII or the O*NET. Moreover, the authors argue that it is arbitrary to always calculate congruence using Holland codes three letters in length and that congruence should only be calculated using those Holland types that are clearly salient in the profiles being compared. The modifications to the C index proposed in this article allow comparisons between Holland code profiles of unequal lengths and/or of less than three letters in length and retain the desirable properties of the original C index: reflection of the hexagonal structure, sensitivity to order, and simplicity of calculation.

Reexamining the word length effect in visual word recognition: New evidence from the English Lexicon Project

In the present study, we reexamined the effect of word length (number of letters in a word) on lexical decision. Using the English Lexicon Project, which is based on a large data set of over 40,481 words (Balota et al., 2002), we performed simultaneous multiple regression analyses on a selection of 33,006 English words (ranging from 3 to 13 letters in length). Our analyses revealed an unexpected pattern of results taking the form of a U-shaped curve. The effect of number of letters was facilitatory for words of 3-5 letters, null for words of 5-8 letters, and inhibitory for words of 8-13 letters. We also showed that printed frequency, number of syllables, and number of orthographic neighbors all made independent contributions. The length effects were replicated in a new analysis of a subset of 3,833 monomorphemic nouns (ranging from 3 to 10 letters), and also in another analysis based on 12,987 bisyllabic items (ranging from 3 to 9 letters). These effects were independent of printed frequency, number of syllables, and number of orthographic neighbors. Furthermore, we also observed robust linear inhibitory effects of number of syllables. Implications for models of visual word recognition are discussed.

Finite automata and pattern avoidance in words

We say that a word w on a totally ordered alphabet avoids the word v if there are no subsequences in w order-equivalent to v . In this paper we suggest a new approach to the enumeration of words on at most k letters avoiding a given pattern. By studying an automaton which for fixed k generates the words avoiding a given pattern we derive several previously known results for these kind of problems, as well as many new. In particular, we give a simple proof of the formula (Electron. J. Combin. 5(1998) #R15) for exact asymptotics for the number of words on k letters of length n that avoids the pattern 12 ⋯ ( ℓ + 1 ) . Moreover, we give the first combinatorial proof of the exact formula (Enumeration of words with forbidden patterns, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1998) for the number of words on k letters of length n avoiding a three letter permutation pattern.

Neighborhood effects in visual word recognition: Facilitatory or inhibitory?

In five experiments, in which subjects were to identify a target word as it was gradually clarified, we manipulated the target's frequency of occurrence in the language and its neighborhood size--the number of words that can be constructed from a target word by changing one letter, while preserving letter position. In Experiments 1-4, visual identification performance to screen-fragmented words was measured. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used the ascending method of limits, whereas Experiments 3 and 4 presented a fixed-level fragment. In Experiment 1, there was no relation between overall accuracy and neighborhood size for words between three and six letters in length. However, more errors of commission (guesses) were made for high-neighborhood words and more errors of omission (blanks) were made for low-neighborhood words. Letter errors within guesses occurred at serial positions having many neighbors, and these positions were also likely to contain consonants rather than vowels. In Experiment 2, a small facilitatory effect of neighborhood size on both high- and low-frequency words was found. In contrast, in Experiments 3 and 4, using the same set of words, inhibitory effects of neighborhood size, but only for low-frequency words, were found. Experiment 5, using a speeded identification task, showed results parallel to those of Experiments 3 and 4. We suggest that whether neighborhood effects are facilitatory or inhibitory depends on whether feedback allows subjects to disconfirm initial hypotheses that the target is a high-frequency neighbor.

Every binary pattern of length six is avoidable on the two-letter alphabet

U. Schmidt [9, 10] showed that every pattern on two letters of length at least 13 is avoidable an a two-letter alphabet (i.e. 2-avoidable). We prove that this bound can be improved to 6. Since there are patterns of length 5 being not 2-avoidable, this bound is optimal.

Avoidable patterns on two letters

We examine avoidable patterns, unavoidable in the sense of Bean, Ehrenfeucht, McNulty (1979). We prove that each pattern on two letters of length at least 13 is avoidable on an alphabet with two letters. The proof is based essentially on two facts: First, each pattern containing an overlapping factor is avoidable by the infinite word of Thue-Morse; secondly, each pattern without overlapping factor is avoidable by the infinite word of Fibonacci. We further discuss the minimal alphabet on which very short patterns on a 2-letter and a 3-letter alphabet are avoidable.

Ephebic Inscriptions from Athens: Addenda and Corrigenda

These two previously published fragments may be recognized from their lettering, moldings, marble, and texts as belonging to the same ephebic inscription. The first was published by B. D. Meritt in Hesperia 36, 1967, pp. 65-66 and the second, also by Meritt, in Hesperia 30, 1961, p. 224. Each contains part of the opening lines of the inscription. Inventory number I 560 should be placed directly to the right of I 6127. Looking at line 2, the gap between the fragments at that point is about eight or nine letter spaces. The space left for the day date in line 1 then will be five or six letters in length. The only correction of readings worthy of note is that the final two letters of line 1 in the publication of I 560 should be in square brackets; nu is the last letter preserved. The demotic of the chairman in line 3 is the same as that preserved in Kerameikos III A3, pp. 2_3,2 a prytany decree of the year of Hipparchos (1 19/8).3 This fact, the month of passage, Boedromion, and the major meeting of the assembly all make it certain that this ephebic decree was passed at the same session as the prytany decree. It is therefore now possible to restore the first two lines of the ephebic inscription as follows (for the rest of the text see Meritt's version in Hesperia volumes 30 and 36 cited above):

Higher-order units in reading instruction

Gibson and her colleagues have presented arguments and evidence suggesting that the most appropriate unit to teach in reading is neither the single letter nor the whole word but a higher-order unit determined from examining grapheme-phoneme correspondences. The present study employed a computer analysis of the most frequently occurring (approximately 18,000) words in the English language. All letter strings from two to seven letters in length (here after called ngrams) were output with all the words in which the ngram appeared printed beneath the ngram. In addition type and token frequencies of each ngram were calculated and printed in separate rank order and alphabetic lists. Preliminary analysis of the consistency of mappings of various ngrams suggests that many are potentially useful for reading instruction. Current research with the computer is designed to extend the preliminary analysis.

Levels of processing in speech production.

When subjects repeated short alphabetic sequences at experimenter-controlled rates while retaining consonant trigrams, subsequent recall was unrelated to speech rate if single letters or a long sequence was repeated, but recall was inversely related to speech rate for sequences three or five letters in length. The latter effect was predicted by a model in which sequences were organized as single response units in a central phonetic processor but independently executed by means of mechanisms not requiring the services of the central processor. Quantitative predictions were generated from this model by estimating organization time for the sequences and assuming that the probability of forgetting would be equal to the organization time/execution time ratio. All obtained recall probabilities were as predicted for sequences three of five letters in length with both experimenter- and subject-controlled speech rates. Repetition of a nine-letter sequence from the end of the alphabet produced forgetting patterns clearly out of accord with any organization time/execution time ratio, but a similar sequence from the beginning of the alphabet produced evidence of being a marginal case with unstable organization.

Use of constant target sets in visual search tasks.

54 subjects participated in a visual scanning study in which each subject was provided with only a single target set (of 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 letters in length). Eight sessions of 30 trials each were completed for each subject. Although there were slight differences in the rate at which performance improved over trials, this was not systematically related to size of target set. Moreover, even in the last session, there were large differences in performance in the different target sets. These findings suggest that Neisser's evidence for parallel preattentive processing in such tasks may have been confounded by his use of nested target sets and a within-subject design.

Visual search for letters in intact and mixed-case words and nonwords

College students searched for single target letters in word and unpronounceable nonword displays of four, five, or six letters in length. The displays were typed in either intact upper-or lowercase form or in an alternating mixture of upper- and lowercase letters. Response times and error rates were less for words than for nonwords. Search rates, as measured by the slopes of the functions relating response time to display length, were greater for nonwords than for words. The search process apparently self-terminated for nonword displays, as the negative slope was about twice the positive slope. The positive and negative slope differences were less for words and were about equal for words in intact form. Case mixtures resulted in slower responses for words only, and this effect was apparently limited to encoding rather than to search or comparison processes. The relevance of these findings for similar results in same-different judgment tasks is discussed.

Thinking of a word under different retrieval constraints

Subjects were given, as stimuli, either letters or bigrams and asked to think of a word beginning with those stimuli. Words emitted were to be 3, 4, or 5 letters in length. Each of the six groups contained 100 Ss. Subjects were given 60 sec per stimulus to produce a word. Response measures were the number of words emitted, latency of response, and language frequency of emitted words. It was found that responses were fewer, latencies were longer, and word frequencies were lower for bigram than for letter stimuli, and for longer vs. shorter word lengths. It was pointed out that the effective pool of acceptable words is smaller for bigram than for letter stimuli and is probably smaller for longer than for shorter words. The findings with all response measures were interpreted leager terms of a greater difficulty in thinking of words as pool size is reduced.

ACCURACY AND SPEED OF TACTUAL READING : AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

The study reported here was an attempt to determine the ability of individuals to read words presented tactually. This information has practical implications for military or other situations where the weapon or machine operator may be required to operate his equipment in the absence of visual cues. Six subjects made a total of 540 identifications of words ranging from two to seven letters in length. The average time of performance ranged approximately linearly from 5-5 sec. for two letters to 24-5 sec. for seven letter words. Practice with 90 words during a one hour session resulted in an overall improvement of 29 per cent in time of response. It was also indicated that repeated practice with the same words would reduce the time of performance even further. It is concluded that the time required to impart this type of information to an operator via the touch sense makes this technique practical for most situations where visual cues The accuracy of responses was 97-2 per cent. This high degree of accuracy ...

An Early Papyrus Fragment of the Gospel of Matthew in the Michigan Collection

Greek Papyrus 1570 of the University of Michigan Collection is a leaf of a papyrus book written on both sides. The preserved portion measures 4¾ by 9 inches (121 by 224 mm.). One entire line is lost at the bottom, and over half of each of the four lines immediately preceding. Of the top line only eight or nine letters are preserved. All other lines are somewhat damaged at one end or the other. Such loss often amounts to five or six letters. Eight lines in the middle of the leaf are damaged at both ends. Originally the size of the leaf must have been about 6 by 10 inches. There were 33 lines, which varied from 40 to 50 letters in length. The text covered is Matthew 26, 19 συνέταξεν to 26, 52 ἀπολοῦνται.So large a papyrus fragment of Matthew's version of the Lord's last supper and betrayal is certain to be of special importance, as well for its content as for the bearing it has on the problem of the New Testament text.