Lexical Quality Hypothesis Research Articles

Word learning in the wild: App-based evidence for valence and concreteness effects

Abstract Second language (L2) learners need to acquire large vocabularies to approach native-like proficiency. Many controlled experiments have investigated the factors facilitating and hindering word learning; however, few studies have validated these findings in real-world learning scenarios. We use data from the language learning app Lingvist to explore how L2 word learning is affected by valence (positivity/negativity) and concreteness of target words and their linguistic contexts. We found that valence, but not concreteness, affects learning. Users learned positive and negative words better than neutral ones. Moreover, positive words are learned best in positive contexts and negative words in more negative contexts. Word and context valence effects are strongest on the learner’s second encounter with the target word and diminish across subsequent encounters. These findings provide support for theories of embodied cognition and the lexical quality hypothesis and point to the linguistic factors that make learning words, and by extension languages, faster.

Ortho-semantic learning of novel words: an event-related potential study of grade 3 children

IntroductionAs children become independent readers, they regularly encounter new words whose meanings they must infer from context, and whose spellings must be learned for future recognition. The self-teaching hypothesis proposes orthographic learning skills are critical in the transition to fluent reading, while the lexical quality hypothesis further emphasizes the importance of semantics. Event-related potential (ERP) studies of reading development have focused on effects related to the N170 component—print tuning (letters vs. symbols) and lexical tuning (real words vs. consonant strings)—as well as the N400 reflecting semantic processing, but have not investigated the relationship of these components to word learning during independent reading.MethodsIn this study, children in grade 3 independently read short stories that introduced novel words, then completed a lexical decision task from which ERPs were derived.ResultsLike real words, newly-learned novel words evoked a lexical tuning effect, indicating rapid establishment of orthographic representations. Both real and novel words elicited significantly smaller N400s than pseudowords, suggesting that semantic representations of the novel words were established. Further, N170 print tuning predicted accuracy on identifying the spellings of the novel words, while the N400 effect for novel words was associated with reading comprehension.DiscussionExposure to novel words during self-directed reading rapidly establishes neural markers of orthographic and semantic processing. Furthermore, the ability to rapidly filter letter strings from symbols is predictive of orthographic learning, while rapid establishment of semantic representations of novel words is associated with stronger reading comprehension.

The impact of morphological density on reading comprehension in Arabic: A comparison between typically developing and children with reading disabilities.

This study examined the influence of morphological density on reading comprehension in Arabic and whether this influence differs between typical and children with reading disabilities. Morphological density in Arabic is a text feature that refers to using bound morphemes, creating dense words with more morphemes. The participants were 182 fifth-graders, both typical and children with reading disabilities. Children were assessed in reading comprehension by reading texts with low- or high-morphological density. Findings revealed that overall morphological density impacted reading comprehension performance. That is, scores were found to be higher while reading low-density text than high-density text. Moreover, an interaction of morphological density condition by reading proficiency showed no density text effect among typical developing readers. However, a difference was obtained in the children with reading disabilities whereas low-morphological density text score was higher than the score of high-morphological density text. The study highlights the importance of morphological awareness in reading comprehension in Arabic, extending that morphological density plays an important role in this process. The results are discussed in light of the lexical quality hypothesis and simple view of reading model. The findings imply the need of explicit morphological instruction for dense morphological forms.

Emotion effects in second language processing: Evidence from eye movements in natural sentence reading

Abstract There exists insufficient eye-tracking evidence on the differences in emotional word processing between the first language (L1) and second language (L2) readers. This study conducted an eye-tracking experiment to investigate the emotional effects in L2 sentence reading, and to explore the modulation of L2 proficiency and individual emotional states. Adapted from Knickerbocker et al. (2015), the current study recorded eye movements at both early and late processing stages when late Chinese–English bilinguals read emotion-label and neutral target words in natural L2 sentences. Results indicated that L2 readers did not show the facilitation effects of lexical affective connotations during sentence reading, and they even demonstrated processing disadvantages for L2 emotional words. Additionally, the interaction effect between L2 proficiency and emotion was consistently significant for the measure of total reading time in positive words. Measurements of participants’ depressive and anxious states were not robustly correlated with eye movement measures. Our findings supplemented new evidence to existing sparse eye-tracking experiments on L2 emotion processing, and lent support to several theoretical frameworks in the bilingual research field, including the Emotional Contexts of Learning Theory, Lexical Quality Hypothesis and Revised Hierarchical Model.

Modeling Item-Level Spelling Variance in Adults: Providing Further Insights into Lexical Quality

ABSTRACT Purpose The lexical quality (LQ) hypothesis predicts that a skilled reader’s lexicon will be inhabited by a range of low- to high-quality items, and the probability of representing a word with high quality varies as a function of person-level, word-level, and item-specific variables. These predictions were tested with spelling accuracy as a gauge of LQ. Method Item-response based crossed random effects models explored simultaneous contributions of person-level (e.g. participant’s decoding skill), word-level (e.g. word’s transparency rating), item-specific (e.g. participant’s familiarity with specific word), and person-by-word interaction predictors (e.g. decoding by transparency rating interaction) to the spelling of 25 commonly misspelled irregular English words in 61 undergraduate university students (M = 19.4 years, 70.49% female, 39.34% Hispanic, 81.97% White). Results Substantial variance among individuals in item-level spelling accuracy was accounted for by person-level decoding skill; item-specific familiarity, proportion of schwas correctly represented, and correctly identifying the word from its mispronunciation; and an interaction of transparency rating by general decoding skill. Conclusions Consistent with the LQ hypothesis, results suggest that one’s ability to form a high-quality lexical representation of a given word depends on a complex combination of person-level abilities, word-level characteristics, item-specific experiences, and an interaction between person- and word-level influences.

Proficiency versus lexical processing efficiency as a measure of L2 lexical quality: Individual differences in word-frequency effects in L2 visual word recognition.

This study investigated Korean-English second language (L2) speakers' recognition of high- and low-frequency English words and compared two individual difference measures in their role of representing lexical quality in L2: cloze test scores and inverse efficiency scores (IES; response latency corrected for the amount of errors committed), obtained from lexical decision on a separate set of words. Cloze test scores aimed to assess general L2 proficiency, whereas IES was purported to measure lexical processing efficiency. 109 adult Korean-English L2 speakers participated in the study. Results showed significant main effects of word frequency, cloze test scores, and IES on lexical decision times, replicating previous findings and confirming the predictions of the lexical quality hypothesis. Crucially, IES was revealed to be a better measure of individual differences in L2 lexical quality than were cloze test scores. These findings suggest that lexical quality (which can be operationalized in terms of online lexical processing efficiency) comprises a distinct subdomain of language skills on its own, which cannot be measured in full using conventional language proficiency tests.

The Role of Executive Functions in Lexical Processing During Reading Comprehension

AbstractRobust relation has been revealed previously between the components of executive function (EF) and reading comprehension performance. However, the specific role of EF in the reading processes remains relatively underexplored. Within the framework of the lexical quality hypothesis (LQH), this study examined the contribution of EF to the lexical processing of words, and how this eventually supports reading comprehension. A total of 262 Grade 3 students in Hong Kong were assessed using multiple measures of EF, lexical processing skills (i.e. orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, and receptive vocabulary knowledge) and reading comprehension, respectively. Our findings indicate significant associations between EF and lexical processing skills, which, in turn, contributed to better reading comprehension. The results demonstrate how EF supports Chinese reading comprehension through the mediating effects of a reader's mental operation in obtaining meanings of individual words. The findings support to the notion that peripheral skills facilitate reading comprehension through more central skills.

The impact of Diglossia-Effect on Reading Acquisition Among Arabic-Speaking Children: A Longitudinal Study.

Arabic is a diglossic language, where two language varieties are used: spoken Arabic (SpA) and standard Arabic (StA). The words may be "identical" (maintaining the same phonological expression in the SpA and StA) or "unique" to StA). This study examined the effect of diglossia on reading according to the lexical distance between the SpA and StA forms and whether this influence changes with age. The participants were 137 first-graders that were followed to the second grade. The findings indicated a significant effect of grade level with higher performance in the second grade. A significant association was obtained between the lexical distance and reading accuracy and rate with better performance for identical than unique items across grade levels. No significant interaction between lexical distance and grade level was found. The results indicate the contribution of reading unique and identical forms in the first grade to reading in the second grade. The advantage in reading identical among unique words is discussed in light of the lexical quality hypothesis and dual-route model. The implications of these results were discussed in the context of diglossia, especially the need for StA oral language enrichment at the preschool level.

Different aspects of vocabulary depth knowledge in L2 Chinese reading comprehension: Comparing higher‐ and lower‐proficiency readers

AbstractGrammatical and vocabulary knowledge (i.e., breadth and depth) are widely acknowledged as key predictors of reading comprehension in a second language (L2). However, it remains unclear how different aspects of vocabulary depth may independently contribute to L2 reading comprehension and how learners' proficiency may moderate the relative contributions of vocabulary knowledge. Based on the Lexical Quality Hypothesis and the Reading Systems Framework, this study investigated 238 L2 Chinese learners who were college‐level students in China, using a set of reading‐related tasks. The results showed that (1) vocabulary breadth and grammatical knowledge independently contributed to L2 reading comprehension with grammatical knowledge being a more deciding factor; (2) different aspects of vocabulary depth (i.e., polysemy and synonymy), over and above vocabulary breadth and grammatical knowledge, played an independent role; and (3) more importantly, lower‐proficiency learners relied more on vocabulary breadth whereas higher‐proficiency learners made more use of vocabulary depth during text‐level comprehension.

Stronger functional connectivity during reading contextually predictable words in slow readers

The effect of word predictability is well-documented in terms of local brain activation, but less is known about the functional connectivity among those regions associated with processing predictable words. Evidence from eye movement studies showed that the effect is much more pronounced in slow than in fast readers, suggesting that speed-impaired readers rely more on sentence context to compensate for their difficulties with visual word recognition. The present study aimed to investigate differences in functional connectivity of fast and slow readers within core regions associated with processing predictable words. We hypothesize a stronger synchronization between higher-order language areas, such as the left middle temporal (MTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the left occipito-temporal cortex (OTC) in slow readers. Our results show that slow readers exhibit more functional correlations among these connections; especially between the left IFG and OTC. We interpret our results in terms of the lexical quality hypothesis which postulates a stronger involvement of semantics on orthographic processing in (speed-)impaired readers.

The neighbourhood frequency effect in naming is influenced by substituted-letter confusability and lexical skills

ABSTRACT The objective is to investigate lexical competition processes in visual word recognition with the naming task, according to the individual lexical skills of young adults. To do so, we examined the extent to which the orthographic neighbourhood frequency effect was influenced by the confusability of the substituted letter distinguishing the stimulus word from its higher-frequency orthographic neighbour. Individual lexical skills of 93 students were assessed by spelling, reading and vocabulary tests for the French language. GLMM analyses showed an inhibitory effect of orthographic neighbourhood frequency on naming times, as well as effects of reading and vocabulary skills on naming times and error rates. More interestingly, the inhibitory orthographic neighbourhood frequency effect on naming times was influenced by both the confusability of the substituted letter and the level of the individual’s reading and vocabulary skills. These results are interpreted within the theoretical framework of interactive activation and the lexical quality hypothesis.

Contribution of Lexical Quality and Sign Language Variables to Reading Comprehension.

The lexical quality hypothesis proposes that the quality of phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations impacts reading comprehension. In Study 1, we evaluated the contributions of lexical quality to reading comprehension in 97 deaf and 98 hearing adults matched for reading ability. While phonological awareness was a strong predictor for hearing readers, for deaf readers, orthographic precision and semantic knowledge, not phonology, predicted reading comprehension (assessed by two different tests). For deaf readers, the architecture of the reading system adapts by shifting reliance from (coarse-grained) phonological representations to high-quality orthographic and semantic representations. In Study 2, we examined the contribution of American Sign Language (ASL) variables to reading comprehension in 83 deaf adults. Fingerspelling (FS) and ASL comprehension skills predicted reading comprehension. We suggest that FS might reinforce orthographic-to-semantic mappings and that sign language comprehension may serve as a linguistic basis for the development of skilled reading in deaf signers.

Phonological precision for word recognition in skilled readers.

According to the lexical quality hypothesis, differences in the orthographic, semantic, and phonological representations of words will affect individual reading performance. While several studies have focused on orthographic precision and semantic coherence, few have considered phonological precision. The present study used a suite of individual difference measures to assess which components of lexical quality contributed to competition resolution in a masked priming experiment. The experiment measured form priming for word and pseudoword targets with dense and sparse neighbourhoods in 84 university students. Individual difference measures of language and cognitive skills were also collected and a principal component analysis was used to group these data into components. The data showed that phonological precision and NHD interacted with form priming. In participants with high phonological precision, the direction of priming for word targets with sparse neighbourhoods was facilitatory, while the direction for those with dense neighbourhoods was inhibitory. In contrast, people with low phonological precision showed the opposite pattern, but the interaction was non-significant. These results suggest that the component of phonological precision is linked to lexical competition for word recognition and that access to the mental lexicon during reading is affected by differing levels of phonological processing.

Explicit Contextual and Morphemic Analysis Instruction, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension Among Grade Four Students

The schema theory, cognitive load theory, interactive model of reading, and lexical quality hypothesis recognizes the primacy of vocabulary in reading comprehension. Substantial empirical research affirms this relationship. Despite these, vocabulary teaching in the classroom remains sparse. The present study sought to find out if explicit instruction in contextual and morphemic analysis would improve vocabulary and reading comprehension. It also examined which aspects of vocabulary and reading comprehension would improve the most. This study used a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest within-subjects design. Participants were 38 students from two comparable Grade 4 classes. Explicit instruction in contextual and morphemic analysis was given through twelve expert-validated lesson plans that were implemented across 18 weeks. The tools used were the expert-validated and field-tested Researcher-Constructed Vocabulary Test and Researcher-Constructed Reading Comprehension Test. Dependent-samples t-test results revealed a significant increase in the students’ vocabulary and reading comprehension scores. These results are generally consistent with most theoretical and empirical literature. In terms of vocabulary, contextual analysis-wise, the biggest gain was in example clues, while morphemic analysis-wise, the largest increase was in the over/under word part family. In terms of reading comprehension, the biggest increase was in the integrative level. Overall, the findings suggest that explicit instruction in contextual and morphemic analysis is an effective method of teaching vocabulary strategies which impacts not only vocabulary but also reading comprehension. This has implications for instruction, curriculum planning, pre-service and in-service teacher training, and research.

Semantic priming and reading skills among Spanish-speaking dual language learners

ABSTRACT Substantial research among bilingual adults indicates that exposure to words primes other semantically related words within and across languages, as well as the direct translation equivalents [e.g. Chen and Ng 1989. “Semantic Facilitation and Translation Priming Effects in Chinese-English Bilinguals.” Memory & Cognition 17: 454–462]. However, there is less research on semantic and translation priming among bilingual children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate semantic priming effects as an indicator of underlying lexical quality among Spanish-speaking dual language learners (DLLs) in the U.S., including examination of whether semantic and translation priming effects were related to children’s reading-related skills. Ninety-five Spanish-speaking DLLs in second and fourth grade completed an eye-tracking semantic priming task along with measures of English and Spanish reading-related skills. Results indicated that there were consistent translation priming effects, with observed translation priming stronger from English to Spanish than from Spanish to English. Additionally, there were consistent within-English semantic priming effects. Results suggested that semantic priming effects were stronger for children with higher levels of English vocabulary and reading comprehension than they were for children with lower levels of English vocabulary and reading comprehension. Findings are discussed in the context of theoretical models of bilingual language processing, as well as the lexical quality hypothesis [e.g. Perfetti 2007. “Reading Ability: Lexical Quality to Comprehension.” Scientific Studies of Reading 11: 357–383].

Orthographic and phonological activation in Hong Kong deaf readers: An eye-tracking study.

We used an error disruption paradigm to investigate how deaf readers from Hong Kong, who had varying levels of reading fluency, use orthographic, phonological, and mouth-shape-based (i.e., "visemic") codes during Chinese sentence reading while also examining the role of contextual information in facilitating lexical retrieval and integration. Participants had their eye movements recorded as they silently read Chinese sentences containing orthographic, homophonic, homovisemic, or unrelated errors. Sentences varied in terms of how much contextual information was available leading up to the target word. Fixation time analyses revealed that in early fixation measures, deaf readers activated word meanings primarily through orthographic representations. However, in contexts where targets were highly predictable, fixation times on homophonic errors decreased relative to those on unrelated errors, suggesting that higher levels of contextual predictability facilitated early phonological activation. In the measure of total reading time, results indicated that deaf readers activated word meanings primarily through orthographic representations, but they also appeared to activate word meanings through visemic representations in late error recovery processes. Examining the influence of reading fluency level on error recovery processes, we found that, in comparison to deaf readers with lower reading fluency levels, those with higher reading fluency levels could more quickly resolve homophonic and orthographic errors in the measures of gaze duration and total reading time, respectively. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications of these findings as they relate to the lexical quality hypothesis and the dual-route cascaded model of reading by deaf adults.

A desambiguação lexical durante a compreensão leitora em inglês como língua estrangeira

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar a desambiguação lexical durante a compreensão leitora em inglês como língua estrangeira. Sabe-se que, para desambiguar uma palavra, o leitor normalmente recorre ao contexto; assim, a pesquisa está fundamentada teoricamente em questões que dizem respeito à definição de contexto, e abarca uma teoria lexical denominada Hipótese da Qualidade Lexical (HQL) que explica como as características das palavras (aspectos fonológicos e semânticos, por exemplo), são parte fundamental da compreensão leitora. Este trabalho faz parte de um projeto maior, ainda em andamento, que aqui, traz um estudo de caso que analisa a ambiguidade das palavras record e track em diferentes contextos de uso. Os resultados preliminares mostram que as características das palavras, bem como os diferentes tipos de contexto não estão desvinculados do fenômeno da desambiguação, mas o leitor nem sempre tem a ciência de que precisa desambiguar, ainda que compreenda o que leu.

Decoding and reading comprehension: A test of the decoding threshold hypothesis.

We report results of 2 studies examining the relation between decoding and reading comprehension. Based on our analysis of prominent reading theories such as the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986), the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (Perfetti & Hart, 2002) and the Self-Teaching Hypothesis (Share, 1995), we propose the Decoding Threshold Hypothesis, which posits that the relation between decoding and reading comprehension can only be reliably observed above a certain decoding threshold. In Study 1, the Decoding Threshold Hypothesis was tested in a sample of over 10,000 Grade 5–10 students. Using quantile regression, classification analysis (Receiver Operating Characteristics) and broken-line regression, we found a reliable decoding threshold value below that there was no relation between decoding and reading comprehension, and above which the two measures showed a positive linear relation. Study 2 is a longitudinal analysis of over 30,000 students’ reading comprehension growth as a function of their initial decoding status. Results showed that scoring below the decoding threshold was associated with stagnant growth in reading comprehension. We argue that the Decoding Threshold Hypothesis has the potential to explain differences in the prominent reading theories in terms of the role of decoding in reading comprehension in students at Grade 5 and above. Furthermore, the identification of decoding threshold also has implications for reading practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Uninformative contexts support word learning for high-skill spellers.

The current study investigated how high-skill spellers and low-skill spellers incidentally learn words during reading. The purpose of the study was to determine whether readers can use uninformative contexts to support word learning after forming a lexical representation for a novel word, consistent with instance-based resonance processes. Previous research has found that uninformative contexts damage word learning; however, there may have been insufficient exposure to informative contexts (only one) prior to exposure to uninformative contexts (Webb, 2007; Webb, 2008). In Experiment 1, participants read sentences with one novel word (i.e., blaph, clurge) embedded in them in three different conditions: Informative (six informative contexts to support word learning), Mixed (three informative contexts followed by three uninformative contexts), and Uninformative (six uninformative contexts). Experiment 2 added a new condition with only three informative contexts to further clarify the conclusions of Experiment 1. Results indicated that uninformative contexts can support word learning, but only for high-skill spellers. Further, when participants learned the spelling of the novel word, they were more likely to learn the meaning of that word. This effect was much larger for high-skill spellers than for low-skill spellers. Results are consistent with the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (LQH) in that high-skill spellers form stronger orthographic representations which support word learning (Perfetti, 2007). Results also support an instance-based resonance process of word learning in that prior informative contexts can be reactivated to support word learning in future contexts (Bolger, Balass, Landen, & Perfetti, 2008; Balass, Nelson, & Perfetti, 2010; Reichle & Perfetti, 2003). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining Reading Comprehension Profiles of Grade 5 Monolinguals and English Language Learners Through the Lexical Quality Hypothesis Lens

This study set out to compare patterns of relationships among phonological skills, orthographic skills, semantic knowledge, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension in English as a first language (EL1) and English language learners (ELL) students and to test the applicability of the lexical quality hypothesis framework. Participants included 94 EL1 and 178 ELL Grade 5 students from diverse home-language backgrounds. Latent profile analyses conducted separately for ELLs and EL1s provided support for the lexical quality hypothesis in both groups, with the emergence of two profiles: A poor comprehenders profile was associated with poor word-reading-related skills (phonological awareness and orthographic processing) and with poor language-related skills (semantic knowledge and, to a lesser extent, listening comprehension). The good comprehenders profile was associated with average or above-average performance across the component skills, demonstrating that good reading comprehension is the result of strong phonological and orthographic processing skills as well as strong semantic and listening comprehension skills. The good and poor comprehenders profiles were highly similar for ELL and EL1 groups. Conversely, poor comprehenders struggled with these same component skills. Implications for assessment and future research are discussed.