Orthographic Coding Research Articles

Phonology facilitates deeply opaque logographic writing.

Phonological knowledge plays a pivotal role in many aspects of language processing, but it remains controversial whether it is required for writing. In the present study, we examined the issue by focusing on written production in an opaque logographic script (kanji) with highly irregular pronunciation rules, which allowed for a rigorous test of whether or not phonology contributes to writing. Using a phonological priming paradigm in two experiments, we measured response latency while participants orally named target pictures or wrote down their names in kanji. Each target was preceded by a phonographic character (kana) which represented the same sound (mora) as the beginning of the target name or a different mora. By manipulating the degree of phonological overlap between primes and target names (i.e., morae, consonants and vowels), we found that only the moraic overlap could speed up word production in logographic writing (Experiment 1). In contrast, naming response was facilitated by mora-overlap as well as vowel-overlap. This between-task difference in phonological encoding suggests that phonological codes for spoken production do not necessarily precede orthographic access during logographic writing. In Experiment 2, we further found that the facilitatory effects of moraic information did not differ in magnitude between writing and naming when primes were masked and presented more briefly, suggesting a net component of bottom-up phonological activation which contributes to logographic writing. Collectively, we propose that orthographic codes of kanji are accessed directly from semantics, whereas phonology plays a non-specific modulatory role to enhance neurocognitive systems involved in writing.

Iraqi EFL university students' word recognition strategies and vocabulary proficiency: A correlational study

Word recognition is a cognitive activity widely acknowledged as a hallmark of fluent L2 readers. Understanding a text can only be accomplished with the ability to decode printed words efficiently. Another factor affecting students' comprehension is vocabulary. Therefore, this research aims to investigate whether there is any significant relationship between word recognition strategies and vocabulary knowledge among Iraqi university students. This study made use of four instruments to collect the data. A comprehensive framework for evaluating students' vocabulary proficiency consists of two tests: one measures the reception and production of vocabulary information and the other assesses orthographic coding and phonological decoding procedures. The results show that the respondents use both strategies to an average degree with over-reliance on the orthographic one in recognizing English words by employing a descriptive correlational research design with 400 respondents. Furthermore, a positive relationship was observed between word recognition strategies and vocabulary proficiency.

How much does spoken language affect spelling among primary school pupils? Quantitative research on spelling over the period of 1950–2021

Quantitative analysis of spelling among primary school pupils revealed that the spelling of primary school pupils was highly variable, but not chaotic. Despite deviations from norms, primary school pupils, probably based on the internal consistency of spelling, attempted to establish uniformity in their spelling by writing the same sounds or their combinations with the same orthographic codes. The theoretical consistency, grounded in spelling conventions, was statistically significantly higher in the essays of older primary school pupils compared to their younger counterparts, suggesting a potential influence of superior cognitive abilities in older children.The analysis confirmed the assumption that spoken language is a primary factor contributing to spelling variations in our primary school children. Its impact is particularly prominent in grades 1–2. Although teachers use corrections to maintain spelling consistency, only one-seventh of primary school children’s spelling remains unaffected by it.It was determined that spoken language alone accounted for spelling variations in one-fifth of primary school pupils. Additionally, one-fifth exhibited a stronger influence from causes other than spoken language, indicating a diverse range of factors affecting spelling. A small portion of primary school children had spelling influenced exclusively by factors unrelated to spoken language.Contrary to common assertions in the public sphere, the data of this research did not support claims of a decline in literacy among schoolchildren. No statistically significant difference was observed in the frequency of words failing to meet norms when comparing the spelling of primary school pupils from the Soviet era to the current period. Current primary school children do not exhibit a significantly higher tendency to write based on spoken language than their counterparts in the Soviet era.

Convolutional Neural Networks Trained to Identify Words Provide a Surprisingly Good Account of Visual Form Priming Effects

A wide variety of orthographic coding schemes and models of visual word identification have been developed to account for masked priming data that provide a measure of orthographic similarity between letter strings. These models tend to include hand-coded orthographic representations with single unit coding for specific forms of knowledge (e.g., units coding for a letter in a given position). Here we assess how well a range of these coding schemes and models account for the pattern of form priming effects taken from the Form Priming Project and compare these findings to results observed with 11 standard deep neural network models (DNNs) developed in computer science. We find that deep convolutional networks (CNNs) perform as well or better than the coding schemes and word recognition models, whereas transformer networks did less well. The success of CNNs is remarkable as their architectures were not developed to support word recognition (they were designed to perform well on object recognition), they classify pixel images of words (rather than artificial encodings of letter strings), and their training was highly simplified (not respecting many key aspects of human experience). In addition to these form priming effects, we find that the DNNs can account for visual similarity effects on priming that are beyond all current psychological models of priming. The findings add to the recent work of Hannagan et al. (2021) and suggest that CNNs should be given more attention in psychology as models of human visual word recognition.

Fingerspelling and Its Role in Translanguaging.

Fingerspelling is a critical component of many sign languages. This manual representation of orthographic code is one key way in which signers engage in translanguaging, drawing from all of their linguistic and semiotic resources to support communication. Translanguaging in bimodal bilinguals is unique because it involves drawing from languages in different modalities, namely a signed language like American Sign Language and a spoken language like English (or its written form). Fingerspelling can be seen as a unique product of the unified linguistic system that translanguaging theories purport, as it blends features of both sign and print. The goals of this paper are twofold: to integrate existing research on fingerspelling in order to characterize it as a cognitive-linguistic phenomenon and to discuss the role of fingerspelling in translanguaging and communication. We will first review and synthesize research from linguistics and cognitive neuroscience to summarize our current understanding of fingerspelling, its production, comprehension, and acquisition. We will then discuss how fingerspelling relates to translanguaging theories and how it can be incorporated into translanguaging practices to support literacy and other communication goals.

Functional Gradient of the Fusiform Cortex for Chinese Character Recognition

Visual word recognition has been proposed to have a functional and spatial organization corresponding to hierarchical language-like word forms in the left fusiform gyrus (FG) during visual word recognition in alphabetic languages. However, it is still unclear whether the similar functional gradients of word-like representation exist during Chinese character recognition. In this study, we adopted univariate activation analysis and representational similarity analysis (RSA) methods to investigate the functional organization in the FG for Chinese character recognition using task fMRI data. Native Chinese readers were visually presented with four types of character-like stimuli (i.e., real characters, pseudo-characters, false characters, and stroke combinations). After analysis, we observed a posterior-to-anterior functional gradient in the left FG corresponding to the degree of likeness of stimuli to character. Additionally, distinct subregions of the left FG harbor different orthographic codes. The middle part of the left FG was involved in abstract orthographic processing, while the anterior part of the left FG was involved in lexical orthographic processing (i.e., mapping orthography onto phonology or semantics). Notably, for the right FG, we did not find similar coding pattern for selectivity to character likeness, indicating the asymmetry of the functional hierarchical organization in favor of the left hemisphere. In conclusion, our findings revealed that the left FG presents a posterior-to-anterior gradient functional processing for Chinese character recognition, which expands our understanding of the psychological, neural, and computational theories of word reading.

The importance of the first letter in children’s parafoveal preprocessing in English: Is it phonologically or orthographically driven?

For both adult and child readers of English, the first letter of a word plays an important role in lexical identification. Using the boundary paradigm during silent sentence reading, we examined whether the first-letter bias in parafoveal preprocessing is phonologically or orthographically driven and whether this differs between skilled adult and beginner child readers. Participants read sentences that contained either a correctly spelled word in preview (identity; e.g., "circus"), a preview letter string that maintained the phonology but manipulated the orthography of the first letter (P + O- preview; e.g., "sircus"), or a preview letter string that manipulated both the phonology and the orthography of the first letter (P- O- preview; e.g., "wircus"). There was a cost associated with manipulating the first letter of the target words in preview for both adults and children. Critically, during first-pass reading, both adult and child readers displayed similar reading times between P + O- and P- O- previews. This shows that the first-letter bias is driven by orthographic encoding and that the first letter's orthographic code in preview is crucial for efficient, early processing of phonology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Emergent Neuroimaging Findings for Written Expression in Children: A Scoping Review.

Background: There is currently a dearth of research on the neural framework of writing tasks in children, as measured by neuroimaging techniques. Objective: This paper provides an overview of the current literature examining the neurological underpinnings of written expression in children. Design: Using a scoping review approach, with thorough searches of key databases, this paper presents the available literature comprising 13 different studies using both structural and functional neuroimaging techniques with the 0–18 English speaking population. Results: Studies largely presented small sample sizes, with most studies utilizing elementary or middle school-aged children. Emergent findings revealed a complex network of neural contributions to the writing process in children. There were associations between the left fusiform gyrus and orthographic coding (i.e., handwriting), and spelling and written composition measures were significantly correlated with activity in the left posterior cingulate, left precuneus, and right precuneus regions. Additionally, results revealed that good versus poor writers manifested differential brain activation patterns during many tasks associated with written expression, with good writers performing more efficiently than poor writers with respect to brain regions activated during a writing task across handwriting, spelling, and idea generation. Conclusions: The findings from this scoping review lay the foundation for future studies examining the interface between writing skills in children and underlying neural pathways that support the various components of the writing process. It will be important for future research to examine the neurological bases of the various components of written expression in children and adolescents.

Language Dominance Modulates Transposed-Letter N400 Priming Effects in Bilinguals

Models of visual word recognition differ as to how print exposure modulates orthographic precision. In some models, precision is the optimal end state of a lexical representation; the associations between letters and positions are initially approximate and become more precise as readers gain exposure to the word. In others, flexible orthographic coding that allows for rapid access to semantics (i.e., ‘good enough’ orthographic processing) is the optimal end state. To adjudicate between these trajectories, we compared the size of transposed-letter ERP priming effects on two ERP components thought to reflect orthographic and lexico-semantic processing across languages in late English-Spanish bilinguals. Words that are represented precisely should be less susceptible to activation by transposed-letter primes (e.g., shpae-SHAPE) than words that are not, and should therefore yield smaller priming effects. Overall, targets elicited smaller N250s and N400s and faster responses when preceded by transposed-letter primes compared to substitution primes (e.g., shgue-SHAPE). The only effect that significantly differed between languages was N400 priming, which was larger in English, the dominant language. We suggest that these results favor models of learning to read according to which ‘good enough’ orthographic processing increases with print exposure.

SPELLING PRACTICE OF THE INDEPENDENCE ERA : “UKRAINIAN SPELLING” IN 1990

The given research is devoted to the formation specificity of the Ukrainian orthographic code during the Independence period. The methods of “Ukrainian spelling” of 1990 have been clarified in succession. We also logically elaborated the system of innovations within a projection on the developed tradition, standing on the basis that language changes, therefore the spelling code should adhere to the established norms, simultaneously reflecting its up-to-date condition. The focus lies in interpreting the spelling changes of 1990 and 2019, as the spelling code of 1993 did not involve drastic changes. The system of all the latest innovations is analysed in detail. They are classified according to such criteria as terms of the new spelling standards implementation (to be exact, the pronunciation and spelling of words proiekt, sviashchennyi, Sviatvechir, piv vidra, piv Kyieva, piv yashchyka, pivostriv, pivlitrovyi), alternative norms (kafedra / katedra, audytoriia / avdytoriia, Hete / Getu, Londona / Londonu, Ivanovi / Ivanevi, arkhymandryt / arkhimandryt, etc.). It is about non-alternative norms as well (they are related to spelling of parts of the word base, inflections of declension words, words of foreign origin and proper names, and usage of punctuation). Systematized material on graphics, spelling, and punctuation serves as a specific kind of guide for those who will study the dynamics of the newest spelling rules. It was proved that the spontaneous critique of the orthographic system gradually acquired a constructive point, relying not only on intra- but also on extralingual factors. The issue of the modern alphabet war in Ukraine as well as reasons for its occurrence and negative impact on the spiritual and cultural progress of our country have not remained outside the research. The “Project of the Latest Edition of the Ukrainian Orthography” was logically accentuated. It made a great impression on society, though was not legitimized. The emphasis is on the fact that one of the current priorities lies in creating a single spelling model for Ukrainians within mainland Ukraine and in the diaspora. We are confident on the point it will function as an important consolidating factor of the nation.

Do both WRAP and TRAP inhibit the recognition of the French word DRAP? Impact of orthographic markedness on cross-language orthographic priming.

We investigated lexical and sub-lexical orthographic coding in bilingual visual word recognition by examining interactions between orthographic neighbourhood and markedness. In three experiments, French/English bilinguals performed a masked lexical decision task in French (L1) in which orthographically related prime words could be either marked or unmarked English (L2) words, compared to unrelated primes (e.g., wrap, trap, gift-DRAP, meaning sheet). The results yielded an overall inhibition priming effect, which was unexpectedly more robust in the marked condition than in the unmarked one. This result highlights the need to integrate both lexical competition and orthographic markedness in bilingual models such as BIA/+ and determine how the latter may modulate lexical processing in bilinguals.

Phonological store and speechreading performance of Chinese students with hearing impairment

ABSTRACT This study presents three experiments to examine the role of the phonological store component of working memory in the speechreading performance of students with hearing impairment (HI) in China. In Experiment 1, 86 high school students with HI completed an immediate serial recall task with four lists of monosyllabic words that differed in phonological and visual similarities. In Experiment 2 and Experiment 3, 40 participants divided into high or low phonological store capacity (PS) and 40 participants divided into high or low visual phonological story capacity (VPS) completed a speechreading test at the word, phrase and sentence levels. Results revealed that (1) immediate serial recall showed effects of phonological and visual similarity and their interaction; (2) there was no significant effect of phonological store capacities on speechreading; and (3) there was a significant effect of visual phonological store capacities on accuracy but not speed of speechreading. These findings point to a general phonological store system for visual orthographic coding and phonological coding that students with HI engage in speechreading in Chinese. It provides evidence for the contention that the visual-based coding has a more direct impact on speechreading performance of Chinese students with HI than the speech-based coding.

Orthographic neighborhood density modulates the size of transposed-letter priming effects

We used transposed-letter (TL) priming to test the lexical tuning hypothesis, which states that words from high-density orthographic neighborhoods have more precise orthographic codes than words from low-density neighborhoods. Replicating standard TL priming effects, target words elicited faster lexical decision responses and smaller amplitude N250s and N400s when preceded by TL primes (e.g., leomn-LEMON) compared with substitution primes (e.g., leuzn-LEMON) overall. We expected that if high-density words have more precise orthographic representations (i.e., with each letter assigned to a specific position), then they should be relatively less activated by TL primes and should give rise to smaller TL priming effects. In line with our prediction, N250 (but not N400 or behavioral) TL priming was significantly smaller for high-density words compared with low-density words over posterior sites. Such an interaction was not observed for pseudoword targets. Consistent with the lexical tuning hypothesis then, this pattern suggests that the nature of the orthographic code used to access lexical representations differs depending on the number of neighboring words in the lexicon. We conclude by discussing how lexical tuning could be implemented in current models of orthographic processing.

Masked transposition priming effects are observed in Korean in the same-different task.

Research suggests that readers of Korean Hangul demonstrate precise orthographic coding. In contrast to findings from many other languages, the identification of Hangul words is not speeded by prior masked presentation of transposition primes relative to substitution primes. The present studies asked whether evidence for precise orthographic coding is also observed in the same–different task—a task claimed to reflect pre-lexical orthographic representations. Experiments tested whether masked transposed-letter (Experiment 1) or transposed-syllable-block (Experiment 2) primes facilitate judgements about whether a target matches a reference stimulus. In contrast to previous results using lexical decision, significant transposition effects were observed in both cases. These findings add weight to the proposition that apparent differences across writing systems in the precision of orthographic coding may reflect demands of the word identification process rather than properties of orthographic representations themselves.

Is letter position coding when reading in L2 affected by the nature of position coding used when bilinguals read in their L1?

Using four-character Chinese word targets, Yang, Chen, Spinelli, and Lupker (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(8), 1511-1526, 2019) and Yang, Hino et al. (Journal of Memory and Language, 113, 104017, 2020) demonstrated that backward primes (Roman alphabet example-dcba priming ABCD) produce large masked priming effects. This result suggests that character position information is quite imprecisely coded by Chinese readers when reading in their native language. The present question was, If Chinese readers have evolved a reading system not requiring precise position information, would Chinese-English bilinguals show more extreme transposed letter priming effects when processing English words than both English monolinguals and other types of bilinguals whose L2 is English? In Experiment 1, Chinese-English bilinguals, but not English monolinguals, showed a clear backward priming effect in a lexical decision task. In Experiment 2, the parallel backward priming effect was absent for both Spanish-English and Arabic-English bilinguals. Apparently, the orthographic coding system that Chinese-English bilinguals use when reading in their L2 leans heavily on the flexible/imprecise position coding process that they develop for reading in their L1.

«Азбучні» полеміки в Україні впродовж ХІХ – початку ХХІ ст.

After numerous discussions, the 2019 «Ukrainian Orthographic Norms» took effect. The innovations proposed in it necessitated turning the pages of the history of Ukrainian graphics and spelling for understanding why «alphabetic wars» in Ukraine continue today and the consequences of such scholarly battles. The purpose of the paper is to give a brief overview of the «spelling wars» in Ukraine in the 19th ‒ early 21st centuries, to expose the causes and consequences of the lingering struggle for the affirmation of specific language norms. In the first half of the 19th century the struggle between the phonetic and etymological traditions of writing was evidenced by O. Pavlovsky’s orthography of the Ukrainian language grammar (1818), the works of M. Maksymovych (1827), and the almanac Rusalka Dnistrova (The Mermaid of the Dniester) in 1837. In the second half of the 19th century new orthographic norms appeared: «kulishivka», «drahomanivka», «zhelekhivka», etc. The early 20th century was crowned by the appearance of «grinchenkivka», the academic publication «The principal rules of the Ukrainian spelling» in 1920, and the «skrypnykivka» spelling in 1928. The reasons of the tragic fate of «skrypnykivka» and the appearance of the Ukrainian spelling systems of the Soviet period in Ukraine in 1933, 1946, and 1960 were found. The attempts to restore the lost national features of the Ukrainian graphics and spelling after the proclamation of Ukraine as an independent state (Orthographic norms of 1989, the drafts of its new editions of 1999 and 2003) proved to be unsuccessful. In the conditions of constant disputes and confrontations the current orthographic code was approved only with some surface changes. There is not a single country in the world with a spelling system the «fate» of which would literally be shot, whose development would be blocked, which would experience political intrusions, and suffer the extermination of national language features. The author of the paper emphasizes that for a long historical period these «alphabetic wars» involved Ukrainians in a negative program of the perception and understanding of spelling rules: one aggression gave rise to a number of others and the internal revolt (primarily – with the introduction of certain features of «skrypnykivka»). According to the author of the article, the norms in the «Ukrainian Orthographic Norms» of 2019 are far from the real life, some formulations are too complicated for an average speaker. 1. We would recommend reducing the number of capitalization rules by listing the concepts that should be written in capital letters. We propose to set some capitalization rules (see §§ 45–48) along with the material on the punctuation of sentences with quotations, remarks, appeals, rubrics, etc. 2. In the media we would like to hear more information about the evolution of language norms and the history of their appearance. Only the wide popularization of the history of spelling and the peaceful solution of spelling problems will help to return to the Ukrainians the distinctive features of orthography. 3. In the search for new grammatical forms, it is important not to push the content into the background. To prevent this from happening, the Ukrainians must learn to think differently, make decisions without fuss, avoid any manifestations of aggression and negative involvement in problems, and seek compromises. In the following scientific investigations, we plan to analyze the punctuation rules of the mother tongue, presented in the current orthographic norms of 2019.

Masked form priming as a function of letter position: An evaluation of current orthographic coding models.

A word's exterior letters, particularly its initial letter, appear to have a special status when reading. Therefore, most orthographic coding models incorporate assumptions giving initial letters and, in some cases, final letters, enhanced importance during the orthographic coding process. In the present article, 3 masked priming experiments were carried out, using the conventional lexical-decision task, the sandwich priming lexical-decision task and the masked priming same-different task, in an attempt to examine a number of those models with a specific focus on the implications of the models' assumptions concerning the different letter positions. The related primes and targets were 6-letter strings that differed in 2 letter positions, initial (e.g., jnckey-HOCKEY), middle (e.g., hojney-HOCKEY), or final (hockjn-HOCKEY), with the middle-letters different primes being the primes that maintained both end letters. To the extent possible, the predictions of the models were derived by using easyNet, the simulation program recently developed by Adelman, Gubian, and Davis (2017). In all experiments, the final-letters different primes were the most effective primes with there being no clear distinction between the other 2 prime types, a pattern that none of the models predicted. The lack of an advantage for the middle-letters different primes suggests that the orthographic code driving masked priming is not one that places a special emphasis on the identities of the exterior letters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Orthographic features for emotion classification in Chinese in informal short texts

Informal short texts on the web are rich in emotions as they often reflect unfiltered immediate reactions to breaking news events. The emotion density, however, stands in contrast to its poverty of linguistic contexts and features for emotion classification. This paper tackles that challenge by proposing orthographic features based on orthographic code mixing and code-switching for both non-ML and ML approaches. Our results show that orthographic features routinely outperform grammatical features for emotion classification for short texts in all approaches as expected. Orthographic features were also shown to make more significant contributions, especially in terms of precision and in formal texts when state of the art deep learning algorithms are applied. This result confirms the effectiveness of the orthographic change feature to the task of emotion classification. These results are argued to be applicable to all languages because of the common code-shifting in languages with non-Latin orthographies, and the use of non-letter symbols in all languages.

Is zjudge a better prime for JUDGE than zudge is?: A new evaluation of current orthographic coding models.

Three masked priming paradigms, the conventional masked priming lexical-decision task (Forster & Davis, 1984), the sandwich priming task (Lupker & Davis, 2009), and the masked priming same-different task (Norris & Kinoshita, 2008), were used to investigate priming for a given target (e.g., JUDGE) from primes created by either adding a letter to the beginning of the target (e.g., zjudge) or replacing the target's initial letter (e.g., zudge). Virtually all models of orthographic coding that allow calculation of orthographic similarity measures predict that zjudge should be the better prime because zjudge contains all the letters in JUDGE in their correct order whereas zudge does not. Nonetheless, Adelman et al.'s (2014) megastudy data indicated no difference in the effectiveness of these two prime types. The present experiments provide additional support for the conclusion of no difference between these two prime types with the only observed difference being a small zudge prime advantage in Experiment 1b (sandwich priming). These results suggest that models of orthographic coding/word recognition may be well served by allowing inconsistent information (e.g., the "z" in both zjudge and zudge indicates that the presented prime is not JUDGE) to be given considerable weight during the orthographic coding/word recognition process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Phonological priming effects with same-script primes and targets in the masked priming same-different task.

Norris, Kinoshita and colleagues (Kinoshita & Norris, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(1), 1-18, 2009; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137(3), 434-455, 2010; Norris & Kinoshita, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(1), 194-204, 2008) have suggested that the masked priming same-different task (SDT) is an excellent tool for studying the orthographic coding process because, in most circumstances, performance in that task is driven entirely by orthographic codes. More specifically, although evidence of phonological influences (i.e., phonological priming effects in the SDT) have been reported, Kinoshita, Gayed, and Norris (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44(11), 1661-1671, 2018) have claimed that phonological priming does not arise in the SDT when the prime and target are written in the same script and the targets are words, the most typical experimental situation. Indeed, it does appear that no-one has yet reported phonological priming effects in such situations. The question of whether it is possible to observe phonological priming in such situations was more fully examined in the present experiments. Experiment 1 involved a masked priming SDT using Japanese Kanji script in which the primes and targets were homophonic but shared no characters. Experiment 2 was a parallel experiment using Chinese stimuli. In both experiments, phonological priming effects were observed for both one- and two-character words. These experiments indicate that, although the priming effects in masked priming SDTs undoubtedly have a strong orthographic basis, phonological codes also play a role even when the prime and (word) target are written in the same script.