Phonological Processing Research Articles

Do we really need a new definition of dyslexia? A commentary

We provide a commentary on current debates about the definition of dyslexia. We agree with others that dyslexia is best thought of as a dimensional disorder with the best established causal risk factor being a deficit in phonological processing. Dyslexia is particularly common in children from families with a history of dyslexia and in children with preschool language difficulties. We argue that definitions may differ depending upon their purpose. Traditional discrepancy definitions may be useful for research purposes, but when considering the provision of educational services discrepancy definitions are not useful since all children with reading difficulties require reading intervention regardless of their level of IQ.

Phonological awareness and RAN contribute to Chinese reading and arithmetic for different reasons.

The present study investigated how phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (hereafter, RAN), simultaneously contributed to Chinese reading and arithmetic fluency. Specifically, we proposed a new hypothesized mechanism that processing speed would mediate the relations of RAN with Chinese reading and arithmetic fluency. One hundred and forty-five Chinese children at the fifth grade were administered with a battery of measures, including three phonological processing measures, character reading, and whole number computation, as well as nonverbal IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. Path analyses revealed that phonological awareness and RAN were uniquely related to character reading and arithmetic fluency, while phonological memory was not significantly correlated to either character reading or arithmetic fluency, after controlling for age, nonverbal IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. Further analysis indicated that processing speed demonstrated a mediating effect on the importance of RAN in character reading, rather than in arithmetic fluency. Results underscore the potential importance of phonological awareness and RAN in character reading and arithmetic fluency, and the mediating role of processing speed in RAN to promote Chinese character reading fluency.

Action video games normalise the phonemic awareness in pre-readers at risk for developmental dyslexia

Action video-games (AVGs) could improve reading efficiency, enhancing not only visual attention but also phonological processing. Here we tested the AVG effects upon three consolidated language-based predictors of reading development in a sample of 79 pre-readers at-risk and 41 non-at-risk for developmental dyslexia. At-risk children were impaired in either phonemic awareness (i.e., phoneme discrimination task), phonological working memory (i.e., pseudoword repetition task) or rapid automatized naming (i.e., RAN of colours task). At-risk children were assigned to different groups by using an unequal allocation randomization: (1) AVG (n = 43), (2) Serious Non-Action Video Game (n = 11), (3) treatment-as-usual (i.e., speech therapy, n = 11), and (4) waiting list (n = 14). Pre- and post-training comparisons show that only phonemic awareness has a significantly higher improvement in the AVG group compared to the waiting list, the non-AVG, and the treatment-as-usual groups, as well as the combined active groups (n = 22). This cross-modal plastic change: (i) leads to a recovery in phonemic awareness when compared to the not-at-risk pre-readers; (ii) is present in more than 80% of AVG at-risk pre-readers, and; (iii) is maintained at a 6-months follow-up. The present findings indicate that this specific multisensory attentional training positively affects how phonemic awareness develops in pre-readers at risk for developmental dyslexia, paving the way for innovative prevention programs.

Urban-Rural Differences in Early Arithmetic Performance are Accounted for by Phonological Processing

ABSTRACT Urban and rural children have different levels of performance in arithmetic processing. This study investigated whether such a residence difference can be explained by phonological processing. A total of 1,501 Chinese primary school students from urban and rural areas were recruited to complete nine cognitive tasks: two in arithmetic performance (subtraction and multiplication), one in phonological processing (word rhyming), two in quantity processing (numerosity and number comparison), one in visuo-spatial processing (mental rotation), as well as a mathematical reasoning task (number-series completion) as a contrast with arithmetic processing and two general cognitive tasks (choice reaction time and Raven’s progressive matrices). The results showed that Chinese urban children had superior performance in arithmetic, which was eliminated after controlling for phonological ability, but not after controlling for quantity or visuo-spatial performance or general cognitive factors. Urban children also showed better performance in mathematical reasoning than did rural children, but residence difference in mathematical reasoning was not eliminated by any of the cognitive factors. The above result suggests that phonological processing explains the relationship between residence and arithmetic performance.

A Study Measuring the Impact of Memory Training and Phonological Processing Intervention on Verbal Working Memory and Phonological Skills in Children

A Study Measuring the Impact of Memory Training and Phonological Processing Intervention on Verbal Working Memory and Phonological Skills in Children

Preliminary evidence for two patterns of phonological similarity judgments of word-pairs by persons with Aphasia

ABSTRACT Background Phonological similarity judgments of word-pairs have been shown to reflect the structure of a phonological network of word-forms, where words are connected to each other if they differ by one phoneme. Word-pairs that are closer together in the phonological network are more likely to be rated as sounding similar than word-pairs that are farther apart in the network. This behavioral pattern indicates sensitivity to the underlying structure of the phonological network. Aims This study is an extended replication of previous research that seeks to identify if persons with aphasia (PWA), who often have phonological processing impairments, are sensitive to the large-scale structure of the phonological network. Methods and Procedures Seven PWA completed the phonological similarity judgment task. They heard two words aurally and made a binary indication if the words “sound similar”. Words in each pair differed in phonological similarity, as defined by the distance between the words in the phonological network, with values from 1 to 5. We analyzed the proportion of similar responses for word-pairs at each phonological network distance. Post-hoc analyses of individual-level performance and comparison to control samples (10 younger adults and 10 older adults) were conducted after examining the primary research question results. Outcomes and Results There were two patterns of performance. Four PWA performed similarly in ratings across all phonological network distances as younger and older adult control participants, and in concordance with previous research. There was a negative, nonlinear trend in the proportion of similar judgments as distance increased. Three PWA, however, had a different pattern of performance, such that word-pairs with distances of 3, 4, and 5 had higher proportions of similar judgments compared to the other samples of participants. Conclusion The two patterns of performance may point to clinically useful information, after further research, about phonological representations and processing in aphasia that may inform precision rehabilitation.

The Additional Burden of Auditory Processing Skill “Deficits” for a Young Person with Multiple Exceptionalities: A Case Study of a Twice-Exceptional Student

ABSTRACT This article reports on the findings of a qualitative case study exploring the auditory skill “deficits” of a twice-exceptional male student who had multiple exceptionalities, including deficits in auditory processing skills, which contributed to learning issues and social connection difficulties in unique ways. Auditory skill deficits are an under-researched area in the field of gifted education, yet these are requisite skills necessary for learning in school. For this case study, auditory deficits were related to phonological processing, auditory sequential memory, lowered auditory recall abilities, and weaknesses in auditory analysis skills. The role that these auditory skill deficits played in the educational experiences of this young person is explored. Findings suggest that the presentation and impact of auditory processing deficits is very individual.

Individual differences in talker discrimination among adult cochlear implant users

Real-world speech communication involves interacting with talkers with diverse voices and accents. Adult cochlear implant (CI) users often demonstrate poor discrimination of talkers’ voices relative to their normal-hearing peers, which may contribute to difficulties in understanding speech produced by multiple talkers. However, the factors underlying poor talker discrimination ability are not well understood. The current study examined auditory and cognitive-linguistic factors that support talker discrimination, and explored the association between talker discrimination and sentence recognition across CI users. In an AX talker discrimination task, 25 adult CI users indicated whether word pairs were produced by the same talker or by two different talkers. Participants also completed measures of spectrotemporal processing, cognitive-linguistic skills, including fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, inhibitory control, and phonological processing, and sentence recognition. Results showed that talker discrimination scores (accuracy, sensitivity) were moderately to strongly correlated with spectrotemporal processing, fluid intelligence, inhibitory control, and phonological processing. Talker discrimination scores were also related to sentence recognition accuracy scores across CI users. These preliminary findings suggest that both auditory and cognitive-linguistic processes support talker discrimination, and, furthermore, may underlie the relationship between talker discrimination and sentence recognition in adult CI users.

Effects of auditory processing ability on the phonological and acoustic processing of Mandarin tone by Thai speakers: An ERP study

This study investigated how Mandarin-naïve Thai speakers’ auditory processing ability affects their phonological and acoustic processing of Mandarin tone. The participants were 20 native Mandarin speakers and 19 Mandarin-naïve Thai speakers. A 10-step computer synthesized Tone 1 (T1)–Tone 2 (T2) continuum was manipulated for identification task. The stimulus 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 from the T1–T2 continuum were used in a multi-feature passive oddball ERP paradigm, encompassing within-category and across-category stimuli with equivalent large-scale and small-scale acoustic intervals. We used pitch discrimination, melody reproduction, and rhythm reproduction to assess participants’ auditory processing ability. The identification results showed that Mandarin-naïve Thai speakers’ exhibit a weaker categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin tones compared to the native Mandarin speakers, a pattern consistent with ERP results observed at both sensor and source levels. Further analysis revealed higher auditory processing ability leads to enhanced CP of Mandarin tone for learners from Thai, and the same improvement is observed in the melody memory for acoustic processing of Mandarin tone. These findings add to our understanding on how individual differences influence phonological and acoustic processing of Mandarin tone during the initial stage of second speech learning.

Patterning of laxing spreading in Quebec French

Quebec French laxing is a rather well-known phonological process, starting from the tense vowels [i], [y], and [u] being rendered lax in some closed syllables. This process can also trigger laxing of high vowels in preceding syllables as well, though the nature of this process remains a source of debate, whether it is a spreading process or vowel harmony. In addition to the nature of the process itself, the patterning that occurs for the laxing spreading is one that has been long discussed, particularly when it comes to words with more than two syllables. Poliquin (2006) lists three different possible patterns that the laxing may take. The goal of this thesis was to not only confirm the presence of the spreading patterns found in Poliquin(2006), but also to determine to what degree they occur within native speakers of Quebec French. While the results seem to confirm the presence of laxing spreading, the frequency at which they occur seems to be rather low and vary not only from speaker to speaker, but also within the same speaker.

원격 음운변동중재가 읽기부진학생의 단어인지와 읽기유창성에 미치는 효과

Purpose: Communication technology and electronic devices are developing rapidly, and as many students have experienced remote education since COVID-19, the interest in the necessity and effects of telepractice has also grown in the field of speech-language pathology. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of telepractice for poor readers. Method: The subjects of the study were three 2nd-3rd grade students with poor reading. They were able to read words using the phonics principle but had difficulty reading words adapted to phonological processes. For these subjects, phonological processing intervention was conducted for 4 types of 7 coda rule, lenition, tensification, and aspiration. Both intervention and evaluation were conducted remotely using ZOOM. An intermittent multiple baseline design was applied to determine whether remote phonological processing intervention had a positive effect on the word identification of poor readers, and a pre-post design was applied to confirm improvements in reading fluency. Results: Results indicate that, following remote phonological processing intervention, all students demonstrated improvements in word identification scores compared to the baseline. Furthermore, their reading fluency scores exhibited enhancement in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Conclusion: In conclusion, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of remote phonological processing intervention for poor readers. We explored models and directions for future telepractice.

Complex diachronies of final nasalization in Austronesian and Dakota

Final nasalization of voiced stops is phonetically unmotivated (i.e. not a consequence of universal articulatory or perceptual tendencies). As such, final nasalization has been deemed an impossible sound change. Nonetheless, Blust (2005; 2016) proposes that final nasalization took place in four Austronesian languages: Kayan-Murik, Berawan dialects, Kalabakan Murut, and Karo Batak. In this paper, we argue final nasalization in these languages is not a single sound change and reduce it to a combination of phonetically grounded changes. We demonstrate that in Austronesian, final nasalization involved four steps: (i) fricativization of voiced stops, (ii) devoicing of the fricatives, (iii) spontaneous nasalization before voiceless fricatives, and (iv) occlusion of the nasalized fricatives to nasal stops. Finally, we extend our account to final nasalization in Dakota (Siouan) and propose a new explanation for the development of the unnatural final voicing in the related Lakota language. Our results shed light on the role of phonetic naturalness in diachrony and synchrony. We maintain that while phonetically unnatural phonological processes may arise via a sequence of sound changes or analogical extension, sound changes are always natural and phonetically grounded.

Behavioral and Cortical Activation Changes in Children Following Auditory Training for Dichotic Deficits.

We report changes following auditory rehabilitation for interaural asymmetry (ARIA) training in behavioral test performance and cortical activation in children identified with dichotic listening deficits. In a one group pretest-posttest design, measures of dichotic listening, speech perception in noise, and frequency pattern identification were assessed before and 3 to 4.5 months after completing an auditory training protocol designed to improve binaural processing of verbal material. Functional MRI scans were also acquired before and after treatment while participants passively listened in silence or to diotic or dichotic digits. Significant improvements occurred after ARIA training for dichotic listening and speech-in-noise tests. Post-ARIA, fMRI activation increased during diotic tasks in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal regions and during dichotic tasks, decreased in the left precentral gyrus, right-hemisphere pars triangularis, and right dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortices, regions known to be engaged in phonologic processing and working memory. The results suggest that children with dichotic deficits may benefit from the ARIA program because of reorganization of cortical capacity required for listening and a reduced need for higher-order, top-down processing skills when listening to dichotic presentations.

The influence of language-specific properties on the role of consonants and vowels in a statistical learning task of an artificial language: A cross-linguistic comparison.

The contribution of consonants and vowels in spoken word processing has been widely investigated, and studies have found a phenomenon of a Consonantal bias (C-bias), indicating that consonants carry more weight than vowels. However, across languages, various patterns have been documented, including that of no preference or a reverse pattern of Vowel bias. A central question is how the manifestation of the C-bias is modulated by language-specific factors. This question can be addressed by cross-linguistic studies. Comparing native Hebrew and native English speakers, this study examines the relative importance of transitional probabilities between non-adjacent consonants as opposed to vowels during auditory statistical learning (SL) of an artificial language. Hebrew is interesting because its complex Semitic morphological structure has been found to play a central role in lexical access, allowing us to examine whether morphological properties can modulate the C-bias in early phases of speech perception, namely, word segmentation. As predicted, we found a significant interaction between language and consonant/vowel manipulation, with a higher performance in the consonantal condition than in the vowel condition for Hebrew speakers, namely, C-bias, and no consonant/vowel asymmetry among English speakers. We suggest that the observed interaction is morphologically anchored, indicating that phonological and morphological processes interact during early phases of auditory word perception.

Lenition Processes in Ut-ma’in (Fakkanci): A Case Study of Deletion and Weakining of Glottal Sound /ʔ/

This paper aims to describe the phonological processes of glottal /ʔ/ deletion in Ut-ma’in, a northwest Kainji language, under the Niger-Congo phylum. The paper employs an ethnographic method for data collection and adopts a distinctive features theory postulated by Chomsky and Halle (1968) in analyzing the glottal deletion in the language. The paper identifies, describes, and analyses glottal /ʔ/ deletion in the language, and the rules governing the process. The paper claims that the glottal stop /ʔ/ is deleted when it occurs at a word-final position; at syllable-final position, followed by another syllable and at a morpheme boundary in the language in a rapid speech. This claim is backed with several instances of words, compound words and verbal phrases. The paper discovers that the phonological process of deletion is very common in the language, and it plays a vital role in making speech easy. It also discovers that such a process results in a change of syllable structure another process of vowel lengthening and a change of noun class in the language.

The Role of Second Language Reading Proficiency in Moderating Second Language Word Recognition

Drawing upon the division of labor between orthographic and phonological information, this study investigated whether and how L2 reading proficiency moderates learners’ reliance on phonological and orthographic information in retrieving word meanings. A total of 136 Chinese collegiate students who learned English as a foreign language (EFL) completed English reading proficiency tests and were divided into higher and lower reading proficiency groups using an extreme-group approach. Behavioral tasks were used to measure the participants’ sensitivity to and processing skills of orthographic and phonological information. The analysis showed that the reliance on phonological and orthographic information differed significantly across L2 reading proficiency groups: The higher reading proficiency group was sensitive to both phonological and orthographic information within words, while the lower reading proficiency group was only sensitive to orthographic information; only orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to the word meaning retrieval of individuals in the higher reading proficiency group, while phonological processing skills were the only predictor for the lower reading proficiency group. These results suggest that the use of phonological and orthographic information vary as a function of L2 learners’ English reading proficiency. Implications regarding the changing patterns of L1 influences and the language-universal and language-specific aspects of word recognition were discussed.

A dataset of behavioral measures on Chinese word production in picture naming

Most studies of language production have been conducted with speakers of alphabetic languages, but relatively little research has examined languages with non-alphabetic scripts, such as Chinese. Moreover, most work on language word production has investigated phonological output processing (i.e., speaking), whereas comparatively little research has focused on orthographic output, such as writing and typing. Work on non-alphabetic languages and/or written production is particularly promising, given that it speaks to universalities vs. specificity in terms of architectures and mechanisms underlying language processing across all world languages and modalities. The current article reports a dataset of word production in Chinese with spoken and written responses, which includes reaction times of 193,851 trials of naming 403 pictures obtained from 667 participants across 23 Chinese word production experiments. All data were collected in the same experimental environment and from participants with relatively homogenous characteristics, using the same protocols and parameters. The dataset enables researchers to explore how Chinese speakers produce spoken and/or written words, and to identify language-specific features underlying word production.

Preserved Gray Matter Volume in the Left Superior Temporal Gyrus Underpins Speech-in-Noise Processing in Middle-Aged Adults.

Neuroanatomical evidence suggests that behavioral speech-in-noise (SiN) perception and the underlying cortical structural network are altered by aging, and these aging-induced changes could be initiated during middle age. However, the mechanism behind the relationship between auditory performance and neural substrates of speech perception in middle-aged individuals remains unclear. In this study, we measured the structural volumes of selected neuroanatomical regions involved in speech and hearing processing to establish their association with speech perception ability in middle-aged adults. Sentence perception in quiet and noisy conditions was behaviorally measured in 2 different age groups: young (20-39 years old) and middle-aged (40-59-year-old) adults. Anatomical magnetic resonance images were taken to assess the gray matter volume of specific parcellated brain areas associated with speech perception. The relationships between these and behavioral auditory performance with age were determined. The middle-aged adults showed poorer speech perception in both quiet and noisy conditions than the young adults. Neuroanatomical data revealed that the normalized gray matter volume in the left superior temporal gyrus, which is closely related to acoustic and phonological processing, is associated with behavioral SiN perception in the middle-aged group. In addition, the normalized gray matter volumes in multiple cortical areas seem to decrease with age. The results indicate that SiN perception in middle-aged adults is closely related to the brain region responsible for lower-level speech processing, which involves the detection and phonemic representation of speech. Nonetheless, the higher-order cortex may also contribute to age-induced changes in auditory performance.

Abstract TP78: Characteristics of Verbal and Non-Verbal Cognitive Function in Post-Stroke Aphasia Based on Language-Cognition Neuropsychological Processing Model

Introduction: Post-stroke aphasia (PSA) patients have different levels of phonetic, lexical, semantic, syntactic, and other linguistic domain impairment, and accompanied by non-verbal cognitive impairment. However, the association between verbal and non-verbal cognitive functions is not fully understood.In this study, we used the Chinese Aphasia Language Battery (CALB) and Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment (LOTCA) to fully evaluate the characteristics of verbal and non-verbal cognitive function impairment in PSA patients. Methods: A total of 105 stroke patients were recruited in this study. Language and non-linguistic cognitive impairments were evaluated by CALB and LOTCA, respectively. Patients in the PSA group were subdivided into the fluent aphasia group (FAG) and the non-FAG group. Potential confounders were adjusted in the analysis of covariance. Partial correlation analysis between the subscores of CALB and LOTCA was also performed. Results: This study showed that PSA patients had worse speech analysis ability, vocabulary processing ability, semantic processing ability, syntactic structure conversion ability, and non-verbal cognitive performance(P<0.001). Moreover, the scores of phonetic decoding, phonetic vocabulary production, noun category classification, total LOTCA, orientation, visual perception, motor use, and thinking operation were lower in the non-FAG compared with the FAG (p<0.05). The total score of LOTCA was positively correlated with the aphasia quotient (r=0.637, P<0.001) and scores of speech analysis ability, vocabulary processing ability, semantic processing ability, and syntactic structure conversion ability (r>0; P<0.0005). Conclusions: Based on the language-cognition neuropsychological processing model, this study adopted a comprehensive verbal and non-verbal cognitive assessment set of tests, and found that PSA patients have extensive phonological, lexical, semantic, syntactic, and grammatical processing disorders. Moreover, PSA patients often have more extensive and serious non-verbal cognitive impairments, and the severity of aphasia is significantly positively correlated with the degree of nonverbal cognitive impairment.

The Role of Verbal Fluency as a Variable in Reading and Comprehension Skills in Bengali.

The study explored the role of verbal fluency in determining reading and comprehension skills in Bengali among 10-year old typically developing Bengali children. Robust correlations were found between semantic fluency and word reading (0.63) as well as semantic fluency and comprehension (0.70). Good correlation was found between letter fluency and comprehension (0.49), and, word reading and comprehension (0.62). The findings suggest that good word storing capacity and executive functions led to enhanced automaticity of retrieval and verbal fluency, which together with improved orthographic and phonological processing led to good word reading scores, contributing to lesser cognitive load thereby easing out the complex text comprehension task. Transcending narrow empirical base of reading theories derived from Western writing typologies delimited to orthographic depth and psycholinguistic grain size, the study contends that verbal fluency is another interesting variable determining the reading and comprehension skills in Bengali along with visuo-spatial complexity and complex phonology-orthography inconsistencies.