Reading Span Scores Research Articles

Pre-reading activities may reduce processing demands in working memory

Reading research has found that pre-reading activities positively affect comprehension, which might also act as a tool to reduce the processing demands in working memory (ROSCIOLI; TOMITCH, 2022). The present study investigated whether there was a correlation between pre-intermediate and advanced Brazilian EFL students’ working memory capacity as measured by the Reading Span Test and their results obtained in comprehension tests after receiving treatment with two pre-reading activities: Contextual Redefinition and Graphic Organizer (MOORE; READENCE; RICKELMAN, 1999). The former focused on building vocabulary, whereas the latter targeted the organizational pattern of the text. There were two dependent measures: written free recall and comprehension questions. We hypothesized that the treatments would change the correlations between readers’ working memory capacity and task performance. Specifically, we expected the correlations between reading span and comprehension to be smaller in the treatment conditions compared to the control. The findings reveal that the activities can affect reading comprehension differently depending on students’ proficiency. The correlations between reading span and comprehension questions scores were smaller when advanced participants received treatment with the Contextual Redefinition. Conversely, there was an increase in the correlations between reading span and written free recall scores when the pre-intermediate group received treatment with the same pre-reading activity. Also, there was a decrease in the correlations between reading span and written free recall scores when pre-intermediate participants received treatment with the Graphic Organizer. Altogether, the Contextual Redefinition reduced processing demands for the advanced participants, whereas the Graphic Organizer did the same for the pre-intermediate group.

Listening Effort in Cochlear Implant Users: The Effect of Speech Intelligibility, Noise Reduction Processing, and Working Memory Capacity on the Pupil Dilation Response.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of speech recognition performance, working memory capacity (WMC), and a noise reduction algorithm (NRA) on listening effort as measured with pupillometry in cochlear implant (CI) users while listening to speech in noise. Speech recognition and pupil responses (peak dilation, peak latency, and release of dilation) were measured during a speech recognition task at three speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs) with an NRA in both on and off conditions. WMC was measured with a reading span task. Twenty experienced CI users participated in this study. With increasing SNR and speech recognition performance, (a) the peak pupil dilation decreased by only a small amount, (b) the peak latency decreased, and (c) the release of dilation after the sentences increased. The NRA had no effect on speech recognition in noise or on the peak or latency values of the pupil response but caused less release of dilation after the end of the sentences. A lower reading span score was associated with higher peak pupil dilation but was not associated with peak latency, release of dilation, or speech recognition in noise. In CI users, speech perception is effortful, even at higher speech recognition scores and high SNRs, indicating that CI users are in a chronic state of increased effort in communication situations. The application of a clinically used NRA did not improve speech perception, nor did it reduce listening effort. Participants with a relatively low WMC exerted relatively more listening effort but did not have better speech reception thresholds in noise.

Effects of Noise and Serial Position on Free Recall of Spoken Words and Pupil Dilation during Encoding in Normal-Hearing Adults.

This preliminary study assessed the effects of noise and stimulus presentation order on recall of spoken words and recorded pupil sizes while normal-hearing listeners were trying to encode a series of words for a subsequent recall task. In three listening conditions (stationary noise in Experiment 1; quiet versus four-talker babble in Experiment 2), participants were assigned to remember as many words as possible to recall them in any order after each list of seven sentences. In the two noise conditions, lists of sentences fixed at 65 dB SPL were presented at an easily audible level via a loudspeaker. Reading span (RS) scores were used as a grouping variable, based on a median split. The primacy effect was present apart from the noise interference, and the high-RS group significantly outperformed the low-RS group at free recall measured in the quiet and four-talker babble noise conditions. RS scores were positively correlated with free-recall scores. In both quiet and four-talker babble noise conditions, sentence baselines after correction to the initial stimulus baseline increased significantly with increasing memory load. Larger sentence baselines but smaller peak pupil dilations seemed to be associated with noise interruption. The analysis method of pupil dilation used in this study is likely to provide a more thorough understanding of how listeners respond to a later recall task in comparison with previously used methods. Further studies are needed to confirm the applicability of our method in people with impaired hearing using multiple repetitions to estimate the allocation of relevant cognitive resources.

Parsing preferences and individual differences in nonnative sentence processing: Evidence from eye movements

AbstractUsing both offline and online measures, the present study investigates attachment resolution in relative clauses in English natives (L1) and nonnatives (L2). We test how relative clause resolution interacts with linguistic factors and participant-level individual differences. Previous L1 English studies have demonstrated a low attachment preference and also an “ambiguity advantage” suggesting that L1ers may not have as strong a low attachment preference as is sometimes claimed. We employ a similar design to examine this effect in L1 and L2 comprehension. Offline results indicate that both groups exhibit a low attachment preference, positively correlated with reading span scores and with proficiency in the L2 group. Online results also suggest a low attachment preference in both groups. However, our data show that individual differences influence online attachment resolution for both native and nonnatives; higher lexical processing efficiency correlates with quicker resolution of linguistic conflicts. We argue that the current findings suggest that attachment resolution during L1 and L2 processing share the same processing mechanisms and are modulated by similar individual differences.

The effects of task difficulty, background noise and noise reduction on recall

Objective In the present study, we investigated whether varying the task difficulty of the Sentence-Final Word Identification and Recall (SWIR) Test has an effect on the benefit of noise reduction, as well as whether task difficulty predictability affects recall. The relationship between working memory and recall was examined. Design Task difficulty was manipulated by varying the list length with noise reduction on and off in competing speech and speech-shaped noise. Half of the participants were informed about list length in advance. Working memory capacity was measured using the Reading Span. Study sample Thirty-two experienced hearing aid users with moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Results Task difficulty did not affect the noise reduction benefit and task difficulty predictability did not affect recall. Participants may have employed a different recall strategy when task difficulty was unpredictable and noise reduction off. Reading Span scores positively correlated with the SWIR test. Noise reduction improved recall in competing speech. Conclusions The SWIR test with varying list length is suitable for detecting the benefit of noise reduction. The correlation with working memory suggests that the SWIR test could be modified to be adaptive to individual cognitive capacity. The results on noise and noise reduction replicate previous findings.

The role of verbal working memory in L2 sentence comprehension

AbstractConsiderable variability has been observed in sentence comprehension abilities in both native speakers and second language (L2) learner populations. While it has long been established that, in native speakers, this variability is closely linked to individual differences (IDs) in verbal working memory (vWM), previous research on the role of vWM in L2 sentence comprehension has produced mixed results. Moreover, there is an accumulating body of evidence demonstrating that the relationship between vWM and native language comprehension abilities is mediated by language experience. However, to our knowledge, until now, no attempt has been made to integrate language experience measures into the vWM-L2 sentence comprehension relationship. The goal of the present study is twofold: (1) to determine whether and to what extent vWM – as gauged by a reading span (RSPAN) task – correlates with IDs in two proxy estimates of L2 experience and (2) to investigate the effects of vWM on L2 comprehension of three different types of complex sentences. Thirty-four German advanced learners of English participated in this study. Significant positive correlations were found between the RSPAN scores and both proxy estimates of L2 experience. Mixed-effects modeling revealed that vWM exerted a significant effect on L2 sentence comprehension that was not modulated by sentence type. Taken together, these results provide additional evidence in support of the involvement of vWM in L2 sentence comprehension and, to our knowledge, first evidence for the contribution of L2 experience to RSPAN task performance.

Reading span task performance, linguistic experience, and the processing of unexpected syntactic events.

Accounts of individual differences in online language processing ability often focus on the explanatory utility of verbal working memory, as measured by reading span tasks. Although variability in reading span task performance likely reflects individual differences in multiple underlying traits, skills, and processes, accumulating evidence suggests that reading span scores also reflect variability in the linguistic experiences of an individual. Here, through an individual differences approach, we first demonstrate that reading span scores correlate significantly with measures of the amount of experience an individual has had with written language (gauged by measures that provide "proxy estimates" of print exposure). We then explore the relationship between reading span scores and online language processing ability. Individuals with higher reading spans demonstrated greater sensitivity to violations of statistical regularities found in natural language-as evinced by higher reading times (RTs) on the disambiguating region of garden-path sentences-relative to their lower span counterparts. This result held after statistically controlling for individual differences in a non-linguistic operation span task. Taken together, these results suggest that accounts of individual differences in sentence processing can benefit from a stronger focus on experiential factors, especially when considered in relation to variability in perceptual and learning abilities that influence the amount of benefit gleaned from such experience.

Emergent Bilingualism and Working Memory Development in School Aged Children

The present research explores working memory (WM) development in monolingual as well as emergent bilingual children immersed in an L2 at school. Evidence from recent years suggests that bilingualism may boost domain‐general executive control, but impair nonexecutive linguistic processing. Both are relevant for verbal WM, but different paradigms currently in use vary in the degree to which they reflect these subprocesses. We found that only younger immersion students outperformed monolinguals on the n‐back task, a measure of executive WM updating, but showed a relative deficit in L1 rapid naming and, to a lesser degree, reading span scores. Age effects suggest that, rather than ultimate performance levels, bilingualism alters the developmental course of WM processes. We conclude that emergent bilingualism may modulate WM development in school‐aged children at the subcomponent level, but detecting this modulation is contingent on task selection.

A Dynamic Speech Comprehension Test for Assessing Real-World Listening Ability.

Many listeners with hearing loss report particular difficulties with multitalker communication situations, but these difficulties are not well predicted using current clinical and laboratory assessment tools. The overall aim of this work is to create new speech tests that capture key aspects of multitalker communication situations and ultimately provide better predictions of real-world communication abilities and the effect of hearing aids. A test of ongoing speech comprehension introduced previously was extended to include naturalistic conversations between multiple talkers as targets, and a reverberant background environment containing competing conversations. In this article, we describe the development of this test and present a validation study. Thirty listeners with normal hearing participated in this study. Speech comprehension was measured for one-, two-, and three-talker passages at three different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and working memory ability was measured using the reading span test. Analyses were conducted to examine passage equivalence, learning effects, and test-retest reliability, and to characterize the effects of number of talkers and SNR. Although we observed differences in difficulty across passages, it was possible to group the passages into four equivalent sets. Using this grouping, we achieved good test-retest reliability and observed no significant learning effects. Comprehension performance was sensitive to the SNR but did not decrease as the number of talkers increased. Individual performance showed associations with age and reading span score. This new dynamic speech comprehension test appears to be valid and suitable for experimental purposes. Further work will explore its utility as a tool for predicting real-world communication ability and hearing aid benefit.

The Two Sides of Sensory-Cognitive Interactions: Effects of Age, Hearing Acuity, and Working Memory Span on Sentence Comprehension.

Reduced hearing acuity is among the most prevalent of chronic medical conditions among older adults. An experiment is reported in which comprehension of spoken sentences was tested for older adults with good hearing acuity or with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and young adults with age-normal hearing. Comprehension was measured by participants’ ability to determine the agent of an action in sentences that expressed this relation with a syntactically less complex subject-relative construction or a syntactically more complex object-relative construction. Agency determination was further challenged by inserting a prepositional phrase into sentences between the person performing an action and the action being performed. As a control, prepositional phrases of equivalent length were also inserted into sentences in a non-disruptive position. Effects on sentence comprehension of age, hearing acuity, prepositional phrase placement and sound level of stimulus presentations appeared only for comprehension of sentences with the more syntactically complex object-relative structures. Working memory as tested by reading span scores accounted for a significant amount of the variance in comprehension accuracy. Once working memory capacity and hearing acuity were taken into account, chronological age among the older adults contributed no further variance to comprehension accuracy. Results are discussed in terms of the positive and negative effects of sensory–cognitive interactions in comprehension of spoken sentences and lend support to a framework in which domain-general executive resources, notably verbal working memory, play a role in both linguistic and perceptual processing.

Danish reading span data from 283 hearing-aid users, including a sub-group analysis of their relationship to speech-in-noise performance

Objective: This study provides descriptive statistics of the Danish reading span (RS) test for hearing-impaired adults. The combined effect of hearing loss, RS score, and age on speech-in-noise performance in different spatial settings was evaluated in a subset of participants. Design: Data from published and unpublished studies were re-analysed. Data regarding speech-in-noise performance with co-located or spatially separated sound sources were available for a subset of participants. Study sample: RS scores from 283 hearing-impaired participants were extracted from past studies, and 239 of these participants had completed a speech-in-noise test. Results: RS scores (mean = 41.91%, standard deviation = 11.29%) were related to age (p <0.01), but not pure-tone average (PTA) (p = 0.29). Speech-in-noise performance for co-located sound sources was related to PTA and RS score (both p < 0.01, adjusted R-squared = 0.226). Performance for spatially separated sounds was related to PTA (p < 0.01, adjusted R-squared = 0.10) but not RS score (p = 0.484). We found no differences between the standardized coefficients of the two regression models. Conclusions: The distribution of RS scores indicated a high test difficulty. We found that age should be controlled when RS scores are compared across populations. The experimental setup of the speech-in-noise test may influence the relationship between performance and RS score.

Investigating the Role of Working Memory in Speech-in-noise Identification for Listeners with Normal Hearing.

With the advent of cognitive hearing science, increased attention has been given to individual differences in cognitive functioning and their explanatory power in accounting for inter-listener variability in understanding speech in noise (SiN). The psychological construct that has received most interest is working memory (WM), representing the ability to simultaneously store and process information. Common lore and theoretical models assume that WM-based processes subtend speech processing in adverse perceptual conditions, such as those associated with hearing loss or background noise. Empirical evidence confirms the association between WM capacity (WMC) and SiN identification in older hearing-impaired listeners. To assess whether WMC also plays a role when listeners without hearing loss process speech in acoustically adverse conditions, we surveyed published and unpublished studies in which the Reading-Span test (a widely used measure of WMC) was administered in conjunction with a measure of SiN identification. The survey revealed little or no evidence for an association between WMC and SiN performance. We also analysed new data from 132 normal-hearing participants sampled from across the adult lifespan (18–91 years), for a relationship between Reading-Span scores and identification of matrix sentences in noise. Performance on both tasks declined with age, and correlated weakly even after controlling for the effects of age and audibility (r = 0.39, p ≤ 0.001, one-tailed). However, separate analyses for different age groups revealed that the correlation was only significant for middle-aged and older groups but not for the young (< 40 years) participants.

Costs of switching auditory spatial attention in following conversational turn-taking.

Following a multi-talker conversation relies on the ability to rapidly and efficiently shift the focus of spatial attention from one talker to another. The current study investigated the listening costs associated with shifts in spatial attention during conversational turn-taking in 16 normally-hearing listeners using a novel sentence recall task. Three pairs of syntactically fixed but semantically unpredictable matrix sentences, recorded from a single male talker, were presented concurrently through an array of three loudspeakers (directly ahead and +/−30° azimuth). Subjects attended to one spatial location, cued by a tone, and followed the target conversation from one sentence to the next using the call-sign at the beginning of each sentence. Subjects were required to report the last three words of each sentence (speech recall task) or answer multiple choice questions related to the target material (speech comprehension task). The reading span test, attention network test, and trail making test were also administered to assess working memory, attentional control, and executive function. There was a 10.7 ± 1.3% decrease in word recall, a pronounced primacy effect, and a rise in masker confusion errors and word omissions when the target switched location between sentences. Switching costs were independent of the location, direction, and angular size of the spatial shift but did appear to be load dependent and only significant for complex questions requiring multiple cognitive operations. Reading span scores were positively correlated with total words recalled, and negatively correlated with switching costs and word omissions. Task switching speed (Trail-B time) was also significantly correlated with recall accuracy. Overall, this study highlights (i) the listening costs associated with shifts in spatial attention and (ii) the important role of working memory in maintaining goal relevant information and extracting meaning from dynamic multi-talker conversations.

“Who’s he?” Event-related brain potentials and unbound pronouns

Three experiments used event-related potentials to examine the processing consequences of gender-mismatching pronouns (e.g., “The aunt found out that he had won the lottery”), which have been shown to elicit P600 effects when judged as syntactically anomalous (Osterhout & Mobley, 1995). In each experiment, mismatching pronouns elicited a sustained, frontal negative shift (Nref) compared to matching pronouns: when participants were instructed to posit a new referent for mismatching pronouns (Experiment 1), and without this instruction (Experiments 2 and 3). In Experiments 1 and 2, the observed Nref was robust only in individuals with higher reading span scores. In Experiment 1, participants with lower reading span showed P600 effects instead, consistent with an attempt at coreferential interpretation despite gender mismatch. The results from the experiments combined suggest that, in absence of an acceptability judgment task, people are more likely to interpret mismatching pronouns as referring to an unknown, unheralded antecedent than as a grammatically anomalous anaphor for a given antecedent.

Processing effects in linguistic judgment data: (super-)additivity and reading span scores

abstractLinguistic acceptability judgments are widely agreed to reflect constraints on real-time language processing. Nonetheless, very little is known about how processing costs affect acceptability judgments. In this paper, we explore how processing limitations are manifested in acceptability judgment data. In a series of experiments, we consider how two factors relate to judgments for sentences with varying degrees of complexity: (1) the way constraints combine (i.e., additively or super-additively), and (2) the way a comprehender’s memory resources influence acceptability judgments. Results indicate that multiple sources of processing difficulty can combine to produce super-additive effects, and that there is a positive linear relationship between reading span scores and judgments for sentences whose unacceptability is attributable to processing costs. These patterns do not hold for sentences whose unacceptability is attributable to factors other than processing costs, e.g., grammatical constraints. We conclude that tests of (super)-additivity and of relationships to reading span scores can help to identify the effects of processing difficulty on acceptability judgments, although these tests cannot be used in contexts of extreme processing difficulty.

テキストからの学習におけるワーキングメモリの効果

This study examined the effect of working memory on learning from texts. In Experiment 1, participants preformed a word clustering task involving key words from an explanatory text (pretest), and then read the text, which was presented sentence-by-sentence. Next, they performed a second clustering task (post-test), a problem solving task, and a reading span test (RST). The results suggested that the individual differences of the RST scores correlated with the scores for problem solving. In Experiment 2, the results suggested that the individual differences of the RST scores influenced the clustering performance at the level of the situation model when the text was presented all together. Moreover, the result of multiple dimension scaling suggested that the situation models of high-span readers reflected the structure of the text more than those of low-span readers. These results indicate that readers with high reading span scores construct coherent situation models of texts and make use of them for learning from texts.

Effects of reading span and plausibility in the reanalysis of wh-gaps by Chinese-English second language speakers

This study utilizes a moving window technique to investigate how individual cognitive resources (operationalized in terms of reading span scores) might modulate the extent to which native English speakers and Chinese second language (L2) learners of English utilize plausibility information to recover from an initial misparse in the processing of long-distance wh-questions. Consistent with findings in the previous literature, both groups postulated a filler-gap dependency at the earliest possible position. This was evidenced by subject—object extraction parsing asymmetries that were indicative of an initially incorrect filler-gap analysis. Additionally, it was found that plausibility did not prevent initial misparses, but affected how fast participants recovered from misanalysis, with implausible analyses facilitating recovery. However, only the English L2 participants in the higher span group resembled English native readers in their ability to exploit plausibility information in this way. We conclude that the individual cognitive resources of the learner are an important factor in determining the extent to which sentence processing might be qualitatively similar or different in a first language (L1) and a second language.

P01-106 - Verbal working memory capacity in patients with chronic schizophrenia, chronic depression, and healthy participants

ObjectivesThe new standard computerized reading span test (RST), which is a complex verbal working memory test, was used for the first time in the assessment of verbal working memory capacity (Van den Noort et al., 2008) in two clinical populations.MethodsSixty participants, divided over three different groups; 20 patients with chronic schizophrenia, 20 patients with chronic depression, and 20 healthy participants, entered the study. The selection of the participants was based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. There was no comorbid depression in the patients with schizophrenia, as measured by the BDI-II. A comparison was made between the 3 different groups with respect to their verbal working memory capacity. The new standard computerized RST (Van den Noort et al., 2008) was used.ResultsIn this study, in line with previous studies, a significant decrease in verbal working memory capacity and a general slowing down was found in chronic patients with schizophrenia and chronic patients with depression in comparison with healthy participants. In addition, patients with schizophrenia showed a nearly significant higher reading span score but were significantly slower than the chronic patients with depression.ConclusionsThe new standard computerized RST (Van den Noort et al., 2008) is a suitable complex verbal working memory test that could be used for clinical applications, for instance, for the assessment of verbal working memory capacity in patients with chronic schizophrenia and chronic depression.

Long Reverberation Time Decreases Recall of Spoken Information

The aim of the study was to explore if a long reverberation time has the same effect on recall of spoken words as background noise was shown to have in a previous study. A further aim was to study the influence of working memory capacity on performance in these conditions. Thirty-two subjects performed a word recall and a sentence recognition test. They repeated each word to ensure correct identification. A reading span test measured their working memory capacity. Performance of the word recall task was impaired by the long reverberation time. The effect was most evident in the primacy part of the word list. No correlation was found between reading span score and recall performance.

Phonological Mismatch Makes Aided Speech Recognition in Noise Cognitively Taxing: Retracted Article

The working memory framework for Ease of Language Understanding predicts that speech processing becomes more effortful, thus requiring more explicit cognitive resources, when there is mismatch between speech input and phonological representations in long-term memory. To test this prediction, we changed the compression release settings in the hearing instruments of experienced users and allowed them to train for 9 weeks with the new settings. After training, aided speech recognition in noise was tested with both the trained settings and orthogonal settings. We postulated that training would lead to acclimatization to the trained setting, which in turn would involve establishment of new phonological representations in long-term memory. Further, we postulated that after training, testing with orthogonal settings would give rise to phonological mismatch, associated with more explicit cognitive processing. Thirty-two participants (mean=70.3 years, SD=7.7) with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (pure-tone average=46.0 dB HL, SD=6.5), bilaterally fitted for more than 1 year with digital, two-channel, nonlinear signal processing hearing instruments and chosen from the patient population at the Linköping University Hospital were randomly assigned to 9 weeks training with new, fast (40 ms) or slow (640 ms), compression release settings in both channels. Aided speech recognition in noise performance was tested according to a design with three within-group factors: test occasion (T1, T2), test setting (fast, slow), and type of noise (unmodulated, modulated) and one between-group factor: experience setting (fast, slow) for two types of speech materials-the highly constrained Hagerman sentences and the less-predictable Hearing in Noise Test (HINT). Complex cognitive capacity was measured using the reading span and letter monitoring tests. PREDICTION: We predicted that speech recognition in noise at T2 with mismatched experience and test settings would be associated with more explicit cognitive processing and thus stronger correlations with complex cognitive measures, as well as poorer performance if complex cognitive capacity was exceeded. Under mismatch conditions, stronger correlations were found between performance on speech recognition with the Hagerman sentences and reading span, along with poorer speech recognition for participants with low reading span scores. No consistent mismatch effect was found with HINT. The mismatch prediction generated by the working memory framework for Ease of Language Understanding is supported for speech recognition in noise with the highly constrained Hagerman sentences but not the less-predictable HINT.