Naming Speed Research Articles

Different speed of processing levels in childhood and their contribution to early literacy and reading abilities

Based on the effectiveness of speed of processing (SOP) skills, in particular rapid automatic naming, in kindergarten children to predict reading in first grade, the aim of the current study was to examine the connections between SOP skills and early literacy skills in kindergarten and their relationship to reading abilities in first grade. Ninety-six children were tested twice: first in kindergarten using speed of processing, early literacy, phonological awareness, language and rapid naming speed measures; and a year later in first grade, using speed of processing and different reading ability measures (decoding, reading comprehension, and fluency). The children were divided into three groups according to their performance on the speed of processing measures: slow, average, and fast. In kindergarten, the group with slow SOP exhibited the lowest scores on all the measures, while the groups with average and fast SOP performed better, with no significant difference between them. In first grade, speed of processing skills affected the different reading abilities in a dissimilar way, and the three groups showed different patterns of reading ability. SOP in kindergarten explained approximately 11% of the variance in reading in the 1st grade among the slow and average SOP groups. These findings have implications for early assessment and intervention.

Developmental dyslexia and phonological processing in European Portuguese orthography.

This study analysed the performance of phonological processing, the diagnostic accuracy and the influence on reading in children who were native speakers of an orthography of intermediate depth. Portuguese children with developmental dyslexia (DD; N=24; aged 10-12 years), chronological age (CA)-matched controls (N=24; aged 10-12 years) and reading level (RL)-matched controls (N=24; aged 7-9 years) were tested on measures of phonological processing (phonological awareness, naming speed and verbal short-term memory) and reading. The results indicated that the children with DD performed significantly poorer in all measures compared with the CA and RL. Phonological awareness and naming speed showed a high accuracy (receiver operating characteristics curve analysis) for discriminating the children with DD from the CA and RL, whereas the presence of abnormally low scores in phonological awareness and naming speed was more frequent in the DD group than in the controls and the normative population. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that phonological awareness was the most important predictor of all reading accuracy measures, whereas naming speed was particularly related to text reading fluency.

Rapid Automatized Naming in Children with Dyslexia: Is Inhibitory Control Involved?

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is widely seen as an important indicator of dyslexia. The nature of the cognitive processes involved in rapid naming is however still a topic of controversy. We hypothesized that in addition to the involvement of phonological processes and processing speed, RAN is a function of inhibition processes, in particular of interference control. A total 86 children with dyslexia and 31 normal readers were recruited. Our results revealed that in addition to phonological processing and processing speed, interference control predicts rapid naming in dyslexia, but in contrast to these other two cognitive processes, inhibition is not significantly associated with their reading and spelling skills. After variance in reading and spelling associated with processing speed, interference control and phonological processing was partialled out, naming speed was no longer consistently associated with the reading and spelling skills of children with dyslexia. Finally, dyslexic children differed from normal readers on naming speed, literacy skills, phonological processing and processing speed, but not on inhibition processes. Both theoretical and clinical interpretations of these results are discussed.

Verbal Fluency and Word Naming Speed in Healthy Adults

배경 및 목적: 단어 이름대기 결함은 나이든 성인에게서 나타나는 빈번한 증상이다. 정상적 노화와 병리적 노화에 따른 차이를 이해하기 위해서는 이름대기 정확도와 속도의 평가가 필요하다. 이에 본 연구의 목적은 정상성인의 구두유창성과 단어 이름대기 속도의 특성을 살펴보고자 하였다. 방법: 이 연구에서는 30대, 40대, 50대, 60대, 70대의 의사소통문제가 없고 정상적인 신체활동을 하는 성인 215명을 대상으로 하였다. 이름대기 능력을 알아보기 위해 의미 및 음소유창성 과제(1분 동안 이름대기)와 단어 이름대기 속도 평가를 위해 그림제시 시간을 일정하게 제한(1초 간격, 1.5초 간격)하여 명사 그림 30개와 동사 그림 27개 이름대기를 실시하였다. 결과: 모든 연령대에서 의미유창성 과제의 점수가 음소유창성 과제보다 높게 산출되었고, 연령증가에 따라 두 과제 점수가 모두 점진적으로 감소하는 추이를 보였다. 제한된 그림제시시간에 따른 이름대기 속도평가 과제에서는 1.5초 간격으로 제시한 조건에서 명사(30개)와 동사어휘(27개) 이름대기의 점수가 높은 것으로 나타났고, 연령증가에 따라 통계적으로 유의미한 차이를 보였다. 구두유창성과 단어인출속도와의 상관성을 살펴본 결과, 음소유창성 과제와 단어이름대기속도 평가 과제간의 상관계수(.312~.539, p<.001)가 범주 유창성 상관계수(.297~.405, p<.001)보다 다소 높은 경향을 보였다. 논의 및 결론: 노화에 따른 이름대기 과제 수행능력의 저하가 연령에 따라 유의미하게 나타났다. 따라서 노화와 관련하여 이름대기 능력 감퇴의 정상적 추이를 이해하기 위해서는 연령대 간 비교 연구가 필요하며, 더 나아가 언어장애의 단어인출결함의 문제를 정확하게 진단하기 위해서는 이름대기 정확도와 속도 두 가지 면을 모두 고려한 평가의 실시가 필요할 것이다.

Development of Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) in Simultaneous Kannada-English Biliterate Children.

RAN tests were administered to 600 typically developing children, 60 each from grade level one through grade ten (30 boys and 30 girls), who learn two distinct languages, English and Kannada simultaneously from the very first grade. The overall results were in accordance with similar previous studies in English and other European languages. The developmental trajectories were similar across the languages to a large extent; but the results also showed some differences across languages with respect to synchrony between the measures and the overall naming speed. Though some of the differences could be ascribed to the bilingual/biliterate culture and language use, there are enough scopes for future researches to examine these issues.

Rapid Automatized Naming and Reading: A Review

Most of the studies on naming speed have shown that rapid automatized naming (RAN) test to be a useful concurrent and future predictor of reading ability in children. Individuals who show poor performances on RAN tasks are likely to have difficulty in reading. According to the double deficit hypothesis (DDH) deficits in phonological awareness (PA) and RAN are the primary causative factors of reading disability (RD). The present review presents the origin of RAN test, its measures, its relationship with reading, phonological awareness, and general speed of processing in the light of available research.

Efectos de la intervención en conciencia fonológica y velocidad de denominación sobre el aprendizaje de la escritura

The aim of this research was to analyze the causal effect that intervention on phonological awareness and naming speed could have on learning to write. A total of 271 students participate (138 experimental group and 133 control group). The experimental group received instructions on phonological awareness and naming speed throughout three courses, and the control group followed the official curriculum. The instructions given to students of pre-school education (4 and 5 years old) and first grade of primary school (6 years old), were evaluated in writing with standardized test three years later. The experimental group obtained higher scores than the control group in the phonological and rapid naming tasks. And more interesting, the experimental group obtained better results in writing tasks. These results have important theoretical implications, as they show the relationship between phonological awareness and naming speed in learning to write. There are also educational implications, since it provides guidelines to facilitate the learning of writing in the classroom.

Regional brain glucose metabolism and neurocognitive function in adult survivors of childhood cancer treated with cranial radiation.

The objective of this study was to examine associations between regional brain metabolism, as measured by (18)F-FDG PET, and neurocognitive outcomes in adult survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with cranial radiation. Thirty-eight adult survivors of ALL were randomly selected from a large cohort treated with cranial radiation therapy (19 with 18 Gy and 19 with 24 Gy of exposure). At a mean age of 26.4 (range, 22.3-37.4) years, and 23.5 (range, 20.4-32.8) years since diagnosis, patients underwent comprehensive neurocognitive evaluations and brain (18)F-FDG PET imaging during a resting condition. (18)F-FDG PET images were analyzed stereotactically, and pixel values were normalized to global activity. Predefined region-of-interest and voxel-based correlation analyses were performed. Compared with national norms, survivors demonstrated lower vocabulary (P < 0.001), reading (P < 0.001), mathematics (P < 0.001), working memory (P < 0.001), oral naming speed (P < 0.001), and cognitive flexibility (P < 0.001). Metabolic activity was higher in basal gangliar structures for those treated with 24 Gy of cranial radiation therapy (P = 0.04). Metabolic activity was positively correlated with oral naming speed in both lateral frontal lobes (ρ = 0.48 and 0.47 for right and left frontal regions, respectively, P < 0.01) and negatively correlated with cognitive flexibility in the sections of the basal ganglia (P < 0.01 for both caudate and putamen). Neurocognitive impairment in long-term survivors of ALL treated with cranial radiation appears to be associated with increased metabolic activity in frontal cerebral cortical and subcortical regions in the basal ganglia, suggesting decreased efficiency of the frontostriatal brain circuit.

Word-level reading achievement and behavioral inattention: exploring their overlap and relations with naming speed and phonemic awareness in a community sample of children.

This study investigated the contribution of naming speed and phonemic awareness to teacher inattention ratings and word-level reading proficiency in 79 first grade children (43 boys, 36 girls). Participants completed the cognitive and reading measures midway through the school year. Teacher ratings of inattention were obtained for each child at the same time point. A path analysis revealed that behavioral inattention had a significant direct effect on word reading proficiency as well as significant indirect effects through phonemic awareness and naming speed. For pseudoword reading proficiency, the effects of inattention were indirect only through phonemic awareness and naming speed. A regression analysis indicated that naming speed, but not phonemic awareness, was significantly associated with teacher inattention ratings controlling for word reading proficiency. The findings highlight the need to better understand the role of behavioral inattention in the development of emergent literacy skills and reading proficiency.

Colour word Stroop test in Polish learners of English: No evidence that L2 proficiency matters

Abstract The aim of our study was to test whether and how the proficiency level in L2 affects the amount of within-language interference in Stroop colour word test (Polish as L1, English as L2); as well as to test whether and how the proficiency level in L2 affects colour naming speed in this L2, based on a study on 50 Polish students (age M = 20.8, SD = 1.6) at varying levels of English proficiency and age of acquisition &gt; 7. The English version of Golden et al. (2002) Stroop Colour and Word Test and its Polish counterpart were used. The results show that in late unbalanced bilinguals the within-language interference was smaller in L2 than in L1 and its amount was not affected by L2 proficiency level; and that colour naming was slower in L2 than in L1, and the scores were not affected by L2 proficiency level. The implications of the study are discussed, concerning, among others, L2 processing in late unbalanced bilinguals. The popular claim that the pattern of the interplay between inter- and intra-linguistic interference in Stroop colour word test relates to proficiency level in L2 is challenged.

B-30 * Component Processes in Reading Fluency: Letter Naming and General Processing Speed

B-30 * Component Processes in Reading Fluency: Letter Naming and General Processing Speed

Comparison of the Speed of Naming in 7-8 years old Children with and without stuttering

Background and Aim: Stuttering is one of the most current speech disorders, which is marked by sudden occurring, alternate and abnormal interruptions in the natural flow of speech. It also has consequences such as behavioral, cognitive and attitude changes in the patient. The main aim of this study was to compare and analyze the speed of naming in 7-8 year old children with and without stuttering. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 36 children with and without stuttering. The case group (n=18) was recruited from the admitted patients inTehran’s speech therapy clinics. Matched sampling of control group (n=18) was done considering the criteria of age, sex, and being monolingual in Persian. In order to do this research, 4 sub-scales were used: pictures, colors, numbers and alphabetic letters and the results were recorded according to the responses of the participants in terms of speech reaction time (SRT) in naming speed task. Results: The outcome showed that there is a significant difference in naming speed at all sub-scales (p<0.001) between the case and control groups. We also found out that the speech reaction times between the two groups were different in numbers in telling the numbers, alphabetic letters, colors and pictures respectively. Conclusion: According to research findings, the speech reaction times in stuttering children was slower in all the 4 sub-scales, and it was slowest in the pictures task subscale compared to the other subscales. Keywords: Stuttering, children, Naming speed, Speech reaction time

Growth in working memory and inhibition predicts literacy in English language learners: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to determine whether cross-sectional and growth effects in second language (L2) literacy are related to the executive component of working memory (WM) and whether inhibition may underlie the links between WM and reading in children whose first language (L1) is Spanish. Elementary school children (grades 1, 2 and 3) were administered a battery of cognitive [WM, short-term memory (STM), random generation, rapid naming, phonological processing], vocabulary and reading measures in both Spanish (L1) and English (L2) in Year 1 and again one year later. The regression analyses showed that L2 growth in WM significantly predicted growth in L2 reading skills even when inhibition was controlled. Further, the contributions of WM to reading growth in both L1 and L2 reading were independent of cross-language skills in phonological processing, STM, oral language and naming speed. Overall, the results suggest the mental activities that underlie WM and inhibition in predictions of L2 literacy reflect independent executive processes.

Classification of Double Deficit Groups Across Time: An Analysis of Group Stability From Kindergarten to Second Grade

The Double Deficit Hypothesis of dyslexia is one approach to classifying students with reading disabilities. The theory offers four distinct groups of readers: (a) average readers, (b) students with phonological deficits, (c) students with naming speed deficits, and (d) students with double deficits: those having both (b) and (c). This study examines the stability of these groups from kindergarten to second grade. An initial sample of 214 students were tested at four time points on measures of rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, and reading. Latent transition analyses were used to examine the stability of these groups over time. These analyses indicated moderate stability from kindergarten to second grade with the probability of movement between groups being higher in kindergarten and early first grade. The groups differed in reading achievement at each testing time, with the double deficit group obtaining the lowest scores. Implications for early assessment and intervention are discussed.

Effects of phonological awareness and naming speed on mathematics skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities

Objective: Both phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed have been identified as two skills related to the development of mathematics skills for children with and without learning disabilities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between PA and colour naming speed for 265 elementary school students with mild intellectual disabilities (MID).Methods: Participants were assessed using the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processes and the KeyMath Revised Diagnostic Inventory of Essential Mathematics.Results: Hierarchical regression analyses accounting for the effects of age indicated that children with MID rely on both PA and naming speed when solving mathematics problems, although PA was the more robust indicator of the two.Conclusion: As a whole, these results suggest that children with intellectual disabilities evidence the same types of reading and math relationships as shown for other populations of children.

Naming Fluency in Dyslexic and Nondyslexic Readers: Differential Effects of Visual Crowding in Foveal, Parafoveal, and Peripheral Vision

Reading fluency is often indexed by performance on rapid automatized naming (RAN) tasks, which are known to reflect speed of access to lexical codes. We used eye tracking to investigate visual influences on naming fluency. Specifically, we examined how visual crowding affects fluency in a RAN-letters task on an item-by-item basis, by systematically manipulating the interletter spacing of items, such that upcoming letters in the array were viewed in the fovea, parafovea, or periphery relative to a given fixated letter. All lexical information was kept constant. Nondyslexic readers' gaze durations were longer in foveal than in parafoveal and peripheral trials, indicating that visual crowding slows processing even for fluent readers. Dyslexics' gaze durations were longer in foveal and parafoveal trials than in peripheral trials. Our results suggest that for dyslexic readers, influences of crowding on naming speed extend to a broader visual span (to parafoveal vision) than that for nondyslexic readers, but do not extend as far as peripheral vision. The findings extend previous research by elucidating the different visual spans within which crowding operates for dyslexic and nondyslexic readers in an online fluency task.

Slowing of number naming speed by King–Devick Test in Parkinson's disease

BackgroundThe King–Devick (KD) test measures the speed of rapid number naming, and is postulated to require fast eye movements, attention, language, and possibly other aspects of cognitive functions. While used in multiple sports concussion studies, it has not been applied to the field of movement disorders. MethodsForty-five Parkinson's disease (PD), 23 essential tremor (ET), and 65 control subjects were studied. Subjects performed two trials of reading out loud single-digit numbers separated by varying spacing on three test cards that were of different formats. The sum time of the faster trial was designated the KD score and compared across the three groups. ResultsPD patients had higher (worse) KD scores, with longer reading times compared to ET and control subjects (66 s vs. 49 s vs. 52 s, p < 0.001, adjusting for age and gender). No significant difference was found between ET and control (Δ = −3 s, 95% CI: −10 to 4). ConclusionsThis is the first study of the King–Devick Test in Parkinson's disease. PD patients were found to have a slower rapid number naming speed compared to controls. This test may be a simple and rapid bedside tool for quantifying correlates of visual and cognitive function in Parkinson's disease.

Orthographic learning and self-teaching in a bilingual and biliterate context

The aim of this study was to examine self-teaching in the context of English as a foreign language literacy acquisition. Three groups comprising 88 sixth-grade children participated. The first group consisted of Russian–Hebrew-speaking bilinguals who had acquired basic reading skills in Russian as their first language (L1) and literacy and who were literate in Hebrew as a second language. The second group consisted of Russian–Hebrew-speaking bilinguals who had not learned to read in their native Russian but had acquired Hebrew as their first literate language. The third group consisted of Hebrew-speaking monolingual children who were literate in Hebrew. This design facilitated examining the effect of biliteracy and bilingualism on basic English reading skills. We hypothesized that due to the proximity between the Russian and English orthographies as opposed to the Hebrew–English “distance,” the Russian–Hebrew-speaking biliterate group who acquired basic reading and spelling skills in L1 Russian would have superior self-teaching in English as opposed to the two other groups. The standard two-session self-teaching paradigm was employed with naming (speed and accuracy) and orthographic choice as posttest measures of orthographic learning. Results showed that after 4years of English instruction, all three groups showed evidence of self-teaching on naming speed and orthographic recognition. The Russian–Hebrew-speaking biliterate group, moreover, showed a partial advantage over the comparison groups for initial decoding of target pseudowords and clear-cut superiority for measures of later orthographic learning, thereby showing self-teaching while supporting the script dependence hypothesis.

Connectivity between Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus and Supplementary Motor Area Predicts After-Effects of Right Frontal Cathodal tDCS on Picture Naming Speed

BackgroundCathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right frontal cortex improves language abilities in post-stroke aphasic patients. Yet little is known about the effects of right frontal cathodal tDCS on normal language function. Objective/hypothesisTo explore the cathodal tDCS effects of the right-hemispheric homologue of Broca's area on picture naming in healthy individuals. We hypothesized that cathodal tDCS improves picture naming and that this effect is determined by the anatomical and functional connectivity of the targeted region. MethodsCathodal and sham tDCS were applied to the right inferior frontal gyrus in 24 healthy subjects before a picture-naming task. All participants were studied with magnetic resonance imaging at pre-interventional baseline. Probabilistic tractography and dynamic causal modeling of functional brain activity during a word repetition task were applied to characterize anatomical and functional connectivity. ResultsSubjects named pictures faster after cathodal relative to sham tDCS. The accelerating effect of tDCS was explained by a reduced frequency of very slow responses. tDCS-induced acceleration of picture naming correlated with larger volumes of the tract connecting the right Broca's area and the supplementary motor area (SMA) and greater functional coupling from the right SMA to the right Broca's area. ConclusionsThe results support the notion that the after-effects of tDCS on brain function are at least in part determined by the anatomical and functional connectivity of the targeted region.

A model of phonological processing, language, and reading for students with mild intellectual disability.

Little is known about the relationships between phonological processing, language, and reading in children with intellectual disability (ID). We examined the structure of phonological processing in 294 school-age children with mild ID and the relationships between its components and expressive and receptive language and reading skills using structural equation modeling. Phonological processing consisted of two distinct but correlated latent abilities: phonological awareness and naming speed. Phonological awareness had strong relationships with expressive and receptive language and reading skills. Naming speed had moderate relationships with these variables. Results suggest that children with ID bring the same skills to the task of learning to read as children with typical development, highlighting the fact that phonologically based reading instruction should be considered a viable approach.