Sublexical Variables Research Articles

The role of semantic information in Chinese word segmentation

ABSTRACT Word segmentation is crucial for reading in Chinese, where the absence of explicit word boundaries poses a distinct challenge. Previous studies in Chinese have examined how lexical and sub-lexical variables affect word segmentation. The present study investigated whether higher-level semantic information affects word segmentation using a primed word segmentation task with Overlapping Ambiguous Strings (OAS). An OAS is a three-character string in Chinese (e.g. ABC [in Latin letters]) where the middle character can constitute a word with both the left (word AB) and right (word BC) characters. The OAS was preceded by a semantic or repetition prime (presented for 42, 83, or 200 ms, across participants), priming either AB or BC. The semantic priming effect occurred at the 200-ms Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA), whereas the repetition priming effect occurred at both 83 and 200-ms SOAs. These findings demonstrate that semantic information can affect word segmentation in Chinese within 200 ms.

Spelling acquisition in a consistent orthography: The facilitatory effect of syllable frequency in novice spellers.

This study investigates the effects of two sublexical variables, syllable frequency, and word length, in the spelling acquisition of novice spellers dealing with a transparent orthography, such as Italian. Two groups of 1 st-grade Italian children were tested respectively after 4 and 8 months of schooling, with a spelling-to-dictation task of single words created ad hoc by manipulating syllable frequency orthogonally (high vs low frequency of the first syllable) and length (short vs long words). The results show that after only four months of schooling, children could offset their difficulty in writing long words by taking advantage of the high frequency of the initial syllable. However, the regularity of Italian spelling makes it easy to capture fine-sized phoneme-to-grapheme units, rendering the syllable effect no longer detectable in more schooled children.

The interaction of central and peripheral processes in typing and handwriting: A direct comparison.

This study aimed to investigate the interaction between linguistic and peripheral-motor processes in written production. Past research has focused on this topic by analyzing how handwriting and, more recently, typing execution were influenced by lexical and sublexical variables. We took a step further in this study by directly comparing handwriting and typing, examining if different motor executions allow for different flows of linguistic processing. Participants typed and handwrote a set of Italian stimuli in which we manipulated lexicality (words vs. pseudowords), orthographic complexity (stimuli with vs. without multiletter graphemes), and length (short vs. long stimuli). We measured and analyzed latency (response times [RTs]), the difference between RTs and the acoustic duration (AD) of the stimuli (RT-AD), mean length of interletter intervals (ILIs), and whole response duration (WRD). We further explored the effects of the position of the orthographic complexity on RTs, RT-AD, ILIs, and WRD. Results suggested a cascaded, continuous processing flow for handwriting and a mixed mechanism involving both serial and parallel modes of processing for typing. The differences in linguistic processing during handwriting and typing suggest different mechanisms in segmenting, maintaining, and retrieving the orthographic representation during motor execution. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The abc of the b and c in Spanish: inconsistent and context dependent letter errors and the development of orthographic knowledge in primary school children

This study presents the results of a cross-sectional reading and spelling assessment conducted among 118 Spanish children in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. The first aim was to explore whether children´s use of orthographic knowledge was modulated by lexical variables—word frequency and orthographic neighborhood—or sublexical variables—context-dependent, inconsistent or neutral letters- as well as the developmental pathway of such knowledge in both tasks. The second aim was to provide insight into the type of errors committed by children in order to detect the words and structures that convey most difficulties. Data showed that children rely on sublexical processes more than on lexical ones in reading and writing. Persistent errors in context-dependent and inconsistent letters were evident even in 5th grade, and writing involved greater difficulty in all grades. The presence of other type of errors such as substitutions, omissions or lexicalizations was negligible. Finally, an item analysis revealed that errors were located in low-frequency syllables, particularly in the first position. Data point to specific and persistent difficulties in context-dependent and inconsistent letters that may hinder the consolidation of accurate orthographic word representations in Spanish.

Exploring the use of network meta-analysis in education: examining the correlation between ORF and text complexity measures.

Calls for empirical investigations of the Common Core standards (CCSSs) for English Language Arts have been widespread, particularly in the area of text complexity in the primary grades (e.g., Hiebert & Mesmer Educational Research, 42(1), 44-51, 2013). The CCSSs mention that qualitative methods (such as Fountas and Pinnell) and quantitative methods (such as Lexiles) can be used to gauge text complexity (CCSS Initiative, 2010). However, researchers have questioned the validity of these tools for several decades (e.g., Hiebert & Pearson, 2010). In an effort to establish criterion validity of these tools, individual studies have compared how well they correlate with actual student reading performance measures, most commonly reading comprehension and/or oral-reading fluency (ORF). ORF is a key aspect of reading success and as such is often used for progress monitoring purposes. However, to date, studies have not been able to evaluate different text complexity tools and relation to reading outcomes across studies. This is challenging because the pair-wise meta-analytic model is not able to synthesize several independent variables that differ both within and across studies. Therefore, it is unable to answer pressing research questions in education, such as, which text complexity tool is most correlated with student ORF (and, thus, a good measure of text difficulty)? This question is timely given that the Common Core State Standards explicitly mention various text complexity tools; yet, the validity of such tools has been repeatedly questioned by researchers. This article provides preliminary evidence to answer that question using an approach borrowed from the field of medicine-Network Meta-Analysis (NMA; Lumley Statistics in Medicine, 21, 2313-2324, 2002). A systematic search yielded 5 studies using 19 different text complexity tools with ORF as the reading outcome measured. Both a frequentist and Bayesian NMA were conducted to pool the correlations of a given text complexity tool with students' ORF. While the results differed slightly across the two approaches, there is preliminary evidence in support of the hypothesis that text complexity tools which incorporate more fine-grained sub-lexical variables were more strongly correlated with student outcomes. While the results of this example cannot be generalized due to the low sample size, this article shows how NMA is a promising new analytic tool for synthesizing educational research.

Consonant age of acquisition effects are robust in children's nonword repetition performance

ABSTRACTThe underlying processes of nonword repetition (NWR) have been studied extensively in both typical and atypical development. Most of the research examining long-term memory effects on NWR has focused on lexical and sublexical variables that can only be computed relative to the lexicon of a specific language (e.g., phonotactic probability). Sublexical variables that can be defined without reference to the lexicon (e.g., consonant age of acquisition; CAoA) have received little attention, although recent work has shown a CAoA effect on NWR in young adults by measuring performance differences when the stimuli comprise consonants acquired later versus earlier in speech development. The purpose of this study was to identify whether this sublexical effect occurs earlier in development. Thirty-one typically developing first and second graders completed NWR, nonword reading, and auditory lexical decision tasks. Nonword accuracy and word–nonword discriminability were consistently lower for items comprising later versus earlier acquired phonemes, even after controlling for vocabulary knowledge, but there were no differences in speed measures. Patterns of performance were similar to the CAoA effects observed in young adults from previous work. Results indicate that the sensitivity of NWR performance to these sublexical long-term memory effects occurs in childhood and reflects adultlike patterns of performance.

The role of sublexical variables in reading fluency development among Spanish children.

Several studies have found that, after repeated exposure to new words, children form orthographic representations that allow them to read those words faster and more fluently. However, these studies did not take into account variables related to the words. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of sublexical variables on the formation of orthographic representations of words by Spanish children. The first experiment used pseudo-words of varying syllabic structure and syllabic frequency. The stimuli for the second experiment were formed with or without context-dependent graphemes. We found that formation of orthographic representations was influenced by syllabic structure (easier for words with simple syllabic structure) and the context-dependency of graphemes (easier in the absence of context-dependent graphemes), but not syllabic frequency. These results indicate that the easier it is to read a word, the easier it is to form an orthographic representation of it.

Lexical and sublexical effects on visual word recognition in Greek: comparing human behavior to the dual route cascaded model

ABSTRACTWe evaluated the dual route cascaded (DRC) model of visual word recognition using Greek behavioural data on word and nonword naming and lexical decision, focusing on the effects of syllable and bigram frequency. DRC was modified to process polysyllabic Greek words and nonwords. The Greek DRC and native speakers of Greek were presented with the same sets of word and nonword stimuli, spanning a wide range on several psycholinguistic variables, and the sensitivity of the model to lexical and sublexical variables was compared to the effects of these factors on the behavioural data. DRC pronounced correctly all the stimuli and successfully simulated the effects of frequency in words, and of length and bigram frequency in nonwords. However, unlike native speakers of Greek, DRC failed to demonstrate sensitivity to word length and syllabic frequency. We discuss the significance of these findings in constraining models of visual word recognition.

Evaluating cognitive models of visual word recognition using fMRI: Effects of lexical and sublexical variables

In this study predictions of the dual-route cascaded (DRC) model of word reading were tested using fMRI. Specifically, patterns of co-localization were investigated: (a) between pseudoword length effects and a pseudowords vs. fixation contrast, to reveal the sublexical grapho-phonemic conversion (GPC) system; and (b) between word frequency effects and a words vs. pseudowords contrast, to reveal the orthographic and phonological lexicon. Forty four native speakers of Greek were scanned at 3T in an event-related lexical decision task with three event types: (a) 150 words in which frequency, length, bigram and syllable frequency, neighborhood, and orthographic consistency were decorrelated; (b) 150 matched pseudowords; and (c) fixation. Whole-brain analysis failed to reveal the predicted co-localizations. Further analysis with participant-specific regions of interest defined within masks from the group contrasts revealed length effects in left inferior parietal cortex and frequency effects in the left middle temporal gyrus. These findings could be interpreted as partially consistent with the existence of the GPC system and phonological lexicon of the model, respectively. However, there was no evidence in support of an orthographic lexicon, weakening overall support for the model. The results are discussed with respect to the prospect of using neuroimaging in cognitive model evaluation.

Short-term and long-term effects on visual word recognition.

Effects of lexical and sublexical variables on visual word recognition are often treated as homogeneous across participants and stable over time. In this study, we examine the modulation of frequency, length, syllable and bigram frequency, orthographic neighborhood, and graphophonemic consistency effects by (a) individual differences, and (b) item repetition. A group of 129 participants performed lexical decision and naming, in counterbalanced order, using a set of 150 Greek words in which these variables were decorrelated. Frequency, length, and syllable frequency effects were reduced by a preceding task. Length effects were inversely related to years of education. Neighborhood effects depended on the metric used. There were no significant effects or interactions of bigram frequency or consistency. The results suggest that exposure to a word causes transient effects that may cumulatively develop into permanent individual differences. Models of word recognition must incorporate item-specific learning to account for these findings.

ChildLex: a lexical database of German read by children.

This article introduces childLex, an online database of German read by children. childLex is based on a corpus of children's books and comprises 10 million words that were syntactically annotated and lemmatized. childLex reports linguistic norms for lexical, superlexical, and sublexical variables in three different age groups: 6-8 (grades 1-2), 9-10 (grades 3-4), and 11-12 years (grades 5-6). Here, we describe how childLex was collected and analyzed. In addition, we provide information about the distributions of word frequency, word length, and orthographic neighborhood size, as well as their intercorrelations. Finally, we explain how childLex can be accessed using a Web interface.

Lexical effects in word naming in spanish children.

Reading strategies depend on the consistency of the orthographic system. Recently the use of lexical strategies at early stages of reading acquisition has been shown even in transparent orthographies. The aim of this study was to know how different lexical and sublexical variables affect the reaction times (RTs) and articulation times (ATs) in word reading in Spanish children. A group of 46 children of typical reading level in the second and fourth grades of primary school were asked to read aloud 100 words presented on a computer screen. The stimuli were morphologically simple nouns with different ranges of length, frequency, imageability, orthographic neighbors and age of acquisition (AoA). Reading and articulation time were measured. Differences between means of the second and the fourth grade were seen in RTs (p < .001; Cohens' d = 1.41) and ATs (p < 001;Cohen's d = 1.41) in a t-test. Analyses of mixed-effects revealed that word length, a sublexical variable, and frequency and AoA, lexical variables, affected both grades, mainly on the RTs. The presence of lexical variables reducing RTs and ATs in second grade suggests that lexical reading is present from very early stages in Spanish children.

The interaction between central and peripheral processes in handwriting production

Written production studies investigating central processing have ignored research on the peripheral components of movement execution, and vice versa. This study attempts to integrate both approaches and provide evidence that central and peripheral processes interact during word production. French participants wrote regular words (e.g. FORME), irregular words (e.g. FEMME) and pseudo-words (e.g. FARNE) on a digitiser. Pseudo-words yielded longer latencies than regular words. Letter durations were greater for words at earlier letter positions and greater for pseudo-words at the later positions. Letter durations were longer for irregular than regular words. The effect was modulated by the position of the irregularity. These findings indicate that movement production can be affected by lexical and sublexical variables that regulate spelling processes. They suggest that central processing is not completely finished before movement initiation and affects peripheral writing mechanisms in a cascaded manner. Lexical and sublexical processing does not cascade to the same extent.

Convergences and divergences between neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic data in the study of phonological and phonetic encoding: a parallel investigation of syllable frequency effects in brain-damaged and healthy speakers

Theories of speech production suggest that phonetic encoding involves an access to stored syllable-sized articulatory plans. Both neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic investigations have reported an effect of the frequency of use of syllabic units, respectively on accuracy and errors in brain-damaged (BD) speakers and on production latencies in nonbrain-damaged speakers. Beyond these convergent results, the fact that the same effects have been reported with BD patients with and without impairment ascribed at the level of phonetic encoding challenges the architecture of speech production models and the interpretation of patients' behaviour. Here we carry out a fully parallel neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic investigation to address whether previous diverging results can be accounted for by methodological differences between neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies. We analysed production accuracy in 14 BD speakers and production latencies in 24 non brain-damaged speakers using the same pseudo-word stimuli, same reading and repetition tasks, and same multiple regression approach. Results replicate evidence from previous neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies on an influence of syllable frequency independently of other sublexical variables in both populations. In addition, the effect of syllable frequency on production accuracy was not limited to BD patients with impaired phonetic encoding. We suggest that these results are best accounted for by postulating interaction between phonological and phonetic encoding.

THE INHIBITORY EFFECT OF PHONOLOGICAL SYLLABLES, RATHER THAN ORTHOGRAPHIC SYLLABLES, AS EVIDENCED IN KOREAN LEXICAL DECISION TASKS

Previous studies on shallow orthographies and clear syllable boundaries of languages—such as Spanish, German, and French—report an inhibitory effect in lexical decision tasks when targets have more densely frequent syllable neighborhoods (MFSNs). However, these results do not indicate whether the inhibitory effect derives from orthographic syllable representations or phonological syllable representations, because the target words in those studies were mixed in terms of orthographic and phonological representations. The present study investigated whether an inhibitory effect due to lexical competitors derives from phonological or orthographic syllables, using two lexical decision tasks with Korean bisyllable words. In Experiment 1, when a target had MFSNs that controlled for orthographically related sublexical variables (e.g., bigram frequency, the density of orthographic neighborhoods, and the density of more frequent orthographic syllable neighborhoods), the facilitative effect occurred. In Experiment 2, a typical inhibitory effect in a lexical decision task was elicited by a dense MFSN in a phonologically defined syllable, while a dense MFSN in an orthographically defined syllable did not create the inhibitory effect. The results suggest that an inhibitory effect due to lexical competition might not be derived from orthographic syllables, but from phonological syllables.

Syntactic priming of nouns and verbs in Chinese.

Syntactic priming of Chinese nouns and verbs was investigated in word recognition (cued shadowing of auditory targets) and production (picture naming). Disyllabic compound words were presented after syntactically congruent, incongruent, or neutral auditory contexts, with a zero delay between offset of the context and onset of the target. Significant priming was observed in both tasks, including facilitation as well as inhibition. Post hoc analyses showed that reaction times were also affected by sublexical variables that are especially relevant for Chinese, including syllable density (number of word types and tokens in the language with the same first or second syllable) and semantic transparency (whether the meaning of the whole word is predictable from the separate meanings of the two syllables within the compound). These patterns suggest competitive effects at the sublexical level. Implications for interactive models of lexical access are discussed.

Comprehension Processes in Braille Reading

This study explored the comprehension processes of reading braille text. It found that some processes were similar to that of reading printed text. However, braille readers did not show any sensitivity to sublexical variables or to most of the variables that were assumed to be related to integration processes.

The influence of lexical and sublexical variables in normal and poor Spanish readers

The main aim of our study was to find out the effect of several lexical and sublexical variables (lexical category, lexical frequency, syllabic structure, and word length) in the acquisition of reading in a transparent language such as Spanish. The second goal of our study was the comparison of the effect of these variables in normal and poor Spanish readers. One hundred and forty children (aged between 6 and 12), twenty of whom were poor readers, were tested using a reading test of 306 items in which we balanced all the variables. The dependent variable was the percentage of correct responses in a decontextualized word reading test. Our results showed that all the above mentioned variables produced a significant effect on the number of errors made by the children. This pattern of results suggests no difference between the processes involved in the reading acquisition of Spanish and those implicated in deep orthographies such as English. Our results also showed no qualitative differences between normal and poor readers. The four variables studied showed the same behaviour in their effect on reading performance for both normal and poor readers, indicating that poor readers also use both the lexical and the phonological route. Our data suggest the universality of the dual route model, independent of the transparency or opaqueness of the different alphabetical languages.