Words Aloud Research Articles

Clinical usefulness of the Verbal Fluency Index (VFI) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This study aimed at assessing the clinical utility of the Verbal Fluency Index (VFI) over a classical phonemic verbal fluency test in Italian-speaking amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. N = 343 non-demented ALS patients and N = 226 healthy controls (HCs) were administered the Verbal fluency - S task from the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS). The associations between the number of words produced (NoW), the time to read words aloud (TRW) and the VFI (computed as [(60"-TRW)/NoW]) on one hand and both bulbar/respiratory scores from the ALS Functional Rating Scale - Revised (ALSFRS-R) and the ECAS-Executive on the other were tested. Italian norms for the NoW and the VFI were derived in HCs via the Equivalent Score method. Patients were classified based on their impaired/unimpaired performances on the NoW and the VFI (NoW-VFI-; NoW-VFI+; NoW + VFI-; NoW + VFI+), with these groups being compared on ECAS-Executive scores. The VFI, but neither the NoW nor the TRW, were related to ALSFRS-Bulbar/-Respiratory scores; VFI and NoW measures, but not the TRW, were related to the ECAS-Executive (p < .001). The NoW slightly overestimated the number of executively impaired patients when compared to the VFI (31.1% vs. 26.8%, respectively). Patients with a defective VFI score - regardless of whether they presented or not with a below-cutoff NoW - reported worse ECAS-Executive scores than NoW + VFI + ones. The present reports support the use of the Italian VFI as a mean to validly assess ALS patients' executive status by limiting the effect of motor disabilities that might undermine their speech rate.

Automatic Morphological Processing in Middle School Students with and without Word Reading Difficulties

Morphological processing is the use of morphological structure during word reading. This study investigated whether middle school students applied morphological structure automatically when reading words. In addition, this study asked whether students with word reading difficulties (WRD) applied morphological structure in a way that differed from proficient word readers. Participants were seventh- and eighth-grade students (n = 80). Students were divided into two reading ability groups: proficient word readers (n = 55) and students with word reading difficulties (n = 25). Four computer-administered experimental tasks measured automaticity in reading morphologically complex words and morphologically simple words. A backward masking measure assessed whether students were applying morphological structure automatically to support task accuracy. Students were significantly more accurate in masked performance with morphologically complex words than with morphologically simple words on an oral word reading task. Students with WRD benefitted more from morphological structure on this task than proficient readers did. Findings suggest that proficient word readers and students with WRD automatically apply morphological structure when reading words aloud. In addition, middle school students with WRD may rely more on morphological structure than their proficient peers. However, there may be differences in morphological processing based on the nature of word reading tasks.

Semantic and Syntactic Predictions in Reading Aloud: Are Good Predictors Good Statistical Learners?

Recent research suggests that becoming a fluent reader may partially rely on a domain-general statistical learning (SL) mechanism that allows a person to automatically extract predictable patterns from the sensory input. The goal of the present study was to investigate a potential link between SL and the ability to make linguistic predictions. All previous studies investigated quite general levels of reading ability rather than the dynamic process of making linguistic predictions. We thus used a recently developed predictive reading task, which consisted of having participants read aloud words that were preceded by either semantically or syntactically predictive contexts. To measure the componential nature of SL, we used a visual and an auditory SL task (VSL, ASL) and the classic serial reaction time task (SRT). General reading ability was assessed with a reading speed/comprehension test. The study was conducted online on a sample of 120 participants to make it possible to explore interindividual differences. The results showed only weak and sometimes even negative correlations between the various SL measures. ASL correlated positively and predicted general reading ability but neither semantic nor syntactic prediction effects. Similarly, one of the SRT measures was significantly associated with reading level and reading speed but not with linguistic prediction effects. In sum, there is little evidence that domain-general SL is a good predictor of people's ability to make domain-specific linguistic predictions. In contrast, SL shows a weak but significant association with general reading ability.

It's All About That Case.

Prior evidence has indicated that the act of producing a word aloud is more effortful than reading a word silently, and this effort is related to the subsequent memory advantage for produced words. In the current study, we further examined the contributions of reading effort to the overall production effect by making silent reading more effortful. To do this, participants studied words that were presented in standard lowercase font format and words that were presented in an aLtErNaTiNg CaSe font format (which should be more effortful to read). Half of the words in each font condition were read aloud, and half were read silently. Participants completed an old/new recognition test. Experiment 1 was conducted online; Experiment 2 was conducted in-lab and recorded reading times at study to confirm that alternating case font slows reading. In both experiments, we found a production effect in recognition that was uninfluenced by font type. We also found that alternating case font selectively increased recollection (but not familiarity) relative to lowercase font. Thus, the additional time to read words in a disfluent font does not appear to interact with memory benefit of producing words aloud.

Exploring the Production Effect in Memory Reveals a Balanced Bilingual Advantage.

There is evidence suggesting that bilingual individuals demonstrate an advantage over monolinguals in performing various tasks related to memory and executive functions. The characteristics of this bilingual advantage are not unanimously agreed upon in the literature, and some even doubt it exists. The heterogeneity of the bilingual population may explain this inconsistency. Hence, it is important to identify different subgroups of bilinguals and characterize their cognitive performance. The current study focuses on the production effect, a well-established memory phenomenon, in bilingual young adults differing in their English and Hebrew proficiency levels, and the possible balanced bilingual advantage. The aims of this study are (1) to evaluate the production effect in three groups of bilingual participants: English-dominant bilinguals, Hebrew-dominant bilinguals, and balanced bilinguals, and (2) to examine whether memory advantage depends on varying degrees of bilingualism. One hundred twenty-one bilingual young adults who speak English and Hebrew at different levels participated. All learned lists of familiar words, in English and Hebrew, half by reading aloud and half by silent reading, followed by free recall tests. As expected, a production effect (better memory for aloud words than for silent words) was found for all groups in both languages. Balanced bilinguals remembered more words than did dominant participants, demonstrating a memory advantage in both languages. These findings support the hypothesis that the presence of cognitive advantage in bilingualism depends on the acquisition of a good proficiency level in each of the languages, with direct implications for family language policy and bilingual education.

Lexical processing in children with hearing impairment in oral word reading in transparent Arabic orthography

AbstractWord recognition mechanisms constitute an essential contribution to reading achievement in both deaf and hearing children. Little is known about how children with hearing impairment (HI) manage to read aloud words in the vowelled Arabic transparent script which provides full vowel information. This study aimed to compare word and pseudoword reading accuracy and speed between 32 Lebanese children with HI and 32 younger hearing Lebanese children. The two groups were carefully matched for reading comprehension and oral comprehension levels. Length, word frequency, and lexicality effects were assessed to characterize the functioning of the lexical and sublexical reading procedures. Reading errors were also analyzed to document reading difficulties in transparent Arabic orthography in the sublexical route. The results show significant effects of length, word frequency, and lexicality on reading accuracy and speed in both groups. They also indicate underdeveloped sublexical and lexical routes in children with HI who read less accurately and faster than the younger hearing children. Reading errors are numerous in children with HI. The data are discussed in light of the Dual Route Cascaded model. Suggestions are made about how to improve reading processes in children with HI.

The Use of Word Card Media for Letter Recognition in Early Students

This research aims to determine how word card media affects children's letter recognition. Classroom teachers were questioned during data collection, along with other teachers, and learning activities were checked. This study used a qualitative method with a case study approach at PAUD al-Khoiriyah Tanjung Botung, Simangambat, Padang Lawas Utara, Sumatra Utara. This study uses a qualitative method with a case study approach. The research data is in the form of letter recognition activities using word cards as media. Researchers obtained data from school principals, class teachers, accompanying teachers, students, and several parents of students. Collecting data through observation, interviews, and documentation While data analysis is done by data reduction, data presentation, conclusion, and verification, The results of the study show that letter recognition using word card media can be passed by 1. The word cards are prepared by the teacher and distributed to students. 2. The teacher arranges the word cards that students will arrange by compiling the alphabet cards he gives according to the words proposed by the teacher. 3 The young person reads each letter and word aloud before the other groups.

The contributions of decoding skill and lexical knowledge to the development of irregular word reading.

Two recent computational models of reading development propose that irregular words are read using a combination of decoding and lexical knowledge but differ in assumptions about how these sources of information interact and about the relative importance of different aspects of lexical knowledge. We report developmental data that help to adjudicate these differences. Study 1 adopted a correlational approach to investigate the item-level relations between the ability to read a word aloud, general decoding ability, and knowledge of the word's phonological form (lexical phonology) or meaning (lexical semantics). We found that the latter three factors all influenced accuracy of oral reading. We observed trends indicating that the impact of differences in decoding skill and lexical knowledge were more prominent for irregular words. Study 2 comprised two experiments in which novel irregular words were taught; in Experiment 1 we compared phonological to no pretraining, whereas in Experiment 2 we compared phonological to phonological plus semantics pretraining. Exposure to the phonological form of the word had a substantial impact in the early stages of learning, whereas the impact of adding semantics was more modest and emerged later. Our findings provide strong evidence that irregular words are read using a combination of decoding and lexical knowledge, with a greater contribution from lexical phonology than lexical semantics. Computational models of learning to read are currently unable to fully account for our data, therefore we propose some modifications. We advocate an instructional approach whereby phonics and vocabulary teaching are combined to support irregular word reading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Consider the Source: An 1800 Maroon Treaty

In 1800, an exiled community of Jamaican Maroons migrated from Nova Scotia to the British antislavery colony of Sierra Leone. When they disembarked, Maroon captains met with Sierra Leone Company officials and rapidly negotiated and coauthored a treaty. This treaty is a composite manuscript document scattered throughout the National Archives at Kew (United Kingdom). The diplomatic customs that Maroons and British officials observed at the negotiation—including making speeches, reading script words aloud, and refusing to sign documents—marked the document as a treaty. This essay makes the case that the source is a treaty; explains and contextualizes the negotiation that occurred; and explores the themes of settlement, alliance, and antislavery that changed in Maroon treaties in Jamaica and Sierra Leone in the eighteenth century.

French Vocabulary Learning Strategies of French Majors at Khon Kaen University

The present study sought to investigate learning strategies and French vocabulary memorization strategies as well as to examine French vocabulary learning strategies employed among French-majored students at Khon Kaen University with high, moderate and low levels of GPA. In particular, the participants were 89 French-majored students, including second-year, third-year, and fourth-year students. In data collection, the instruments used in this study were a 38-item questionnaire concerning learning strategies and French vocabulary memorization strategies adapted from Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (2000). Statistics used to analyze the collected data included percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The results demonstrated that the most frequently used strategy for the discovery of a new word’s meaning was determination strategies, the most commonly used of which were using a French-Thai dictionary application and guessing word meaning from textual context respectively. Concerning strategies for consolidating a word, the most frequently employed was memory strategies. Pronouncing the word aloud while studying and practicing its spelling were two of the most frequently used strategies. In the meantime, in terms of cognitive strategies, most often employed were written repetition and the use of an application for taking notes and memorizing words. Lastly, regarding metacognitive strategies, most frequently utilized among the students were learning and memorizing words through social media as in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Comparing strategies employed among the students with high, moderate and low levels of GPA, it was found that the strategy for the discovery of a new word’s meaning most frequently employed among all these groups was using the French-Thai dictionary application. Despite that, the students with a high GPA tended to employ more various vocabulary memorization strategies than those with a moderate and low GPA did. It was also discovered that all three groups rarely

Orthographic precision for word naming in skilled readers

ABSTRACT Perfetti (2007) proposed that the quality of lexical representations affects reading. We investigated the role of lexical quality in decoding. Eighty-four adults read aloud words and pseudowords with dense and sparse neighbourhoods in a masked form-priming experiment. Individual-difference measures of language and cognitive processes were collected and entered into a principal component analysis (PCA). Compared to a non-overlapping control prime, we observed greater facilitatory form-priming for word targets with sparse neighbourhoods than those with dense neighbourhoods. A PCA component related to orthographic precision affected form-priming: people with low orthographic precision showed greater facilitation for words with sparse neighbourhoods, primed by pseudowords, than those with dense neighbourhoods. People with high orthographic precision demonstrated the converse, only when primed by words. For pseudoword reading, word primes facilitated more than pseudoword primes in people with low orthographic precision. People with high orthographic precision showed the opposite pattern.

A Spatiotemporal Map of Reading Aloud.

Reading words aloud is a fundamental aspect of literacy. The rapid rate at which multiple distributed neural substrates are engaged in this process can only be probed via techniques with high spatiotemporal resolution. We probed this with direct intracranial recordings covering most of the left hemisphere in 46 humans (26 male, 20 female) as they read aloud regular, exception and pseudo-words. We used this to create a spatiotemporal map of word processing and to derive how broadband γ activity varies with multiple word attributes critical to reading speed: lexicality, word frequency, and orthographic neighborhood. We found that lexicality is encoded earliest in mid-fusiform (mFus) cortex, and precentral sulcus, and is represented reliably enough to allow single-trial lexicality decoding. Word frequency is first represented in mFus and later in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal sulcus (IPS), while orthographic neighborhood sensitivity resides solely in IPS. We thus isolate the neural correlates of the distributed reading network involving mFus, IFG, IPS, precentral sulcus, and motor cortex and provide direct evidence for parallel processes via the lexical route from mFus to IFG, and the sublexical route from IPS and precentral sulcus to anterior IFG.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Reading aloud depends on multiple complex cerebral computations: mapping from a written letter string on a page to a sequence of spoken sound representations. Here, we used direct intracranial recordings in a large cohort while they read aloud known and novel words, to track, across space and time, the progression of neural representations of behaviorally relevant factors that govern reading speed. We find, concordant with cognitive models of reading, that known and novel words are differentially processed through a lexical route, sensitive to frequency of occurrence of known words in natural language, and a sublexical route, performing letter-by-letter construction of novel words.

Neural correlates of the production effect: An fMRI study

Recognition memory is improved for items produced at study (e.g., by reading them aloud) relative to a non-produced control condition (e.g., silent reading). This production effect is typically attributed to the extra elements in the production task (e.g., motor activation, auditory perception) enhancing item distinctiveness. To evaluate this claim, the present study examined the neural mechanisms underlying the production effect. Prior to a recognition memory test, different words within a study list were read either aloud, silently, or while saying “check” (as a sensorimotor control condition). Production improved recognition, and aloud words yielded higher rates of both recollection and familiarity judgments than either silent or control words. During encoding, fMRI revealed stronger activation in regions associated with motor, somatosensory, and auditory processing for aloud items than for either silent or control items. These activations were predictive of recollective success for aloud items at test. Together, our findings are compatible with a distinctiveness-based account of the production effect, while also pointing to the possible role of other processing differences during the aloud trials as compared to silent and control.

Assessing oral word reading ability in Serbian speakers with acquired aphasia

Difficulty reading single words represents a common sequel of acquired neurological injury and common component in aphasic breakdown. Investigation of reading disturbances in Serbian speakers with aphasia has been hampered by lack of any standardised clinical test. We report the development of the Serbian Word Reading Test (SWRT). This first clinical single word assessment for the Serbian language examines reading aloud words from different word classes (concrete and abstract nouns, verbs, adjectives, function words and non-words) and summarises performance based on error types (articulatory, phonological, semantic, neologistic, morphological, visual). Initial piloting with 51 people with aphasia after stroke and 50 control participants without neurological disturbance demonstrated high specificity (0.96) and sensitivity (0.98) for detecting presence of reading impairment. Preliminary comparisons between different aphasic syndromes evidenced contrasting success across varying word-classes. Analyses demonstrated significant differences in susceptibility to different reading errors according to aphasia subtype. Cross-language comparisons show largely similar profiles of breakdown to other languages despite the differing morphological and orthographic characteristics of Serbian. We present the SWRT as a valid and reliable clinical and research tool.

New perspectives on the reading and early literacy processing

Meu novo olhar para o processamento da leitura e da alfabetização provém, fundamentalmente, das evidências experimentais da neurociência: a existência de uma área na região occipital-temporal ventral esquerda onde os neurônios se especializam, mediante a boa aprendizagem, a reconhecer quais, quantos e como se combinam os traços invariantes para formar as letras que, nos sistemas alfabéticos, realizam os grafemas, os quais representam os fonemas de uma dada língua. Graças aos conhecimentos da linguística e da psicolinguística, meu novo olhar para a alfabetização revelou estratégias para a criança descobrir a diferença entre vocábulos tônicos e átonos (clíticos) na leitura, bem como para aprender, no contexto do processamento da leitura do português brasileiro (PB) a automatizar: (a) o reconhecimento dos traços e letras invariantes que foram convencionados no alfabeto latino; (b) o reconhecimento dos grafemas e seus respectivos valores (os fonemas); (c) a atribuição do acento de intensidade maior, nos vocábulos que o possuem; (d) a delimitação dos vocábulos átonos que, no PB escrito, se terminarem por vogais orais átonas, só podem ser registradas pelas letras ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘o’, seguidas ou não por ‘s’; (e) por fim, o reconhecimento dos padrões de entoação. Tudo isto possibilitará, sobretudo, a construção do sentido novo das palavras, frases, orações, períodos, parágrafos e texto (macroestrutura), formando leitores críticos e com gosto pela leitura.

Production between and within: distinctiveness and the relative magnitude of the production effect

ABSTRACT The production effect is the memory advantage for items studied aloud over items studied silently. Three experiments examined the influence of (1) the distinctiveness heuristic in a pure-list paradigm and (2) statistical distinctiveness during study. Aloud versus silent processing was manipulated within-subject in a mixed-list procedure and additional pure-list items were alternated with the to-be-remembered words. This arrangement permitted the first examination of the production effect using both within-subject and between-subjects manipulations in the same experiment. The quite large between-subjects production effect observed for the pure-list words is attributed to the distinctiveness of the aloud words being enhanced by the co-occurring within-subject manipulation. In addition, when the pure-list words were all read aloud, they effectively increased the overall proportion of aloud words, thereby decreasing the distinctiveness of the to-be-remembered aloud words in the mixed list. Correspondingly, there was a decrease in the magnitude of the production effect. However, when the pure-list words were all read silently, the magnitude of the production effect was unchanged relative to baseline. These results provide partial support for the influence of statistical distinctiveness on the magnitude of the production effect.

Efecto de longitud silábica en español

Los modelos cognitivos de doble ruta de lectura apoyan la existencia de dos vías: la léxica que opera con palabras completas y permite el acceso directo desde la ortografía a la semántica y a la pronunciación; y la subléxica que funciona de manera analítica convirtiendo, mediante reglas de correspondencia, cada uno de los grafemas en el fonema correspondiente. Numerosas investigaciones concluyen que el efecto de longitud constituye un índice de gran utilidad para el estudio de los mecanismos que subyacen a la lectura. El objetivo del presente trabajo es estudiar el efecto de longitud a partir del análisis de los tiempos de reacción. Para esto, se evaluaron 84 estudiantes universitarios con una tarea de lectura en voz alta de palabras y no-palabras de distinta longitud. Se llevó a cabo un análisis por sujeto (F1) y un análisis por estímulo (F2) que arrojaron efecto de longitud estadísticamente significativo y, además, se observó una interacción significativa con el tipo de estímulo. Estos hallazgos constituyen evidencias convergentes con la asunción de la existencia de dos procedimientos de lectura en lenguas de ortografía transparente como el español.

Writing Alone Together: Making Sense of Lockdown Through Hundreds

In late May, we established a tentative online writing project called The Hundreds. Adapting Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart’s project of the same name, our format has been to react to covid-lives in flash writing form – writing in 100-word multiples. Berlant and Stewart’s work flowed from their “Public Feelings Project”, where peers wrote on a “scene, thing, or situation” before reading the one hundred words aloud, and listening, “compositionally.” We have been meeting online, fortnightly, since June and sharing our work – on everyday encounters, conversations with theory, and daydreams – reading aloud to each other and sharing a live online document. Our website shows some of our examples here. Much of what we have written below has also been adapted from fragments of these Hundreds. Here, we want to dwell with the possibilities that [the method of?] hundred-ing presents to us, rather than the content of our experiments, but the examples on our website give a sense of the multifarious nature of our topics: the nature of zoom, writing that feels like kayaking, and a love affair with Milton Keynes are some spoilers.

Mapping the time course of semantic activation in mediated false memory: Immediate classification, naming, and recognition.

We evaluated the time course of persistent automatic spreading activation from a mediated list of indirect associates (e.g., meow, day, and basement) that all converged upon a non-presented critical item (CI; e.g., black). Mediated lists were related to CIs through non-presented mediators (e.g., cat, night, and bottom). Three speeded tasks were used to evaluate the time course of semantic activation of the CI: a continuous semantic classification task (concrete/abstract decisions), a naming task (reading words aloud), or a recognition test (old/new memory decisions). Test lists were presented immediately following the mediated lists, and CIs were presented in the first, third, or eighth positions. The results revealed that in both the classification and naming tasks, CI priming was greatest in the first test position and declined across the remaining test positions. Importantly, priming was statistically reliable in the late test positions, providing evidence for long-term semantic priming (i.e., across positions on immediate tasks). False recognition, however, was stable across test positions. Collectively, these patterns suggest that spreading-activation processes decline, consistent with implicit spreading activation, and these processes may contribute to long-term false recognition.

Objective Assessment of Speech Intelligibility in Crowded Public Spaces.

The objective of this study was to obtain a normative database of speech intelligibility data for young normal-hearing listeners communicating in public spaces. A total of 174 listeners participated in an interactive speech intelligibility task that required four-person groups to conduct a live version of the Modified Rhyme Test in noisy public spaces. The public spaces tested included a college library, a college cafeteria, a casual dining restaurant during lunch hour, and a crowded bar during happy hour. At the start of each trial, one of the participants was randomly selected as the talker, and a tablet computer was used to prompt them to say a word aloud from the Modified Rhyme Test. Then, the other three participants were required to select this word from one of six rhyming alternatives displayed on three other tablet computers. The tablet computers were also used to record the SPL at each listener location during and after the interval where the target talker was speaking. These SPL measurements were used to estimate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in each trial of the experiment. As expected, the results show that speech intelligibility decreases, response time increases, and perceived difficulty increases as the background noise level increases. There was also a systematic decrease in SNR with increasing background noise, with SNR decreasing 0.44 dB for every 1 dB increase in ambient noise level above 60 dB. Overall, the results of this study have demonstrated how low-cost tablet computer-based data collection systems can be used to collect live-talker speech intelligibility data in real-world environments. We believe these techniques could be adapted for use in future studies focused on obtaining ecologically valid assessments of the effects of age, hearing impairment, amplification, and other factors on speech intelligibility performance in real-world environments.