The nature of reader ability differences in lexical access

Can good and poor readers be differentiated by their use of word-naming and lexical access codes? Poor readers experience extreme difficulty in decoding nonsense words, indicating that they cannot use the spelling to sound rules which underlie the indirect phonological route to word pronunciation. However, recent evidence suggests that poor readers do use a phonological route for lexical access in word and picture naming tasks which rely upon the production of a phonological code. Is this also true of other tasks, which are not dependent upon phonological representation? Two such tasks are described in the present study: one involving picture-word interference, and the other involving a lexical decision paradigm. Results showed that poor readers do use a phonological route to lexical access independent of task demand. A review of findings in this area to date shows several inconsistencies, and an attempt is made to resolve these by drawing on Stanovich's (1980) interactive-compensatory model of reading.     

Individual differences in cognitive synthesis: An M-capacity analysis

Individual differences in children's propensity to demonstrate cognitive synthesis were evaluated using an artificial reading task. Six-year-olds were asked to demonstrate the meaning of various sentences constructed of logographs, or whole-word symbols, which were arranged in either a meaningful (i.e., grammatical) or scrambled (i.e., ungrammatical) order. Some children demonstrated the sentences in a synthesized mode (expressing a single idea unit), while others used a nonsynthesized mode (expressing the meanings of individual logographs). Overall, synthesizers had a larger attentional reserve, or M-capacity, than nonsynthesizers. The two groups did not differ significantly in age, intellectual level, or reading achievement. As predicted by their larger M-capacity, synthesizers demonstrated from memory significantly more items from meaningful sentences than nonsynthesizers. However, when synthesizers attempted to integrate the scrambled sentences, the excessive operative schemes needed to reorganize the items reduced their recall performance to the level of nonsynthesizers.     

The impact of bilingual dictionaries on lexical sophistication and lexical accuracy in tests of L2 writing proficiency: A quantitative analysis

Writing assessment essentially juxtaposes two elements: how ‘good writing’ is to be defined, and how ‘good measurement’ of that writing is to be carried out. The timed test is often used in large-scale L2 writing assessments because it is considered to provide reliable measurement. It is, however, highly inauthentic. One way of enhancing authenticity in a way that might also promote good writing is to include access to support resources in the test. This article reports a study into whether allowing a bilingual dictionary enhances good writing in German writing tests. Participants (n = 47) took two tests, one with and one without a bilingual dictionary. The essays of sub-sets of the participants were compared in terms of lexical sophistication, lexical accuracy and test score. Lexical sophistication was measured by means of the Lexical Frequency Profile (Laufer & Nation, 1995). Lexical accuracy was determined through a quantitative analysis of words looked up in the dictionary. The results revealed an increase in lexical sophistication in ‘with dictionary’ tests but frequent misuse of look-ups. There was also no improvement in test scores. Subsequent issues for the use of dictionaries in writing tests are raised.     

Individual differences in study processes and the Quality of Learning Outcomes

This paper is concerned with the relationship between students' study processes and the structural complexity of their learning. Study processes are conceived in terms of three independent dimensions — utilising, internalising and achieving — each of which has a cognitive (strategic) and an affective (motivational) component; these are assessed by the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ). Learning quality is expressed in terms of the complexity of the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome by applying the SOLO Taxonomy described below. A preliminary study involving 60 undergraduates' responses to education research abstracts is described, in which SOLO levels and short and long term retention of factual material are related to their study processes.     

Individual differences in lexical processing at 18 months predict vocabulary growth in typically developing and late-talking toddlers

Using online measures of familiar word recognition in the looking-while-listening procedure, this prospective longitudinal study revealed robust links between processing efficiency and vocabulary growth from 18 to 30 months in children classified as typically developing (n = 46) and as "late talkers" (n = 36) at 18 months. Those late talkers who were more efficient in word recognition at 18 months were also more likely to "bloom," showing more accelerated vocabulary growth over the following year, compared with late talkers less efficient in early speech processing. Such findings support the emerging view that early differences in processing efficiency evident in infancy have cascading consequences for later learning and may be continuous with individual differences in language proficiency observed in older children and adults.     

Individual differences in RAN and reading: a response timing analysis

Thirty 8–11‐year‐old children were administered tests of rapid naming (RAN letters and digits) and reading‐related skills. Consistent with the hypothesis that RAN predicts reading because it assesses the ability to establish arbitrary mappings between visual symbols and verbal labels, RAN accounted for independent variance in exception word reading when phonological skills were controlled. Response timing analysis of different components of RAN digits and letters revealed that neither average item duration nor average pause duration were unique predictors of reading skill. However, the number of pauses on digit naming predicted unique variance in exception word reading. Moreover, better readers paused more strategically than poorer readers (e.g. more often at the ends of lines). We suggest that rapid automatised naming may in part reflect differences in strategic control that are a result of differences in reading practice and experience.     

Determinants of lexical access in pure-anomic recovery: a longitudinal study

Many studies involving lexical access in picture-naming tasks have been undertaken at a point in time, mainly focusing on age of acquisition (AoA). To identify the real determinates of lexical access in recovery and their traces in the brain, we carried out a longitudinal study on a Chinese pure anomic patient using multiple logistic regression analysis. We found that AoA played an important role in early recovery but not in total recovery, whereas familiarity was significant in the whole process. From a new dynamic point of view, our results indicate that AoA and familiarity are the main determinants of lexical access in anomia recovery. We suggest that the changing effects of AoA during recovery may be related to the pathologic process; AoA and familiarity should be taken into account in constructing materials to assess and treat anomic patients.     

Individual differences in the analysis of informal reasoning fallacies

After decades of research into formal or logical fallacies of reasoning, psychologists have only recently begun to examine the informal reasoning fallacies that are routinely present in critical discussions, debates, and other forms of argumentation. The present study considers several possible influences on an ability to identify and analyze these fallacies. College students completed measures of deductive reasoning, personal epistemology, and knowledge of specific argumentation norms and analyzed arguments containing fallacies such as argument from ignorance, begging the question, and slippery slope. Results indicated that effective analysis of informal fallacies was associated with some aspects of deductive reasoning—especially an ability to overcome belief bias—and with higher-order epistemic beliefs, as well as a commitment to argumentation norms for critical discussion. Results are discussed in terms of argumentation research and implications for pedagogical treatments of the fallacies are noted.     

Cross-language transfer of phonological and orthographic processing skills from Spanish L1 to English L2

Previous cross-language research has focused on L1 phonological processing and its relation to L2 reading. Less extensive is the research on the effect that L1 orthographic processing skill has on L2 reading and spelling. This study was designed to investigate how reading and spelling acquisition in English (L2) is influenced by phonological and orthographic processing skills in Spanish (L1) in 89 Spanish-English bilingual children in grades 2 and 3. Comparable measures in English and Spanish tapping phonological and orthographic processing were administered to the bilingual children. We found that cross-language phonological and orthographic transfer occurs from Spanish to English. Specifically, the Spanish phoneme deletion task contributed a significant amount of unique variance to English word reading and spelling, for both real words and pseudowords. The Spanish homophone choice task predicted English reading, but not spelling. Taken together, these results suggest that there are shared phonological and orthographic processes in bilingual reading; however, orthographic patterns may be language specific, thereby not likely to transfer to spelling performance.     

双语言语产生中的词汇通达:竞争选择还是反应选择

双语言语产生的机制一直备受心理学家关注。过去人们认为,竞争选择是双语言语产生的实质,在此基础上,提出了非特定语言选择假说和特定语言选择假说,但两种观点都有一定的局限性。新近,有研究者提出用反应选择假设替代竞争选择假设。但就目前学界的研究来看,此假设还需进一步梳理。     

Individual differences in children's writing: A function of working memory or reading or both processes?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a general or specific working memory (WM) system is related to writing and whether individual differences in reading and/or processing efficiency underlie the correlations between WM and writing. Two studies correlated WM with writing (Test of Written Language-TOWL) and reading measures. In Study 1, WM was correlated significantly with a number of writing measures, particularly to those measures related to text generation. Working-memory also contributed unique variance to writing, beyond what is predicted by reading comprehension. Study 2 compared the correlations of verbal and visual-spatial WM measures with the TOWL under initial and enhanced memory processing (dynamic assessment) conditions. The coefficients were statistically comparable between initial and enhanced processing conditions, suggesting that individual differences in processing efficiency do not account for the correlations between WM and writing. Overall, the results indicated that (a) WM measures contribute unique variance to writing, especially text generation, and (b) working memory performance improves under gain conditions, but this enhanced processing efficiency did not appear to mediate the links between WM and writing. Taken together, the two studies support a general capacity explanation for the relationship between working memory and text generation.     

推动儿童早期发展——从个体到社会

多项研究成果表明,儿童早期发展对个体的身体发育、大脑发展、心理健康有着长远影响,甚至会影响下一代的健康和福祉。数据显示,全球中低收入国家有近2.5亿儿童处于风险之中(极端贫困或发育滞后),他们的发展是促进经济增长、推动社会公平、实现全人类福祉的关键。母亲孕期及哺乳期的护理和喂养知识的普及、回应式养育照护的实施、对心理健康的关注等措施,能够有效提高孕产妇及婴幼儿的营养及健康状况。本文由儿童早期大脑发育规律及面临的风险开始,从干预内容、政府参与以及干预成本效益等方面,对有效的儿童早期发展干预项目进行了系统描述,并指出政府参与儿童早期发展的重要性,希望为未来各国在该领域的探索提供新的启示。     

左翼文学：从个人书写群体到集体书写群体

左翼学团体学表达所选择的组织原则和基本形式，是以无产阶级的阶级利益为核心．以集体主义精神表现本阶级的整体风貌。左翼学负载的多是无产阶级这一新生社会力量所能聚集能量的展示，其叙事本身留给学的不过是这一时期社会历史过程的投影。作家的创作意识集体性地为一种精神所召唤而无视个体生命意识的张扬。非个性的书写方式，作品人物由貌似不同的个体构成的“公共自我”整体，都是阶级内部作家个体高度紧张的共同使命感扩张的结果。然而，从历史语境来看，它不仅仅是学表达的话语方式问题，更重要的是学话语权问题。     

The American community college: From access to success

Community colleges have taken center stage as engines of economic renewal. In his primer on this distinctively American institution, George R. Boggs highlights student learning as the engine within the engine.     

Integrating teaching practice with developmental norms: the case of phonological teaching in L2

This paper highlights the crucial role of phonological instruction in early second language English learning. Although older learners can acquire grammar and vocabulary efficiently, younger learners appear to have a greater facility with the learning of sounds. Thus, it makes good sense to focus on articulatory skills for these early learners. By comparing the developmental norms in phonology between an L1 (Cantonese in this study) and an L2, detailed predictions can be provided to guide the process of early phonological instruction. It is important that the teaching of articulation should not be reduced to non‐engaging lessons that can be characterised as ‘drill and kill’. Instead, a framework for improving the articulation of children learning English as a second language is proposed. What is unique about this proposal is that it represents the first attempt in Hong Kong to specify and integrate research findings concerning developmental speech norms with existing teaching practice.     

Dyslexia in adults: Evidence for deficits in non-word reading and in the phonological representation of lexical items

Difficulties in reading and language skills which persist from childhood into adult life are the concerns of this article. The aims were twofold: (1) to find measures of adult reading processes that validate adults’ retrospective reports of difficulties in learning to read during the school years, and (2) to search for indications of basic deficits in phonological processing that may point toward underlying causes of reading difficulties. Adults who reported a history of difficulties in learning to read (n=102) were distinctly disabled in phonological coding in reading, compared to adults without similar histories (n=56). They were less disabled in the comprehension of written passages, and the comprehension disability was explained by the phonological difficulties. A number of indications were found that adults with poor phonological coding skills in reading (i.e., dyslexia) have basic deficits in phonological representations of spoken words, even when semantic word knowledge, phonemic awareness, educational level, and daily reading habits are taken into account. It is suggested that dyslexics possess less distinct phonological representations of spoken words. This research was supported by a grant from the Danish Research Council to the first author.     

Questions people ask about the role of phonological processes in learning to read

A growing reliance on research to guidedecisions about reading instruction hasresulted in a swing toward approaches thatemphasize phoneme awareness and the relationsbetween speech and alphabetic writing. Becausethis is a time of innovation andexperimentation in the schools, and because thenew emphasis has not won universal acceptance,there is a need to address recurring questionsabout the role of phonology in readingacquisition. These questions concern: (1) therelevance of phoneme awareness instructionto reading; (2) the consequences of thecomplexity of English spelling for decisionsabout explicit instruction in the alphabeticcode; and (3) the causes and symptoms of readingdifficulties and implications for remediation. In this paper, we offer our answers to suchquestions and discuss the research bases forthem.     

Individual differences: A third component in problem-solving instruction

Present research in problem solving appears to be primarily concerned with problem-solving methods and with degree of knowledge acquisition. A brief argument is advanced that this conceptualization is incomplete because of failure to consider individual differences among problem solvers (other than in problem-solving methods and extent of knowledge). A viable theory of problem-solving instruction must take into account all three areas. Evidence for the argument is presented in the form of data on problem-solving success in junior high school students with extreme scores on Witkin's field independence-field dependence measure of cognitive style. Problem-solving protocols are examined as a second source of data. Field independent students significantly out-performed field dependent students on the problems. Examination of protocols revealed consistent performance patterns favoring field independent students.     

The contribution of orthographic and phonological processes to word reading in young Norwegian readers

The dissociation between phonological and orthographic processes in word reading was investigated in a study involving 147 children in grade 3. The criterion measure was a timed word reading test. Two tasks assessed phonological skills and two tasks assessed orthographical skills. Orthographic ability accounted for variance in word reading even after phonological ability had been controlled. Poor readers differed from skilled readers in the way phonological and orthographic factors were balanced. The relationship between the two factors was fairly strong among poor readers, whereas the correlation was low for more skilled readers. Furthermore, phonological factors played a much stronger role in explaining the variance in word reading among poor readers, while on the other hand, orthographic factors were more powerful among skilled readers.