Effect of orthographic processes on letter position encoding

We investigate whether orthographic processes influence the identification and encoding of letter position within letter strings. To minimise word‐specific effects, we adopt a visual letter search task that requires participants to identify a cued letter target among a random five‐letter string. Using this paradigm, previous studies have shown that letter targets to the left are identified faster than those to the right of centre and letter targets in the initial, medial and final positions are identified faster than those in neighbouring positions. While the medial letter advantage is likely to arise from greater visual acuity at the point of fixation, the mechanisms responsible for the left‐to‐right, and exterior, letter advantage have yet to be determined. We show that: (i) search functions for most letters reflect the directional scanning process required for reading English orthography; (ii) search times are significantly faster for letter targets that appear in the most, compared with the least, frequent position in written words; and (iii) search times correlate significantly with positional letter frequency, especially in the initial and final positions. We propose that a combination of low‐level visual, and higher‐level orthographic, processes modulate the encoding of letter identities and position in written word recognition.     

The effect of orthographic depth on letter string processing: the case of visual attention span and rapid automatized naming

The present study investigated whether orthographic depth can increase the bias towards multi-letter processing in two reading-related skills: visual attention span (VAS) and rapid automatized naming (RAN). VAS (i.e., the number of visual elements that can be processed at once in a multi-element array) was tested with a visual 1-back task and RAN was measured in a serial letter naming task that introduced a novel manipulation (some letter sequences formed frequent words). Spanish-Basque and French-Basque bilingual children were tested at early (30 children in 1st and 2nd grade), and more advanced (24 children in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade) stages of reading acquisition to investigate whether they would be differently biased towards multi-letter processing due to reading in two shallow (Spanish, Basque), or a deep and a shallow (French, Basque) orthography. The French-Basque bilinguals, who read in a deep orthography, were expected to rely on larger orthographic units in reading and thus to be more biased towards multi-letter processing in both tasks. This was expected to be reflected by: (a) a uniform distribution of attention across letter strings in the VAS task, and (b) a greater interference of the embedded words on letter-by-letter naming in RAN, leading to longer naming times. The expected group differences were observed in the more advanced readers, with French-Basque bilinguals showing a wider distribution of VAS across letter strings and longer naming times in RAN.     

Predicting reading ability over the long term: The changing roles of letter naming,phonological awareness and orthographic processing

A cohort of 92 children was followed through sixth grade to investigate the relationship of preschool skills and first grade phonological awareness to reading and spelling. In particular, the focus was on the changing roles of letter naming, orthographic awareness, and phonological processing in prediction, as reading experience increased. Preschool letter naming was a consistently significant predictor of reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and spelling at each grade level, but the preschool orthographic task contributed most to reading comprehension and spelling at the higher grades. Conversely, the contribution of the first grade phonemic awareness measures to reading skills dropped sharply after third grade, although they continued to contribute to spelling prediction. When preschool precursors of phonological processing were examined, letter naming was found to be a predictor of first and third grade phonemic awareness. Findings confirm the importance of letter naming as a predictor and of the role of phonemic awareness in early reading acquisition, but also highlight the contribution of orthographic processing skills to later reading.     

Phonological and orthographic processing: Their roles in reading prediction

Ninety-six children were administered an orthographic test as preschoolers and two measures of nonphonemic phonological awareness (syllable segmentation, rhyme detection) in midkindergarten. The power of the three measures to predict reading at grades 1, 3, and 7 was examined. With earlier reading level, preschool verbal IQ and age, and verbal memory controlled, both phonological measures added significant variance to grade 1 word reading, and syllable segmentation also contributed to reading comprehension, but neither measure accounted for variance in reading at grades 3 and 7. The orthographic measure contributed significant variance to grade 1 word reading, and also to reading vocabulary and reading comprehension at grades 3 and 7, with the proportion of variance in reading comprehension increasing with grade level. When early (grade 1) and late (grade 7) poor readers were compared, late poor readers were significantly higher than early poor readers on a first grade phonological test, but significantly lower on a seventh grade orthographic measure. Evidence suggested that a late reading comprehension deficit may be due to poor orthographic processing skills in some children, but to a phonological and general verbal deficit in others.     

Training letter and orthographic pattern recognition in children with slow naming speed

Although research has established that performance on a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task is related to reading, the nature of this relationship is unclear. Bowers (2001) proposed that processes underlying performance on the RAN task and orthographic knowledge make independent and additive contributions to reading performance. We examined the benefits of training orthographic pattern recognition and speeded letter recognition for children in Grades 1 and 2 with slow naming speed. Children first received training in either orthographic pattern recognition or speeded letter recognition, and then switched to the other type of training. Results indicated that speeded letter recognition can improve through training, but only when preceded by training in orthographic pattern recognition. Orthographic pattern recognition training improved the accuracy and speed of reading training words, whether training occurred alone or following letter training. Letter training prior to the orthographic training provided no additional benefit. Together, these results argue for the importance of orthographic training for children with slow naming speed.     

Morphological and orthographic effects on hemispheric

We tested the effects of morphological and orthographic differences between English, Hebrew, and Arabic on the functioning of the two cerebral hemispheres. University students who were native speakers of each of the three languages performed a lateralized consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) identification task. The stimuli were presented vertically in three conditions: left visual field (LVF), right visual field (RVF), and bilaterally (BVF). Three dependent measures were used: (1) exposure duration of the stimuli in order to achieve a 50% error rate, (2) total number of errors in each presentation condition and (3) the difference between errors on the first letter and errors on the last letter, a qualitative measure of sequential processing. Arabic readers required longer exposure durations of the syllables in order to achieve a 50% error rate than Hebrew readers, who in turn, required longer exposure durations than native English readers. Readers of all three languages evinced left hemisphere specialization for this linguistic task and a bilateral advantage. The qualitative patterns revealed that the Arabic and Hebrew speakers showed the same hemispheric difference pattern, that was different from the one shown by English readers, and that Arabic readers showed a qualitative pattern suggesting higher levels of sequential processes in both hemisphere than readers of Hebrew and English. We interpret this as reflecting the adaptation of hemispheric abilities to reading languages that differ in morphological structure and orthography.     

Converging evidence for the concept of orthographic processing

Six different measures of orthographic processing (three different letter string choice tasks, two orthographic choice tasks, and a homophone choice task) were administered to thirty-nine children who had also been administered the word recognition subtest of the Metropolitan Achievement Test and a comprehensive battery of tasks assessing phonological processing skill (four measures of phonological sensitivity, nonword repetition, and pseudoword reading). The six orthographic tasks displayed moderate convergence – forming one reasonably coherent factor. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that a composite measure of orthographic processing skill predicted variance in word recognition after variance accounted for by the phonological processing measures had been partialed out. A measure of print exposure predictedvariance in orthographic processing after the variance in phonologicalprocessing had been partialed out.     

Learning to read in Russian: effects of orthographic complexity

Much attention has been paid to the delay in writing acquisition caused by irregularities of Russian orthography, but little is known about their effect on reading acquisition. Results of the present longitudinal reading acquisition study of Russian first graders suggest that phonological recoding is the dominant strategy in the initial phase of reading development in Russian, while there is evidence of gradual shift towards orthographic processing in reading high‐frequency regular words. The study confirms that Russian readers encounter difficulties in reading orthographically complex words, where phonological recoding does not completely succeed. These findings are compared with results of reading acquisition studies in other orthographies, and their relevance for models of reading acquisition in different types of orthographies is discussed.     

The effects of first language orthographic features on word recognition processing in English as a second language

This study investigated the possible effects of first language (L1) orthographic characteristics on word recognition in English as a second language (ESL). Case alternation was used to examine the impact of visually distorted words of different types on fluent ESL readers' word recognition in naming. Visual distortion of word shape (i.e., cAsE aLtErNaTiOn) was utilized because, although visually distorted words have lost word-shape cues, they preserve the cue value of words (i.e., spelling patterns). It, therefore, was hypothesized that if one is sensitive to alphabetic orthography, or if one's inner mechanism of processing an alphabetic word is efficient, then the visual disruption of word-shape cues should not affect one's sensitivity to sequences of letters in words. In other words, this study focused on the magnitude of the effect of case alternation in word recognition as an index of the sensitivity to alphabetic words. Results showed that the magnitude of the case alternation effect in a naming task was significantly larger for the ESL participants whose L1 is not alphabetic (i.e., Chinese and Japanese) than the ESL participants whose L1 is alphabetic (i.e., Iranians -- Persian as L1). This result seems to indicate that the Persian speakers, due to the facilitating influence of their L1 orthography, were less influenced by case alternation than the Chinese and Japanese speakers, whose L1 orthographies are not alphabetic. This finding suggests that the first language orthographic features affect the orthographic coding mechanisms (i.e., word recognition mechanisms) in a second language.     

论信访程序的完善

信访作为中国所特有的一项制度,无论是建国初期还是现在都发挥着十分重要的作用.然而由于不断涌现的社会矛盾和信访程序的诸多缺陷,使信访制度陷入了困境,需要我们理性寻求信访问题的解决之道.如何发挥信访工作在化解社会矛盾中的重要作用,为构建和谐社会服务,核心问题应该放在信访程序的完善上.程序正义是实体正义的保证.因而,保证信访人信访权利的实现首先就要完善信访程序,最终实现信访的法治化.     

Development of orthographic skills in Chinese children

This study investigates possible developmental trends in children's invented spelling (or spelling errors) in Chinese elementary schools. The entire study consists of two substudies, Study A and Study B. Study A analyzes over 7000 invented spellings collected from the writing samples of 1200 children. Study B analyzes 3995 invented spellings that were collected from the spelling tests of 300 children. These invented spellings are sorted initially according to emerging patterns according to the way the invented spellings deviate from standard spellings; they are then further subsumed into three general categories according to the linguistic principles of Chinese characters - phonologically based spelling errors, graphemic spelling errors, and semantic spelling errors. Qualitative analysis of the invented spellings of these three categories indicates that children's spelling errors are not random; rather they reflect the development of children's orthographic knowledge. Regression analysis for linear trend shows that a developmental trend in the use of spelling strategies exists: at the lower elementary level, phonological strategies predominate; as grade level advances, the use of graphemic and semantic strategies increases.     

Chinese children's character recognition: Visuo‐orthographic,phonological processing and morphological skills

Tasks tapping visual skills, orthographic knowledge, phonological awareness, speeded naming, morphological awareness and Chinese character recognition were administered to 184 kindergarteners and 273 primary school students from Beijing. Regression analyses indicated that only syllable deletion, morphological construction and speeded number naming were unique correlates of Chinese character recognition in kindergarteners. Among primary school children, the independent correlates of character recognition were rime detection, homophone judgement, morpheme production, orthographic knowledge and speeded number naming. Results underscore the importance of some dimensions of both phonological processing and morphological awareness for both very early and intermediate Chinese reading acquisition. Although significantly correlated with character recognition in younger (but not older) children, visual skills were not uniquely associated with Chinese character reading at any grade level. However, orthographic skills were strongly associated with reading in primary school but not kindergarten, suggesting that orthographic skills are more important for literacy development as reading experience increases.     

Orthographic facilitation in oral vocabulary learning: effects of language backgrounds and orthographic type

Reading and Writing - Two experiments investigated whether exposure to Chinese characters and pinyin would facilitate oral vocabulary learning for Chinese as a first (L1) and second (L2) language...     

Flexibility in young second‐language learners: examining the language specificity of orthographic processing

This study examines whether orthographic processing transfers across languages to reading when the writing systems under acquisition are sufficiently related. We conducted a study with 76 7‐year‐old English‐first‐language children in French immersion. Measures of English and French orthographic processing (orthographic choice tasks) and standardised measures of English and French word reading (Woodcock and FIAT) were taken, in addition to verbal and nonverbal ability, and phonological and morphological awareness. Analyses reveal significant contributions of orthographic processing to reading both within and across the two languages, despite the inclusion of control variables. Findings of the transfer of orthographic processing skills to reading across languages suggest that orthographic processing may not be as language specific as previously hypothesised. We discuss the several similarities between English and French, such as a shared alphabet and cognates, that may drive transfer across languages in the context of current theories of second‐language reading development.     

Motion detection, letter position encoding, and single word reading

Recent research has shown that many people with dyslexia find it unusually difficult to detect flickering or moving visual stimuli, consistent with impaired processing in the magnocellular visual stream. Nonetheless, it remains controversial to suggest that reduced visual sensitivity of this kind might affect reading. We first show that the accuracy of letter position encoding may depend on input from the magnocellular pathway. We then suggest that when children read, impaired magnocellular function may degrade information about where letters are positioned with respect to each other, leading to reading errors which contain sounds not represented in the printed word. We call these orthographically inconsistent nonsense errors letter errors. In an unselected sample of primary school children, we show that the probability of children making “letter” errors in a single word reading task was best explained by independent contributions from motion detection (magnocellular function) and phonological awareness (assessed by a spoonerism task). This result held even when controlling for chronological age, reading ability, and IQ. Together, these findings suggest that impaired magnocellular visual function, as well as phonological deficits, may affect reading.     

Towards an understanding of how children read and spell irregular words: the role of nonword and orthographic processing skills

This study examined, in 180 children aged from 6 to 9 years, to what extent irregular word reading and spelling were predicted by vocabulary knowledge, reading frequency, orthographic processing and nonword reading skill. Consistent with models of reading highlighting the quasi‐regular nature of irregular words, it was found that nonword reading was a large and significant predictor of irregular word reading even when entered into a regression analysis after all of the other variables. However, irregular word spelling was equally well predicted by orthographic and nonword reading skills. The results are discussed in relation to models of word reading and reading development.     

The effects of L1 and orthographic regularity and consistency in naming Chinese characters

The present study examined the influence of the features of Chinese characters, such as frequency, regularity and consistency, on the accuracy with which they were read by two groups of adult Chinese learners. Twenty-two English-speakers and 31 Japanese-speakers studying Chinese at a Taiwanese University read 130 Chinese characters that varied along the dimensions of regularity, consistency, number of strokes and familiarity (frequency with which they appeared in instructional texts). The results suggest that lexical and sub-lexical features, such as regularity and consistency, play an important role in reading Chinese among Chinese language learners. Furthermore, differences between the Japanese- and English-speaking participants suggest that the first language (L1) phonology and writing system may influence Chinese character learning. In addition, the language proficiency of Chinese language learners also influences sensitivity to sublexical features in naming Chinese characters. Finally, Chinese language learners with both L1s follow the same trajectory for developing orthography-to-phonology knowledge reported for native Chinese-speaking children.