Prosody in skilled silent reading: evidence from eye movements

Recent eye movement experiments offer preliminary evidence that skilled readers activate word‐level prosodic information when silently reading sentences. This paper reviews the role of eye movements during reading as well as the preliminary evidence for prosodic processing. A new experiment examines whether prosodic processing differs for high and low frequency words. Readers' eye movements were monitored while reading target words presented in sentences preceded by parafoveal previews that either contained the exact initial syllable of the target (i.e. the congruent preview condition) or the initial syllable plus the next letter (i.e. the incongruent preview condition). Reading times on high frequency words did not differ in the congruent and incongruent preview conditions, but reading times on low frequency words were faster in the congruent condition. The implications of the present result and previous studies are discussed in terms of phonological hub theory, which is a production‐based theory of word recognition during skilled silent reading.     

Eye movements reveal readers’ lexical quality and reading experience

Two experiments demonstrate that individual differences among normal adult readers, including lexical quality, are expressed in silent reading at the word level. In the first of two studies we identified major dimensions of variability among college readers and among words using factor analysis. We then examined the effects of these dimensions of variability on eye movements during paragraph reading. More experienced readers (who also were higher in reading speed) read words more quickly, especially less frequent words, while readers with higher lexical knowledge showed shorter early fixations, especially for more frequent words. These results suggest that individual differences in reading may reflect differences in the quality of lexical representations and in reading experience, which is a source of lexical quality. In a second study, we controlled the lexical knowledge readers obtained from new words through a training paradigm that varied exposure to a word’s orthographic, phonological, and meaning constituents. Training exposure to orthographic and phonological constituents affected first pass reading measures, and phonological and meaning training affected second pass measures. Incomplete knowledge of word components slowed first pass reading times, compared to both more complete knowledge and no knowledge. Training effects were mediated by individual differences, pointing to lexical quality and reading experience—which, combined reflect reading expertise—as important in word reading as part of text reading.     

Lexical effects on children’s pseudoword reading in a transparent orthography

The present study investigated the involvement of lexical knowledge in pseudoword reading by Italian children aged 8–10. In both lexical decision and reading aloud tasks, inhibitory effects were found on pseudowords derived from high-frequency words in comparison to pseudowords derived from low-frequency words. A group of adult readers showed inhibitory effects on pseudowords based on high-frequency words only in lexical decision. The inhibitory effects were interpreted as due to interference on pseudoword processing caused by lexical activation of a high-frequency base-word. The results support the view that lexical information is exploited even in the development of reading of a transparent orthography.     

The effects of morphological semantics on the processing of Japanese two-kanji compound words

The present study investigated the way in which the activation of semantic representations at the morpheme level affects the processing of two-kanji (morpheme) compound words. Three types of Japanese two-kanji compound words were used as stimulus items: (1) words consisting of two kanji representing opposite concepts (e.g., long + short = length), (2) words consisting of two kanji representing similar concepts (e.g., soft + flexible = pliable), and (3) control words consisting of two closely bound kanji (e.g., wild + field = wilderness). Words consisting of kanji of opposite concepts (M = 768 ms for LD and M = 645 ms for naming) were processed more slowly for lexical decision, but not for naming, than words with kanji of similar concepts (M = 743 ms for LD and M = 636 ms for naming), both of which were, furthermore, processed more slowly for lexical decision and naming than the control compound words (M = 716 ms for LD and M = 590 ms for naming). These results were explained in the framework of the multiple-level interactive-activation model as follows. Because kanji morphemes of opposite and similar concepts are semantically activated both as morpheme units and compound word units, semantic representations of the two morphemes and the compound word which they create compete with each other at the concept level, which slows down lexical decision and naming of the compound word.     

Lexical decision and oral reading by poor and normal readers

The primary goal of this study was to compare a paper-and-pencil version of the lexical decision task, which can be administered groupwise, with reading aloud a differently ordered list of the same words and pseudowords. Participants were first and second graders (“normal readers”) and students from schools for children with learning difficulties. On the average, the latter “poor readers” scored at the same oral reading level as the normal readers, but were older. The correlation between both tasks appeared to be high and both tasks had comparable correlations with third variables, suggesting that performance is determined by the same processes. Because the lexical decision task showed little evidence for guessing, it may be an — even better — alternative for oral reading. No differences between participant groups were found that point to different reading strategies. Error analysis, however, indicates that the poor readers probably have a specific problem in the oral reading of pseudowords.     

The Transition From Sublexical to Lexical Processing in a Consistent Orthography: An Eye-Tracking Study

We studied the transition in predominant reading strategy from serial sublexical processing to more parallel lexical processing as a function of word familiarity in German children of Grades 2, 3, 4, and adults. High-frequency words, low-frequency words, and nonwords of differing length were embedded in sentences and presented in an eye-tracking paradigm. The size of the word length effect was used as an indicator of serial sublexical decoding. When controlling for the generally higher processing times in younger readers, the effect of length over reading development was not direct but modulated by familiarity: Length effects were comparable between items of differing familiarity for Grade 2, whereas from Grade 3, length effects increased with decreasing familiarity. These findings suggest that Grade 2 children apply serial sublexical decoding as a default reading strategy to most items, whereas reading by direct lexical access is increasingly dominant in more experienced readers.     

Influence of word meaning on the acquisition of a reading vocabulary in second-grade children

The acquisition of a reading vocabulary for abstract and concrete words was examined in 62 second-grade children. Words had been learned as part of a basal reader program or as part of outside reading. Word recognition speed and reading accuracy were examined for abstract and concrete words using lexical decision and word naming tasks. The size of the concreteness effect was similar for both processing tasks. In neither task did concreteness influence reaction times, but abstract words were read with less accuracy than concrete words in both tasks. Further, these concreteness effects in reading accuracy were larger for words that were part of a basal reading program than for words acquired during free reading. We conclude that word meaning influences the entry of words at a time when children are developing a sizeable reading vocabulary.     

The effects of phonological transparency on reading derived words

The purpose of this study was to determine whether poor readers have more pronounced problems than average-reading peers reading derived words the base forms of which undergo a phonological shift when a suffix is added (i.e., shift relations as in “natural”), as compared to derived words whose forms are phonologically and orthographically transparent (i.e., stable relations, as in “cultural”). Two computer-based word recognition tasks (Naming and Lexical Decision) were administered to children with reading disability (RD), peers with average reading ability, and adults. Across tasks, there was an effect for transparency (i.e., better performance on stable than shift words) for both child groups and the adults. For the children, a significant interaction was found between group and word type. Specifically, on the naming task, there was an advantage for the stable words, and this was most noteworthy for the children with RD. On the lexical decision task, trade-offs of speed and accuracy were evident for the child reader groups. Performances on the nonwords showed the poor readers to be comparable to the average readers in distinguishing legal and illegal nonwords; further analyses suggested that poor readers carried out deeper processing of derived words than their average reading peers. Additional study is needed to explore the relation of orthographic and phonological processing on poor readers’ memory for and processing of derived words.     

Influence of eye movements,auditory perception,and phonemic awareness in the reading process

The authors' aim was to analyze the relationship of eye movements, auditory perception, and phonemic awareness with the reading process. The instruments used were the King-Devick Test (saccade eye movements), the PAF test (auditory perception), the PFC (phonemic awareness), the PROLEC-R (lexical process), the Canals reading speed test, and the ACL-1 (reading comprehension). The sample was composed of 52 first-year primary school pupils. After the correlational analysis, results indicate that all of these factors correlate in reading (lexical process, speed, and word comprehension). Moreover, the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test reveals that children with saccade eye movements and auditory perception problems obtain lower reading levels. In addition, children with lexical problems obtain a lower level of phonemic awareness. Given the importance of these variables, the authors conclude with a proposal of neuropsychological activities to improve reading skills.     

Eye movement behaviour during reading of Japanese sentences: Effects of word length and visual complexity

Two experiments are presented that examine how the visual characteristics of Japanese words influence eye movement behaviour during reading. In Experiment 1, reading behaviour was compared for words comprising either one or two kanji characters. The one-character words were significantly less likely to be fixated on first-pass, and had significantly longer overall reading times, than the two-character words. In Experiment 2, reading behaviour was compared for two-kanji character words, for which the first character was either visually simple or visually complex (determined by the number of strokes). Visual complexity significantly influenced total word reading times and the probability of the individual visually simple/complex characters being fixated on first pass. Additional analyses showed no preferred viewing position for two-kanji character words. Overall, the study provides experimental evidence of an influence of specific visual characteristics of Japanese words on eye movement behaviour during reading, as shown by both fixation probabilities and reading times. The findings must be explained by processing at (or beyond) a visual level impacting on eye movement behavior during reading of Japanese text.     

On the use of lexical stress in reading Spanish

This paper investigates whether or not lexical stress is used for lexical access in Spanish. A lexical decision task and a masking priming procedure were used to compare correctly-versus-incorrectly stressed words (e.g., técla-TECLA vs. teclá-TECLA). SOA (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) was manipulated at 33, 66, 100, and 143 ms. The results showed that congruent condition was easier, but in 143 ms SOA only. Furthermore, while congruent condition did not differ from a control identity condition (e.g., tecla-TECLA) incongruent condition was slower, but in 100 and 143 ms SOA only. All these results suggest that stress affects lexical access at a late stage of lexical access processing. Reading models should be re-designed in order to include lexical stress as another phonological code which is used for reading.     

Sensitivity to the positional information of morphemes inside Chinese compound words and its relationship with word reading

The purpose of the present study was to investigate developmental differences in lexical processing and sensitivity to the positional information of constituent morphemes with reference to Chinese word-reading ability. One hundred mainland Chinese children (50 s graders and 50 third graders) and 22 high school students were tested with a lexical decision task. The primary school children were also tested for Chinese character reading, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and non-verbal intelligence. We found that although both primary school children and high school students performed worse in the reversed condition (i.e., the pseudo-words were created by reversing the order of the two characters in real Chinese words) than in the real (i.e., real Chinese compound words) and random conditions (i.e., the pseudo-words were constructed by randomly combining the characters in the reversed condition), the performances of high school students in the reversed condition were closer to their performances in the other two conditions. Correlational analyses conducted on the primary school children revealed that the responses of second- and third-grade children on the lexical decision task were moderately correlated with their Chinese character reading. We also found that, after controlling for age and non-verbal IQ, the reaction time difference between the real and reversed conditions significantly predicted Chinese character reading. The results were discussed by exploring the nature of the lexical decision task, the sensitivity of Chinese children to the positional information of morphemes inside compound words, and the association of such sensitivity with their word-reading performance.     

Effects of reading skill and CaSe MiXiNg on nonword reading in German

Many low‐skill readers have problems with visual word recognition. In particular, low‐skill readers show a substantial nonword reading deficit that is attributed to deficits in sub‐lexical processing. In this study, I examined whether the nonword deficits of German 14‐year‐old low‐skill readers were associated with inefficient use of multi‐letter information. In a lexical‐decision experiment, words and nonwords were presented in standard format and in MiXeD cAsE format which has been shown to be especially disrupting for sub‐lexical processing. When the stimuli were presented in standard format, low‐skill readers showed a substantial nonword reading deficit, that is they were generally slower than high‐skill readers, but had special problems with decoding nonwords. However, when stimuli were presented in MiXeD cAsE, low‐ and high‐skill readers showed equal impairments in nonword processing. This finding indicates that low‐skill readers do not use context‐sensitive multi‐letter rules during phonological assembly in normal reading.     

The role of letters and syllables in typical and dysfluent reading in a transparent orthography

The role of letters and syllables in typical and dysfluent second grade reading in Finnish, a transparent orthography, was assessed by lexical decision and naming tasks. Typical readers did not show reliable word length effects in lexical decision, suggesting establishment of parallel letter processing. However, there were small effects of word syllable structure in both tasks suggesting the presence of some sublexical processing also. Dysfluent readers showed large word length effects in both tasks indicating decoding at the letter-phoneme level. When lexical access was required in a lexical decision task, dyslexics additionally chunked the letters into syllables. Response duration measure revealed that dysfluent readers even sounded out the words in phoneme-by-phoneme fashion, depending on the task difficulty. This letter-by-letter decoding is enabled by the transparent orthography and promoted by Finnish reading education.     

Individual Differences in Categorical Perception Are Related to Sublexical/Phonological Processing in Reading

This article examines the relationship between individual differences in speech perception and sublexical/phonological processing in reading. We used an auditory phoneme identification task in which a?/ba/-/pa/?syllable continuum measured sensitivity to classify participants into three performance groups: poor, medium, and good categorizers. A lexical decision task manipulated syllable and word frequency. We found that the two tasks were associated. Poor categorizers did not present the typical syllable frequency effect; however, the other groups were sensitive to phonological information to differing degrees and showed the inhibitory syllable frequency effect only for low-frequency words. These results suggest that auditory phoneme identification efficiency may be related to the sublexical processes involved in reading words.     

Do easy-to-read adaptations really facilitate sentence processing for adults with a lower level of education? An experimental eye-tracking study

The Easy-to-Read guidelines recommend visual support and lexical simplification to facilitate text processing, but few studies have empirically verified the efficacy of these guidelines. This study examined the influence of these recommendations on sentence processing by examining eye movements at the text- and word-level in adult readers. We tested 30 non-university adults (low education level) and 30 university adults (high education level). The experimental task consisted of 60 sentences. Half were accompanied by an image and half were not, and half contained a low-frequency word and half a high-frequency word. Results showed that visual support and lexical simplification facilitated processing in both groups of adults, and non-university adults were significantly slower than university adults at sentence processing. However, lexical simplification resulted in faster processing in the non-university adults’ group. Conclusions focus on the mechanisms in which both adaptations benefit readers, and practical implications for reading comprehension.     

The impact of reading at rapid rates on inference generation

Aims

Speed reading is advertised as a way to increase reading speed without any loss in comprehension. However, research on speed reading has indicated that comprehension suffers as reading speed increases. We were specifically interested in how processes of inference generation were affected by speed reading.

Methods

We examined how reading speed influenced inference generation in typical readers, trained speed readers and participants trained to skim read passages. Passages either strongly or weakly promoted a bridging or predictive inference. After reading, participants performed a lexical decision task on either a nonword, neutral or inference‐related word.

Results

Typical readers responded to strong and weak inference words faster than neutral words. There were no statistical differences in reaction time between inference‐related and neutral words for speed and skim readers.

Conclusions

These findings provide no substantive evidence that the appropriate inferences are generated when reading at rapid speeds. Thus, speed reading may be detrimental to normal integrative comprehension processes.     

Beyond decoding deficit: inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency in dyslexic Spanish children

This study explores whether activation and inhibition word processes contribute to the characteristic speed deficits found in transparent orthographies (Wimmer, Appl Psycholinguist 14:1–33, 1993). A second and fourth grade sample of normal school readers and dyslexic school readers participated in a lexical decision task. Words were manipulated according to two factors: word frequency (high vs. low) and syllable frequency (high vs. low). It has been repeatedly found that words with high-frequency syllables require extra time for deactivating the lexical syllabic neighbors: the so-called inhibitory effect of positional frequency syllable (Carreiras et al., J Mem Lang 32:766–780, 1993). We hypothesized that dyslexic readers would show a stronger inhibitory effect than normal readers because they are slower decoders and they may also be slower at the activation and inhibition of word representations that are competing (i.e., syllabic candidates). Results indicated an interaction between word and syllable frequency (i.e., a strong inhibitory effect was found in the low-frequency word condition). According to our hypothesis, the inhibitory effect size was almost three times bigger in dyslexics than in the normal readers. This difference shows an alteration, not a developmental lag. Interestingly, the inhibitory effect size did not interact with school grade. Thus, reading experience did not impact the lexical processes involved on the inhibitory effect. Our outcomes showed how activation and/or inhibition of lexical processes can contribute to the lack of speed beyond decoding deficit.     

Exploring the eye‐movement patterns as Chinese children read texts: a developmental perspective

This study was to investigate Chinese children's eye patterns while reading different text genres from a developmental perspective. Eye movements were recorded while children in the second through sixth grades read two expository texts and two narrative texts. Across passages, overall word frequency was not significantly different between the two genres. Results showed that all children had longer fixation durations for low‐frequency words. They also had longer fixation durations on content words. These results indicate that children adopted a word‐based processing strategy like skilled readers do. However, only older children's rereading times were affected by genre. Overall, eye‐movement patterns of older children reported in this study are in accordance with those of skilled Chinese readers, but younger children are more likely to be responsive to word characteristics than text level when reading a Chinese text.