Probabilistic orthographic cues to grammatical category in the brain

What helps us determine whether a word is a noun or a verb, without conscious awareness? We report on cues in the way individual English words are spelled, and, for the first time, identify their neural correlates via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used a lexical decision task with trisyllabic nouns and verbs containing orthographic cues that are either consistent or inconsistent with the spelling patterns of words from that grammatical category. Significant linear increases in response times and error rates were observed as orthography became less consistent, paralleled by significant linear decreases in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in the left supramarginal gyrus of the left inferior parietal lobule, a brain region implicated in visual word recognition. A similar pattern was observed in the left superior parietal lobule. These findings align with an emergentist view of grammatical category processing which results from sensitivity to multiple probabilistic cues.

Anpassning i språkkontakt : Morfologisk och ortografisk anpassning av engelska lånord i svenskan

The study investigates the formal integration of English loanwords into the Swedish language system. The aim has been to analyse and describe the morphological/morphosyntactic and the orthographical integration of the loanwords. I have studied how the foreign language elements get accommodated to Swedish and which factors are relevant in the integration. The material for the study consists of Swedish newspapers published in Sweden and Finland in paper format (with a focus on the years 1975 and 2000) and newspapers in digital format on the net. The theoretical frame for the study is contact linguistics. The study is based on a sociolinguistic, structural and language political perspective on what language is, and what language contact is. The method used is usage-based linguistic analysis. In the morphological study of the loanwords, I have made both a quantitative and a qualitative study. I have analysed the extent to which loanwords show some indication of integration in Swedish, and to what extent they show no signs of integration at all. I have also analysed integration in relation to word classes i.e., how nouns, adjectives and verbs integrate and which factors are relevant for the result of the integration. The result shows that most loanwords (36 %) do not show any signs of being formally integrated in Swedish. They undergo neither inflectional, nor derivational changes. One fifth of the loanwords are inflected according to the rules of Swedish grammar. Nouns are generally more often than verbs placed in positions in the sentence where no formal adaption is needed. Almost all of the verbs in the material are inflected according to Swedish rules of grammar. Only 3 % of the loanwords are inflected according to English rules or are placed in an ungrammatical position in the sentence. The orthographical study shows that English loanwords very seldom get adapted to Swedish orthography. Some English vowel and consonant graphemes are replaced with Swedish ones, for example a, ay and ai are replaced with aj or ej (mail → mejl). The study also indicates that morphological integration is related to orthographical integration: loanwords that are inflected according to Swedish grammar are more likely to be orthographical integrated than loanwords that are inflected according to English grammar. The results also shows that the integration of loanwords are affected by mostly language structural factors and language political factors.

Tiempo de lectura y formación de representaciones ortográficas en español

Resumen: El presente trabajo se propuso analizar si el tiempo que los niños tardan en recodificar una palabra incide en la posibilidad de almacenar la forma ortográfica de la misma. Para ello, 40 niños que cursaban tercer grado de la escuela primaria recodificaron fonológicamente pseudopalabras con ortografía compleja. Se midió la precisión y el tiempo de lectura. Tres días después de las sesiones de lectura, los sujetos realizaban una prueba de dictado y de decisión léxica que incluían las pseudopalabras leídas. Los resultados señalaron que las medidas de aprendizaje ortográfico se relacionaron con el tiempo de lectura pero no con la precisión en la recodificación. Este dato parecería sugerir que, en ortografías transparentes como el español, el tiempo en la recodificación impacta más que la precisión en la formación de representaciones ortográficas.

Dificuldades ortográficas: história de uma intervenção

Realizada no espírito da pesquisa-ação, a presente dissertação historia a atuação de sua autora, uma fonoaudióloga escolar, na condução de um grupo de estudos junto com um grupo de professoras da sua escola, no sentido de juntas buscarem subsídios sobre os fatores subjacentes às dificuldades ortográficas do alunado, de modo a possibilitar o desenvolvimento de atividades pedagógicas capazes de reverter essas dificuldades. Relata como foi feito o diagnóstico inicial de tais dificuldades e o desenvolvimento do processo de apropriação de conhecimentos e de reavaliação pedagógica ocorrido durante os encontros do grupo, que duraram seis meses, bem como apresenta a avaliação posterior do trabalho realizado feita pelas participantes, inclusive pela própria pesquisadora, que também testemunha sobre o seu próprio desenvolvimento pessoal durante o processo. Também é estabelecida na dissertação uma correlação entre a questão das dificuldades ortográficas com outros aspectos da aquisição da escrita; e são ainda apresentados boa parte dos saberes, conclusões e resultados obtidos pelo grupo, com o objetivo de fazer deste próprio texto uma contribuição para outros professores e técnicos escolares que se defrontem com problemas de aquisição da ortografia

Discriminating languages in bilingual contexts: the impact of orthographic markedness

Does language-specific orthography help language detection and lexical access in naturalistic bilingual contexts? This study investigates how L2 orthotactic properties influence bilingual language detection in bilingual societies and the extent to which it modulates lexical access and single word processing. Language specificity of naturalistically learnt L2 words was manipulated by including bigram combinations that could be either L2 language-specific or common in the two languages known by bilinguals. A group of balanced bilinguals and a group of highly proficient but unbalanced bilinguals who grew up in a bilingual society were tested, together with a group of monolinguals (for control purposes). All the participants completed a speeded language detection task and a progressive demasking task. Results showed that the use of the information of orthotactic rules across languages depends on the task demands at hand, and on participants' proficiency in the second language. The influence of language orthotactic rules during language detection, lexical access and word identification are discussed according to the most prominent models of bilingual word recognition.

从字形到语义：跨语言Stroop效应的ERP研究

According to the influential dual-route model of reading (Coltheart, Rastle et al. 2001), there are two routes to access the meaning of visual words: one directly by orthography (orthography-semantic) and the other indirectly via the phonology (phonology-semantic). Because of the dramatic difference between written Chinese and alphabetical languages, it is still on debate whether Chinese readers have the same semantic activation processes as readers of alphabetical languages. In this study, the semantic activation processes in alphabetical German and logographic Chinese were compared. Since the N450 for incongruent color words in the Stroop tasks was induced by the semantic conflict between the meaning of the incongruent color words and color naming, this component could be taken as an index for semantic activation of incongruent color words in Stroop tasks. Two cross-script Stroop experiments were adopted to investigate the semantic activation processes in Chinese and German. The first experiment focused on the the role of phonology, while the second one focused on the realative importance of orthography. Cultural differences in cognitive processing between individuals in western and eastern countries have been found (Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005). In order to exclude potential differences in basic cognitive processes like visual discrimination capabilities during reading, a visual Oddball experiment with non-lexical materials was conducted with all participants. However, as indicated by the P300 elicited by deviant stimuli in both groups, no group difference was observed. In the first Stroop experiments, color words (e.g., “green”), color-word associates (e.g., “grass”), and homophones of color words were used. These words were embedded into color patches with either congruent color (e.g. word “green” in green color patch) or incongruent colors (e.g. word “green” in either red or yellow or blue color patch). The key point is to observe whether homophones in both languages could induce similar behavioral and ERP Stroop effects to that induced by color words. It was also interesting to observe to which extent the N450 was related to the semantic conflicts. Nineteen Chinese adult readers and twenty German adult readers were asked to respond to the back color of these words in the Stroop experiment in their native languages by pressing the corresponding keys. In the behavioral data, incongruent conditions (incongruent color words, incongruent color-word associates, incongruent homophones) had significantly longer reaction times as compared to corresponding congruent conditions. All incongruent conditions in the Geman group elicited an N450 in the 400 to 500 ms time window. In the Chinese group, the N450 in the same time window was also observed for the incongruent color words and incongruent color-word associates. These results indicated that the N450 was very sensitive to semantic conflict-even words with semantic association to colors (e.g. “grass”) could elicite similar N450. However, the N450 was absent for incongruent homophones of color words in the Chinese group. Instead, in a later time window (600-800 ms), incongruent homophones elicited a positivity over left posterior regions as compared to congruent homophones. Similar positivity was also observed for color words in the 700 to 1000 ms time window in the Chinese group and 600 to 1000 ms time window for incongruent color words and homophones in the Geman group. These results indicate that phonology plays an important role in Geman semantic activation processes, but not in Chinese. In the second Stroop experiment, color words and pseudowords which had similiar visual shape to color words in both languages were used as materials. Another group of eighteen Chinese and twenty Germans were involved in the Stroop experiment in their native languages.The ERPs were recorded during their performance. In the behavioral data, strong and comparable Stroop effects (as counted by substract the reaction times in the congruent conditions from reaction times in the incongruent conditions) were observed. In the ERP data, both incongruent color words and incongruent pseudowords elicited an N450 over the whole brain scalp in both groups. These results indicated that orthography played an equally important role in semantic activation processes in both languages. The results of the two Stroop experiments support the view that the semantic activation process in Chiense readers differs significantly from that in German readers. The former rely mainly on the direct route (orthography-semantic), while the latter use both direct route and incirect route (phonology-semantic). These findings also indicate that the characteritics of different languages shape the semantic activation processes.

左侧梭状回内文字的字形加工：中文正常阅读者，中文文盲、非中文母语被试的对比研究

Reading is an important human-specific skill obtained through extensive learning experience and is reliance on the ability to rapidly recognize single words. According to the behavioral studies, the most important stage of reading is the representation of “visual word form”, which is independent on surface visual features of the reading materials. The prelexical visual word form representation is characterized by the abstractive and highly effective and precise processing. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have investigated the neural basis underlying the visual word form processing. On the basis of summary of the existing literature, the current thesis aimed to address three fundamental questions involving neural basis of word recognition. First, is there a dedicated neural network that is specialized for word recognition? Second, is the orthographic information represented in the putative word/character selective region (VWFA)? Third, what is the role of reading experience in the genesis of the VWFA, is experience a main driver to shape VWFA instead of evolutionary selectivity? Nineteen Chinese literate volunteers, 5 Chinese illiterates and 4 native English speakers participated in this study, and performed perceptual tasks during fMRI scanning. To address the first question, we compared the differential responses to three categories of visual objects, i.e., faces, line drawings of objects and Chinese characters, and defined the region of interesting (ROI) for the next experiment. To address the second question, Chinese character orthography was manipulated to reveal possible differential responses to real characters, false characters, radical combinations, and stroke combinations in the regions defined by the first experiment. To examine the role of reading experience in genesis of specialization for character, the responses for unfamiliar Chinese characters in Chinese illiterates and native English speakers were compared with that in the Chinese literates, and tracked the change in cortical activation after a short-term reading training in the illiterates. Data were analyzed in two dimensions. Both BOLD signal amplitude and spatial distribution pattern among multi-voxels were used to systematically investigate the responsiveness of the left fusiform gyrus to Chinese characters. Our results provide strong and clear evidence for the existence of functionally specialized regions in the human ventral occipital-temporal cortex. In the skilled readers a region specialized for written words could be consistently found in the lateral part of the left fusiform gyrus, line drawings in the median part and faces in the middle. Our results further show that spatial distribution analysis, a method that was not commonly used in neuroimaging of reading, appears to be a more effective measurement for category specialization for visual objects processing. Although we failed to provide evidence that VWFA processes orthographic information in terms of signal intensitiy, we do show that response pattern of real characters and radical collections in this area is different from that of false characters and random stroke combinations. Our last set of experiments suggests that the selective bias to reading material is clearly experience dependent. The response to unknown characters in both English speakers/readers and Chinese illiterates is fundamentally different from that of the skilled Chinese readers. The response pattern for unknown characters is more similar to that for line drawings rather as a weak version of character in skilled Chinese readers. Short-term training is not sufficient to produce VWFA bias even when tested with learned characters, rather the learned characters generated a overall upward shift of the activation of the left fusiform region. Formation of a dedicated region specialized for visual word/character might depend on long-term extensive reading experience, or there might be a critical period for reading acquisition.

汉字形音义加工时间进程的事件相关电位（ERP）研究

The time-courses of orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters were investigated systematically with multi-channel event-related potentials (ERPs). New evidences concerning whether phonology or semantics is processed first and whether phonology mediates semantic access were obtained, supporting and developing the new concept of repetition, overlapping, and alternating processing in Chinese character recognition. Statistic parameter mapping based on physiological double dissociation has been developed. Seven experiments were conducted: I) deciding which type of structure, left-right or non-left-right, the character displayed on the screen was; 2) deciding whether or not there was a vowel/a/in the pronunciation of the character; 3) deciding which classification, natural object or non-natural object, the character was; 4) deciding which color, red or green, the character was; 5) deciding which color, red or green, the non-character was; 6) fixing on the non-character; 7) fixing on the crosslet. The main results are: 1. N240 and P240:N240 and P240 localized at occipital and prefrontal respectively were found in experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4, but not in experiments 5, 6, or 7. The difference between the former 4 and the latter 3 experiments was only their stimuli: the former's were true Chinese characters while the latter's were non-characters or crosslet. Thus Chinese characters were related to these two components, which reflected unique processing of Chinese characters peaking at about 240 msec. 2. Basic visual feature analysis: In comparison with experiment 7 there was a common cognitive process in experiments 1, 2, 4, and 6 - basic visual feature analysis. The corresponding ERP amplitude increase in most sites started from about 60 msec. 3. Orthography: The ERP differences located at the main processing area of orthography (occipital) between experiments 1, 2, 3, 4 and experiment 5 started from about 130 msec. This was the category difference between Chinese characters and non-characters, which revealed that orthographic processing started from about 130 msec. The ERP differences between the experiments 1, 2, 3 and the experiment 4 occurred in 210-250, 230-240, and 190-250 msec respectively, suggesting orthography was processed again. These were the differences between language and non-language tasks, which revealed a higher level processing than that in the above mentioned 130 msec. All the phenomena imply that the orthographic processing does not finished in one time of processing; the second time of processing is not a simple repetition, but a higher level one. 4. Phonology: The ERPs of experiment 2 (phonological task) were significantly stronger than those of experiment 3 (semantic task) at the main processing areas of phonology (temporal and left prefrontal) starting from about 270 msec, which revealed phonologic processing. The ERP differences at left frontal between experiment 2 and experiment 1 (orthographic task) started from about 250 msec. When comparing phonological task with experiment 4 (character color decision), the ERP differences at left temporal and prefrontal started from about 220 msec. Thus phonological processing may start before 220 msec. 5. Semantic: The ERPs of experiment 3 (semantic task) were significantly stronger than those of experiment 2 (phonological task) at the main processing areas of semantics (parietal and occipital) starting from about 290 msec, which revealed semantic processing. The ERP differences at these areas between experiment 3 and experiment 4 (character color decision) started from about 270 msec. The ERP differences between experiment 3 and experiment 1 (orthographic task) started from about 260 msec. Thus semantic processing may start before 260 msec. 6. Overlapping of phonological and semantic processing: From about 270 to 350 msec, the ERPs of experiment 2 (phonological task) were significantly larger than those of experiment 3 (semantic task) at the main processing areas of phonology (temporal and left prefrontal); while from about 290-360 msec, the ERPs of experiment 3 were significantly larger than those of experiment 2 at the main processing areas of semantics (frontal, parietal, and occipital). Thus phonological processing may start earlier than semantic and their time-courses may alternate, which reveals parallel processing. 7. Semantic processing needs part phonology: When experiment 1 (orthographic task) served as baseline, the ERPs of experiment 2 and 3 (phonological and semantic tasks) significantly increased at the main processing areas of phonology (left temporal and frontal) starting from about 250 msec. The ERPs of experiment 3, besides, increased significantly at the main processing areas of semantics (parietal and frontal) starting from about 260 msec. When experiment 4 (character color decision) served as baseline, the ERPs of experiment 2 and 3 significantly increased at phonological areas (left temporal and frontal) starting from about 220 msec. The ERPs of experiment 3, similarly, increased significantly at semantic areas (parietal and frontal) starting from about270 msec. Hence, before semantic processing, a part of phonological information may be required. The conclusion could be got from above results in the present experimental conditions: 1. The basic visual feature processing starts from about 60 msec; 2. Orthographic processing starts from about 130 msec, and repeats at about 240 msec. The second processing is not simple repetition of the first one, but a higher level processing; 3. Phonological processing begins earlier than semantic, and their time-courses overlap; 4. Before semantic processing, a part of phonological information may be required; 5. The repetition, overlapping, and alternating of the orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters could exist in cognition. Thus the problem of whether phonology mediates semantics access is not a simple, but a complicated issue.

Explicit versus implicit spelling strategy instruction and its effects on grade one children's invented spellings

The intent of this study was to investigate .the effectiveness of teaching thirty-five Grade One children a variety of effective spelling strategies in comparison to tradit~onal spelling instruction. Strategy instruction included training in phonology, imagery and analogy. In addition, the type of instruction pro~ided (implicit versus explicit) was also examined. Children were seen in small groups of four or five, for four, twenty-five minute sessions. All children were tested prior and immediately following the training sessions, as well as at 14-day follow-ups. Pretest and posttest measures included a dictated spelling test (based on words used in training), a developmental spelling test and a sample of each child's writing. In addition, children completed a metacognitive spelling test as a measure of their strategy awareness. Performance scores on the pretest and posttest measures were compared to determine if any differences existed between the three spelling instruction groups using the Dunn-Bonferroni and Dunnett procedures. Findings revealed that explicit strategy instruction was the most effective spelling program for improving Grade One children's invented spellings. Children who received this instruction were able to spell targeted words more accurately, even after a 14-day follow-up, and were able to recall more effective spelling strategies than children who received either implicit strategy instruction or traditional strategy instruction.

Improving grade eight students' spelling performance with a triad strategy approach

Thesis (M.Ed.)-- Brock University, 1996.

Spelling performance of third grade students : a comparison of whole-language-plus-strategy instruction, strategy instruction only, and the whole language approach

This study investigated three methods for teaching children how to spell. Third grade students were divided into three conditions for a one-week training period consisting of 15- to 20-minute lessons. One of the two experimental conditions used a whole language approach along with explicit strategy instruction. The second condition used strategy instruction within a traditional setting. The control used strictly a whole language approach to le~ing hO\\l to spell. The spelling perfonnance of all three conditions improved after the one-week training period. However, students in the strategy instruction groups did significantly better on the study "'7ords than the whole language only group. The students in whole-Ianguage-plusstrateg)! instruction outperformed both other groups. Significantly better spelling perfonnance was observed even at the nine-week posttest. This study frrst supported the hypothesis that children can make significantly greater improven1ents in their spelling when explicitly taught how to use spelling strategies. Secondl)', this study indicated that whole language provided a relevant context for the study words, clearly giving the students in the whole-Ianguage-plus-strategy condition an additional advantage.

The generation effect and word learning: a test of the effect of the language experience approach versus the text approach in the acquisition of new reading vocabulary

A class of twenty-two grade one children was tested to determine their reading levels using the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Achievement Test. Based on these results and teacher input the students were paired according to reading ability. The students ages ranged from six years four months to seven years four months at the commencement of the study. Eleven children were assigned to the language experience group and their partners became the text group. Each member of the language experience group generated a list of eight to be learned words. The treatment consisted of exposing the student to a given word three times per session for ten sessions, over a period of five days. The dependent variables consisted of word identification speed, word identification accuracy, and word recognition accuracy. Each member of the text group followed the same procedure using his/her partner's list of words. Upon completion of this training, the entire process was repeated with members of the text group from the first part becoming members of the language experience group and vice versa. The results suggest that generally speaking language experience words are identified faster than text words but that there is no difference in the rate at which these words are learned. Language experience words may be identified faster because the auditory-semantic information is more readily available in them than in text words. The rate of learning in both types of words, however, may be dictated by the orthography of the to be learned word.

The performance and strategies of adolescents in learning to read artificial words /

The present study explored processing strategies used by individuals when they begin to read c;l script. Stimuli were artificial words created from symbols and based on an alphabetic system. The words were.presented to Grade Nine and Ten students, with variations included in the difficulty of orthography and word familiarity, and then scores were recorded on the mean number of trials for defined learning variables. Qualitative findings revealed that subjects 1 earned parts of the visual a'nd auditory features of words prior to hooking up the visual stimulus to the word's name. Performance measures-which appear to affect the rate of learning were as follows: auditory short-term memory, auditory delayed short-term memory, visual delayed short- term memory, and word attack or decod~ng skills. Qualitative data emerging in verbal reports by the subjects revealed that strategies they pefceived to use were, graphic, phonetic decoding and word .reading.

La compétence orthographique d'élèves dyslexiques du primaire

Les élèves dyslexiques éprouvent de grandes difficultés à lire et à écrire. Leurs difficultés en production orthographique sont reconnues pour être persistantes. Elles peuvent être expliquées par un déficit des procédures phonologiques. Or, pour orthographier une langue alphabétique comme le français, il est indispensable de développer des connaissances phonologiques puisque l’entrée dans l’écrit repose en grande partie sur la mise en correspondance de la langue orale et de sa réalisation à l’écrit. En plus des connaissances phonologiques, le système orthographique du français exige du scripteur d’acquérir des connaissances visuo-orthographiques et morphologiques. Les recherches menées sur la compétence orthographique des élèves dyslexiques se rapportent majoritairement à l’anglais et sur la compétence en lecture. La présente étude a pour objectif général de décrire, dans une visée explicative, la compétence orthographique de 26 élèves dyslexiques québécois âgés de 9 à 13 ans. Les objectifs spécifiques sont de décrire les performances de ces élèves en contexte de productions libres et de les comparer à celles de 26 élèves normo-lecteurs de même âge chronologique (CA) et à celles de 29 normo-lecteurs plus jeunes mais de même niveau en lecture (CL). Pour ce faire, nous avons analysé les erreurs en prenant en compte les propriétés phonologiques, visuo-orthographiques et morphologiques des mots écrits. Les résultats indiquent que les élèves dyslexiques ont des performances inférieures à celles des CA, mais aussi, dans certains cas, à celles des CL. Les résultats sont discutés en fonction des connaissances que doivent développer les scripteurs dyslexiques et des pistes orthodidactiques à envisager.