Can poor readers visually recognize words they are unable to read? /

The ability to learn new reading vocabulary was assessed in 30 grade 3 poor readers reading approximately one to two years below grade level; the results of the assessment were compared to the performance abilities of 33 normal readers in grade 3 as obtained from an earlier study that employed the same approach and stimuli. The purpose of the study was to examine the strategies employed by poor readers in the acquisition of new reading vocabulary. Students were randomly assigned to either a treatment group (Mixed Phonics Explicit), or to a control group (Phonics Implicit). Subjects in the Mixed Phonics Explicit groups received explicit letter/sound correspondence training. Subjects in the Phonics Implicit group were asked to re-read the presented pseudo-words, receiving corrective feedback when necessary. The stimuli on which the subjects were trained involved a list of six pseudo-words presented in sentences as surnames. The training involved a teaching and test format on each trial for a total of six trials or until criterion had been reached. The results suggested that both normal and poor readers engage in visual learning and verbal coding when acquiring new reading vocabulary. However, poor readers appear to engage in less verbal coding than normal readers. Between group comparisons showed no difference between poor and normal readers in trials and errors to criterion in the visual recognition memory measure. However, normal readers performed significantly better in reading their visual recognition choices.

Phonological oddballs in the focus of attention elicit a normal P3b in dyslexic adults

Difficulties in phonological processing have been proposed to be the core symptom of developmental dyslexia. Phoneme awareness tasks have been shown to both index and predict individual reading ability. In a previous experiment, we observed that dyslexic adults fail to display a P3a modulation for phonological deviants within an alliterated word stream when concentrating primarily on a lexical decision task [Fosker and Thierry, 2004, Neurosci. Lett. 357, 171-174]. Here we recorded the P3b oddball response elicited by initial phonemes within streams of alliterated words and pseudo-words when participants focussed directly on detecting the oddball phonemes. Despite significant verbal screening test differences between dyslexic adults and controls, the error rates, reactions times, and main components (P2, N2, P3a, and P3b) were indistinguishable across groups. The only difference between groups was found in the NI range, where dyslexic participants failed to show the modulations induced by phonological pairings (/b/-/p/ versus /r/ /g/) in controls. In light of previous P3a differences, these results suggest an important role for attention allocation in the manifestation of phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Substrats neuronaux de la mémoire épisodique et de la mémoire de travail dans le vieillissement normal et pathologique

La maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) est de loin le type de démence le plus répandu chez les personnes âgées. Il est maintenant possible de proposer un certain nombre d’interventions ou de stratégies préventives aux personnes portant un diagnostic de MA ou à risque de développer la maladie. Il est donc important de diagnostiquer cette maladie le plus tôt possible. Les personnes avec un trouble cognitif léger (TCL) représentent une population d’intérêt puisqu’elles sont à haut risque d’évoluer vers une démence et plusieurs d’entres elles seraient ainsi dans une phase prodromale de la MA. Les travaux de cette thèse visent à explorer les activations fonctionnelles associées à la mémoire épisodique et à la mémoire de travail dans le TCL ainsi qu’aux effets de la sévérité de la maladie et des caractéristiques de la tâche sur ces activations. Dans un premier temps, nous exposerons les connaissances relatives au niveau des atteintes cognitives, du patron d’activation fonctionnelle et des plus récents modèles élaborés pour expliquer les changements d’activation dans le vieillissement normal et pathologique (Chapitre 1). Par la suite, les études réalisées dans le cadre de cette thèse seront présentées. Nous avons d’abord étudié la fiabilité du signal d’activation chez les TCL et chez les personnes âgées saines (PA) à l’aide de tâches d’encodage et de récupération de mots (Chapitre 2). Nous avons ensuite comparé le patron d’activation cérébral des PA et des personnes TCL alors qu’elles réalisaient une tâche d’encodage et de récupération de mots. L’effet de la sévérité a été évalué en corrélant les activations des personnes TCL à leurs scores obtenu à une échelle évaluant leur cognition globale (Chapitre 3). L’effet de sévérité a ensuite été étudié de manière plus approfondie chez un plus grand nombre de TCL en utilisant la médiane du groupe à cette même échelle pour déterminer un groupe de TCL plus atteints et un groupe de TCL moins atteints. Ces deux groupes ont ensuite été comparés à un groupe de PA lors d’une tâche d’encodage de paires de mots reliés sémantiquement ou non-reliés (Chapitre 4), une tâche de reconnaissance de paires de mots mesurant principalement la familiarité ou principalement la recollection (Chapitre 5), ainsi que deux tâches impliquant des composantes différentes de la mémoire de travail et des fonctions exécutives, soit la manipulation de l’information et l’attention divisée (Chapitre 6). Les résultats présentés dans cette thèse ont mis en évidence une distinction entre le patron d’activation des TCL et des PA qui semble caractérisée par une interaction entre le niveau de sévérité de la maladie et les processus cognitifs impliqués dans la tâche. L’effet de sévérité a été observé lors de plusieurs tâches impliquant des processus cognitifs différents où les MCI moins atteints ont montré principalement des hyperactivations sous-tendant des mécanismes compensatoires et les MCI plus atteints ont montré principalement des hypoactivations soulignant la dégradation de ces mécanismes. Par ailleurs, les résultats de nos études ont aussi montré que cet effet de sévérité est modulé par le moment d’altération du processus cognitif impliqué dans la tâche: les processus altérés précocément dans le TCL sont caractériséees par des hyperactivations chez les TCL moins atteints tandis que les processus altérés plus tardivement ont plutôt élicité des hyperactivations chez les TCL plus atteints. Les implications de ces résultats, ainsi que les limites des études, sont discutés (Chapitre 7).

Eye movements of beginning and more skilled readers

The present study aimed to analyze and compare the eye movements of beginning (2nd grade) and more skilled (4th grade) readers, during reading words and pseudo-words aloud, that differ in frequency (just for words), regularity and length. In this way, one intends to analyze the process of visual information extraction, by both groups, and detect experience and practice-related changes in the ocular behavior. The eye movements of 34 children were monitored, while these were reading words/pseudo-words lists, and this was accomplished using eye-tracking technology. The results show statistically significant differences between the two groups, in mean and total fixations duration for high-frequency words, in mean fixation duration for regular words and in the mean saccade amplitude in irregular pseudo-words. However, no significant differences were found between the groups on the study of the other variables. Nevertheless, the results suggest that skilled readers tend to show more effective eye movements, what determined a lesser effect of words’ frequency, regularity and length on this group. Moreover, the pseudo-words processing was more difficult than that of words, in both groups.

The relationship between phonological awareness and word reading accuracy in Oriya and English: A Study of Oriya-speaking fifth-graders

This study investigated the relationships between phonological awareness and reading in Oriya and English. Oriya is the official language of Orissa, an eastern state of India. The writing system is an alphasyllabary. Ninety-nine fifth grade children (mean age 9 years 7 months) were assessed on measures of phonological awareness, word reading and pseudo-word reading in both languages. Forty-eight of the children attended Oriya-medium schools where they received literacy instruction in Oriya from grade 1 and learned English from grade 2. Fifty-one children attended English-medium schools where they received literacy instruction in English from grade 1 and in Oriya from grade 2. The results showed that phonological awareness in Oriya contributed significantly to reading Oriya and English words and pseudo-words for the children in the Oriya-medium schools. However, it only contributed to Oriya pseudo-word reading and English word reading for children in the English-medium schools. Phonological awareness in English contributed to English word and pseudo-word reading for both groups. Further analyses investigated the contribution of awareness of large phonological units (syllable, onsets and rimes) and small phonological units (phonemes) to reading in each language. The data suggest that cross-language transfer and facilitation of phonological awareness to word reading is not symmetrical across languages and may depend both on the characteristics of the different orthographies of the languages being learned and whether the first literacy language is also the first spoken language.

Desempenho de escolares na adaptação brasileira da avaliação dos processos de leitura

TEMA: adaptação brasileira da avaliação dos processos de leitura (Prolec). OBJETIVO: caracterizar e comparar o desempenho de escolares do ensino básico público e privado de 1ª a 4ª séries na adaptação brasileira da avaliação dos Processos de Leitura (Prolec). MÉTODO: participaram deste estudo 262 escolares da 1ª à 4ª série do ensino básico, distribuídos em: Grupo I (GI), composto por 122 escolares de escola pública municipal e Grupo II (GII), composto por 140 escolares de escola particular. Como procedimento, aplicou-se a adaptação brasileira das provas de avaliação do Prolec. RESULTADOS: os resultados revelaram que o GII apresentou desempenho superior em provas de identificação de som, decisão lexical, leitura de palavras, leitura de palavras de baixa frequência, leitura de pseudo-palavras, compreensão de orações e compreensão de textos. Tanto os escolares do GI como do GII apresentaram desempenho abaixo da pontuação esperada nas provas do PROLEC na versão espanhola. CONCLUSÃO: a adaptação do Prolec para a realidade brasileira mostrou-se adequada para o estabelecimento de perfil de leitura nos escolares de ensino público e particular em fase inicial de alfabetização.

Desempenho de escolares de 1ª a 4ª séries do ensino fundamental em Provas de Habilidades Metalingüísticas e de Leitura (PROHMELE)

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

Habilidades metafonológicas e desenvolvimento de leitura e escrita recombinativas em crianças com diagnóstico de dislexia

O presente estudo objetivou a implementação de um modelo que integrasse o treino de consciência fonológica ao paradigma de equivalência de estímulos, utilizando-se de rede de relações condicionais, para produzir leitura e escrita recombinativas com compreensão em crianças e adolescentes com dislexia fonológica. Participaram desse estudo RP, 9 anos, 3 série e JR e LV, 12 e 15 anos, cursando a 6 e 7 séries, respectivamente, alunos de escolas públicas de Belém, diagnosticados como disléxicos por fonoaudiólogas e indicados pelas mesmas para participarem do projeto. O trabalho foi desenvolvido em 8 fases. Foram aplicados pré-testes para averiguar a existência dos requisitos básicos para alfabetização, e o repertório de entrada em equivalência, leitura em voz alta, ditado e consciência fonológica. Os treinos e testes de formação de classes de equivalência eram intercalados com os treinos de consciência fonológica (consciência de palavras e consciência de sílabas), gerando a possibilidade de averiguar o efeito de cada treino nos desempenhos dos participantes. Os resultados mostraram uma melhora significativa nas habilidades de leitura com compreensão e escrita de palavras e pseudopalavras, e de nome de figuras (ditado mudo), evidenciando a necessidade do ensino explícito de habilidades metafonológicas para o domínio de leitura competente e, especialmente da escrita indicando a eficiência deste modelo. Levantou, também, o questionamento de que uma explicação de causa apenas neurológica que se encontra em toda definição de dislexia seja insuficiente e inadequada, pois a exposição destes sujeitos a eventos ambientais, no caso, treinos específicos de discriminações condicionais, foram eficazes na melhora dos desempenhos.

Peripheral responses to attended and unattended angry prosody: a dichotic listening paradigm.

We investigated the effects of angry prosody, varying focus of attention, and laterality of presentation of angry prosody on peripheral nervous system activity. Participants paid attention to either their left or their right ear while performing a sex discrimination task on dichotically presented pseudo-words. These pseudo-words were characterized by either angry or neutral prosody and presented stereophonically (anger/neutral, neutral/anger, or neutral/neutral, for the left/right ear, respectively). Reaction times and physiological responses (heart period, skin conductance, finger and forehead temperature) in this study were differentially sensitive to the effects of anger versus neutral prosody, varying focus of attention, and laterality of presentation of angry prosody.

The modulation of reading strategies by language opacity in early bilinguals: an eye movement study

Converging evidences from eye movement experiments indicate that linguistic contexts influence reading strategies. However, the question of whether different linguistic contexts modulate eye movements during reading in the same bilingual individuals remains unresolved. We examined reading strategies in a transparent (German) and an opaque (French) language of early, highly proficient French–German bilinguals: participants read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words while the First Fixation Location (FFL), its duration and latency were measured. Since transparent linguistic contexts and pseudo-words would favour a direct grapheme/phoneme conversion, the reading strategy should be more local for German than for French words (FFL closer to the beginning) and no difference is expected in pseudo-words’ FFL between contexts. Our results confirm these hypotheses, providing the first evidence that the same individuals engage different reading strategy depending on language opacity, suggesting that a given brain process can be modulated by a given context.

The Impact of Language Opacity and Proficiency on Reading Strategies in Bilinguals: An Eye Movement Study

Reading strategies vary across languages according to orthographic depth - the complexity of the grapheme in relation to phoneme conversion rules - notably at the level of eye movement patterns. We recently demonstrated that a group of early bilinguals, who learned both languages equally under the age of seven, presented a first fixation location (FFL) closer to the beginning of words when reading in German as compared with French. Since German is known to be orthographically more transparent than French, this suggested that different strategies were being engaged depending on the orthographic depth of the used language. Opaque languages induce a global reading strategy, and transparent languages force a local/serial strategy. Thus, pseudo-words were processed using a local strategy in both languages, suggesting that the link between word forms and their lexical representation may also play a role in selecting a specific strategy. In order to test whether corresponding effects appear in late bilinguals with low proficiency in their second language (L2), we present a new study in which we recorded eye movements while two groups of late German-French and French-German bilinguals read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words. Since, a transparent reading strategy is local and serial, with a high number of fixations per stimuli, and the level of the bilingual participants' L2 is low, the impact of language opacity should be observed in L1. We therefore predicted a global reading strategy if the bilinguals' L1 was French (FFL close to the middle of the stimuli with fewer fixations per stimuli) and a local and serial reading strategy if it was German. Thus, the L2 of each group, as well as pseudo-words, should also require a local and serial reading strategy. Our results confirmed these hypotheses, suggesting that global word processing is only achieved by bilinguals with an opaque L1 when reading in an opaque language; the low level in the L2 gives way to a local and serial reading strategy. These findings stress the fact that reading behavior is influenced not only by the linguistic mode but also by top-down factors, such as readers' proficiency.

A misspelt youth: Spelling and orthographic learning in university students as a function of spelling-sound consistency

Pseudowords with inconsistent vs. consistent spellings (e.g., nurch, with rhyme neighbours search, lurch & perch, vs. mish, with neighbours dish, wish) were presented with definitions for naming either twice or 6 times. In an oral spelling test, there were main and interactive effects of consistency and the number of training trials on accuracy and main effects only on response latency, with the improvement in accuracy from 2 to 6 training trials greater for the more poorly learned inconsistent items. Of most interest, the smaller effect of training on accuracy in the consistent condition was reliable; contrary to the most obvious prediction of dual route spelling models that the sublexical procedure should produce correct spellings for consistent items early in training. In a second task students wrote spellings of multisyllabic words containing unstressed indeterminate (schwa) vowels. In their errors on the schwa vowel, students showed sensitivity to the most common spelling overall but also they were influenced by differences in schwa spellings in English words as a function of the number of syllables and schwa position. These results indicate that dual route models of spelling will need to accommodate the consistency of spellings within categories defined by lexical structure variables.

O erro mora aqui! - A relação entre a consciência fonológica e morfológica e a natureza dos erros ortográficos em crianças do 2º e 4º ano de escolaridade

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Educacional.