The processing of inflected and derived words in writing

We report on an English-speaking, aphasic individual (RB) with a spelling deficit more severely affecting orthographically irregular words for which phonologically plausible errors (PPEs) were produced. PPEs were observed for all word forms, with the exception of inflectional suffixes, despite the irregular sound-print mappings of many inflectional suffixes (e.g., walked → /w?kt/). RB's pattern replicates that reported in Badecker, Rapp, and Caramazza (Badecker, W., Rapp, B., &; Caramazza, A. (1996). Lexical Morphology and the Two Orthographic Routes. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13, 161–176). We extended their investigation by examining RB's spelling of derived words and found a selective deficit for derived words compared to inflected words in writing. This selective deficit did not appear to reflect differences in morphological transparency or suffix frequencies that exist between inflection and derivation. This is the first evidence that distinct neural mechanisms support inflection and derivation in spelling.     

Looking at emotional words is not the same as reading emotional words: Behavioral and neural correlates

Recent research suggests that the allocation of attentional resources to emotional content during word processing might be sensitive to task requirements. This question was investigated in two tasks with similar instructions. The stimuli were positive, negative, and neutral nouns. Participants had to identify meaningful words embedded in a stream of non‐recognizable stimuli (task 1) or pseudowords (task 2). Task 1 could be successfully performed on the basis of the perceptual features whereas a lexico‐semantic analysis was required in task 2. Effects were found only in task 2. Positive nouns were identified faster, with fewer errors and elicited larger amplitude in an early negativity. Also, the amplitude of a late positivity was larger for both positive and negative nouns than for neutral nouns. It is concluded that some degree of linguistic processing is needed to direct attention to the affective content during word processing.     

A case study of acquired dyslexia and dysgraphia in cantonese: evidence for nonsemantic pathways for reading and writing chinese

We report a Cantonese-speaking brain-damaged patient, CML, who demonstrates better oral reading than oral naming and better writing to dictation than written naming. Such dissociations are taken as evidence for nonsemantic routes for the production of spoken and written Chinese words. The occurrence of tonal errors in CML's reading aloud informs us about the structure of phonological representations. We propose that it is a nonlinear structure, similar to that which has been proposed in tonal phonology of Chinese. Specific impairment to these representations may lead to a dissociation between segmental and suprasegmental information. Finally, the similarity of CML's neologistic responses in oral and written naming, and her production of tonal errors in writing to dictation and written naming, favour the mediated version of the nonsemantic pathway for writing more than the unmediated pathway.     

Executive functions in becoming writing readers and reading writers: note taking and report writing in third and fifth graders

Results are reported for a study of 2 separate processes of report writing—taking notes while reading source material and composing a report from those notes—and related individual differences in executive functions involved in integrating reading and writing during these writing activities. Third graders (n = 122) and 5th graders (n = 106; overall, 127 girls and 114 boys) completed two reading-writing tasks—read paragraph (mock science text)-write notes and use notes to generate written report, a reading comprehension test, a written expression test, four tests of executive functions (inhibition, verbal fluency, planning, switching attention), and a working memory test. For the read-take notes task, the same combination of variables was best (explained the most variance and each variable added unique variance) for 3rd graders and 5th graders: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II) Reading Comprehension, Process Assessment of the Learner Test for Reading and Writing (PAL) Copy Task B, WIAT-II Written Expression, and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Inhibition. For the use notes to write report task, the best combinations of variables depended on grade level: For 3rd graders, WIAT-II Reading Comprehension, WIAT-II Written Expression, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency, and Tower of Hanoi; for 5th graders, WIAT-II Reading Comprehension, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency, WIAT-II Written Expression, and PAL Alphabet Task. These results add to prior research findings that executive functions contribute to the writing development of elementary-grade students and additionally support the hypothesis that executive functions play a role in developing reading-writing connections.     

Category specificity and feature knowledge:evidence from new sensory-quality categories

Category-specific deficits and their relation to types of feature knowledge are addressed with respect to three semantic domains: artefacts, living things, and mass-kinds. The performance of a herpes encephalitic patient with a classic category-specific pattern of knowledge, MU, was compared to that of the other HSE patients and normal subjects. In a feature verification task involving over 4000 questions, MU showed a severe impairment with the mass-kind category, where his sensory features knowledge was at chance and much worse than his functional knowledge. In the feature production task, however, MU was grossly impaired with respect to sensory relative to functional features across all categories. Control experiments suggest that the deficits were of knowledge. Overall, these findings give some support to the sensory-functional theory, and are difficult to explain on the domain-specific knowledge theory. However, an account is still needed of the differences observed in MU's performance between the two paradigms.     

Specific order impairment in arabic number writing: A case-study

The present study examines the transitory deficit in transcoding verbal to Arabic numbers in an aphasic patient, TM. She showed a mild syntactic impairment in syntactic comprehension of verbal numbers, with preserved performance in comprehension of Arabic numbers, in access to semantic representation, as well as in reading of Arabic numbers, but she committed 75% of errors when required to write numbers in the Arabic format to dictation. In conformity to the previous literature on transcoding deficits, the majority of her errors were syntactic (60%). However, most of them were unusual "order errors" (50%) in which lexical digits (e.g., 1 to 9) were written on the left and zeros on the right of the number, which contained in the majority of the cases the correct number of digits. A similar type of errors has been reported in only one previous case study (Delazer & Denes, 1998), but not specifically studied. We discuss hypotheses concerning its origins as stemming from a syntactic disorder within existing models of transcoding (McCloskey, Caramazza, & Basili, 1985; Power & Dal Martello, 1990). We also report kinematic assessment of the patient's handwriting before and after recovery. At time of the second examination, results show that her pattern of movement fluency parallels that of healthy subjects and supports a distinction between two types of zeros within Arabic numbers, in relation to the verbal code and the rules required to produce them. This paper thus also highlights the potential usefulness of using a digitising tablet in the study of transcoding deficits.     

Brain activity while reading words and pseudo-words: a comparison between dyslexic and fluent readers

In recent years many studies have focused on brain activity differences between fluent and dyslexic readers in order to understand the neural basis of dyslexia. The aim of the current study was to examine the processing of words and pseudo-words in the two hemispheres among dyslexic as compared to fluent readers, using behavioral, and electrophysiological source estimation measures. Two matched groups of university students, fluent and dyslexic readers, performed a lexical decision task in order to examine the processes of word recognition. Dyslexic readers showed overall less activity than fluent readers, mainly during late processing stages. In addition, the distinctive patterns of activity for words and pseudo-words displayed by fluent readers were not apparent in dyslexic readers. In particular, the increased activation of left-hemisphere language areas found in response to pseudo-words was absent in dyslexics. These findings are further evidence of orthographic and phonological impairments in dyslexia.     

Type of delivery and reading,writing, and arithmetic learning in twin births

This study analyses, in children born in twin births, the relationship between reading, writing and arithmetic learning, on the one hand, and type of delivery, on the other, controlling for the effect of interaction and/or confusion of third variables (maternal age at delivery, gestational age, fetal position, birthweight, 1-min Apgar score). In the planned retrospective cohort design, the exposed cohort consisted of children born by caesarean section, and the non-exposed cohort was comprised of children born vaginally. One hundred and twenty-four children born of twin births were evaluated during their first year of primary school: K-BIT tests were used to measure intelligence; the Evalúa-1 battery was used to assess reading, writing, and arithmetic ability; and the children's clinical histories were analysed for obstetric and neonatal variables. After applying binary logistic regressions for each dependent variable, it was found that caesarean delivery in twin births appeared as a possible independent risk factor for specific learning disabilities (LDs) in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Based on these results, further research using larger samples and at more advanced ages is required in order to analyse the influence of obstetric and neonatal variables on the processes underlying specific LDs.     

The role of the (output) phonological buffer in reading,writing, and repetition

Abstract

A patient is described who shows impairment in reading, writing, and repetition of nonwords, but not words. The errors in each of these tasks consisted primarily of single letter or phoneme substitutions. A confusion matrix of the stimulus/error-response relationship for each of the three tasks revealed a systematic relationship between error and target responses; error responses were strongly related phonologically to target responses. The configuration of impairments and error patterns in this patient is interpreted as resulting from damage to the phonological buffer. A functional architecture for reading, writing, and repetition, in which the role of the phonological buffer is made explicit, is proposed.     

P200 can be modulated by orthography alone in reading Chinese words

The present study examined the relation between the event-related potential component P200 and orthographic processing in reading Chinese words. Participants performed a semantic judgment task on pairs of words (prime–target pairs) presented sequentially and the P200 elicited by the second target word was examined and compared across different prime conditions. The critical pairs were single characters similar in orthography but unrelated in phonology or semantics. Results showed that for both integrated and composite characters, visually similar primes led to reduced P200 than control primes and the effect was larger for composite characters than integrated characters. The study presented clear evidence that P200 is sensitive to orthographic similarity and can be modulated by orthography alone in reading Chinese word.     

Evaluation of the efficacy of piracetam in treating information processing, reading and writing disorders in dyslexic children

Piracetam, a new class of drug (nootropil) thought to enhance specific cognitive skills, was given in a 3300 mg daily dose to half of a group of fifty-five dyslexic boys aged 8-13 years, in a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The other half of the subjects received placebo. All subjects met the following criteria: normal intelligence, normal educational opportunities, no severe emotional problems, no neurological handicaps, good physical health, not taking other psychotropic medication, and scoring at least one and one half years below their mental age equivalent on the Gilmore Oral Reading Test. Non-verbal (auditory and visual) and verbal perceptual, and memory skills were examined, and reading, spelling, language and writing abilities were measured using standardized instruments. Compared to the placebo control group, individuals treated with Piracetam did not show statistically significant improvements above their baseline scores on measures of perception, memory, language, reading accuracy or comprehension, or writing accuracy. However, reading speed and numbers of words written in a timed period were significantly enhanced in subjects treated with Piracetam as compared to placebo. Effective reading and writing ability, taking both rate and accuracy into consideration, were also significantly improved in the Piracetam as compared to the placebo treatment group. The medication was well-tolerated and medical examinations showed no significant adverse reactions. These results encourage further study of Piracetam to determine more precisely the mechanism of action by which specific cognitive skills are affected.     

A case of exceptional reading accuracy in a child with Down syndrome: Underlying skills and the relation to reading comprehension

We report on a case of a girl with Down syndrome (DS), K.S., whose reading accuracy is exceptional. This ability is associated with robust phonological skills and relative strengths in visual and verbal short-term memory, articulation, and speech fluency. Although her reading comprehension is age appropriate when it comes to the retention of literal information, K.S. has some difficulties in using knowledge-based inferences in reading comprehension. Reading comprehension in that sense is at a level commensurate with her oral language skills. Her reading performance parallels that of children with reading comprehension difficulties who do not have DS. This reading profile is in contrast with claims that individuals with DS mainly use sight-word strategies in reading and shows that the phonological pathway can be highly proficient in a child with DS. However, even in a case such as K.S. where reading accuracy is good, functional literacy is constrained by limited comprehension skills.     

A case of exceptional reading accuracy in a child with Down syndrome: Underlying skills and the relation to reading comprehension

We report on a case of a girl with Down syndrome (DS), K.S., whose reading accuracy is exceptional. This ability is associated with robust phonological skills and relative strengths in visual and verbal short-term memory, articulation, and speech fluency. Although her reading comprehension is age appropriate when it comes to the retention of literal information, K.S. has some difficulties in using knowledge-based inferences in reading comprehension. Reading comprehension in that sense is at a level commensurate with her oral language skills. Her reading performance parallels that of children with reading comprehension difficulties who do not have DS. This reading profile is in contrast with claims that individuals with DS mainly use sight-word strategies in reading and shows that the phonological pathway can be highly proficient in a child with DS. However, even in a case such as K.S. where reading accuracy is good, functional literacy is constrained by limited comprehension skills.     

A case for clarity in the writing of health statements

OBJECTIVE: While effectively written health-related materials can facilitate self-care, using negative wording may backfire, as patients may forget negations and remember the opposite of intended information. The present study attempts to determine if older readers are particularly susceptible to misremembering negatively worded health-related statements. METHODS: Younger and older adults read positively and negatively worded statements and were later tested for memory of the exact statements, statements opposite in meaning due to the addition or deletion of a negation, and entirely new statements. RESULTS: For intact statements, both groups recognized more positive than negative statements. When statements reversed meanings, younger adults were more likely to accurately recognize items that changed from negative to positive than were older adults, who were more likely to incorrectly endorse changed items as intact when items began negative and became positive than the reverse. CONCLUSION: The inclusion of negations, often used in attention-grabbing techniques such as myth-busting, can backfire, especially among older audiences who are less likely to accurately remember negatively worded items and especially likely to endorse their positive counterparts. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Designers of healthcare materials should avoid using negatively worded statements, which may be misremembered by vulnerable populations, in favor of positive wording.     

Arabic number reading deficit: A single case study or when 236 is read (2306) and judged superior to 1258

Abstract

This paper presents a single-case study of a patient (NR) showing a very specific (though not isolated) disorder in Arabic number reading. The type of reading errors and the pattern of the results observed in tasks tapping different components of the number processing system support the hypothesis of a deficit in the syntactic module of the Arabic comprehension system (in McCloskey, Sokol, & Goodman's [1986] model). NR's deficit is also examined in the light of two other number reading models: Seron and Deloche (1984) and Cohen and Dehaene (1991). In addition, the opposition beween semantic and asemantic transcoding models is discussed. In tasks based on a representation of the quantity, NR's errors with Arabic forms seem to result from correct semantic processing based on the expected verbal transcoded forms; this is easily interpretable in the semantic transcoding model (e.g. McCloskey et al., 1986), whereas in asemantic perspectives (e.g. Seron & Deloche, 1984; Cohen & Dehaene, 1991) no direct explanation is proposed. In this respect, a “preferred entry code” hypothesis is developed.