Reading

Question 1

What 3 processes are involved in reading?

Answer 1

1. Orthography
2. Phonology
3. Semantics

Question 2

Name 4 methods of researching reading

Answer 2

lexical decision task - decide rapidly if string of letters forms a word
naming task - pronounce aloud visually presented words as rapidly as possible
priming - processing & response to a target
eye movement

Question 3

What is the difference between the strong and weak phonological model?

Answer 3

weak model - phonological processing is relatively slow and inesential for word identification
strong model - phonological processing occurs rapidly and automatically upon visual stimulus

Question 4

What is masked phonological priming?

Answer 4

• Word processing is faster when preceded by phonologically identical nonword primes
• Readers fixated on homophones longer when they were incorrect

Question 5

What neuropsychological evidence exists for phonological processing?

Answer 5

• Patient PS could understand words despite not being able to pronounce them
• Syllable information processed 250-300ms after word onset

Question 6

What is the evidence against the phonologically weak model?

Answer 6

• Phonemic skills often predict reading skills

- Phonological representations develop first

Question 7

What is the evidence against the phonologically strong model?

Answer 7

• Little evidence that it is truly necessary

- May occur after accessing word meaning

Question 8

What is the automatic theory?

Answer 8

Rayner & Sereno (1994) fairly automatic reading process e.g Stroop effect

Question 9

What is the interactive activation model?

Answer 9

Developed by McClelland & Rumelhart (1981)
3 levels - feature level, letter level & word level
- Series of exitation and inhibition whereby once a letter is identified activation is sent to all word units containing that letter until the word is identified

Question 10

What is the prediction of the interactive activation model?

Answer 10

word identification should be slower if surrounded by neighbours of high orthological similarity

Question 11

Name 2 context effects

Answer 11

Meyer & Schwaneveldt (1971) - words processed faster if primed with semantically similar words, indicated top-down processing and manipulation of semantic meaning
Neely (1977) - Facilitation highest when category name is followed by semantically similar & expected words

Question 12

What are the two models for reading aloud?

Answer 12

Dual route cascade - Fixed, rigid, rule-based processes
Distriuted connectionist approach - flexible use of knowledge and processes which are used in parallel for both words and non-words

Question 13

What are the two paths in the dual route hypothesis?

Answer 13

non-lexical (route 1) : grapheme-phoneme conversion
lexical
route 2: representations of familiar words stored in orthographic input lexicon
route 3: route 2 with semantic system bypassed

Question 14

What routes explain surface dyslexia and phonological dyslexia?

Answer 14

Route 1: surface, good reading accuracy however difficulty pronouncing irregular words
Route 2: phonological, difficulty reading unfamiliar and non-words

Question 15

What are the characteristics of deep dyslexia?

Answer 15

• Problems with reading unfamiliar and non-words
• Semantic reading errors
• Can occur in response to left-hemisphere damage to language areas

Question 16

What brain areas are implicated in the lexical and non-lexical route?

Answer 16

lexical: left anterior occipito-temporal region

non-lexical: left posterior occipito-temporal region

Question 17

What are the limitations of the dual route cascade model?

Answer 17

• Unable to learn
• Phonological processing of visually presented words occurs automatically
• No explanation of semantic processes
• Does not apply well to other languages

Question 18

Describe the distributed connectionist apporach (triangle model)

Answer 18

• All information is used to read both words and non-words

- Semantic knowledge has the largest impact on inconsistent words

Question 19

How were the Plaut et al (1996) simulations successful?

Answer 19

• Performance closely resembled adult readers

- Pronounced 90% of words correctly

Question 20

What are the drawbacks of the distributed connectionist approach?

Answer 20

• Lack of attention for processes involved in complex multi-symbolic words
• Nature of semantic processes not explained
• Phonological/surface dyslexia oversimplified

Question 21

What have eye movement studies shown about the mechanism of reading?

Answer 21

• Saccades of 20-30ms which pass 8 letters/spaces
• Separated by fixations of 200-250 ms when information is extracted
• Perceptual span of 3-4 letters to the left and up to 15 for the right (for L->R languages)
• Fixations mostly occur for content words

Question 22

Describe the E-Z reader model

Answer 22

1. Readers check familiarity of a word
2. Once frequency checked, eye-movement begins
3. 2nd stage of lexical access
4. Once completed, shift of covert attention to the next word
   5 + 6. Frequency checking, and lexical access is faster for common and predictable words

Question 23

What are the drawbacks of the E-Z model?

Answer 23

• overly focused on explaining eye-movement data
• does not consider context
• readers can deviate from this order without incident