scholarly journals Frequency Effects with Visual Words and Syllables in a Dyslexic Reader

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 103-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prisca Stenneken ◽  
Markus Conrad ◽  
Florian Hutzler ◽  
Mario Braun ◽  
Arthur M. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Syllable Frequency ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Visual Words ◽  
Reading Impairment ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Systematic Effects

The present study investigated the nature of the inhibitory syllable frequency effect, recently reported for normal readers, in a German-speaking dyslexic patient. The reading impairment was characterized as a severe deficit in naming single letters or words in the presence of spared lexical processing of visual word forms. Three visual lexical decision experiments were conducted with the dyslexic patient, an unimpaired control person matched to the patient and a control group: Experiment 1 manipulated the frequency of words and word-initial syllables and demonstrated systematic effects of both factors in normal readers and in the dyslexic patient. The syllable frequency effect was replicated in a second experiment with a more strictly controlled stimulus set. Experiment 3 confirmed the patient’s deficit in activating phonological forms from written words by demonstrating that a pseudohomophone effect as observed in the unimpaired control participants was absent in the dyslexic patient.

scholarly journals Is Organizing Knowledge Effective in Primary Education?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Marisol Cueli ◽  
Ana Isabel Álvarez ◽  
Stephen Loew ◽  
Paloma González-Castro ◽  
Celestino Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Primary Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Early School ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Key Aspects

The acquisition of reading comprehension abilities and written expression is one of the key factors among learning processes in which students show many difficulties. For this reason, it is necessary to implement effective intervention strategies from early school years. The program EPI.com is aimed at improving lexical, semantic, and syntactic processes related to the reading process. This work aims to analyze the efficiency of EPI.com in years 1&2 of Primary Education. Participants in the research were 62 students (ages 6–8), who were assigned to an Experimental Group (EG; 38 students receiving the EPI.com intervention) and a Control Group (CG; 24 following traditional teaching and learning methods). The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and the Peabody test were applied before and after the intervention was carried out. Results showed that the strategy was effective in EG in improving the psycholinguistic aspects measured by the ITPA, with better results in the variables related to syntactic and lexical processing. Taking the results into account, it was concluded that EPI.com allows students to improve the abilities relating to reading skills. Also, the results highlight the need to incorporate interventions aimed at favoring maturation in some key aspects at early ages.

Sequence and word frequency

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-306
Author(s):  
Michael Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Linear Ordering ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Frequency Profile ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Abstract It is well-established that the linear ordering of words in a sentence is influenced by a variety of factors that are typically labelled as grammatical, discourse or cognitive constraints. The aim of the present study is to determine whether frequency effects are visible in the sequencing of words in a sentence. In other words, do “more frequently used units tend to be placed before less frequently used units” (Fenk-Oczlon 2001: 443)? Using a corpus of newspaper articles, we examine the frequency of words in different positions in sentences. That is, using data from thousands of sentences, we investigate the median value for the frequency or rank of words in first position in a sentence, compared with second position, and so on. We find that there is a frequency effect in English: the first element in a sentence has the highest frequency and last element in a sentence has the lowest frequency, with the middle of sentences having a more or less flat frequency profile. We also find that the overall shape of the frequency profile for sentences is rather consistent even when sentence length is taken into account.

Chinese-English Speakers’ Perception of Pitch in Their Non-Tonal Language: Reinterpreting English as a Tonal-Like Language

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383091989460
Author(s):  
Marta Ortega-Llebaria ◽  
Zhaohong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Similarity Criteria ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Tonal Language ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Knowing That

Changing the F0-contour of English words does not change their lexical meaning. However, it changes the meaning in tonal languages such as Mandarin. Given this important difference and knowing that words in the two languages of a bilingual lexicon interact, the question arises as to how Mandarin-English speakers process pitch in their bilingual lexicon. The few studies that addressed this question showed that Mandarin-English speakers did not perceive pitch in English words as native English speakers did. These studies, however, used English words as stimuli failing to examine nonwords and Mandarin words. Consequently, possible pre-lexical effects and L1 transfer were not ruled out. The present study fills this gap by examining pitch perception in Mandarin and English words and nonwords by Mandarin-English speakers and a group of native English controls. Results showed the tonal experience of Chinese-English speakers modulated their perception of pitch in their non-tonal language at both pre-lexical and lexical levels. In comparison to native English controls, tonal speakers were more sensitive to the acoustic salience of F0-contours in the pre-lexical processing due to top-down feedback. At the lexical level, Mandarin-English speakers organized words in their two languages according to similarity criteria based on both F0 and segmental information, whereas only the segmental information was relevant to the control group. These results in perception together with consistently reported production patterns in previous literature suggest that Mandarin-English speakers process pitch in English as if it was a one-tone language.

scholarly journals Syllable frequency effects on phonological short-term memory tasks

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA M. NIMMO ◽  
STEVEN ROODENRYS
Keyword(s):  
Serial Recall ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Recall Accuracy ◽  
Syllable Frequency ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Frequency Effects

Recent evidence suggests that phonological short-term memory (STM) tasks are influenced by both lexical and sublexical factors inherent in the selection and construction of the stimuli to be recalled. This study examined whether long-term memory (LTM) influences STM at a sublexical level by investigating whether the frequency with which one-syllable nonwords occur in polysyllabic words influences recall accuracy on two phonological STM tasks, nonword repetition and serial recall. The results showed that recall accuracy increases when the stimuli to be recalled consist of one-syllable nonwords that occur often in polysyllabic English words. This result is consistent with the notion that LTM facilitates phonological STM at both a lexical and sublexical level. Implications for models of verbal STM are discussed.

Do We Have a “Mental Syllabary” in the Brain? An fMRI Study

Motor Control ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Brendel ◽  
Michael Erb ◽  
Axel Riecker ◽  
Wolfgang Grodd ◽  
Hermann Ackermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Syllable Frequency ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Speech Motor

The present study combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and reaction time (RT) measurements to further elucidate the influence of syllable frequency and complexity on speech motor control processes, i.e., overt reading of pseudowords. Tying in with a recent fMRI-study of our group we focused on the concept of a mental syllabary housing syllable sized ready-made motor plans for high- (HF), but not low-frequency (LF) syllables. The RT-analysis disclosed a frequency effect weakened by a simultaneous complexity effect for HF-syllables. In contrast, the fMRI data revealed no effect of syllable frequency, but point to an impact of syllable structure: Compared with CV-items, syllables with a complex onset (CCV) yielded higher hemodynamic activation in motor “execution” areas (left sensorimotor cortex, right inferior cerebellum), which is at least partially compatible with our previous study. We discuss the role of the syllable in speech motor control.

scholarly journals Left-lateralized N170 Effects of Visual Expertise in Reading: Evidence from Japanese Syllabic and Logographic Scripts

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1878-1891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urs Maurer ◽  
Jason D. Zevin ◽  
Bruce D. McCandliss
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Visual Expertise ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Visual Words ◽  
Repetition Detection ◽  
N170 Component ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Series Of Experiments

The N170 component of the event-related potential (ERP) reflects experience-dependent neural changes in several forms of visual expertise, including expertise for visual words. Readers skilled in writing systems that link characters to phonemes (i.e., alphabetic writing) typically produce a left-lateralized N170 to visual word forms. This study examined the N170 in three Japanese scripts that link characters to larger phonological units. Participants were monolingual English speakers (EL1) and native Japanese speakers (JL1) who were also proficient in English. ERPs were collected using a 129-channel array, as participants performed a series of experiments viewing words or novel control stimuli in a repetition detection task. The N170 was strongly left-lateralized for all three Japanese scripts (including logographic Kanji characters) in JL1 participants, but bilateral in EL1 participants viewing these same stimuli. This demonstrates that left-lateralization of the N170 is dependent on specific reading expertise and is not limited to alphabetic scripts. Additional contrasts within the moraic Katakana script revealed equivalent N170 responses in JL1 speakers for familiar Katakana words and for Kanji words transcribed into novel Katakana words, suggesting that the N170 expertise effect is driven by script familiarity rather than familiarity with particular visual word forms. Finally, for English words and novel symbol string stimuli, both EL1 and JL1 subjects produced equivalent responses for the novel symbols, and more left-lateralized N170 responses for the English words, indicating that such effects are not limited to the first language. Taken together, these cross-linguistic results suggest that similar neural processes underlie visual expertise for print in very different writing systems.

ON INDUCED ELECTRICAL POLARIZATION AND GROUNDWATER

Geophysics ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 805-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Bodmer ◽  
S. H. Ward ◽  
H. F. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Induced Polarization ◽  
Unconsolidated Sediments ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Polarization Method ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Santa Clara County ◽  
Potential Recharge

Clay horizons and other clay‐bearing unconsolidated sediments are potential sources of induced‐polarization anomalies. If such anomalies may be detected above system noise, the induced‐polarization method may be of value for in‐situ classification of unconsolidated sediments encountered in hydrological projects. One such project exists in Santa Clara County where near‐surface unconsolidated sediments are frequently considered as potential recharge areas. Of four areas surveyed with induced‐polarization apparatus in Santa Clara County, only two yielded significant frequency‐effect anomalies, and in each of these two the frequency effects were of the order of 3 percent. These anomalous frequency effects may be related to clayey gravels. The dipole‐dipole array, with spreads of 10 ft and 20 ft, was typically used in the study.

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