scholarly journals The Effect of Length on Word Recognition (in Reading): The Case of Arabic // تأثير طول الكلمة على دقة القراءة: العربية كدراسة حالة

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deia Ganayim ◽  
Shireen Ganayim
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Global Features ◽  
Analytical Process ◽  
Lexical Route ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Holistic Process

In this study, two experiments were conducted to assess the role of word length in visual word recognition. In Experiment 1 two lists of Arabic three and five letter words were used in a print word-reading task which measured accuracy and reading time. In Experiment 2, three, four and five letter words were displayed in the center of fixation on a screen in a naming task measuring accuracy and naming time. In reading, two contrasting processes have been suggested: the holistic process and the analytical process. According to the holistic process, the recognition of a word is determined by its global features and configuration. Consequently, reading consists of the simultaneous processing of all the letters of a word in parallel. In contrast, according to the analytical process, reading is a sequential screening of all the letters within a particular word. Length effect—that is, short words are recognized more rapidly and accurately than long words—is the signature of analytical processing of the non-lexical route due to its seriality which is caused by assembled phonology. The results of both experiments revealed that the average reading time of Arabic words from paper and screen was affected by word length, reflecting certain analytical processes and the activation of a non-lexical route, in which letters are processed sequentially.

Visual processing of connected and unconnected letters and words in Arabic

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-238
Author(s):  
Deia Ganayim
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Lexical Route ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Encoding Strategies

A letter-reading task (Experiments 1) and a word-reading task of regular words (Experiments 2) and of visually distorted words (Experiments 3) were used to examine the reciprocal interaction between phonological encoding strategies and visual factors, such as the global word shape, local letters shape, and inter-letter spacing. Our participants comprised Arabic readers familiar with different letter and word forms (connected vs. unconnected: without inter-letter spaces vs. with inter-letter spaces). In addition, this study is the first instance of the word length effect being studied in an Arabic context using different word lengths (3 vs. 5 letters). The average reading times for Arabic words are affected by the word connectivity, since the average reading time is shorter for connected than unconnected words of all word lengths (3 and 5 letters) reflecting the activation of lexical route, which processes letters in letter strings in parallel. As well, the average reading times for Arabic words are affected by the word length, since the average reading time is shorter for 3-letter words than 5-letter words reflecting the activation of non-lexical route, which processes letters in letter strings sequentially. Length effect is the signature of the non-lexical route due to its seriality caused by assembled phonology.

scholarly journals Can’t See the Words for the Letters: Whole Word Processing in Adolescents and a Novel “Visual” Intervention for Dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Samantha Louise Ashcroft
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Attention Span ◽  
Phonological Skills ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Whole Word

<p>Individuals with developmental dyslexia, considered as a group, perform poorly on tasks that involve phonological analysis, such as applying sight-sound rules to read new words, or analysing words into their component sounds (De Groot, Huettig, & Olivers, 2016; Temple & Marshall, 1983). However, dyslexia is also associated with other types of difficulties. For example, in some individuals, reading latencies increase disproportionately with the length of the word (De Luca, Barca, Burani, & Zoccolotti, 2008; Spinelli et al., 2005) suggesting they may have difficulties recognising familiar words as whole units (“whole word” processing).  This thesis examined the relationship between the word length effect and overall reading proficiency in a diverse sample of 49 adolescents. We found that the length effect was a unique predictor of reading proficiency, even after factoring out variance in phonological skills (measured using a nonword reading task). We also tested the recent hypothesis that visual attention span - the number of letters a reader can capture in a single glance - is important for efficient whole word reading (Bosse, Tainturier, & Valdois, 2007). Contrary to this hypothesis, we found no association between the word length effect and scores on a standard measure of visual attention span (a partial report task).  We also explored whether reading-delayed adolescents could benefit from an intervention targeting their specific cognitive profile. Five cases demonstrating a selective difficulty with either “phonological” or “whole word” skills completed two interventions. One targeted phonological skills: participants were trained to recognise and apply common sight-sound correspondences. The other targeted whole word skills: we reasoned that training participants to recognise commonly-occurring letter redundancies (e.g. ogue: rogue, synagogue, dialogue) could reduce the load on parallel letter processing. Only one of the five cases showed greater improvement in (untrained) word reading accuracy following their “target” intervention. However, four of the five showed intervention-specific improvements in reading latency. These results suggest that it could be valuable to consider heterogeneity when treating reading delay.</p>

Differences in reading acquisition development in two shallow orthographies: Portuguese and Spanish

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
SYLVIA DEFIOR ◽  
FRANCISCO MARTOS ◽  
LUZ CARY
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Number Word ◽  
Orthographic Transparency ◽  
Number Words ◽  
Relative Transparency ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
Phonological Errors ◽  
Lexical Errors

The present study examines the role of the relative transparency of Portuguese and Spanish orthographies in schoolchildren's word recognition procedures. Both Portuguese and Spanish may be considered as transparent orthographies. However, mappings at the grapheme–phoneme level are more consistent in Spanish than in Portuguese. Four groups of Portuguese and Spanish children from grades 1, 2, 3, and 4, who had been taught to read using a phonics-based approach, were given a Portuguese and a Spanish version of three different continuous reading tasks: numeral reading, number word reading, and pseudoword reading. Reading time per item was measured and errors noted. Improvement in reading time was observed in both orthographies from grades 1 to 4. There were no errors in numeral recognition and few children made errors in reading the number words. In pseudoword reading, the Spanish children were faster and made fewer errors than the Portuguese children. Errors in pseudoword reading were scored as phonological when leading to the production of another pseudoword and as lexical when involving refusals and/or the production of a real word. Portuguese children made more phonological errors than the Spanish group, and there was no difference in the number of lexical errors. The results are discussed in terms of the role played by the differing orthographic transparency of Spanish and Portuguese in young readers' word recognition procedures.

scholarly journals Can’t See the Words for the Letters: Whole Word Processing in Adolescents and a Novel “Visual” Intervention for Dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Samantha Louise Ashcroft
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Attention Span ◽  
Phonological Skills ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Whole Word

<p>Individuals with developmental dyslexia, considered as a group, perform poorly on tasks that involve phonological analysis, such as applying sight-sound rules to read new words, or analysing words into their component sounds (De Groot, Huettig, & Olivers, 2016; Temple & Marshall, 1983). However, dyslexia is also associated with other types of difficulties. For example, in some individuals, reading latencies increase disproportionately with the length of the word (De Luca, Barca, Burani, & Zoccolotti, 2008; Spinelli et al., 2005) suggesting they may have difficulties recognising familiar words as whole units (“whole word” processing).  This thesis examined the relationship between the word length effect and overall reading proficiency in a diverse sample of 49 adolescents. We found that the length effect was a unique predictor of reading proficiency, even after factoring out variance in phonological skills (measured using a nonword reading task). We also tested the recent hypothesis that visual attention span - the number of letters a reader can capture in a single glance - is important for efficient whole word reading (Bosse, Tainturier, & Valdois, 2007). Contrary to this hypothesis, we found no association between the word length effect and scores on a standard measure of visual attention span (a partial report task).  We also explored whether reading-delayed adolescents could benefit from an intervention targeting their specific cognitive profile. Five cases demonstrating a selective difficulty with either “phonological” or “whole word” skills completed two interventions. One targeted phonological skills: participants were trained to recognise and apply common sight-sound correspondences. The other targeted whole word skills: we reasoned that training participants to recognise commonly-occurring letter redundancies (e.g. ogue: rogue, synagogue, dialogue) could reduce the load on parallel letter processing. Only one of the five cases showed greater improvement in (untrained) word reading accuracy following their “target” intervention. However, four of the five showed intervention-specific improvements in reading latency. These results suggest that it could be valuable to consider heterogeneity when treating reading delay.</p>

Foveal Word Reading Requires Interhemispheric Communication

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1373-1387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë R. Hunter ◽  
Marc Brysbaert ◽  
Stefan Knecht
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Transcranial Doppler Sonography ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Interhemispheric Communication ◽  
Language Representation

The left cerebral hemisphere is dominant for language processing in most individuals. It has been suggested that this asymmetric language representation can influence behavioral performance in foveal word-naming tasks. We carried out two experiments in which we obtained laterality indices by means of functional imaging during a mental word-generation task, using functional transcranial Doppler sonography and functional magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. Subsequently, we administered a behavioral word-naming task, where participants had to name foveally presented words of different lengths shown in different fixation locations shifted horizontally across the screen. The optimal viewing position for left language dominant individuals is located between the beginning and the center of a word. It is shifted toward the end of a word for right language dominant individuals and, to a lesser extent, for individuals with bilateral language representation. These results demonstrate that interhemispheric communication is required for foveal word recognition. Consequently, asymmetric representations of language and processes of interhemispheric transfer should be taken into account in theoretical models of visual word recognition to ensure neurological plausibility.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Improving reading rate prediction with word length information: Evidence from Dutch

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110171
Author(s):  
Marc Brysbaert ◽  
Longjiao Sui ◽  
Wouter Duyck ◽  
Nicolas Dirix
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
English Word ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
Processing Effort

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in non-fiction) instead of 4.6. We collected reading rates of 62 participants reading 12 texts with varying word lengths, and examined which change in the English equation accounts for the Dutch findings. We observed that predictions were close to the best fitting curve as soon as the average English word length was replaced by the average Dutch word length. The equation predicts that Dutch texts with an average word length of 5.1 letters will be read at a rate of 238 word per minute (wpm). Texts with an average word length of 4.5 letter will be read at 270 wpm, and texts with an average word length of 6.0 letters will be read at a rate of 202 wpm. The findings are in line with the assumption that the longer words in Dutch do not slow down silent reading relative to English and that the word length effect observed in each language is due to word processing effort and not to low-level, visual factors.

Developmental Changes in Word Recognition: An Information-Processing Account

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Pring ◽  
Maggie Snowling
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Context Effect ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Single Word Reading ◽  
First Time

Two experiments examining developmental changes in the use of context in single word reading are reported. The first experiment investigated how effectively children can access conceptual knowledge and use this to help their word recognition. The results indicated that young readers can on demand direct their attention to semantic information, and this allows them to reap a relatively greater benefit from context than older more skilful readers. The second experiment attempted to clarify the way such use of contextual information might help in the specific case when a child attempts to decode a new word for the first time. Skilled and unskilled readers pronounced pseudohomophonic nonwords faster when they were primed by a semantic context, and the context effect was greater for unskilled readers. The nonword's graphemic similarity to a lexical item was also important. In general, the results were consistent with Stanovich's (1980) interactive-compensatory model of reading, and they suggest that in learning to read, several already existing stores of information (e.g. auditory, visual and conceptual) are integrated in order to achieve a solution to the word recognition problem.

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