Visual search for upright bigrams predicts reading fluency in children

ABSTRACTFluent reading is an important milestone in education, but we lack a clear understanding of why children vary so widely in attaining this milestone. Language-related factors such as rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonological awareness have been identified as important factors that influence reading fluency. Of theoretical interest is also, however, whether aspects of visual processing influence reading fluency. To investigate this issue, we tested primary school children (n = 68) on four tasks: two reading fluency tasks (word reading and passage reading), a RAN task to measure naming speed, and a visual search task using letters and bigrams to measure visual processing. As expected, the RAN score was strongly correlated with reading fluency. In addition, visual processing of bigrams was correlated with reading fluency. Importantly, this association was specific to upright but not inverted bigrams, and to bigrams with normal but not large letter spacing. Thus, reading fluency in children is accompanied by specialized changes in upright bigram processing. We propose that bigram processing during visual search could complement existing measures of language processing to understand individual differences in reading fluency.

Ordinary associations or ‘special cases’; defining mechanisms in synesthesia

A synesthete might inform you that McDonald’s is ‘all wrong’, as obviously their large letter M has the completely wrong color. While synesthesia is now well accepted as a ‘real’ phenomenon, what underlies the highly specific and consistent additional sensations is a topic of debate. What sets synesthetic mechanisms apart from those involved in ‘normal’ associations? In this presentation, we first discuss the possible neurobiological underpinnings. A review study has shown six brain regions related to synesthesia. Furthermore, results from structural as well as functional connectivity studies show hyperconnectivity in the synaesthete’s brain. Second, the behavioral characteristics that set synesthetes apart from non-synesthetes are discussed. One problem in obtaining a clear model of synesthesia is that currently, most studies are performed on particular types of synesthesia (in particular colored letters/numbers). We present rare cases of synesthesia (taste/smell with sounds) and examine how well their characteristics fit with the traditionally presented model of synesthesia.

Navon Letters Affect Face Learning and Face Retrieval

Identifying the local letters of a Navon letter (a large letter made up of smaller different letters) prior to recognition causes impairment in accuracy, while identifying the global letters of a Navon letter causes an enhancement in recognition accuracy ( Macrae & Lewis, 2002 ). This effect may result from a transfer-inappropriate processing shift (TIPS) ( Schooler, 2002 ). The present experiment extends research on the underlying mechanism of this effect by exploring this Navon effect on face learning as well as face recognition. The results of the two experiments revealed that when the Navon task used at retrieval was the same as that used at encoding then the performance accuracy is enhanced, whereas when the processing operations mismatch at retrieval and at encoding, this impairs recognition accuracy. These results provide support for the TIPS explanation of the Navon effect.

Beyond the Forest and the Trees: Local and Global Interference in Hierarchical Visual Stimuli Containing Three Levels

Our visual world can be thought of as organised in a hierarchical manner. Studies on hierarchical letter stimuli (a large letter composed of smaller letters) suggest that processing of a visual scene is global to local, a phenomenon known as the global-precedence effect. Elaborating on this global-to-local hypothesis we tested whether global interference will increase with increasing level of globality. For this, we used three-level hierarchical letter stimuli with a global, middle, and local level. When attending to the local level of the stimulus, only the middle level showed an interference effect, whereas the global level did not interfere at all. We argue that, considering the perceptual and attentional contributions to this effect, the hypothesis of global-to-local processing of a visual scene may only hold within a limited spatial attentional window.

Can the Spotlight of Attention Be Shaped Like a Doughnut? Evidence From Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials

Visual attention enables observers to extract and process high-priority information in the visual field. Controversy remains as to whether or not observers can ignore information that falls within the spatial beam of attention. We used an objective physiological measure, the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), to investigate this question. A stream of flickering small, uppercase letters was embedded in the center of a stream of large, uppercase letters. A unitary beam would result in no difference of the SSVEP amplitude elicited by the small letter stream when it was attended versus ignored (i.e., when subjects attended the large letter stream). Contrary to this prediction, SSVEP amplitude increased by almost 100% when the small letter stream was attended compared with when it was ignored. The results support the notion that the attentional spotlight can be formed like a doughnut, processing central information differentially depending on whether it is attended or ignored.

37. John Nelson (Jackson) to Thomas More (9 November 1612) (AAW A XI, no. 197, pp. 565–7.)

Much reverenced & as much beloved SirIn the last I receaved from yow I had newes of mr Hairsteins for the which I hartely thank yow and yow shall hear more thearof hearafter. I suppose the untymely death of owr yong prince wyll be come before thease. he died on the 6th of novembre in the evening. Thowgh the L. Sanchar died with great edification yet if the speech which is thear come abroad it will be very scandalous and much impayre the estimation of that holy sea and give our adversaries greater ground of their slanders of our canonizing of wilfull murderours & wicked men which aspersion they have cast upon us in their writings from tyme to tyme. yow know the state of an heret. cowntry & thearfore may with greater freedome lett them know the harme that ensues such blind zeall. His cheif & I may say soole helper was one of owrs, namely the party that hath written the late large letter to his hol. which I sent yow word of & I suppose yow have ere this receaved.