Hua Chen Wang

Context effects on orthographic learning of regular and irregular words.

The self-teaching hypothesis proposes that orthographic learning takes place via phonological decoding in meaningful texts, that is, in context. Context is proposed to be important in learning to read, especially when decoding is only partial. However, little research has directly explored this hypothesis. The current study looked at the effect of context on orthographic learning and examined whether there were different effects for novel words given regular and irregular pronunciations. Two experiments were conducted using regular and irregular novel words, respectively. Second-grade children were asked to learn eight novel words either in stories or in a list of words. The results revealed no significant effect of context for the regular items. However, in an orthographic decision task, there was a facilitatory effect of context on irregular novel word learning. The findings support the view that contextual information is important to orthographic learning, but only when the words to be learned contain irregular spelling-sound correspondences.

Predictors of Orthographic Learning of Regular and Irregular Words

The aim of this study was to explore the reading and language skills that are associated with orthographic learning and to examine whether the effects of these factors are influenced by word regularity. Grade 2 and 3 children learned the phonology and meaning of novel words and were subsequently exposed to their orthography, with either regular or irregular mappings. At the participant level, phonological decoding skill, orthographic knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge were associated with orthographic learning for both word types. However, at an item level, reading novel words correctly did not directly relate to the successful acquisition of the representations of those novel words. In addition, item-specific vocabulary knowledge was a predictor of success in orthographic learning, but only for irregular words. The findings are discussed in relation to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995).

Word regularity affects orthographic learning

Shares self-teaching hypothesis proposes that orthographic representations are acquired via phonological decoding. A key, yet untested, prediction of this theory is that there should be an effect of word regularity on the number and quality of word-specific orthographic representations that children acquire. Thirty-four Grade 2 children were exposed to the sound and meaning of eight novel words and were then presented with those words in written form in short stories. Half the words were assigned regular pronunciations and half irregular pronunciations. Lexical decision and spelling tasks conducted 10 days later revealed that the childrens orthographic representations of the regular words appeared to be stronger and more extensive than those of the irregular words.

Orthographic learning in developmental surface and phonological dyslexia

Phonological decoding skill has been proposed to be key to successful sight word learning (orthographic learning). However, little is known about how children with phonological dyslexia, who have impaired phonological decoding, acquire sight words, or why children with surface dyslexia can have normal phonological decoding skill yet impaired sight word acquisition. This study addressed this issue by investigating orthographic learning in two 10-year-old children: S.D., with a reading profile of surface dyslexia, and P.D., with a reading profile of phonological dyslexia. They participated in two experiments exploring the role of phonological decoding and paired-associate learning in orthographic learning. The results showed that, first, P.D.s orthographic learning ability was better than S.D.s, despite her phonological decoding skills being poorer. Second, S.D. showed impaired paired-associate learning abilities while P.D. did not. Overall, the results indicate that phonological decoding ability does not translate directly to orthographic learning ability, and that paired-associate learning ability may also be associated with success in orthographic learning.

Tracking orthographic learning in children with different profiles of reading difficulty

Previous studies have found that children with reading difficulties need more exposures to acquire the representations needed to support fluent reading than typically developing readers (e.g., Ehri and Saltmarsh, 1995). Building on existing orthographic learning paradigms, we report on an investigation of orthographic learning in poor readers using a new learning task tracking both the accuracy (untimed exposure duration) and fluency (200 ms exposure duration) of learning novel words over trials. In study 1, we used the paradigm to examine orthographic learning in children with specific poor reader profiles (nine with a surface profile, nine a phonological profile) and nine age-matched controls. Both profiles showed improvement over the learning cycles, but the children with surface profile showed impaired orthographic learning in spelling and orthographic choice tasks. Study 2 explored predictors of orthographic learning in a group of 91 poor readers using the same outcome measures as in Study 1. Consistent with earlier findings in typically developing readers, phonological decoding skill predicted orthographic learning. Moreover, orthographic knowledge significantly predicted orthographic learning over and beyond phonological decoding. The two studies provide insights into how poor readers learn novel words, and how their learning process may be compromised by less proficient orthographic and/or phonological skills.

Paired-Associate Learning Ability Accounts for Unique Variance in Orthographic Learning

ABSTRACT Paired-associate learning is a dynamic measure of the ability to form new links between two items. This study aimed to investigate whether paired-associate learning ability is associated with success in orthographic learning, and if so, whether it accounts for unique variance beyond phonological decoding ability and orthographic knowledge. A group of 63 children ages 8–10 completed an orthographic learning task and three types of paired-associate learning task: visual–visual, visual–verbal, and verbal–verbal. The results showed that both visual–verbal and verbal–verbal (but not visual–visual) paired-associate learning ability were associated with success in learning the spellings of novel words. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses showed that visual–verbal paired-associate learning predicted orthographic learning even after phonological decoding skill and existing orthographic knowledge had been accounted for. We propose that paired-associate learning ability may be one of the underlying mechanisms of orthographic learning, facilitating the connection between the phonology and orthographic representation of a word.

Paired associate learning deficits in poor readers: The contribution of phonological input and output processes

It is well-established that poor readers exhibit deficits in paired associate learning (PAL), and there is increasing evidence for a phonological locus of these deficits. However, it remains unclear whether poor performance stems from difficulties specific to the phonological output system or difficulties that affect both phonological input and output processes. Understanding these deficits is important not only in the context of PAL but also for informing broader theories of typical and atypical reading development. We developed a novel paradigm that allowed us to assess PAL in the presence and absence of phonological output demands. In total, 14 poor readers and 14 age-matched controls were first trained to criterion in verbal-visual PAL before being tested in the visual-verbal direction. The results showed that poor readers learned at the same rate as controls in verbal-visual PAL, even when the nonword stimuli were phonologically confusable. Yet, despite having reached the same criterion as controls in verbal-visual PAL, poor readers exhibited robust impairments for those same paired associates in visual-verbal PAL. The overall pattern of results is most consistent with the conclusion that PAL deficits reflect impairments to the phonological output system; however, results that may challenge this interpretation are also discussed.

Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese

According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995), phonological decoding is fundamental to acquiring orthographic representations of novel written words. However, phonological decoding is not straightforward in non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese, where words are presented as characters. Here, we present the first study investigating the role of phonological decoding in orthographic learning in Chinese. We examined two possible types of phonological decoding: the use of phonetic radicals, an internal phonological aid, andthe use of Zhuyin, an external phonological coding system. Seventy-three Grade 2 children were taught the pronunciations and meanings of twelve novel compound characters over four days. They were then exposed to the written characters in short stories, and were assessed on their reading accuracy and on their subsequent orthographic learning via orthographic choice and spelling tasks. The novel characters were assigned three different types of pronunciation in relation to its phonetic radical - (1) a pronunciation that is identical to the phonetic radical in isolation; (2) a common alternative pronunciation associated with the phonetic radical when it appears in other characters; and (3) a pronunciation that is unrelated to the phonetic radical. The presence of Zhuyin was also manipulated. The children read the novel characters more accurately when phonological cues from the phonetic radicals were available and in the presence of Zhuyin. However, only the phonetic radicals facilitated orthographic learning. The findings provide the first empirical evidence of orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese, and reveal how phonological decoding functions to support learning in non-alphabetic writing systems.

Counting on number: effects of number information on grammatical processing of mass and count nouns

ABSTRACT Previous research has found an influence of semantic number (SINGLE, MULTIPLE) on grammatical processing of mass nouns in people with aphasia. This is the first study to investigate these effects in language-unimpaired individuals. In two experiments, participants had to decide which were the appropriate determiners (e.g. Experiment 1: asingularcount – somemass/plural count) for the name of mass and count noun pictures that were depicted either as single (one bulb of garlicmass, one catcount) or as multiple objects (three bulbs of garlicmass, three catscount). Semantic number congruency between depictions and determiners was manipulated for mass nouns. A semantic number congruency effect was found in both experiments with faster and more accurate determiner decisions in the number congruent (e.g. Experiment 1: MULTIPLE) compared to the number incongruent condition (e.g. Experiment 1: SINGLE). These results provide further evidence for an influence of semantic number information on lexical-syntactic processing of mass nouns.