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Biomedical subjects

R Treiman

Publications and source records attributed to R Treiman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Classifying by dimensions and reading: a comparison of the auditory and visual modalities.

Children have difficulty learning to read alphabetic writing systems, in part, because they have difficulty segmenting spoken language into phonemes. Young children also have difficulty attending to the individual dimensions of visual objects. Thus, children's early difficulty in reading may be one sign of a general inability to selectively attend to the parts of any perceptual wholes. To explore this notion, children in kindergarten through fourth grade (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) and adults (Experiment 2) classified triads of spoken syllables and triads of visual objects. Classifying speech by common parts was positively related to reading and spelling ability (Experiments 1 and 4), but usually not to classifying visual stimuli by common parts under free classification instructions (Experiments 1 through 3). However, classification was more consistent across the visual and auditory modalities when the children were told to classify based on a shared constituent (Experiment 4). Regardless of instructions, performance on the visual tasks did not usually relate to reading and spelling skill. The ability to attend selectively to phonemes seems to be a "special" skill--one which may require specific experiences with language, such as those involved in learning to read an alphabetic writing system.

Attention↗

Early absorption of enteral ranitidine after major laparotomy.

Thirty-six patients were studied following abdominal aortic surgery to determine if a commonly used medication could be absorbed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in the early postoperative period. Patients were randomized into two groups: Group I received ranitidine elixir 3 mg/kg via nasogastric tube every 12 hours; Group II received intravenous (IV) ranitidine 1 mg/kg every 8 hours. Ranitidine serum levels were measured with high performance liquid chromatography 1 hour after administration of the first three doses. Gastric pH was measured every 4 hours. It was found that serum ranitidine levels generally regarded as clinically effective were achieved in both groups. Although the levels were significantly higher following intravenous (IV) administration (Group II), there were no differences in average gastric pH. The authors conclude that within 24 hours of aortic surgery enterally administered ranitidine is effectively absorbed and provides prophylaxis equivalent to IV administration of the drug at lower cost. Other medications might be deliverable via the GI tract in the early postoperative period.

Administration, Oral↗

Phonological awareness and spelling in normal children and dyslexics: the case of initial consonant clusters.

We investigated phonological awareness and spelling skills among normal readers and spellers in Grades 1 and 2 and among dyslexics who scored at the same level as the normals on a standardized spelling test. Both normal children and dyslexics had difficulty with consonants in word-initial clusters in a phoneme recognition task and a phoneme deletion task. Also, both groups of children had trouble producing legal spellings of syllables with initial clusters, sometimes failing to represent the second consonants of the clusters. The dyslexics' phonological awareness and spelling skills were poorer than those of the younger normal children, but the two groups showed similar patterns of performance.

Attention↗

Subsyllabic units in computerized reading instruction: onset-rime vs. postvowel segmentation.

Previous studies suggest that adults and children divide spoken syllables into subsyllabic onset-rime units more readily than into any other kind of subsyllabic unit. We asked whether this same onset-rime segmentation might also be beneficial in teaching children to read. That is, can children learn more words segmented at the onset-rime boundary (e.g., CL-AP, D-ISH) than words segmented after the vowel (CLA-P, DI-SH)? In three experiments, first-grade students studied single words presented by a computer connected to a high-quality speech synthesizer. Experiment 1 used words of four letters but only three phonemes apiece (e.g., WHIP, DISH). In some of these words the onset-rime segmentation corresponded to the initial bigram (e.g., WH-IP); in some it did not (e.g., D-ISH). Experiments 2 and 3 used words of four letters and four phonemes (e.g., CLAP, CORN). In all three experiments, onset-rime segmentation proved more helpful than postvowel segmentation in short-term learning of the words.

Child↗

Not all nonwords are alike: implications for reading development and theory.

Three experiments were designed to examine children's and adults' ability to pronounce consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense words. Some of the nonwords, like tain and goach, shared their VC unit with a number of real words. Other nonwords, like goan and taich, shared their VC unit with few or no real words. Pooling across items, the very same grapheme-phoneme correspondences occurred in the two types of nonwords. First graders, good and poor third grade readers, and adults all performed better on the nonwords with the more common VC units than on the nonwords with the less common VC units. Although readers appeared to use VC units in the pronunciation of nonwords, we did not find evidence for use of initial CV units. Implications of the results for reading development, dyslexia, and models of nonword pronunciation are discussed.

Attention↗

Short-term memory errors for spoken syllables are affected by the linguistic structure of the syllables.

Three experiments on short-term serial memory for spoken syllables are reported. The stimuli were CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) syllables in Experiment 1, CCVs in Experiment 2, and VCCs in Experiment 3. Analyses of subjects' errors showed that the phonemes within a syllable were not equally free to break apart and recombine. Certain groups of phonemes-the vowel-final consonant group of a CVC, the initial cluster of a CCV, and a vowel-liquid group within a VCC-tended to behave as units. These results are consistent with the view that syllables are coded in terms of an onset (initial consonant or cluster) and a rime (remainder). Errors in short-term memory for spoken syllables are affected by the linguistic structure of the syllables.

Humans↗

Intraoperative decisions based on angioscopy in peripheral vascular surgery.

We describe the technique of intraoperative angioscopy for delineation of peripheral vascular anatomy. Angioscopes with outer diameters of 0.85-2.9 mm have been used during 86 peripheral vascular procedures. Angioscopic inspections were performed during 68 femoral popliteal bypasses, four aortofemoral bypass grafts, one abdominal aortic aneurysm, two extra anatomic axillary femoral bypass grafts, and 11 other vascular procedures. We obtained useful images in 73 of 86 procedures (85%), thereby yielding 118 angioscopic inspections (53 arteries, 37 anastomoses, and 28 vein grafts). Changes in intraoperative management based on angioscopic findings included revision of five of 37 (14%) anastomoses, deletion of four of 31 (13%) completion angiograms, revision of eight of 17 (47%) in situ venous valves, and repetition of thrombectomy in six of seven (86%) cases. In 22 of 73 (30%) peripheral angioscopies, potential causes of graft occlusion were recognized. Complications from intraoperative angioscopy have included one anastomotic flap from intimal disruption that required anastomotic revision. Three small flaps, possibly resulting from angioscopic trauma, were recognized but appeared to have no clinical significance. In conclusion, intraoperative angioscopy provides visual assessment of luminal patency and anastomotic anatomy. This assessment alters intraoperative procedures in some cases and cannot be obtained by angiography.

Adult↗

Onsets and rimes as units of spoken syllables: evidence from children.

The effects of syllable structure on the development of phonemic analysis and reading skills were examined in four experiments. The experiments were motivated by theories that syllables consist of an onset (initial consonant or cluster) and a rime (vowel and any following consonants). Experiment 1 provided behavioral support for the syllable structure model by showing that 8-year-olds more easily learned word games that treated onsets and rimes as units than games that did not. Further support for the cohesiveness of the onset came from Experiments 2 and 3, which found that 4- and 5-year-olds less easily recognized a spoken or printed consonant target when it was the first phoneme of a cluster than when it was a singleton. Experiment 4 extended these results to printed words by showing that consonant-consonant-vowel nonsense syllables were more difficult for beginning readers to decode than consonant-vowel-consonant syllables.

Age Factors↗

Phonemic awareness and spelling: children's judgments do not always agree with adults.

The ability to make explicit judgments about speech sounds is important in learning to read and write an alphabetic system. However, even when children can make consistent judgments about sounds their judgments do not always agree with those of adults. In this study, some children from groups of kindergartners (mean age 5 years, 10 months) and first graders (mean age 6, 7) stated that /tr/ (as in "truck") did not begin with the sound /t/. This judgment was reflected in these children's spellings: They tended to spell /t/ before /r/ with CH, reflecting its affrication. Parallel results were found for /dr/. Further, some children judged that /c/ (as in "chill") and /j/ (as in "Jill") began with /t/ and /d/, respectively. They used the letters T and D to spell these sounds. Thus, children's attention to a phonetic level may result in judgments of speech sounds and spellings that are different from those of adults.

Achievement↗

Individual differences among children in spelling and reading styles.

Previous studies have found differences among children in their relative reliance on spelling-sound rules and word-specific associations in reading words. Children at one end of the continuum ("Phoenicians") rely heavily on spelling-sound rules; children at the other end ("Chinese") are more likely to use specific associations. This study found evidence for a Phoenician-Chinese continuum in spelling as well as in reading. Ability to spell nonsense word (e.g., "prunt") correlated more highly with ability to spell regular words (e.g., "grunt") than with ability to spell exception words (e.g., "front"). Children who were skilled at rules tended to overgeneralize them to exception words. In addition, a measure of rule use in spelling correlated with measures of rule use in reading.

Child↗

Hemodynamic monitoring of patients undergoing abdominal aortic surgery.

Cardiac decompensation is clearly the major complication of aortic reconstructive surgery that leads to morbidity. Major changes in intravascular volume, third spacing, and increased systemic vascular resistance are extremely stressful to the diseased heart. Hemodynamic monitoring is readily available to provide an accurate evaluation of myocardial sensitivity and to allow for appropriate pharmacologic manipulation to preclude cardiac catastrophe. We believe all patients undergoing abdominal aortic reconstructive surgery should receive the benefit of pulmonary artery catheterization and intraarterial monitoring. The only requirement is a staff of surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses capable of correct interpretation of the data and use of drug therapy based on this information. The benefits are an accurate assessment of cardiac function with the ability to modulate the patient's hemodynamic values, preventing volume shifts, hypertensive and hypotensive crises, and abnormal fluctuations in preload and afterload, and ultimately a safer perioperative course.

Aged↗