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PubMed1990

Vocalization and pauses in fast-paced reading.

Previous research (Breznitz, 1987a) indicated that prompting first-graders to read faster than usual increases their comprehension. The present study was conducted to clarify which of the speech elements that comprise reading time is affected when reading pace is accelerated. First-graders (N = 76) read aloud three parallel forms of a comprehension test, at self- and fast-paced rates consecutively, followed by a second self-paced reading. Vocalization time, pause time, pause frequency, and the average length of vocalizations and pauses were determined with an automatic vocal transaction analyzer. During fast-paced reading, children made fewer and shorter pauses, vocalized at a faster rate, and tended to speak in longer units. The speech characteristics indicative of fast-paced reading were significantly correlated with reading comprehension, even during self-paced reading, and can serve as indicators of effective reading.

Attention↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Oral reading in Chinese: evidence from dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

The traditional view of oral reading ability in patients with dementia holds that it is a preserved skill even if there is a general impairment to lexico-semantic processing ability. Recently, this view has been challenged by studies showing that the oral reading ability of patients with dementia can deteriorate over the course of the disease. These studies have found that the oral reading of irregular English words is more prone to error than the oral reading of regular words by patients with dementia suggesting that the oral reading of irregular words depends upon support from semantic memory. Relatively little is known about the oral reading abilities of Chinese-speaking dementia patients. This paper reports on the results of a study of the language processing and the oral reading ability of Chinese speakers with probable dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). DAT patients displayed impairment on tests of oral reading as well as impairment on tests of semantic memory, confrontation naming and word comprehension. The results also show significant effects of regularity, frequency and imageability on the oral reading of DAT patients. It is argued that Chinese-speaking DAT patients display a pattern of language impairment similar to their English-speaking counterparts and, moreover, that normal oral reading of Chinese characters may depend critically upon the integrity of semantic memory.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Contrasting effects of letter-spacing in alexia: further evidence that different strategies generate word length effects in reading.

The reading behaviour of two alexic patients (SA and WH) is reported. Both patients are severely impaired at reading single words, and both show abnormally strong effects of word length when reading. These two symptoms are characteristic of letter-by-letter reading. Experiment 1 examined the pattern of errors when the patients read large and small words. Further experiments examined the effects of inter-letter spacing on word naming (Experiments 2a and 2b) and the identification of letters in letter strings (Experiment 3). For both patients, letter identification was better for widely spaced letters in letter strings, and this effect was most pronounced for the central letters in the strings. This is consistent with abnormally strong flanker interference in letter identification. However, inter-letter spacing affected word reading behaviour in the two patients in different ways. SA's word reading improved with widely spaced letters; WH's word reading was disrupted. This suggests that these patients adopted different strategies when reading words. We conclude that several reading behaviours can elicit word length effects, and that these different behaviours can reflect strategic adaptation to a common functional deficit in patients. We discuss the implications both for understanding alexia and for models of normal word identification.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Reading skills after left anterior temporal lobe resection: an fMRI study.

Maintaining language functions after left hemisphere lesions has been associated with compensatory right hemisphere activation. It remains unclear whether recruitment of right hemisphere regions necessarily provides an effective mechanism to compensate for language deficits. To investigate the compensatory mechanisms that mediate good reading skills in patients after left anterior temporal lobe resection for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE), we tested for the effect of their reading ability on the regional fMRI (functional MRI) signal elicited by sentence reading. Sixteen control subjects and 16 patients participated in the study. In the activation condition, they silently read nine-word sentences, and in the baseline condition they viewed nine-word sentences after all the letters were transformed into false fonts. Reading ability in controls and patients significantly (P < 0.05, corrected) predicted activations in a left hemisphere middle temporal region that was part of the normal sentence reading system. In addition, reading ability in patients, but not controls, significantly predicted activation in the right inferior frontal sulcus, right hippocampus and right inferior temporal sulcus. Right inferior frontal activation was only observed in the patients. In contrast, right hippocampal and inferior temporal activation was observed in all controls and in patients whose reading ability was within the normal range, indicating the importance of these regions for efficient encoding during normal sentence reading. We conclude that proficient reading skills following left anterior temporal lobe resection for mTLE rely on two mechanisms: (i) integrating regions from the normal system (i.e. the left middle temporal, right hippocampus and anterior superior temporal sulcus); and (ii) recruiting right hemisphere regions (i.e. the right inferior frontal sulcus) that are not activated in control subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Patients with hemianopic alexia adopt an inefficient eye movement strategy when reading text.

Patients with an acquired homonymous hemianopia often adapt over a period of a few months to compensate for some of the impairments caused by their visual field defect. Changes in their eye movement patterns have been demonstrated as performance on visual tasks improves with time; however, these patients often complain of persistent text reading problems. Using a video-based eye-movement tracking system, we investigated the text reading behaviour of patients with established hemianopic alexia (>6 months post deficit), a condition affecting left-to-right readers, with a homonymous field defect that encroaches into their right foveal/parafoveal visual field. Word-based analyses of text reading are standard in experiments involving normal readers, but this is the first time these methods have been extended to patients with hemianopic alexia. Using this method, we compared the patients' reading scanpaths to those generated by normal controls reading the same passages, and a random model generated by matching the patients' eye movement data to random permutations of the text they read. We demonstrate that patients adopt an inefficient reading strategy, fixating to the left of the preferred viewing location of words of four letters and longer. Fixating to the left of the normal preferred viewing location not only results in less of the fixated word being processed by the language system; ensuing fixations are also more likely to land within the same word (a refixation). It is this refixation rate that is the main factor in slowing reading times in these patients. Our data suggests that patients are able to extract some useful visual information from text to aid the planning of reading scanpaths as their behaviour differs critically from the random model. Potential reasons for this patient group failing to produce an effective reading strategy are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Clinical reading and writing skills of junior medical students.

A three-year study was designed to assess general reading and writing skills of 231 entering medical students and to compare these scores with those of clinically oriented reading and writing skills in the same cohort of students three years later. Standardized reading and writing tests were administered to all entering freshmen in the class of 1982. Clinical reading and writing examinations were developed by the authors and members of the faculty. The reading test consisted of 16 multiple-choice questions in response to three short discussions in medical journals. Clinical writing was assessed through scoring each student's latter of referral to another physician after he read a "mock" chart of a patient's hospital care. The results showed that entry-level reading comprehension and clinical reading had a significant association as did entry-level English composition and clinical writing. Regression analysis showed that the entry-level reading and writing scores were better predictors of clinical reading and writing skills than any other prematriculation variables. The implications of these findings for medical education are discussed.

Curriculum↗
PubMed2001

Eye movements and reading with large print and optical magnifiers in macular disease.

PURPOSE: Reading rate has been the main performance measure in studies that have compared reading with large print and optical magnifiers; eye movement characteristics have not been considered. We compared both eye movement characteristics and reading rates for subjects with macular disease reading without and with a range of low-vision devices. METHODS: Silent reading rate and eye movement characteristics for text passages at critical print size of 21 subjects aged 14 to 88 years with macular disease were measured with and without their preferred low-vision device. Saccadic frequency was determined from a sequencing task comprising five letters each separated by 5 degrees. Eye movements were recorded using an infrared limbal reflection system. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in reading rate, fixation durations, saccade numbers per word, or percent retrace time when using a low-vision device compared with reading without a low-vision device. The percentage of regressions was, however, lower with the low-vision device. Saccadic frequency in the sequencing task was predictive of reading performance with and without a low-vision device. CONCLUSIONS: When reading at critical print size, in terms of reading rate or saccades per word, there was no advantage to using large print over an optical low-vision device.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Corneal aberrations and reading.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of eyelid pressure on corneal shape and corneal aberrations during reading. METHODS: Twenty young subjects with normal ocular health were recruited for the study. The experiment was conducted early in the morning, with subjects instructed not to perform any prolonged reading before the experiment. Corneal topography of one eye was measured with a videokeratoscope before reading and then again after a 60-min reading task. The natural position of the eyelids was photographed in primary gaze and during the reading task. RESULTS: Twelve of the 20 corneas showed significant changes in central topography immediately after reading. The location of the changes corresponded closely to the position and angle of the subject's eyelids during reading. The change in shape was best described as a wave-like distortion that significantly altered some corneal wavefront Zernike coefficients. There was a significant correlation between the changes in primary vertical coma and trefoil (along 30 degrees). Within the central 6 mm of the cornea, there were significant changes in the root mean square error, overall refractive power, and astigmatism. CONCLUSIONS: The changes we observed in corneal topography appear to be directly related to the force exerted by the eyelids during reading. Because the cornea is the major light-refracting surface of the eye, the optical characteristics of some eyes can be significantly changed during reading by the force of the eyelids. These findings may have important implications for the definition of refractive status and may also aid in the understanding of the relationship between reading and the development of refractive errors.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Reading speed of patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa or choroideremia.

PURPOSE: To quantify, account for, and enhance the reading speed of patients with generalized retinal degeneration and small central visual fields. METHODS: Thirty-three patients with retinitis pigmentosa or choroideremia and 12 normal controls participated in the study. The patients had visual acuities of 20/200 or better, central visual field diameters of < or =20 degrees, and log10 contrast sensitivities of < or =1.65. Reading speed was measured by having participants silently read timed sentences presented with differing font size, font type (Times vs. Courier), and text polarity (standard black text on a white background vs. reversed white text on a black background) and then recall that text aloud. RESULTS: The patients' mean reading speed for standard polarity text using the Times font and their optimal font size was 43% of normal (P < 0.001). Patient reading speed was significantly related to visual acuity (r = 0.44; P < 0.001) and to contrast sensitivity (r = 0.68; P < 0.001) but not to central visual field diameter. In a multiple regression model, only contrast sensitivity by itself was a strong independent predictor of patient reading speed, although visual acuity and visual field in combination did nearly as well. On average, the patients read significantly faster with the Times font than with the Courier font (P < 0.001). The percentage improvement in reading speed with reverse polarity text was most related to contrast sensitivity (r = 0.47; P < 0.001), and 83% of patients with log10 contrast sensitivity of <1.0 versus 36% with higher contrast sensitivity read faster with reverse polarity text (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Patients with retinitis pigmentosa or choroideremia and small central fields have, on average, impaired reading speed associated primarily with reduced contrast sensitivity, and those with very poor contrast sensitivity will most likely benefit from reversing text polarity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

An abbreviated reading speed test.

PURPOSE: The Minnesota Low-Vision Reading Test (MNREAD) has been developed to measure reading speed. An abbreviated version of the MNREAD test was developed that presented only three large paragraphs and would be easier for children to complete. METHODS: Fifty children ages 8 to 18 years, with normal eye examinations or refractive error alone, underwent testing of reading speed using the MNREAD test. All the children read the standard MNREAD paragraphs starting at the 1.0 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) level until they could no longer read the subsequent paragraph. Each eye was tested separately, using the second MNREAD card for the left eye. The standard MNREAD reading speed was calculated by plotting the speed for each paragraph, determining the critical print size, then taking the median value of all the paragraphs above the cutoff paragraph. The proposed abbreviated test reading speed was calculated from the median of three large paragraphs (logMAR, 1.0, 0.9, and 0.8). At a second site, 25 children with a variety of ocular conditions were similarly tested using an alternative abbreviated test (logMAR, 1.3, 1.2, and 1.1). The standard and abbreviated reading speeds were then compared between tests and between eyes using generalized estimating equation and intraclass correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The mean reading method speeds with the standard and abbreviated tests were almost identical [177 words per minute (wpm) +/- 46 wpm vs. 178 +/- 46 wpm, p = 0.43 for normal children and 140 +/- 29 wpm vs. 141 +/- 33 wpm, p = 0.35 in children with a variety of ocular conditions]. CONCLUSION.: The new abbreviated version of the MNREAD reading speed test yields similar results to the standard MNREAD test in children. The new abbreviated MNREAD test is faster to administer and appears to be particularly useful for children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Regression of lid-induced corneal topography changes after reading.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to investigate the magnitude of lid-induced corneal topography changes as a function of time spent reading and the subsequent time course of regression of these changes. METHODS: Six young subjects, five myopes and one emmetrope with normal ocular health, participated in the study. Corneal topography of one eye was measured with videokeratoscopy before four reading sessions of 10, 30, 60, and 120 min duration performed on four separate mornings. Corneal topography was again measured at fixed intervals up to 180 min after each reading session. A control trial without reading was also performed on a separate morning. RESULTS: All six subjects showed significant changes in corneal topography directly after each of the reading sessions. Longer reading periods caused larger corneal changes. Local instantaneous power changes reached up to 5.95 D (+/- 2.80 D), whereas refractive power changes in the superior cornea ranged up to 1.26 D (+/- 0.44) for the 120-min reading trial. The duration of regression of corneal changes showed slower recovery times after longer reading periods. The pattern of regression was similar for all reading times, showing a rapid recovery within the first 10 minutes followed by a slower regression period. CONCLUSIONS: The length of time spent reading has a cumulative effect on the period over which corneal topography remains altered as a result of lid forces.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Determining magnification for reading with low vision.

BACKGROUND: In the past, practitioners have used distance and/or near visual acuity (VA) to calculate required magnification for low vision aids. Magnification was usually under-estimated when compared with the final magnification prescribed. Recent studies have emphasised the importance of acuity reserve in determining the required magnification for optimum reading rate. Two different approaches have been proposed for the appropriate acuity reserve to use in calculating magnification. These are a fixed acuity reserve of 0.3 log unit or an individual determination of optimum acuity reserve. The aim of this study was to investigate the magnification and reading rates with low vision aids selected by the two methods. METHODS: Nineteen low vision subjects with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who were experienced magnifier-users were recruited. Reading rates and near VA with low vision aids determined by the fixed and individual acuity reserve methods were compared with the same measures made with the subjects' own magnifiers. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in reading rate and near VA measured with low vision aids selected by either the fixed or individual acuity reserve methods or the subjects' own magnifiers. Reading rate with low vision aids was not significantly different from reading rate for large print with conventional near additions. Thus, for experienced users, magnifiers do not cause reduced reading rate. CONCLUSIONS: The fixed acuity reserve method is simple to apply as only near VA and print size of the target reading task are required. For the individual acuity reserve method, reading rates at different print sizes need to be measured. We recommend the use of a fixed acuity reserve (0.3 log unit) for the calculation of required magnification for low vision patients. If near VA or reading rate are not satisfactory with the magnification calculated by this method, individual assessment of required acuity reserve is necessary.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Adaptive changes in early and late blind: a fMRI study of Braille reading.

Braille reading depends on remarkable adaptations that connect the somatosensory system to language. We hypothesized that the pattern of cortical activations in blind individuals reading Braille would reflect these adaptations. Activations in visual (occipital-temporal), frontal-language, and somatosensory cortex in blind individuals reading Braille were examined for evidence of differences relative to previously reported studies of sighted subjects reading print or receiving tactile stimulation. Nine congenitally blind and seven late-onset blind subjects were studied with fMRI as they covertly performed verb generation in response to reading Braille embossed nouns. The control task was reading the nonlexical Braille string "######". This study emphasized image analysis in individual subjects rather than pooled data. Group differences were examined by comparing magnitudes and spatial extent of activated regions first determined to be significant using the general linear model. The major adaptive change was robust activation of visual cortex despite the complete absence of vision in all subjects. This included foci in peri-calcarine, lingual, cuneus and fusiform cortex, and in the lateral and superior occipital gyri encompassing primary (V1), secondary (V2), and higher tier (VP, V4v, LO and possibly V3A) visual areas previously identified in sighted subjects. Subjects who never had vision differed from late blind subjects in showing even greater activity in occipital-temporal cortex, provisionally corresponding to V5/MT and V8. In addition, the early blind had stronger activation of occipital cortex located contralateral to the hand used for reading Braille. Responses in frontal and parietal cortex were nearly identical in both subject groups. There was no evidence of modifications in frontal cortex language areas (inferior frontal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Surprisingly, there was also no evidence of an adaptive expansion of the somatosensory or primary motor cortex dedicated to the Braille reading finger(s). Lack of evidence for an expected enlargement of the somatosensory representation may have resulted from balanced tactile stimulation and gross motor demands during Braille reading of nouns and the control fields. Extensive engagement of visual cortex without vision is discussed in reference to the special demands of Braille reading. It is argued that these responses may represent critical language processing mechanisms normally present in visual cortex.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1999

A developmental bias in reading frame usage by human fetal thymic TCRBDJ transcripts is not present in genomic TCRBDJ rearrangements.

We have previously reported that reading-frame usage and functional diversification is developmentally regulated, with virtually all TCRB DJ mRNA transcripts using a single reading frame at 8 weeks of gestational age, tapering to 50% by adult life. We used the polymerase chain reaction to create genomic libraries of DJ rearrangements in the TCRB locus from thymuses at 7.7, 10, and 16 weeks of gestational age, and from adult thymuses. Clones were randomly picked and sequenced to determine junctional sequences and reading-frame utilization. The resulting data address the hypothesis that cells bearing genomic joints in reading frame one are preferentially selected during fetal life. This hypothesis predicts that reading-frame bias would also be observed among genomic DJ joints. Instead, we observed random utilization of the three possible D-region reading frames among genomic D1s1 ==> J1s1 joints during fetal life. Similar results were obtained at 7.7 weeks of gestational age in a second thymus in which both RNA and DNA were simultaneously isolated and used to create libraries of TCRBDJ transcripts or rearrangements. We conclude that reading-frame utilization is random among genomic D1s1-JB1s1 rearrangements and that the preferential usage of a single reading frame among mRNA transcripts of TCRB DJ transcripts is the result of preferential transcription of genomic TCRB DJ joints in a single reading frame, or that TCRB DJ transcripts have a longer half-life than transcripts in reading frames two or three.

Embryonic and Fetal Development↗
PubMed2004

Reading acuity in children: evaluation and reliability using MNREAD charts.

PURPOSE: To study reading acuity in children and assess the reliability of its measurement using the Italian version of the MNREAD reading chart. METHODS: One hundred sixteen children from grades 3 to 8 with normal near vision were tested at a pediatric eye care institution in northeastern Italy. Visual acuity was evaluated with Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) charts and reading acuity with MNREAD charts. Examination with charts 1 and 2 by the same examiner in the same visit were used as test-retest measurements. RESULTS: Mean improvement of performance from grades 3 to 8 was approximately 1 line for ETDRS acuity and 1.5 sentences for reading acuity and critical print size. Mean maximum reading speed increased from 96 to 167 words/minute. Regression analysis showed that a stable reading speed was obtained throughout sentences of decreasing size up to the critical print size. Measurement error, expressed as 95% limits of agreement, was +/- 0.136 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) and +/- 0.142 logMAR for ETDRS acuity and reading acuity, respectively. Critical print size had the lowest reliability (+/- 0.193 logMAR). Maximum reading speed limits of agreement were +/- 0.077 logarithm of words per minute (logWPM), or a 19% change in words per minute. There were no detectable effects of grade and refractive error on measurement errors. CONCLUSIONS: In children, MNREAD charts provide measurements of reading acuity as reliable as ETDRS chart measurements of distance acuity on a logMAR scale. They also provide highly reliable measurements of the maximum reading speed across all grades, independent of its noticeable increase.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Familial and genetic effects on motor coordination, laterality, and reading-related cognition.

OBJECTIVE: Recent research has provided evidence for a genetically mediated association between language or reading-related cognitive deficits and impaired motor coordination. Other studies have identified relationships between lateralization of hand skill and cognitive abilities. With a large sample, the authors aimed to investigate genetic relationships between measures of reading-related cognition, hand motor skill, and hand skill lateralization. METHOD: The authors applied univariate and bivariate correlation and familiality analyses to a range of measures. They also performed genomewide linkage analysis of hand motor skill in a subgroup of 195 sibling pairs. RESULTS: Hand motor skill was significantly familial (maximum heritability=41%), as were reading-related measures. Hand motor skill was weakly but significantly correlated with reading-related measures, such as nonword reading and irregular word reading. However, these correlations were not significantly familial in nature, and the authors did not observe linkage of hand motor skill to any chromosomal regions implicated in susceptibility to dyslexia. Lateralization of hand skill was not correlated with reading or cognitive ability. CONCLUSIONS: The authors confirmed a relationship between lower motor ability and poor reading performance. However, the genetic effects on motor skill and reading ability appeared to be largely or wholly distinct, suggesting that the correlation between these traits may have arisen from environmental influences. Finally, the authors found no evidence that reading disability and/or low general cognitive ability were associated with ambidexterity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The Single Item Literacy Screener: evaluation of a brief instrument to identify limited reading ability.

BACKGROUND: Reading skills are important for accessing health information, using health care services, managing one's health and achieving desirable health outcomes. Our objective was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS) to identify limited reading ability, one component of health literacy, as measured by the S-TOFHLA. METHODS: Cross-sectional interview with 999 adults with diabetes residing in Vermont and bordering states. Participants were randomly recruited from Primary Care practices in the Vermont Diabetes Information System June 2003-December 2004. The main outcome was limited reading ability. The primary predictor was the SILS. RESULTS: Of the 999 persons screened, 169 (17%) had limited reading ability. The sensitivity of the SILS in detecting limited reading ability was 54% [95% CI: 47%, 61%] and the specificity was 83% [95% CI: 81%, 86%] with an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve (ROC) of 0.73 [95% CI: 0.69, 0.78]. Seven hundred seventy (77%) screened negative on the SILS and 692 of these subjects had adequate reading skills (negative predictive value = 0.90 [95% CI: 0.88, 0.92]). Of the 229 who scored positive on the SILS, 92 had limited reading ability (positive predictive value = 0.4 [95% CI: 0.34, 0.47]). CONCLUSION: The SILS is a simple instrument designed to identify patients with limited reading ability who need help reading health-related materials. The SILS performs moderately well at ruling out limited reading ability in adults and allows providers to target additional assessment of health literacy skills to those most in need. Further study of the use of the SILS in clinical settings and with more diverse populations is warranted.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Profiles of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties.

BACKGROUND: Children with fluent and accurate word reading in the presence of poor text comprehension are impaired on a wide range of reading-related tasks. AIMS: This study investigated the consistency of skill impairment in a sample of poor comprehenders to identify any fundamental skill weakness that (i) might be associated with poor text comprehension, and (ii) might lead to depressed reading development. An additional aim was to determine whether reading comprehension difficulties are associated with more general educational difficulties. SAMPLE: Twenty-three poor comprehenders and 23 good comprehenders with age-appropriate word reading accuracy were assessed when aged 8 years. Concurrent reading and language performance and reading, educational attainment and reasoning skills 3 years later are reported. METHODS: The following skills were assessed when aged 8 years: word reading, text comprehension, vocabulary, syntax, cognitive ability, working memory, comprehension subskills. Listening comprehension, SAT scores and reasoning scores at 11 years are also reported. RESULTS: There was no evidence for any fundamental skill weaknesses in the population of poor comprehenders at Time 1. However, poor vocabulary skills led to impaired growth in word reading ability and poor general cognitive ability led to impaired growth in comprehension. Poor comprehenders obtained lower SAT scores than did the good comprehenders at 11 years. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that a single underlying source of poor comprehension is unlikely. Poor comprehenders are at risk of generally poor educational attainment, although weak verbal or cognitive skills appear to affect the reading development of poor comprehenders in different ways.

Achievement↗