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Monitoring changes in cognitive load during reading: an event-related brain potential and reaction time analysis.

Factors that contribute to cognitive load during reading were examined using a secondary task procedure. In three experiments, subjects read sets of passages twice in succession while auditory probes were presented. The N1-P2 and P300 components of the event-related brain potential and reaction time (RT) responses to secondary auditory probes were used as measures of load. N1-P2 responses indicated decreased load during the second reading, whereas P300 and RT responses indicated increased load during the second reading. The results are interpreted as reflecting changes in task demands. Lower level elements of the task, such as word recognition and local aspects of comprehension, required fewer resources during the second reading. The N1-P2 reflected this reduction in resource demands. By contrast, the amount of resources devoted to higher level processes, such as comparing the text with one's prior representation and updating memory, increased during the second reading. This resulted from task demands, which emphasized memory of the material. P300 and RT reflected this increase in higher level demands. Results are described in terms of attentional and task demands and are taken as support for a componential description of reading and task difficulty.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Performance of elementary-grade African American students on the Gray Oral Reading Tests.

PURPOSE: African American students perform disproportionately more poorly on standardized reading assessments than their majority peers. Poor reading performances may be related to test biases inherent in standardized reading instruments. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the appropriateness of the Gray Oral Reading Tests-Third Edition (GORT-3; Wiederholt & Bryant, 1992) for assessing the reading abilities of elementary-grade African American students. METHOD: Performances of 65 typically developing African American second through fifth graders were examined on the GORT-3. RESULTS: African American English (AAE) was produced by most students while reading passages from the GORT-3 that were written in Standard American English (SAE). A scoring correction for AAE resulted in a statistical improvement in the performance distributions, but this did not appear to be educationally significant. Measures of total feature production predicted reading accuracy and rate, but not comprehension. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Findings are discussed in terms of the appropriateness of this instrument for use by speech-language pathologists as they contribute to curricular and classroom placement decisions in schools with large numbers of typically developing African American students.

Achievement↗

Effects of prolonged loud reading on normal adolescent male voices.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to test the effects of vocal loading in healthy, peripubescent teenage boys. It was hypothesized that select acoustic measures, ratings of physical appearance of the larynx, and self-ratings of physical effort and vocal quality in the experimental group would significantly change in response to 2 hr of prolonged loud reading. METHOD: In this prospective, repeated measures study, 25 boys aged 13-16 years were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (2 hr of continuous loud reading) or a control group (silent reading with brief periods of conversation). Pre-post acoustic, videoendoscopic, and perceptual data including self-ratings were collected. Postreading recovery changes were tracked by monitoring average reading fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity for 20 min following cessation of the reading task. RESULTS: The experimental group demonstrated statistically significant differences before and after prolonged loud reading for three variables: F0 (p < .01), self-ratings of vocal quality (p < .01), and physical effort (p < .01). No pre-post changes were evident in the control group. In the experimental group, posttest return of F0 to pretest levels occurred within 20 min. Self-ratings revealed that the boys felt that their voice quality worsened and physical effort increased during the experimental task. Expert ratings did not detect any significant differences in either the perceptual quality of the experimental group's voices or their videoendoscopic images. IMPLICATIONS: These findings demonstrate that prolonged loud reading can induce temporary but measurable changes in F0 and in self-perception of vocal function in adolescent males who are experiencing a period of rapid laryngeal growth. The underlying mechanism for these changes remains unclear and warrants continued investigation. Furthermore, the results suggest that in the pubescent male population, comparable vocal loading tasks encountered in daily use should not result in long-term negative effects.

Acoustics↗

Reading problems in chronic aphasia.

Thirty-five aphasic subjects who were 1 year or longer post onset of brain injury were given a battery of reading tests which was composed of recognition and oral reading tests for letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs, and comprehension tests for sentences and paragraphs. Results indicated a residual reading disorder or alexia in all subjects, with comprehension tests producing the highest error rate, oral reading tests second, and then recognition tests. Reading ability was found to be related to overall language skill, level of education, and oral reading ability. Results are discussed in light of current theories of reading and future research needs.

Aphasia↗

Vocal characteristics of normal speakers and stutterers during choral reading.

It is well known that stutterers experience significant decrements in their stuttering when they read or speak in unison with another person. Recently, Wingate suggested that the act of choral reading or speaking prompts the individual who is following the model speaker to emphasize vocalization and its continuity throughout the utterance. This modified vocalization may then be viewed as the immediate cause of the stutterers' reduced disfluency. To evaluate this hypothesis, ten stutterers and ten normal speakers were tested in a control and choral reading condition. In the former, subjects read in their habitual manner. In the latter, subjects read in unison with a recording of a normal adult male. Subjects' oral readings were audio-taped and then submitted to spectrographic analysis. Measures of vowel duration, peak vocal SPL and continuity of phonation were made and then treated statistically. The major findings of this study indicated that across the two conditions, both groups failed to modify their vocal SPL and continuity of phonation. They did, however, alter their vowel durations. The normal speakers increased theirs by a statistically insignificant amount, while the stutterers significantly shortened theirs. The results that pertained to vocal SPL and vowel durations seemed a function of each group's scores for these measures in the control condition as compared to the values for the same measures that were generated by the model speaker with whom subjects read in unison in the experimental condition. These and other findings and interpretations are discussed further relative to Wingate's "modified vocalization" hypothesis.

Adolescent↗

Phonological awareness and oral reading skill in children with Down syndrome.

The existence of a necessary association between phonological awareness (PA) and oral reading development has been questioned using evidence from children with Down syndrome. In this study, 22 children with Down syndrome (between the ages of 6;7 and 10;3) initially completed tests of receptive language, cognitive function, oral reading, and PA. Reading and PA were reassessed approximately 9 months later. Better oral reading was associated with superior phoneme segmentation skills on reassessment. Furthermore, there was some evidence that early segmentation ability predicted later nonword reading, but not the reverse. The results indicate an association between PA and early oral reading ability in children with Down syndrome and are interpreted within a theoretical view of reading development in which PA plays a central role.

Awareness↗

Both coloured overlays and coloured lenses can improve reading fluency, but their optimal chromaticities differ.

Some individuals read more fluently when the text is coloured: i.e., when coloured sheets of plastic (overlays) are placed upon the page, or when coloured lenses are worn. Overlays provide a surface colour whereas lenses mimic a change in the colour of a light source. The neural mechanisms that underlie colour constancy ensure that the chromaticity of overlays and lenses is processed differently by the visual system. We investigated (1) the relationship between the optimal colours of overlays and lenses, and (2) how reading rate is affected by a particular colour in overlays and lenses. In 100 patients we noted (1) the overlay(s) chosen from among the 29 combinations of the 10 IOO Intuitive Overlays which sample chromaticity systematically and (2) the chromaticity co-ordinates of the lenses subsequently chosen using the intuitive Colorimeter, a device providing a light source that can be adjusted in hue, saturation and luminance independently. The relationship between the chromaticities of the overlays and the lenses showed considerable variation. In a second study, patients attending the Specific Learning Difficulties clinic at the Institute of Optometry, London, were given overlays to use for two months. Seventeen who derived benefit were examined using the Intuitive Colorimeter. Patients were asked to read aloud randomly ordered common words (Wilkins Rate of Reading Test): (1) with no colour, (2) with the chosen overlay, (3) with lenses matching the chosen overlay and (4) with lenses matching the Colorimeter setting. The aids increased reading rate significantly only in conditions (2) and (4). There was no significant improvement when lenses matching the overlay colour were used, and under this condition the reading rate was significantly poorer than in conditions (2) and (4). The colour of a lens will improve reading only if it is selected under conditions that mimic a change in the colour of a light source: coloured overlays give no clinically reliable guide to optimal lens colour.

Color↗

Optimal reading speed in simulated cataract: development of a potential vision test.

Previous studies suggest that optimal reading speed is unaffected by cataract, yet is significantly reduced in age-related macular disease. This raises the question of whether a reading speed test could be developed to assess potential vision after cataract surgery. In this study, 20 young subjects, with and without a simulation of dense cataract, read aloud Bailey-Lovie word charts. From the results, critical print size, optimal reading speed and word acuity were calculated. The simulated cataract reduced word acuity and increased the critical print size, yet optimal reading speed remained unchanged. Measurements were also taken with the charts in reversed contrast polarity. Reversing the contrast polarity of the charts improved the word acuity and optimal reading speed with the cataract simulation. The results suggest that optimal reading speed could be used as a potential vision test. Further investigations using patients with cataract and ARMD are required.

Adult↗

Journal reading habits of internists.

We assessed the reading habits of internists with and without epidemiological training because such information may help guide medical journals as they make changes in how articles are edited and formatted. In a 1998 national self-administered mailed survey of 143 internists with fellowship training in epidemiology and study design and a random sample of 121 internists from the American Medical Association physician master file, we asked about the number of hours spent reading medical journals per week and the percentage of articles for which only the abstract is read. Respondents also were asked which of nine medical journals they subscribe to and read regularly. Of the 399 eligible participants, 264 returned surveys (response rate 66%). Respondents reported spending 4.4 hours per week reading medical journal articles and reported reading only the abstract for 63% of the articles; these findings were similar for internists with and without epidemiology training. Respondents admitted to a reliance on journal editors to provide rigorous and useful information, given the limited time available for critical reading. We conclude that internists, regardless of training in epidemiology, rely heavily on abstracts and prescreening of articles by editors.

Adult↗

Evidence that dyslexia may represent the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability.

BACKGROUND: Dyslexia is now widely believed to be a biologically based disorder that is distinct from other, less specific reading problems. According to this view, reading ability is considered to follow a bimodal distribution, with dyslexia as the lower mode. We hypothesized that, instead, reading ability follows a normal distribution, with dyslexia at the lower end of the continuum. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used data from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, a sample survey of 414 Connecticut children who entered kindergarten in 1983 and were followed as a longitudinal cohort. Dyslexia was defined in terms of a discrepancy score, which represents the difference between actual reading achievement and achievement predicted on the basis of measures of intelligence. Data were available from intelligence tests administered in grades 1, 3, and 5 and achievement tests administered yearly in grades 1 through 6. For each child there were 108 possible discrepancy scores ([3 x 3 years] x [2 x 6 years]) based on combinations of the ability scores (full-scale, verbal, and performance IQ) in each of three years and two achievement scores (reading and mathematics) in each of six years. We demonstrated that each of the discrepancy scores followed a univariate normal distribution and that the interrelation of two different discrepancy scores followed a bivariate normal distribution. At most, only 9 of 108 discrepancy scores (8.3 percent) and 171 of 3402 pairs of discrepancy scores (5.0 percent) were significantly different (at the 5 percent level) from the expected scores--well within the expected values for data with univariate and bivariate normal distributions, respectively. We also examined the stability of dyslexia over time. The normal-distribution model predicted (and the data indicated) that only 7 of the 25 children (28 percent) classified as having dyslexia in grade 1 would also be classified as having dyslexia in grade 3. CONCLUSIONS: Reading difficulties, including dyslexia, occur as part of a continuum that also includes normal reading ability. Dyslexia is not an all-or-none phenomenon, but like hypertension, occurs in degrees. The variability inherent in the diagnosis of dyslexia can be both quantified and predicted with use of the normal-distribution model.

Child↗

A third route for reading? Implications from a case of phonological dyslexia.

Models of reading in the neuropsychological literature sometimes only include two routes from print to sound, a lexical semantic route and a sublexical phonological route. Other researchers hypothesize an additional route that involves a direct connection between lexical orthographic representations and lexical phonological representations. This so-called 'third route' has been invoked to account for the preserved oral reading of some patients who show severe semantic impairments and a disruption of the sublexical phonological route. In their summation hypothesis, Hillis and Caramazza proposed that reading in these cases could result from a combination of partial lexical semantic information and partial sublexical phonological information, thus obviating the need for the third route. The present study examined the case of a phonological dyslexic patient (ML) who exhibited preserved word reading, even for items he could not name, along with a non-word reading impairment. The relationship between ML's naming and reading, and the influence of semantic variables on his reading were examined. The results of this examination are interpreted as supporting the existence of the third route.

Dyslexia↗

Can reading ability be measured with tests of memory and processing speed?

The author investigated the possibility of estimating reading ability using tests of memory and processing speed that have significantly reduced reading requirements. Four hundred three air force trainees were given tests of their working memory and long-term memory processes, as well as a standardized reading test. A multiple correlation of .79 indicated that global reading ability is substantially correlated with memory processes. Additional analyses indicated that word knowledge and comprehension, the two major components of reading ability, were both explained by the same set of memory process factors, namely, long-term memory processes, semantic memory retrieval speed, and working memory capacity. These results, which are consistent with the view that memory ability underlies reading ability, support the endeavor of measuring reading ability with memory and processing speed tasks.

Adult↗

Selective reading slowness in a traumatic patient with impairment in basic visual processes.

Following a closed-head injury, G.M., a 17-year-old male, showed a reading disturbance in the absence of other cognitive deficits. G.M.'s reading was exceedingly slow, although virtually error free. Analysis of his disorder indicated an inability to read words presented tachistoscopically to the left (spared) visual field. Therefore the reading deficit cannot be interpreted as simply due to the visual field reduction (hemianopic alexia). Reading speed was clearly affected by word length, a finding typical of letter-by-letter reading. Both behavioral and psychophysical testing indicated a selective reduction of visual discrimination and detection (particularly in the range of high spatial frequency information) in portions of the left hemifield which appeared spared upon perimetric examination. Overall, it is suggested that the reading deficit, phenomenologically similar to that of other letter-by-letter readers, can be interpreted as due to a combination of basic visual perturbations: visual field cut with macular splitting and deficit of processing of high spatial frequency information.

Adolescent↗

Reading level, learning presentation preference, and desire for information among cancer patients.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Cancer patients may face a number of obstacles to learning, including complexity of information, inappropriateness of timing and method of presentation, avoidance as a way of coping, and inability to read. Patients' reading levels, preferred learning methods, and desires for information and the usefulness of two instruments in a clinical setting were investigated. One instrument provided information about sociodemographics, desire for information, and learning preferences; the second instrument, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), assessed reading ability. RESULTS: The 63 patients studied, most of whom were African American, wanted all available information (90%), desired participation in care decisions (68%), and preferred personal interactive learning (77%). The REALM mean score was 50.8, indicating a seventh-to-eighth-grade reading level. Over half read below their stated educational levels and would be unable to read most available patient education materials. CONCLUSIONS: Educational level did not indicate reading ability; the patients could state their desires for information and their learning preferences, and the REALM was easy to use.

Adult↗

Descriptors of American Physical Therapy Association physical therapist members' reading of professional publications.

One of the components of evidence-based practice (EBP) is reading the literature. The purpose of this investigation was 1) to determine which publications are read most frequently by physical therapists (PTs), 2) to identify employment and education characteristics related to reading patterns, and 3) to determine how PTs use information gained from reading professional publications. A survey was constructed, pretested, revised, and then mailed to a random sample of 1,000 physical therapists, 500 from the general American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) membership and 500 from the combined Geriatric and Orthopedic section memberships. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. After all mailings, 43.3% of the sample responded. Of those responding, 66.3% were employed as clinicians, 14.7% as clinician-administrators, 6% as educators, and 4.9% as administrators. Overall, and for clinicians, the two most frequently read professional publications were non peer-reviewed. For clinician groups "patient management" was among the top two most selected uses of information from reading professional publications. Educators and those with an advanced doctorate indicated "class lectures" as either their second most frequently selected use or tied for first with "keeping current." Only educators and those with or pursuing an advanced doctorate reported using information from reading professional publications for "research ideas" or "research methods" among their top five uses. Slightly more than 10% of the respondents cited a peer-reviewed published article as having been most influential on their practice. Non peer-reviewed professional publications appear to serve as a more frequent source of information for "patient management" than do peer-reviewed publications. Efforts to increase the use of EBP need to be explored and evaluated for impact on physical therapists' practice.

Allied Health Personnel↗

Binocular coordination of the eyes during reading: word frequency and case alternation affect fixation duration but not fixation disparity.

This experiment investigated whether properties of the text being read affect binocular coordination of the eyes during reading. Readers' binocular eye movements were recorded while they read sentences that contained high- and low-frequency words. In addition, half of the sentences were presented in normal case, and half were presented in alternating case (i.e., AlTeRnAtInG cAsE). Past research has suggested that the visual system tolerates less binocular fixation disparity with alternating than with normal case (Heller & Radach, 1999). While both word frequency and alternating case produced large effects on fixation durations on the target word, neither manipulation affected the magnitude of fixation disparity. It is concluded that linguistic and visual properties of the text being read do not influence binocular coordination of the eyes during reading. Additional analyses also showed no difference in fixation disparity between reading and a nonlinguistic task. Implications of these results for split-fovea models of reading are discussed.

Analysis of Variance↗

Speech perception in children with specific reading difficulties (dyslexia).

Many experimental studies over the last two decades have suggested that groups of children who suffer significant delay in reading also show a weakness in phoneme discrimination and identification. In order to look further at the relation between type of reading deficit, auditory acuity, and speech discrimination, a group of 13 children with specific reading difficulty (SRD), 12 chronological-age controls, and 12 reading-age controls were tested on a battery of speech-perceptual, psychoacoustic, and reading tests. A sub-group of children with Specific Reading Difficulty (SRD) were poor at speech discrimination tests, whereas the rest of the SRD group performed within norms. For this sub-group, discrimination performance was particularly poor for consonant contrasts differing in a single feature that was not acoustically salient, and problems were encountered with nasal and fricative contrasts as wells with stop contrasts. These children did not differ from controls in their performance on non-speech psychoacoustic tasks. An evaluation is made of the reported phonemic awareness skills of beginning readers with regard to speech-processing issues which may help in understanding what factors are important in reading development.

Attention↗

Hyperlexic children reading.

Eight hyperlexic children participated in the study. All had language delays, displayed difficulties in integrated behaviour and interpersonal relationships, and learned to read with little or no formal instruction (usually before the age of 5 years). Tests assessing cognitive and academic functioning were administered. In general, nonverbal skills were stronger than verbal skills. Reading ability was in the grade 4 to grade 6 range as based upon Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) Reading Recognition scores. A wide variety of tests assessing phonological and lexical reading routes, as well as metalinguistic processing, were also administered. It appeared that the hyperlexic children were able to reach the lexicon via both the visualorthographic and phonological pathways. Error analysis indicated the former was preferred. Hyperlexic children had an organized, though limited, lexicon. Imagery had a significant effect on their reading. Further, they were able to comprehend single words and sentences, but not paragraphs. As only 3 of the 8 children seemed to have metalinguistic awareness, it becomes problematic whether the 'cognitive unconscious' is necessary for reading. Also, while the hyperlexic children might have acute visual registration mechanisms for written language, they have abstracted grapheme-phoneme transformation rules as indicated by their ability to read pseudowords.

Adolescent↗