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Sample records for active reading task

  1. Enhancing Reading Comprehension of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners through Task-based Reading Activities

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    Vahid Fallah Golchin

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Language learning has experienced a shift of focus from a form-focused to a meaning-focused approach, and the necessity of using task-based learning, a relatively recent approach, has emerged. The vital role of task-based materials makes it obligatory not to exclude them from the language learning syllabi.  The current study aims at investigating whether task-based reading can contribute significantly to the development of reading comprehension of Iranian advanced EFL learners of English. An experimental study was carried out in order to scrutinize the applicability of task-based language teaching. To this end, 60 female advanced EFL learners, selected from among a pool of 100 learners, were assigned equally and randomly into two groups of thirty, consisting of an experimental and a control group. The selection of the participants was based on the results of a standard and piloted version of Paper-based TOEFL. The participant’s mean age was about 23, ranging from 20 to 27 years of age. Both groups received a pretest and a post-test of reading. During the treatment period the experimental group received task-based reading activities while the control group received reading instructions through traditional methods. The impact of the treatment upon the reading comprehension ability of the participants was analyzed through an independent-samples t-test, and comparisons between groups were made. The results clearly indicated the development of reading comprehension ability of the participants in the first group (the experimental group through the application of task-based reading activities.

  2. Designing reading tasks to foster critical thinking Designing reading tasks to foster critical thinking

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    Leda Maria Braga Tomitch

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available What else is there besides multiple choice exercises, questions or true-false statements? What kind of readers do we EFL/ESL teachers, want to develop? Fortunately, there are alternative possibilities for designing reading activities which, besides being more interesting and fun for the students than the traditional tasks, can help develop more active and critical readers. A search in EFL/ESL reading textbooks has revealed that the most frequently encountered types of reading activities are comprehension questions, multiple-choice exercises, and true-false statements (Tomitch, in press a. These tasks have been used throughout the history of language teaching, and one must agree that they have their merits. However, there are reasons why they should not be used as the only source of activity in the classroom. What else is there besides multiple choice exercises, questions or true-false statements? What kind of readers do we EFL/ESL teachers, want to develop? Fortunately, there are alternative possibilities for designing reading activities which, besides being more interesting and fun for the students than the traditional tasks, can help develop more active and critical readers. A search in EFL/ESL reading textbooks has revealed that the most frequently encountered types of reading activities are comprehension questions, multiple-choice exercises, and true-false statements (Tomitch, in press a. These tasks have been used throughout the history of language teaching, and one must agree that they have their merits. However, there are reasons why they should not be used as the only source of activity in the classroom.

  3. Writing-Reading Relationships: Effectiveness of Writing Activities As Pre-Reading Tasks to Enhance L2 Inferential Reading Comprehension

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    Thilina Indrajie Wickramaarachchi

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The study examines the interaction between reading and writing processes in general and more specifically the impact of pre-reading tasks incorporating writing tasks (referred to as “prw tasks” in helping the development of inferential reading comprehension. A sample of 70 first year ESL students of the University of Kelaniya were initially selected with one group (experimental group engaging in “prw tasks” while the other group (control group performing the tasks without a pre-reading component. The intervention was for 6 sessions (one hour in each session. At the end of each session, the performance of the two groups was measured and the test scores were analyzed using the data analysis package SPSS to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. The results indicated that the experimental group had significantly performed better than the control group which indicated the effectiveness of the prw tasks in improving reading comprehension.

  4. Types and sequences of self-regulated reading of low-achieving adolescents in relation to reading task achievement

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    de Milliano, Ilona; van Gelderen, Amos; Sleegers, P.J.C.

    2016-01-01

    This study examines the relationship between types and sequences of self-regulated reading activities in task-oriented reading with quality of task achievement of 51 low-achieving adolescents (Grade 8). The study used think aloud combined with video observations to analyse the students' approach of

  5. Effects of reading-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof

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    Yang, Kai-Lin; Lin, Fou-Lai

    2012-06-01

    This study compared the effects of reading-oriented tasks and writing-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof (RCGP). The reading-oriented tasks were designed with reading strategies and the idea of problem posing. The writing-oriented tasks were consistent with usual proof instruction for writing a proof and applying it. Twenty-two classes of ninth-grade students ( N = 683), aged 14 to 15 years, and 12 mathematics teachers participated in this quasi-experimental classroom study. While the experimental group was instructed to read and discuss the reading tasks in two 45-minute lessons, the control group was instructed to prove and apply the same propositions. Generalised estimating equation (GEE) method was used to compare the scores of the post-test and the delayed post-test with the pre-test scores as covariates. Results showed that the total scores of the delayed post-test of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, the scores of the experimental group on all facets of reading comprehension except the application facet were significantly higher than those of the control group for both the post-test and delayed post-test.

  6. [Developmental changes in reading ability of Japanese elementary school children--analysis of 4 kana reading tasks].

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    Kobayashi, Tomoka; Inagaki, Masumi; Gunji, Atsuko; Yatabe, Kiyomi; Kaga, Makiko; Goto, Takaaki; Koike, Toshihide; Wakamiya, Eiji; Koeda, Tatsuya

    2010-01-01

    Five hundred and twenty-eight Japanese elementary school children aged from 6 (Grade 1) to 12 (Grade 6) were tested for their abilities to read Hiragana characters, words, and short sentences. They were typically developing children whom the classroom teachers judged to have no problems with reading and writing in Japanese. Each child was asked to read four tasks which were written in Hiragana script: single mora reading task, four syllable non-word reading task, four syllable word reading task, and short sentence reading task. The total articulation time for reading and performance in terms of accuracy were measured for each task. Developmental changes in these variables were evaluated. The articulation time was significantly longer for the first graders, and it gradually shortened as they moved through to the upper grades in all tasks. The articulation time reached a plateau in the 4th grade for the four syllable word and short sentence reading tasks, while it did so for the single mora and four syllable non-word reading tasks in the 5th grade. The articulation times for the four syllable word and short sentence reading tasks correlated strongly. There were very few clear errors for all tasks, and the number of such errors significantly changed between the school grades only for the single mora and four syllable word reading tasks. It was noted that more than half of the children read the beginning portion of the word or phrase twice or more, in order to read it accurately, and developmental changes were also seen in this pattern of reading. This study revealed that the combination of these reading tasks may function as a screening test for reading disorders such as developmental dyslexia in children below the age of ten or eleven years old.

  7. Matching is not naming: a direct comparison of lexical manipulations in explicit and implicit reading tasks.

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    Vogel, Alecia C; Petersen, Steven E; Schlaggar, Bradley L

    2013-10-01

    The neurobiological basis of reading is of considerable interest, yet analyzing data from subjects reading words aloud during functional MRI data collection can be difficult. Therefore, many investigators use surrogate tasks such as visual matching or rhyme matching to eliminate the need for spoken output. Use of these tasks has been justified by the presumption of "automatic activation" of reading-related neural processing when a word is viewed. We have tested the efficacy of using a nonreading task for studying "reading effects" by directly comparing blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activity in subjects performing a visual matching task and an item naming task on words, pseudowords (meaningless but legal letter combinations), and nonwords (meaningless and illegal letter combinations). When compared directly, there is significantly more activity during the naming task in "reading-related" regions such as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and supramarginal gyrus. More importantly, there are differing effects of lexicality in the tasks. A whole-brain task (matching vs. naming) by string type (word vs. pseudoword vs. nonword) by BOLD timecourse analysis identifies regions showing this three-way interaction, including the left IFG and left angular gyrus (AG). In the majority of the identified regions (including the left IFG and left AG), there is a string type × timecourse interaction in the naming but not the matching task. These results argue that the processing performed in specific regions is contingent on task, even in reading-related regions and is thus nonautomatic. Such differences should be taken into consideration when designing studies intended to investigate reading. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Predicting Growth in Word Level Reading Skills in Children With Developmental Dyslexia Using an Object Rhyming Functional Neuroimaging Task.

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    Farris, Emily A; Ring, Jeremiah; Black, Jeffrey; Lyon, G Reid; Odegard, Timothy N

    2016-04-01

    An object rhyming task that does not require text reading and is suitable for younger children was used to predict gains in word level reading skills following an intensive 2-year reading intervention for children with developmental dyslexia. The task evoked activation in bilateral inferior frontal regions. Growth in untimed pseudoword reading was associated with increased pre-intervention activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus, and growth in timed word reading was associated with pre-intervention activation of the left and right inferior frontal gyri. These analyses help identify pre-intervention factors that facilitate reading skill improvements in children with developmental dyslexia.

  9. Frontal brain activation in young children during picture book reading with their mothers.

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    Ohgi, S; Loo, K K; Mizuike, C

    2010-02-01

    This study was to measure changes in frontal brain activation in young children during picture book reading with their mothers. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 15 young Japanese children (eight girls and seven boys, mean age 23.1 +/- 3.4). Two experimental tasks were presented as follows: Task 1 (picture book reading with their mothers); Task 2 (viewing of book-on-video). Duration of task stimulus was 180-sec and the 60-sec interval was filled. Brain activation was measured using an optical topography system. Significant increases in oxy-Hb were observed in both right and left frontal areas in response to Task 1 compared with Task 2. There were significant correlations between child's brain activity and mothers' and children's verbal-nonverbal behaviours. There was greater frontal lobe activation in children when they were engaged in a picture book reading task with their mothers, as opposed to passive viewing of a videotape in which the story was read to them. Social and verbal engagement of the mother in reading picture books with her young child may mediate frontal brain activity in the child.

  10. Implications of Schema-based Pre-Reading Tasks in Facilitating ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences ... A One-Group Pre-Test-Post-test Design (Creswell, 2009:160) was used to test the significance of schema-based pre-reading tasks (SBPRT) in facilitating reading comprehension. ... It was meant to identify the level of achievement of the students in reading comprehension.

  11. The Impact of Enactive /Vicarious pre-reading Tasks on Reading Comprehension and Self-Efficacy of Iranian Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners

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    Arezoo Eshghipour

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated the effect of enactive pre-reading tasks on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension and self-efficacy. Moreover, it explored whether Iranian per-intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension and self-efficacy are influenced by vicarious pre-reading tasks. The required data was gathered through a reading comprehension passage entailing 20 comprehension questions and a 30-item self-efficacy questionnaire with 5-point Likert-scale response options. A total of 66 participants (including 34 individuals in the enactive group and 32 leaners in the vicarious one took part in this study. The Pearson formula, an independent T-Test, paired T-test, and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. Based on the findings of the study, enactive pre-reading tasks played a key role in the Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability. Moreover, it was found that vicarious pre-reading tasks served an important role in the Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ self-efficacy.

  12. Patterns of cerebral activation during lexical and phonological reading in Portuguese

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    Senaha M.L.H.

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available According to the concepts of cognitive neuropsychology, there are two principal routes of reading processing: a lexical route, in which global reading of words occurs and a phonological route, responsible for the conversion of the graphemes into their respective phonemes. In the present study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI was used to investigate the patterns of cerebral activation in lexical and phonological reading by 13 healthy women with a formal educational level greater than 11 years. Participants were submitted to a silent reading task containing three types of stimuli: real words (irregular and foreign words, nonwords and illegitimate graphic stimuli. An increased number of activated voxels were identified by fMRI in the word reading (lexical processing than in the nonword reading (phonological processing task. In word reading, activation was greater than for nonwords in the following areas: superior, middle and inferior frontal gyri, and bilateral superior temporal gyrus, right cerebellum and the left precentral gyrus, as indicated by fMRI. In the reading of nonwords, the activation was predominant in the right cerebellum and in the left superior temporal gyrus. The results of the present study suggest the existence of differences in the patterns of cerebral activation during lexical and phonological reading, with greater involvement of the right hemisphere in reading words than nonwords.

  13. Mining Student Behavior Patterns in Reading Comprehension Tasks

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    Peckham, Terry; McCalla, Gord

    2012-01-01

    Reading comprehension is critical in life-long learning as well as in the workplace. In this paper, we describe how multidimensional k-means clustering combined with Bloom's Taxonomy can be used to determine positive and negative cognitive skill sets with respect to reading comprehension tasks. This information could be used to inform environments…

  14. From word reading to multisentence comprehension: Improvements in brain activity in children with autism after reading intervention

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    Donna L. Murdaugh

    2017-01-01

    Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for differential recruitment of brain regions based on task demands in children with ASD, and support the potential of targeted interventions to alter brain activation in response to positive gains in treatment. Children with ASD have a different reading profile from other reading disorders that needs to be specifically targeted in interventions.

  15. Strategies identification in an experimental reading comprehension task

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    Stanković Sanda

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Standardized reading comprehension tests (RCTs usually consist of a small number of texts each accompanied by several multiple-choice questions, with texts and questions simultaneously presented. The score the common measure of reading comprehension ability in RCTs is the score. Literature review suggests that strategies subjects employ may influence their performance on RCT, however the score itself provides no information on the specific strategy employed. Knowledge of test-taking strategies could have impact on understanding of the actual purpose and benefits of using RCTs in pedagogical and psychological practice. With the ultimate objective of constructing a first standard RCT in Serbian language, the preliminary step we took was to conduct an experimental reading comprehension task (ERCT consisting of 27 short texts displayed in succession, each followed by a single multiplechoice question. Using qualitative analysis of subjects’ responses in semi-structured postexperimental interview, we identified four overall strategies used on ERCT. Our results show that groups of students who used specific strategies differed significantly from one another in text reading time, with no differences found regarding the question reading and answering time. More importantly, there were no significant between-group differences found in terms of ERCT score. These findings suggest that choice of strategy is a way to optimize the relation between one’s own potential and ERCT task requirements. RCT based on ERCT principles would allow for a flexible choice of strategy which would not influence the final score.

  16. Not all reading is alike: Task modulation of magnetic evoked response to visual word

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    Pavlova A. A.

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Background. Previous studies have shown that brain response to a written word depends on the task: whether the word is a target in a version of lexical decision task or should be read silently. Although this effect has been interpreted as an evidence for an interaction between word recognition processes and task demands, it also may be caused by greater attention allocation to the target word. Objective. We aimed to examine the task effect on brain response evoked by non- target written words. Design. Using MEG and magnetic source imaging, we compared spatial-temporal pattern of brain response elicited by a noun cue when it was read silently either without additional task (SR or with a requirement to produce an associated verb (VG. Results.The task demands penetrated into early (200-300 ms and late (500-800 ms stages of a word processing by enhancing brain response under VG versus SR condition. The cortical sources of the early response were localized to bilateral inferior occipitotemporal and anterior temporal cortex suggesting that more demanding VG task required elaborated lexical-semantic analysis. The late effect was observed in the associative auditory areas in middle and superior temporal gyri and in motor representation of articulators. Our results suggest that a remote goal plays a pivotal role in enhanced recruitment of cortical structures underlying orthographic, semantic and sensorimotor dimensions of written word perception from the early processing stages. Surprisingly, we found that to fulfil a more challenging goal the brain progressively engaged resources of the right hemisphere throughout all stages of silent reading. Conclusion. Our study demonstrates that a deeper processing of linguistic input amplifies activation of brain areas involved in integration of speech perception and production. This is consistent with theories that emphasize the role of sensorimotor integration in speech understanding.

  17. Shared vs. specific brain activation changes in dyslexia after training of phonology, attention, or reading.

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    Heim, Stefan; Pape-Neumann, Julia; van Ermingen-Marbach, Muna; Brinkhaus, Moti; Grande, Marion

    2015-07-01

    Whereas the neurobiological basis of developmental dyslexia has received substantial attention, only little is known about the processes in the brain during remediation. This holds in particular in light of recent findings on cognitive subtypes of dyslexia which suggest interactions between individual profiles, training methods, and also the task in the scanner. Therefore, we trained three groups of German dyslexic primary school children in the domains of phonology, attention, or visual word recognition. We compared neurofunctional changes after 4 weeks of training in these groups to those in untrained normal readers in a reading task and in a task of visual attention. The overall reading improvement in the dyslexic children was comparable over groups. It was accompanied by substantial increase of the activation level in the visual word form area (VWFA) during a reading task inside the scanner. Moreover, there were activation increases that were unique for each training group in the reading task. In contrast, when children performed the visual attention task, shared training effects were found in the left inferior frontal sulcus and gyrus, which varied in amplitude between the groups. Overall, the data reveal that different remediation programmes matched to individual profiles of dyslexia may improve reading ability and commonly affect the VWFA in dyslexia as a shared part of otherwise distinct networks.

  18. Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children Listening to Stories.

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    Hutton, John S; Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Mendelsohn, Alan L; DeWitt, Tom; Holland, Scott K

    2015-09-01

    Parent-child reading is widely advocated to promote cognitive development, including in recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to begin this practice at birth. Although parent-child reading has been shown in behavioral studies to improve oral language and print concepts, quantifiable effects on the brain have not been previously studied. Our study used blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between home reading environment and brain activity during a story listening task in a sample of preschool-age children. We hypothesized that while listening to stories, children with greater home reading exposure would exhibit higher activation of left-sided brain regions involved with semantic processing (extraction of meaning). Nineteen 3- to 5-year-old children were selected from a longitudinal study of normal brain development. All completed blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging using an age-appropriate story listening task, where narrative alternated with tones. We performed a series of whole-brain regression analyses applying composite, subscale, and individual reading-related items from the validated StimQ-P measure of home cognitive environment as explanatory variables for neural activation. Higher reading exposure (StimQ-P Reading subscale score) was positively correlated (P eco-bio-developmental models of emergent literacy. Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  19. Differences between child and adult large-scale functional brain networks for reading tasks.

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    Liu, Xin; Gao, Yue; Di, Qiqi; Hu, Jiali; Lu, Chunming; Nan, Yun; Booth, James R; Liu, Li

    2018-02-01

    Reading is an important high-level cognitive function of the human brain, requiring interaction among multiple brain regions. Revealing differences between children's large-scale functional brain networks for reading tasks and those of adults helps us to understand how the functional network changes over reading development. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 17 adults (19-28 years old) and 16 children (11-13 years old), and graph theoretical analyses to investigate age-related changes in large-scale functional networks during rhyming and meaning judgment tasks on pairs of visually presented Chinese characters. We found that: (1) adults had stronger inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree in occipital regions, while children had stronger inter-regional connectivity in temporal regions, suggesting that adults rely more on visual orthographic processing whereas children rely more on auditory phonological processing during reading. (2) Only adults showed between-task differences in inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree, whereas children showed no task differences, suggesting the topological organization of adults' reading network is more specialized. (3) Children showed greater inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree than adults in multiple subcortical regions; the hubs in children were more distributed in subcortical regions while the hubs in adults were more distributed in cortical regions. These findings suggest that reading development is manifested by a shift from reliance on subcortical to cortical regions. Taken together, our study suggests that Chinese reading development is supported by developmental changes in brain connectivity properties, and some of these changes may be domain-general while others may be specific to the reading domain. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Semantic interference in picture naming during dual-task performance does not vary with reading ability.

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    Piai, Vitória; Roelofs, Ardi; Roete, Ingeborg

    2015-01-01

    Previous dual-task studies examining the locus of semantic interference of distractor words in picture naming have obtained diverging results. In these studies, participants manually responded to tones and named pictures while ignoring distractor words (picture-word interference, PWI) with varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between tone and PWI stimulus. Whereas some studies observed no semantic interference at short SOAs, other studies observed effects of similar magnitude at short and long SOAs. The absence of semantic interference in some studies may perhaps be due to better reading skill of participants in these than in the other studies. According to such a reading-ability account, participants' reading skill should be predictive of the magnitude of their interference effect at short SOAs. To test this account, we conducted a dual-task study with tone discrimination and PWI tasks and measured participants' reading ability. The semantic interference effect was of similar magnitude at both short and long SOAs. Participants' reading ability was predictive of their naming speed but not of their semantic interference effect, contrary to the reading ability account. We conclude that the magnitude of semantic interference in picture naming during dual-task performance does not depend on reading skill.

  1. Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

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    Cao, Fan; Perfetti, Charles A

    2016-01-01

    Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

  2. Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

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    Fan Cao

    Full Text Available Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

  3. Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension Through Text Structure Tasks

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    Abdul Rohman

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Reading skill is one of the four main language skills taught in the classes of the English Department of Faculty of Education of Islamic University of Malang (FKIP Unisma. As the result of teaching reading had not achieved satisfactory result, the researcher conducted a study to find out how texts structure tasks can improve the students’ reading comprehension.            The method employed in this research was a classroom action research. It comprised four phases: planning, implementation, observation and reflection. The steps were adopted from Kemmis and Taggart’s action research model (1988. The subjects of the study were the four semester students of the English Department of FKIP Unisma in 2006 academic year. In the procedures and implementation process, one cycle consisting of four actions was done.            The instruments used in the study were observation sheets and test. The observation sheets were made two forms. One form of observation sheets was to observe the teacher in implementing the action and the other observation sheets were used to observe the students’ activities or reaction to the teachers’ activities during the learning-teaching process. The second instrument used was a test. It was to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy used.After four actions were conducted, a test was given to the students. The test result showed that the students’ mean score was 75.88 and the lowest score the students obtained was 65. The researcher decided that no more cycle was needed for the study had met the criteria of success. The action was considered successful if the students’ mean score reached 75 or under the category of B+, and the lowest score the student obtain was not less than 65.00.

  4. Working Memory Deficits in Children with Reading Difficulties: Memory Span and Dual Task Coordination

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    Wang, Shinmin; Gathercole, Susan E.

    2013-01-01

    The current study investigated the cause of the reported problems in working memory in children with reading difficulties. Verbal and visuospatial simple and complex span tasks, and digit span and reaction times tasks performed singly and in combination, were administered to 46 children with single word reading difficulties and 45 typically…

  5. Shared Reading Quality and Brain Activation during Story Listening in Preschool-Age Children.

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    Hutton, John S; Phelan, Kieran; Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Dudley, Jonathan; Altaye, Mekibib; DeWitt, Tom; Holland, Scott K

    2017-12-01

    To explore the relationship between maternal shared reading quality (verbal interactivity and engagement) and brain function during story listening in at-risk, preschool-age children, in the context of behavioral evidence and American Academy of Pediatrics, recommendations. In this cross-sectional study, 22 healthy, 4-year-old girls from low socioeconomic status households completed functional magnetic resonance imaging using an established story listening task, followed by videotaped observation of uncoached mother-daughter reading of the same, age-appropriate picture book. Shared reading quality was independently scored applying dialogic reading and other evidence-based criteria reflecting interactivity and engagement, and applied as a predictor of neural activation during the functional magnetic resonance imaging task, controlling for income and maternal education. Shared reading quality scores were generally low and negatively correlated with maternal distraction by smartphones (P reading quality is positively correlated with brain activation supporting complex language, executive function, and social-emotional processing in at-risk, preschool-age children. These findings represent novel neural biomarkers of how this modifiable aspect of home reading environment may influence foundational emergent literacy skills, reinforce behavioral evidence and American Academy of Pediatrics, recommendations, and underscore the potential of dialogic reading interventions to promote healthy brain development, especially in at-risk households. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Emergence of Reading and Writing in Illiterate Adults After Matching-to-Sample Tasks

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    Carmen Silvia Motta Bandini

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Reading and writing are behaviors that provide an individual with the opportunity for inclusion in many social environments. Despite the importance of these behaviors, statistical indices show that, in Brazil, 8.6% of the people aged 15-24 are illiterate. The purpose of this manuscript, which is divided into two studies, was to assess the effects of a Portuguese language reading curriculum for simple (Study 1 and complex words (Study 2 in illiterate adults. Four participants took part in each study. In both studies, reading was taught mainly by training dictated words to printed words relations. Overall, there was an increase in the percentage of correct responses in reading and writing tasks when pre-tests and post-tests were compared; results were more consistent in reading tasks. Future studies should continue to investigate procedures with these goals for this population.

  7. The BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism Influences Reading Ability and Patterns of Neural Activation in Children.

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    Kaja K Jasińska

    Full Text Available Understanding how genes impact the brain's functional activation for learning and cognition during development remains limited. We asked whether a common genetic variant in the BDNF gene (the Val66Met polymorphism modulates neural activation in the young brain during a critical period for the emergence and maturation of the neural circuitry for reading. In animal models, the bdnf variation has been shown to be associated with the structure and function of the developing brain and in humans it has been associated with multiple aspects of cognition, particularly memory, which are relevant for the development of skilled reading. Yet, little is known about the impact of the Val66Met polymorphism on functional brain activation in development, either in animal models or in humans. Here, we examined whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (dbSNP rs6265 is associated with children's (age 6-10 neural activation patterns during a reading task (n = 81 using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, genotyping, and standardized behavioral assessments of cognitive and reading development. Children homozygous for the Val allele at the SNP rs6265 of the BDNF gene outperformed Met allele carriers on reading comprehension and phonological memory, tasks that have a strong memory component. Consistent with these behavioral findings, Met allele carriers showed greater activation in reading-related brain regions including the fusiform gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus as well as greater activation in the hippocampus during a word and pseudoword reading task. Increased engagement of memory and spoken language regions for Met allele carriers relative to Val/Val homozygotes during reading suggests that Met carriers have to exert greater effort required to retrieve phonological codes.

  8. The BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism Influences Reading Ability and Patterns of Neural Activation in Children.

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    Jasińska, Kaja K; Molfese, Peter J; Kornilov, Sergey A; Mencl, W Einar; Frost, Stephen J; Lee, Maria; Pugh, Kenneth R; Grigorenko, Elena L; Landi, Nicole

    2016-01-01

    Understanding how genes impact the brain's functional activation for learning and cognition during development remains limited. We asked whether a common genetic variant in the BDNF gene (the Val66Met polymorphism) modulates neural activation in the young brain during a critical period for the emergence and maturation of the neural circuitry for reading. In animal models, the bdnf variation has been shown to be associated with the structure and function of the developing brain and in humans it has been associated with multiple aspects of cognition, particularly memory, which are relevant for the development of skilled reading. Yet, little is known about the impact of the Val66Met polymorphism on functional brain activation in development, either in animal models or in humans. Here, we examined whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (dbSNP rs6265) is associated with children's (age 6-10) neural activation patterns during a reading task (n = 81) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), genotyping, and standardized behavioral assessments of cognitive and reading development. Children homozygous for the Val allele at the SNP rs6265 of the BDNF gene outperformed Met allele carriers on reading comprehension and phonological memory, tasks that have a strong memory component. Consistent with these behavioral findings, Met allele carriers showed greater activation in reading-related brain regions including the fusiform gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus as well as greater activation in the hippocampus during a word and pseudoword reading task. Increased engagement of memory and spoken language regions for Met allele carriers relative to Val/Val homozygotes during reading suggests that Met carriers have to exert greater effort required to retrieve phonological codes.

  9. The Role of Reading Strategies in Integrated L2 Writing Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plakans, Lia

    2009-01-01

    Integrated second-language writing tasks elicit writing performances that involve other abilities such as reading or listening. Thus, understanding the role of these other abilities is necessary for interpreting performance on such tasks. This study used an inductive analysis of think-aloud protocol data and interviews to uncover the reading…

  10. Reading vocabulary in children with and without hearing loss: the roles of task and word type.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coppens, Karien M; Tellings, Agnes; Verhoeven, Ludo; Schreuder, Robert

    2013-04-01

    To address the problem of low reading comprehension scores among children with hearing impairment, it is necessary to have a better understanding of their reading vocabulary. In this study, the authors investigated whether task and word type differentiate the reading vocabulary knowledge of children with and without severe hearing loss. Seventy-two children with hearing loss and 72 children with normal hearing performed a lexical and a use decision task. Both tasks contained the same 180 words divided over 7 clusters, each cluster containing words with a similar pattern of scores on 8 word properties (word class, frequency, morphological family size, length, age of acquisition, mode of acquisition, imageability, and familiarity). Whereas the children with normal hearing scored better on the 2 tasks than the children with hearing loss, the size of the difference varied depending on the type of task and word. Performance differences between the 2 groups increased as words and tasks became more complex. Despite delays, children with hearing loss showed a similar pattern of vocabulary acquisition as their peers with normal hearing. For the most precise assessment of reading vocabulary possible, a range of tasks and word types should be used.

  11. Beyond the initial 140 ms, lexical decision and reading aloud are different tasks: An ERP study with topographic analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahé, Gwendoline; Zesiger, Pascal; Laganaro, Marina

    2015-11-15

    Most of our knowledge on the time-course of the mechanisms involved in reading derived from electrophysiological studies is based on lexical decision tasks. By contrast, very few ERP studies investigated the processes involved in reading aloud. It has been suggested that the lexical decision task provides a good index of the processes occurring during reading aloud, with only late processing differences related to task response modalities. However, some behavioral studies reported different sensitivity to psycholinguistic factors between the two tasks, suggesting that print processing could differ at earlier processing stages. The aim of the present study was thus to carry out an ERP comparison between lexical decision and reading aloud in order to determine when print processing differs between these two tasks. Twenty native French speakers performed a lexical decision task and a reading aloud task with the same written stimuli. Results revealed different electrophysiological patterns on both waveform amplitudes and global topography between lexical decision and reading aloud from about 140 ms after stimulus presentation for both words and pseudowords, i.e., as early as the N170 component. These results suggest that only very early, low-level visual processes are common to the two tasks which differ in core processes. Taken together, our main finding questions the use of the lexical decision task as an appropriate paradigm to investigate reading processes and warns against generalizing its results to word reading. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Distractions, distractions: does instant messaging affect college students' performance on a concurrent reading comprehension task?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fox, Annie Beth; Rosen, Jonathan; Crawford, Mary

    2009-02-01

    Instant messaging (IM) has become one of the most popular forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and is especially prevalent on college campuses. Previous research suggests that IM users often multitask while conversing online. To date, no one has yet examined the cognitive effect of concurrent IM use. Participants in the present study (N = 69) completed a reading comprehension task uninterrupted or while concurrently holding an IM conversation. Participants who IMed while performing the reading task took significantly longer to complete the task, indicating that concurrent IM use negatively affects efficiency. Concurrent IM use did not affect reading comprehension scores. Additional analyses revealed that the more time participants reported spending on IM, the lower their reading comprehension scores. Finally, we found that the more time participants reported spending on IM, the lower their self-reported GPA. Implications and future directions are discussed.

  13. Pre-reading activities in EFL/ESL reading textbooks and Turkish preparatory school teachers' attitudes toward pre-reading activities

    OpenAIRE

    Jecksembieyva, Nurgaisha

    1993-01-01

    Ankara : Faculty of Humanities and Letters and the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1993. Thesis (Master's) -- -Bilkent University, 1993. Includes bibliographical references leaves 35-40. The main focus of this study was to investigate pre-reading activities in EFL/ESL reading textbooks and to determine teachers' attitudes toward pre-reading activities. Fifteen reading textbooks for EFL/ESL students for different proficiency levels (beginning, interm...

  14. [Features of memory and intellectual activity among the elderly with different reading productivity].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yemelianova, T V; Sokolova, L V; Dzhos, Yu S

    The aim of this work was the study of indicators of memory and intellectual activity among the elderly with different reading productivity. The results of the study showed that the elderly were distinguished by a greater number of errors when performing tasks on oral-aural, visual memory and visual-spatial activities. The mistakes made by subjects with low reading productivity may indicate dysfunction of tone and wakefulness, of receiving, processing and storing information, as well as weakening of hemispheric interaction.

  15. The effect of task-based instruction on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners

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    Azizeh Chalak

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Developing reading comprehension ability is an important aspect in acquisition of a language. The present study focused on improving reading comprehension ability through Task-based Instruction (TBI. TBI is a methodology that develops from a focus on classroom tasks. The participants of the study were 135 Iranian female students at different levels selected from high schools in Isfahan, Iran, through a quasi-experimental design. The participants were divided into four groups, two control groups (CGs and two experimental groups (EGs. They received a pre-test, the instruction, and a post-test. The participants in EGs were taught through TBI, whereas CGs were exposed to a traditional method. The comparison between CGs and EGs were made through paired sample t-tests. The results revealed that the students in EGs outperformed CGs. The difference between the two grades was also investigated by independent sample t-test. The results showed that students at first-grade outperformed fourth-graders. The findings suggest that using flexible and interactive tasks in English classes improves reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners. This study may have pedagogical implications for practitioners in the field and for syllabus designers to include appropriate tasks in English textbooks.

  16. The effects of age on processing and storage in working memory span tasks and reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Paul J

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Declines in verbal working memory span task performance have been associated with deficits in the language processing abilities of healthy older adults, but it is unclear how storage and processing contribute to this relationship. Moreover, recent studies of the psychometric properties of span measures in the general cognitive literature highlight the need for a critical reassessment of age-related differences in working memory task performance. Forty-two young (Mage = 19.45 years) and 42 older participants (Mage = 73.00 years) completed a series of neuropsychological screening measures, four memory span tasks (one-syllable word span, three-syllable word span, reading span, and sentence span), and a measure of reading comprehension. Each span measure was completed under self-paced and timed encoding conditions. A 2 (age) × 2 (task type) × 2 (encoding conditions) mixed-model design was used. (1) Age effects were reliable for both simple and complex span task performance; (2) limiting the available encoding time yielded lower recall scores across tasks and exacerbated age differences in simple span performance; and (3) both encoding condition and age affected the relationship between each of the span measures and the relationship between span and reading comprehension. Declines in both storage and processing abilities contributed to age differences in span task performance and the relationship between span and reading comprehension. Although older people appear to benefit from task administration protocols that promote successful memory encoding, researchers should be aware of the potential risks to validity posed by such accommodations.

  17. Auditory short-term memory activation during score reading.

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    Simoens, Veerle L; Tervaniemi, Mari

    2013-01-01

    Performing music on the basis of reading a score requires reading ahead of what is being played in order to anticipate the necessary actions to produce the notes. Score reading thus not only involves the decoding of a visual score and the comparison to the auditory feedback, but also short-term storage of the musical information due to the delay of the auditory feedback during reading ahead. This study investigates the mechanisms of encoding of musical information in short-term memory during such a complicated procedure. There were three parts in this study. First, professional musicians participated in an electroencephalographic (EEG) experiment to study the slow wave potentials during a time interval of short-term memory storage in a situation that requires cross-modal translation and short-term storage of visual material to be compared with delayed auditory material, as it is the case in music score reading. This delayed visual-to-auditory matching task was compared with delayed visual-visual and auditory-auditory matching tasks in terms of EEG topography and voltage amplitudes. Second, an additional behavioural experiment was performed to determine which type of distractor would be the most interfering with the score reading-like task. Third, the self-reported strategies of the participants were also analyzed. All three parts of this study point towards the same conclusion according to which during music score reading, the musician most likely first translates the visual score into an auditory cue, probably starting around 700 or 1300 ms, ready for storage and delayed comparison with the auditory feedback.

  18. Brain activity in adults who stutter: Similarities across speaking tasks and correlations with stuttering frequency and speaking rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ingham, Roger J.; Grafton, Scott T.; Bothe, Anne K.; Ingham, Janis C.

    2012-01-01

    Many differences in brain activity have been reported between persons who stutter (PWS) and typically fluent controls during oral reading tasks. An earlier meta-analysis of imaging studies identified stutter-related regions, but recent studies report less agreement with those regions. A PET study on adult dextral PWS (n = 18) and matched fluent controls (CONT, n = 12) is reported that used both oral reading and monologue tasks. After correcting for speech rate differences between the groups the task-activation differences were surprisingly small. For both analyses only some regions previously considered stutter-related were more activated in the PWS group than in the CONT group, and these were also activated during eyes-closed rest (ECR). In the PWS group, stuttering frequency was correlated with cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit activity in both speaking tasks. The neuroimaging findings for the PWS group, relative to the CONT group, appear consistent with neuroanatomic abnormalities being increasingly reported among PWS. PMID:22564749

  19. Imaging seizure activity: a combined EEG/EMG-fMRI study in reading epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salek-Haddadi, Afraim; Mayer, Thomas; Hamandi, Khalid; Symms, Mark; Josephs, Oliver; Fluegel, Dominique; Woermann, Friedrich; Richardson, Mark P; Noppeney, Uta; Wolf, Peter; Koepp, Matthias J

    2009-02-01

    To characterize the spatial relationship between activations related to language-induced seizure activity, language processing, and motor control in patients with reading epilepsy. We recorded and simultaneously monitored several physiological parameters [voice-recording, electromyography (EMG), electrocardiography (ECG), electroencephalography (EEG)] during blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in nine patients with reading epilepsy. Individually tailored language paradigms were used to induce and record habitual seizures inside the MRI scanner. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used for structural brain analysis. Reading-induced seizures occurred in six out of nine patients. One patient experienced abundant orofacial reflex myocloni during silent reading in association with bilateral frontal or generalized epileptiform discharges. In a further five patients, symptoms were only elicited while reading aloud with self-indicated events. Consistent activation patterns in response to reading-induced myoclonic seizures were observed within left motor and premotor areas in five of these six patients, in the left striatum (n = 4), in mesiotemporal/limbic areas (n = 4), in Brodmann area 47 (n = 3), and thalamus (n = 2). These BOLD activations were overlapping or adjacent to areas physiologically activated during language and facial motor tasks. No subtle structural abnormalities common to all patients were identified using VBM, but one patient had a left temporal ischemic lesion. Based on the findings, we hypothesize that reflex seizures occur in reading epilepsy when a critical mass of neurons are activated through a provoking stimulus within corticoreticular and corticocortical circuitry subserving normal functions.

  20. The Effect of Task-based Activities on EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension

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    Naemeh Nahavandi

    2011-01-01

    the major problems is students' unwillingness to take part in reading classes. Reading classes seem boring for students who find no occasion to show their ability and no need to challenge their brain to answer teachers' display questions.

  1. The Neural Substrates for Letter String Readings in The Normal and Reverse Directions: An fMRI Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ge, Sheng; Saito, Takashi; Wu, Jing-Long; Ogasawara, Jun-Ichi; Yamauchi, Shuichi; Matsunaga, Naofumi; Iramina, Keiji

    In order to investigate the difference in cortical activations between reading letter strings in the normal direction and the reverse direction, an fMRI study was conducted. In this study, the cortical activations elicited by Japanese letter string reading and Chinese letter string reading were investigated. The subjects performed the normal direction reading task (read letter strings from left to right), and the reverse direction reading task (read letter strings from right to left). According to the experimental results, the activated brain regions during the normal and the reverse direction reading tasks were compared. It was found that visuospatial transformation was involved in the reverse direction reading task, while this function was not significant during the normal direction reading task. Furthermore, we found that there was no significant difference in cortical activation between Japanese and Chinese letter string readings.

  2. The Explicit Instruction of Reading Strategies: Directed Reading Thinking Activity vs. Guided Reading Strategies

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    Mohammad Mehdi Yazdani

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Investigating the efficiencies and deficiencies of reading strategies is one of the noticeable issues in the related theory and research in reading comprehension instruction. This study was to examine the impact of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA and Guided Reading (GR on reading comprehension. Sixty three Iranian students of grade one in Shahed high school in the city of Bojnourd took part in the study. They were assigned in three groups, one control and two experimental groups. The instruction lasted for ten weeks. This study utilized a pretest posttest control group in quantitative quasi- experimental design. The same reading comprehension test was administered as pre-test and post-test. The results were twofold: First, the instruction of learning strategies could foster reading comprehension skill. Second, while the explicit instruction of both strategies could improve the students' reading comprehension skill, Directed Reading Thinking Activity had a more significant positive effect than Guided Reading.

  3. Some implications of an experimental reading comprehension task

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    Lalović Dejan

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Standardized reading comprehension tests (RCTs are indispensable instruments in language abilities assessment. Nevertheless, we do not have such an instrument in Serbian. In the present paper, we attempted to verify the basic assumptions of the RCT conception we proposed: the reading material consisting of a relatively large selection of short newspaper articles followed by a single multiplechoice question each, displayed in temporal succession, not simultaneously. We argued that RCT consisting of such item form and content, as well as the administration procedure, should be of equal or even better construct validity than well-known RTCs in foreign languages, also possessing some other practical advantages. These assumptions were implemented in a computer-ran experimental reading comprehension task (ERCT, in a student sample. ERCT psychometric properties analyses showed good discriminability and somewhat less than preferable reliability. The structure and strength of ERCT x other intelligence tests correlations suggest ERCT belonging to the core of verbal abilities tests. Different strategies subjects employed showed no impact on major performance measure  number correct answers. Our findings obtained by ERCT implementation support the RCT conception we propose. We therefore suggest possible further research towards the construction of standardized RCT in Serbian.

  4. AUTHENTIC TEXTS FOR CRITICAL READING ACTIVITIES

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    Ila Amalia

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This research takes an action research aimed at promoting critical reading (“thinking” while reading skills using authentic materials among the students. This research also aims to reveal the students perception on using critical reading skills in reading activities. Nineteen English Education Department students who took Reading IV class, participated in this project. There were three cycles with three different critical reading strategies were applied. Meanwhile, the authentic materials were taken from newspaper and internet articles. The result revealed that the use of critical reading strategies along with the use of authentic materials has improved students’ critical reading skills as seen from the improvement of each cycle - the students critical reading skill was 54% (fair in the cycle 1 improved to 68% (average in cycle 2, and 82% (good in cycle 3.. In addition, based on the critical reading skill criteria, the students’ critical reading skill has improved from 40% (nearly meet to 80% (exceed. Meanwhile, from the students’ perception questionnaire, it was shown that 63% students agreed the critical reading activity using authentic text could improve critical thinking and 58% students agreed that doing critical reading activity could improve reading comprehension. The result had the implication that the use of authentic texts could improve students’ critical reading skills if it was taught by performing not lecturing them. Selectively choosing various strategies and materials can trigger students’ activeness in responding to a text, that eventually shape their critical reading skills.

  5. Language differences in the brain network for reading in naturalistic story reading and lexical decision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaojuan; Yang, Jianfeng; Yang, Jie; Mencl, W Einar; Shu, Hua; Zevin, Jason David

    2015-01-01

    Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about whether there could be a universal functional architecture for reading across languages. In order to study potential language differences in the neural networks that support reading skill, we collected fMRI data from readers of alphabetic (English) and morpho-syllabic (Chinese) writing systems during two reading tasks. In one, participants read short stories under conditions that approximate natural reading, and in the other, participants decided whether individual stimuli were real words or not. Prior work comparing these two writing systems has overwhelmingly used meta-linguistic tasks, generally supporting the conclusion that the reading system is organized differently for skilled readers of Chinese and English. We observed that language differences in the reading network were greatly dependent on task. In lexical decision, a pattern consistent with prior research was observed in which the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG) and right Fusiform Gyrus (rFFG) were more active for Chinese than for English, whereas the posterior temporal sulcus was more active for English than for Chinese. We found a very different pattern of language effects in a naturalistic reading paradigm, during which significant differences were only observed in visual regions not typically considered specific to the reading network, and the middle temporal gyrus, which is thought to be important for direct mapping of orthography to semantics. Indeed, in areas that are often discussed as supporting distinct cognitive or linguistic functions between the two languages, we observed interaction. Specifically, language differences were most pronounced in MFG and rFFG during the lexical decision task, whereas no language differences were observed in these areas during silent reading of text for comprehension.

  6. Reading Vocabulary in Children with and without Hearing Loss: The Roles of Task and Word Type

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coppens, Karien M.; Tellings, Agnes; Verhoeven, Ludo; Schreuder, Robert

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To address the problem of low reading comprehension scores among children with hearing impairment, it is necessary to have a better understanding of their reading vocabulary. In this study, the authors investigated whether task and word type differentiate the reading vocabulary knowledge of children with and without severe hearing loss.…

  7. Information properties of morphologically complex words modulate brain activity during word reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hakala, Tero; Hultén, Annika; Lehtonen, Minna; Lagus, Krista; Salmelin, Riitta

    2018-06-01

    Neuroimaging studies of the reading process point to functionally distinct stages in word recognition. Yet, current understanding of the operations linked to those various stages is mainly descriptive in nature. Approaches developed in the field of computational linguistics may offer a more quantitative approach for understanding brain dynamics. Our aim was to evaluate whether a statistical model of morphology, with well-defined computational principles, can capture the neural dynamics of reading, using the concept of surprisal from information theory as the common measure. The Morfessor model, created for unsupervised discovery of morphemes, is based on the minimum description length principle and attempts to find optimal units of representation for complex words. In a word recognition task, we correlated brain responses to word surprisal values derived from Morfessor and from other psycholinguistic variables that have been linked with various levels of linguistic abstraction. The magnetoencephalography data analysis focused on spatially, temporally and functionally distinct components of cortical activation observed in reading tasks. The early occipital and occipito-temporal responses were correlated with parameters relating to visual complexity and orthographic properties, whereas the later bilateral superior temporal activation was correlated with whole-word based and morphological models. The results show that the word processing costs estimated by the statistical Morfessor model are relevant for brain dynamics of reading during late processing stages. © 2018 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. The Effect of Task-Based Activities on EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nahavandi, Naemeh

    2011-01-01

    Nowadays, preparing learners to communicate successfully in language classes is of utmost importance. But teachers face a lot of difficulties in teaching English in EFL contexts. One of the major problems is students' unwillingness to take part in reading classes. Reading classes seem boring for students who find no occasion to show their ability…

  9. Linking Task-based Language Teaching and Sociocultural Theory: Private Speech and Scaffolding in Reading Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soheila Tahmasebi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available In Sociocultural Theory, mediations in second language learning include (1 mediation by others (2 mediation by self (3 and mediation by artifacts, which incorporates brilliant insights for EFL contexts (Lantolf, 2000. Putting these ideas in a task-based method, the present study aimed at examining the contribution of scaffolding and private speech in improving EFL learners’ skills and seeking how learners performance might link to  social or interpersonal activities they engage in. Screened through an Oxford Placement Test, 54 EFL freshmen taking a reading comprehension course participated in this study and formed two randomly divided groups and pretested using a 30-item TOEFL test of reading comprehension. The control group benefited from a teacher, who paraphrased, summarized and provided the meaning of the new words and expressions. The experimental group was asked to do the same tasks through collaboration, private speech and artifacts. Students' performances were video-taped to be used for discourse analyses and provide measures of fluency, accuracy and complexity (Iwashita, Elder, & McNamara, 2001. Two types of measurements were used: 1 a final test of reading comprehension, 2 an oral presentation of a text whose readability matched that of the texts used during the experiment. The students' performances on presenting the text orally were rated based on the idea units recalled (Johnson, 1970. The data analysis revealed no difference between the two groups in the final test, but in oral presentation, the experimental group outperformed the control group.

  10. Reading comprehension and reading related abilities in adolescents with reading disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghelani, Karen; Sidhu, Robindra; Jain, Umesh; Tannock, Rosemary

    2004-11-01

    Reading comprehension is a very complex task that requires different cognitive processes and reading abilities over the life span. There are fewer studies of reading comprehension relative to investigations of word reading abilities. Reading comprehension difficulties, however, have been identified in two common and frequently overlapping childhood disorders: reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The nature of reading comprehension difficulties in these groups remains unclear. The performance of four groups of adolescents (RD, ADHD, comorbid ADHD and RD, and normal controls) was compared on reading comprehension tasks as well as on reading rate and accuracy tasks. Adolescents with RD showed difficulties across most reading tasks, although their comprehension scores were average. Adolescents with ADHD exhibited adequate single word reading abilities. Subtle difficulties were observed, however, on measures of text reading rate and accuracy as well as on silent reading comprehension, but scores remained in the average range. The comorbid group demonstrated similar difficulties to the RD group on word reading accuracy and on reading rate but experienced problems on only silent reading comprehension. Implications for reading interventions are outlined, as well as the clinical relevance for diagnosis.

  11. Language differences in the brain network for reading in naturalistic story reading and lexical decision.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaojuan Wang

    Full Text Available Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about whether there could be a universal functional architecture for reading across languages. In order to study potential language differences in the neural networks that support reading skill, we collected fMRI data from readers of alphabetic (English and morpho-syllabic (Chinese writing systems during two reading tasks. In one, participants read short stories under conditions that approximate natural reading, and in the other, participants decided whether individual stimuli were real words or not. Prior work comparing these two writing systems has overwhelmingly used meta-linguistic tasks, generally supporting the conclusion that the reading system is organized differently for skilled readers of Chinese and English. We observed that language differences in the reading network were greatly dependent on task. In lexical decision, a pattern consistent with prior research was observed in which the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG and right Fusiform Gyrus (rFFG were more active for Chinese than for English, whereas the posterior temporal sulcus was more active for English than for Chinese. We found a very different pattern of language effects in a naturalistic reading paradigm, during which significant differences were only observed in visual regions not typically considered specific to the reading network, and the middle temporal gyrus, which is thought to be important for direct mapping of orthography to semantics. Indeed, in areas that are often discussed as supporting distinct cognitive or linguistic functions between the two languages, we observed interaction. Specifically, language differences were most pronounced in MFG and rFFG during the lexical decision task, whereas no language differences were observed in these areas during silent reading of text for comprehension.

  12. Do You Read Me? Service Supplement: Reading Development Activities Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendall, Elizabeth L.; Chenoweth, Roberta

    This activity guide is one of four supplements to be used with "Do You Read Me? Prevocational-Vocational Reading Development Activities" (ED 210 454). Each supplement deals with a different occupational category. Games, puzzles, and other activities are offered to aid in developing the word recognition, vocabulary, and comprehension…

  13. Why Do Boys and Girls Perform Differently on PISA Reading in Finland? The Effects of Reading Fluency, Achievement Behaviour, Leisure Reading and Homework Activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torppa, Minna; Eklund, Kenneth; Sulkunen, Sari; Niemi, Pekka; Ahonen, Timo

    2018-01-01

    The present study examined gender gap in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Reading and mediators of the gender gap in a Finnish sample (n = 1,309). We examined whether the gender gap in PISA Reading performance can be understood via the effects of reading fluency, achievement behaviour (mastery orientation and task-avoidant…

  14. The Application of Task- oriented Teaching Approach to Enhancing Communicative Competence of EFL

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    LI Mingxin

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available To communicate is the primary goal of most foreign language learning (EFL. As an important component of the four macro skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing, reading should also serve this purpose. However, traditional methodology still dominates extensive reading teaching in most of the universities. To promote a communicative extensive reading class, we may start by designing various tasks and activities. This paper introduces a task-oriented approach in English extensive reading class. According to Nunan, task-oriented teaching involves learners in the classroom to comprehend, manipulate, produce or interact in the target language, but the focus is on the meaning rather than the form. In light of psycholinguistic model and schema theory model, the methodology covers information-gap activity, opinion-gap activity and reasoning-gap activity which can be run in the class. The task-approaches make the interaction between teacher and students, students and students more active and meaningful. Skills of reading to solve communicative problems are always treated consciously. This approach may hopefully result in some improvement on the teaching of English reading.

  15. Functional anatomy of listening and reading comprehension during development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berl, Madison M; Duke, Elizabeth S; Mayo, Jessica; Rosenberger, Lisa R; Moore, Erin N; VanMeter, John; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Vaidya, Chandan J; Gaillard, William Davis

    2010-08-01

    Listening and reading comprehension of paragraph-length material are considered higher-order language skills fundamental to social and academic functioning. Using ecologically relevant language stimuli that were matched for difficulty according to developmental level, we analyze the effects of task, age, neuropsychological skills, and post-task performance on fMRI activation and hemispheric laterality. Areas of supramodal language processing are identified, with the most robust region being left-lateralized activation along the superior temporal sulcus. Functionally, this conjunction has a role in semantic and syntactic processing, leading us to refer to this conjunction as "comprehension cortex." Different from adults, supramodal areas for children include less extensive inferior frontal gyrus but more extensive right cerebellum and right temporal pole. Broader neuroanatomical pathways are recruited for reading, reflecting the more active processing and larger set of cognitive demands needed for reading compared to listening to stories. ROI analyses reveal that reading is a less lateralized language task than listening in inferior frontal and superior temporal areas, which likely reflects the difficulty of the task as children in this study are still developing their reading skills. For listening to stories, temporal activation is stable by age four with no correlations with age, neuropsychological skills or post-task performance. In contrast, frontal activation during listening to stories occurs more often in older children, and frontal activation is positively correlated with better performance on comprehension questions, suggesting that the activation of frontal networks may reflect greater integration and depth of story processing. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Reading Journal as A Way to Improve Students’ Comprehension toward A Textbook Reading Material

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    Menik Winiharti

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Reading journal is one way to record students’ independent learning based on text they read. This study was conducted to find out the students’ level of reading comprehension through some notes written in the reading journal, the extent to which the activity of writing reading journals improved students’ reading comprehension, whether the students got benefit from reading journal. There were 104 respondents coming from four different departments in Bina Nusantara University were asked to read a text related to the subject they learned in a certain session. Then they were assigned to write a journal that records the things they had read. When this task was finished, the lecturer ran a quiz containing related questions to check whether they really understood the content of the text. Afterwards, students were to fill in a questionnaire regarding their opinion on the impact of the reading journal toward their reading comprehension. The findings indicate that more than half of the participants appear to understand the material well, and the task plays a certain role in improving students’ understanding. The most crucial thing is that most students think they get benefit by writing the reading journal.

  17. An Experimental Study on the Effects of Different Reading Tasks on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jianping

    2009-01-01

    This empirical study was undertaken to test the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001) by examining the impact of three tasks on vocabulary acquisition. It was designed to test and develop the involvement load hypothesis by examining the impact of different reading tasks on the L2 vocabulary acquisition. The results show that…

  18. Active Reading Behaviors in Tablet-Based Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palilonis, Jennifer; Bolchini, Davide

    2015-01-01

    Active reading is fundamental to learning. However, there is little understanding about whether traditional active reading frameworks sufficiently characterize how learners study multimedia tablet textbooks. This paper explores the nature of active reading in the tablet environment through a qualitative study that engaged 30 students in an active…

  19. Effects of sequential and discrete rapid naming on reading in Japanese children with reading difficulty.

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    Wakamiya, Eiji; Okumura, Tomohito; Nakanishi, Makoto; Takeshita, Takashi; Mizuta, Mekumi; Kurimoto, Naoko; Tamai, Hiroshi

    2011-06-01

    To clarify whether rapid naming ability itself is a main underpinning factor of rapid automatized naming tests (RAN) and how deep an influence the discrete decoding process has on reading, we performed discrete naming tasks and discrete hiragana reading tasks as well as sequential naming tasks and sequential hiragana reading tasks with 38 Japanese schoolchildren with reading difficulty. There were high correlations between both discrete and sequential hiragana reading and sentence reading, suggesting that some mechanism which automatizes hiragana reading makes sentence reading fluent. In object and color tasks, there were moderate correlations between sentence reading and sequential naming, and between sequential naming and discrete naming. But no correlation was found between reading tasks and discrete naming tasks. The influence of rapid naming ability of objects and colors upon reading seemed relatively small, and multi-item processing may work in relation to these. In contrast, in the digit naming task there was moderate correlation between sentence reading and discrete naming, while no correlation was seen between sequential naming and discrete naming. There was moderate correlation between reading tasks and sequential digit naming tasks. Digit rapid naming ability has more direct effect on reading while its effect on RAN is relatively limited. The ratio of how rapid naming ability influences RAN and reading seems to vary according to kind of the stimuli used. An assumption about components in RAN which influence reading is discussed in the context of both sequential processing and discrete naming speed. Copyright © 2010 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. The neural basis of task switching changes with skill acquisition

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    Koji eJimura

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Learning novel skills involves reorganization and optimization of cognitive processing involving a broad network of brain regions. Previous work has shown asymmetric costs of switching to a well-trained task versus a poorly-trained task, but the neural basis of these differential switch costs is unclear. The current study examined the neural signature of task switching in the context of acquisition of new skill. Human participants alternated randomly between a novel visual task (mirror-reversed word reading and a highly practiced one (plain word reading, allowing the isolation of task switching and skill set maintenance. Two scan sessions were separated by two weeks, with behavioral training on the mirror reading task in between the two sessions. Broad cortical regions, including bilateral prefrontal, parietal, and extrastriate cortices, showed decreased activity associated with learning of the mirror reading skill. In contrast, learning to switch to the novel skill was associated with decreased activity in a focal subcortical region in the dorsal striatum. Switching to the highly practiced task was associated with a non-overlapping set of regions, suggesting substantial differences in the neural substrates of switching as a function of task skill. Searchlight multivariate pattern analysis also revealed that learning was associated with decreased pattern information for mirror versus plain reading tasks in fronto-parietal regions. Inferior frontal junction and posterior parietal cortex showed a joint effect of univariate activation and pattern information. These results suggest distinct learning mechanisms task performance and executive control as a function of learning.

  1. Integrating Reading and Technology: The Development of "Pamanpintermu"

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    Arifani, Yudhi; Rosyid, Harunur

    2016-01-01

    Reading as one of English skills has paramount features in shaping EFL English competence. Referring to the importance for reading, it is inevitable that teaching method, assessments tools, reading material and activities have indispensable tasks to attain EFL learners' reading objectives. This study is intended to develop integrated reading…

  2. Reflex reading epilepsy: effect of linguistic characteristics on spike frequency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safi, Dima; Lassonde, Maryse; Nguyen, Dang Khoa; Denault, Carole; Macoir, Joël; Rouleau, Isabelle; Béland, Renée

    2011-04-01

    Reading epilepsy is a rare reflex epilepsy in which seizures are provoked by reading. Several cases have been described in the literature, but the pathophysiological processes vary widely and remain unclear. We describe a 42-year-old male patient with reading epilepsy evaluated using clinical assessments and continuous video/EEG recordings. We administered verbal, nonverbal, and reading tasks to determine factors precipitating seizures. Linguistic characteristics of the words were manipulated. Results indicated that reading-induced seizures were significantly more numerous than those observed during verbal and nonverbal tasks. In reading tasks, spike frequency significantly increased with involvement of the phonological reading route. Spikes were recorded predominantly in left parasagittal regions. Future cerebral imaging studies will enable us to visualize the spatial localization and temporal course of reading-induced seizures and brain activity involved in reading. A better understanding of reading epilepsy is crucial for reading rehabilitation in these patients. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Reading skill related to left ventral occipitotemporal cortex during a phonological awareness task in 5–6-year old children

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    Jin Wang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT is important in visual word recognition. Studies have shown that the left vOT is generally observed to be involved in spoken language processing in skilled readers, suggesting automatic access to corresponding orthographic information. However, little is known about where and how the left vOT is involved in the spoken language processing of young children with emerging reading ability. In order to answer this question, we examined the relation of reading ability in 5–6-year-old kindergarteners to the activation of vOT during an auditory phonological awareness task. Two experimental conditions: onset word pairs that shared the first phoneme and rhyme word pairs that shared the final biphone/triphone, were compared to allow a measurement of vOT’s activation to small (i.e., onsets and large grain sizes (i.e., rhymes. We found that higher reading ability was associated with better accuracy of the onset, but not the rhyme, condition. In addition, higher reading ability was only associated with greater sensitivity in the posterior left vOT for the contrast of the onset versus rhyme condition. These results suggest that acquisition of reading results in greater specialization of the posterior vOT to smaller rather than larger grain sizes in young children. Keywords: Left vOT, Grain size, Phonological awareness, Spoken language

  4. When does picture naming take longer than word reading?

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    Andrea eValente

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Differences between the cognitive processes involved in word reading and picture naming are well established (e.g. visual or lexico-semantic stages. Still, it is commonly thought that retrieval of phonological forms is shared across tasks. We report a test of this second hypothesis based on the time course of electroencephalographic (EEG neural activity, reasoning that similar EEG patterns might index similar processing stages.Seventeen participants named objects and read aloud the corresponding words while their behavior and EEG activity were recorded. The latter was analyzed from stimulus onset onwards (stimulus-locked analysis and from response onset backwards (response-locked analysis, using non-parametric statistics and the spatio-temporal segmentation of ERPs.Behavioral results confirmed that reading entails shorter latencies than naming. The analysis of EEG activity within the stimulus-to-response period allowed distinguishing three phases, broadly successive. Early on, we observed identical distribution of electric field potentials (i.e. topographies albeit with large amplitude divergences between tasks. Then, we observed sustained cross-task differences in topographies accompanied by extended amplitude differences. Finally, the two tasks again revealed the same topographies, with significant cross-task delays in their onsets and offsets, and still significant amplitude differences. In the response-locked ERPs, the common topography displayed an offset closer to response articulation in word reading compared with picture naming, that is the transition between the offset of this shared map and the onset of articulation was significantly faster in word reading.The results suggest that the degree of cross-task similarity varies across time. The first phase suggests similar visual processes of variable intensity and time course across tasks, while the second phase suggests marked differences. Finally, similarities and differences within the

  5. Story time turbocharger? Child engagement during shared reading and cerebellar activation and connectivity in preschool-age children listening to stories.

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    John S Hutton

    Full Text Available Expanding behavioral and neurobiological evidence affirms benefits of shared (especially parent-child reading on cognitive development during early childhood. However, the majority of this evidence involves factors under caregiver control, the influence of those intrinsic to the child, such as interest or engagement in reading, largely indirect or unclear. The cerebellum is increasingly recognized as playing a "smoothing" role in higher-level cognitive processing and learning, via feedback loops with language, limbic and association cortices. We utilized functional MRI to explore the relationship between child engagement during a mother-child reading observation and neural activation and connectivity during a story listening task, in a sample of 4-year old girls. Children exhibiting greater interest and engagement in the narrative showed increased activation in right-sided cerebellar association areas during the task, and greater functional connectivity between this activation cluster and language and executive function areas. Our findings suggest a potential cerebellar "boost" mechanism responsive to child engagement level that may contribute to emergent literacy development during early childhood, and synergy between caregiver and child factors during story sharing.

  6. Predicting the reading skill of Japanese children.

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    Ogino, Tatsuya; Hanafusa, Kaoru; Morooka, Teruko; Takeuchi, Akihito; Oka, Makio; Ohtsuka, Yoko

    2017-02-01

    To clarify cognitive processes underlining the development of reading in children speaking Japanese as their first language, we examined relationships between performances of cognitive tasks in the preschool period and later reading abilities. Ninety-one normally developing preschoolers (41 girls and 50 boys; 5years 4months to 6years 4months, mean 5years 10months) participated as subjects. We conducted seven cognitive tasks including phonological awareness tasks, naming tasks, and working memory tasks in the preschool period. In terms of reading tasks, the hiragana naming task was administered in the preschool period; the reading times, which is a composite score of the monomoraic syllable reading task, the word and the non-word reading tasks, and the single sentence reading task, was evaluated in first and second grade; and the kanji reading task (naming task) was tested in second grade. Raven's colored progressive matrices and picture vocabulary test revised were also conducted in first grade. Correlation analyses between task scores and stepwise multiple regression analyses were implemented. Tasks tapping phonological awareness, lexical access, and verbal working memory showed significant correlations with reading tasks. In the multiple regression analyses the performances in the verbal working memory task played a key role in predicting character naming task scores (the hiragana naming task and the kanji reading task) while the digit naming task was an important predictor of reading times. Unexpectedly, the role of phonological (mora) awareness was modest among children speaking Japanese. Cognitive functions including phonological awareness, digit naming, and verbal working memory (especially the latter two) were involved in the development of reading skills of children speaking Japanese. Copyright © 2016 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Understanding Children's Reading Activities: Reading Motivation, Skill and Child Characteristics as Predictors

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    McGeown, Sarah P.; Osborne, Cara; Warhurst, Amy; Norgate, Roger; Duncan, Lynne G.

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children…

  8. Relationships between Spontaneous Note-Taking, Self-Reported Strategies and Comprehension When Reading Multiple Texts in Different Task Conditions

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    Hagen, Åste M.; Braasch, Jason L. G.; Bråten, Ivar

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated note-taking during multiple-text reading across two different task conditions in relation to comprehension performance and self-reports of strategy use. Forty-four undergraduates read multiple texts about climate change to write an argument or a summary. Analysis of students' spontaneous note-taking during reading…

  9. Improving reading and writing learning in underprivileged pluri-ethnic settings.

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    Armand, Françoise; Lefrançois, Pascale; Baron, Agnès; Gomez, Maria-Cécilia; Nuckle, Sylvie

    2004-09-01

    Many studies carried out in first language contexts tend to demonstrate the positive effects of activity programmes aimed at (1) developing metaphonological abilities and (2) developing language skills through active story listening on learning to read and to spell by first-grade students. This study seeks to extend previous findings by (a) including children, the majority of whom have French as a second language, who attend plurilingual schools and have not been included in previous studies, and (b) providing training based on three essential principles shared by the two kinds of programmes: integrating activities into realistic literacy practice contexts; encouraging active student participation through tasks which very often require problem solving; and tackling, one after the other, different kinds of operations or strategies. Three groups of students were created out a pool of 202 children enrolled in nine first-grade classes in three underprivileged pluri-ethnic schools. The control group was composed of 46 students who received typical, first-grade methods for teaching reading and spelling. Experimental group 1 (DMPA), 91 students, received a training programme aimed at metaphonological abilities development. Experimental group 2 (DLS), 65 students, received a training intended to develop language skills through active story listening and production. The students from the three groups were evaluated at the beginning (metaphonological task I, pre-reading task) and at the end (metaphonological task II, word recognition task, text comprehension task, word spelling task) of their first year in elementary school. The programme for the development of metaphonological abilities enabled DMPA group students to obtain significantly higher scores than the control group on metaphonological task II and word recognition task. The DMPA group children also did significantly better than the control and the DLS groups on the word spelling task. However, the DLS group, who

  10. Poor Performance on Serial Visual Tasks in Persons with Reading Disabilities: Impaired Working Memory?

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    Ram-Tsur, Ronit; Faust, Miriam; Zivotofsky, Ari Z.

    2008-01-01

    The present study investigates the performance of persons with reading disabilities (PRD) on a variety of sequential visual-comparison tasks that have different working-memory requirements. In addition, mediating relationships between the sequential comparison process and attention and memory skills were looked for. Our findings suggest that PRD…

  11. Areas activated during naturalistic reading comprehension overlap topological visual, auditory, and somatotomotor maps.

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    Sood, Mariam R; Sereno, Martin I

    2016-08-01

    Cortical mapping techniques using fMRI have been instrumental in identifying the boundaries of topological (neighbor-preserving) maps in early sensory areas. The presence of topological maps beyond early sensory areas raises the possibility that they might play a significant role in other cognitive systems, and that topological mapping might help to delineate areas involved in higher cognitive processes. In this study, we combine surface-based visual, auditory, and somatomotor mapping methods with a naturalistic reading comprehension task in the same group of subjects to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the cortical overlap between sensory-motor maps in all major sensory modalities, and reading processing regions. Our results suggest that cortical activation during naturalistic reading comprehension overlaps more extensively with topological sensory-motor maps than has been heretofore appreciated. Reading activation in regions adjacent to occipital lobe and inferior parietal lobe almost completely overlaps visual maps, whereas a significant portion of frontal activation for reading in dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortex overlaps both visual and auditory maps. Even classical language regions in superior temporal cortex are partially overlapped by topological visual and auditory maps. By contrast, the main overlap with somatomotor maps is restricted to a small region on the anterior bank of the central sulcus near the border between the face and hand representations of M-I. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2784-2810, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Does the component processes task assess text-based inferences important for reading comprehension? A path analysis in primary school children

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    S.I. Wassenburg (Stephanie); B.B. de Koning (Björn); de Vries, M.H. (Meinou H.); M. van der Schoot (Menno)

    2016-01-01

    textabstractUsing a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by

  13. Activity flow over resting-state networks shapes cognitive task activations.

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    Cole, Michael W; Ito, Takuya; Bassett, Danielle S; Schultz, Douglas H

    2016-12-01

    Resting-state functional connectivity (FC) has helped reveal the intrinsic network organization of the human brain, yet its relevance to cognitive task activations has been unclear. Uncertainty remains despite evidence that resting-state FC patterns are highly similar to cognitive task activation patterns. Identifying the distributed processes that shape localized cognitive task activations may help reveal why resting-state FC is so strongly related to cognitive task activations. We found that estimating task-evoked activity flow (the spread of activation amplitudes) over resting-state FC networks allowed prediction of cognitive task activations in a large-scale neural network model. Applying this insight to empirical functional MRI data, we found that cognitive task activations can be predicted in held-out brain regions (and held-out individuals) via estimated activity flow over resting-state FC networks. This suggests that task-evoked activity flow over intrinsic networks is a large-scale mechanism explaining the relevance of resting-state FC to cognitive task activations.

  14. Does the component processes task assess text-based inferences important for reading comprehension? A path analysis in primary school children

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wassenburg, Stephanie I.; de Koning, Björn B.; de Vries, Meinou H.; van der Schoot, Menno

    2016-01-01

    Using a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by evaluating the

  15. Automatic and creative skills in reading Automatic and creative skills in reading

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    Leonor Scliar Cabral

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available In this article I will discuss the automatic and creative skills in reading, focusing on the differences between 1 processes involved while learning how to read and processes employed by the proficient reader and 2 knowledge for using language and metalinguistic awareness. The arguments will derive mainly from the definition of reading as a process where the receivers combine the information extracted from the written material with their specialized knowledge activated during this process (i.e. linguistic systems and correspondent rules and enciclopedic knowledge in order to comprehend, interpret and internalize structured new information and/or to experience aesthetic pleasure. Evidence to illustrate the arguments comes from experiments (1 with pre-school children and beginning readers on narrativity and on the dichotic paradigm, and with illiterate and literate adults with diferent levels of proficiency of reading in a task of erasing an initial syllable and an initial consonant. In this article I will discuss the automatic and creative skills in reading, focusing on the differences between 1 processes involved while learning how to read and processes employed by the proficient reader and 2 knowledge for using language and metalinguistic awareness. The arguments will derive mainly from the definition of reading as a process where the receivers combine the information extracted from the written material with their specialized knowledge activated during this process (i.e. linguistic systems and correspondent rules and enciclopedic knowledge in order to comprehend, interpret and internalize structured new information and/or to experience aesthetic pleasure. Evidence to illustrate the arguments comes from experiments (1 with pre-school children and beginning readers on narrativity and on the dichotic paradigm, and with illiterate and literate adults with diferent levels of proficiency of reading in a task of erasing an initial syllable

  16. Mothers' Reading-Related Activities at Home and Learning to Read during Kindergarten

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    Silinskas, Gintautas; Parrila, Rauno; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Niemi, Pekka; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

    2010-01-01

    This longitudinal study investigates how the reading-related activities of mothers at home relate to the development of reading skills among their kindergarten children. A total of 1,529 children (5-to-6-year-olds) were tested on word reading twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of a kindergarten year. The mothers of the children (n =…

  17. Reading in the dark: neural correlates and cross-modal plasticity for learning to read entire words without visual experience.

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    Sigalov, Nadine; Maidenbaum, Shachar; Amedi, Amir

    2016-03-01

    Cognitive neuroscience has long attempted to determine the ways in which cortical selectivity develops, and the impact of nature vs. nurture on it. Congenital blindness (CB) offers a unique opportunity to test this question as the brains of blind individuals develop without visual experience. Here we approach this question through the reading network. Several areas in the visual cortex have been implicated as part of the reading network, and one of the main ones among them is the VWFA, which is selective to the form of letters and words. But what happens in the CB brain? On the one hand, it has been shown that cross-modal plasticity leads to the recruitment of occipital areas, including the VWFA, for linguistic tasks. On the other hand, we have recently demonstrated VWFA activity for letters in contrast to other visual categories when the information is provided via other senses such as touch or audition. Which of these tasks is more dominant? By which mechanism does the CB brain process reading? Using fMRI and visual-to-auditory sensory substitution which transfers the topographical features of the letters we compare reading with semantic and scrambled conditions in a group of CB. We found activation in early auditory and visual cortices during the early processing phase (letter), while the later phase (word) showed VWFA and bilateral dorsal-intraparietal activations for words. This further supports the notion that many visual regions in general, even early visual areas, also maintain a predilection for task processing even when the modality is variable and in spite of putative lifelong linguistic cross-modal plasticity. Furthermore, we find that the VWFA is recruited preferentially for letter and word form, while it was not recruited, and even exhibited deactivation, for an immediately subsequent semantic task suggesting that despite only short sensory substitution experience orthographic task processing can dominate semantic processing in the VWFA. On a wider

  18. fMRI brain response during sentence reading comprehension in children with benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malfait, D; Tucholka, A; Mendizabal, S; Tremblay, J; Poulin, C; Oskoui, M; Srour, M; Carmant, L; Major, P; Lippé, S

    2015-11-01

    Children with benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS) often have language problems. Abnormal epileptic activity is found in central and temporal brain regions, which are involved in reading and semantic and syntactic comprehension. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined reading networks in BECTS children with a new sentence reading comprehension task involving semantic and syntactic processing. Fifteen children with BECTS (age=11y 1m ± 16 m; 12 boys) and 18 healthy controls (age=11 y 8m ± 20 m; 11 boys) performed an fMRI reading comprehension task in which they read a pair of syntactically complex sentences and decided whether the target sentence (the second sentence in the pair) was true or false with respect to the first sentence. All children also underwent an exhaustive neuropsychological assessment. We demonstrated weaknesses in several cognitive domains in BECTS children. During the sentence reading fMRI task, left inferior frontal regions and bilateral temporal areas were activated in BECTS children and healthy controls. However, additional brain regions such as the left hippocampus and precuneus were activated in BECTS children. Moreover, specific activation was found in the left caudate and putamen in BECTS children but not in healthy controls. Cognitive results and accuracy during the fMRI task were associated with specific brain activation patterns. BECTS children recruited a wider network to perform the fMRI sentence reading comprehension task, with specific activation in the left dorsal striatum. BECTS cognitive performance differently predicted functional activation in frontal and temporal regions compared to controls, suggesting differences in brain network organisation that contribute to reading comprehension. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Similar brain activation during false belief tasks in a large sample of adults with and without autism.

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    Dufour, Nicholas; Redcay, Elizabeth; Young, Liane; Mavros, Penelope L; Moran, Joseph M; Triantafyllou, Christina; Gabrieli, John D E; Saxe, Rebecca

    2013-01-01

    Reading about another person's beliefs engages 'Theory of Mind' processes and elicits highly reliable brain activation across individuals and experimental paradigms. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined activation during a story task designed to elicit Theory of Mind processing in a very large sample of neurotypical (N = 462) individuals, and a group of high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (N = 31), using both region-of-interest and whole-brain analyses. This large sample allowed us to investigate group differences in brain activation to Theory of Mind tasks with unusually high sensitivity. There were no differences between neurotypical participants and those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. These results imply that the social cognitive impairments typical of autism spectrum disorder can occur without measurable changes in the size, location or response magnitude of activity during explicit Theory of Mind tasks administered to adults.

  20. Similar brain activation during false belief tasks in a large sample of adults with and without autism.

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    Nicholas Dufour

    Full Text Available Reading about another person's beliefs engages 'Theory of Mind' processes and elicits highly reliable brain activation across individuals and experimental paradigms. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined activation during a story task designed to elicit Theory of Mind processing in a very large sample of neurotypical (N = 462 individuals, and a group of high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (N = 31, using both region-of-interest and whole-brain analyses. This large sample allowed us to investigate group differences in brain activation to Theory of Mind tasks with unusually high sensitivity. There were no differences between neurotypical participants and those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. These results imply that the social cognitive impairments typical of autism spectrum disorder can occur without measurable changes in the size, location or response magnitude of activity during explicit Theory of Mind tasks administered to adults.

  1. Extensive Reading in Enhancing Lexical Chunks Acquisition

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    Pereyra, Nilsa

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this action research was to investigate the effect of extensive reading and related activities on the acquisition of lexical chunks in EFL students. Seven adult EFL learners with an Intermediate level volunteered to take part in the 16 week project following Extensive Reading principles combined with tasks based on the Lexical…

  2. Application of TBT in Reading Class

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Hong-qin

    2007-01-01

    "TBT" means "task-based teaching". In a TBT class, students play the central role. In the class where students are provided with plenty of chances to be engaged in activities, the teacher is more like a patient listener rather than a talkative speaker. This paper mainly explores how task-based teaching is used in English reading class.

  3. Playing Reading, Using Hands: Which Activities are Linked to Number-Space Processing in Preschool Children?

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    Patro Katarzyna

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Literate subjects from Western cultures form spatial-numerical associations (SNA in left-to-right direction, which follows their reading habits. In preliterate children, sources of SNA directionality are more disputable. One possibility is that SNA follows children's early knowledge about text orientation. It could also reflect ipsilateral/contralateral tendencies in manual task execution. Furthermore, SNA's characteristics could differ depending on the evaluation method used. In this study, we test SNA in preliterate preschoolers using object counting, finger counting, and numerosity arrangement tasks. We examined the relations of SNA to children's directional reading knowledge and their manual response tendencies. Left-to-right SNA was pronounced for object counting, disappeared for the numerosity task, and was reversed for finger counting. In all tasks, left-to-right SNA dominated in children who responded contralaterally with their hand. Reading knowledge was partially related to numerosity-based SNA, but not to other SNAs. Based on these findings, we discuss developmental characteristics of different forms of number-space associations.

  4. Reading Comics

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    Tilley, Carol L.

    2008-01-01

    Many adults, even librarians who willingly add comics to their collections, often dismiss the importance of comics. Compared to reading "real" books, reading comics appears to be a simple task and compared to reading no books, reading comics might be preferable. After all, comics do have words, but the plentiful pictures seem to carry most of the…

  5. Influence of reading habits on cerebral plasticity for discourse comprehension in aging

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    Charles-Olivier Martin

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2012n63p101   The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of reading habits on cerebral plasticity in the performance of a discourse comprehension task in aging. The main hypothesis was that participants with higher frequency and quality of reading habits should exhibit reduced brain activity because the task should be easier for them. two groups of native French speakers, 16 young adults and 16 elderly adults, participated in a task using the nirS (near-infrared spectroscopy technique. They read short stories and answered true or false probes after each one. They also completed a questionnaire about their previous reading habits. The results show that the more experienced readers had higher activation in the superior left region of the prefrontal cortex while they were reading the stories but lower activation in the same region when they were retrieving the information to answer the probe. Thus, more effort is required to acquire and maintain the information needed to answer, and this effort makes it easier to give the answer. These results reinforce the hypothesis that brain plasticity is promoted by cognitive activities throughout the lifespan.

  6. The nature of mind wandering during reading varies with the cognitive control demands of the reading strategy.

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    Moss, Jarrod; Schunn, Christian D; Schneider, Walter; McNamara, Danielle S

    2013-11-20

    Prior studies of mind wandering find the default network active during mind wandering, but these studies have yielded mixed results concerning the role of cognitive control brain regions during mind wandering. Mind wandering often interferes with reading comprehension, and prior neuroimaging studies of discourse comprehension and strategic reading comprehension have shown that there are at least two networks of brain regions that support strategic discourse comprehension: a domain-general control network and a network of regions supporting coherence-building comprehension processes. The present study was designed to further examine the neural correlates of mind wandering by examining mind wandering during strategic reading comprehension. Participants provided ratings of mind wandering frequency that were used to investigate interactions between the strategy being performed and brain regions whose activation was modulated by wind wandering. The results support prior findings showing that cognitive control regions are at times more active during mind wandering than during a task with low control demands, such as rereading. This result provides an initial examination of the neural correlates of mind wandering during discourse comprehension and shows that the processes being engaged by the primary task need to be considered when studying mind wandering. The results also replicate, in a different learning domain, prior findings of key brain areas associated with different reading strategies. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

  7. Elementary Science and Reading Activities for Teacher Educators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezba, Richard J.

    The author suggests ways reading can be integrated with science and describes the reading activities in an elementary science methods course. The activities include: (1) selecting a science tradebook for children to review and for the teacher to analyze vocabulary; (2) helping children review science tradebooks; and (3) encouraging independent…

  8. Understanding Performance Decrements in a Letter-Canceling Task: Overcoming Habits or Inhibition of Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Larry; Downie, Steven; Taylor, Grant; Marrington, Jessica; Tehan, Gerald; Ireland, Michael J

    2018-01-01

    The importance of self-regulation in human behavior is readily apparent and diverse theoretical accounts for explaining self-regulation failures have been proposed. Typically, these accounts are based on a sequential task methodology where an initial task is presented to deplete self-regulatory resources, and carryover effects are then examined on a second outcome task. In the aftermath of high profile replication failures using a popular letter-crossing task as a means of depleting self-regulatory resources and subsequent criticisms of that task, current research into self-control is currently at an impasse. This is largely due to the lack of empirical research that tests explicit assumptions regarding the initial task. One such untested assumption is that for resource depletion to occur, the initial task must first establish an habitual response and then this habitual response must be inhibited, with behavioral inhibition being the causal factor in inducing depletion. This study reports on four experiments exploring performance on a letter-canceling task, where the rules for target identification remained constant but the method of responding differed (Experiment 1) and the coherence of the text was manipulated (Experiments 1-4). Experiment 1 established that habit forming and behavioral inhibition did not produce any performance decrement when the targets were embedded in random letter strings. Experiments 2-4 established that target detection was sensitive to language characteristics and the coherence of the background text, suggesting that participants' automatic reading processes is a key driver of performance in the letter-e task.

  9. Do Tasks Make a Difference? Accounting for Heterogeneity of Performance of Children with Reading Difficulties on Tasks of Executive Function: Findings from a Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Booth, Josephine N.; Boyle, James M. E.; Kelly, Steve W.

    2010-01-01

    Research studies have implicated executive functions in reading difficulties (RD). But while some studies have found children with RD to be impaired on tasks of executive function other studies report unimpaired performance. A meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether these discrepant findings can be accounted for by differences in the…

  10. Early auditory change detection implicitly facilitated by ignored concurrent visual change during a Braille reading task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aoyama, Atsushi; Haruyama, Tomohiro; Kuriki, Shinya

    2013-09-01

    Unconscious monitoring of multimodal stimulus changes enables humans to effectively sense the external environment. Such automatic change detection is thought to be reflected in auditory and visual mismatch negativity (MMN) and mismatch negativity fields (MMFs). These are event-related potentials and magnetic fields, respectively, evoked by deviant stimuli within a sequence of standard stimuli, and both are typically studied during irrelevant visual tasks that cause the stimuli to be ignored. Due to the sensitivity of MMN/MMF to potential effects of explicit attention to vision, however, it is unclear whether multisensory co-occurring changes can purely facilitate early sensory change detection reciprocally across modalities. We adopted a tactile task involving the reading of Braille patterns as a neutral ignore condition, while measuring magnetoencephalographic responses to concurrent audiovisual stimuli that were infrequently deviated either in auditory, visual, or audiovisual dimensions; 1000-Hz standard tones were switched to 1050-Hz deviant tones and/or two-by-two standard check patterns displayed on both sides of visual fields were switched to deviant reversed patterns. The check patterns were set to be faint enough so that the reversals could be easily ignored even during Braille reading. While visual MMFs were virtually undetectable even for visual and audiovisual deviants, significant auditory MMFs were observed for auditory and audiovisual deviants, originating from bilateral supratemporal auditory areas. Notably, auditory MMFs were significantly enhanced for audiovisual deviants from about 100 ms post-stimulus, as compared with the summation responses for auditory and visual deviants or for each of the unisensory deviants recorded in separate sessions. Evidenced by high tactile task performance with unawareness of visual changes, we conclude that Braille reading can successfully suppress explicit attention and that simultaneous multisensory changes can

  11. From a WebQuest to a ReadingQuest: learners' reactions in an EFL extensive reading class

    OpenAIRE

    Barros, Ana Cláudia; Amorim Carvalho, Ana Amélia

    2007-01-01

    Most students don’t like reading in a foreign language. They find it a difficult task, mainly due to the high number of unknown words they encounter when reading a text. They consider reading classes boring and uninteresting and as a result our students are poor readers. Concerned with this situation, we conducted a study on the impact of a learning environment based on the WebQuest, a ReadingQuest, and on student engagement in an extensive reading task. The results show that the ReadingQuest...

  12. The Influence of Age of Acquisition in Word Reading and Other Tasks: A Never Ending Story?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Patrick; Barry, Christopher; Meot, Alain; Chalard, Marylene

    2004-01-01

    This paper concerns the influence of age of acquisition (AoA) in word reading and other tasks, and attempts to develop a number of issues raised by Zevin and Seidenberg (2002). Analyses performed on both rated and objective measures of AoA show that the frequency trajectory of words is a reliable predictor of their order of acquisition, which…

  13. Reading in developmental prosopagnosia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja K; Petersen, Anders

    2018-01-01

    exposure durations (targeting the word superiority effect), and d) text reading. RESULTS: Participants with developmental prosopagnosia performed strikingly similar to controls across the four reading tasks. Formal analysis revealed a significant dissociation between word and face recognition......, that is, impaired reading in developmental prosopagnosia. METHOD: We tested 10 adults with developmental prosopagnosia and 20 matched controls. All participants completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Cambridge Face Perception test and a Face recognition questionnaire used to quantify everyday face...... recognition experience. Reading was measured in four experimental tasks, testing different levels of letter, word, and text reading: (a) single word reading with words of varying length,(b) vocal response times in single letter and short word naming, (c) recognition of single letters and short words at brief...

  14. Brain activations during bimodal dual tasks depend on the nature and combination of component tasks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emma eSalo

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activations during nine different dual tasks in which the participants were required to simultaneously attend to concurrent streams of spoken syllables and written letters. They performed a phonological, spatial or simple (speaker-gender or font-shade discrimination task within each modality. We expected to find activations associated specifically with dual tasking especially in the frontal and parietal cortices. However, no brain areas showed systematic dual task enhancements common for all dual tasks. Further analysis revealed that dual tasks including component tasks that were according to Baddeley’s model modality atypical, that is, the auditory spatial task or the visual phonological task, were not associated with enhanced frontal activity. In contrast, for other dual tasks, activity specifically associated with dual tasking was found in the left or bilateral frontal cortices. Enhanced activation in parietal areas, however, appeared not to be specifically associated with dual tasking per se, but rather with intermodal attention switching. We also expected effects of dual tasking in left frontal supramodal phonological processing areas when both component tasks required phonological processing and in right parietal supramodal spatial processing areas when both tasks required spatial processing. However, no such effects were found during these dual tasks compared with their component tasks performed separately. Taken together, the current results indicate that activations during dual tasks depend in a complex manner on specific demands of component tasks.

  15. Brain-Behavior Relationships in Reading Acquisition Are Modulated by Socioeconomic Factors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noble, Kimberly G.; Wolmetz, Michael E.; Ochs, Lisa G.; Farah, Martha J.; McCandliss, Bruce D.

    2006-01-01

    Functional neuroimaging may provide insights into the achievement gap in reading skill commonly observed across socioeconomic status (SES). Brain activation during reading tasks is known to be associated with individual differences in children's phonological language skills. By selecting children of equivalent phonological skill, yet diverse…

  16. Verbal and action-based measures of kindergartners' SFON and their associations with number-related utterances during picture book reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rathé, Sanne; Torbeyns, Joke; De Smedt, Bert; Hannula-Sormunen, Minna M; Verschaffel, Lieven

    2017-11-20

    Young children's spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) as measured by experimental tasks is related to their mathematics achievement. This association is hypothetically explained by children's self-initiated practice in number recognition during everyday activities. As such, experimentally measured SFON should be associated with SFON exhibited during everyday activities and play. However, prior studies investigating this assumed association provided inconsistent findings. We aimed to address this issue by investigating the association between kindergartners' SFON as measured by two different experimental tasks and the frequency of their number-related utterances during a typical picture book reading activity. Participants were 65 4- to 6-year-olds in kindergarten (before the start of formal education). Kindergartners individually participated in two sessions. First, they completed an action-based SFON Imitation task and a verbal SFON Picture task, with a short visuo-motor task in between. Next, children were invited to spontaneously comment on the pictures of a picture book during a typical picture book reading activity. Results revealed a positive association between children's SFON as measured by the Picture task and the frequency of their number-related utterances during typical picture book reading, but no such association for the Imitation task. Our findings indicate that children with higher SFON as measured by a verbal experimental task also tend to focus more frequently on number during verbal everyday activities, such as picture book reading. In view of the divergent associations between our SFON measures under study with everyday number activities, the current data suggest that SFON may not be a unitary construct and/or might be task-dependent. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

  17. Does IQ affect the functional brain network involved in pseudoword reading in students with reading disability? A magnetoencephalography study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Panagiotis G Simos

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The study examined whether individual differences in performance and verbal IQ affect the profiles of reading-related regional brain activation in 127 students experiencing reading difficulties and typical readers. Using magnetoencephalography in a pseudoword read-aloud task, we compared brain activation profiles of students experiencing word-level reading difficulties who did (n=29 or did not (n=36 meet the IQ-reading achievement discrepancy criterion. Typical readers assigned to a lower-IQ (n=18 or a higher IQ (n=44 subgroup served as controls. Minimum norm estimates of regional cortical activity revealed that the degree of hypoactivation in the left superior temporal and supramarginal gyri in both RD subgroups was not affected by IQ. Moreover, IQ did not moderate the positive association between degree of activation in the left fusiform gyrus and phonological decoding ability. We did find, however, that the hypoactivation of the left pars opercularis in RD was restricted to lower-IQ participants. In accordance with previous morphometric and fMRI studies, degree of activity in inferior frontal and inferior parietal regions correlated with IQ across reading ability subgroups. Results are consistent with current views questioning the relevance of IQ measures and IQ-discrepancy criteria in the diagnosis of dyslexia.

  18. Do tasks make a difference? Accounting for heterogeneity of performance of children with reading difficulties on tasks of executive function: findings from a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Booth, Josephine N; Boyle, James M E; Kelly, Steve W

    2010-03-01

    Research studies have implicated executive functions in reading difficulties (RD). But while some studies have found children with RD to be impaired on tasks of executive function other studies report unimpaired performance. A meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether these discrepant findings can be accounted for by differences in the tasks of executive function that are utilized. A total of 48 studies comparing the performance on tasks of executive function of children with RD with their typically developing peers were included in the meta-analysis, yielding 180 effect sizes. An overall effect size of 0.57 (SE .03) was obtained, indicating that children with RD have impairments on tasks of executive function. However, effect sizes varied considerably suggesting that the impairment is not uniform. Moderator analysis revealed that task modality and IQ-achievement discrepancy definitions of RD influenced the magnitude of effect; however, the age and gender of participants and the nature of the RD did not have an influence. While the children's RD were associated with executive function impairments, variation in effect size is a product of the assessment task employed, underlying task demands, and definitional criteria.

  19. Students’ Perception on Pre-reading Activities in Basic Reading II Class of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vindy Cahya Ekaningrum

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The students’ perception on the teacher instruction shows whether the teaching techniques meet the students’ need or not. Because of this reason, the researcher wants to find out the varieties of pre-reading activities used by the teacher and the students’ perception on the implementation of the pre-reading activities. There were two problem formulations in this study: 1 What kinds of pre-reading activities that are used by Basic Reading II teacher in the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University? 2 How is the students’ perception on pre-reading activities used by the teacher? This research was a survey research. In gathering the data, there were two instruments used in this research. They were interview and questionnaire. The interview was done by interviewing the teacher of Basic Reading II Class. The interview was used to answer the first research question about the varieties of pre-reading activities in Basic Reading II class. Then, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to 56 students of Basic Reading II class. The questionnaire was used to answer the second research question about the students’ perception on pre-reading activities used by the teacher. The result of this research showed that brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, pre-questioning, visual aids, and KWL strategy were the varieties of pre-reading activities used by the teacher. There were two different implementation of pre-teaching vocabulary. There were also two activities combined together, they were the use of visual aids and KWL strategy. The students had positive perception on the implementation of pre-reading activities in Basic Reading II Class.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2015.180206

  20. Using reading to teach a world language strategies and activities

    CERN Document Server

    Spangler, Donna

    2015-01-01

    To help your students learn a world language, don't forget the power of reading! In this practical book from Donna Spangler and John Alex Mazzante, you'll gain a variety of strategies and activities that you can use to teach students to read in a world language, boosting their comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Perfect for any age or proficiency level, these classroom-ready activities can easily be adapted to suit your needs! Special features: A discussion of the challenges to teaching reading in the world language classroom A variety of adaptable pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading strategies and activities for students across grade levels and languages Essential tips for cultivating vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension Reader's Theater - a special chapter of strategies for implementing this exciting technique A list of helpful websites and apps for world language teachers Useful appendices, including reproducible material for your classroom Busy world language teachers will love this book's...

  1. Investigating the Reading-to-Write Processes and Source Use of L2 Postgraduate Students in Real-Life Academic Tasks: An Exploratory Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCulloch, Sharon

    2013-01-01

    Existing studies of source use in academic student writing tend to i), focus more on the writing than the reading end of the reading-to-write continuum and ii), involve the use of insufficiently "naturalistic" writing tasks. Thus, in order to explore the potential of an alternative approach, this paper describes an exploratory case study…

  2. Functionally distinct contributions of the anterior and posterior putamen during sublexical and lexical reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marion eOberhuber

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies have investigated orthographic-to-phonological mapping during reading by comparing brain activation for (1 reading words to object naming, or (2 reading pseudowords (e.g. phume to words (e.g. plume. Here we combined both approaches to provide new insights into the underlying neural mechanisms. In fMRI data from 25 healthy adult readers, we first identified activation that was greater for reading words and pseudowords relative to picture and color naming. The most significant effect was observed in the left putamen, extending to both anterior and posterior borders. Second, consistent with previous studies, we show that both the anterior and posterior putamen are involved in articulating speech with greater activation during our overt speech production tasks (reading, repetition, object naming and color naming than silent one-back-matching on the same stimuli. Third, we compared putamen activation for words versus pseudowords during overt reading and auditory repetition. This revealed that the anterior putamen was most activated by reading pseudowords, whereas the posterior putamen was most activated by words irrespective of whether the task was reading words or auditory word repetition. The pseudoword effect in the anterior putamen is consistent with prior studies that associated this region with the initiation of novel sequences of movements. In contrast, the heightened word response in the posterior putamen is consistent with other studies that associated this region with memory guided movement. Our results illustrate how the functional dissociation between the anterior and posterior putamen supports sublexical and lexical processing during reading.

  3. γ-oscillations modulated by picture naming and word reading: intracranial recording in epileptic patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Helen C; Nagasawa, Tetsuro; Brown, Erik C; Juhasz, Csaba; Rothermel, Robert; Hoechstetter, Karsten; Shah, Aashit; Mittal, Sandeep; Fuerst, Darren; Sood, Sandeep; Asano, Eishi

    2011-10-01

    We measured cortical gamma-oscillations in response to visual-language tasks consisting of picture naming and word reading in an effort to better understand human visual-language pathways. We studied six patients with focal epilepsy who underwent extraoperative electrocorticography (ECoG) recording. Patients were asked to overtly name images presented sequentially in the picture naming task and to overtly read written words in the reading task. Both tasks commonly elicited gamma-augmentation (maximally at 80-100 Hz) on ECoG in the occipital, inferior-occipital-temporal and inferior-Rolandic areas, bilaterally. Picture naming, compared to reading task, elicited greater gamma-augmentation in portions of pre-motor areas as well as occipital and inferior-occipital-temporal areas, bilaterally. In contrast, word reading elicited greater gamma-augmentation in portions of bilateral occipital, left occipital-temporal and left superior-posterior-parietal areas. Gamma-attenuation was elicited by both tasks in portions of posterior cingulate and ventral premotor-prefrontal areas bilaterally. The number of letters in a presented word was positively correlated to the degree of gamma-augmentation in the medial occipital areas. Gamma-augmentation measured on ECoG identified cortical areas commonly and differentially involved in picture naming and reading tasks. Longer words may activate the primary visual cortex for the more peripheral field. The present study increases our understanding of the visual-language pathways. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Implications of Schema-based Pre-Reading Tasks in Facilitating ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The subjects of the study were 56 students taking the Reading. Skills (FLEn ... The available research on reading suggests that reading .... a whole. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ..... Mixed Methods Approaches. (3rd ed.). ... A Concise.

  5. A Critical Overview of Models of Reading Comprehension with a Focus on Cognitive Aspects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Taghi Shahnazari

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Reading is a cognitive activity involving skills, strategies, attentional resources, knowledge resources and their integration. The reader’s role is to decode the written symbols to allow for the recovery of information from long-term memory to construct a plausible interpretation of the writer’s message. Various number of reading models have been proposed by researchers among which some focus on motivational and emotional aspects of reading. Others highlight the cognitive aspects of reading. In this study, the models characterizing reading in terms of cognitive aspects are revieweded, and different viewpoints on the reading process are described. This may help EFL/ESL teachers to improve their understanding of the reading process, update their perspectives on teaching reading tasks which in turn might result in more efficient learning by not putting too much cognitively demanding reading tasks on EFL/ESL learners.

  6. Blink activity and task difficulty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanaka, Y; Yamaoka, K

    1993-08-01

    This study investigated the relationship between task difficulty and blink activity, which includes blink rate, blink amplitude, and blink duration. Two kinds of tasks established two levels of difficulty. In Exp. 1, a mental arithmetic task was used to examine the relationship. Analysis showed that blink rate for a difficult task was significantly higher than that for an easier one. In Exp. 2, a letter-search task (hiragana Japanese alphabet) was used while the other conditions were the same as those in Exp. 1; however, the results of this experiment were not influenced by the difficulty of the task. As results indicate that blink rate is related to not only difficulty but also the nature of the task, the nature of the task is probably dependent on a mechanism in information processing. The results for blink amplitude and blink duration showed no systematic change during either experiment.

  7. Mental juggling: when does multitasking impair reading comprehension?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Kit W; Altarriba, Jeanette; Popiel, Maximilian

    2015-01-01

    The present study investigated the conditions under which multitasking impairs reading comprehension. Participants read prose passages (the primary task), some of which required them to perform a secondary task. In Experiment 1, we compared two different types of secondary tasks (answering trivia questions and solving math problems). Reading comprehension was assessed using a multiple-choice test that measured both factual and conceptual knowledge. The results showed no observable detrimental effects associated with multitasking. In Experiment 2, the secondary task was a cognitive load task that required participants to remember a string of numbers while reading the passages. Performance on the reading comprehension test was lower in the cognitive load conditions relative to the no-load condition. The present study delineates the conditions under which multitasking can impair or have no effect on reading comprehension. These results further our understanding of our capacity to multitask and have practical implications in our technologically advanced society in which multitasking has become commonplace.

  8. Cerebral activation during Chinese semantic associative task in Xinjiang' Uyghurs: a functional MRI study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Lixia; Jia Wenxiao; Tang Weijun; Wang Hong; Ding Shuang; Wang Hao

    2010-01-01

    Objective: To explore the cerebral activation in Xinjiang' Uyghurs when performing a Chinese word tasks by the functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI). Methods: Twenty-one healthy Xinjiang' Uyghurs and 11 healthy Hans were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on a 1.5 T MRI scanner with a single run. Different Chinese words were displayed in each block to avoid any practice effect. SPM5.0 software was used for image data processing. To evaluate the inter subject consistency of brain activations associated with Chinese character and word reading, we created penetrance maps by combining binary individual functional maps. Results: For Uyghur-Chinese bilingual subjects, activations related to generated a word that was semantically related to each stimulus. The results indicated that reading Chinese is characterized by extensive activity of the neural systems. Peak activations occurred in the left middle frontal cortex at Brodmann Areas (BA9 and BA47). The left temporal (BA37) cortices were also strongly activated. Other important activated areas included bilateral visual systems (BA17-19) and cerebellum. The location of peak activation in the left frontal regions was similar in Native Uyghurs and Hans. But the active areas in Uyghurs are more extensive than that of Hans. Conclusions: The location of peak activation in the left frontal regions was similar in Native Uyghurs and Hans. More brain areas were needed for Xinjiang' Uyghur speakers during processing Chinese words. (authors)

  9. Impact Of Using Joint Productive Activity Approach On Second Language Learners’ Performance In Reading Comprehension At The Basic Education Level In Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    HANNA ONYI YUSUF

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated the impact of using joint productive activity on the performance of second language learners in reading comprehension at the basic education level in Nigeria. A sample of forty (40 Junior Secondary II students from Kaduna North and South were used for the study. The study was quasi experimental. Government Junior Secondary School Doka was used as the experimental group while Government Junior Secondary School Makera was used as the control group. Both groups were assessed after six weeks of teaching using two reading comprehension tests. T-test was used to test the hypothesis raised in the study. The findings revealed significant differences in the performance of students taught reading comprehension using joint productive activity. Based on the findings teachers are encouraged to use joint productive activities in teaching reading comprehension. This is a positive deviation from the traditional practice in Nigeria where a teacher is regarded as the sole custodian of knowledge and students are empty tabula rasa who should be passive during class teaching. Teachers need to exploit this new approach by designing teaching comprehension activities that will require second language learners’ collaboration and active participation in accomplishing tasks jointly in class with the teacher.

  10. How Reading Volume Affects both Reading Fluency and Reading Achievement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard L. ALLINGTON

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Long overlooked, reading volume is actually central to the development of reading proficiencies, especially in the development of fluent reading proficiency. Generally no one in schools monitors the actual volume of reading that children engage in. We know that the commonly used commercial core reading programs provide only material that requires about 15 minutes of reading activity daily. The remaining 75 minute of reading lessons is filled with many other activities such as completing workbook pages or responding to low-level literal questions about what has been read. Studies designed to enhance the volume of reading that children do during their reading lessons demonstrate one way to enhance reading development. Repeated readings have been widely used in fostering reading fluency but wide reading options seem to work faster and more broadly in developing reading proficiencies, including oral reading fluency.

  11. Whole Language-Based English Reading Materials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dian Erlina

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This Research and Development (R&D aims at developing English reading materials for undergraduate EFL students of Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN Raden Fatah Palembang, Indonesia. Research data were obtained through questionnaires, tests, and documents. The results of the research show that the existing materials are not relevant to the students’ need, so there is a need for developing new materials based on whole language principles. In general, the new developed materials are considered reliable by the experts, students, and lecturers. The materials are also effective in improving students’ reading achievement. The final product of the materials consists of a course book entitled Whole Language Reading (WLR and a teacher’s manual. WLR provides rich input of reading strategies, variety of topics, concepts, texts, activities, tasks, and evaluations. Using this book makes reading more holistic and meaningful as it provides integration across language skills and subject areas.

  12. Brain bases of reading fluency in typical reading and impaired fluency in dyslexia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna A Christodoulou

    Full Text Available Although the neural systems supporting single word reading are well studied, there are limited direct comparisons between typical and dyslexic readers of the neural correlates of reading fluency. Reading fluency deficits are a persistent behavioral marker of dyslexia into adulthood. The current study identified the neural correlates of fluent reading in typical and dyslexic adult readers, using sentences presented in a word-by-word format in which single words were presented sequentially at fixed rates. Sentences were presented at slow, medium, and fast rates, and participants were asked to decide whether each sentence did or did not make sense semantically. As presentation rates increased, participants became less accurate and slower at making judgments, with comprehension accuracy decreasing disproportionately for dyslexic readers. In-scanner performance on the sentence task correlated significantly with standardized clinical measures of both reading fluency and phonological awareness. Both typical readers and readers with dyslexia exhibited widespread, bilateral increases in activation that corresponded to increases in presentation rate. Typical readers exhibited significantly larger gains in activation as a function of faster presentation rates than readers with dyslexia in several areas, including left prefrontal and left superior temporal regions associated with semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations. Group differences were more extensive when behavioral differences between conditions were equated across groups. These findings suggest a brain basis for impaired reading fluency in dyslexia, specifically a failure of brain regions involved in semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations to become fully engaged for comprehension at rapid reading rates.

  13. A functional near-infrared spectroscopic investigation of speech production during reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Nick; Hancock, Allison S; Moon, Todd K; Gillam, Ronald B

    2018-03-01

    This study was designed to test the extent to which speaking processes related to articulation and voicing influence Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) measures of cortical hemodynamics and functional connectivity. Participants read passages in three conditions (oral reading, silent mouthing, and silent reading) while undergoing fNIRS imaging. Area under the curve (AUC) analyses of the oxygenated and deoxygenated hemodynamic response function concentration values were compared for each task across five regions of interest. There were significant region main effects for both oxy and deoxy AUC analyses, and a significant region × task interaction for deoxy AUC favoring the oral reading condition over the silent reading condition for two nonmotor regions. Assessment of functional connectivity using Granger Causality revealed stronger networks between motor areas during oral reading and stronger networks between language areas during silent reading. There was no evidence that the hemodynamic flow from motor areas during oral reading compromised measures of language-related neural activity in nonmotor areas. However, speech movements had small, but measurable effects on fNIRS measures of neural connections between motor and nonmotor brain areas across the perisylvian region, even after wavelet filtering. Therefore, researchers studying speech processes with fNIRS should use wavelet filtering during preprocessing to reduce speech motion artifacts, incorporate a nonspeech communication or language control task into the research design, and conduct a connectivity analysis to adequately assess the impact of functional speech on the hemodynamic response across the perisylvian region. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Davies, Florence (1995. Introducing Reading. Davies, Florence (1995. Introducing Reading.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Maria Gomes Ferreira

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Arising at a time of unprecedented growth of interest in fostering critical thinking, Introducing Reading offers a clear introduction and thorough account of contemporary developments in the field of reading. While overtly focusing on the special demands of social and human aspects of the reading practice, the issues raised have crucial resonance in the sphere of critical reading. Explicitly addressed to teachers of mother tongue and foreign language contexts, the book claims to elaborate on aspects of reading which have received meager attention to date: individual readers engaged in different real-world reading tasks, the social contexts where such readers engage and interact with texts, and the nature and variety of texts, here regarded as “participants” in the interaction between reader and writer. To this extent, the book successfully reaches the ambitious aim of “socializing and humanizing reading and the teaching of reading” (p. xi. Arising at a time of unprecedented growth of interest in fostering critical thinking, Introducing Reading offers a clear introduction and thorough account of contemporary developments in the field of reading. While overtly focusing on the special demands of social and human aspects of the reading practice, the issues raised have crucial resonance in the sphere of critical reading. Explicitly addressed to teachers of mother tongue and foreign language contexts, the book claims to elaborate on aspects of reading which have received meager attention to date: individual readers engaged in different real-world reading tasks, the social contexts where such readers engage and interact with texts, and the nature and variety of texts, here regarded as “participants” in the interaction between reader and writer. To this extent, the book successfully reaches the ambitious aim of “socializing and humanizing reading and the teaching of reading” (p. xi.

  15. The Relevant Factors in Promoting Reading Activities in Elementary Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Han-Chen; Tsai, Yao-Hsu; Huang, Shih-Hsiang

    2015-01-01

    In order to help students absorb knowledge, schools often conduct reading activities. Thorough planning and strategies, however, are needed to insure the effect of reading promotions, and make them a deeply-rooted part of life. This study adopted the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to discuss the relevant factors in promoting reading activities…

  16. Anterior medial prefrontal cortex exhibits activation during task preparation but deactivation during task execution.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hideya Koshino

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC exhibits activation during some cognitive tasks, including episodic memory, reasoning, attention, multitasking, task sets, decision making, mentalizing, and processing of self-referenced information. However, the medial part of anterior PFC is part of the default mode network (DMN, which shows deactivation during various goal-directed cognitive tasks compared to a resting baseline. One possible factor for this pattern is that activity in the anterior medial PFC (MPFC is affected by dynamic allocation of attentional resources depending on task demands. We investigated this possibility using an event related fMRI with a face working memory task. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sixteen students participated in a single fMRI session. They were asked to form a task set to remember the faces (Face memory condition or to ignore them (No face memory condition, then they were given 6 seconds of preparation period before the onset of the face stimuli. During this 6-second period, four single digits were presented one at a time at the center of the display, and participants were asked to add them and to remember the final answer. When participants formed a task set to remember faces, the anterior MPFC exhibited activation during a task preparation period but deactivation during a task execution period within a single trial. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that the anterior MPFC plays a role in task set formation but is not involved in execution of the face working memory task. Therefore, when attentional resources are allocated to other brain regions during task execution, the anterior MPFC shows deactivation. The results suggest that activation and deactivation in the anterior MPFC are affected by dynamic allocation of processing resources across different phases of processing.

  17. The Role of RAN and Reading Rate in Predicting Reading Self-Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasperski, Ronen; Shany, Michal; Katzir, Tami

    2016-01-01

    Social identity theory states that a person's self-concept is created from comparison with others (Walsh & Gordon, 2008). In the case of reading, oral reading is a salient feature young children have to compare themselves on to their classroom peer group. The current study was set to explore the ability of oral reading tasks such as rapid…

  18. Can Reading Questions Foster Active Learning? A Study of Six College Courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koontz, T. M.; Plank, K. M.

    2011-01-01

    Many instructors strive to encourage student reading outside of class and active learning in class. One pedagogical tool, structured reading questions, can help do both. Using examples from question sets across six courses, the authors illustrate how reading questions can help students achieve the six active-learning principles described by…

  19. Reading from electronic devices versus hardcopy text.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hue, Jennifer E; Rosenfield, Mark; Saá, Gianinna

    2014-01-01

    The use of electronic reading devices has increased dramatically. However, some individuals report increased visual symptoms when reading from electronic screens. This investigation compared reading from two electronic devices (Amazon Kindle or Apple Ipod) versus hardcopy text in two groups of 20 subjects. Subjects performed a 20 min reading task for each condition. Both the accommodative response and reading rate were monitored during the trial. Immediately post-task, subjects completed a questionnaire concerning the ocular symptoms experienced during the task. In comparing the Kindle with hardcopy, no significant difference in the total symptom score was observed, although the mean score for the symptoms of tired eyes and eye discomfort was significantly higher with the Kindle. No significant differences in reading rate were found. When comparing the Ipod with hardcopy, no significant differences in symptom scores were found. The mean reading rate with the Ipod was significantly slower than for hardcopy while the mean lag of accommodation was significantly larger for the Ipod. Given the significant increase in symptoms with the Kindle, and larger lag of accommodation and reduced reading rate with the Ipod, one may conclude that reading from electronic devices is not equivalent to hardcopy.

  20. Guided Reading and Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauptman, Allyson L.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between Guided Reading and student motivation to read across fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The study defined literacy motivation as: (a) task value; (b) self-perceived competence; (c) students' perceptions of the Guided Reading format. Factor analysis and repeated measures ANOVAs were…

  1. Masticatory muscle activity during deliberately performed oral tasks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farella, M; Palla, S; Erni, S; Gallo, L M; Michelotti, A

    2008-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate masticatory muscle activity during deliberately performed functional and non-functional oral tasks. Electromyographic (EMG) surface activity was recorded unilaterally from the masseter, anterior temporalis and suprahyoid muscles in 11 subjects (5 men, 6 women; age = 34.6 ± 10.8 years), who were accurately instructed to perform 30 different oral tasks under computer guidance using task markers. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, repeated measurements analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hierarchical cluster analysis. The maximum EMG amplitude of the masseter and anterior temporalis muscles was more often found during hard chewing tasks than during maximum clenching tasks. The relative contribution of masseter and anterior temporalis changed across the tasks examined (F ≥ 5.2; p ≤ 0.001). The masseter muscle was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more active than the anterior temporalis muscle during tasks involving incisal biting, jaw protrusion, laterotrusion and jaw cupping, the difference being statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). The anterior temporalis muscle was significantly (p ≤ 0.01) more active than the masseter muscle during tasks performed in intercuspal position, during tooth grinding, and during hard chewing on the working side. Based upon the relative contribution of the masseter, anterior temporalis, and suprahyoid muscles, the investigated oral tasks could be grouped into six separate clusters. The findings provided further insight into muscle- and task-specific EMG patterns during functional and non-functional oral behaviors

  2. INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH READING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Holly Warzecha, M.A. TESOL

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the following paper is to take a closer look at the benefits of incidental learning through reading, with a specific focus on vocabulary acquisition. The teaching of vocabulary has traditionally been an explicit process where the target vocabulary is taken out of context and taught separately. However, this kind of explicit teaching and learning may only take into account a form-meaning connection. Therefore, this paper explores research on incidental learning and specifically looks at what it takes to acquire new vocabulary incidentally through reading while considering the coverage rates of texts, how many words must be known already from the text, how many repetitions it takes to learn a word, types of texts that promote learning, and the effects of pairing students‘ reading with learner tasks. After reviewing many studies, it can be concluded that more reading is better. More specifically, extensive reading of chosen novels at an appropriate level and interest to the students showed important gains in vocabulary. In addition, readings that were supplemented with additional activities that focused on both form and meaning showed an even higher increase in word retention.

  3. Reading the Wrong Way with the Right Hemisphere

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    Ian J. Kirk

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Reading is a complex process, drawing on a variety of brain functions in order to link symbols to words and concepts. The three major brain areas linked to reading and phonological analysis include the left temporoparietal region, the left occipitotemporal region and the inferior frontal gyrus. Decreased activation of the left posterior language system in dyslexia is well documented but there is relatively limited attention given to the role of the right hemisphere. The current study investigated differences in right and left hemisphere activation between individuals with dyslexia and non-impaired readers in lexical decision tasks (regular words, irregular words, pseudowords during functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI. Results revealed the expected hypo-activation in the left posterior areas in those with dyslexia but also areas of overactivation in the right hemisphere. During pseudoword decisions, for example, adults with dyslexia showed more right inferior occipital gyrus activation than controls. In general the increased activation of left-hemisphere language areas found in response to both regular and pseudowords was absent in dyslexics. Laterality indices showed that while controls showed left lateralised activation of the temporal lobe during lexical decision making, dyslexic readers showed right activation. Findings will inform theories of reading and will have implications for the design of reading interventions.

  4. Reading the wrong way with the right hemisphere.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waldie, Karen E; Haigh, Charlotte E; Badzakova-Trajkov, Gjurgjica; Buckley, Jude; Kirk, Ian J

    2013-07-17

    Reading is a complex process, drawing on a variety of brain functions in order to link symbols to words and concepts. The three major brain areas linked to reading and phonological analysis include the left temporoparietal region, the left occipitotemporal region and the inferior frontal gyrus. Decreased activation of the left posterior language system in dyslexia is well documented but there is relatively limited attention given to the role of the right hemisphere. The current study investigated differences in right and left hemisphere activation between individuals with dyslexia and non-impaired readers in lexical decision tasks (regular words, irregular words, pseudowords) during functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Results revealed the expected hypo-activation in the left posterior areas in those with dyslexia but also areas of overactivation in the right hemisphere. During pseudoword decisions, for example, adults with dyslexia showed more right inferior occipital gyrus activation than controls. In general the increased activation of left-hemisphere language areas found in response to both regular and pseudowords was absent in dyslexics. Laterality indices showed that while controls showed left lateralised activation of the temporal lobe during lexical decision making, dyslexic readers showed right activation. Findings will inform theories of reading and will have implications for the design of reading interventions.

  5. Toward an ERP-driven diagnostic approach for reading impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korinth, Sebastian Peter; Sommer, Werner; Breznitz, Zvia

    2011-01-01

    This preliminary study attempted to use Event Related Brain Potentials (ERPs) to identify different causes for slow reading performance. At least two unique brain activity patterns were found for below average readers. Based on visual inspection of the N170 ERP component elicited by words in a lexical decision task, participants were either classified as N170-normal or N170-absent. Although both groups showed very dissimilar brain activity patterns, they did not differ in any reading or cognitive measures. Differences in brain activity were discussed as indicators for disturbances at specific stages of word processing, which should lead to individually adjusted intervention approaches.

  6. Lexical-Semantic Processing and Reading: Relations between Semantic Priming, Visual Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nobre, Alexandre de Pontes; de Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate relations between lexical-semantic processing and two components of reading: visual word recognition and reading comprehension. Sixty-eight children from private schools in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 7 to 12 years, were evaluated. Reading was assessed with a word/nonword reading task and a reading…

  7. Functional Anatomy of Listening and Reading Comprehension during Development

    OpenAIRE

    Berl, Madison M.; Duke, Elizabeth S.; Mayo, Jessica; Rosenberger, Lisa R.; Moore, Erin N.; VanMeter, John; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Vaidya, Chandan J.; Gaillard, William Davis

    2010-01-01

    Listening and reading comprehension of paragraph-length material are considered higher-order language skills fundamental to social and academic functioning. Using ecologically relevant language stimuli that were matched for difficulty according to developmental level, we analyze the effects of task, age, neuropsychological skills, and post-task performance on fMRI activation and hemispheric laterality. Areas of supramodal language processing are identified, with the most robust region being l...

  8. Reading-Strategy Use by English as a Second Language Learners in Online Reading Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Ho-Ryong; Kim, Deoksoon

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates adult English language learners' reading-strategy use when they read online texts in hypermedia learning environments. The learners joined the online Independent English Study Group (IESG) and worked both individually and collaboratively. This qualitative case study aims (a) to assess college-level ESL learners' use of…

  9. A Ventral Visual Stream Reading Center Independent of Sensory Modality and Visual Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lior Reich

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available The Visual Word Form Area (VWFA is a ventral-temporal-visual area that develops expertise for visual reading. It encodes letter-strings irrespective of case, font, or location in the visual-field, with striking anatomical reproducibility across individuals. In the blind, reading can be achieved using Braille, with a comparable level-of-expertise to that of sighted readers. We investigated which area plays the role of the VWFA in the blind. One would expect it to be at either parietal or bilateral occipital cortex, reflecting the tactile nature of the task and crossmodal plasticity, respectively. However, according to the notion that brain areas are task specific rather than sensory-modality specific, we predicted recruitment of the left-hemispheric VWFA, identically to the sighted and independent of visual experience. Using fMRI we showed that activation during Braille reading in congenitally blind individuals peaked in the VWFA, with striking anatomical consistency within and between blind and sighted. The VWFA was reading-selective when contrasted to high-level language and low-level sensory controls. Further preliminary results show that the VWFA is selectively activated also when people learn to read in a new language or using a different modality. Thus, the VWFA is a mutlisensory area specialized for reading regardless of visual experience.

  10. Reading with a Purpose: Communicative Reading Tasks for the Foreign Language Classroom. ERIC Digest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knutson, Elizabeth M.

    In describing reading proficiency--the relative difficulty or ease that an individual reader experiences reading a particular text--researchers have recognized the importance of both text- and reader-based factors. This digest focuses on the factor of purpose, as determined by the reader or the instructional context. Having a purpose means having…

  11. Gender effects on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho children learning to read in English: A case study of Grade 3 learners

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    Carien Wilsenach

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Gender differences in reading development are a global phenomenon, with girls typically performing better than boys. Some studies have reported gender differences favouring girls in reading comprehension in South Africa, but little systematic evidence exists about gender differences in the cognitive-linguistic abilities that underlie reading development. This study investigated the effect of gender on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho–English bilingual children. Grade 3 learners who received their literacy instruction in English were tested on various phonological processing and reading measures. Phonological awareness was assessed using phoneme isolation and elision tasks. Phonological working memory was assessed using memory for digits and non-word repetition tests while rapid automatised naming was tested using rapid letter, rapid digit, rapid object and rapid colour naming tasks. Reading achievement was assessed with various word reading tasks and with a fluent reading task. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that gender had a significant effect on the phonological processing and reading abilities of Northern Sotho– English bilingual children. Girls performed significantly better than boys on all the reading measures, as well as on some aspects of phonological processing. The findings provide behavioural evidence in support of biological theories of gender differences, in that girls seemed to have developed some of the cognitive-linguistic skills associated with reading before boys. The girls also coped better with tasks that required increased cognitive processing. This study suggests that sex differences in reading development cannot be ignored in South Africa and need to be addressed in future curriculum development.

  12. Executive functions in becoming writing readers and reading writers: note taking and report writing in third and fifth graders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altemeier, Leah; Jones, Janine; Abbott, Robert D; Berninger, Virginia W

    2006-01-01

    Results are reported for a study of 2 separate processes of report writing-taking notes while reading source material and composing a report from those notes-and related individual differences in executive functions involved in integrating reading and writing during these writing activities. Third graders (n = 122) and 5th graders (n = 106; overall, 127 girls and 114 boys) completed two reading-writing tasks-read paragraph (mock science text)-write notes and use notes to generate written report, a reading comprehension test, a written expression test, four tests of executive functions (inhibition, verbal fluency, planning, switching attention), and a working memory test. For the read-take notes task, the same combination of variables was best (explained the most variance and each variable added unique variance) for 3rd graders and 5th graders: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II) Reading Comprehension, Process Assessment of the Learner Test for Reading and Writing (PAL) Copy Task B, WIAT-II Written Expression, and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Inhibition. For the use notes to write report task, the best combinations of variables depended on grade level: For 3rd graders, WIAT-II Reading Comprehension, WIAT-II Written Expression, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency, and Tower of Hanoi; for 5th graders, WIAT-II Reading Comprehension, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency, WIAT-II Written Expression, and PAL Alphabet Task. These results add to prior research findings that executive functions contribute to the writing development of elementary-grade students and additionally support the hypothesis that executive functions play a role in developing reading-writing connections.

  13. Reading and visual search: a developmental study in normal children.

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    Magali Seassau

    Full Text Available Studies dealing with developmental aspects of binocular eye movement behaviour during reading are scarce. In this study we have explored binocular strategies during reading and during visual search tasks in a large population of normal young readers. Binocular eye movements were recorded using an infrared video-oculography system in sixty-nine children (aged 6 to 15 and in a group of 10 adults (aged 24 to 39. The main findings are (i in both tasks the number of progressive saccades (to the right and regressive saccades (to the left decreases with age; (ii the amplitude of progressive saccades increases with age in the reading task only; (iii in both tasks, the duration of fixations as well as the total duration of the task decreases with age; (iv in both tasks, the amplitude of disconjugacy recorded during and after the saccades decreases with age; (v children are significantly more accurate in reading than in visual search after 10 years of age. Data reported here confirms and expands previous studies on children's reading. The new finding is that younger children show poorer coordination than adults, both while reading and while performing a visual search task. Both reading skills and binocular saccades coordination improve with age and children reach a similar level to adults after the age of 10. This finding is most likely related to the fact that learning mechanisms responsible for saccade yoking develop during childhood until adolescence.

  14. Effectiveness of ESL Students' Performance by Computational Assessment and Role of Reading Strategies in Courseware-Implemented Business Translation Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Shu-Chiao

    2017-01-01

    This study reports on investigating students' English translation performance and their use of reading strategies in an elective English writing course offered to senior students of English as a Foreign Language for 100 minutes per week for 12 weeks. A courseware-implemented instruction combined with a task-based learning approach was adopted.…

  15. Reading strategies of Chinese students with severe to profound hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Ka Yan; Leung, Man Tak; McPherson, Bradley

    2013-01-01

    The present study investigated the significance of auditory discrimination and the use of phonological and orthographic codes during the course of reading development in Chinese students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). In this study, the reading behaviors of D/HH students in 2 tasks-a task on auditory perception of onset rime and a synonym decision task-were compared with those of their chronological age-matched and reading level (RL)-matched controls. Cross-group comparison of the performances of participants in the task on auditory perception suggests that poor auditory discrimination ability may be a possible cause of reading problems for D/HH students. In addition, results of the synonym decision task reveal that D/HH students with poor reading ability demonstrate a significantly greater preference for orthographic rather than phonological information, when compared with the D/HH students with good reading ability and their RL-matched controls. Implications for future studies and educational planning are discussed.

  16. Proceedings of the IRI task force activity 2000

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radicella, Sandro M.

    2001-05-01

    This internal report of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) contains presentations delivered during the International Reference Ionosphere Task Force Activity 2000 which took place at the Abdus Salam ICTP during July 2000. The 2000 Task Force Activity is the seventh successful encounter of specialists organized by the URSI-COSPAR IRI Working Group and the Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory of the ICTP of Trieste, Italy. The main topic of this task force activity was the modeling of the topside ionosphere and the development of strategies for modeling of ionospheric variability

  17. Activating the Need to Know in Reading Instruction: One Teacher Educator's Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, Priscilla S.

    2012-01-01

    This article examines one teacher educator's teaching of reading methods at a university that was recognized for exemplary reading instruction. Data collected over the course of one semester indicated that she modeled the teaching of reading and served as a catalyst in activating preservice teachers' need to know about how to teach reading by…

  18. Emotion recognition in body dysmorphic disorder: application of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buhlmann, Ulrike; Winter, Anna; Kathmann, Norbert

    2013-03-01

    Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by perceived appearance-related defects, often tied to aspects of the face or head (e.g., acne). Deficits in decoding emotional expressions have been examined in several psychological disorders including BDD. Previous research indicates that BDD is associated with impaired facial emotion recognition, particularly in situations that involve the BDD sufferer him/herself. The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the ability to read other people's emotions among 31 individuals with BDD, and 31 mentally healthy controls. We applied the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, in which participants are presented with a series of pairs of eyes, one at a time, and are asked to identify the emotion that describes the stimulus best. The groups did not differ with respect to decoding other people's emotions by looking into their eyes. Findings are discussed in light of previous research examining emotion recognition in BDD. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrison, Kathleen A; Zeffiro, Thomas A; Scheinost, Dustin; Constable, R Todd; Brewer, Judson A

    2015-09-01

    Meditation has been associated with relatively reduced activity in the default mode network, a brain network implicated in self-related thinking and mind wandering. However, previous imaging studies have typically compared meditation to rest, despite other studies having reported differences in brain activation patterns between meditators and controls at rest. Moreover, rest is associated with a range of brain activation patterns across individuals that has only recently begun to be better characterized. Therefore, in this study we compared meditation to another active cognitive task, both to replicate the findings that meditation is associated with relatively reduced default mode network activity and to extend these findings by testing whether default mode activity was reduced during meditation, beyond the typical reductions observed during effortful tasks. In addition, prior studies had used small groups, whereas in the present study we tested these hypotheses in a larger group. The results indicated that meditation is associated with reduced activations in the default mode network, relative to an active task, for meditators as compared to controls. Regions of the default mode network showing a Group × Task interaction included the posterior cingulate/precuneus and anterior cingulate cortex. These findings replicate and extend prior work indicating that the suppression of default mode processing may represent a central neural process in long-term meditation, and they suggest that meditation leads to relatively reduced default mode processing beyond that observed during another active cognitive task.

  20. The default modes of reading: Modulation of posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex connectivity associated with subjective and objective differences in reading experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathan eSmallwood

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Reading is a fundamental human capacity and yet it can easily be derailed by the simple act of mind-wandering. A large-scale brain network, referred to as the default mode network (DMN, has been shown to be involved in both mind-wandering and reading, raising the question as to how the same neural system could be implicated in processes with both costs and benefits to narrative comprehension. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI was used to explore whether the intrinsic functional connectivity of the two key midline hubs of the DMN — the posterior cingulate (PCC and medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC — was predictive of individual differences in reading effectiveness (better comprehension, superior and task focus recorded outside of the scanner. Worse comprehension was associated with greater functional connectivity between the PCC and a region of the ventral striatum. By contrast reports of increasing task focus were associated with functional connectivity from the aMPFC to clusters in the PCC, the left parietal and temporal cortex, and the cerebellum. Our results suggest that the DMN has both costs (such as poor comprehension and benefits to reading (such as an on-task focus because its midline core can couple its activity with other regions to form distinct functional communities that allow seemingly opposing mental states to occur. This flexible coupling allows the DMN to participate in cognitive states that complement the act of reading as well as others that do not.

  1. Dyslexic Children Show Atypical Cerebellar Activation and Cerebro-Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Orthographic and Phonological Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Xiaoxia; Li, Le; Zhang, Manli; Yang, Xiujie; Tian, Mengyu; Xie, Weiyi; Lu, Yao; Liu, Li; Bélanger, Nathalie N; Meng, Xiangzhi; Ding, Guosheng

    2017-04-01

    Previous neuroimaging studies have found atypical cerebellar activation in individuals with dyslexia in either motor-related tasks or language tasks. However, studies investigating atypical cerebellar activation in individuals with dyslexia have mostly used tasks tapping phonological processing. A question that is yet unanswered is whether the cerebellum in individuals with dyslexia functions properly during orthographic processing of words, as growing evidence shows that the cerebellum is also involved in visual and spatial processing. Here, we investigated cerebellar activation and cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity during word processing in dyslexic readers and typically developing readers using tasks that tap orthographic and phonological codes. In children with dyslexia, we observed an abnormally higher engagement of the bilateral cerebellum for the orthographic task, which was negatively correlated with literacy measures. The greater the reading impairment was for young dyslexic readers, the stronger the cerebellar activation was. This suggests a compensatory role of the cerebellum in reading for children with dyslexia. In addition, a tendency for higher cerebellar activation in dyslexic readers was found in the phonological task. Moreover, the functional connectivity was stronger for dyslexic readers relative to typically developing readers between the lobule VI of the right cerebellum and the left fusiform gyrus during the orthographic task and between the lobule VI of the left cerebellum and the left supramarginal gyrus during the phonological task. This pattern of results suggests that the cerebellum compensates for reading impairment through the connections with specific brain regions responsible for the ongoing reading task. These findings enhance our understanding of the cerebellum's involvement in reading and reading impairment.

  2. Males and females differ in brain activation during cognitive tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Emily C; Willson, Morgan C; Wilman, Alan H; Dave, Sanjay; Silverstone, Peter H

    2006-04-01

    To examine the effect of gender on regional brain activity, we utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a motor task and three cognitive tasks; a word generation task, a spatial attention task, and a working memory task in healthy male (n = 23) and female (n = 10) volunteers. Functional data were examined for group differences both in the number of pixels activated, and the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) magnitude during each task. Males had a significantly greater mean activation than females in the working memory task with a greater number of pixels being activated in the right superior parietal gyrus and right inferior occipital gyrus, and a greater BOLD magnitude occurring in the left inferior parietal lobe. However, despite these fMRI changes, there were no significant differences between males and females on cognitive performance of the task. In contrast, in the spatial attention task, men performed better at this task than women, but there were no significant functional differences between the two groups. In the word generation task, there were no external measures of performance, but in the functional measurements, males had a significantly greater mean activation than females, where males had a significantly greater BOLD signal magnitude in the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the right inferior parietal lobe, and the cingulate. In neither of the motor tasks (right or left hand) did males and females perform differently. Our fMRI findings during the motor tasks were a greater mean BOLD signal magnitude in males in the right hand motor task, compared to females where males had an increased BOLD signal magnitude in the right inferior parietal gyrus and in the left inferior frontal gyrus. In conclusion, these results demonstrate differential patterns of activation in males and females during a variety of cognitive tasks, even though performance in these tasks may not vary, and also that variability in performance may not

  3. What Discrete and Serial Rapid Automatized Naming Can Reveal about Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jong, Peter F.

    2011-01-01

    Serial rapid automized naming (RAN) has been often found to correlate more strongly with reading than discrete RAN. This study aimed to demonstrate that the strength of the RAN-reading fluency relationship is dependent on the format of both RAN and the reading task if the reading task consists of sight words. Seventy-one first-grade, 74…

  4. The Value of Picture-Book Reading-Based Collaborative Output Activities for Vocabulary Retention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Chia-Ho

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the effects of three instructional modes: picture-book reading-only (PRO), picture-book reading plus vocabulary instruction (PRVI), and picture-book reading plus reading-based collaborative output activity (PRCOA) on young adult EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' vocabulary acquisition and retention. Eighty…

  5. Reading by Children with Low Vision

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gompel, Marjolein; van Bon, Wim H. J.; Schreuder, Robert

    2004-01-01

    This study of the reading of text found that despite their lower reading speed on a reading-comprehension task, the children with low vision comprehended texts at least as well as did the sighted children. Children with low vision need more time to read and comprehend a text, but they seem to use this time with enough efficiency to process the…

  6. Does learning to read shape verbal working memory?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demoulin, Catherine; Kolinsky, Régine

    2016-06-01

    Many experimental studies have investigated the relationship between the acquisition of reading and working memory in a unidirectional way, attempting to determine to what extent individual differences in working memory can predict reading achievement. In contrast, very little attention has been dedicated to the converse possibility that learning to read shapes the development of verbal memory processes. In this paper, we present available evidence that advocates a more prominent role for reading acquisition on verbal working memory and then discuss the potential mechanisms of such literacy effects. First, the early decoding activities might bolster the development of subvocal rehearsal, which, in turn, would enhance serial order performance in immediate memory tasks. In addition, learning to read and write in an alphabetical system allows the emergence of phonemic awareness and finely tuned phonological representations, as well as of orthographic representations. This could improve the quality, strength, and precision of lexical representations, and hence offer better support for the temporary encoding of memory items and/or for their retrieval.

  7. Kindergartners' Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity in Relation to Their Number-Related Utterances during Numerical Picture Book Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rathé, Sanne; Torbeyns, Joke; Hannula-Sormunen, Minna M.; Verschaffel, Lieven

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship between kindergartners' Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) and their number-related utterances during numerical picture book reading. Forty-eight 4- to 5-year-olds were individually interviewed via a SFON Imitation Task and a numerical picture book reading activity. We expected differences in the…

  8. Using quality scores and longer reads improves accuracy of Solexa read mapping

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuan Zhenyu

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Second-generation sequencing has the potential to revolutionize genomics and impact all areas of biomedical science. New technologies will make re-sequencing widely available for such applications as identifying genome variations or interrogating the oligonucleotide content of a large sample (e.g. ChIP-sequencing. The increase in speed, sensitivity and availability of sequencing technology brings demand for advances in computational technology to perform associated analysis tasks. The Solexa/Illumina 1G sequencer can produce tens of millions of reads, ranging in length from ~25–50 nt, in a single experiment. Accurately mapping the reads back to a reference genome is a critical task in almost all applications. Two sources of information that are often ignored when mapping reads from the Solexa technology are the 3' ends of longer reads, which contain a much higher frequency of sequencing errors, and the base-call quality scores. Results To investigate whether these sources of information can be used to improve accuracy when mapping reads, we developed the RMAP tool, which can map reads having a wide range of lengths and allows base-call quality scores to determine which positions in each read are more important when mapping. We applied RMAP to analyze data re-sequenced from two human BAC regions for varying read lengths, and varying criteria for use of quality scores. RMAP is freely available for downloading at http://rulai.cshl.edu/rmap/. Conclusion Our results indicate that significant gains in Solexa read mapping performance can be achieved by considering the information in 3' ends of longer reads, and appropriately using the base-call quality scores. The RMAP tool we have developed will enable researchers to effectively exploit this information in targeted re-sequencing projects.

  9. Cross-language activation of morphological relatives in cognates: the role of orthographic overlap and task-related processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulder, Kimberley; Dijkstra, Ton; Baayen, R. Harald

    2015-01-01

    We considered the role of orthography and task-related processing mechanisms in the activation of morphologically related complex words during bilingual word processing. So far, it has only been shown that such morphologically related words (i.e., morphological family members) are activated through the semantic and morphological overlap they share with the target word. In this study, we investigated family size effects in Dutch-English identical cognates (e.g., tent in both languages), non-identical cognates (e.g., pil and pill, in English and Dutch, respectively), and non-cognates (e.g., chicken in English). Because of their cross-linguistic overlap in orthography, reading a cognate can result in activation of family members both languages. Cognates are therefore well-suited for studying mechanisms underlying bilingual activation of morphologically complex words. We investigated family size effects in an English lexical decision task and a Dutch-English language decision task, both performed by Dutch-English bilinguals. English lexical decision showed a facilitatory effect of English and Dutch family size on the processing of English-Dutch cognates relative to English non-cognates. These family size effects were not dependent on cognate type. In contrast, for language decision, in which a bilingual context is created, Dutch and English family size effects were inhibitory. Here, the combined family size of both languages turned out to better predict reaction time than the separate family size in Dutch or English. Moreover, the combined family size interacted with cognate type: the response to identical cognates was slowed by morphological family members in both languages. We conclude that (1) family size effects are sensitive to the task performed on the lexical items, and (2) depend on both semantic and formal aspects of bilingual word processing. We discuss various mechanisms that can explain the observed family size effects in a spreading activation framework

  10. Cross-language activation of morphological relatives in cognates: The role of orthographic overlap and task-related processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kimberley eMulder

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available We considered the role of orthography and task-related processing mechanisms in the activation of morphologically related complex words during bilingual word processing. So far, it has only been shown that such morphologically related words (i.e., morphological family members are activated through the semantic and morphological overlap they share with the target word. In this study, we investigated family size effects in Dutch-English identical cognates (e.g., tent in both languages, non-identical cognates (e.g., pil and pill, in English and Dutch, respectively, and non-cognates (e.g., chicken in English. Because of their cross-linguistic overlap in orthography, reading a cognate can result in activation of family members both languages. Cognates are therefore well-suited for studying mechanisms underlying bilingual activation of morphologically complex words. We investigated family size effects in an English lexical decision task and a Dutch-English language decision task, both performed by Dutch-English bilinguals. English lexical decision showed a facilitatory effect of English and Dutch family size on the processing of English-Dutch cognates relative to English non-cognates. These family size effects were not dependent on cognate type. In contrast, for language decision, in which a bilingual context is created, Dutch and English family size effects were inhibitory. Here, the combined family size of both languages turned out to better predict reaction time than the separate family size in Dutch or English. Moreover, the combined family size interacted with cognate type: The response to identical cognates was slowed by morphological family members in both languages. We conclude that (1 family size effects are sensitive to the task performed on the lexical items, and (2 depend on both semantic and formal aspects of bilingual word processing. We discuss various mechanisms that can explain the observed family size effects in a spreading

  11. Pseudo-synesthesia through reading books with colored letters.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olympia Colizoli

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter 'a' always appears as light blue. In this study, we examine whether traits typically regarded as markers of synesthesia can be acquired by simply reading in color. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Non-synesthetes were given specially prepared colored books to read. A modified Stroop task was administered before and after reading. A perceptual crowding task was administered after reading. Reading one book (>49,000 words was sufficient to induce effects regarded as behavioral markers for synesthesia. The results of the Stroop tasks indicate that it is possible to learn letter-color associations through reading in color (F(1, 14 = 5.85, p = .030. Furthermore, Stroop effects correlated with subjective reports about experiencing letters in color (r(13 = 0.51, p = .05. The frequency of viewing letters is related to the level of association as seen by the difference in the Stroop effect size between upper- and lower-case letters (t(14 = 2.79, p = .014 and in a subgroup of participants whose Stroop effects increased as they continued to read in color. Readers did not show significant performance advantages on the crowding task compared to controls. Acknowledging the many differences between trainees and synesthetes, results suggest that it may be possible to acquire a subset of synesthetic behavioral traits in adulthood through training. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of acquiring letter-color associations through reading in color. Reading in color appears to be a promising avenue in which we may explore the differences and similarities between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Additionally, reading in color is a plausible method for a long-term 'synesthetic' training program.

  12. Cross-modal integration in the brain is related to phonological awareness only in typical readers, not in those with reading difficulty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chris eMcnorgan

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Fluent reading requires successfully mapping between visual orthographic and auditory phonological representations and is thus an intrinsically cross-modal process, though reading difficulty has often been characterized as a phonological deficit. However, recent evidence suggests that orthographic information influences phonological processing in typical developing (TD readers, but that this effect may be blunted in those with reading difficulty (RD, suggesting that the core deficit underlying reading may be a failure to integrate orthographic and phonological information. Twenty-six (13 TD and 13 RD children between 8 and 13 years of age participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI experiment designed to assess the role of phonemic awareness in cross-modal processing. Participants completed a rhyme judgment task for word pairs presented unimodally (auditory only and cross-modally (auditory followed by visual. For typically developing children, activations in a network of regions associated with processing and integrating phonology and orthography were correlated with elision (i.e. superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus, a task that is particularly sensitive to phonemic awareness, but this correlation was found only in the cross-modal task. Elision was not correlated with activation for children with reading difficulty or for either group in the unimodal task. The results suggest that elision taps both phonemic awareness and cross-modal integration in typically developing readers, and that these processes are decoupled in children with reading difficulty.

  13. Effects of long-term practice and task complexity on brain activities when performing abacus-based mental calculations: a PET study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Tung-Hsin; Chen, Chia-Lin; Huang, Yung-Hui; Liu, Ren-Shyan; Hsieh, Jen-Chuen; Lee, Jason J.S.

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the neural bases for the exceptional mental calculation ability possessed by Chinese abacus experts through PET imaging. We compared the different regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) patterns using 15 O-water PET in 10 abacus experts and 12 non-experts while they were performing each of the following three tasks: covert reading, simple addition, and complex contiguous addition. All data collected were analyzed using SPM2 and MNI templates. For non-experts during the tasks of simple addition, the observed activation of brain regions were associated with coordination of language (inferior frontal network) and visuospatial processing (left parietal/frontal network). Similar activation patterns but with a larger visuospatial processing involvement were observed during complex contiguous addition tasks, suggesting the recruitment of more visuospatial memory for solving the complex problems. For abacus experts, however, the brain activation patterns showed slight differences when they were performing simple and complex addition tasks, both of which involve visuospatial processing (bilateral parietal/frontal network). These findings supported the notion that the experts were completing all the calculation process on a virtual mental abacus and relying on this same computational strategy in both simple and complex tasks, which required almost no increasing brain workload for solving the latter. In conclusion, after intensive training and practice, the neural pathways in an abacus expert have been connected more effectively for performing the number encoding and retrieval that are required in abacus tasks, resulting in exceptional mental computational ability. (orig.)

  14. Cortical areas involved in Arabic number reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roux, F-E; Lubrano, V; Lauwers-Cances, V; Giussani, C; Démonet, J-F

    2008-01-15

    Distinct functional pathways for processing words and numbers have been hypothesized from the observation of dissociated impairments of these categories in brain-damaged patients. We aimed to identify the cortical areas involved in Arabic number reading process in patients operated on for various brain lesions. Direct cortical electrostimulation was prospectively used in 60 brain mappings. We used object naming and two reading tasks: alphabetic script (sentences and number words) and Arabic number reading. Cortical areas involved in Arabic number reading were identified according to location, type of interference, and distinctness from areas associated with other language tasks. Arabic number reading was sustained by small cortical areas, often extremely well localized (area (Brodmann area 45), the anterior part of the dominant supramarginal gyrus (Brodmann area 40; p area (Brodmann area 37; p areas.

  15. A predictive study of reading comprehension in third-grade Spanish students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    López-Escribano, Carmen; Elosúa de Juan, María Rosa; Gómez-Veiga, Isabel; García-Madruga, Juan Antonio

    2013-01-01

    The study of the contribution of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension is an important goal of current reading research. However, reading comprehension is not easily assessed by a single instrument, as different comprehension tests vary in the type of tasks used and in the cognitive demands required. This study examines the contribution of basic language and cognitive skills (decoding, word recognition, reading speed, verbal and nonverbal intelligence and working memory) to reading comprehension, assessed by two tests utilizing various tasks that require different skill sets in third-grade Spanish-speaking students. Linguistic and cognitive abilities predicted reading comprehension. A measure of reading speed (the reading time of pseudo-words) was the best predictor of reading comprehension when assessed by the PROLEC-R test. However, measures of word recognition (the orthographic choice task) and verbal working memory were the best predictors of reading comprehension when assessed by means of the DARC test. These results show, on the one hand, that reading speed and word recognition are better predictors of Spanish language comprehension than reading accuracy. On the other, the reading comprehension test applied here serves as a critical variable when analyzing and interpreting results regarding this topic.

  16. Preparatory neural activity predicts performance on a conflict task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stern, Emily R; Wager, Tor D; Egner, Tobias; Hirsch, Joy; Mangels, Jennifer A

    2007-10-24

    Advance preparation has been shown to improve the efficiency of conflict resolution. Yet, with little empirical work directly linking preparatory neural activity to the performance benefits of advance cueing, it is not clear whether this relationship results from preparatory activation of task-specific networks, or from activity associated with general alerting processes. Here, fMRI data were acquired during a spatial Stroop task in which advance cues either informed subjects of the upcoming relevant feature of conflict stimuli (spatial or semantic) or were neutral. Informative cues decreased reaction time (RT) relative to neutral cues, and cues indicating that spatial information would be task-relevant elicited greater activity than neutral cues in multiple areas, including right anterior prefrontal and bilateral parietal cortex. Additionally, preparatory activation in bilateral parietal cortex and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex predicted faster RT when subjects responded to spatial location. No regions were found to be specific to semantic cues at conventional thresholds, and lowering the threshold further revealed little overlap between activity associated with spatial and semantic cueing effects, thereby demonstrating a single dissociation between activations related to preparing a spatial versus semantic task-set. This relationship between preparatory activation of spatial processing networks and efficient conflict resolution suggests that advance information can benefit performance by leading to domain-specific biasing of task-relevant information.

  17. Reading to Write an Argumentation: The Role of Epistemological, Reading and Writing Beliefs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateos, Mar; Cuevas, Isabel; Martin, Elena; Martin, Ana; Echeita, Gerardo; Luna, Maria

    2011-01-01

    The general aim of this study was to examine the relations among epistemological, reading and writing beliefs held by psychology undergraduates and the role played by these three types of belief in influencing the degree of perspectivism manifested in a written argumentation task based on reading two texts presenting conflicting perspectives on…

  18. Adaptive working-memory training benefits reading, but not mathematics in middle childhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karbach, Julia; Strobach, Tilo; Schubert, Torsten

    2015-01-01

    Working memory (WM) capacity is highly correlated with general cognitive ability and has proven to be an excellent predictor for academic success. Given that WM can be improved by training, our aim was to test whether WM training benefited academic abilities in elementary-school children. We examined 28 participants (mean age = 8.3 years, SD = 0.4) in a pretest-training-posttest-follow-up design. Over 14 training sessions, children either performed adaptive WM training (training group, n = 14) or nonadaptive low-level training (active control group, n = 14) on the same tasks. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up at 3 months after posttest included a neurocognitive test battery (WM, task switching, inhibition) and standardized tests for math and reading abilities. Adaptive WM training resulted in larger training gains than nonadaptive low-level training. The benefits induced by the adaptive training transferred to an untrained WM task and a standardized test for reading ability, but not to task switching, inhibition, or performance on a standardized math test. Transfer to the untrained WM task was maintained over 3 months. The analysis of individual differences revealed compensatory effects with larger gains in children with lower WM and reading scores at pretest. These training and transfer effects are discussed against the background of cognitive processing resulting from WM span training and the nature of the intervention.

  19. Developing reading literacy by reading badge

    OpenAIRE

    Rejc, Blanka

    2017-01-01

    Reading is a fundamental activity of our society and is present in all areas of a person’s life. Authors who deal with reading define reading with different definitions, some of them I also presented in my master’s degree thesis. The ways of reading, typology of readers and knowledge of different reading models are only some of the important theoretical facts that serve as a basis for the research and defining reading. Reading motivation is an important motivational factor, which encourages a...

  20. Effect of phonological and morphological awareness on reading comprehension in Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiff, Rachel; Schwartz-Nahshon, Sarit; Nagar, Revital

    2011-06-01

    This research explored phonological and morphological awareness among Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) and its effect on reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities. Participants included 39 seventh graders with RD and two matched control groups of normal readers: 40 seventh graders matched for chronological age (CA) and 38 third graders matched for reading age (RA). We assessed phonological awareness, word reading, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. Findings indicated that the RD group performed similarly to the RA group on phonological awareness but lower on phonological decoding. On the decontextualized morphological task, RD functioned on par with RA, whereas in a contextualized task RD performed above RA but lower than CA. In reading comprehension, RD performed as well as RA. Finally, results indicated that for normal readers contextual morphological awareness uniquely contributed to reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities, whereas no such unique contribution emerged for the RD group. The absence of an effect of morphological awareness in predicting reading comprehension was suggested to be related to a different recognition process employed by RD readers which hinder the ability of these readers to use morphosemantic structures. The lexical quality hypothesis was proposed as further support to the findings, suggesting that a low quality of lexical representation in RD students leads to ineffective reading skills and comprehension. Lexical representation is thus critical for both lexical as well as comprehension abilities.

  1. Musical, language and reading abilities in early Portuguese readers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jennifer eZuk

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Early language and reading abilities have been shown to correlate with a variety of musical skills and elements of music perception in children. It has also been shown that reading impaired children can show difficulties with music perception. However, it is still unclear to what extent different aspects of music perception are associated with language and reading abilities. Here we investigated the relationship between cognitive-linguistic abilities and a music discrimination task that preserves an ecologically valid musical experience. Forty-three Portuguese-speaking students from an elementary school in Brazil participated in this study. Children completed a comprehensive cognitive-linguistic battery of assessments. The music task was presented live in the music classroom, and children were asked to code sequences of four sounds on the guitar. Results show a strong relationship between performance on the music task and a number of linguistic variables. A Principle Component Analysis of the cognitive-linguistic battery revealed that the strongest component (Prin1 accounted for 33% of the variance and Prin1 was significantly related to the music task. Highest loadings on Prin1 were found for reading measures such as Reading Speed and Reading Accuracy. Interestingly, twenty-two children recorded responses for more than four sounds within a trial on the music task, which was classified as Superfluous Responses (SR. SR was negatively correlated with a variety of linguistic variables and showed a negative correlation with Prin1. When analyzing children with and without SR separately, only children with SR showed a significant correlation between Prin1 and the music task. Our results provide implications for the use of an ecologically valid music-based screening tool for the early identification of reading disabilities in a classroom setting.

  2. Evaluation of use of reading comprehension strategies to improve reading comprehension of adult college students with acquired brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, Gina G; Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Kirk, Cecilia; Fickas, Stephen; Biancarosa, Gina

    2016-01-01

    Adults with mild to moderate acquired brain injury (ABI) often pursue post-secondary or professional education after their injuries in order to enter or re-enter the job market. An increasing number of these adults report problems with reading-to-learn. The problem is particularly concerning given the growing population of adult survivors of ABI. Despite the rising need, empirical evaluation of reading comprehension interventions for adults with ABI is scarce. This study used a within-subject design to evaluate whether adult college students with ABI with no more than moderate cognitive impairments benefited from using reading comprehension strategies to improve comprehension of expository text. Integrating empirical support from the cognitive rehabilitation and special education literature, the researchers designed a multi-component reading comprehension strategy package. Participants read chapters from an introductory-level college anthropology textbook in two different conditions: strategy and no-strategy. The results indicated that reading comprehension strategy use was associated with recall of more correct information units in immediate and delayed free recall tasks; more efficient recall in the delayed free recall task; and increased accuracy recognising statements from a sentence verification task designed to reflect the local and global coherence of the text. The findings support further research into using reading comprehension strategies as an intervention approach for the adult ABI population. Future research needs include identifying how to match particular reading comprehension strategies to individuals, examining whether reading comprehension performance improves further through the incorporation of systematic training, and evaluating texts from a range of disciplines and genres.

  3. Task Action Plans for generic activities: Category A

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-10-01

    The document contains listings of generic technical activities as identified and placed in priority categories by the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR). In addition, it contains definitions of Priority Categories A, B, C, and D and copies of forty approved Task Action Plans for Category A activites. Problem Descriptions for the Category B, C and D tasks are contained in NUREG--0471. This material was developed within the context of NRR's Program for the Resolution of Generic Issues Related to Nuclear Power Plants. As part of this program, the assignment of identified issues to priority categories and the approval of Task Action Plans were made by NRR's Technical Activities Steering Committee, chaired by the Deputy Director, NRR. The original document was published in November 1977. In December 1977 it was updated to add the Task Action Plan for Task No. A-17, Systems Interactions in Nuclear Power Plants. This update adds Task Action Plans for Tasks A-13, A-18, A-21, A-22, A-32, A-37, A-38 and A-40. Task A-41 has been included in Task A-40. In addition, as part of this update, the following changes were made to each Task Action Plan (with the exception of the Task Action Plan for Task A-9): (1) a title page was added that includes information such as Lead NRR Organization, Lead Supervisor, Task Manager, Applicability, and Projected Completion Date; (2) detailed schedule information was deleted; and (3) a new Section 3 entitled Basis for Continued Plant Operation and Licensing Pending Completion of Task was added. These changes represent general reformatting and the addition or deletion of certain general types of information. Some substantive revisions were made to several of the plans, however, a general revision of all of the plans was not undertaken at this time

  4. Universal brain systems for recognizing word shapes and handwriting gestures during reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakamura, Kimihiro; Kuo, Wen-Jui; Pegado, Felipe; Cohen, Laurent; Tzeng, Ovid J L; Dehaene, Stanislas

    2012-12-11

    Do the neural circuits for reading vary across culture? Reading of visually complex writing systems such as Chinese has been proposed to rely on areas outside the classical left-hemisphere network for alphabetic reading. Here, however, we show that, once potential confounds in cross-cultural comparisons are controlled for by presenting handwritten stimuli to both Chinese and French readers, the underlying network for visual word recognition may be more universal than previously suspected. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in a semantic task with words written in cursive font, we demonstrate that two universal circuits, a shape recognition system (reading by eye) and a gesture recognition system (reading by hand), are similarly activated and show identical patterns of activation and repetition priming in the two language groups. These activations cover most of the brain regions previously associated with culture-specific tuning. Our results point to an extended reading network that invariably comprises the occipitotemporal visual word-form system, which is sensitive to well-formed static letter strings, and a distinct left premotor region, Exner's area, which is sensitive to the forward or backward direction with which cursive letters are dynamically presented. These findings suggest that cultural effects in reading merely modulate a fixed set of invariant macroscopic brain circuits, depending on surface features of orthographies.

  5. A Comparative Study of Task-based vs. Task- supported Teaching Approaches in an EFL Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahdieh Shafipoor

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available In spite of the numerous merits of task-based language instruction as claimed by its supporters in the last few decades, task-supported teaching approach as an alternative was introduced. Since then, there have been controversial debates over the superiority of each of these two approaches. Thus, in the current research project, the purpose was to consider these two teaching approaches in the scope of English language teaching, with the purpose of exploring the most efficient one in an Iranian EFL context. To this end, 120 sophomore students, majoring in English language translation course at Islamic Azad University, Shar-e-Qods branch were selected among 4 intact reading comprehension II classes. Next, they were divided into two experimental groups. The first experimental group received task-based instruction and for the second experimental group, task-trusted teaching approach was applied. The results of the data analyses turned out that task-trusted teaching approach was superior to task-based teaching in teaching reading to EFL learners.

  6. Connected text reading and differences in text reading fluency in adult readers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Wallot

    Full Text Available The process of connected text reading has received very little attention in contemporary cognitive psychology. This lack of attention is in parts due to a research tradition that emphasizes the role of basic lexical constituents, which can be studied in isolated words or sentences. However, this lack of attention is in parts also due to the lack of statistical analysis techniques, which accommodate interdependent time series. In this study, we investigate text reading performance with traditional and nonlinear analysis techniques and show how outcomes from multiple analyses can used to create a more detailed picture of the process of text reading. Specifically, we investigate reading performance of groups of literate adult readers that differ in reading fluency during a self-paced text reading task. Our results indicate that classical metrics of reading (such as word frequency do not capture text reading very well, and that classical measures of reading fluency (such as average reading time distinguish relatively poorly between participant groups. Nonlinear analyses of distribution tails and reading time fluctuations provide more fine-grained information about the reading process and reading fluency.

  7. The effects of interaction with the device described by procedural text on recall, true/false, and task performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diehl, V A; Mills, C B

    1995-11-01

    In two experiments, subjects interacted to different extents with relevant devices while reading two complex multistep procedural texts and were then tested with task performance time, true/false, and recall measures. While reading, subjects performed the task (read and do), saw the experimenter perform the task (read and see experimenter do), imagined doing the task (read and imagine), looked at the device while reading (read and see), or only read (read only). Van Dijk and Kintsch's (1983) text representation theory led to the prediction that exposure to the task device (in the read-and-do, read-and-see, and read-and-see-experimenter-do conditions) would lead to the development of a stronger situation model and therefore faster task performance, whereas the read-only and read-and-see conditions would lead to a better textbase, and therefore better performance on the true/false and recall tasks. Paivio's (1991) dual coding theory led to the opposite prediction for recall. The results supported the text representation theory with task performance and recall. The read-and-see condition produced consistently good performance on the true/false measure. Amount of text study time contributed to recall performance. These findings support the notion that information available while reading leads to differential development of representations in memory, which, in turn, causes differences in performance on various measures.

  8. Proceedings of the IRI Task Force Activity 2001

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radicella, S.M.

    2002-08-01

    This ICTP Internal Report contains the list of papers presented, activity report and the write up of a number of presentations delivered during the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) Task Force Activity 2001 which took place at the Abdus Salam ICTP during May 2001, particularly centred in the week from 21-25 May. The 2001 Task Force Activity is the eighth successful encounter of specialists organized by the URSI-Cospar IRI Working Group and the Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics of Trieste, Italy. This project continues the IRI Task Force Activities at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. The primary focus of this activity was the development of a specification model for ionospheric variability. Such a model is high on the wish list of users of ionospheric models. Climatological models like IRI provide monthly mean values of ionospheric parameters. Understandably a satellite designer or operator needs to know not only the monthly average conditions but also the expected deviations from these mean values. The main discussions and presentations took place during the week 21-25 May. The format was similar to last year's activity with presentations and round-table discussions in the morning and follow-on work in small subgroups in front of computer terminals in the afternoon. This Proceedings contains also four papers of the previous IRI Task Force Activity which were omitted

  9. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH IINTERACTIVE READ-ALOUD TECHNIQUE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edi Santoso

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The present study, entitled Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension through Interactive Read-Aloud, attempts to unlock problems found in teaching and reading comprehension through interactive read-aloud in a Senior High School of Sport (SMAN Olah Raga Lampung, in Metro. The findings revealed that students’ reading comprehension improved through interactive read-aloud. The improvement can be seen from the increase of test results, meaning construction, and motivation. The process of reading activities showed that the teacher’s gesture and body language, 20 questions, explain and guess activities were proven to help the students construct meaning from the given texts. In addition, interactive read-aloud is effective to boost students’ motivation to comprehend the texts.   Key words: Reading comprehension, interactive read-aloud.

  10. Understanding the role of speech production in reading: Evidence for a print-to-speech neural network using graphical analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummine, Jacqueline; Cribben, Ivor; Luu, Connie; Kim, Esther; Bahktiari, Reyhaneh; Georgiou, George; Boliek, Carol A

    2016-05-01

    The neural circuitry associated with language processing is complex and dynamic. Graphical models are useful for studying complex neural networks as this method provides information about unique connectivity between regions within the context of the entire network of interest. Here, the authors explored the neural networks during covert reading to determine the role of feedforward and feedback loops in covert speech production. Brain activity of skilled adult readers was assessed in real word and pseudoword reading tasks with functional MRI (fMRI). The authors provide evidence for activity coherence in the feedforward system (inferior frontal gyrus-supplementary motor area) during real word reading and in the feedback system (supramarginal gyrus-precentral gyrus) during pseudoword reading. Graphical models provided evidence of an extensive, highly connected, neural network when individuals read real words that relied on coordination of the feedforward system. In contrast, when individuals read pseudowords the authors found a limited/restricted network that relied on coordination of the feedback system. Together, these results underscore the importance of considering multiple pathways and articulatory loops during language tasks and provide evidence for a print-to-speech neural network. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  11. Overlapping neural circuitry for narrative comprehension and proficient reading in children and adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Vannest, Jennifer J; Holland, Scott K

    2013-11-01

    Narrative comprehension is a perinatal linguistic ability which is more intuitive than reading activity. Whether there are specific shared brain regions for narrative comprehension and reading that are tuned to reading proficiency, even before reading is acquired, is the question of the current study. We acquired fMRI data during a narrative comprehension task at two age points, when children are age 5-7 (K-2nd grade) and later when the same children were age 11 (5th-7th grade). We then examined correlations between this fMRI data and reading and reading comprehension scores from the same children at age 11. We found that greater frontal and supramarginal gyrus (BA 40) activation in narrative comprehension at the age of 5-7 years old was associated with better word reading and reading comprehension scores at the age of 11. A shift towards temporal and occipital activation was found when correlating their narrative comprehension functional data at age 11, with reading scores at the same age point. We suggest that increased reliance on executive functions and auditory-visual networks when listening to stories before reading is acquired, facilitates reading proficiency in older age and may be a biomarker for future reading ability. Children, who rely on use of imagination/visualization as well as auditory processing for narrative comprehension when they reach age 11, also show greater reading abilities. Understanding concordant neural pathways supporting auditory narrative and reading comprehension might be guide for development of effective tools for reading intervention programs. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  12. Modulation of radial blood flow during Braille character discrimination task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murata, Jun; Matsukawa, K; Komine, H; Tsuchimochi, H

    2012-03-01

    Human hands are excellent in performing sensory and motor function. We have hypothesized that blood flow of the hand is dynamically regulated by sympathetic outflow during concentrated finger perception. To identify this hypothesis, we measured radial blood flow (RBF), radial vascular conductance (RVC), heart rate (HR), and arterial blood pressure (AP) during Braille reading performed under the blind condition in nine healthy subjects. The subjects were instructed to read a flat plate with raised letters (Braille reading) for 30 s by the forefinger, and to touch a blank plate as control for the Braille discrimination procedure. HR and AP slightly increased during Braille reading but remained unchanged during the touching of the blank plate. RBF and RVC were reduced during the Braille character discrimination task (decreased by -46% and -49%, respectively). Furthermore, the changes in RBF and RVC were much greater during the Braille character discrimination task than during the touching of the blank plate (decreased by -20% and -20%, respectively). These results have suggested that the distribution of blood flow to the hand is modulated via sympathetic nerve activity during concentrated finger perception.

  13. Pseudo-Synesthesia through Reading Books with Colored Letters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colizoli, Olympia; Murre, Jaap M. J.; Rouw, Romke

    2012-01-01

    Background Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter ‘a’ always appears as light blue). In this study, we examine whether traits typically regarded as markers of synesthesia can be acquired by simply reading in color. Methodology/Principal Findings Non-synesthetes were given specially prepared colored books to read. A modified Stroop task was administered before and after reading. A perceptual crowding task was administered after reading. Reading one book (>49,000 words) was sufficient to induce effects regarded as behavioral markers for synesthesia. The results of the Stroop tasks indicate that it is possible to learn letter-color associations through reading in color (F(1, 14) = 5.85, p = .030). Furthermore, Stroop effects correlated with subjective reports about experiencing letters in color (r(13) = 0.51, p = .05). The frequency of viewing letters is related to the level of association as seen by the difference in the Stroop effect size between upper- and lower-case letters (t(14) = 2.79, p = .014) and in a subgroup of participants whose Stroop effects increased as they continued to read in color. Readers did not show significant performance advantages on the crowding task compared to controls. Acknowledging the many differences between trainees and synesthetes, results suggest that it may be possible to acquire a subset of synesthetic behavioral traits in adulthood through training. Conclusion/Significance To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of acquiring letter-color associations through reading in color. Reading in color appears to be a promising avenue in which we may explore the differences and similarities between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Additionally, reading in color is a plausible method for a long-term ‘synesthetic’ training program. PMID

  14. Improvement of the Error-detection Mechanism in Adults with Dyslexia Following Reading Acceleration Training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi

    2016-05-01

    The error-detection mechanism aids in preventing error repetition during a given task. Electroencephalography demonstrates that error detection involves two event-related potential components: error-related and correct-response negativities (ERN and CRN, respectively). Dyslexia is characterized by slow, inaccurate reading. In particular, individuals with dyslexia have a less active error-detection mechanism during reading than typical readers. In the current study, we examined whether a reading training programme could improve the ability to recognize words automatically (lexical representations) in adults with dyslexia, thereby resulting in more efficient error detection during reading. Behavioural and electrophysiological measures were obtained using a lexical decision task before and after participants trained with the reading acceleration programme. ERN amplitudes were smaller in individuals with dyslexia than in typical readers before training but increased following training, as did behavioural reading scores. Differences between the pre-training and post-training ERN and CRN components were larger in individuals with dyslexia than in typical readers. Also, the error-detection mechanism as represented by the ERN/CRN complex might serve as a biomarker for dyslexia and be used to evaluate the effectiveness of reading intervention programmes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  15. The Role of Visual-Spatial Abilities in Dyslexia: Age Differences in Children's Reading?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giovagnoli, Giulia; Vicari, Stefano; Tomassetti, Serena; Menghini, Deny

    2016-01-01

    Reading is a highly complex process in which integrative neurocognitive functions are required. Visual-spatial abilities play a pivotal role because of the multi-faceted visual sensory processing involved in reading. Several studies show that children with developmental dyslexia (DD) fail to develop effective visual strategies and that some reading difficulties are linked to visual-spatial deficits. However, the relationship between visual-spatial skills and reading abilities is still a controversial issue. Crucially, the role that age plays has not been investigated in depth in this population, and it is still not clear if visual-spatial abilities differ across educational stages in DD. The aim of the present study was to investigate visual-spatial abilities in children with DD and in age-matched normal readers (NR) according to different educational stages: in children attending primary school and in children and adolescents attending secondary school. Moreover, in order to verify whether visual-spatial measures could predict reading performance, a regression analysis has been performed in younger and older children. The results showed that younger children with DD performed significantly worse than NR in a mental rotation task, a more-local visual-spatial task, a more-global visual-perceptual task and a visual-motor integration task. However, older children with DD showed deficits in the more-global visual-perceptual task, in a mental rotation task and in a visual attention task. In younger children, the regression analysis documented that reading abilities are predicted by the visual-motor integration task, while in older children only the more-global visual-perceptual task predicted reading performances. Present findings showed that visual-spatial deficits in children with DD were age-dependent and that visual-spatial abilities engaged in reading varied across different educational stages. In order to better understand their potential role in affecting reading

  16. Comparisons of an open-ended vs. forced-choice 'mind reading' task: implications for measuring perspective-taking and emotion recognition.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tracy G Cassels

    Full Text Available Perspective-taking and emotion recognition are essential for successful social development and have been the focus of developmental research for many years. Although the two abilities often overlap, they are distinct and our understanding of these abilities critically rests upon the efficacy of existing measures. Lessons from the literature differentiating recall versus recognition memory tasks led us to hypothesize that an open-ended emotion recognition measure would be less reliant on compensatory strategies and hence a more specific measure of emotion recognition abilities than a forced-choice task. To this end, we compared an open-ended version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task with the original forced-choice version in two studies: 118 typically-developing 4- to 8-year-olds (Study 1 and 139 5- to 12-year-olds; 85 typically-developing and 54 with learning disorders (Study 2. We found that the open-ended version of the task was a better predictor of empathy and more reliably discriminated typically-developing children from those with learning disorders. As a whole, the results suggest that the open-ended version is a more sensitive measure of emotion recognition specifically.

  17. Enhancing reading performance through action video games: the role of visual attention span.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antzaka, A; Lallier, M; Meyer, S; Diard, J; Carreiras, M; Valdois, S

    2017-11-06

    Recent studies reported that Action Video Game-AVG training improves not only certain attentional components, but also reading fluency in children with dyslexia. We aimed to investigate the shared attentional components of AVG playing and reading, by studying whether the Visual Attention (VA) span, a component of visual attention that has previously been linked to both reading development and dyslexia, is improved in frequent players of AVGs. Thirty-six French fluent adult readers, matched on chronological age and text reading proficiency, composed two groups: frequent AVG players and non-players. Participants performed behavioural tasks measuring the VA span, and a challenging reading task (reading of briefly presented pseudo-words). AVG players performed better on both tasks and performance on these tasks was correlated. These results further support the transfer of the attentional benefits of playing AVGs to reading, and indicate that the VA span could be a core component mediating this transfer. The correlation between VA span and pseudo-word reading also supports the involvement of VA span even in adult reading. Future studies could combine VA span training with defining features of AVGs, in order to build a new generation of remediation software.

  18. Teaching students to read the primary literature using POGIL activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Tracey Arnold

    2014-01-01

    The ability to read, interpret, and evaluate articles in the primary literature are important skills that science majors will use in graduate school and professional life. Because of this, it is important that students are not only exposed to the primary literature in undergraduate education, but also taught how to read and interpret these articles. To achieve this objective, POGIL activities were designed to use the primary literature in a majors biochemistry sequence. Data show that students were able to learn content from the literature without separate activities or lecture. Students also reported an increase in comfort and confidence in approaching the literature as a result of the activities. Copyright © 2013 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

  19. Scapular kinematics and muscle activities during pushing tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chun-Kai; Siu, Ka-Chun; Lien, Hen-Yu; Lee, Yun-Ju; Lin, Yang-Hua

    2013-01-01

    Pushing tasks are functional activities of daily living. However, shoulder complaints exist among workers exposed to regular pushing conditions. It is crucial to investigate the control of shoulder girdles during pushing tasks. The objective of the study was to demonstrate scapular muscle activities and motions on the dominant side during pushing tasks and the relationship between scapular kinematics and muscle activities in different pushing conditions. Thirty healthy adults were recruited to push a four-wheel cart in six pushing conditions. The electromyographic signals of the upper trapezius (UT) and serratus anterior (SA) muscles were recorded. A video-based system was used for measuring the movement of the shoulder girdle and scapular kinematics. Differences in scapular kinematics and muscle activities due to the effects of handle heights and weights of the cart were analyzed using two-way ANOVA with repeated measures. The relationships between scapular kinematics and muscle activities were examined by Pearson's correlation coefficients. The changes in upper trapezius and serratus anterior muscle activities increased significantly with increased pushing weights in the one-step pushing phase. The UT/SA ratio on the dominant side decreases significantly with increased handle heights in the one-step pushing phase. The changes in upward rotation, lateral slide and elevation of the scapula decreased with increased pushing loads in the trunk-forward pushing phase. This study indicated that increased pushing loads result in decreased motions of upward rotation, lateral slide and elevation of the scapula; decreased handle heights result in relatively increased activities of the serratus anterior muscles during pushing tasks.

  20. Scanpath Based N-Gram Models for Predicting Reading Behavior

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mishra, Abhijit; Bhattacharyya, Pushpak; Carl, Michael

    2013-01-01

    Predicting reading behavior is a difficult task. Reading behavior depends on various linguistic factors (e.g. sentence length, structural complexity etc.) and other factors (e.g individual's reading style, age etc.). Ideally, a reading model should be similar to a language model where the model i...

  1. THE SYNERGISTIC SYLLABUS FOR TEACHING READING IN 32 TOURISM VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahlis Qoidah Noor

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The new Syllabus at 2013 Curriculum for vocational high school created many problems to apply in the class. Based on the Need Analysis, the writer develops a Synergistic Syllabus for teaching Reading in vocational high school. It contains the syllabus combined from Task- Based Learning, Situational Syllabus, Program of International Student Assessment ( PISA item test and Character Building. It is a R and D research uses three phases of Observation, Developing and Try Out. It is in a True Experimental Research. The main findings are Reading Skill cannot be taught effectively for some reasons. There is no appropriate syllabus for teaching Reading; most teachers need some models in a syllabus. The results are the Synergistic Syllabus for teaching Reading, a set of Reading Material for Teaching Reading and a set of the lesson plan for one semester at Grade X of Tourism VHS. It is measured through mean, median and t- Test. To Sum up Synergistic Syllabus can develop many aspects, the systematic and meaningful activities in the class, motivation and good attitude. The standardized item of assignment, and a sense of competition in Reading activities and the Synergistic Syllabus assist teachers in teaching Reading using 2013 curriculum in the class effectively.

  2. Preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading for older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rawson, Katherine A; Touron, Dayna R

    2015-12-01

    Concerning age-related effects on cognitive skill acquisition, the modal finding is that older adults do not benefit from practice to the same extent as younger adults in tasks that afford a shift from slower algorithmic processing to faster memory-based processing. In contrast, Rawson and Touron (2009) demonstrated a relatively rapid shift to memory-based processing in the context of a reading task. The current research extended beyond this initial study to provide more definitive evidence for relative preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading tasks for older adults. Younger and older adults read short stories containing unfamiliar noun phrases (e.g., skunk mud) followed by disambiguating information indicating the combination's meaning (either the normatively dominant meaning or an alternative subordinate meaning). Stories were repeated across practice blocks, and then the noun phrases were presented in novel sentence frames in a transfer task. Both age groups shifted from computation to retrieval after relatively few practice trials (as evidenced by convergence of reading times for dominant and subordinate items). Most important, both age groups showed strong evidence for memory-based processing of the noun phrases in the transfer task. In contrast, older adults showed minimal shifting to retrieval in an alphabet arithmetic task, indicating that the preservation of memory-based automaticity in reading was task-specific. Discussion focuses on important implications for theories of memory-based automaticity in general and for specific theoretical accounts of age effects on memory-based automaticity, as well as fruitful directions for future research. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  3. Reading with a simulated 60-channel implant

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angelica ePerez Fornos

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available First generation retinal prostheses containing 50-60 electrodes are currently in clinical trials. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the theoretical upper limit (best possible reading performance attainable with a state-of-the-art 60-channel retinal implant and to find the optimum viewing conditions for the task. Four normal volunteers performed full-page text reading tasks with a low resolution, 60-pixel viewing window that was stabilized in the central visual field. Two parameters were systematically varied: (1 spatial resolution (image magnification and (2 the orientation of the rectangular viewing window. Performance was measured in terms of reading accuracy (% of correctly read words and reading rates (words/min. Maximum reading performances were reached at spatial resolutions between 3.6 and 6 pixels/char. Performance declined outside this range for all subjects. In optimum viewing conditions (4.5 pixels/char, subjects achieved almost perfect reading accuracy and mean reading rates of 26 words/min for the vertical viewing window and of 34 words/min for the horizontal viewing window. These results suggest that, theoretically, some reading abilities can be restored with actual state-of-the-art retinal implant prototypes if image magnification is within an optimum range. Future retinal implants providing higher pixel resolutions, thus allowing for a wider visual span might allow faster reading rates.

  4. Pathways of the inferior frontal occipital fasciculus in overt speech and reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rollans, Claire; Cheema, Kulpreet; Georgiou, George K; Cummine, Jacqueline

    2017-11-19

    In this study, we examined the relationship between tractography-based measures of white matter integrity (ex. fractional anisotropy [FA]) from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and five reading-related tasks, including rapid automatized naming (RAN) of letters, digits, and objects, and reading of real words and nonwords. Twenty university students with no reported history of reading difficulties were tested on all five tasks and their performance was correlated with diffusion measures extracted through DTI tractography. A secondary analysis using whole-brain Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) was also used to find clusters showing significant negative correlations between reaction time and FA. Results showed a significant relationship between the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus FA and performance on the RAN of objects task, as well as a strong relationship to nonword reading, which suggests a role for this tract in slower, non-automatic and/or resource-demanding speech tasks. There were no significant relationships between FA and the faster, more automatic speech tasks (RAN of letters and digits, and real word reading). These findings provide evidence for the role of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in tasks that are highly demanding of orthography-phonology translation (e.g., nonword reading) and semantic processing (e.g., RAN object). This demonstrates the importance of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in basic naming and suggests that this tract may be a sensitive predictor of rapid naming performance within the typical population. We discuss the findings in the context of current models of reading and speech production to further characterize the white matter pathways associated with basic reading processes. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. [Developmental changes of rapid automatized naming and Hiragana reading of Japanese in elementary-school children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Tomoka; Inagaki, Masumi; Gunji, Atsuko; Yatabe, Kiyomi; Kita, Yosuke; Kaga, Makiko; Gotoh, Takaaki; Koike, Toshihide

    2011-11-01

    Two hundred and seven Japanese elementary school children aged from 6 (Grade 1) to 12 (Grade 6) years old were tested for their abilities to name numbers and pictured objects along with reading Hiragana characters and words. These children all showed typical development and their classroom teachers judged that they were not having any problems with reading or writing. The children were randomly divided into two groups, the first group was assigned to two naming tasks;the rapid automatized naming (RAN) of "numbers" and "pictured objects," the second group was assigned to two rapid alternative stimulus (RAS) naming tasks using numbers and pictured objects. All children were asked to perform two reading tasks that were written in Hiragana script: single mora reading task and four syllable word reading task. The total articulation time for naming and reading and performance in terms of accuracy were measured for each task. Developmental changes in these variables were evaluated. The articulation time was significantly longer for the first graders, and it gradually shortened as they moved through to the upper grades in all tasks. The articulation time reached a plateau in the 5th grade for the number naming, while gradual change continued after drastic change in the lower grades for the pictured object naming. The articulation times for the single mora reading and RAN of numbers correlated strongly. The articulation time for the RAS naming was significantly longer compared to that for the RAN, though there were very few errors. The RAS naming showed the highest correlation with the four syllable word reading. This study demonstrated that the performance in rapid automatized naming of numbers and pictures were closely related with performance on reading tasks. Thus Japanese children with reading disorders such as developmental dyslexia should also be evaluated for rapid automatized naming.

  6. Reading Test-taking Strategies in General Training IELTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahede Nosrati

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The significance of gaining a better understanding of how test-taking strategies are used has been recognized by researchers. Considering this fact, this study aimed at investigating the test-taking strategies which were employed by IELTS candidates in reading comprehension test. Besides, it tried to take into account the differences among strategies used for different tasks. In order to gather data, two instruments were employed: the think-aloud protocol, and an IELTS reading test. The obtained data were analyzed and interpreted qualitatively by the researcher. The findings indicated that candidates employed 15 different strategies which were categorized in 3 stages, pre-reading, reading, and post-reading stages. Furthermore, it was revealed that test-takers used certain strategies differently, depending on the type of the task. The findings provide a better understanding of strategy use among IELTS candidates and help teachers to improve their approaches toward teaching and learning goals. Keywords: Test-taking Strategy, Test-taker, Reading Comprehension, Language Learning Strategy, IELTS

  7. Assessing reading comprehension in adolescent low achievers : Subskills identification and task specificity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Steensel, R.; Oostdam, R.; van Gelderen, A.

    2013-01-01

    On the basis of a validation study of a new test for assessing low-achieving adolescents’ reading comprehension skills – the SALT-reading – we analyzed two issues relevant to the field of reading test development. Using the test results of 200 seventh graders, we examined the possibility of

  8. Idea Sharing: The Use of Read-Share-Act to Promote Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charumanee, Nisakorn

    2014-01-01

    Nisakorn Charumanee believes that a reading teacher has an active role in cultivating reading culture or reading habit and in activating students to "want" to read. One way to do this is to integrate extensive reading into the classroom (Day and Bamford, 1998; Bamford and Day, 2004) where extensive reading can be enhanced if the teacher…

  9. Final Technical Report Transport Task Force Activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    P.W. Terry

    2006-01-01

    The Transport Task Force has functioned as the primary scientific organization in the area of magnetic-fusion confinement and transport since its inception in 1988. It has defined and set research directions, coordinated broad research efforts, advocated new funding initiatives, and created a highly successful and widely admired interactive culture between experiment, theory and modeling. The Transport Task Force carries out its activities under the direction of its chair and the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is comprised of the leaders and deputy leaders of the scientific working groups. The working groups are structured and organized according to research needs and priorities and have been organized around the areas of Core Transport, H Mode and Pedestal, Fast Particle Transport, Transient Transport Phenomena, and Modeling and Simulation. A steering committee provides advise on TTF activities. Further information on the working groups and the structure and management of the TTF can be found at http://psfcwww2.psfc.mit.edu/ttf/index.html. The TTF holds an annual workshop. A summary of the workshops held during the period of this report is given in Appendix I. During the period of this report the Transport Task Force was involved in several significant activities. Foremost of these was a sweeping review of the status of transport science, the key research tasks for progress during the next 5-10 years, and a proposal for a funding initiative to ensure application of adequate resources to these problems. The conclusions of this study were incorporated into a white paper, which is copied below in Appendix II. Other significant activities have included the introduction of an extended, ongoing discussion on verification and validation as a requisite for defining and codifying the path toward predictive capability, the orchestration of a gradual shift of focus from ion thermal confinement to electron thermal confinement, and a joining of efforts on edge

  10. Task and Interruption Management in Activity-Centric Computing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jeuris, Steven

    to address these not in isolation, but by fundamentally reevaluating the current computing paradigm. To this end, activity-centric computing has been brought forward as an alternative computing paradigm, addressing the increasing strain put on modern-day computing systems. Activity-centric computing follows...... the scalability and intelligibility of current research prototypes. In this dissertation, I postulate that such issues arise due to a lack of support for the full set of practices which make up activity management. Most notably, although task and interruption management are an integral part of personal...... information management, they have thus far been neglected in prior activity-centric computing systems. Advancing the research agenda of activity-centric computing, I (1) implement and evaluate an activity-centric desktop computing system, incorporating support for interruptions and long-term task management...

  11. Alterations in Resting-State Activity Relate to Performance in a Verbal Recognition Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    López Zunini, Rocío A.; Thivierge, Jean-Philippe; Kousaie, Shanna; Sheppard, Christine; Taler, Vanessa

    2013-01-01

    In the brain, resting-state activity refers to non-random patterns of intrinsic activity occurring when participants are not actively engaged in a task. We monitored resting-state activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) both before and after a verbal recognition task. We show a strong positive correlation between accuracy in verbal recognition and pre-task resting-state alpha power at posterior sites. We further characterized this effect by examining resting-state post-task activity. We found marked alterations in resting-state alpha power when comparing pre- and post-task periods, with more pronounced alterations in participants that attained higher task accuracy. These findings support a dynamical view of cognitive processes where patterns of ongoing brain activity can facilitate –or interfere– with optimal task performance. PMID:23785436

  12. Promoting toddlers' vegetable consumption through interactive reading and puppetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Droog, Simone M; van Nee, Roselinde; Govers, Mieke; Buijzen, Moniek

    2017-09-01

    Picture books with characters that promote healthy eating are increasingly being used to make this behavior more attractive. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the effect of vegetable-promoting picture books on toddlers' vegetable consumption differed according to the reading style and the use of a hand puppet during reading. The second aim was to investigate whether these effects were mediated by toddlers' narrative involvement and character imitation. In a 2 (reading style: interactive vs. passive) x 2 (puppet use: with vs. without puppet) between-subjects design, 163 toddlers (2-3 years) were randomly assigned to one of the four reading conditions. The story was about a rabbit that loves to eat carrots. After the fourth reading day, the eating task was conducted in which children could eat freely from four different snacks, including carrots. The main finding was that interactive reading produced the greatest carrot consumption. The explanation for this effect was that interactive reading stimulated toddlers to imitate poses of the book characters, even more when interactive reading was supported by the use of a hand puppet. The findings underline that young children should be actively involved with health interventions in order for them to be effective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. How professionals read online documents to formulate recommendations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Melenhorst, M.S.; van der Geest, Thea

    2003-01-01

    Professionals often read with the purpose of formulating a judgment based on what they have read. Increasingly, the documents to be used are available electronically. This adds to the complexity of the task. In the presented study, seven participants read two sets of articles that were used to

  14. A Judicious Lesson: A Whole-Learning Reading Activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spooner, Patrick

    2001-01-01

    Describes a unique language learning activity using the whole language approach in a tertiary level lower advanced reading and speaking course. Following a semester long theme on crime and punishment, students were introduced to an authentic, idiomatic text dealing with a famous murder case in U.S. history. (Author/VWL)

  15. The role of speech prosody and text reading prosody in children's reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenendaal, Nathalie J; Groen, Margriet A; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-12-01

    Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody - which is independent from reading skills - in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could provide more insight into the general role of prosody in reading comprehension. The current study investigates how much variance in reading comprehension scores is explained by speech prosody and text reading prosody, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness. A battery of reading and language assessments was performed by 106 Dutch fourth-grade primary school children. Speech prosody was assessed using a storytelling task and text reading prosody by oral text reading performance. Decoding skills, vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension were assessed using standardized tests. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that text reading prosody explained 6% of variance and that speech prosody explained 8% of variance in reading comprehension scores, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness. Phrasing was the significant factor in both speech and text reading. When added in consecutive order, phrasing in speech added 5% variance to phrasing in reading. In contrast, phrasing in reading added only 3% variance to phrasing in speech. The variance that speech prosody explained in reading comprehension scores should not be neglected. Speech prosody seems to facilitate the construction of meaning in written language. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  16. Read-To-Write-Tasks” in English for Specific Purposes Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galina Kavaliauskienė

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available At university level students face demanding tasks of reading an enormous amount of professional materials in English. Writing various assignments is another challenging part of higher education. Online activities are the priority for conducting assignments at tertiary level. Students usually start doing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP course before learning subject-matters of the future profession, i.e. in their first year. The cornerstone of the ESP is unfamiliar lexis and numerous concepts of subject-matter. In order to succeed, students need to develop proficiency in reading professional texts and writing skillfully on relevant subject issues. The aim of this paper is to study, first, learners‘ attitudes to online reading of professional materials as well as to writing various assignments online and, second, to examine learners‘ self-assessment of proficiency in these skills. Our research employed brief written surveys designed in accordance with the standards in Social Sciences, which were administered to the students doing the ESP course, and the verbal data obtained during individual interviews intended to assess learners‘ success and achievements throughout the academic year. The respondents were the students specializing in psychology at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. All the participants were unanimous in the importance of writing and reading skills for the ESP tasks. 100% of respondents support reading professional materials, and 80% of respondents support exercising online writing. Self-assessment of reading proficiency demonstrates that 90% of students believe they possess very good or good skills of reading, and 70% of learners are sure of their good skills in writing. Respondents’ performance in these skills is less impressive. Some recommendations towards perfecting students’ proficiency in “read-to-write-tasks” are suggested. It is important to help learners develop better rates of reading

  17. The Impact of Visual-Spatial Attention on Reading and Spelling in Chinese Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Duo; Chen, Xi; Wang, Ying

    2016-01-01

    The present study investigated the associations of visual-spatial attention with word reading fluency and spelling in 92 third grade Hong Kong Chinese children. Word reading fluency was measured with a timed reading task whereas spelling was measured with a dictation task. Results showed that visual-spatial attention was a unique predictor of…

  18. Mind Wandering in Text Comprehension under Dual-Task Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter eDixon

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available In two experiments, subjects responded to on-task probes while reading under dual-task conditions. The secondary task was to monitor the text for occurrences of the letter e. In Experiment 1, reading comprehension was assessed with a multiple-choice recognition test; in Experiment 2, subjects recalled the text. In both experiments, the secondary task replicated the well-known missing-letter effect in which detection of e’s was less effective for the word the. Letter detection was also more effective when subjects were on task, but this effect did not interact with the missing-letter effect. Comprehension was assessed in both the dual-task conditions and in a control single-task conditions. In the single-task conditions, both recognition (Experiment 1 and recall (Experiment 2 was better when subjects were on task, replicating previous research on mind wandering. Surprisingly, though, comprehension under dual-task conditions only showed an effect of being on task when measured with recall; there was no effect on recognition performance. Our interpretation of this pattern of results is that subjects generate their response to on-task probes on the basis of a retrospective assessment of the contents of working memory. Further, we argue that under dual-task conditions, the contents of working memory is not related to the reading processes required for accurate recognition performance. These conclusions have implications for models of text comprehension and for the interpretation of on-task probe responses.

  19. Conceptualizing and Assessing Higher-Order Thinking in Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afflerbach, Peter; Cho, Byeong-Young; Kim, Jong-Yun

    2015-01-01

    Students engage in higher-order thinking as they read complex texts and perform complex reading-related tasks. However, the most consequential assessments, high-stakes tests, are currently limited in providing information about students' higher-order thinking. In this article, we describe higher-order thinking in relation to reading. We provide a…

  20. Neural systems of second language reading are shaped by native language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Li Hai; Spinks, John A; Feng, Ching-Mei; Siok, Wai Ting; Perfetti, Charles A; Xiong, Jinhu; Fox, Peter T; Gao, Jia-Hong

    2003-03-01

    Reading in a second language (L2) is a complex task that entails an interaction between L2 and the native language (L1). To study the underlying mechanisms, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to visualize Chinese-English bilinguals' brain activity in phonological processing of logographic Chinese and alphabetic English, two written languages with a sharp contrast in phonology and orthography. In Experiment 1, we found that phonological processing of Chinese characters recruits a neural system involving left middle frontal and posterior parietal gyri, cortical regions that are known to contribute to spatial information representation, spatial working memory, and coordination of cognitive resources as a central executive system. We assume that the peak activation of this system is relevant to the unique feature of Chinese that a logographic character has a square configuration that maps onto a monosyllabic unit of speech. Equally important, when our bilingual subjects performed a phonological task on English words, this neural system was most active, whereas brain areas mediating English monolinguals' fine-grained phonemic analysis, as demonstrated by Experiment 2, were only weakly activated. This suggests that our bilingual subjects were applying their L1 system to L2 reading and that the lack of letter-to-sound conversion rules in Chinese led Chinese readers to being less capable of processing English by recourse to an analytic reading system on which English monolinguals rely. Our brain imaging findings lend strongest support to the idea that language experience tunes the cortex. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  1. Resting-state brain activity in the motor cortex reflects task-induced activity: A multi-voxel pattern analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kusano, Toshiki; Kurashige, Hiroki; Nambu, Isao; Moriguchi, Yoshiya; Hanakawa, Takashi; Wada, Yasuhiro; Osu, Rieko

    2015-08-01

    It has been suggested that resting-state brain activity reflects task-induced brain activity patterns. In this study, we examined whether neural representations of specific movements can be observed in the resting-state brain activity patterns of motor areas. First, we defined two regions of interest (ROIs) to examine brain activity associated with two different behavioral tasks. Using multi-voxel pattern analysis with regularized logistic regression, we designed a decoder to detect voxel-level neural representations corresponding to the tasks in each ROI. Next, we applied the decoder to resting-state brain activity. We found that the decoder discriminated resting-state neural activity with accuracy comparable to that associated with task-induced neural activity. The distribution of learned weighted parameters for each ROI was similar for resting-state and task-induced activities. Large weighted parameters were mainly located on conjunctive areas. Moreover, the accuracy of detection was higher than that for a decoder whose weights were randomly shuffled, indicating that the resting-state brain activity includes multi-voxel patterns similar to the neural representation for the tasks. Therefore, these results suggest that the neural representation of resting-state brain activity is more finely organized and more complex than conventionally considered.

  2. Task-based incidental vocabulary learning in L2 Arabic: The role of proficiency and task performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ayman A. Mohamed

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This study tests the claim that word learning in a second language are contingent upon a task’s involvement load (i.e. the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes, as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001. Fifty-three English-speaking learners of Arabic were assigned to one of three vocabulary learning tasks that varied in the degree of involvement: reading comprehension with glosses (low, fill-in-the-gap task (medium, and sentence writing (high. Ten words, selected based on a pretest, were targeted in the tasks. Results showed a main effect of task, with the sentence writing task yielding the highest rates of vocabulary learning, followed by the gap-fill task, and finally the reading comprehension task. A significant correlation was found between accuracy of performance across participants and their subsequent vocabulary acquisition in the immediate posttest. Within groups, only the performance of the writing group correlated significantly with their posttest scores. Results of the present study validate the hypothesis and point to multiple factors at play in incidental vocabulary acquisition. The study provides further arguments to refine the hypothesis and implement pedagogical practices that accommodate incidental learning in foreign language settings.

  3. Reading faster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Nation

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This article describes the visual nature of the reading process as it relates to reading speed. It points out that there is a physical limit on normal reading speed and beyond this limit the reading process will be different from normal reading where almost every word is attended to. The article describes a range of activities for developing reading fluency, and suggests how the development of fluency can become part of a reading programme.

  4. Teacher perceptions affect boys’ and girls’ reading motivation differently

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boerma, I.E.; Mol, S.E.; Jolles, J.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher perceptions and children's reading motivation, with specific attention to gender differences. The reading self-concept, task value, and attitude of 160 fifth and sixth graders were measured. Teachers rated each student's reading

  5. Promoting preschool reading

    OpenAIRE

    Istenič, Vesna

    2013-01-01

    The thesis titled Promoting preschool reading consists of a theoretiral and an empirical part. In the theoretical part I wrote about reading, the importance of reading, types of reading, about reading motivation, promoting reading motivation, internal and external motivation, influence of reading motivation on the child's reading activity, reading and familial literacy, the role of adults in promotion reading literacy, reading to a child and promoting reading in pre-school years, where I ...

  6. Brain activity during auditory and visual phonological, spatial and simple discrimination tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salo, Emma; Rinne, Teemu; Salonen, Oili; Alho, Kimmo

    2013-02-16

    We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure human brain activity during tasks demanding selective attention to auditory or visual stimuli delivered in concurrent streams. Auditory stimuli were syllables spoken by different voices and occurring in central or peripheral space. Visual stimuli were centrally or more peripherally presented letters in darker or lighter fonts. The participants performed a phonological, spatial or "simple" (speaker-gender or font-shade) discrimination task in either modality. Within each modality, we expected a clear distinction between brain activations related to nonspatial and spatial processing, as reported in previous studies. However, within each modality, different tasks activated largely overlapping areas in modality-specific (auditory and visual) cortices, as well as in the parietal and frontal brain regions. These overlaps may be due to effects of attention common for all three tasks within each modality or interaction of processing task-relevant features and varying task-irrelevant features in the attended-modality stimuli. Nevertheless, brain activations caused by auditory and visual phonological tasks overlapped in the left mid-lateral prefrontal cortex, while those caused by the auditory and visual spatial tasks overlapped in the inferior parietal cortex. These overlapping activations reveal areas of multimodal phonological and spatial processing. There was also some evidence for intermodal attention-related interaction. Most importantly, activity in the superior temporal sulcus elicited by unattended speech sounds was attenuated during the visual phonological task in comparison with the other visual tasks. This effect might be related to suppression of processing irrelevant speech presumably distracting the phonological task involving the letters. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. From "rest" to language task: Task activation selects and prunes from broader resting-state network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doucet, Gaelle E; He, Xiaosong; Sperling, Michael R; Sharan, Ashwini; Tracy, Joseph I

    2017-05-01

    Resting-state networks (RSNs) show spatial patterns generally consistent with networks revealed during cognitive tasks. However, the exact degree of overlap between these networks has not been clearly quantified. Such an investigation shows promise for decoding altered functional connectivity (FC) related to abnormal language functioning in clinical populations such as temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). In this context, we investigated the network configurations during a language task and during resting state using FC. Twenty-four healthy controls, 24 right and 24 left TLE patients completed a verb generation (VG) task and a resting-state fMRI scan. We compared the language network revealed by the VG task with three FC-based networks (seeding the left inferior frontal cortex (IFC)/Broca): two from the task (ON, OFF blocks) and one from the resting state. We found that, for both left TLE patients and controls, the RSN recruited regions bilaterally, whereas both VG-on and VG-off conditions produced more left-lateralized FC networks, matching more closely with the activated language network. TLE brings with it variability in both task-dependent and task-independent networks, reflective of atypical language organization. Overall, our findings suggest that our RSN captured bilateral activity, reflecting a set of prepotent language regions. We propose that this relationship can be best understood by the notion of pruning or winnowing down of the larger language-ready RSN to carry out specific task demands. Our data suggest that multiple types of network analyses may be needed to decode the association between language deficits and the underlying functional mechanisms altered by disease. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2540-2552, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. How to teach children reading and spelling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosman, A.M.T.; Schraven, J.L.M.; Segers, E.; Broek, P. van den

    2017-01-01

    The effectiveness of the Dutch reading and spelling didactic 'How to teach children reading and spelling' (HTCRS), developed by Schraven (1994/2013) was empirically tested in children attending special education. HTCRS is based on the principles of direct and classroom instruction, and the task

  9. [Attempt for development of rapid word reading test for children--evaluation of reliability and validity].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashimoto, Ryusaku; Kashiwagi, Mitsuru; Suzuki, Shuhei

    2008-09-01

    We developed a rapid word reading test for examining the phonological processing ability of Japanese children. We prepared two versions of the test, version A and B. Each test has word and non-word tasks. Twenty-two healthy boys of third grade in primary schools participated in this validation study. For criterion related validity, we performed the serial Hiragana reading test, the sentence reading test, Raven's coloured progressive matrices (RCPM), the Token test for children, the Kana word dictation test, the standardized comprehension test of abstract words (SCTAW), and Trail Circle test. The reading times of the newly developed test correlated moderately or highly with those of the serial Hiragana reading test and the sentence reading test. However, the scores of the other tests (RCPM, Token test for children, Kana word dictation test, SCTAW, Trail Circle test) did not correlated with the reading time of the rapid word reading test. Test-retest reliabilities in the word tasks were more than moderate: 0.52 and 0.76 in versions A and B, while those in the non-word tasks were high: 0.91 and 0.88 in versions A and B. The correlation coefficient between versions A and B was 0.7 for the word tasks and 0.92 for the non-word tasks. This study showed that the rapid word reading test has substantial validity and reliability for testing the phonological processing ability of Japanese children. In addition, the non-word tasks were more suitable for selectively examining the speed of the grapheme to phoneme conversion process.

  10. Reading Categories Identified in the Reading Activities of a Caregiver and a Middle-Class Child

    Science.gov (United States)

    Isabel, Borja-Alarcón; Astrid, Ramirez Valencia; Alfonso, López-Vega

    2017-01-01

    This paper aims to report the findings of a research project, developed from the need to make contributions about the characteristics that emerge, when a three-year-old child and his caregiver carry reading activities out. By the use of recordings and students' artifacts, in order to collect data; and analyzing the information collected through…

  11. Brain activation during phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters in deaf signers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yanyan eLi

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies found altered brain function in deaf individuals reading alphabetic orthographies. However, it is not known whether similar alterations of brain function are characteristic of non-alphabetic writing systems and whether alterations are specific to certain kinds of lexical tasks. Here we examined differences in brain activation between Chinese congenitally deaf individuals (CD and hearing controls (HC during character reading tasks requiring phonological and semantic judgments. For both tasks, we found that CD showed less activation than HC in left inferior frontal gyrus, but greater activation in several right hemisphere regions including inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus. Although many group differences were similar across tasks, greater activation in right middle frontal gyrus was more pronounced for the rhyming compared to the meaning task. Finally, within the deaf individuals better performance on the rhyming task was associated with less activation in right inferior parietal lobule and angular gyrus. Our results in Chinese CD are broadly consistent with previous studies in alphabetic languages suggesting greater engagement of inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal cortex for reading that is largely independent of task, with the exception of right middle frontal gyrus for phonological processing. The brain behavior correlations potentially indicate that CD that more efficiently use the right hemisphere are better readers.

  12. Students with Attention Deficit Disorder Carrying out Tasks of Reading Comprehension and Text Production: A Comparative Study in 4th-Grade Students of Primary Education in Chile

    OpenAIRE

    Fabián Andrés Inostroza-Inostroza

    2017-01-01

    The present article aims to compare the performance in students with Attention Deficit Disorder to those who do not present it, in tasks of reading comprehension and text production carried out by students attending the fourth grade of primary education. This quantitative, non-experimental comparative study aims to provide evidence regarding the way in which this condition limits the learning outcomes in the tasks of comprehension and production of texts, language, and communication. One the ...

  13. Prediction of Learning and Comprehension when Adolescents Read Multiple Texts: The Roles of Word-Level Processing, Strategic Approach, and Reading Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braten, Ivar; Ferguson, Leila E.; Anmarkrud, Oistein; Stromso, Helge I.

    2013-01-01

    Sixty-five Norwegian 10th graders used the software Read&Answer 2.0 (Vidal-Abarca et al., 2011) to read five different texts presenting conflicting views on the controversial scientific issue of sun exposure and health. Participants were administered a multiple-choice topic-knowledge measure before and after reading, a word recognition task,…

  14. Gender differences in brain activation on a mental rotation task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semrud-Clikeman, Margaret; Fine, Jodene Goldenring; Bledsoe, Jesse; Zhu, David C

    2012-10-01

    Few neuroimaging studies have explored gender differences on mental rotation tasks. Most studies have utilized samples with both genders, samples mainly consisting of men, or samples with six or fewer females. Graduate students in science fields or liberal arts programs (20 males, 20 females) completed a mental rotation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). When a pair of cube figures was shown, the participant made a keypad response based on whether the pair is the same/similar or different. Regardless of gender, the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and the left precuneus were activated when a subject tried to solve the mental rotation task. Increased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus/middle frontal gyrus, the left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex/cuneus region, and the left middle occipital gyrus was found for men as compared to women. Better accuracy and shorter response times were correlated with an increased activation in the bilateral intraparietal sulcus. No significant brain activity differences related to mental rotation were found between academic majors. These findings suggest that networks involved in visual attention appear to be more strongly activated in the mental rotation tasks in men as compared to women. It also suggests that men use a more automatic process when analyzing complex visual reasoning tasks while women use a more top-down process.

  15. Discourse Memory and Reading Comprehension Skill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perfetti, Charles A.; Goldman, Susan R.

    1976-01-01

    A study is reported in which short-term memory capacity, estimated by a probe digit task, and memory for structured language, measured by a probe discourse task, were investigated in an experiment with third and fifth grade IQ-matched children representing two levels of reading comprehension skill. (Author/RM)

  16. University Students' Reading of Their First-Year Mathematics Textbooks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepherd, Mary D.; Selden, Annie; Selden, John

    2012-01-01

    This article reports the observed behaviors and difficulties that 11 precalculus and calculus students exhibited in reading new passages from their mathematics textbooks. To gauge the "effectiveness" of these students' reading, we asked them to attempt straightforward mathematical tasks, based directly on what they had just read. The…

  17. Role of the Frontal Cortex in Standing Postural Sway Tasks While Dual-Tasking: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study Examining Working Memory Capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiroyuki Fujita

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Posture control during a dual-task involves changing the distribution of attention resources between the cognitive and motor tasks and involves the frontal cortex working memory (WM. The present study aimed to better understand the impact of frontal lobe activity and WM capacity in postural control during a dual-task. High and low WM-span groups were compared using their reading span test scores. High and low WM capacity were compared based on cognitive and balance performance and hemoglobin oxygenation (oxyHb levels during standing during single (S-S, standing during dual (S-D, one leg standing during single (O-S, and one leg standing during dual (O-D tasks. For sway pass length, significant difference in only the O-D task was observed between both groups. oxyHb levels were markedly increased in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area in the high-span group during a dual-task. Therefore, WM capacity influenced the allocation of attentional resources and motor performance.

  18. SHAPING OUR READING CLASSROOM ALIVE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ani Purjayanti

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Reading Comprehension has been determined (by the Director of First Common Year Program to be one of the core subjects for the first year IPB students, either in semester one or two. With the objective of being able to read English texts effectively and efficiently, the teaching of reading for these undergraduate programs are basically confined to skills that can develop reading speed and improve students‘ comprehension and reasoning abilities. Thus, skills like finding both general and specific ideas, guessing unknown words, finding meanings from English-English dictionary, predicting, ad nfinding inferences are those need to be covered. Such kind of teaching, however, can sometimes become a demanding task when dealing with certain classroom conditions and with certain targets. It is, therefore, a challenge for all English teachers in my university to be able to carry out the task well so as to achieve the above teaching objectives. Meanwhile, students‘ evaluation reveals that 3 semesters ago, teachers obtained various scores in their teaching evaluation, ranging from 2 to 3.7 out of the 1-4 scale. This paper, accordingly, is written to find out the teaching method and strategies used by those obtaining relatively good scores (3.2 and above in order to disseminate them as better insights for the teaching of reading not only in my university but also other schools or colleges.

  19. Transfer of an induced preferred retinal locus of fixation to everyday life visual tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barraza-Bernal, Maria J; Rifai, Katharina; Wahl, Siegfried

    2017-12-01

    Subjects develop a preferred retinal locus of fixation (PRL) under simulation of central scotoma. If systematic relocations are applied to the stimulus position, PRLs manifest at a location in favor of the stimulus relocation. The present study investigates whether the induced PRL is transferred to important visual tasks in daily life, namely pursuit eye movements, signage reading, and text reading. Fifteen subjects with normal sight participated in the study. To develop a PRL, all subjects underwent a scotoma simulation in a prior study, where five subjects were trained to develop the PRL in the left hemifield, five different subjects on the right hemifield, and the remaining five subjects could naturally chose the PRL location. The position of this PRL was used as baseline. Under central scotoma simulation, subjects performed a pursuit task, a signage reading task, and a reading-text task. In addition, retention of the behavior was also studied. Results showed that the PRL position was transferred to the pursuit task and that the vertical location of the PRL was maintained on the text reading task. However, when reading signage, a function-driven change in PRL location was observed. In addition, retention of the PRL position was observed over weeks and months. These results indicate that PRL positions can be induced and may further transferred to everyday life visual tasks, without hindering function-driven changes in PRL position.

  20. CHANGE@CERN:Task Force 4: Matching personnel to activities

    CERN Multimedia

    2002-01-01

    Our series on the work of the Task Forces moves on to Human Ressources at CERN. Staff mobility and topics related to contract policy were the main personnel issues to be considered by Task Force 4, led by John Ferguson, head of AS Division. The aim, as with the other Task Forces, was to find ways to focus resources on the LHC, and once again the recommendations recognise the opportunity to make constructive changes, in this case in Human Resources policy at CERN. Movement of staff between divisions at CERN has generally not been easy, with 'staff complements' (total numbers) set for each sector (research, accelerator, technical and administration). However, the restructuring of the accelerator sector (proposed by Task Force 5 and already agreed in principle) should allow some staff to move to LHC activities. More generally, Task Force 4 recommends that the Laboratory carries out a review of all activities, at a relatively detailed level, so as to identify the resources required to achieve specific goals (t...

  1. Does ability to establish sound-symbol pairings mediate the RAN reading relationship?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Mads; Juul, Holger; Elbro, Carsten

    for animals in a paired associate learning task. These animals were then used in a rapid naming task. Results Preliminary results show that reading correlated with the amount of training required for learning the animal names (r=-.19, p=.06). RAN speed with the same animals did not correlate with reading......Performance on tests to rapidly name letters and digits has been shown to correlate with reading. One possible reason is that these tests probe the ability to learn and automatise symbol-sound associations. However, most studies have not controlled for the amount of experience with the RAN......-items, so it is unclear whether it is the experience or the ability to take advantage of the experience that is responsible for the correlation between RAN and reading. Paired associate learning tasks have been shown to differentiate dyslexics from controls, and to correlate with reading in unselected...

  2. Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies Applied by EFL Students

    OpenAIRE

    İnceçay, Görsev

    2013-01-01

    ABSTRACTThe purpose of the present study is twofold. It investigated both what metacognitive online reading strategies the Turkish EFL students report using for academic purposes; and how they use the reported strategies in actual reading tasks. Data came from Online Survey of Reading Strategies (Anderson, 2003), think-aloud protocols and post-reading interview. Results of this study revealed that the students who participated in this study reported a wide range of metacognitive strategies wh...

  3. Unsupervised segmentation of task activated regions in fmRI

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Røge, Rasmus; Madsen, Kristoffer Hougaard; Schmidt, Mikkel Nørgaard

    2015-01-01

    Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging has become a central measuring modality to quantify functional activiation of the brain in both task and rest. Most analysis used to quantify functional activation requires supervised approaches as employed in statistical parametric mapping (SPM) to extract...... framework for the analysis of task fMRI and resting-state data in general where strong knowledge of how the task induces a BOLD response is missing....

  4. Differences in Brain Function and Changes with Intervention in Children with Poor Spelling and Reading Abilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gebauer, Daniela; Fink, Andreas; Kargl, Reinhard; Reishofer, Gernot; Koschutnig, Karl; Purgstaller, Christian; Fazekas, Franz; Enzinger, Christian

    2012-01-01

    Previous fMRI studies in English-speaking samples suggested that specific interventions may alter brain function in language-relevant networks in children with reading and spelling difficulties, but this research strongly focused on reading impaired individuals. Only few studies so far investigated characteristics of brain activation associated with poor spelling ability and whether a specific spelling intervention may also be associated with distinct changes in brain activity patterns. We here investigated such effects of a morpheme-based spelling intervention on brain function in 20 children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities using repeated fMRI. Relative to 10 matched controls, children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities showed increased activation in frontal medial and right hemispheric regions and decreased activation in left occipito-temporal regions prior to the intervention, during processing of a lexical decision task. After five weeks of intervention, spelling and reading comprehension significantly improved in the training group, along with increased activation in the left temporal, parahippocampal and hippocampal regions. Conversely, the waiting group showed increases in right posterior regions. Our findings could indicate an increased left temporal activation associated with the recollection of the new learnt morpheme-based strategy related to successful training. PMID:22693600

  5. Differences in brain function and changes with intervention in children with poor spelling and reading abilities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Gebauer

    Full Text Available Previous fMRI studies in English-speaking samples suggested that specific interventions may alter brain function in language-relevant networks in children with reading and spelling difficulties, but this research strongly focused on reading impaired individuals. Only few studies so far investigated characteristics of brain activation associated with poor spelling ability and whether a specific spelling intervention may also be associated with distinct changes in brain activity patterns. We here investigated such effects of a morpheme-based spelling intervention on brain function in 20 children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities using repeated fMRI. Relative to 10 matched controls, children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities showed increased activation in frontal medial and right hemispheric regions and decreased activation in left occipito-temporal regions prior to the intervention, during processing of a lexical decision task. After five weeks of intervention, spelling and reading comprehension significantly improved in the training group, along with increased activation in the left temporal, parahippocampal and hippocampal regions. Conversely, the waiting group showed increases in right posterior regions. Our findings could indicate an increased left temporal activation associated with the recollection of the new learnt morpheme-based strategy related to successful training.

  6. Effects of reading speed on second-language sentence processing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kaan, Edith; Ballantyne, Jocelyn C.; Wijnen, Frank

    2014-01-01

    To test the effects of reading speed on second-language (L2) sentence processing and the potential influence of conflicting native language word order, we compared advanced L2 learners of English with native English speakers on a self-paced reading task. L2 learners read faster overall than native

  7. Augmented Reality Game-Based Learning: Enriching Students' Experience during Reading Comprehension Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tobar-Muñoz, Hendrys; Baldiris, Silvia; Fabregat, Ramon

    2017-01-01

    Program for International Student Assessment results indicate that while reading comprehension needs to be promoted, teachers are struggling to find ways to motivate students to do reading comprehension activities and although technology-enhanced learning approaches are entering the classroom, researchers are still experimenting with them to…

  8. Reading, syntactic, orthographic, and working memory skills of bilingual Arabic-English speaking Canadian children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Rabia, Salim; Siegel, Linda S

    2002-11-01

    This study assessed the reading, language, and memory skills of 56 bilingual Arab-Canadian children age's 9-14. English was their main instructional language, and Arabic was the language spoken at home. All children attended a Heritage Language Program in Toronto where they were taught to read and write Arabic. The children were administered word and pseudo-word reading, language, and working memory tests in English and Arabic. The majority of the children showed at least adequate proficiency in both languages. There was a significant relationship between the acquisition of word and pseudo-word reading working memory, and syntactic awareness skills in the two languages. The poor readers in Arabic had lower scores on all linguistic tasks, except the visual task. There were no significant differences between bilingual English Arabic children and monolingual English-speaking children on the reading, language, and memory tasks. However, bilingual English Arabic children who had reading problems in English had higher scores on English pseudo-word reading and spelling tasks than monolingual English-speaking children with reading disabilities, probably because of positive transfer from the regular nature of Arabic orthography. In this case, bilingualism does not appear to have negative consequences for the development of language reading skills in both languages--Arabic and English--despite the different nature of the two orthographies.

  9. Reading skills, creativity, and insight: exploring the connections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourgues, Catalina V; Preiss, David D; Grigorenko, Elena L

    2014-08-04

    Studies of the relationship between creativity and specific reading disabilities have produced inconclusive results. We explored their relationship in a sample of 259 college students (age range: 17 to 38 years-old) from three Chilean universities. The students were tested on their verbal ability, creativity, and insight. A simple linear regression was performed on the complete sample, and on high- and low-achievement groups that were formed based on reading test scores. We observed a significant correlation in the total sample between outcomes on the verbal ability tasks, and on the creativity and insight tasks (range r =. 152 to r =. 356, ps creativity and insight tasks (range β = .315 to β = .155, ps creative tasks. Instead, higher verbal ability was found to be associated with higher creativity and insight.

  10. Active controllers and the time duration to learn a task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Repperger, D. W.; Goodyear, C.

    1986-01-01

    An active controller was used to help train naive subjects involved in a compensatory tracking task. The controller is called active in this context because it moves the subject's hand in a direction to improve tracking. It is of interest here to question whether the active controller helps the subject to learn a task more rapidly than the passive controller. Six subjects, inexperienced to compensatory tracking, were run to asymptote root mean square error tracking levels with an active controller or a passive controller. The time required to learn the task was defined several different ways. The results of the different measures of learning were examined across pools of subjects and across controllers using statistical tests. The comparison between the active controller and the passive controller as to their ability to accelerate the learning process as well as reduce levels of asymptotic tracking error is reported here.

  11. Reading comprehension in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Laura L; Rutledge, Stefanie

    2014-05-01

    Although individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) self-report reading problems and experience difficulties in cognitive-linguistic functions that support discourse-level reading, prior research has primarily focused on sentence-level processing and auditory comprehension. Accordingly, the authors investigated the presence and nature of reading comprehension in PD, hypothesizing that (a) individuals with PD would display impaired accuracy and/or speed on reading comprehension tests and (b) reading performances would be correlated with cognitive test results. Eleven adults with PD and 9 age- and education-matched control participants completed tests that evaluated reading comprehension; general language and cognitive abilities; and aspects of attention, memory, and executive functioning. The PD group obtained significantly lower scores on several, but not all, reading comprehension, language, and cognitive measures. Memory, language, and disease severity were significantly correlated with reading comprehension for the PD group. Individuals in the early stages of PD without dementia or broad cognitive deficits can display reading comprehension difficulties, particularly for high- versus basic-level reading tasks. These reading difficulties are most closely related to memory, high-level language, and PD symptom severity status. The findings warrant additional research to delineate further the types and nature of reading comprehension impairments experienced by individuals with PD.

  12. Symbol-String Sensitivity and Children's Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pammer, Kristen; Lavis, Ruth; Hansen, Peter; Cornelissen, Piers L.

    2004-01-01

    In this study of primary school children, a novel "symbol-string" task is used to assess sensitivity to the position of briefly presented non-alphabetic but letter-like symbols. The results demonstrate that sensitivity in the symbol-string task explains a unique proportion of the variability in children's contextual reading accuracy. Moreover,…

  13. Adult reading teachers’ beliefs about how less-skilled adult readers can be taught to read.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janet McHardy

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Despite large-scale interventions, significant numbers of adults worldwide continue to have problems with basic literacy, in particular in the area of reading. To be effective, adult reading teachers need expert knowledge at practitioner level. However, practices in adult reading education vary widely, often reflecting the individual beliefs of each teacher about how an adult can learn to read. In this study, phenomenographic analysis was used to identify categories of approaches to teaching adult reading, used by a group of 60 teachers in Western Australia and New Zealand. Four approaches were identified: reassurance, task-based, theory-based and responsive. It is argued that for teachers to become effective and consistent in responding to learner needs, they must understand their own beliefs and the consequences of these. The identification of different approaches in adult reading education is an important step in this process.

  14. The eye movements of dyslexic children during reading and visual search: impact of the visual attention span.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prado, Chloé; Dubois, Matthieu; Valdois, Sylviane

    2007-09-01

    The eye movements of 14 French dyslexic children having a VA span reduction and 14 normal readers were compared in two tasks of visual search and text reading. The dyslexic participants made a higher number of rightward fixations in reading only. They simultaneously processed the same low number of letters in both tasks whereas normal readers processed far more letters in reading. Importantly, the children's VA span abilities related to the number of letters simultaneously processed in reading. The atypical eye movements of some dyslexic readers in reading thus appear to reflect difficulties to increase their VA span according to the task request.

  15. Cross-lagged relations between teacher and parent ratings of children's task avoidance and different literacy skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Georgiou, George K; Hirvonen, Riikka; Manolitsis, George; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

    2017-09-01

    Task avoidance is a significant predictor of literacy skills. However, it remains unclear whether the relation between the two is reciprocal and whether it is affected by the type of literacy outcome, who is rating children's task avoidance, and the children's gender. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the cross-lagged relations between teacher and parent ratings of children's task avoidance and different literacy skills. One hundred and seventy-two Greek children (91 girls, 81 boys) were followed from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Children were assessed on reading accuracy, reading fluency, and spelling to dictation. Parents and teachers rated the children's task-avoidant behaviour. Results of structural equation modelling showed that the cross-lagged relations varied as a function of the literacy outcome, who rated the children's task avoidance, and children's gender. Earlier reading and spelling performance predicted subsequent parent-rated task avoidance, but parent-rated task avoidance did not predict subsequent reading and spelling performance (with the exception of spelling in Grade 3). Teacher-rated task avoidance and reading fluency/spelling had a reciprocal relationship over time. In addition, the effects of teacher-rated task avoidance on future spelling were significantly stronger in boys than in girls. This suggests that poor reading and spelling performance can lead to subsequent task avoidance in both classroom and home situations. The fact that task avoidance permeates across different learning environments is alarming and calls for joint action from both parents and teachers to mitigate its negative impact on learning. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

  16. An investigation of Chinese university EFL learner’s foreign language reading anxiety, reading strategy use and reading comprehension performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongshe Lu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a Both Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS and Foreign Language Reading Strategy Use Scale (FLRSUS had important subcomponents, (b more than half of the students generally did not feel anxious when reading English, and were confident in and satisfied with their English reading proficiency. Meanwhile, (c more than half of them moderately used different types of reading strategies such as planning, checking and confirming, predicting and assessing, when reading English, (d compared with their female peers, male students felt significantly more anxious when facing reading activities, less satisfied with their English reading proficiency, and used specific analyzing and planning strategies significantly less often during a reading activity, (e FLRAS was significantly inversely related to FLRSUS, and both were significantly correlated with the students’ FL reading comprehension performance, and (f FLRAS (overall FL reading anxiety, FLRAS1 (general anxiety about FL reading, and FLRSUS2 (predicting strategies were good predictors of FL reading comprehension performance. Based on the findings, some implications are discussed.

  17. Brain Activations for Vestibular Stimulation and Dual Tasking Change with Spaceflight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Peng; Koppelmans, Vincent; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia; De Dios, Yiri; Gadd, Nichole; Wood, Scott; Riascos, Roy; Kofman, Igor; Bloomberg, Jacob; Mulavara, Ajitkumar; hide

    2017-01-01

    Previous studies have documented the effects of spaceflight on human physiology and behavior, including muscle mass, cardiovascular function, gait, balance, manual motor control, and cognitive performance. An understanding of spaceflight-related changes provides important information about human adaptive plasticity and facilitates future space travel. In the current study, we evaluated how brain activations associated with vestibular stimulation and dual tasking change as a function of spaceflight. Five crewmembers were included in this study. The durations of their spaceflight missions ranged from 3 months to 7 months. All of them completed at least two preflight assessments and at least one postflight assessment. The preflight sessions occurred, on average, about 198 days and 51 days before launch; the first postflight sessions were scheduled 5 days after return. Functional MRI was acquired during vestibular stimulation and dual tasking, at each session. Vestibular stimulation was administered via skull taps delivered by a pneumatic tactile pulse system placed over the lateral cheekbones. The magnitude of brain activations for vestibular stimulation increased with spaceflight relative to the preflight levels, in frontal areas and the precuneus. In addition, longer flight duration was associated with greater preflight-to-postflight increases in vestibular activation in frontal regions. Functional MRI for finger tapping was acquired during both single-task (finger tapping only) and dual-task (simultaneously performing finger tapping and a secondary counting task) conditions. Preflight-to-post-spaceflight decreases in brain activations for dual tasking were observed in the right postcentral cortex. An association between flight duration and amplitude of flight-related change in activations for dual tasking was observed in the parietal cortex. The spaceflight-related increase in vestibular brain activations suggests that after a long-term spaceflight, more neural

  18. Mapping Learning Outcomes and Assignment Tasks for SPIDER Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lyn Brodie

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Modern engineering programs have to address rapidly changing technical content and have to enable students to develop transferable skills such as critical evaluation, communication skills and lifelong learning. This paper introduces a combined learning and assessment activity that provides students with opportunities to develop and practice their soft skills, but also extends their theoretical knowledge base. Key tasks included self directed inquiry, oral and written communication as well as peer assessment. To facilitate the SPIDER activities (Select, Prepare and Investigate, Discuss, Evaluate, Reflect, a software tool has been implemented in the learning management system Moodle. Evidence shows increased student engagement and better learning outcomes for both transferable as well as technical skills. The study focuses on generalising the relationship between learning outcomes and assignment tasks as well as activities that drive these tasks. Trail results inform the approach. Staff evaluations and their views of assignments and intended learning outcomes also supported this analysis.

  19. Activations of human auditory cortex to phonemic and nonphonemic vowels during discrimination and memory tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harinen, Kirsi; Rinne, Teemu

    2013-08-15

    We used fMRI to investigate activations within human auditory cortex (AC) to vowels during vowel discrimination, vowel (categorical n-back) memory, and visual tasks. Based on our previous studies, we hypothesized that the vowel discrimination task would be associated with increased activations in the anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), while the vowel memory task would enhance activations in the posterior STG and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). In particular, we tested the hypothesis that activations in the IPL during vowel memory tasks are associated with categorical processing. Namely, activations due to categorical processing should be higher during tasks performed on nonphonemic (hard to categorize) than on phonemic (easy to categorize) vowels. As expected, we found distinct activation patterns during vowel discrimination and vowel memory tasks. Further, these task-dependent activations were different during tasks performed on phonemic or nonphonemic vowels. However, activations in the IPL associated with the vowel memory task were not stronger during nonphonemic than phonemic vowel blocks. Together these results demonstrate that activations in human AC to vowels depend on both the requirements of the behavioral task and the phonemic status of the vowels. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Exploring the association between visual perception abilities and reading of musical notation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Horng-Yih

    2012-06-01

    In the reading of music, the acquisition of pitch information depends primarily upon the spatial position of notes as well as upon an individual's spatial processing ability. This study investigated the relationship between the ability to read single notes and visual-spatial ability. Participants with high and low single-note reading abilities were differentiated based upon differences in musical notation-reading abilities and their spatial processing; object recognition abilities were then assessed. It was found that the group with lower note-reading abilities made more errors than did the group with a higher note-reading abilities in the mental rotation task. In contrast, there was no apparent significant difference between the two groups in the object recognition task. These results suggest that note-reading may be related to visual spatial processing abilities, and not to an individual's ability with object recognition.

  1. INTEREST AND READING MOTIVATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alhamdu Alhamdu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interest and reading motivation based on literature review. The concept of the interest portrayed as a psychological state that occurs during interaction between individual and specific topic, object or activity including process of willingness, increased attention, concentration and positive feeling to the topic, object or activity. Meanwhile reading motivation emphasized to mental readiness, willingness and refers to beliefs and perception of individual to engage in reading activity. Some researchers were identified factors that influenced reading motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic factors, self-concept and value of reading, and interest. In general, the literature review described that have positive relationship between interest and reading motivation.

  2. Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Lisa M Soederberg; Cohen, Jason A; Wingfield, Arthur

    2006-09-01

    An experiment is reported in which young, middle-aged, and older adults read and recalled ambiguous texts either with or without the topic title that supplied contextual knowledge. Within each of the age groups, the participants were divided into those with high or low working memory (WM) spans, with available WM capacity further manipulated by the presence or absence of an auditory target detection task concurrent with the reading task. Differences in reading efficiency (reading time per proposition recalled) between low WM span and high WM span groups were greater among readers who had access to contextual knowledge relative to those who did not, suggesting that contextual knowledge reduces demands on WM capacity. This position was further supported by the finding that increased age and attentional demands, two factors associated with reduced WM capacity, exaggerated the benefits of contextual knowledge on reading efficiency. The relative strengths of additional potential predictors of reading efficiency (e.g., interest, effort, and memory beliefs), along with knowledge, WM span, and age, are reported. Findings showed that contextual knowledge was the strongest predictor of reading efficiency even after controlling for the effects of all of the other predictors.

  3. 〈Articles〉The Utility of Reading Strategies and Its Connection to Reading Self-Efficacy

    OpenAIRE

    Lance, Burrows

    2016-01-01

    [Abstract] Self-efficacy is the expectation that one can successfully complete a particular task within a specific domain. Although it has been used to predict human behavior in several different contexts, e.g., educational psychology and medicine, it has not been widely utilized in second language research. There has been some promising research that has shown preliminarily that reading strategy intervention may help promote higher levels of reading self-efficacy. But the studies that have b...

  4. Association between fine motor skills and binocular visual function in children with reading difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niechwiej-Szwedo, Ewa; Alramis, Fatimah; Christian, Lisa W

    2017-12-01

    Performance of fine motor skills (FMS) assessed by a clinical test battery has been associated with reading achievement in school-age children. However, the nature of this association remains to be established. The aim of this study was to assess FMS in children with reading difficulties using two experimental tasks, and to determine if performance is associated with reduced binocular function. We hypothesized that in comparison to an age- and sex-matched control group, children identified with reading difficulties will perform worse only on a motor task that has been shown to rely on binocular input. To test this hypothesis, motor performance was assessed using two tasks: bead-threading and peg-board in 19 children who were reading below expected grade and age-level. Binocular vision assessment included tests for stereoacuity, fusional vergence, amplitude of accommodation, and accommodative facility. In comparison to the control group, children with reading difficulties performed significantly worse on the bead-threading task. In contrast, performance on the peg-board task was similar in both groups. Accommodative facility was the only measure of binocular function significantly associated with motor performance. Findings from our exploratory study suggest that normal binocular vision may provide an important sensory input for the optimal development of FMS and reading. Given the small sample size tested in the current study, further investigation to assess the contribution of binocular vision to the development and performance of FMS and reading is warranted. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Silent music reading: auditory imagery and visuotonal modality transfer in singers and non-singers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoppe, Christian; Splittstößer, Christoph; Fliessbach, Klaus; Trautner, Peter; Elger, Christian E; Weber, Bernd

    2014-11-01

    In daily life, responses are often facilitated by anticipatory imagery of expected targets which are announced by associated stimuli from different sensory modalities. Silent music reading represents an intriguing case of visuotonal modality transfer in working memory as it induces highly defined auditory imagery on the basis of presented visuospatial information (i.e. musical notes). Using functional MRI and a delayed sequence matching-to-sample paradigm, we compared brain activations during retention intervals (10s) of visual (VV) or tonal (TT) unimodal maintenance versus visuospatial-to-tonal modality transfer (VT) tasks. Visual or tonal sequences were comprised of six elements, white squares or tones, which were low, middle, or high regarding vertical screen position or pitch, respectively (presentation duration: 1.5s). For the cross-modal condition (VT, session 3), the visuospatial elements from condition VV (session 1) were re-defined as low, middle or high "notes" indicating low, middle or high tones from condition TT (session 2), respectively, and subjects had to match tonal sequences (probe) to previously presented note sequences. Tasks alternately had low or high cognitive load. To evaluate possible effects of music reading expertise, 15 singers and 15 non-musicians were included. Scanner task performance was excellent in both groups. Despite identity of applied visuospatial stimuli, visuotonal modality transfer versus visual maintenance (VT>VV) induced "inhibition" of visual brain areas and activation of primary and higher auditory brain areas which exceeded auditory activation elicited by tonal stimulation (VT>TT). This transfer-related visual-to-auditory activation shift occurred in both groups but was more pronounced in experts. Frontoparietal areas were activated by higher cognitive load but not by modality transfer. The auditory brain showed a potential to anticipate expected auditory target stimuli on the basis of non-auditory information and

  6. Muscles Activity in the elderly with Balance Impairments in walking under Dual tasks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elaheh Azadian

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Each step during gait requires different attention demands that will affect muscles activity. The study of changes in the timing and intensity of the muscles activity in walking with dual task has received less attention from researchers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in electromyography patterns of gait with cognitive dual tasks in balance impaired elderly. Methods: Thirty older adults were recruited for this study. People were selected through berg balance test. Subjects walked 12-meters in two conditions, normal walking and walking with a cognitive dual task. Spatial-temporal kinematic parameters were recorded through the motion analysis and muscles activities were recorded through electromyography system. The data obtained was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA at a significant level of p< 0.05.  Results: The results showed that walking under dual tasks would decrease gait speed and increase stride time and stance time. Also muscle activity in Tibialis anterior and Vastus lateralis in stance-phase would decrease significantly in dual tasks as compared with single task (p< 0.05, but timing of muscle activity would not change in dual task conditions.  Conclusions: Based on the results, it can be argued that walking under a dual task can change spatial-temporal parameters and muscle activity in gait pattern in the elderly with balance impairment. One explanation could be that the decreased control of the central nervous system on muscle activity in stance phase due to the performing of a dual task.

  7. Deeper Processing for Better EFL Reading Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oded, Brenda; Walters, Joel

    2001-01-01

    Investigates the extent to which tasks involving processing differences in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) reading result in differences in performance on comprehension. Processing differences were created by the assignment of two tasks--writing a text summary and listing the examples in the text. (Author/VWL)

  8. Neural correlates reveal sub-lexical orthography and phonology during reading aloud: A review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kalinka eTimmer

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The sub-lexical conversion of graphemes-to-phonemes (GPC during reading has been investigated extensively with behavioral measures, as well as event-related potentials (ERPs. Most research utilizes silent reading (e.g., lexical decision task for which phonological activation is not a necessity. However, recent research employed reading aloud to capture sub-lexical GPC. The masked priming paradigm avoids strategic processing and is therefore well suitable for capturing sub-lexical processing instead of lexical effects. By employing ERPs, the on-line time course of sub-lexical GPC can be observed before the overt response. ERPs have revealed that besides phonological activation, as revealed by behavioral studies, there is also early orthographic activation. This review describes studies in one’s native language, in one’s second language, and in a cross-language situation. We discuss the implications the ERP results have on different (computational models. First, the ERP results show that computational models should assume an early locus of the grapheme-to-phoneme-conversion (GPC. Second, cross-language studies reveal that the phonological representations from both languages of a bilingual become activated automatically and the phonology belonging to the context is selected rapidly. Therefore, it is important to extend the scope of computational models of reading (aloud to multiple lexicons.

  9. Incidental orthographic learning during a color detection task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Protopapas, Athanassios; Mitsi, Anna; Koustoumbardis, Miltiadis; Tsitsopoulou, Sofia M; Leventi, Marianna; Seitz, Aaron R

    2017-09-01

    Orthographic learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge about specific spelling patterns forming words and about general biases and constraints on letter sequences. It is thought to occur by strengthening simultaneously activated visual and phonological representations during reading. Here we demonstrate that a visual perceptual learning procedure that leaves no time for articulation can result in orthographic learning evidenced in improved reading and spelling performance. We employed task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL), in which the stimuli to be learned are paired with an easy task target. Assorted line drawings and difficult-to-spell words were presented in red color among sequences of other black-colored words and images presented in rapid succession, constituting a fast-TIPL procedure with color detection being the explicit task. In five experiments, Greek children in Grades 4-5 showed increased recognition of words and images that had appeared in red, both during and after the training procedure, regardless of within-training testing, and also when targets appeared in blue instead of red. Significant transfer to reading and spelling emerged only after increased training intensity. In a sixth experiment, children in Grades 2-3 showed generalization to words not presented during training that carried the same derivational affixes as in the training set. We suggest that reinforcement signals related to detection of the target stimuli contribute to the strengthening of orthography-phonology connections beyond earlier levels of visually-based orthographic representation learning. These results highlight the potential of perceptual learning procedures for the reinforcement of higher-level orthographic representations. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. An Examination of Offline And Online Reading Strategies in EFL Contexts

    OpenAIRE

    Ching-Yi Tien; Paul Talley

    2014-01-01

    With the increasing use of the internet for reading texts, the habit of reading has been greatly influenced. More and more readers are choosing to read online rather than reading paper texts. In a pedagogical context, some research suggest that an increased number of second language (L2) classrooms are engaging learners through online reading tasks. This paper aims to examine the differences between offline (paper) reading and online (computer-assisted language learning) reading strategies as...

  11. An evaluation of reading comprehension of expository text in adults with traumatic brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Griffiths, Gina G; Fickas, Stephen

    2014-05-01

    This project was conducted to obtain information about reading problems of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments and to investigate how these readers respond to reading comprehension strategy prompts integrated into digital versions of text. Participants from 2 groups, adults with TBI (n = 15) and matched controls (n = 15), read 4 different 500-word expository science passages linked to either a strategy prompt condition or a no-strategy prompt condition. The participants' reading comprehension was evaluated using sentence verification and free recall tasks. The TBI and control groups exhibited significant differences on 2 of the 5 reading comprehension measures: paraphrase statements on a sentence verification task and communication units on a free recall task. Unexpected group differences were noted on the participants' prerequisite reading skills. For the within-group comparison, participants showed significantly higher reading comprehension scores on 2 free recall measures: words per communication unit and type-token ratio. There were no significant interactions. The results help to elucidate the nature of reading comprehension in adults with TBI with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments and endorse further evaluation of reading comprehension strategies as a potential intervention option for these individuals. Future research is needed to better understand how individual differences influence a person's reading and response to intervention.

  12. Patterns of Reading Performance in Acute Stroke: A Descriptive Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauren L. Cloutman

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the main sources of information regarding the underlying processes involved in both normal and impaired reading has been the study of reading deficits that occur as a result of brain damage. However, patterns of reading deficits found acutely after brain injury have been little explored. The observed patterns of performance in chronic stroke patients might reflect reorganization of the cognitive processes underlying reading or development of compensatory strategies that are not normally used to read. Method: 112 acute left hemisphere stroke patients were administered a task of oral reading of words and pseudowords within 1–2 days of hospital admission; performance was examined for error rate and type, and compared to that on tasks involving visual lexical decision, visual/auditory comprehension, and naming. Results: Several distinct patterns of performance were identified. Although similarities were found between the patterns of reading performance observed acutely and the classical acquired dyslexias generally identified more chronically, some notable differences were observed. Of interest was the finding that no patient produced any pure semantic errors in reading, despite finding such errors in comprehension and naming.

  13. Reading in Developmental Prosopagnosia: Evidence for a Dissociation Between Word and Face Recognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja; Petersen, Anders

    2018-01-01

    exposure durations (targeting the word superiority effect), and d) text reading. Results: Participants with developmental prosopagnosia performed strikingly similar to controls across the four reading tasks. Formal analysis revealed a significant dissociation between word and face recognition......, that is, impaired reading in developmental prosopagnosia. Method: We tested 10 adults with developmental prosopagnosia and 20 matched controls. All participants completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Cambridge Face Perception test and a Face recognition questionnaire used to quantify everyday face...... recognition experience. Reading was measured in four experimental tasks, testing different levels of letter, word, and text reading: a) single word reading with words of varying length, b) vocal response times in single letter and short word naming, c) recognition of single letters and short words at brief...

  14. Discovery of high-level tasks in the operating room

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouarfa, L.; Jonker, P.P.; Dankelman, J.

    2010-01-01

    Recognizing and understanding surgical high-level tasks from sensor readings is important for surgical workflow analysis. Surgical high-level task recognition is also a challenging task in ubiquitous computing because of the inherent uncertainty of sensor data and the complexity of the operating

  15. Braille in the Sighted: Teaching Tactile Reading to Sighted Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bola, Łukasz; Siuda-Krzywicka, Katarzyna; Paplińska, Małgorzata; Sumera, Ewa; Hańczur, Paweł; Szwed, Marcin

    2016-01-01

    Blind people are known to have superior perceptual abilities in their remaining senses. Several studies suggest that these enhancements are dependent on the specific experience of blind individuals, who use those remaining senses more than sighted subjects. In line with this view, sighted subjects, when trained, are able to significantly progress in relatively simple tactile tasks. However, the case of complex tactile tasks is less obvious, as some studies suggest that visual deprivation itself could confer large advantages in learning them. It remains unclear to what extent those complex skills, such as braille reading, can be learnt by sighted subjects. Here we enrolled twenty-nine sighted adults, mostly braille teachers and educators, in a 9-month braille reading course. At the beginning of the course, all subjects were naive in tactile braille reading. After the course, almost all were able to read whole braille words at a mean speed of 6 words-per-minute. Subjects with low tactile acuity did not differ significantly in braille reading speed from the rest of the group, indicating that low tactile acuity is not a limiting factor for learning braille, at least at this early stage of learning. Our study shows that most sighted adults can learn whole-word braille reading, given the right method and a considerable amount of motivation. The adult sensorimotor system can thus adapt, to some level, to very complex tactile tasks without visual deprivation. The pace of learning in our group was comparable to congenitally and early blind children learning braille in primary school, which suggests that the blind's mastery of complex tactile tasks can, to a large extent, be explained by experience-dependent mechanisms.

  16. The Relation between Reading Skills and Eye Movement Patterns in Adolescent Readers: Evidence from a Regular Orthography.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magdalena Krieber

    Full Text Available Over the past decades, the relation between reading skills and eye movement behavior has been well documented in English-speaking cohorts. As English and German differ substantially with regard to orthographic complexity (i.e. grapheme-phoneme correspondence, we aimed to delineate specific characteristics of how reading speed and reading comprehension interact with eye movements in typically developing German-speaking (Austrian adolescents. Eye movements of 22 participants (14 females; mean age = 13;6 years;months were tracked while they were performing three tasks, namely silently reading words, texts, and pseudowords. Their reading skills were determined by means of a standardized German reading speed and reading comprehension assessment (Lesegeschwindigkeits- und -verständnistest für Klassen 6-12. We found that (a reading skills were associated with various eye movement parameters in each of the three reading tasks; (b better reading skills were associated with an increased efficiency of eye movements, but were primarily linked to spatial reading parameters, such as the number of fixations per word, the total number of saccades and saccadic amplitudes; (c reading speed was a more reliable predictor for eye movement parameters than reading comprehension; (d eye movements were highly correlated across reading tasks, which indicates consistent reading performances. Contrary to findings in English-speaking cohorts, the reading skills neither consistently correlated with temporal eye movement parameters nor with the number or percentage of regressions made while performing any of the three reading tasks. These results indicate that, although reading skills are associated with eye movement patterns irrespective of language, the temporal and spatial characteristics of this association may vary with orthographic consistency.

  17. Upper Limb Muscle and Brain Activity in Light Assembly Task on Different Load Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zadry, Hilma Raimona; Dawal, Siti Zawiah Md.; Taha, Zahari

    2010-10-01

    A study was conducted to investigate the effect of load on upper limb muscles and brain activities in light assembly task. The task was conducted at two levels of load (Low and high). Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to measure upper limb muscle activities of twenty subjects. Electroencephalography (EEG) was simultaneously recorded with EMG to record brain activities from Fz, Pz, O1 and O2 channels. The EMG Mean Power Frequency (MPF) of the right brachioradialis and the left upper trapezius activities were higher on the high-load task compared to low-load task. The EMG MPF values also decrease as time increases, that reflects muscle fatigue. Mean power of the EEG alpha bands for the Fz-Pz channels were found to be higher on the high-load task compared to low-load task, while for the O1-O2 channels, they were higher on the low-load task than on the high-load task. These results indicated that the load levels effect the upper limb muscle and brain activities. The high-load task will increase muscle activities on the right brachioradialis and the left upper tapezius muscles, and will increase the awareness and motivation of the subjects. Whilst the low-load task can generate drowsiness earlier. It signified that the longer the time and the more heavy of the task, the subjects will be more fatigue physically and mentally.

  18. Note Launchers: Promoting Active Reading of Mathematics Textbooks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helms, Josh W.; Helms, Kimberly Turner

    2010-01-01

    Note launchers, an instructor-designed reading guide, model how to select, decide, and focus upon what textbook material is important to learn. Reading guides are specially-designed study aids that can steer students through difficult parts of assigned readings (Bean, 1996) while encouraging advance preparation. As an example of a reading guide,…

  19. Proceedings of the IRI Task Force Activity 2002. 1. ed

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radicella, S.M.

    2003-06-01

    This ICTP Internal Report contains the list of papers presented, activity reports and the write up of a number of presentations delivered during the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) Task Force Activity 2002 which took place at the Abdus Salam ICTP during August 2002. The 2002 Task Force Activity is the ninth successful encounter of specialists organized by the URSI-Cospar IRI Working Group and the Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics of Trieste, Italy. The main topics of the meeting were ionosphere variability and topside ionosphere

  20. The Relationship between Interpersonal Intelligence, Reading Activity and Vocabulary Learning among Iranian EFL Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustapha Hajebi

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to describe the relationship between Interpersonal Intelligence and the learners' vocabulary learning through teaching reading activity so as to see whether this type of intelligence contributes to better vocabulary learning and whether there is any significant relationship between the performance of participants with interpersonal intelligence and their vocabulary learning in reading activity or not. This quantitative study consisted of a vocabulary test, a reading passage, an English proficiency test and a Multiple Intelligences questionnaire followed the study. A pre- test and post -test were conducted to get the differences in the students‟ post- test vocabulary score and their pre- test vocabulary score served as their gain score in vocabulary knowledge through reading. The comparison between the students‟ scores showed that there was no significant difference in the final performance of two groups. Therefore, this study doesn‟t support the idea of relationship between interpersonal intelligence and vocabulary learning through reading, but as a positive point, the present study indicated that reading texts can greatly assist the learners in developing the level of their vocabulary knowledge. This study proved to be useful for Iranian EFL learners and also EFL teachers can adopt the technique in their classes to advance their students' language learning. A comparison of the results after the next course cycle will then allow us to assess the effects of enhancing vocabulary knowledge, which would not be possible without reading texts.

  1. Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey Scores for Reading Versus Other Near Visual Activities in School-Age Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Tiana Y; Clark, Robert A

    2015-11-01

    To measure the difference in Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey scores for reading vs favorite near visual activities. Comparative validity analysis of diagnostic tools. At a single clinical private practice, 100 children aged 9-18 with normal binocular vision were recruited to receive either the original survey emphasizing reading or a modified survey replacing "reading" with their favorite near activity. Average survey scores and subscores for questions emphasizing fatigue, discomfort, impaired vision, and cognitive performance were compared using t tests, while responses to individual questions were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests. The average reading survey score was significantly greater than the favorite near activity survey score (14.1 ± 11.5 vs 6.7 ± 5.8, P = .0001). The largest difference resulted from questions emphasizing cognitive performance (subscore 5.8 ± 4.3 vs 2.0 ± 2.1, P = .0000002), although significant differences were also found for fatigue (5.4 ± 3.8 vs 3.0 ± 2.7, P = .0003), discomfort (3.9 ± 4.6 vs 1.8 ± 2.2, P = .004), and impaired vision (3.2 ± 3.9 vs 1.8 ± 2.2, P = .02). Significant differences were found for 7 survey questions, with higher symptom scores for the reading survey in every case. Using survey scores ≥16 to diagnose convergence insufficiency, significantly more children taking the reading survey would have been diagnosed with convergence insufficiency than children taking the favorite near activity survey (19 of 50 [38%] vs 5 of 50 [10%], P = .001). By emphasizing reading, the Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey score significantly overestimates near visual symptoms in children with normal binocular vision compared with symptoms caused by preferred near activities that require similar amplitudes of accommodation and convergence. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Observing documentary reading by verbal protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fujita Mariangela Spotti Lopes

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Verifies the applicability to research on indexers' reading strategies of the process observing technique known as Verbal Protocol or Thinking Aloud. This interpretative-qualitative data collecting technique allows the observation of different kinds of process during the progress of different kinds of tasks. Presents a theoretical investigation into "reading" and into formal methodological procedures to observe reading processes. Describes details of the methodological procedures adopted in five case studies with analysis of samples of data. The project adopted three kinds of parameters for data analysis: theoretical, normative, empirical (derived from observations made in the first case study. The results are compared, and important conclusions regarding documentary reading are drawn.

  3. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TASK AVERSIVENESS AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magvirasari Lestari Linra

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Academic procrastination occurs when certain tasks are considered unpleasant, an unpleasant task and the usual delayed them is the task of writing, reading, studying for the exam, meetings, and administrative. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of the task aversiveness with academic procrastination. Subject of the study were 100 students out of a population of 516 students of the Faculty of Psychology class of 2012-2014. The method used in this research is quantitative by using Spearman rho as data analysis techniques. The research instrument consists of academic procrastination scale and the scale of the task aversiveness. Based on the results of correlation is known that there is a positive relationship between task aversiveness with academic procrastination with a correlation coefficient r = 0.508; p = 0.000. The results showed that of the 100 students of the Faculty of Psychology University of Makassar has a degree of relationship between task aversiveness with academic procrastination is on the very low category (25, 8%. Area / types of tasks delayed is not necessarily an unpleasant task and otherwise unpleasant task may not be postponed. Area task the highest level of aversive and delays are areas the task of writing and reading. This study illustrates that academic procrastination can be lowered by a change in the mindset of an unpleasant task.

  4. Effect of Kanji and Kana reading on cerebral blood flow patterns measured by PET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiyosawa, Motohiro; Itoh, Masatoshi; Nakagawa, Youichi; Kobayashi, Naoki; Tamai, Makoto.

    1995-01-01

    To investigate the respective functions of pathways in processing visual information from different types of symbols, by positron emission tomography (PET) we examined the effect on cerebral blood flow (CBF) of reading the Japanese morphogram (kanji) versus the syllabogram (kana). Nine Japanese men were presented with three visual conditions in random order 2 minutes before the scan: eyes open controls, kanji morphogram reading, and kana syllabogram reading. Three words written in kanji or kana were shown, and subjects were instructed to read them silently and to identify the word unrelated logically to the other two. The reading and analyzing tasks activated wide areas of vision-related cortices. The comparison of the kanji and kana readings showed higher metabolism, with the former only in the posterior part of the primary visual cortex. Most of the CBF increases were common for both stimuli, although the patterns of these increases differed slightly. The correlation matrix of CBF change in the left hemisphere showed a ventral connection in kanji reading and a dorsal connection in kana reading. Our results suggest there is a functional differentiation in the brain between patterned and sequential perception when reading Japanese morphograms and syllabograms. (author)

  5. The Development of Reading and Spelling in Arabic Orthography: Two Parallel Processes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taha, Haitham

    2016-01-01

    The parallels between reading and spelling skills in Arabic were tested. One-hundred forty-three native Arab students, with typical reading development, from second, fourth, and sixth grades were tested with reading, spelling and orthographic decision tasks. The results indicated a full parallel between the reading and spelling performances within…

  6. An fMRI Study of Nonverbally Gifted Reading Disabled Adults: Has Deficit Compensation Effected Gifted Potential?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey W Gilger

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Neuroscience has advanced our understanding of the neurological basis of reading disability. Yet, no functional imaging work has been reported on the twice-exceptional dyslexic: individuals exhibiting both nonverbal-giftedness and reading disability (RD. We compared groups of reading-disabled (RD, nonverbally-gifted (G, nonverbally-gifted-RD (GRD, and control (C adults on validated word-rhyming and spatial visualization fMRI tasks, and standardized psychometric tests, to ascertain if the neurological functioning of GRD subjects was similar to that of typical RD or G subjects, or perhaps some unique RD subtype. Results demonstrate that GRD adults resemble non-gifted reading disabled (RD adults in performance on paper-and-pencil reading, math and spatial tests, and in patterns of functional activation during rhyming and spatial processing. Data are consistent with what may be a shared etiology of reading disability and giftedness in GRD individuals that yields a lifespan interaction with reading compensation effects, modifying how their adult brain processes text and spatial stimuli.

  7. Reading Performances between Novices and Experts in Different Media Multitasking Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Lin; Robertson, Tip; Lee, Jennifer

    2009-01-01

    This experimental study investigated connections between subject expertise and multitasking ability among college students. One hundred thirty college students participated in the study. Participants were assessed on their subject expertise and reading tasks under three conditions: (a) reading only (silence condition), (b) reading with a video…

  8. Iowa City Reads! The Reading Event Worth Shouting About.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donham van Deusen, Jean; Langhorne, Mary Jo

    1997-01-01

    Describes the Community Reading Month (CRM) initiative in Iowa City, Iowa; its goals are to promote the value of reading and to build a sense of community. Topics include the development of CRM, increased reading scores of Iowa City's elementary school students, activities for people of all ages, and planning and evaluation. (AEF)

  9. Lip-reading enhancement for law enforcement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theobald, Barry J.; Harvey, Richard; Cox, Stephen J.; Lewis, Colin; Owen, Gari P.

    2006-09-01

    Accurate lip-reading techniques would be of enormous benefit for agencies involved in counter-terrorism and other law-enforcement areas. Unfortunately, there are very few skilled lip-readers, and it is apparently a difficult skill to transmit, so the area is under-resourced. In this paper we investigate the possibility of making the lip-reading task more amenable to a wider range of operators by enhancing lip movements in video sequences using active appearance models. These are generative, parametric models commonly used to track faces in images and video sequences. The parametric nature of the model allows a face in an image to be encoded in terms of a few tens of parameters, while the generative nature allows faces to be re-synthesised using the parameters. The aim of this study is to determine if exaggerating lip-motions in video sequences by amplifying the parameters of the model improves lip-reading ability. We also present results of lip-reading tests undertaken by experienced (but non-expert) adult subjects who claim to use lip-reading in their speech recognition process. The results, which are comparisons of word error-rates on unprocessed and processed video, are mixed. We find that there appears to be the potential to improve the word error rate but, for the method to improve the intelligibility there is need for more sophisticated tracking and visual modelling. Our technique can also act as an expression or visual gesture amplifier and so has applications to animation and the presentation of information via avatars or synthetic humans.

  10. [Physiological and hygienic assessment of perception of the information from electronic device for reading (reader)].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuchma, V R; Teksheva, L M; Vyatleva, O A; Kurgansky, A M

    2013-01-01

    A comparison of the legibility of the three different media: paper personal computer (LCD) and the e-reader in schoolchildren (12-14 years of age) was performed. Comprehensive assessment of the reading performance (speed of reading aloud, the number of errors in reading, and integral indicator of the degree of difficulty of visual task), its physiological value (according to data of EEG, EOG and ECG), and subjective preference of type of media by the schoolchildren showed that by the sum of signs e-reader occupies an intermediate position between printed text and the computer screen. The effect of increased emotional intensity of using e-reader (increased motivation), which is manifested in the preservation of the sympathetic nervous system activation after the reading, was obtained. The necessity of additional research has been shown.

  11. The processing of morphology in children with and without reading disabilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miguel Lázaro

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of an experiment carried out to study the morphological processing of children with, and without, reading disorders. Is it the case that children use the morphological constituents of a word to understand it, and how is this usage influenced by reading ability? We have studied this issue by presenting novel complex words in a semantic definition task with eight years old children. Our results show that, even in a no time pressure task, proficient readers were better at constructing the meaning of novel complex words than children with a reading impairment. These results show that differences between proficient and reading disabled children are not only related to lexical access, but also to the lexical and semantic processing.

  12. Towards a Dynamic Model of Skills Involved in Sight Reading Music

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kopiez, Reinhard; Lee, Ji In

    2006-01-01

    This study investigates the relationship between selected predictors of achievement in playing unrehearsed music (sight reading) and the changing complexity of sight reading tasks. The question under investigation is, how different variables gain or lose significance as sight reading stimuli become more difficult. Fifty-two piano major graduates…

  13. Patterns of brain and cardiovascular activation while solving rule-discovery and rule-application numeric tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sosnowski, Tytus; Rynkiewicz, Andrzej; Wordecha, Małgorzata; Kępkowicz, Anna; Majewska, Adrianna; Pstrągowska, Aleksandra; Oleksy, Tomasz; Wypych, Marek; Marchewka, Artur

    2017-07-01

    It is known that solving mental tasks leads to tonic increase in cardiovascular activity. Our previous research showed that tasks involving rule application (RA) caused greater tonic increase in cardiovascular activity than tasks requiring rule discovery (RD). However, it is not clear what brain mechanisms are responsible for this difference. The aim of two experimental studies was to compare the patterns of brain and cardiovascular activity while both RD and the RA numeric tasks were being solved. The fMRI study revealed greater brain activation while solving RD tasks than while solving RA tasks. In particular, RD tasks evoked greater activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus and selected areas in the parietal, and temporal cortices, including the precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and the superior temporal gyrus, and the cingulate cortex. In addition, RA tasks caused larger increases in HR than RD tasks. The second study, carried out in a cardiovascular laboratory, showed greater increases in heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) while solving RA tasks than while solving RD tasks. The results support the hypothesis that RD and RA tasks involve different modes of information processing, but the neuronal mechanism responsible for the observed greater cardiovascular response to RA tasks than to RD tasks is not completely clear. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  14. THE USE OF SCHEMATA IN READING COMPREHENSION: A CASE OF LEARNERS’ READING PROBLEMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cucu Sutarsyah

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The Use of Schemata in Reading Comprehension: A Case of Learners’ Reading Problems. Schemata have an important role in the process of reading. It is almost impossible for a person to read without utilizing schemata. This study aimed to find learners’ reading problem in terms of using sche­mata.  A group of second year students of English Department of State University of Malang were in­volved in this study. As a case study, an interview, observation, and test were used to collect the data. The study reveals that the main reading problems were lack of background knowledge, over-reliance on background knowledge, and lack of background knowledge activation. In the process of reading, learn­ers’ background knowledge should be activated. Without optimal activation, the process of reading does not reach satisfactory results. It is also suggested that learners should not be over confident in get­ting the meaning from the text. Over-reliance on background knowledge might lead to misinterpretation.

  15. Significant Structuring Resources in the Reading Practices of a Digital Classroom

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annika Lantz-Andersson

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Since reading and writing digitally demand partially different competencies, there is a change in some of the premises of related educational practices. This study aims to contribute to the knowledge of educational reading practices by scrutinizing how literacy events evolve in a digital classroom where each student has a personal digital device (1:1, iPads in this study. Our study is grounded in sociocultural theories of learning and focuses on the structuring resources utilized by students, namely the notion of multiple ongoing activities and the ways in which specific resources take precedence in shaping these activities. One class of 13–14 year-old students was studied for a week across several subjects through video-recordings and observations. The findings imply that the students moved among vast array of reading practices. However, the main structuring resource is a strong focus on task-solving and the practice of schooling, which mainly builds on principles emanating from traditional text. It is only occasionally that structuring resources that also include the opportunities associated with digital technology are utilized. This indicates the importance of further studies on how educational practices could be organized to scaffold the basis of traditional reading comprehension as well as other approaches required in digital environments.

  16. A Biologically Realistic Cortical Model of Eye Movement Control in Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heinzle, Jakob; Hepp, Klaus; Martin, Kevan A. C.

    2010-01-01

    Reading is a highly complex task involving a precise integration of vision, attention, saccadic eye movements, and high-level language processing. Although there is a long history of psychological research in reading, it is only recently that imaging studies have identified some neural correlates of reading. Thus, the underlying neural mechanisms…

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

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burton, H; Snyder, A Z; Conturo, T E; Akbudak, E; Ollinger, J M; Raichle, M E

    2002-01-01

    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

  18. The Role of CLEAR Thinking in Learning Science from Multiple-Document Inquiry Tasks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas D. GRIFFIN

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available The main goal for the current study was to investigate whether individual differences in domaingeneral thinking dispositions might affect learning from multiple-document inquiry tasks in science.Middle school students were given a set of documents and were tasked with understanding how and why recent patterns in global temperature might be different from what has been observed in the past from those documents. Understanding was assessed with two measures: an essay task and an inference verification task. Domain-general thinking dispositions were assessed with a Commitment to Logic, Evidence, and Reasoning (CLEAR thinking scale. The measures of understanding wereuniquely predicted by both reading skills and CLEAR thinking scores, and these effects were not attributable to prior knowledge or interest. The results suggest independent roles for thinkingdispositions and reading ability when students read to learn from multiple-document inquiry tasks in science.

  19. Investigation on the Relationship between Information Communication Technology and Reading Literacy for Northeast Asian Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lai Yi-Horng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of internet communication technologies (ICT usage and reading literacy of Northeast Asian Students in PISA 2009. ICT was crucial for all governments in the world towards promoting equity. ICT had been considered a low cost opportunity towards equalizing educational systems. A multilevel modelling (MLM was applied to identify at which school-level the largest variations in the three indicators exist in this study. With MLM, it could be examine simultaneously the effects of different hierarchical school-level variables; to take account of possible correlations of students’ reading literacy in this study within higher levels (Urbanization, Total number of students Computers for education which may otherwise lead to incorrect standard errors and inefficient estimates; to treat higher levels as related; and to examine inter-area variations at each level. The empirical results include the different between group components was significant. Self-confidence in ICT high level tasks was positive with students’ reading literacy, and self-confidence in ICT high level tasks was negative with students’ reading literacy. The urbanization of schools’ area and total number of students of schools were positive with students’ reading literacy. The urbanization of schools’ area was negative with the relationship of ICT for school related tasks and students’ reading literacy. Total number of students was negative with the relationship of ICT for school related tasks and students’ reading literacy, and ICT availability in school and students’ reading literacy.

  20. Quantum reading capacity: General definition and bounds

    OpenAIRE

    Das, Siddhartha; Wilde, Mark M.

    2017-01-01

    Quantum reading refers to the task of reading out classical information stored in a classical memory. In any such protocol, the transmitter and receiver are in the same physical location, and the goal of such a protocol is to use these devices, coupled with a quantum strategy, to read out as much information as possible from a classical memory, such as a CD or DVD. In this context, a memory cell is a collection of quantum channels that can be used to encode a classical message in a memory. Th...

  1. VUJE tasks and activities during gradual upgrading

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferenc, M.

    2001-01-01

    The paper describes the organization and management of the Gradual Upgrading of the Bohunice V1 NPP and the principle tasks and scope of activities provided by VUJE Trnava, Inc. It also describes the system of supplies and the system of quality assurance both in the consortium and in subcontractors. (author)

  2. Electrophysiological correlates of reading in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez-Perez, P A; Hernandez-Exposito, S; Perez, J; Ramirez, G; Dominguez, A

    2018-03-16

    To investigate whether or not the deficits in executive functions in the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect reading comprehension and identify a potential biological marker of this neuropsychological endophenotype through event-related potentials (ERP). The phenotypic association between reading comprehension and the specific functions of inhibition and working memory is studied. The sample consisted of 52 children with ADHD (8-13 years) divided in two groups according to the presence (TDAH-; n = 27; percentile TDAH+; n = 25; percentile > 50) of reading comprehension deficits and a control group (n = 27). The executive functions were evaluated. The ERPs were assessed during a task in which anaphoric sentences of different lengths were presented, recording the ERP in the last adjective of the sentence that required a gender agreement. Working memory and inhibition were associated to reading comprehension performance. The ADHD+ group and the control group seem to detect the disagreement at 100 ms, while the ADHD- group does not activate its working memory until 250 ms. The delay in the implementation of the working memory mechanisms helps us to understand the deficits in reading comprehension of the ADHD- group.

  3. Why Does Working Memory Capacity Predict Variation in Reading Comprehension? On the Influence of Mind Wandering and Executive Attention

    Science.gov (United States)

    McVay, Jennifer C.; Kane, Michael J.

    2012-01-01

    Some people are better readers than others, and this variation in comprehension ability is predicted by measures of working memory capacity (WMC). The primary goal of this study was to investigate the mediating role of mind wandering experiences in the association between WMC and normal individual differences in reading comprehension, as predicted by the executive-attention theory of WMC (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004). We used a latent-variable, structural-equation-model approach, testing skilled adult readers on three WMC span tasks, seven varied reading comprehension tasks, and three attention-control tasks. Mind wandering was assessed using experimenter-scheduled thought probes during four different tasks (two reading, two attention-control tasks). The results support the executive-attention theory of WMC. Mind wandering across the four tasks loaded onto a single latent factor, reflecting a stable individual difference. Most importantly, mind wandering was a significant mediator in the relationship between WMC and reading comprehension, suggesting that the WMC-comprehension correlation is driven, in part, by attention control over intruding thoughts. We discuss implications for theories of WMC, attention control, and reading comprehension. PMID:21875246

  4. The Effect of the Reader's Background on Reading Comprehension Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bushra Saadoon Mohammed Al-Noori

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aims at measuring the amount of the effect of the reader's background knowledge on performance in reading comprehension tests through the assessment of information gained in reading comprehension (RC tests across-four testing techniques, short answer questions ,true-false items , multiple - choice items , and cloze test and re-test. This technique involves the examinees in two types of tasks, i.e. pre-reading and post -reading task. Two hypotheses have been proposed to achieve the aims of this study. They are  1-There are no significant differences between the pre-reading and post-reading performances of examinees on reading comprehension(RC. 2-There are no significant differences in information gain scores across the different techniques of testing reading comprehension (RC in EFL. To verify the validity of these two hypotheses, a number of statistical procedures have been used such as arithmetical mean, t-test for correlated and independent samples to analyze the performance of third and fourth year College students studying at the Department of English at University of Baghdad /Ibn Rushd College of Education for Humanities on two reading passages taken from TOEFL practice tests (2011. The analysis of the data has shown the following results: 1-The background knowledge has an effect on the performance on reading comprehension (RC. 2-There is a significant difference in students' performance on reading comprehension (RC. 3-The effect of background knowledge is investable on reading comprehension (RC tests, but it can be identified or neutralized. Based on these conclusions, the researcher presented a number of recommendations.

  5. Working memory contributions to reading comprehension components in middle childhood children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chrysochoou, Elisavet; Bablekou, Zoe; Tsigilis, Nikolaos

    2011-01-01

    This study examined working memory contributions to reading comprehension subskills in Greek children (mean age 9 years, 1 month). The phonological loop of the Baddeley and Hitch working memory model was assessed with 3 recall tasks (words, nonwords, and digits) and a word list matching task. The central executive (CE) was assessed with 3 tasks (listening, counting, and backward digit recall). Participants were also given a receptive vocabulary task, a reading fluency task, and written stories accompanied by comprehension questions. Canonical correlation analyses showed that the comprehension variables were related to the CE rather than the phonological loop measures. CE functions were more strongly associated with elaborative inference generation (involving significant offline processing) and comprehension control (involving metacognitive monitoring). Smaller yet significant associations were observed between the CE and the necessary inference and literal comprehension measures, whereas a moderate relationship was found in the case of the simile comprehension variable. Among the CE variables, listening recall demonstrated the highest loading on the canonical function, followed by moderate yet significant counting and backward digit recall loadings. Vocabulary was found to fully mediate several associations between working memory and comprehension measures; however, the relationship between listening recall and elaborative inferences was partly mediated. Reading fluency and, on several occasions, Greek vocabulary knowledge did not mediate the relationships between CE measures and comprehension skills assessed. This study demonstrates the usefulness of CE measures for identifying young children's possible difficulties in carrying out specific reading comprehension processes.

  6. Clinical fMRI of language function in aphasic patients: Reading paradigm successful, while word generation paradigm fails

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Engstroem, Maria; Landtblom, Anne-Marie; Ragnehed, Mattias; Lundberg, Peter; Karlsson, Marie; Crone, Marie; Antepohl, Wolfram

    2010-01-01

    Background: In fMRI examinations, it is very important to select appropriate paradigms assessing the brain function of interest. In addition, the patients' ability to perform the required cognitive tasks during fMRI must be taken into account. Purpose: To evaluate two language paradigms, word generation and sentence reading for their usefulness in examinations of aphasic patients and to make suggestions for improvements of clinical fMRI. Material and Methods: Five patients with aphasia after stroke or trauma sequelae were examined by fMRI. The patients' language ability was screened by neurolinguistic tests and elementary pre-fMRI language tests. Results: The sentence-reading paradigm succeeded to elicit adequate language-related activation in perilesional areas whereas the word generation paradigm failed. These findings were consistent with results on the behavioral tests in that all patients showed very poor performance in phonemic fluency, but scored well above mean at a reading comprehension task. Conclusion: The sentence-reading paradigm is appropriate to assess language function in this patient group, while the word-generation paradigm seems to be inadequate. In addition, it is crucial to use elementary pre-fMRI language tests to guide the fMRI paradigm decision.

  7. Clinical fMRI of language function in aphasic patients: Reading paradigm successful, while word generation paradigm fails

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Engstroem, Maria; Landtblom, Anne-Marie; Ragnehed, Mattias; Lundberg, Peter (Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linkoeping Univ., Linkoeping (Sweden)), e-mail: maria.engstrom@liu.se; Karlsson, Marie; Crone, Marie (Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine/Logopedics, Linkoeping Univ., Linkoeping (Sweden)); Antepohl, Wolfram (Dept. of Clinical and Experimental Medicine/Rehabilitation, Linkoeping Univ., Linkoeping (Sweden))

    2010-07-15

    Background: In fMRI examinations, it is very important to select appropriate paradigms assessing the brain function of interest. In addition, the patients' ability to perform the required cognitive tasks during fMRI must be taken into account. Purpose: To evaluate two language paradigms, word generation and sentence reading for their usefulness in examinations of aphasic patients and to make suggestions for improvements of clinical fMRI. Material and Methods: Five patients with aphasia after stroke or trauma sequelae were examined by fMRI. The patients' language ability was screened by neurolinguistic tests and elementary pre-fMRI language tests. Results: The sentence-reading paradigm succeeded to elicit adequate language-related activation in perilesional areas whereas the word generation paradigm failed. These findings were consistent with results on the behavioral tests in that all patients showed very poor performance in phonemic fluency, but scored well above mean at a reading comprehension task. Conclusion: The sentence-reading paradigm is appropriate to assess language function in this patient group, while the word-generation paradigm seems to be inadequate. In addition, it is crucial to use elementary pre-fMRI language tests to guide the fMRI paradigm decision.

  8. Formal Derivation of Lotka-Volterra-Haken Amplitude Equations of Task-Related Brain Activity in Multiple, Consecutively Performed Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frank, T. D.

    The Lotka-Volterra-Haken equations have been frequently used in ecology and pattern formation. Recently, the equations have been proposed by several research groups as amplitude equations for task-related patterns of brain activity. In this theoretical study, the focus is on the circular causality aspect of pattern formation systems as formulated within the framework of synergetics. Accordingly, the stable modes of a pattern formation system inhibit the unstable modes, whereas the unstable modes excite the stable modes. Using this circular causality principle it is shown that under certain conditions the Lotka-Volterra-Haken amplitude equations can be derived from a general model of brain activity akin to the Wilson-Cowan model. The model captures the amplitude dynamics for brain activity patterns in experiments involving several consecutively performed multiple-choice tasks. This is explicitly demonstrated for two-choice tasks involving grasping and walking. A comment on the relevance of the theoretical framework for clinical psychology and schizophrenia is given as well.

  9. What’s in a name depends on the type of name: The relationships between semantic and phonological access, reading fluency and reading comprehension

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Mads; Elbro, Carsten

    2013-01-01

    examined both components in naming tasks – with isolated letters (phonological) and pictures (semantic). Seventy-five Grade 5 students were administered measures of letter and picture naming speed, word and nonword reading fluency, reading comprehension, together with control measures of vocabulary....... The results showed that letter naming was a unique predictor of word reading fluency, while picture naming was not. Conversely, picture naming speed contributed unique variance to reading comprehension, while letter naming did not. The results indicate that phonological and semantic lexical access speed...

  10. Microcomputer Activities Which Encourage the Reading-Writing Connection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balajthy, Ernest

    Many reading teachers, cognizant of the creative opportunities for skill development allowed by new reading-writing software, are choosing to use microcomputers in their classrooms full-time. Adventure story creation programs capitalize on reading-writing integration by allowing children, with appropriate assistance, to create their own…

  11. An fMRI study of sex differences in regional activation to a verbal and a spatial task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gur, R C; Alsop, D; Glahn, D; Petty, R; Swanson, C L; Maldjian, J A; Turetsky, B I; Detre, J A; Gee, J; Gur, R E

    2000-09-01

    Sex differences in cognitive performance have been documented, women performing better on some phonological tasks and men on spatial tasks. An earlier fMRI study suggested sex differences in distributed brain activation during phonological processing, with bilateral activation seen in women while men showed primarily left-lateralized activation. This blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI study examined sex differences (14 men, 13 women) in activation for a spatial task (judgment of line orientation) compared to a verbal-reasoning task (analogies) that does not typically show sex differences. Task difficulty was manipulated. Hypothesized ROI-based analysis documented the expected left-lateralized changes for the verbal task in the inferior parietal and planum temporal regions in both men and women, but only men showed right-lateralized increase for the spatial task in these regions. Image-based analysis revealed a distributed network of cortical regions activated by the tasks, which consisted of the lateral frontal, medial frontal, mid-temporal, occipitoparietal, and occipital regions. The activation was more left lateralized for the verbal and more right for the spatial tasks, but men also showed some left activation for the spatial task, which was not seen in women. Increased task difficulty produced more distributed activation for the verbal and more circumscribed activation for the spatial task. The results suggest that failure to activate the appropriate hemisphere in regions directly involved in task performance may explain certain sex differences in performance. They also extend, for a spatial task, the principle that bilateral activation in a distributed cognitive system underlies sex differences in performance. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

  12. Quantum reading of unitary optical devices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dall'Arno, Michele; Bisio, Alessandro; D'Ariano, Giacomo Mauro

    2014-01-01

    We address the problem of quantum reading of optical memories, namely the retrieving of classical information stored in the optical properties of a media with minimum energy. We present optimal strategies for ambiguous and unambiguous quantum reading of unitary optical memories, namely when one's task is to minimize the probability of errors in the retrieved information and when perfect retrieving of information is achieved probabilistically, respectively. A comparison of the optimal strategy with coherent probes and homodyne detection shows that the former saves orders of magnitude of energy when achieving the same performances. Experimental proposals for quantum reading which are feasible with present quantum optical technology are reported

  13. Reading, listening and memory-related brain activity in children with early-stage temporal lobe epilepsy of unknown cause-an fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mankinen, Katariina; Ipatti, Pieta; Harila, Marika; Nikkinen, Juha; Paakki, Jyri-Johan; Rytky, Seppo; Starck, Tuomo; Remes, Jukka; Tokariev, Maksym; Carlson, Synnöve; Tervonen, Osmo; Rantala, Heikki; Kiviniemi, Vesa

    2015-09-01

    The changes in functional brain organization associated with paediatric epilepsy are largely unknown. Since children with epilepsy are at risk of developing learning difficulties even before or shortly after the onset of epilepsy, we assessed the functional organization of memory and language in paediatric patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) at an early stage in epilepsy. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response to four cognitive tasks measuring reading, story listening, memory encoding and retrieval in a population-based group of children with TLE of unknown cause (n = 21) and of normal intelligence and a healthy age and gender-matched control group (n = 21). Significant BOLD response differences were found only in one of the four tasks. In the story listening task, significant differences were found in the right hemispheric temporal structures, thalamus and basal ganglia. Both activation and deactivation differed significantly between the groups, activation being increased and deactivation decreased in the TLE group. Furthermore, the patients with abnormal electroencephalograms (EEGs) showed significantly increased activation bilaterally in the temporal structures, basal ganglia and thalamus relative to those with normal EEGs. The patients with normal interictal EEGs had a significantly stronger deactivation than those with abnormal EEGs or the controls, the differences being located outside the temporal structures. Our results suggest that TLE entails a widespread disruption of brain networks. This needs to be taken into consideration when evaluating learning abilities in patients with TLE. The thalamus seems to play an active role in TLE. The changes in deactivation may reflect neuronal inhibition. Copyright © 2015 European Paediatric Neurology Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Dizocilpine (MK-801) impairs learning in the active place avoidance task but has no effect on the performance during task/context alternation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vojtechova, Iveta; Petrasek, Tomas; Hatalova, Hana; Pistikova, Adela; Vales, Karel; Stuchlik, Ales

    2016-05-15

    The prevention of engram interference, pattern separation, flexibility, cognitive coordination and spatial navigation are usually studied separately at the behavioral level. Impairment in executive functions is often observed in patients suffering from schizophrenia. We have designed a protocol for assessing these functions all together as behavioral separation. This protocol is based on alternated or sequential training in two tasks testing different hippocampal functions (the Morris water maze and active place avoidance), and alternated or sequential training in two similar environments of the active place avoidance task. In Experiment 1, we tested, in adult rats, whether the performance in two different spatial tasks was affected by their order in sequential learning, or by their day-to-day alternation. In Experiment 2, rats learned to solve the active place avoidance task in two environments either alternately or sequentially. We found that rats are able to acquire both tasks and to discriminate both similar contexts without obvious problems regardless of the order or the alternation. We used two groups of rats, controls and a rat model of psychosis induced by a subchronic intraperitoneal application of 0.08mg/kg of dizocilpine (MK-801), a non-competitive antagonist of NMDA receptors. Dizocilpine had no selective effect on parallel/sequential learning of tasks/contexts. However, it caused hyperlocomotion and a significant deficit in learning in the active place avoidance task regardless of the task alternation. Cognitive coordination tested by this task is probably more sensitive to dizocilpine than spatial orientation because no hyperactivity or learning impairment was observed in the Morris water maze. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Reading speed and phonological awareness deficits among Arabic-speaking children with dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Layes, Smail; Lalonde, Robert; Rebaï, Mohamed

    2015-02-01

    Although reading accuracy of isolated words and phonological awareness represent the main criteria of subtyping developmental dyslexia, there is increasing evidence that reduced reading speed also represents a defining characteristic. In the present study, reading speed and accuracy were measured in Arabic-speaking phonological and mixed dyslexic children matched with controls of the same age. Participants in third and fourth grades, aged from 9-10 to 9-8 years, were given single frequent and infrequent word and pseudo-word reading and phonological awareness tasks. Results showed that the group with dyslexia scored significantly lower than controls in accuracy and speed in reading tasks. Phonological and mixed dyslexic subgroups differed in infrequent and frequent word reading accuracy, the latter being worse. In contrast, the subgroups were comparable in pseudo-word identification and phonological awareness. Delayed phonological and recognition processes of infrequent and frequent words, respectively, were placed in the context of the dual route model of reading and the specific orthographic features of the Arabic language. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  16. READING BASED-CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: AN EFFORT TOWARD THE INTEGRATION OF LANGUAGE SKILLS IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadi Hadi

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This paper proposes the implementation of reading-based classroom activities for teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia. Compared to other language skills, reading is viewed to provide a relatively stable foundation for Indonesian students to develop their communicative competence in English. It is argued that reading-focused activities stimulate confidence for Indonesian learners to get involved in listening, speaking, and writing related-activities in ways that are similar to normal daily life communication. The reasons for the proposed implementation of reading-based classroom activities in TEFLIN and the role of reading and its relation with other language skills are presented.

  17. Picturing words? Sensorimotor cortex activation for printed words in child and adult readers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dekker, Tessa M.; Mareschal, Denis; Johnson, Mark H.; Sereno, Martin I.

    2014-01-01

    Learning to read involves associating abstract visual shapes with familiar meanings. Embodiment theories suggest that word meaning is at least partially represented in distributed sensorimotor networks in the brain (Barsalou, 2008; Pulvermueller, 2013). We explored how reading comprehension develops by tracking when and how printed words start activating these “semantic” sensorimotor representations as children learn to read. Adults and children aged 7–10 years showed clear category-specific cortical specialization for tool versus animal pictures during a one-back categorisation task. Thus, sensorimotor representations for these categories were in place at all ages. However, co-activation of these same brain regions by the visual objects’ written names was only present in adults, even though all children could read and comprehend all presented words, showed adult-like task performance, and older children were proficient readers. It thus takes years of training and expert reading skill before spontaneous processing of printed words’ sensorimotor meanings develops in childhood. PMID:25463817

  18. Competent Adolescent Readers' Use of Internet Reading Strategies: A Think-Aloud Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Byeong-Young

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the type, pattern, and complexity of Internet reading strategies used by seven accomplished high school readers. Individual participants performed an academic Internet reading task with the goal of developing critical questions about their chosen controversial topic. Strategies for Internet reading were…

  19. Orthographic learning in children with isolated and combined reading and spelling deficits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehlhase, Heike; Bakos, Sarolta; Landerl, Karin; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina

    2018-05-07

    Dissociations between reading and spelling problems are likely to be associated with different underlying cognitive deficits, and with different deficits in orthographic learning. In order to understand these differences, the current study examined orthographic learning using a printed-word learning paradigm. Children (4th grade) with isolated reading, isolated spelling and combined reading and spelling problems were compared to children with age appropriate reading and spelling skills on their performance during learning novel words and symbols (non-verbal control condition), and during immediate and delayed reading and spelling recall tasks. No group differences occurred in the non-verbal control condition. In the verbal condition, initial learning was intact in all groups, but differences occurred during recall tasks. Children with reading fluency deficits showed slower reading times, while children with spelling deficits were less accurate, both in reading and spelling recall. Children with isolated spelling problems showed no difficulties in immediate spelling recall, but had problems in remembering the spellings 2 hours later. The results suggest that different orthographic learning deficits underlie reading fluency and spelling problems: Children with isolated reading fluency deficits have no difficulties in building-up orthographic representations, but access to these representations is slowed down while children with isolated spelling deficits have problems in storing precise orthographic representations in long-term memory.

  20. Role of Working Memory in Explaining the Performance of Individuals with Specific Reading Comprehension Difficulties: A Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carretti, Barbara; Borella, Erika; Cornoldi, Cesare; De Beni, Rossana

    2009-01-01

    It is well established that working memory is related to reading comprehension ability. However, its role in explaining specific reading comprehension difficulties is still under debate: the issue mainly concerns whether the contribution of working memory is dependent on task modality (verbal tasks being more predictive than visuo-spatial tasks)…

  1. Task-dependent modulation of oscillatory neural activity during movements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Herz, D. M.; Christensen, M. S.; Reck, C.

    2011-01-01

    connectivity was strongest between central and cerebellar regions. Our results show that neural coupling within motor networks is modulated in distinct frequency bands depending on the motor task. They provide evidence that dynamic causal modeling in combination with EEG source analysis is a valuable tool......Neural oscillations in different frequency bands have been observed in a range of sensorimotor tasks and have been linked to coupling of spatially distinct neurons. The goal of this study was to detect a general motor network that is activated during phasic and tonic movements and to study the task......-dependent modulation of frequency coupling within this network. To this end we recorded 122-multichannel EEG in 13 healthy subjects while they performed three simple motor tasks. EEG data source modeling using individual MR images was carried out with a multiple source beamformer approach. A bilateral motor network...

  2. Lexical-Semantic Reading in a Shallow Orthography: Evidence from a Girl with Williams Syndrome

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barca, Laura; Bello, Arianna; Volterra, Virginia; Burani, Cristina

    2010-01-01

    The reading skills of a girl with Williams Syndrome are assessed by a timed word-naming task. To test the efficiency of lexical and nonlexical reading, we considered four marker effects: Lexicality (better reading of words than nonwords), frequency (better reading of high than low frequency words), length (better reading of short than long words),…

  3. Why should I read? - A cross-cultural investigation into adolescents' reading socialisation and reading attitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broeder, Peter; Stokmans, Mia

    2013-06-01

    While reading behaviour of adolescents is a frequent object of research, most studies in this field are restricted to a single country. This study investigates reading as a leisure-time activity across social groups from three regions differing in reading tradition as well as in the facilities available for reading. The authors analyse the reading behaviour of a total of 2,173 adolescents in the Netherlands, in Beijing (China), and in Cape Town (South Africa). Taking Icek Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour as a starting point, the authors adjusted it to model the three most important determinants of reading behaviour, namely (1) reading attitude; (2) subjective norms (implicit and explicit social pressure to read); and (3) perceived behavioural control, which includes reading proficiency and appropriateness of the available books (book supply). While they found the adjusted model to fit the Dutch and Beijing situation quite well, it appeared to be inappropriate for the Cape Town situation. Despite considerable cultural and situational differences between the Netherlands and Beijing, the results show a similar pattern for these two environments. The most important determinants turn out to be: the hedonic reading attitude, the implicit norm of family and friends, the attractiveness of the available choice of books, and the perceived reading proficiency.

  4. Using E-Z Reader to Simulate Eye Movements in Nonreading Tasks: A Unified Framework for Understanding the Eye-Mind Link

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reichle, Erik D.; Pollatsek, Alexander; Rayner, Keith

    2012-01-01

    Nonreading tasks that share some (but not all) of the task demands of reading have often been used to make inferences about how cognition influences when the eyes move during reading. In this article, we use variants of the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control in reading to simulate eye-movement behavior in several of these tasks, including…

  5. Abnormal motor cortex excitability during linguistic tasks in adductor-type spasmodic dysphonia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suppa, A; Marsili, L; Giovannelli, F; Di Stasio, F; Rocchi, L; Upadhyay, N; Ruoppolo, G; Cincotta, M; Berardelli, A

    2015-08-01

    In healthy subjects (HS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied during 'linguistic' tasks discloses excitability changes in the dominant hemisphere primary motor cortex (M1). We investigated 'linguistic' task-related cortical excitability modulation in patients with adductor-type spasmodic dysphonia (ASD), a speech-related focal dystonia. We studied 10 ASD patients and 10 HS. Speech examination included voice cepstral analysis. We investigated the dominant/non-dominant M1 excitability at baseline, during 'linguistic' (reading aloud/silent reading/producing simple phonation) and 'non-linguistic' tasks (looking at non-letter strings/producing oral movements). Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from the contralateral hand muscles. We measured the cortical silent period (CSP) length and tested MEPs in HS and patients performing the 'linguistic' tasks with different voice intensities. We also examined MEPs in HS and ASD during hand-related 'action-verb' observation. Patients were studied under and not-under botulinum neurotoxin-type A (BoNT-A). In HS, TMS over the dominant M1 elicited larger MEPs during 'reading aloud' than during the other 'linguistic'/'non-linguistic' tasks. Conversely, in ASD, TMS over the dominant M1 elicited increased-amplitude MEPs during 'reading aloud' and 'syllabic phonation' tasks. CSP length was shorter in ASD than in HS and remained unchanged in both groups performing 'linguistic'/'non-linguistic' tasks. In HS and ASD, 'linguistic' task-related excitability changes were present regardless of the different voice intensities. During hand-related 'action-verb' observation, MEPs decreased in HS, whereas in ASD they increased. In ASD, BoNT-A improved speech, as demonstrated by cepstral analysis and restored the TMS abnormalities. ASD reflects dominant hemisphere excitability changes related to 'linguistic' tasks; BoNT-A returns these excitability changes to normal. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John

  6. Correlating behavioral responses to FMRI signals from human prefrontal cortex: examining cognitive processes using task analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeSouza, Joseph F X; Ovaysikia, Shima; Pynn, Laura

    2012-06-20

    The aim of this methods paper is to describe how to implement a neuroimaging technique to examine complementary brain processes engaged by two similar tasks. Participants' behavior during task performance in an fMRI scanner can then be correlated to the brain activity using the blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal. We measure behavior to be able to sort correct trials, where the subject performed the task correctly and then be able to examine the brain signals related to correct performance. Conversely, if subjects do not perform the task correctly, and these trials are included in the same analysis with the correct trials we would introduce trials that were not only for correct performance. Thus, in many cases these errors can be used themselves to then correlate brain activity to them. We describe two complementary tasks that are used in our lab to examine the brain during suppression of an automatic responses: the stroop(1) and anti-saccade tasks. The emotional stroop paradigm instructs participants to either report the superimposed emotional 'word' across the affective faces or the facial 'expressions' of the face stimuli(1,2). When the word and the facial expression refer to different emotions, a conflict between what must be said and what is automatically read occurs. The participant has to resolve the conflict between two simultaneously competing processes of word reading and facial expression. Our urge to read out a word leads to strong 'stimulus-response (SR)' associations; hence inhibiting these strong SR's is difficult and participants are prone to making errors. Overcoming this conflict and directing attention away from the face or the word requires the subject to inhibit bottom up processes which typically directs attention to the more salient stimulus. Similarly, in the anti-saccade task(3,4,5,6), where an instruction cue is used to direct only attention to a peripheral stimulus location but then the eye movement is made to the mirror opposite position

  7. Working memory training improves reading processes in typically developing children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loosli, Sandra V; Buschkuehl, Martin; Perrig, Walter J; Jaeggi, Susanne M

    2012-01-01

    The goal of this study was to investigate whether a brief cognitive training intervention results in a specific performance increase in the trained task, and whether there are transfer effects to other nontrained measures. A computerized, adaptive working memory intervention was conducted with 9- to 11-year-old typically developing children. The children considerably improved their performance in the trained working memory task. Additionally, compared to a matched control group, the experimental group significantly enhanced their reading performance after training, providing further evidence for shared processes between working memory and reading.

  8. Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moisala, Mona; Salmela, Viljami; Salo, Emma; Carlson, Synnöve; Vuontela, Virve; Salonen, Oili; Alho, Kimmo

    2015-01-01

    Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity of human participants while they performed a sentence congruence judgment task in either the visual or auditory modality separately, or in both modalities simultaneously. Significant performance decrements were observed when attention was divided between the two modalities compared with when one modality was selectively attended. Compared with selective attention (i.e., single tasking), divided attention (i.e., dual-tasking) did not recruit additional cortical regions, but resulted in increased activity in medial and lateral frontal regions which were also activated by the component tasks when performed separately. Areas involved in semantic language processing were revealed predominantly in the left lateral prefrontal cortex by contrasting incongruent with congruent sentences. These areas also showed significant activity increases during divided attention in relation to selective attention. In the sensory cortices, no crossmodal inhibition was observed during divided attention when compared with selective attention to one modality. Our results suggest that the observed performance decrements during dual-tasking are due to interference of the two tasks because they utilize the same part of the cortex. Moreover, semantic dual-tasking did not appear to recruit additional brain areas in comparison with single tasking, and no crossmodal inhibition was observed during intermodal divided attention.

  9. Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moisala, Mona; Salmela, Viljami; Salo, Emma; Carlson, Synnöve; Vuontela, Virve; Salonen, Oili; Alho, Kimmo

    2015-01-01

    Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity of human participants while they performed a sentence congruence judgment task in either the visual or auditory modality separately, or in both modalities simultaneously. Significant performance decrements were observed when attention was divided between the two modalities compared with when one modality was selectively attended. Compared with selective attention (i.e., single tasking), divided attention (i.e., dual-tasking) did not recruit additional cortical regions, but resulted in increased activity in medial and lateral frontal regions which were also activated by the component tasks when performed separately. Areas involved in semantic language processing were revealed predominantly in the left lateral prefrontal cortex by contrasting incongruent with congruent sentences. These areas also showed significant activity increases during divided attention in relation to selective attention. In the sensory cortices, no crossmodal inhibition was observed during divided attention when compared with selective attention to one modality. Our results suggest that the observed performance decrements during dual-tasking are due to interference of the two tasks because they utilize the same part of the cortex. Moreover, semantic dual-tasking did not appear to recruit additional brain areas in comparison with single tasking, and no crossmodal inhibition was observed during intermodal divided attention. PMID:25745395

  10. Shared orthographic neuronal representations for spelling and reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purcell, Jeremy J; Jiang, Xiong; Eden, Guinevere F

    2017-02-15

    A central question in the study of the neural basis of written language is whether reading and spelling utilize shared orthographic representations. While recent studies employing fMRI to test this question report that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC) are active during both spelling and reading in the same subjects (Purcell et al., 2011a; Rapp and Lipka, 2011), the spatial resolution of fMRI limits the interpretation of these findings. Specifically, it is unknown if the neurons which encode orthography for reading are also involved in spelling of the same words. Here we address this question by employing an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging-adaptation (fMRI-A) paradigm designed to examine shared orthographic representations across spelling and reading. First, we identified areas that independently showed adaptation to reading, and adaptation to spelling. Then we identified spatial convergence for these two separate maps via a conjunction analysis. Consistent with previous studies (Purcell et al., 2011a; Rapp and Lipka, 2011), this analysis revealed the left dorsal IFG, vOTC and supplementary motor area. To further validate these observations, we then interrogated these regions using an across-task adaptation technique, and found adaptation across reading and spelling in the left dorsal IFG (BA 44/9). Our final analysis focused specifically on the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in the vOTC, whose variability in location among subjects requires the use of subject-specific identification mechanisms (Glezer and Riesenhuber, 2013). Using a functional localizer for reading, we defined the VWFA in each subject, and found adaptation effects for both within the spelling and reading conditions, respectively, as well as across spelling and reading. Because none of these effects were observed during a phonological/semantic control condition, we conclude that the left dorsal IFG and VWFA are involved in accessing

  11. Wh-question intonation in Peninsular Spanish: Multiple contours and the effect of task type

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicholas C. Henriksen

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on an experimental investigation of wh-question intonation in Peninsular Spanish. Speech data were collected from six León, Spain Peninsular Spanish speakers, and oral production data were elicited under two conditions: a computerized sentence reading task and an information gap task-oriented dialogue. The latter task was an adaptation of the HCRC Map Task method (cf. Anderson et al., 1991 and was designed to elicit multiple wh-question productions in an unscripted and more spontaneous speech style than the standard sentence reading task. Results indicate that four contours exist in the tonal inventory of the six speakers. The two most frequent contours were a final rise contour and a nuclear circumflex contour. Systematic task-based differences were found for four of the six speakers, indicating that sentence reading task data alone may not accurately reflect spontaneous speech tonal patterns (cf. Cruttenden, 2007; but see also Lickley, Schepman, & Ladd, 2005. The experimental findings serve to clarify a number of assumptions about the syntax-prosody interface underlying wh-question utterance signaling; they also have implications for research methods in intonation and task-based variation in laboratory phonology.

  12. Training improves reading speed in peripheral vision: Is it due to attention?

    OpenAIRE

    Lee, Hye-Won; Kwon, MiYoung; Legge, Gordon E.; Gefroh, Joshua J.

    2010-01-01

    Previous research has shown that perceptual training in peripheral vision, using a letter-recognition task, increases reading speed and letter recognition (Chung, Legge, & Cheung, 2004). We tested the hypothesis that enhanced deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision explains this training effect. Subjects were pre- and post-tested with 3 tasks at 10° above and below fixation—RSVP reading speed, trigram letter recognition (used to construct visual-span profiles), and deployment of ...

  13. Motivation to Read: How Does It Change for Struggling Readers with and without Disabilities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melekoglu, Macid A.; Wilkerson, Kimber L.

    2013-01-01

    Lack of reading motivation impedes upper elementary and secondary school students' willingness to improve critical reading skills and strategies to be successful in school. Struggling readers often show a negative attitude towards reading tasks and manifest low motivation to read. Although the importance of motivation is clear, there is limited…

  14. A Preliminary fMRI Study of a Novel Self-Paced Written Fluency Task: Observation of Left-Hemispheric Activation, and Increased Frontal Activation in Late vs. Early Task Phases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laleh eGolestanirad

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Neuropsychological tests of verbal fluency are very widely used to characterize impaired cognitive function. For clinical neuroscience studies and potential medical applications, measuring the brain activity that underlies such tests with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI is of significant interest - but a challenging proposition because overt speech can cause signal artifacts, which tend to worsen as the duration of speech tasks becomes longer. In a novel approach, we present the group brain activity of 12 subjects who performed a self-paced written version of phonemic fluency using fMRI-compatible tablet technology that recorded responses and provided task-related feedback on a projection screen display, over long-duration task blocks (60 s. As predicted, we observed robust activation in the left anterior inferior and medial frontal gyri, consisting with previously reported results of verbal fluency tasks which established the role of these areas in strategic word retrieval. In addition, the number of words produced in the late phase (last 30 s of written phonemic fluency was significantly less (p < 0.05 than the number produced in the early phase (first 30 s. Activation during the late phase vs. the early phase was also assessed from the first 20 s and last 20 s of task performance, which eliminated the possibility that the sluggish hemodynamic response from the early phase would affect the activation estimates of the late phase. The last 20 s produced greater activation maps covering extended areas in bilateral precuneus, cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, insula, middle frontal gyrus and cingulate gyrus. Among them, greater activation was observed in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann area BA 9 and cingulate gyrus (BA 24, 32 likely as part of the initiation, maintenance, and shifting of attentional resources.

  15. Interdisciplinary Instructional Reading Strategies: An Applied Application for Business Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polkinghorne, Frederick W.; Bland, Zinna L.

    2011-01-01

    The contemporary workforce requires technical and reading skills (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008; The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Society of Human Resource Management, 2006). Technical skills allow workers to perform specific workforce tasks, while reading skills are generally needed by…

  16. EEG Analysis during complex diagnostic tasks in Nuclear Power Plants - Simulator-based Experimental Study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ha, Jun Su; Seong, Poong Hyun [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

    2005-07-01

    In literature, there are a lot of studies based on EEG signals during cognitive activities of human-beings but most of them dealt with simple cognitive activities such as transforming letters into Morse code, subtraction, reading, semantic memory search, visual search, memorizing a set of words and so on. In this work, EEG signals were analyzed during complex diagnostic tasks in NPP simulator-based environment. Investigated are the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma band EEG powers during the diagnostic tasks. The experimental design and procedure are represented in section 2 and the results are shown in section 3. Finally some considerations are discussed and the direction for the further work is proposed in section 4.

  17. EEG Analysis during complex diagnostic tasks in Nuclear Power Plants - Simulator-based Experimental Study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ha, Jun Su; Seong, Poong Hyun

    2005-01-01

    In literature, there are a lot of studies based on EEG signals during cognitive activities of human-beings but most of them dealt with simple cognitive activities such as transforming letters into Morse code, subtraction, reading, semantic memory search, visual search, memorizing a set of words and so on. In this work, EEG signals were analyzed during complex diagnostic tasks in NPP simulator-based environment. Investigated are the theta, alpha, beta, and gamma band EEG powers during the diagnostic tasks. The experimental design and procedure are represented in section 2 and the results are shown in section 3. Finally some considerations are discussed and the direction for the further work is proposed in section 4

  18. SENSES FOR READING AND WRITING ACTIVITIES AT SCHOOLS OF FUNDAMENTAL TEACHING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Osmar de Souza

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This article have to present the contributions of a Extension Program of FURB - Regional University of Blumenau. The Program, until 2008, was entitled “Senses for reading and writting activities at school” - this article corresponds to a glance on the development of the Program in two years: 2007 and 2008. The contemplated communities are public schools of Blumenau, more precisely, groups of fourth series of the Fundamental Teaching. In the first contact with the groups, questionnaires were hand out to students, aiming to notice the children's knowledge regarding the proposed themes (community and family. In the other visits - one per week -, reading and writting activities were developed. The students were, still, guests to research: in the library, questioning relatives or residents of the street in that they live. One of the results - that will be presented in full detail along the article - is the enlargement of the knowledge on local history - for students, teachers and academics involved. In spite of there are objectives propellers of the Program - as "to create conditions to students of fourth series read and write texts, more precisely about family and community -, one of the conclusions, regarding the development of the Program, is the possibility to contribute in the dimensions institutional, academic and social. Sometimes, those contributions can't be imagined when a Program is idealized.

  19. Reading up on sex: Learning to read. Why sex matters, and whether physical fitness and activity are relevant in reading acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Tunstad, Hege Jørgensen

    2013-01-01

    When you read this thesis, you rely on a skill you acquired as a child. Most children start at the age of 5-6 years to learn single letters, write their name, and gradually develop the functional skill of decoding strings of letters; in other words, reading. By the age of 10 they are expected to read texts with concentration, endurance, fluency and coherence. The success rate varies, and Norwegian children score slightly above average when reading skills are measured globally, and are better ...

  20. The dual reading of general conditionals: The influence of abstract versus concrete contexts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Moyun; Yao, Xinyun

    2018-04-01

    A current main issue on conditionals is whether the meaning of general conditionals (e.g., If a card is red, then it is round) is deterministic (exceptionless) or probabilistic (exception-tolerating). In order to resolve the issue, two experiments examined the influence of conditional contexts (with vs. without frequency information of truth table cases) on the reading of general conditionals. Experiment 1 examined the direct reading of general conditionals in the possibility judgment task. Experiment 2 examined the indirect reading of general conditionals in the truth judgment task. It was found that both the direct and indirect reading of general conditionals exhibited the duality: the predominant deterministic semantic reading of conditionals without frequency information, and the predominant probabilistic pragmatic reading of conditionals with frequency information. The context of general conditionals determined the predominant reading of general conditionals. There were obvious individual differences in reading general conditionals with frequency information. The meaning of general conditionals is relative, depending on conditional contexts. The reading of general conditionals is flexible and complex so that no simple deterministic and probabilistic accounts are able to explain it. The present findings are beyond the extant deterministic and probabilistic accounts of conditionals.

  1. Why does working memory capacity predict variation in reading comprehension? On the influence of mind wandering and executive attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McVay, Jennifer C; Kane, Michael J

    2012-05-01

    Some people are better readers than others, and this variation in comprehension ability is predicted by measures of working memory capacity (WMC). The primary goal of this study was to investigate the mediating role of mind-wandering experiences in the association between WMC and normal individual differences in reading comprehension, as predicted by the executive-attention theory of WMC (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004). We used a latent-variable, structural-equation-model approach, testing skilled adult readers on 3 WMC span tasks, 7 varied reading-comprehension tasks, and 3 attention-control tasks. Mind wandering was assessed using experimenter-scheduled thought probes during 4 different tasks (2 reading, 2 attention-control). The results support the executive-attention theory of WMC. Mind wandering across the 4 tasks loaded onto a single latent factor, reflecting a stable individual difference. Most important, mind wandering was a significant mediator in the relationship between WMC and reading comprehension, suggesting that the WMC-comprehension correlation is driven, in part, by attention control over intruding thoughts. We discuss implications for theories of WMC, attention control, and reading comprehension.

  2. An investigation into the English reading comprehension of Grade 10 English first additional language learners at a senior secondary school

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaka Chaka

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Poor levels of English first additional language (EFAL reading comprehension amongst school learners at most public schools in South Africa are a great concern. In fact, for learning to be successful and effective, learners need to be able to read well in EFAL. This is more so as EFAL serves as a language of learning and teaching (LOLT for most learning areas in South Africa’s public schools. Against this background, this study set out in 2012 to investigate the English reading comprehension of Grade 10 EFAL learners at a senior secondary school. Using purposive and voluntary sampling techniques, the study had 17 EFAL learners(M = 10, F–7 as its participants. It employed three reading measures, a recall task, a summary and a comprehension test, which were based on three English extracts, to assess participants’ reading comprehension. It then assessed and scored participants’ responses to the three tasks by using an oral reading rubric and two prepared marking memoranda. One of the findings of this study was that, of the three reading tasks administered, participants did slightly above average in the comprehension test, but performed below average in the two other tasks – the recall and summary tasks.

  3. Syntactic comprehension in reading and listening: a study with French children with dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casalis, Séverine; Leuwers, Christel; Hilton, Heather

    2013-01-01

    This study examined syntactic comprehension in French children with dyslexia in both listening and reading. In the first syntactic comprehension task, a partial version of the Epreuve de Compréhension syntaxico-sémantique (ECOSSE test; French adaptation of Bishop's test for receptive grammar test) children with dyslexia performed at a lower level in the written but not in the spoken modality, compared to reading age-matched children, suggesting a difficulty in handling syntax while reading. In the second task, syntactic processing was further explored through a test of relative clause processing, in which inflectional markers could aid in attributing roles to the elements in a complex syntactic structure. Children with dyslexia were insensitive to inflectional markers in both reading and listening, as was the reading age control group, while only the older normal reader group appeared to make use of the inflectional markers. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that difficulties in comprehension in dyslexia are strongly related to poor reading skills.

  4. Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition: The Effects of Task Type, Word Occurrence and Their Combination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laufer, Batia; Rozovski-Roitblat, Bella

    2011-01-01

    We investigated how long-term retention of new words was affected by task type, number of word occurrences in the teaching materials and the combination of the two factors. The tasks were: reading a text with occasional Focus on Form when learners used dictionaries (T+F), or reading a text with Focus on Forms, i.e. word focused exercises (T+Fs).…

  5. Gaming is related to enhanced working memory performance and task-related cortical activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moisala, M; Salmela, V; Hietajärvi, L; Carlson, S; Vuontela, V; Lonka, K; Hakkarainen, K; Salmela-Aro, K; Alho, K

    2017-01-15

    Gaming experience has been suggested to lead to performance enhancements in a wide variety of working memory tasks. Previous studies have, however, mostly focused on adult expert gamers and have not included measurements of both behavioral performance and brain activity. In the current study, 167 adolescents and young adults (aged 13-24 years) with different amounts of gaming experience performed an n-back working memory task with vowels, with the sensory modality of the vowel stream switching between audition and vision at random intervals. We studied the relationship between self-reported daily gaming activity, working memory (n-back) task performance and related brain activity measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results revealed that the extent of daily gaming activity was related to enhancements in both performance accuracy and speed during the most demanding (2-back) level of the working memory task. This improved working memory performance was accompanied by enhanced recruitment of a fronto-parietal cortical network, especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, during the less demanding (1-back) level of the task, gaming was associated with decreased activity in the same cortical regions. Our results suggest that a greater degree of daily gaming experience is associated with better working memory functioning and task difficulty-dependent modulation in fronto-parietal brain activity already in adolescence and even when non-expert gamers are studied. The direction of causality within this association cannot be inferred with certainty due to the correlational nature of the current study. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. IELTS Preparation Courses in China : the Reading Comprehension Task

    OpenAIRE

    Zhou, Ying

    2011-01-01

    More and more private language schools provide IELTS preparation courses for candidates who want to sit the test for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in English-speaking countries. This essay investigates whether the IELTS preparation course in a language school in China offers an adequate preparation for candidates. The study focuses on one preparation course for the IELTS reading test (other modules are beyond the scope of the present study). A questionnaire and interview...

  7. Metacognitive awareness of TOEFL reading comprehension strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sungatullina Dilyana D.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The rising demand for exchange and mobility programs as well as double diploma opportunities with world leading universities highlights the importance of ESL proficiency. TOEFL iBT as a test of EAP is accepted by most of the HEI in various countries. The aim of the present study is to determine students’ metacognitive awareness of global academic reading strategies, namely the use of context clues, within the framework of preparation for TOEFL reading section. The article establishes the connection between success in reading comprehension and the degree of students’ metacognitive awareness. The authors concentrate on expository texts from TOEFL reading section as a testing material and provide detailed description of single context clues types and double context clues patterns typical for this text structure. The following study is concerned with comparison and interpretation of the results obtained in three focus groups of students, who have accomplished reading comprehension task from TOEFL iBT with and without learning to employ the context clues reading strategy.

  8. Mapping symbols to sounds: electrophysiological correlates of the impaired reading process in dyslexia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas eWidmann

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Dyslexic and control first grade school children were compared in a Symbol-to-Sound matching test based on a nonlinguistic audiovisual training which is known to have a remediating effect on dyslexia. Visual symbol patterns had to be matched with predicted sound patterns. Sounds incongruent with the corresponding visual symbol (thus not matching the prediction elicited the N2b and P3a event-related potential (ERP components relative to congruent sounds in control children. Their ERPs resembled the ERP effects previously reported for healthy adults with this paradigm. In dyslexic children, N2b onset latency was delayed and its amplitude significantly reduced over left hemisphere whereas P3a was absent. Moreover, N2b amplitudes significantly correlated with the reading skills. ERPs to sound changes in a control condition were unaffected. In addition, correctly predicted sounds, that is, sounds that are congruent with the visual symbol, elicited an early induced auditory gamma band response (GBR reflecting synchronization of brain activity in normal-reading children as previously observed in healthy adults. However, dyslexic children showed no GBR. This indicates that visual symbolic and auditory sensory information are not integrated into a unitary audiovisual object representation in them. Finally, incongruent sounds were followed by a later desynchronization of brain activity in the gamma band in both groups. This desynchronization was significantly larger in dyslexic children. Although both groups accomplished the task successfully remarkable group differences in brain responses suggest that normal-reading children and dyslexic children recruit (partly different brain mechanisms when solving the task. We propose that abnormal ERPs and GBRs in dyslexic readers indicate a deficit resulting in a widespread impairment in processing and integrating auditory and visual information and contributing to the reading impairment in dyslexia.

  9. Reading Social wMaps.w

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clements, Millard

    1982-01-01

    What should social studies teachers be trying to teach students how to do? Every culture provides its members with social "maps" that explain how things are--e.g., school materials, advertisements. Teaching students how to read these social "maps" should be the central task for social studies education. (RM)

  10. Does Visual Attention Span Relate to Eye Movements during Reading and Copying?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosse, Marie-Line; Kandel, Sonia; Prado, Chloé; Valdois, Sylviane

    2014-01-01

    This research investigated whether text reading and copying involve visual attention-processing skills. Children in grades 3 and 5 read and copied the same text. We measured eye movements while reading and the number of gaze lifts (GL) during copying. The children were also administered letter report tasks that constitute an estimation of the…

  11. Neuroimaging correlates of handwriting quality as children learn to read and write

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gimenez, Paul; Bugescu, Nicolle; Black, Jessica M.; Hancock, Roeland; Pugh, Kenneth; Nagamine, Masanori; Kutner, Emily; Mazaika, Paul; Hendren, Robert; McCandliss, Bruce D.; Hoeft, Fumiko

    2014-01-01

    Reading and writing are related but separable processes that are crucial skills to possess in modern society. The neurobiological basis of reading acquisition and development, which critically depends on phonological processing, and to a lesser degree, beginning writing as it relates to letter perception, are increasingly being understood. Yet direct relationships between writing and reading development, in particular, with phonological processing is not well understood. The main goal of the current preliminary study was to examine individual differences in neurofunctional and neuroanatomical patterns associated with handwriting in beginning writers/readers. In 46 5–6 year-old beginning readers/writers, ratings of handwriting quality, were rank-ordered from best to worst and correlated with brain activation patterns during a phonological task using functional MRI, and with regional gray matter volume from structural T1 MRI. Results showed that better handwriting was associated negatively with activation and positively with gray matter volume in an overlapping region of the pars triangularis of right inferior frontal gyrus. This region, in particular in the left hemisphere in adults and more bilaterally in young children, is known to be important for decoding, phonological processing, and subvocal rehearsal. We interpret the dissociation in the directionality of the association in functional activation and morphometric properties in the right inferior frontal gyrus in terms of neural efficiency, and suggest future studies that interrogate the relationship between the neural mechanisms underlying reading and writing development. PMID:24678293

  12. Neuroimaging correlations of handwriting quality as children learn to read and write

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul eGimenez

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Reading and writing are related but separable processes that are crucial skills to possess in modern society. The neurobiological basis of reading acquisition and development, which critically depends on phonological processing, and to a lesser degree, beginning writing as it relates to letter perception, are increasingly being understood. Yet direct relationships between writing and reading development, in particular, with phonological processing is not well understood. The main goal of the current preliminary study was to examine individual differences in neurofunctional and neuroanatomical patterns associated with handwriting in beginning writers/readers. In 46 5-6 year-old beginning readers/writers, ratings of handwriting quality, were rank-ordered from best to worst and correlated with brain activation patterns during a phonological task using functional MRI, and with regional grey matter volume from structural T1 MRI. Results showed that better handwriting was associated negatively with activation and positively with gray matter volume in an overlapping region of the pars triangularis of right inferior frontal gyrus. This region, in particular in the left hemisphere in adults and more bilaterally in young children, is known to be important for decoding, phonological processing, and subvocal rehearsal. We interpret the dissociation in the directionality of the association in functional activation and morphometric properties in the right inferior frontal gyrus in terms of neural efficiency, and suggest future studies that interrogate the relationship between the neural mechanisms underlying reading and writing development.

  13. Developmental change in cognitive organization underlying stroop tasks of Japanese orthographies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toma, C; Toshima, T

    1989-01-01

    Cognitive processes underlying Stroop interference tasks of two Japanese orthographies, hiragana (a phonetic orthography) and kanji (a logographic orthography) were studied from the developmental point of view. Four age groups (first, second, third graders, and university students) were employed as subjects. Significant interference was yielded both in the hiragana and in the kanji version. Performance time on interference task decreased with age. For elementary school children, the error frequency on the interference task was higher than that on the task of naming patch colors or on the task of reading words printed in black ink, but the error frequencies did not differ among tasks for university students. In the interference task more word reading errors were yielded in the kanji version than in the hiragana version during and after third grade. The findings suggested that (1) the recognition system of hiragana and of kanji becomes qualitatively different during and after third grade, (2) the integrative system, which organizes cognitive processes underlying Stroop task, develops with age, and (3) efficiency of the organization increases with age.

  14. Formulation of the task on ergonomic designing of NPP operator activity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anokhin, A.N.

    1996-01-01

    One of the main causes of inefficiency of existing nuclear plant operator activity support means is the absence of common integrated system approach to ergonomic designing of operator activity. Some attempt to formalize the problem as a task of macro-ergonomic designing is made. The structure of anthropocentric functional model of human-operator-nuclear plant system operation is described. Operator activity is characterized by some resulting properties (such as reliability, etc.). These properties are influenced by human-operator internal properties and working environment external properties. The detailed classification of all these properties is offered. The main result of this work is the statement of tasks of operator activity macro-ergonomic designing based on the offered formalization

  15. Framing effects reveal discrete lexical-semantic and sublexical procedures in reading: an fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danelli, Laura; Marelli, Marco; Berlingeri, Manuela; Tettamanti, Marco; Sberna, Maurizio; Paulesu, Eraldo; Luzzatti, Claudio

    2015-01-01

    According to the dual-route model, a printed string of letters can be processed by either a grapheme-to-phoneme conversion (GPC) route or a lexical-semantic route. Although meta-analyses of the imaging literature support the existence of distinct but interacting reading procedures, individual neuroimaging studies that explored neural correlates of reading yielded inconclusive results. We used a list-manipulation paradigm to provide a fresh empirical look at this issue and to isolate specific areas that underlie the two reading procedures. In a lexical condition, we embedded disyllabic Italian words (target stimuli) in lists of either loanwords or trisyllabic Italian words with unpredictable stress position. In a GPC condition, similar target stimuli were included within lists of pseudowords. The procedure was designed to induce participants to emphasize either the lexical-semantic or the GPC reading procedure, while controlling for possible linguistic confounds and keeping the reading task requirements stable across the two conditions. Thirty-three adults participated in the behavioral study, and 20 further adult participants were included in the fMRI study. At the behavioral level, we found sizeable effects of the framing manipulations that included slower voice onset times for stimuli in the pseudoword frames. At the functional anatomical level, the occipital and temporal regions, and the intraparietal sulcus were specifically activated when subjects were reading target words in a lexical frame. The inferior parietal and anterior fusiform cortex were specifically activated in the GPC condition. These patterns of activation represented a valid classifying model of fMRI images associated with target reading in both frames in the multi-voxel pattern analyses. Further activations were shared by the two procedures in the occipital and inferior parietal areas, in the premotor cortex, in the frontal regions and the left supplementary motor area. These regions are most

  16. A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study of lexical decision task supports the dual route model and the phonological deficit theory of dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sela, Itamar; Izzetoglu, Meltem; Izzetoglu, Kurtulus; Onaral, Banu

    2014-01-01

    The dual route model (DRM) of reading suggests two routes of reading development: the phonological and the orthographic routes. It was proposed that although the two routes are active in the process of reading; the first is more involved at the initial stages of reading acquisition, whereas the latter needs more reading training to mature. A number of studies have shown that deficient phonological processing is a core deficit in developmental dyslexia. According to the DRM, when the Lexical Decision Task (LDT) is performed, the orthographic route should also be involved when decoding words, whereas it is clear that when decoding pseudowords the phonological route should be activated. Previous functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) studies have suggested that the upper left frontal lobe is involved in decision making in the LDT. The current study used fNIR to compare left frontal lobe activity during LDT performance among three reading-level groups: 12-year-old children, young adult dyslexic readers, and young adult typical readers. Compared to typical readers, the children demonstrated lower activity under the word condition only, whereas the dyslexic readers showed lower activity under the pseudoword condition only. The results provide evidence for upper left frontal lobe involvement in LDT and support the DRM and the phonological deficit theory of dyslexia.

  17. Neurally-dissociable cognitive components of reading deficits in subacute stroke

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga eBoukrina

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available According to cognitive models of reading, words are processed by interacting orthographic (spelling, phonological (sound and semantic (meaning information. Despite extensive study of the neural basis of reading in healthy participants, little group data exist on patients with reading deficits from focal brain damage pointing to critical neural systems for reading. Here we report on one such study. We have performed neuropsychological testing and MRI on 11 patients with left-hemisphere stroke (<= 5 weeks post stroke. Patients completed tasks assessing cognitive components of reading such as semantics (matching picture or word choices to a target based on meaning, phonology (matching word choices to a target based on rhyming, and orthography (a two-alternative forced choice of the most plausible nonword. They also read aloud pseudowords and words with high or low levels of usage frequency, imageability, and spelling-sound consistency. As predicted by the cognitive model, when averaged across patients, the influence of semantics was most salient for low-frequency, low-consistency words, when phonological decoding is especially difficult. Qualitative subtraction analyses revealed lesion sites specific to phonological processing. These areas were consistent with those shown previously to activate for phonology in healthy participants, including supramarginal, posterior superior temporal, middle temporal, inferior frontal gyri, and underlying white matter. Notable divergence between this analysis and previous functional imaging is the association of lesions in the mid-fusiform gyrus and anterior temporal lobe with phonological reading deficits. This study represents progress toward identifying brain lesion-deficit relationships in the cognitive components of reading. Such correspondences are expected to help not only better understand the neural mechanisms of reading, but may also help tailor reading therapy to individual neurocognitive deficit

  18. Making a Case for the Teaching of Reading across the Curriculum in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bharuthram, Sharita

    2012-01-01

    Over the past two decades there has been much written in the literature about the importance of reading and the importance of teaching students reading strategies to improve their reading comprehension. Reading is one of the most important academic tasks encountered by students. In higher education, students are exposed to a number of texts and…

  19. Integrating the Use of Interdisciplinary Learning Activity Task in Creating Students' Mathematical Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahanin, Hajah Umisuzimah Haji; Shahrill, Masitah; Tan, Abby; Mahadi, Mar Aswandi

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the use of interdisciplinary learning activity task to construct students' knowledge in Mathematics, specifically on the topic of scale drawing application. The learning activity task involved more than one academic discipline, which is Mathematics, English Language, Art, Geography and integrating the Brunei Darussalam…

  20. Relations among student attention behaviors, teacher practices, and beginning word reading skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sáez, Leilani; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Schatschneider, Christopher

    2012-01-01

    The role of student attention for predicting kindergarten word reading was investigated among 432 students. Using Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior Rating Scale behavior rating scores, the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis, which yielded three distinct factors that reflected selective attention. In this study, the authors focused on the role of one of these factors, which they labeled attention-memory, for predicting reading performance. Teacher ratings of attention-memory predicted word reading above and beyond the contribution of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the relations between four teacher practices and attention ratings for predicting reading performance were examined. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors found significant interactions between student attention and teacher practices observed during literacy instruction. In general, as ratings of attention improved, better kindergarten word reading performance was associated with high levels of classroom behavior management. However, better word reading performance was not associated with high levels of teacher task orienting. A significant three-way interaction was also found among attention, individualized instruction, and teacher task redirections. The role of regulating kindergarten student attention to support beginning word reading skill development is discussed.

  1. [Effect of Reading a Book on a Tablet Computer on Cerebral Blood Flow in the Prefrontal Cortex].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugiura, Akihiro; Eto, Takuya; Kinoshita, Fumiya; Takada, Hiroki

    2018-01-01

    By measuring cerebral blood flow in the prefrontal cortex, we aimed to determine how reading a book on a tablet computer affects sleep. Seven students (7 men age range, 21-32 years) participated in this study. In a controlled illuminance environment, the subjects read a novel in printed form or on a tablet computer from any distance. As the subjects were reading, the cerebral blood flow in their prefrontal cortex was measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. The study protocol was as follows. 1) Subjects mentally counted a sequence of numbers for 30 s as a pretest to standardized thinking and then 2) read the novel for 10 min, using the printed book or tablet computer. In step 2), the use of the book or tablet computer was in a random sequence. Subjects rested between the two tasks. Significantly increased brain activity (increase in regional cerebral blood flow) was observed following reading a novel on a tablet computer compared with that after reading a printed book. Furthermore, the region around Broca's area was more active when reading on a tablet computer than when reading a printed book. Considering the results of this study and previous studies on physiological characteristics during nonrapid eye movement sleep, we concluded that reading a book on a tablet computer before the onset of sleep leads to the potential inhibition of sound sleep through mechanisms other than the suppression of melatonin secretion.

  2. Immaturity of the Oculomotor Saccade and Vergence Interaction in Dyslexic Children: Evidence from a Reading and Visual Search Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bucci, Maria Pia; Nassibi, Naziha; Gerard, Christophe-Loic; Bui-Quoc, Emmanuel; Seassau, Magali

    2012-01-01

    Studies comparing binocular eye movements during reading and visual search in dyslexic children are, at our knowledge, inexistent. In the present study we examined ocular motor characteristics in dyslexic children versus two groups of non dyslexic children with chronological/reading age-matched. Binocular eye movements were recorded by an infrared system (mobileEBT®, e(ye)BRAIN) in twelve dyslexic children (mean age 11 years old) and a group of chronological age-matched (N = 9) and reading age-matched (N = 10) non dyslexic children. Two visual tasks were used: text reading and visual search. Independently of the task, the ocular motor behavior in dyslexic children is similar to those reported in reading age-matched non dyslexic children: many and longer fixations as well as poor quality of binocular coordination during and after the saccades. In contrast, chronological age-matched non dyslexic children showed a small number of fixations and short duration of fixations in reading task with respect to visual search task; furthermore their saccades were well yoked in both tasks. The atypical eye movement's patterns observed in dyslexic children suggest a deficiency in the visual attentional processing as well as an immaturity of the ocular motor saccade and vergence systems interaction. PMID:22438934

  3. Fostering the Love of Reading: The Affective Domain in Reading Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cramer, Eugene H., Ed.; Castle, Marrietta, Ed.

    Representing current thinking about a wide range of issues related to reading motivation, this book offers a look at how to create classroom cultures that foster in students the love of reading. The book is about teachers and the critical role they play in helping children develop into motivated, active, engaged readers who read both for pleasure…

  4. The number of supports does not modify the electrical cortical activity during balance tasks.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Collado-Mateo

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Aims: The objective was to evaluate the electrical cortical activity during two static and two dynamic tasks, comparing between tasks with single support tasks and tasks with two feet on the platform. Settings and Design: Sixteen young males participated in this cross-sectional study. Methods and Material: Electrical cortical activity was assessed using the Enobio device. Two static and two dynamic tasks were performed, all of them on the Biodex Balance System device. Statistical analysis used: Mean power spectrum for the Alpha band was analyzed. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare tasks with one single support and tasks with the two feet on the platform. Results: No significant difference was observed when comparing the balance tasks. Conclusions: The number of supports did not significantly modify the EEG signal in the alpha band. However, cognitive demands in the single support dynamic task seemed to be somewhat higher compared with the rest of the tasks. These results may be relevant to design future programs based on dual task.

  5. Comparison of different speech tasks among adults who stutter and adults who do not stutter

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Paula Ritto

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: In this study, we compared the performance of both fluent speakers and people who stutter in three different speaking situations: monologue speech, oral reading and choral reading. This study follows the assumption that the neuromotor control of speech can be influenced by external auditory stimuli in both speakers who stutter and speakers who do not stutter. METHOD: Seventeen adults who stutter and seventeen adults who do not stutter were assessed in three speaking tasks: monologue, oral reading (solo reading aloud and choral reading (reading in unison with the evaluator. Speech fluency and rate were measured for each task. RESULTS: The participants who stuttered had a lower frequency of stuttering during choral reading than during monologue and oral reading. CONCLUSIONS: According to the dual premotor system model, choral speech enhanced fluency by providing external cues for the timing of each syllable compensating for deficient internal cues.

  6. Increased resting-state functional connectivity of visual- and cognitive-control brain networks after training in children with reading difficulties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Reading Acceleration Program, a computerized reading-training program, increases activation in neural circuits related to reading. We examined the effect of the training on the functional connectivity between independent components related to visual processing, executive functions, attention, memory, and language during rest after the training. Children 8–12 years old with reading difficulties and typical readers participated in the study. Behavioral testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed before and after the training. Imaging data were analyzed using an independent component analysis approach. After training, both reading groups showed increased single-word contextual reading and reading comprehension scores. Greater positive correlations between the visual-processing component and the executive functions, attention, memory, or language components were found after training in children with reading difficulties. Training-related increases in connectivity between the visual and attention components and between the visual and executive function components were positively correlated with increased word reading and reading comprehension, respectively. Our findings suggest that the effect of the Reading Acceleration Program on basic cognitive domains can be detected even in the absence of an ongoing reading task.

  7. Cognitive neuropsychological analysis of differential reading and spelling disorder mechanisms in a patient with aphasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashimoto, Kosei; Uno, Akira

    2016-06-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine if differential reading and spelling mechanisms were involved in a Japanese patient with aphasia. In our case, the patient scored low on all of the administered reading tasks, suggesting that both the reading lexical and non-lexical routes were impaired. In contrast, his writing-to-dictation score for Kana nonwords was high, suggesting that the spelling non-lexical route was intact. However, the patient scored low on a writing-to-dictation task comprised of high-familiarity Kanji words. The spelling lexical route was thought to be impaired. Therefore, the mechanism(s) involved in reading and spelling may differ in this case.

  8. Art of reading a journal article: Methodically and effectively

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subramanyam, RV

    2013-01-01

    Background: Reading scientific literature is mandatory for researchers and clinicians. With an overflow of medical and dental journals, it is essential to develop a method to choose and read the right articles. Objective: To outline a logical and orderly approach to reading a scientific manuscript. By breaking down the task into smaller, step-by-step components, one should be able to attain the skills to read a scientific article with ease. Methods: The reader should begin by reading the title, abstract and conclusions first. If a decision is made to read the entire article, the key elements of the article can be perused in a systematic manner effectively and efficiently. A cogent and organized method is presented to read articles published in scientific journals. Conclusion: One can read and appreciate a scientific manuscript if a systematic approach is followed in a simple and logical manner. PMID:23798833

  9. Engaging Struggling Early Readers to Promote Reading Success: A Pilot Study of Reading by Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendez, Linda M. Raffaele; Pelzmann, Catherine A.; Frank, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we piloted a Tier 2 intervention designed to improve reading skills among struggling early readers using an intervention that included SRA Reading Mastery, listening-while-reading activities, strategies to increase motivation and engagement in reading, and parent involvement in reading homework. The study included 6 students in…

  10. Using Multimedia Vocabulary Annotations in L2 Reading and Listening Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jing Xu

    2010-01-01

    This paper reviews the role of multimedia vocabulary annotation (MVA) in facilitating second language (L2) reading and listening activities. It examines the multimedia learning and multimedia language learning theories that underlie the MVA research, synthesizes the findings on MVA in the last decade, and identifies three underresearched areas on…

  11. Processing Determinants of Reading Speed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Mark D.; McClelland, James L.

    1979-01-01

    Two groups of undergraduates differing in reading ability were tested on a number of reaction-time tasks designed to determine the speed of encoding visual information at several different levels, tests of sensory functions, verbal and quantitative reasoning ability, short-term auditory memory span, and ability to comprehend spoken text.…

  12. Reading in a Digital Age: Issues and Future of Reading on the Web among Young People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shan-Ju Lin Chang

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available “Reading on the Internet” or digital reading has been a controversial issue in recent years as more and more young adults spent more time on Internet, and engaged in reading activities which may differ from the traditional conception of reading. More importantly, some observe that digital reading seems to have negative impacts on students’ reading capabilities at the individual level and citizens’ literacy at the national level. How can we understand the phenomenon of reading in a digital age? Online activities are facilitating or hindering the development of reading capabilities of young adults? What do we mean when we evaluate the reading capabilities in a digital age? This paper explores the pros and cons of reading on the Internet or digital reading, the technological, social and economic forces that influence those viewpoints, and discusses the findings of some empirical studies. The implications from this study for educational policy makers and educators conclude this paper. [Article content in Chinese; Extended abstract in English

  13. Increased Resting-State Functional Connectivity in the Cingulo-Opercular Cognitive-Control Network after Intervention in Children with Reading Difficulties.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus

    Full Text Available Dyslexia, or reading difficulty, is characterized by slow, inaccurate reading accompanied by executive dysfunction. Reading training using the Reading Acceleration Program improves reading and executive functions in both children with dyslexia and typical readers. This improvement is associated with increased activation in and functional connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex, part of the cingulo-opercular cognitive-control network, and the fusiform gyrus during a reading task after training. The objective of the current study was to determine whether the training also has an effect on functional connectivity of the cingulo-opercular and fronto-parietal cognitive-control networks during rest in children with dyslexia and typical readers. Fifteen children with reading difficulty and 17 typical readers (8-12 years old were included in the study. Reading and executive functions behavioral measures and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected before and after reading training. Imaging data were analyzed using a graphical network-modeling tool. Both reading groups had increased reading and executive-functions scores after training, with greater gains among the dyslexia group. Training may have less effect on cognitive control in typical readers and a more direct effect on the visual area, as previously reported. Statistical analysis revealed that compared to typical readers, children with reading difficulty had significantly greater functional connectivity in the cingulo-opercular network after training, which may demonstrate the importance of cognitive control during reading in this population. These results support previous findings of increased error-monitoring activation after reading training in children with dyslexia and confirm greater gains with training in this group.

  14. Epilogue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability-Implications for Assessment and Instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamhi, Alan G; Catts, Hugh W

    2017-04-20

    In this epilogue, we review the 4 response articles and highlight the implications of a multidimensional view of reading for the assessment and instruction of reading comprehension. We reiterate the problems with standardized tests of reading comprehension and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recently developed authentic tests of reading comprehension. In the "Instruction" section, we review the benefits and limitations of strategy instruction and highlight suggestions from the response articles to improve content and language knowledge. We argue that the only compelling reason to administer a standardized test of reading comprehension is when these tests are necessary to qualify students for special education services. Instruction should be focused on content knowledge, language knowledge, and specific task and learning requirements. This instruction may entail the use of comprehension strategies, particularly those that are specific to the task and focus on integrating new knowledge with prior knowledge.

  15. Is Neural Activity Detected by ERP-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces Task Specific?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus A Wenzel

    Full Text Available Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs that are based on event-related potentials (ERPs can estimate to which stimulus a user pays particular attention. In typical BCIs, the user silently counts the selected stimulus (which is repeatedly presented among other stimuli in order to focus the attention. The stimulus of interest is then inferred from the electroencephalogram (EEG. Detecting attention allocation implicitly could be also beneficial for human-computer interaction (HCI, because it would allow software to adapt to the user's interest. However, a counting task would be inappropriate for the envisaged implicit application in HCI. Therefore, the question was addressed if the detectable neural activity is specific for silent counting, or if it can be evoked also by other tasks that direct the attention to certain stimuli.Thirteen people performed a silent counting, an arithmetic and a memory task. The tasks required the subjects to pay particular attention to target stimuli of a random color. The stimulus presentation was the same in all three tasks, which allowed a direct comparison of the experimental conditions.Classifiers that were trained to detect the targets in one task, according to patterns present in the EEG signal, could detect targets in all other tasks (irrespective of some task-related differences in the EEG.The neural activity detected by the classifiers is not strictly task specific but can be generalized over tasks and is presumably a result of the attention allocation or of the augmented workload. The results may hold promise for the transfer of classification algorithms from BCI research to implicit relevance detection in HCI.

  16. Improving South African third graders’ reading skills: Lessons learnt from the use of Guided Reading approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohlanhledi P. Makumbila

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This professional development project, known as Literacy Leadership Project, enabled four Foundation Phase teachers in South Africa to implement the Guided Reading approach. Developed by American researchers Fountas and Pinnell (1996, Guided Reading helps elementary students strengthen their phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency in small group activities. Over an 8-month period, lessons learnt came from data collected from this professional development included workshop activities, classroom observations, teachers’ group discussions and students’ artefacts. Results indicated improvement in students’ literacy engagement and motivation because of the use of levelled books, oral reading and group activities Keywords:  Guided Reading programme; foundation phase; childhood literacy; teacher professional development; literacy leadership; South Africa

  17. Reading while Watching Video: The Effect of Video Content on Reading Comprehension and Media Multitasking Ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Lin; Lee, Jennifer; Robertson, Tip

    2011-01-01

    Media multitasking, or engaging in multiple media and tasks simultaneously, is becoming an increasingly popular phenomenon with the development and engagement in social media. This study examines to what extent video content affects students' reading comprehension in media multitasking environments. One hundred and thirty university students were…

  18. Reading space characteristics in campus environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tampubolon, A. C.; Kusuma, H. E.

    2018-03-01

    Reading activity is a part of daily learning activities that are usually done by college students and takes place in the facilities that are provided by the campus. However, students tend to have a perception of a particular location that is considered appropriate with the activities undertaken. This study identified students’ perceptions of reading space characteristics in campus environment which are considered able to accommodate reading activity. Exploratory qualitative research methods were used to collect data from selected types of space and the reasons for the students in choosing the specifics space to do their reading. The results showed that students do not only use library facilities as a support unit of academic activities. This study found that students tend to use some places with non-library function, such as students’ union room, hallway, and classroom. Students perceive reading space by its physical and social characteristics. The physical consist of ambiance, quiet place, tranquility, availability of facilities, the level of coolness, lighting, location accessibility, connection with nature, convenience furniture, air quality, aesthetics, the flexibility of activities, the crowd of place, the level of shade, outdoor, ownership, and indoor. While the social characteristics of the reading space are to have privacy, favorable reading position, and the presence of others.

  19. The Relationship between Reading Proficiency and Reading Strategy Use: A Study of Adult ESL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Jiuhan; Nisbet, Deanna

    2014-01-01

    This article explores the relationship between reading strategy use and reading proficiency among 121 adult ESL learners. Reading strategy use was measured by the SORS, and reading proficiency was determined by the CASAS Reading Test and BEST Literacy Test. Findings of the study reveal that (a) adult ESL learners are active strategies users; (b)…

  20. Aesthetic-Receptive and Critical-Creative in Appreciative Reading

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    Titin Setiartin

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Reading is a process of aesthetically appreciative receptive to emphasize critical-creative reading activities. Metacognitively students understand, address any and explore the idea of the author in the text. Students responded, criticize, and evaluate the author's ideas in the text. At this stage, students can construct their post read text into other forms (new text. The aim of this strategy equips students to understand the meaning of the story, explore ideas, responding critically, and creatively pouring backstory idea. Reading strategies aesthetically-critical-creative receptive grabbed cognitive, effective, and psychomotor toward literacy critical reading and creative writing. Read appreciative included into the activities of reading comprehension. This activity involves the sensitivity and ability to process aesthetically-receptive reading and critical-creative. Readers imagination roam the author to obtain meaningful understanding and experience of reading. Some models of reading comprehension proposed experts covering the steps before reading, when reading, and after reading. At that stage to enable students after reading thinking abilities. Activities that can be done at this stage, for example, examine the back story, retell, make drawings, diagrams, or maps the concept of reading, as well as making a road map that describes the event. Other activities that can be done is to transform our student's text stories through reinforcement form illustrated stories into comic book form, for example (transliteration.

  1. Influence of spatial perception abilities on reading in school-age children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arnaud Saj

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Spatial perception abilities enable individuals to explore a visual field, to detect spatial position and to infer relationships between visual stimuli. Written words and text are conceptualized spatially along a horizontal mental line, but little is known about the way children develop these representations. The exact relationship between visuo-spatial perception and academic achievement has never been directly assessed. Therefore, our aim was to study the developmental trajectory of space perception abilities by assessing perceptual, attentional and memory components, the relationship between these abilities and reading achievement in school-age children. Forty-nine children aged between 6.5 and 11 years old were divided into four age groups and were assessed with visual bisection, visual search and visual memory location tasks. The results showed that the groups of older children, from the age of nine, improved significantly on the bisection and visual search tasks with respect to all visual fields, while the groups of younger children showed more errors in the left visual field (LVF. Performances on these tasks were correlated with reading level and age. Older children with a low reading score showed a LVF bias, similar to the youngest children. These results demonstrate how abnormal space perception might distort space representation and in turn affect reading and learning processes.

  2. Parent-child picture-book reading, mothers' mental state language and children's theory of mind.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adrian, Juan E; Clemente, Rosa A; Villanueva, Lidon; Rieffe, Carolien

    2005-08-01

    This study focuses on parent-child book reading and its connection to the development of a theory of mind. First, parents were asked to report about frequency of parent-child storybook reading at home. Second, mothers were asked to read four picture-books to thirty-four children between 4;0 and 5;0. Both frequency of parent-child storybook reading at home, and mother's use of mental state terms in picture-books reading tasks were significantly associated with success on false belief tasks, after partialling out a number of potential mediators such as age of children, verbal IQ, paternal education, and words used by mothers in joint picture-book reading. Among the different mental state references (cognitive terms, desires, emotions and perceptions), it was found that the frequency and variety of cognitive terms, but also the frequency of emotional terms correlated positively with children's false belief performance. Relationships between mental state language and theory of mind are discussed.

  3. Differences in Neural Activation as a Function of Risk-taking Task Parameters

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    Eliza eCongdon

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Despite evidence supporting a relationship between impulsivity and naturalistic risk-taking, the relationship of impulsivity with laboratory-based measures of risky decision-making remains unclear. One factor contributing to this gap in our understanding is the degree to which different risky decision-making tasks vary in their details. We conducted an fMRI investigation of the Angling Risk Task (ART, which is an improved behavioral measure of risky decision-making. In order to examine whether the observed pattern of neural activation was specific to the ART or generalizable, we also examined correlates of the Balloon Analogue Risk Taking (BART task in the same sample of 23 healthy adults. Exploratory analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between neural activation, performance, impulsivity and self-reported risk-taking. While activation in a valuation network was associated with reward tracking during the ART but not the BART, increased fronto-cingulate activation was seen during risky choice trials in the BART as compared to the ART. Thus, neural activation during risky decision-making trials differed between the two tasks, and this observation was likely driven by differences in task parameters, namely the absence vs. presence of ambiguity and/or stationary vs. increasing probability of loss on the ART and BART, respectively. Exploratory association analyses suggest that sensitivity of neural response to the magnitude of potential reward during the ART was associated with a suboptimal performance strategy, higher scores on a scale of dysfunctional impulsivity and a greater likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, while this pattern was not seen for the BART. Our results suggest that the ART is decomposable and associated with distinct patterns of neural activation; this represents a preliminary step towards characterizing a behavioral measure of risky decision-making that may support a better understanding of naturalistic risk-taking.

  4. Selective activation of the superior frontal gyrus in task-switching: an event-related fNIRS study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cutini, Simone; Scatturin, Pietro; Menon, Enrica; Bisiacchi, Patrizia Silvia; Gamberini, Luciano; Zorzi, Marco; Dell'Acqua, Roberto

    2008-08-15

    In the task-switching paradigm, reaction time is longer and accuracy is worse in switch trials relative to repetition trials. This so-called switch cost has been ascribed to the engagement of control processes required to alternate between distinct stimulus-response mapping rules. Neuroimaging studies have reported an enhanced activation of the human lateral prefrontal cortex and the superior frontal gyrus during the task-switching paradigm. Whether neural activation in these regions is dissociable and associated with separable cognitive components of task switching has been a matter of recent debate. We used multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain cortical activity in a task-switching paradigm designed to avoid task differences, order predictability, and frequency effects. The results showed a generalized bilateral activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex and the superior frontal gyrus in both switch trials and repetition trials. To isolate the activity selectively associated with the task-switch, the overall activity recorded during repetition trials was subtracted from the activity recorded during switch trials. Following subtraction, the remaining activity was entirely confined to the left portion of the superior frontal gyrus. The present results suggest that factors associated with load and maintenance of distinct stimulus-response mapping rules in working memory are likely contributors to the activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex, whereas only activity in the left superior frontal gyrus can be linked unequivocally to switching between distinct cognitive tasks.

  5. Reading Performance Profile of Children with Dyslexia in Primary and Secondary School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balci, Emine; Çayir, Aybala

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of the present research was to provide information to the community about the reading subskill profiles of children with dyslexia in primary and secondary school students. 175 children (aged 7-15 yrs) were examined on a varied set of phonological coding, spelling and fluent reading tasks. For this purpose, students' fluent reading were…

  6. Construction, integration, and mind wandering in reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dixon, Peter; Bortolussi, Marisa

    2013-03-01

    In two experiments, we investigated how text recall was related to moment-to-moment variations in mental state while reading, and how both recall and mental state were related to the interest value of the text. In both experiments, subjects read either an interesting text (a segment of Rice's Interview with the Vampire [A. Rice, 1997, Interview with the vampire, New York. NY: Ballantine Books] or a less interesting text (a segment of Thackery's The History of Pendennis [W. M. Thackery, 2009/1914, The history of Pendennis, Project Gutenberg, Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7265]). The texts were read sentence-by-sentence on a computer screen, and subjects were periodically interrupted to answer a probe question. In Experiment 1, the probe asked whether subjects were attending to the text; in Experiment 2, the probe asked whether subjects were engaged with the story world. After reading the text, subjects were asked to recall as much of the story as possible. Recall of the material just prior to the probe was examined as a function of the whether the ratings were high, medium, or low. As expected, both on-task ratings and engagement ratings were higher for Interview than for Pendennis, but there were a substantial number of medium ratings given to both stories. In Experiment 1, there was a clear effect of story on recall over and above the effect of on-task rating. However, in Experiment 2, recall was purely a function of engagement rating. The results were interpreted in terms of a model in which recall is largely determined by the situation model representation of the narrative and in which engagement ratings (but not on-task ratings) provide a relatively pure index of the allocation of resources to processing of the situation model.

  7. Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Fengyang; Ai, Haiyang

    2018-06-01

    The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1 environment, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English, performed a translation recognition task. In this task, participants judged whether pairs of words, with an L2 word preceding an L1 word, were translation words or not. The critical conditions compared the performance of learners to reject distractors that were related to the translation word (e.g., , pronounced as /bei 1/) of an L2 word (e.g., cup) in orthography (e.g., , bad in Chinese, pronounced as /huai 4/) or phonology (e.g., , sad in Chinese, pronounced as /bei 1/). Results of Experiment 1 showed less proficient learners were slower and less accurate to reject translation orthography distractors, as compared to unrelated controls, demonstrating a robust translation orthography interference effect. In contrast, their performance was not significantly different when rejecting translation phonology distractors, relative to unrelated controls, showing no translation phonology interference. The same patterns were observed in more proficient learners in Experiment 2. Together, these results suggest that when Chinese learners of English read English words, the orthographic information, but not the phonological information of the Chinese translation words is activated. In addition, this activation is not modulated by L2 proficiency.

  8. Extendable supervised dictionary learning for exploring diverse and concurrent brain activities in task-based fMRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Shijie; Han, Junwei; Hu, Xintao; Jiang, Xi; Lv, Jinglei; Zhang, Tuo; Zhang, Shu; Guo, Lei; Liu, Tianming

    2018-06-01

    Recently, a growing body of studies have demonstrated the simultaneous existence of diverse brain activities, e.g., task-evoked dominant response activities, delayed response activities and intrinsic brain activities, under specific task conditions. However, current dominant task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (tfMRI) analysis approach, i.e., the general linear model (GLM), might have difficulty in discovering those diverse and concurrent brain responses sufficiently. This subtraction-based model-driven approach focuses on the brain activities evoked directly from the task paradigm, thus likely overlooks other possible concurrent brain activities evoked during the information processing. To deal with this problem, in this paper, we propose a novel hybrid framework, called extendable supervised dictionary learning (E-SDL), to explore diverse and concurrent brain activities under task conditions. A critical difference between E-SDL framework and previous methods is that we systematically extend the basic task paradigm regressor into meaningful regressor groups to account for possible regressor variation during the information processing procedure in the brain. Applications of the proposed framework on five independent and publicly available tfMRI datasets from human connectome project (HCP) simultaneously revealed more meaningful group-wise consistent task-evoked networks and common intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs). These results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed framework in identifying the diversity of concurrent brain activities in tfMRI datasets.

  9. The development of an enabling self-administered questionnaire for enhancing reading teachers' professional pedagogical insights

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    Janet Condy

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available I explore the development and refinement, validation and implementation of a questionnaire to define teachers' perceived professional competencies in teaching reading skills and strategies in Grades 1-7 classes in developing countries. Using the Concentrated Language Encounter (CLE programme, implemented and expanded annually between 2001 and 2005 in 4 900 new classrooms in schools in South Africa, I gathered and analysed theoretically coherent feedback data from more than 1 000 qualified, active reading teachers to establish a set of competencies describing teachers' professional understandings of their pedagogical reading tasks. The study was grounded in the social constructivist, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic theories originating from the works of Piaget, Vygotsky, Cambourne, and Goodman. Their foundational principles, together with the South African Revised National Curriculum Statement were defined and applied to the derivation of all items in the questionnaire. The questionnaire evolved through three phases of validation. Throughout phases two and three, several cautious varimax normalized factor analyses and scree plots were engaged to refine and develop the questionnaire, within the context of teaching reading in South African schools. The emerging teaching reading themes can be fed back to teachers to improve aspects of their teaching reading.

  10. A Read-Aloud for Foreign Languages: Becoming a Language Master (Read It Aloud).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richardson, Judy S.

    1998-01-01

    Describes the use of some read-alouds from Alexandre Dumas'"The Count of Monte Cristo" which helped to demonstrate some principles of learning foreign languages. Describes briefly the read aloud selection, discusses some specific activities that relate to foreign language learning, and discusses specific language arts activities. (SR)

  11. Two castes sizes of leafcutter ants in task partitioning in foraging activity

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    Marcelo Arruda de Toledo

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT: Task partitioning in eusocial animals is most likely an evolutionary adaptation that optimizes the efficiency of the colony to grow and reproduce. It was investigated indirect task partitioning in two castes sizes; this involves task partitioning in which the material transported is not transferred directly from one individual to another, but where it is dropped by one ant to be picked up by another. In two separate approaches, it was confirmed previous results pertaining to leaf caching activities among Atta colombica with task partitioning activities involving leaf dropping among Atta sexdens rubropilosa , in which there is a correlation between the size of an individual ant and the leaf fragment it transports. It was also suggested that this correlation exists only in individual ants that cut and transport (CaT the same fragment to the nest. When task partitioning occurs and individual ants transporting (T leaf fragments cut by other ants, the correlation becomes looser or disappears. We also observed that CaT ants are smaller than T ants.

  12. Comparison of cortical activation in an upper limb added-purpose task versus a single-purpose task: a near-infrared spectroscopy study

    OpenAIRE

    Huang, Fubiao; Hirano, Daisuke; Shi, Yun; Taniguchi, Takamichi

    2015-01-01

    [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare prefrontal activations during an added-purpose task with those during a single-purpose task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. [Subjects] Six healthy right-handed adults were included in this study. [Methods] The participants were instructed to complete both added-purpose and single-purpose activities separately with each hand. The near-infrared spectroscopy probes were placed on the scalp overlying the prefrontal cortex, according ...

  13. Terbinafine is a novel and selective activator of the two-pore domain potassium channel TASK3.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Paul D; Veale, Emma L; McCoull, David; Tickle, David C; Large, Jonathan M; Ococks, Emma; Gothard, Gemma; Kettleborough, Catherine; Mathie, Alistair; Jerman, Jeffrey

    2017-11-04

    Two-pore domain potassium channels (K2Ps) are characterized by their four transmembrane domain and two-pore topology. They carry background (or leak) potassium current in a variety of cell types. Despite a number of important roles there is currently a lack of pharmacological tools with which to further probe K2P function. We have developed a cell-based thallium flux assay, using baculovirus delivered TASK3 (TWIK-related acid-sensitive K + channel 3, KCNK9, K2P9.1) with the aim of identifying novel, selective TASK3 activators. After screening a library of 1000 compounds, including drug-like and FDA approved molecules, we identified Terbinafine as an activator of TASK3. In a thallium flux assay a pEC50 of 6.2 ( ±0.12) was observed. When Terbinafine was screened against TASK2, TREK2, THIK1, TWIK1 and TRESK no activation was observed in thallium flux assays. Several analogues of Terbinafine were also purchased and structure activity relationships examined. To confirm Terbinafine's activation of TASK3 whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology was carried out and clear potentiation observed in both the wild type channel and the pathophysiological, Birk-Barel syndrome associated, G236R TASK3 mutant. No activity at TASK1 was observed in electrophysiology studies. In conclusion, we have identified the first selective activator of the two-pore domain potassium channel TASK3. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Central as well as peripheral attentional bottlenecks in dual-task performance activate lateral prefrontal cortices

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    Andre J Szameitat

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Human information processing suffers from severe limitations in parallel processing. In particular, when required to respond to two stimuli in rapid succession, processing bottlenecks may appear at central and peripheral stages of task processing. Importantly, it has been suggested that executive functions are needed to resolve the interference arising at such bottlenecks. The aims of the present study were to test whether central attentional limitations (i.e., bottleneck at the decisional response selection stage as well as peripheral limitations (i.e., bottleneck at response initiation both demand executive functions located in the lateral prefrontal cortex. For this, we re-analysed two previous studies, in which a total of 33 participants performed a dual-task according to the paradigm of the psychological refractory period (PRP during fMRI. In one study (N=17, the PRP task consisted of two two-choice response tasks known to suffer from a central bottleneck (CB group. In the other study (N=16, the PRP task consisted of two simple-response tasks known to suffer from a peripheral bottleneck (PB group. Both groups showed considerable dual-task costs in form of slowing of the second response in the dual-task (PRP effect. Imaging results are based on the subtraction of both single-tasks from the dual-task within each group. In the CB group, the bilateral middle frontal gyri and inferior frontal gyri were activated. Higher activation in these areas was associated with lower dual-task costs. In the PB group, the right middle frontal and inferior frontal gyrus were activated. Here, higher activation was associated with higher dual-task costs. In conclusion we suggest that central and peripheral bottlenecks both demand executive functions located in lateral prefrontal cortices. Differences between the CB and PB groups with respect to the exact prefrontal areas activated and the correlational patterns suggest that the executive functions resolving

  15. Performance Effects of Display Incogruity in a Digital and Analog Clock Reading Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Comstock, J. Raymond, Jr.; Derks, Peter L.

    2004-01-01

    In an era of increasing automation, it is important to design displays and input devices that minimize human error. In this context, information concerning the human response to the detection of incongruous information is important. Such incongruous information can be operationalized as unexpected (perhaps erroneous) information on which a decision by the human or operation by an automated system is based. In the aviation environment, decision making when faced with inadequate, incomplete, or incongruous information may occur in a failure scenario. An additional challenge facing the human operator in automated environments is maintaining alertness or vigilance. The vigilance issue is of particular concern as a factor that may interact with performance when faced with inadequate, incomplete, or incongruous information. From the literature on eye-scan behavior we know that the time spent looking at a particular display or indicator is a function of the type of information one is trying to discern from the display. For example, quick glances are all it takes for confirming that an indicator is in a normal position or range, whereas a continuous look of several seconds may be required for confirmation that a complex control input is having the desired effect. Important to consider is that while an extended look takes place, visual input from other sources may be missed. Much like an extended look, the interpretation of incongruous information may require extra time. The present experiment was designed to explore the performance consequences of a decision making task when incongruous information was presented. For this experiment a display incongruity was created on a subset of trials of a clock reading laboratory task. Display incongruity was made possible through presentation of 'impossible' times (e.g. 1:65 or 11:90). Subjects made 'same' 'different' decisions and keyboard responses to pairings of Analog-Analog (AA), Digital-Digital (DD), and Analog- Digital (AD

  16. Hidden Language Impairments in Children: Parallels between Poor Reading Comprehension and Specific Language Impairment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nation, Kate; Clarke, Paula; Marshall, Catherine M.; Durand, Marianne

    2004-01-01

    This study investigates the oral language skills of 8-year-old children with impaired reading comprehension. Despite fluent and accurate reading and normal nonverbal ability, these children are poor at understanding what they have read. Tasks tapping 3 domains of oral language, namely phonology, semantics, and morphosyntax, were administered,…

  17. Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanbonmatsu, David M; Strayer, David L; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M

    2013-01-01

    The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

  18. Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David M Sanbonmatsu

    Full Text Available The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

  19. Who Multi-Tasks and Why? Multi-Tasking Ability, Perceived Multi-Tasking Ability, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanbonmatsu, David M.; Strayer, David L.; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M.

    2013-01-01

    The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants’ perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation – high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking – reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control - low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity - tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity. PMID:23372720

  20. Explaining Phonology and Reading in Adult Learners: Introducing Prosodic Awareness and Executive Functions to Reading Ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Jessica S.; Wade-Woolley, Lesly

    2018-01-01

    Background: This study was designed to extend our understanding of phonology and reading to include suprasegmental awareness using measures of prosodic awareness, which are complex tasks that tap into the rhythmic aspects of phonology. By requiring participants to access, reflect on and manipulate word stress, the prosodic awareness measures used…

  1. A patient with aphasia using the nonsemantic lexical route for Kanji reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashimoto, Kosei; Uno, Akira; Sambai, Ami; Mizumoto, Go

    We report a patient with aphasia, caused by cerebral hemorrhage, who probably used the nonsemantic lexical route when reading words aloud. To investigate the mechanisms underlying her reading dysfunction, we analyzed her reading abilities using the Dual-Route Cascaded Model. Language tests resulted in low correct percentages for both reading comprehension and reading nonwords aloud, suggesting problems in the semantic system and the nonlexical route. Conversely, the patient showed high scores on the reading words aloud task. Although she failed to understand many inconsistent-atypical words in the reading comprehension test, she correctly read most words aloud, suggesting that she used the nonsemantic lexical route. In addition, the lexical reading route was analyzed in detail by using inconsistent-atypical Kanji words as stimuli. Finally, we analyzed her reading dysfunction compared with previous cases.

  2. Vocabulary Acquisition and Task Effectiveness in Involvement Load Hypothesis: A case in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hassan Soleimani

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Involvement load hypothesis as a cognitive construct states that tasks with higher involvements yield better results in vocabulary retention. This comparison group designed study examined the immediate and delayed effects of tasks with different involvements in involvement load hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001. Applying a version of Nelson Proficiency Test as a homogenizing exclusion criterion, 33 low proficiency Iranian EFL learners were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: blank-filling, sentence making, and reading comprehension. The results of ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests supported task-induced involvement in immediate posttest since the sentence making task (M=5.72 yielded better results in comparison with the other two blank-filling (M=5.45 and reading comprehension (M=3.18 tasks. Nevertheless, sentence making and blank-filling tasks of which the involvements were somehow similar did not yield significant superiority to each other. It is inferred that tasks with nearer involvements yield somehow similar results in vocabulary acquisition.

  3. Eye movements when reading sentences with handwritten words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perea, Manuel; Marcet, Ana; Uixera, Beatriz; Vergara-Martínez, Marta

    2016-10-17

    The examination of how we read handwritten words (i.e., the original form of writing) has typically been disregarded in the literature on reading. Previous research using word recognition tasks has shown that lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) are magnified when reading difficult handwritten words. To examine this issue in a more ecological scenario, we registered the participants' eye movements when reading handwritten sentences that varied in the degree of legibility (i.e., sentences composed of words in easy vs. difficult handwritten style). For comparison purposes, we included a condition with printed sentences. Results showed a larger reading cost for sentences with difficult handwritten words than for sentences with easy handwritten words, which in turn showed a reading cost relative to the sentences with printed words. Critically, the effect of word frequency was greater for difficult handwritten words than for easy handwritten words or printed words in the total times on a target word, but not on first-fixation durations or gaze durations. We examine the implications of these findings for models of eye movement control in reading.

  4. A Pattern Mining Approach to Sensor-based Human Activity Recognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gu, Tao; Wang, Liang; Wu, Zhanqing

    2011-01-01

    Recognizing human activities from sensor readings has recently attracted much research interest in pervasive computing due to its potential in many applications such as assistive living and healthcare. This task is particularly challenging because human activities are often performed in not only...

  5. Task activation and functional connectivity show concordant memory laterality in temporal lobe epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sideman, Noah; Chaitanya, Ganne; He, Xiaosong; Doucet, Gaelle; Kim, Na Young; Sperling, Michael R; Sharan, Ashwini D; Tracy, Joseph I

    2018-04-01

    In epilepsy, asymmetries in the organization of mesial temporal lobe (MTL) functions help determine the cognitive risk associated with procedures such as anterior temporal lobectomy. Past studies have investigated the change/shift in a visual episodic memory laterality index (LI) in mesial temporal lobe structures through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task activations. Here, we examine whether underlying task-related functional connectivity (FC) is concordant with such standard fMRI laterality measures. A total of 56 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) (Left TLE [LTLE]: 31; Right TLE [RTLE]: 25) and 34 matched healthy controls (HC) underwent fMRI scanning during performance of a scene encoding task (SET). We assessed an activation-based LI of the hippocampal gyrus (HG) and parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) during the SET and its correspondence with task-related FC measures. Analyses involving the HG and PHG showed that the patients with LTLE had a consistently higher LI (right-lateralized) than that of the HC and group with RTLE, indicating functional reorganization. The patients with RTLE did not display a reliable contralateral shift away from the pathology, with the mesial structures showing quite distinct laterality patterns (HG, no laterality bias; PHG, no evidence of LI shift). The FC data for the group with LTLE provided confirmation of reorganization effects, revealing that a rightward task LI may be based on underlying connections between several left-sided regions (middle/superior occipital and left medial frontal gyri) and the right PHG. The FCs between the right HG and left anterior cingulate/medial frontal gyri were also observed in LTLE. Importantly, the data demonstrate that the areas involved in the LTLE task activation shift to the right hemisphere showed a corresponding increase in task-related FCs between the hemispheres. Altered laterality patterns based on mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) pathology manifest as several

  6. Anticipatory activity in rat medial prefrontal cortex during a working memory task

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wenwen Bai; Tiaotiao Liu; Hu Yi; Shuangyan Li; Xin Tian

    2012-01-01

    Objective Working memory is a key cognitive function in which the prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role.This study aimed to show the firing patterns of a neuronal population in the prefrontal cortex of the rat in a working memory task and to explore how a neuronal ensemble encodes a working memory event.Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in a Y-maze until they reached an 80% correct rate in a working memory task.Then a 16-channel microelectrode array was implanted in the prefrontal cortex.After recovery,neuronal population activity was recorded during the task,using the Cerebus data-acquisition system.Spatio-temporal trains of action potentials were obtained from the original neuronal population signals.Results During the Y-maze working memory task,some neurons showed significantly increased firing rates and evident neuronal ensemble activity.Moreover,the anticipatory activity was associated with the delayed alternate choice of the upcoming movement.In correct trials,the averaged pre-event firing rate (10.86 ± 1.82 spikes/bin) was higher than the post-event rate (8.17 ± 1.15 spikes/bin) (P <0.05).However,in incorrect trials,the rates did not differ.Conclusion The results indicate that the anticipatory activity of a neuronal ensemble in the prefrontal cortex may play a role in encoding working memory events.

  7. fMRI activation patterns in an analytic reasoning task: consistency with EEG source localization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Bian; Vasanta, Kalyana C.; O'Boyle, Michael; Baker, Mary C.; Nutter, Brian; Mitra, Sunanda

    2010-03-01

    Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to model brain activation patterns associated with various perceptual and cognitive processes as reflected by the hemodynamic (BOLD) response. While many sensory and motor tasks are associated with relatively simple activation patterns in localized regions, higher-order cognitive tasks may produce activity in many different brain areas involving complex neural circuitry. We applied a recently proposed probabilistic independent component analysis technique (PICA) to determine the true dimensionality of the fMRI data and used EEG localization to identify the common activated patterns (mapped as Brodmann areas) associated with a complex cognitive task like analytic reasoning. Our preliminary study suggests that a hybrid GLM/PICA analysis may reveal additional regions of activation (beyond simple GLM) that are consistent with electroencephalography (EEG) source localization patterns.

  8. Reading and reading instruction for children from low-income and non-English-speaking households.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesaux, Nonie K

    2012-01-01

    Although most young children seem to master reading skills in the early grades of elementary school, many struggle with texts as they move through middle school and high school. Why do children who seem to be proficient readers in third grade have trouble comprehending texts in later grades? To answer this question, Nonie Lesaux describes what is known about reading development and instruction, homing in on research conducted with children from low-income and non-English-speaking homes. Using key insights from this research base, she offers two explanations. The first is that reading is a dynamic and multifaceted process that requires continued development if students are to keep pace with the increasing demands of school texts and tasks. The second lies in the role of reading assessment and instruction in U.S. schools. Lesaux draws a distinction between the "skills-based competencies" that readers need to sound out and recognize words and the "knowledge-based competencies" that include the conceptual and vocabulary knowledge necessary to comprehend a text's meaning. Although U.S. schools have made considerable progress in teaching skills-based reading competencies that are the focus of the early grades, most have made much less progress in teaching the knowledge-based competencies students need to support reading comprehension in middle and high school. These knowledge-based competencies are key sources of lasting individual differences in reading outcomes, particularly among children growing up in low-income and non-English-speaking households. Augmenting literacy rates, Lesaux explains, will require considerable shifts in the way reading is assessed and taught in elementary and secondary schools. First, schools must conduct comprehensive reading assessments that discern learners' (potential) sources of reading difficulties--in both skills-based and knowledge-based competencies. Second, educators must implement instructional approaches that offer promise for

  9. Flash Memory Reliability: Read, Program, and Erase Latency Versus Endurance Cycling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heidecker, Jason

    2010-01-01

    This report documents the efforts and results of the fiscal year (FY) 2010 NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program (NEPP) task for nonvolatile memory (NVM) reliability. This year's focus was to measure latency (read, program, and erase) of NAND Flash memories and determine how these parameters drift with erase/program/read endurance cycling.

  10. Assessment of working memory components at 6years of age as predictors of reading achievements a year later.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nevo, Einat; Breznitz, Zvia

    2011-05-01

    The ability of working memory skills (measured by tasks assessing all four working memory components), IQ, language, phonological awareness, literacy, rapid naming, and speed of processing at 6years of age, before reading was taught, to predict reading abilities (decoding, reading comprehension, and reading time) a year later was examined in 97 children. Among all working memory components, phonological complex memory contributed most to predicting all three reading abilities. A capacity measure of phonological complex memory, based on passing a minimum threshold in those tasks, contributed to the explained variance of decoding and reading comprehension. Findings suggest that a minimal ability of phonological complex memory is necessary for children to attain a normal reading level. Adding assessment of phonological complex memory, before formal teaching of reading begins, to more common measures might better estimate children's likelihood of future academic success. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Inhibition and Shifting in Children with Learning Deficits in Arithmetic and Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Sluis, Sophie; de Jong, Peter F.; van der Leij, Aryan

    2004-01-01

    The executive functions of inhibition and shifting were studied in arithmetic-disabled children, reading-disabled children, reading plus arithmetic-disabled children, and controls (N = 74). Measures involved the rapid naming of objects, digits, letters, or quantities with or without additional task requirements that reflected inhibition or…

  12. The specific role of inhibition in reading comprehension in good and poor comprehenders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borella, Erika; Carretti, Barbara; Pelegrina, Santiago

    2010-01-01

    Difficulties in inhibitory processes have been shown to characterize the performance of poor comprehenders. However, the inhibitory inefficiency of poor comprehenders is most often assessed by their resistance to proactive interference, that is, the ability to suppress off-goal task information from working memory (WM). In two studies tasks assessing resistance to proactive interference (intrusion errors), response to distracters (Text With Distracters task) and prepotent response inhibition (Stroop and Hayling tests), along with WM measures, were administered to children aged 10 to 11, both good and poor comprehenders. The aim of the study was to specifically determine whether general or specific inhibitory factors affect poor comprehenders' reading difficulties. Results showed that poor comprehenders, compared to good ones, are impaired in WM tasks and in inhibitory tasks that assess resistance to proactive interference. This suggests that reading comprehension difficulties of poor comprehenders are related to specific inhibitory problems.

  13. Free Reading Is UTOPIA

    Science.gov (United States)

    LeCrone, Nancy

    2010-01-01

    In high school students get tied up in extracurricular activities and have little time for pleasure reading. It is true that with rigorous academic schedules they have little time for pleasure reading. Thus began a conversation with a sophomore English teacher at the author's high school. As they were discussing the plight of free reading he was…

  14. Reading Test-taking Strategies in General Training IELTS

    OpenAIRE

    Vahede Nosrati

    2015-01-01

    The significance of gaining a better understanding of how test-taking strategies are used has been recognized by researchers. Considering this fact, this study aimed at investigating the test-taking strategies which were employed by IELTS candidates in reading comprehension test. Besides, it tried to take into account the differences among strategies used for different tasks. In order to gather data, two instruments were employed: the think-aloud protocol, and an IELTS reading test. The obtai...

  15. Word reading skill predicts anticipation of upcoming spoken language input: a study of children developing proficiency in reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mani, Nivedita; Huettig, Falk

    2014-10-01

    Despite the efficiency with which language users typically process spoken language, a growing body of research finds substantial individual differences in both the speed and accuracy of spoken language processing potentially attributable to participants' literacy skills. Against this background, the current study took a look at the role of word reading skill in listeners' anticipation of upcoming spoken language input in children at the cusp of learning to read; if reading skills affect predictive language processing, then children at this stage of literacy acquisition should be most susceptible to the effects of reading skills on spoken language processing. We tested 8-year-olds on their prediction of upcoming spoken language input in an eye-tracking task. Although children, like in previous studies to date, were successfully able to anticipate upcoming spoken language input, there was a strong positive correlation between children's word reading skills (but not their pseudo-word reading and meta-phonological awareness or their spoken word recognition skills) and their prediction skills. We suggest that these findings are most compatible with the notion that the process of learning orthographic representations during reading acquisition sharpens pre-existing lexical representations, which in turn also supports anticipation of upcoming spoken words. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Effect of visual feedback on brain activation during motor tasks: an FMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noble, Jeremy W; Eng, Janice J; Boyd, Lara A

    2013-07-01

    This study examined the effect of visual feedback and force level on the neural mechanisms responsible for the performance of a motor task. We used a voxel-wise fMRI approach to determine the effect of visual feedback (with and without) during a grip force task at 35% and 70% of maximum voluntary contraction. Two areas (contralateral rostral premotor cortex and putamen) displayed an interaction between force and feedback conditions. When the main effect of feedback condition was analyzed, higher activation when visual feedback was available was found in 22 of the 24 active brain areas, while the two other regions (contralateral lingual gyrus and ipsilateral precuneus) showed greater levels of activity when no visual feedback was available. The results suggest that there is a potentially confounding influence of visual feedback on brain activation during a motor task, and for some regions, this is dependent on the level of force applied.

  17. Cognitive Activities in Solving Mathematical Tasks: The Role of a Cognitive Obstacle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antonijevic, Radovan

    2016-01-01

    In the process of learning mathematics, students practice various forms of thinking activities aimed to substantially contribute to the development of their different cognitive structures. In this paper, the subject matter is a "cognitive obstacle", a phenomenon that occurs in the procedures of solving mathematical tasks. Each task in…

  18. Methylphenidate and brain activity in a reward/conflict paradigm: role of the insula in task performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivanov, Iliyan; Liu, Xun; Clerkin, Suzanne; Schulz, Kurt; Fan, Jin; Friston, Karl; London, Edythe D; Schwartz, Jeffrey; Newcorn, Jeffrey H

    2014-06-01

    Psychostimulants, such as methylphenidate, are thought to improve information processing in motivation-reward and attention-activation networks by enhancing the effects of more relevant signals and suppressing those of less relevant ones; however the nature of such reciprocal influences remains poorly understood. To explore this question, we tested the effect of methylphenidate on performance and associated brain activity in the Anticipation, Conflict, Reward (ACR) task. Sixteen healthy adult volunteers, ages 21-45, were scanned twice using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as they performed the ACR task under placebo and methylphenidate conditions. A three-way repeated measures analysis of variance, with cue (reward vs. non-reward), target (congruent vs. incongruent) and medication condition (methylphenidate vs. placebo) as the factors, was used to analyze behaviors on the task. Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals, reflecting task-related neural activity, were evaluated using linear contrasts. Participants exhibited significantly greater accuracy in the methylphenidate condition than the placebo condition. Compared with placebo, the methylphenidate condition also was associated with lesser task-related activity in components of attention-activation systems irrespective of the reward cue, and less task-related activity in components of the reward-motivation system, particularly the insula, during reward trials irrespective of target difficulty. These results suggest that methylphenidate enhances task performance by improving efficiency of information processing in both reward-motivation and in attention-activation systems. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  19. Brain activation and deactivation during location and color working memory tasks in 11-13-year-old children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vuontela, Virve; Steenari, Maija-Riikka; Aronen, Eeva T; Korvenoja, Antti; Aronen, Hannu J; Carlson, Synnöve

    2009-02-01

    Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and n-back tasks we investigated whether, in 11-13-year-old children, spatial (location) and nonspatial (color) information is differentially processed during visual attention (0-back) and working memory (WM) (2-back) tasks and whether such cognitive task performance, compared to a resting state, results in regional deactivation. The location 0-back task, compared to the color 0-back task, activated segregated areas in the frontal, parietal and occipital cortices whereas no differentially activated voxels were obtained when location and color 2-back tasks were directly contrasted. Several midline cortical areas were less active during 0- and 2-back task performance than resting state. The task-induced deactivation increased with task difficulty as demonstrated by larger deactivation during 2-back than 0-back tasks. The results suggest that, in 11-13-year-old children, the visual attentional network is differently recruited by spatial and nonspatial information processing, but the functional organization of cortical activation in WM in this age group is not based on the type of information processed. Furthermore, 11-13-year-old children exhibited a similar pattern of cortical deactivation that has been reported in adults during cognitive task performance compared to a resting state.

  20. Automatic activation of word phonology from print in deep dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, R B; Lanzoni, S M

    1992-11-01

    The performance of deep dyslexics in oral reading and other tasks suggests that they are poor at activating the phonology of words and non-words from printed stimuli. As the tasks ordinarily used to test deep dyslexics require controlled processing, it is possible that the phonology of printed words can be better activated on an automatic basis. This study investigated this possibility by testing a deep dyslexic patient on a lexical decision task with pairs of stimuli presented simultaneously. In Experiment 1, which used content words as stimuli, the deep dyslexic, like normal subjects, showed faster reaction times on trials with rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. bribe-tribe) than on control trials (consisting of non-rhyming, dissimilarly spelled words), but slower reaction times on trials with non-rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. couch-touch). When the experiment was repeated using function words as stimuli, the patient no longer showed a phonological effect. Therefore, the phonological activation of printed content words by deep dyslexics may be better than would be expected on the basis of their oral reading performance.

  1. Is Morphological Awareness a Relevant Predictor of Reading Fluency and Comprehension? New Evidence From Italian Monolingual and Arabic-Italian Bilingual Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirta Vernice

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we examined the contribution of morphological awareness to reading competence in a group of Italian L1 and Arabic-Italian early L2 children, i.e., exposed to Italian before 3 years of age. Children from first to fifth grade (age range: 6–11 years old were tested on a range of morphological awareness and lexical tasks. Reading ability was tested through standardized tests of reading fluency and comprehension. Results showed that L1 children outperformed L2 on every measure of morphological awareness, as well as on reading tests. Regression analyses revealed that morphological awareness contributed to a different extent to reading ability across groups. Accuracy in the morphological awareness tasks was a significant predictor of word (and non-word reading fluency in L1 and L2 first and second graders, while only in L1 third to fifth graders, response times and accuracy to a morphological awareness task explained a unique amount of variance in reading comprehension. Our results highlight the critical role of morphological processing in reading efficiency and suggest that a training inspired by morphological awareness may improve reading skills also in bilingual students.

  2. L2 Reading Ability: Further Insight into the Short-Circuit Hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taillefer, Gail F.

    1996-01-01

    Discusses the notion of a language proficiency threshold that short circuits the transfer of reading ability from the native language (L1) to a second language (L2). This study, in which cognitive complexity of tasks and students' L2 proficiency levels vary, focuses on university students in France reading preprofessional English texts. (39…

  3. Task complexity, student perceptions of vocabulary learning in EFL, and task performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Xiaoli; Lowyck, Joost; Sercu, Lies; Elen, Jan

    2013-03-01

    The study deepened our understanding of how students' self-efficacy beliefs contribute to the context of teaching English as a foreign language in the framework of cognitive mediational paradigm at a fine-tuned task-specific level. The aim was to examine the relationship among task complexity, self-efficacy beliefs, domain-related prior knowledge, learning strategy use, and task performance as they were applied to English vocabulary learning from reading tasks. Participants were 120 second-year university students (mean age 21) from a Chinese university. This experiment had two conditions (simple/complex). A vocabulary level test was first conducted to measure participants' prior knowledge of English vocabulary. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the learning tasks. Participants were administered task booklets together with the self-efficacy scales, measures of learning strategy use, and post-tests. Data obtained were submitted to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and path analysis. Results from the MANOVA model showed a significant effect of vocabulary level on self-efficacy beliefs, learning strategy use, and task performance. Task complexity showed no significant effect; however, an interaction effect between vocabulary level and task complexity emerged. Results from the path analysis showed self-efficacy beliefs had an indirect effect on performance. Our results highlighted the mediating role of self-efficacy beliefs and learning strategy use. Our findings indicate that students' prior knowledge plays a crucial role on both self-efficacy beliefs and task performance, and the predictive power of self-efficacy on task performance may lie in its association with learning strategy use. © 2011 The British Psychological Society.

  4. Silent reading of direct versus indirect speech activates voice-selective areas in the auditory cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Bo; Belin, Pascal; Scheepers, Christoph

    2011-10-01

    In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said: "I'm hungry") is perceived to be more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said [that] she was hungry). However, for silent reading, the representational consequences of this distinction are still unclear. Although many of us share the intuition of an "inner voice," particularly during silent reading of direct speech statements in text, there has been little direct empirical confirmation of this experience so far. Combining fMRI with eye tracking in human volunteers, we show that silent reading of direct versus indirect speech engenders differential brain activation in voice-selective areas of the auditory cortex. This suggests that readers are indeed more likely to engage in perceptual simulations (or spontaneous imagery) of the reported speaker's voice when reading direct speech as opposed to meaning-equivalent indirect speech statements as part of a more vivid representation of the former. Our results may be interpreted in line with embodied cognition and form a starting point for more sophisticated interdisciplinary research on the nature of auditory mental simulation during reading.

  5. Investigating the Effects of Repeated Reading and NLP : Language Patterns on Reading Rate

    OpenAIRE

    Ben, Backwell; Brian, Cullen

    2018-01-01

    This paper investigates EFL student reading speed and describes a quasi-experimental study that attempted to quantify the effects of repeated reading and the use of NLP language patterns in the instructions. An experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=30) carried out the same timed reading activity three times each lesson for five lessons. The instructions for the experimental group included NLP language patterns designed to promote faster reading. It was shown that the repeated readi...

  6. Experimental Evaluation of a Braille-Reading-Inspired Finger Motion Adaptive Algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulusoy, Melda; Sipahi, Rifat

    2016-01-01

    Braille reading is a complex process involving intricate finger-motion patterns and finger-rubbing actions across Braille letters for the stimulation of appropriate nerves. Although Braille reading is performed by smoothly moving the finger from left-to-right, research shows that even fluent reading requires right-to-left movements of the finger, known as "reversal". Reversals are crucial as they not only enhance stimulation of nerves for correctly reading the letters, but they also show one to re-read the letters that were missed in the first pass. Moreover, it is known that reversals can be performed as often as in every sentence and can start at any location in a sentence. Here, we report experimental results on the feasibility of an algorithm that can render a machine to automatically adapt to reversal gestures of one's finger. Through Braille-reading-analogous tasks, the algorithm is tested with thirty sighted subjects that volunteered in the study. We find that the finger motion adaptive algorithm (FMAA) is useful in achieving cooperation between human finger and the machine. In the presence of FMAA, subjects' performance metrics associated with the tasks have significantly improved as supported by statistical analysis. In light of these encouraging results, preliminary experiments are carried out with five blind subjects with the aim to put the algorithm to test. Results obtained from carefully designed experiments showed that subjects' Braille reading accuracy in the presence of FMAA was more favorable then when FMAA was turned off. Utilization of FMAA in future generation Braille reading devices thus holds strong promise.

  7. Basic number processing in children with specific learning disorders: Comorbidity of reading and mathematics disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moll, Kristina; Göbel, Silke M; Snowling, Margaret J

    2015-01-01

    As well as being the hallmark of mathematics disorders, deficits in number processing have also been reported for individuals with reading disorders. The aim of the present study was to investigate separately the components of numerical processing affected in reading and mathematical disorders within the framework of the Triple Code Model. Children with reading disorders (RD), mathematics disorders (MD), comorbid deficits (RD + MD), and typically developing children (TD) were tested on verbal, visual-verbal, and nonverbal number tasks. As expected, children with MD were impaired across a broad range of numerical tasks. In contrast, children with RD were impaired in (visual-)verbal number tasks but showed age-appropriate performance in nonverbal number skills, suggesting their impairments were domain specific and related to their reading difficulties. The comorbid group showed an additive profile of the impairments of the two single-deficit groups. Performance in speeded verbal number tasks was related to rapid automatized naming, a measure of visual-verbal access in the RD but not in the MD group. The results indicate that deficits in number skills are due to different underlying cognitive deficits in children with RD compared to children with MD: a phonological deficit in RD and a deficit in processing numerosities in MD.

  8. Effects of Listening While Reading (LWR on Swahili Reading Fluency and Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filipo Lubua

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available A number of studies have examined the contribution of technology in teaching such languages as English, French, and Spanish, among many others. Contrarily, most LCTL’s, have received very little attention. This study investigates if listening while reading (LWR may expedite Swahili reading fluency and comprehension. The study employed the iBook Author tool to create weekly mediated and interactive reading texts, with comprehension exercises, which were eventually used to collect descriptive and qualitative data from four Elementary Swahili students. Participants participated in a seven week reading program, which provided them with some kind of directed self-learning, and met with the instructor for at least 30 minutes every week for observation and more reading activities. The teacher recorded their reading scores, and a number of themes on how LWR influenced reading fluency and comprehension are discussed here. It shows that participants have a positive attitude towards LWR and they suggest it for all the reading classes.

  9. The visual attention span deficit in Chinese children with reading fluency difficulty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jing; Liu, Menglian; Liu, Hanlong; Huang, Chen

    2018-02-01

    With reading development, some children fail to learn to read fluently. However, reading fluency difficulty (RFD) has not been fully investigated. The present study explored the underlying mechanism of RFD from the aspect of visual attention span. Fourteen Chinese children with RFD and fourteen age-matched normal readers participated. The visual 1-back task was adopted to examine visual attention span. Reaction time and accuracy were recorded, and relevant d-prime (d') scores were computed. Results showed that children with RFD exhibited lower accuracy and lower d' values than the controls did in the visual 1-back task, revealing a visual attention span deficit. Further analyses on d' values revealed that the attention distribution seemed to exhibit an inverted U-shaped pattern without lateralization for normal readers, but a W-shaped pattern with a rightward bias for children with RFD, which was discussed based on between-group variation in reading strategies. Results of the correlation analyses showed that visual attention span was associated with reading fluency at the sentence level for normal readers, but was related to reading fluency at the single-character level for children with RFD. The different patterns in correlations between groups revealed that visual attention span might be affected by the variation in reading strategies. The current findings extend previous data from alphabetic languages to Chinese, a logographic language with a particularly deep orthography, and have implications for reading-dysfluency remediation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. VOCABULARY, TEXTUAL COMPLEXITY AND READING COMPREHENSION IN DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION WITH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria José Bocorny Finatto

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we describe an initial investigation that intended to qualify the elaboration and usability of didactic resources for Distance Learning (DL in the field of Languages/Portuguese Language and Reading. We present the planning of the resource, the selection of materials and the theoretical notions involved, and the initial design of the activity, which consisted in reading and evaluating the complexity of a set of short texts. The experience was successful only for a small controlled group of students and unsuccessful for the large uncontrolled group. In order to improve the devised resource and implement it didactically, there is the need to perform previous presential learning activities with the involved groups and proceed with the student’s evaluation of the results after the task is accomplished.

  11. Effects of Individual Differences and Situational Features on Age Differences in Mindless Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shake, Matthew C; Shulley, Leah J; Soto-Freita, Angelica M

    2016-09-01

    Mindless reading occurs when an individual shifts their attention away from the text and toward other off-task thoughts. This study examined whether previously reported age-related declines in mindless reading episodes are due primarily to (a) situational features related to the text itself (e.g., text genre or interest in the text) and/or (b) individual differences in cognitive ability. Participants read 2 texts written in different genres but about the same topic. During reading, they were randomly probed to indicate whether they were on-task or mind-wandering. They also indicated their perceptions regarding the interest and difficulty of the text, and completed a battery of cognitive ability measures. The results showed that (a) text genre may engender some age differences in mindless reading and (b) greater age and perceived interest in the text were each uniquely predictive of reduced mindless reading for both text genres. Individual differences in cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory, vocabulary) did not account for additional significant variance in mindless reading after interest and age were taken into account. Our findings are discussed in terms of implications for age differences in lapses of attention during reading and predictors of mind-wandering generally. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  12. Activation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a dual neuropsychological screening test: An fMRI approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tachibana Atsumichi

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Kana Pick-out Test (KPT, which uses Kana or Japanese symbols that represent syllables, requires parallel processing of discrete (pick-out and continuous (reading dual tasks. As a dual task, the KPT is thought to test working memory and executive function, particularly in the prefrontal cortex (PFC, and is widely used in Japan as a clinical screen for dementia. Nevertheless, there has been little neurological investigation into PFC activity during this test. Methods We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to evaluate changes in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD signal in young healthy adults during performance of a computerized KPT dual task (comprised of reading comprehension and picking out vowels and compared it to its single task components (reading or vowel pick-out alone. Results Behavioral performance of the KPT degraded compared to its single task components. Performance of the KPT markedly increased BOLD signal intensity in the PFC, and also activated sensorimotor, parietal association, and visual cortex areas. In conjunction analyses, bilateral BOLD signal in the dorsolateral PFC (Brodmann's areas 45, 46 was present only in the KPT. Conclusions Our results support the central bottleneck theory and suggest that the dorsolateral PFC is an important mediator of neural activity for both short-term storage and executive processes. Quantitative evaluation of the KPT with fMRI in healthy adults is the first step towards understanding the effects of aging or cognitive impairment on KPT performance.

  13. Activation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a dual neuropsychological screening test: an fMRI approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tachibana, Atsumichi; Noah, J Adam; Bronner, Shaw; Ono, Yumie; Hirano, Yoshiyuki; Niwa, Masami; Watanabe, Kazuko; Onozuka, Minoru

    2012-05-28

    The Kana Pick-out Test (KPT), which uses Kana or Japanese symbols that represent syllables, requires parallel processing of discrete (pick-out) and continuous (reading) dual tasks. As a dual task, the KPT is thought to test working memory and executive function, particularly in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and is widely used in Japan as a clinical screen for dementia. Nevertheless, there has been little neurological investigation into PFC activity during this test. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate changes in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal in young healthy adults during performance of a computerized KPT dual task (comprised of reading comprehension and picking out vowels) and compared it to its single task components (reading or vowel pick-out alone). Behavioral performance of the KPT degraded compared to its single task components. Performance of the KPT markedly increased BOLD signal intensity in the PFC, and also activated sensorimotor, parietal association, and visual cortex areas. In conjunction analyses, bilateral BOLD signal in the dorsolateral PFC (Brodmann's areas 45, 46) was present only in the KPT. Our results support the central bottleneck theory and suggest that the dorsolateral PFC is an important mediator of neural activity for both short-term storage and executive processes. Quantitative evaluation of the KPT with fMRI in healthy adults is the first step towards understanding the effects of aging or cognitive impairment on KPT performance.

  14. Comparisons of Online Reading Paradigms: Eye Tracking, Moving-Window, and Maze

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witzel, Naoko; Witzel, Jeffrey; Forster, Kenneth

    2012-01-01

    This study compares four methodologies used to examine online sentence processing during reading. Specifically, self-paced, non-cumulative, moving-window reading (Just et al. in "J Exp Psychol Gen" 111:228-238, 1982), eye tracking (see e.g., Rayner in "Q J Exp Psychol" 62:1457-1506, 2009), and two versions of the maze task (Forster et al. in…

  15. Write to read: the brain's universal reading and writing network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perfetti, Charles A; Tan, Li-Hai

    2013-02-01

    Do differences in writing systems translate into differences in the brain's reading network? Or is this network universal, relatively impervious to variation in writing systems? A new study adds intriguing evidence to these questions by showing that reading handwritten words activates a pre-motor area across writing systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Investigating the Effects of Prompt Characteristics on the Comparability of TOEFL iBT™ Integrated Writing Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Yeonsuk; Rijmen, Frank; Novák, Jakub

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the influence of prompt characteristics on the averages of all scores given to test taker responses on the TOEFL iBT[TM] integrated Read-Listen-Write (RLW) writing tasks for multiple administrations from 2005 to 2009. In the context of TOEFL iBT RLW tasks, the prompt consists of a reading passage and a lecture. To understand…

  17. Changes in prefrontal neuronal activity after learning to perform a spatial working memory task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Xue-Lian; Meyer, Travis; Stanford, Terrence R; Constantinidis, Christos

    2011-12-01

    The prefrontal cortex is considered essential for learning to perform cognitive tasks though little is known about how the representation of stimulus properties is altered by learning. To address this issue, we recorded neuronal activity in monkeys before and after training on a task that required visual working memory. After the subjects learned to perform the task, we observed activation of more prefrontal neurons and increased activity during working memory maintenance. The working memory-related increase in firing rate was due mostly to regular-spiking putative pyramidal neurons. Unexpectedly, the selectivity of neurons for stimulus properties and the ability of neurons to discriminate between stimuli decreased as the information about stimulus properties was apparently present in neural firing prior to training and neuronal selectivity degraded after training in the task. The effect was robust and could not be accounted for by differences in sampling sites, selection of neurons, level of performance, or merely the elapse of time. The results indicate that, in contrast to the effects of perceptual learning, mastery of a cognitive task degrades the apparent stimulus selectivity as neurons represent more abstract information related to the task. This effect is countered by the recruitment of more neurons after training.

  18. Investigating Language Learning Activity Using a CALL Task in the Self-access Centre

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Montoro

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This article describes a small study of the language learning activity of individual learners using a CALL task in a self-access environment. The research focuses on the nature of the language learning activity, the most salient elements that make up its structure and major disturbances observed between and within some of those elements. It is set in the context of computer-assisted language learning (CALL and activity theory. A CALL task designed by the authors was made available online to be used as a research and learning tool. Empirical data was collected from two participants using ethnographic tools, such as participant observation and stimulated recall sessions. The analysis focuses on disturbances mainly involving the subject (i.e., the learner, mediating artefacts (e.g., the CALL task, the community (e.g., management and other self-access centre users and the object of the activity (i.e., learning English. It is recommended that future studies should look deeper into contradictions in the learning activity from a cultural-historical perspective.

  19. LIBER MARC Harmonization Task Force - Format activities in European countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renate Gömpel

    2004-03-01

    Full Text Available The LIBER MARC Harmonization Task Force has its origins in an initiative of the past President of LIBER, Professor Elmar Mittler from the Göttingen State and University Library. Professor Mittler asked Dr Elisabeth Niggemann from Die Deutsche Bibliothek to take part in the meeting of the MARC Harmonization Coordinating Committee in Ottawa in May 2001. Following that meeting the LIBER MARC Harmonization Task Force was founded at the LIBER Annual Conference in July 2001 in London. The LIBER MARC Harmonization Task Force held its first meeting on 14 January 2002 at Die Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main, with the aim of gaining an overview of format activities in Europe. The group's aim was to concentrate on European developments and to build up stronger cooperation in the library world in order to strengthen Europe's international influence. The LIBER MARC Harmonization Task Force held a second meeting at the IFLA 2002 Conference in Glasgow and discussed the first draft of its report and recommendations to LIBER. After final discussion within the group, this report has been further revised and was submitted to LIBER. The aim of the report is to give an overview of format activities in European countries and to make recommendations to LIBER regarding the use and development of data formats in Europe. The annex includes reports on migration activities from different countries. The report is based on information on data formats collected and compiled on the basis of a questionnaire distributed to the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL. Cataloguing issues were further discussed at the 1st IFLA Meeting of Experts on an International Cataloguing Code held in Frankfurt in July 2003. Further meetings will be held at the IFLA conferences in Buenos Aires (2004 and Seoul (2006.

  20. Retention of New Words: Quantity of Encounters, Quality of Task, and Degree of Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laufer, Batia; Rozovski-Roitblat, Bella

    2015-01-01

    We examined how learning new second language (L2) words was affected by three "task type" conditions (reading only, reading with a dictionary, reading and word focused exercises), three "number of encounters" conditions and their combinations. Three groups of L2 learners (n = 185) were exposed to 30 target words (one group in…

  1. COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING IMPLEMENTATION TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Desy Olivia Riani

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This collaborative action research is aimed to find out whether or not the implementation of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR improves students' reading comprehension and also to identify students' attitude towards the implementation of CSR. CSR is reading strategy that employs four strategies namely Preview, Click and Clunk, Get the Gist and Wrap Up during students’ cooperative learning. A class of eleventh grade students of a public senior high school in Majalengka, West Java, Indonesia is participated as the participant of the study. The required data were collected through the use of questionnaire, observation checklist, and reading test. The data from the questionnaire indicated that 82% students had positive attitude toward the implementation of CSR. They feel that CSR improves their motivation in learning English and CSR brings more fun to the process of learning. Moreover, it was found from observation data that the students were actively participated during CSR implementation and they were motivated when comprehending a text by means CSR strategy. Finally, the study proved that CSR improved students’ reading comprehension. Students’ mean score of reading test in the beginning of the study was 67, meanwhile, after applying CSR as reading strategy, their mean scores improved to 88.

  2. Does the reading of different orthographies produce distinct brain activity patterns? An ERP study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bar-Kochva, Irit; Breznitz, Zvia

    2012-01-01

    Orthographies vary in the degree of transparency of spelling-sound correspondence. These range from shallow orthographies with transparent grapheme-phoneme relations, to deep orthographies, in which these relations are opaque. Only a few studies have examined whether orthographic depth is reflected in brain activity. In these studies a between-language design was applied, making it difficult to isolate the aspect of orthographic depth. In the present work this question was examined using a within-subject-and-language investigation. The participants were speakers of Hebrew, as they are skilled in reading two forms of script transcribing the same oral language. One form is the shallow pointed script (with diacritics), and the other is the deep unpointed script (without diacritics). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while skilled readers carried out a lexical decision task in the two forms of script. A visual non-orthographic task controlled for the visual difference between the scripts (resulting from the addition of diacritics to the pointed script only). At an early visual-perceptual stage of processing (~165 ms after target onset), the pointed script evoked larger amplitudes with longer latencies than the unpointed script at occipital-temporal sites. However, these effects were not restricted to orthographic processing, and may therefore have reflected, at least in part, the visual load imposed by the diacritics. Nevertheless, the results implied that distinct orthographic processing may have also contributed to these effects. At later stages (~340 ms after target onset) the unpointed script elicited larger amplitudes than the pointed one with earlier latencies. As this latency has been linked to orthographic-linguistic processing and to the classification of stimuli, it is suggested that these differences are associated with distinct lexical processing of a shallow and a deep orthography.

  3. Does the reading of different orthographies produce distinct brain activity patterns? An ERP study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irit Bar-Kochva

    Full Text Available Orthographies vary in the degree of transparency of spelling-sound correspondence. These range from shallow orthographies with transparent grapheme-phoneme relations, to deep orthographies, in which these relations are opaque. Only a few studies have examined whether orthographic depth is reflected in brain activity. In these studies a between-language design was applied, making it difficult to isolate the aspect of orthographic depth. In the present work this question was examined using a within-subject-and-language investigation. The participants were speakers of Hebrew, as they are skilled in reading two forms of script transcribing the same oral language. One form is the shallow pointed script (with diacritics, and the other is the deep unpointed script (without diacritics. Event-related potentials (ERPs were recorded while skilled readers carried out a lexical decision task in the two forms of script. A visual non-orthographic task controlled for the visual difference between the scripts (resulting from the addition of diacritics to the pointed script only. At an early visual-perceptual stage of processing (~165 ms after target onset, the pointed script evoked larger amplitudes with longer latencies than the unpointed script at occipital-temporal sites. However, these effects were not restricted to orthographic processing, and may therefore have reflected, at least in part, the visual load imposed by the diacritics. Nevertheless, the results implied that distinct orthographic processing may have also contributed to these effects. At later stages (~340 ms after target onset the unpointed script elicited larger amplitudes than the pointed one with earlier latencies. As this latency has been linked to orthographic-linguistic processing and to the classification of stimuli, it is suggested that these differences are associated with distinct lexical processing of a shallow and a deep orthography.

  4. Tracking the effects of dyslexia in reading and spelling development: A longitudinal study of Greek readers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diamanti, Vassiliki; Goulandris, Nata; Stuart, Morag; Campbell, Ruth; Protopapas, Athanassios

    2018-05-01

    In this study, we followed Greek children with and without dyslexia for 18 months, assessing them twice on a battery of phonological, reading, and spelling tasks, aiming to document the relative progress achieved and to uncover any specific effects of dyslexia in the development of reading and spelling beyond the longitudinal associations among variables that are observed in typical readers. A wide-ranging match was achieved between the dyslexic group and the younger reading-matched comparison group, enabling longitudinal comparisons on essentially identical initial performance profiles. Group differences were found in the development of tasks relying on phonological processing skill, such as phoneme deletion in pseudowords, pseudoword reading accuracy and time, as well as in graphemic spelling accuracy. The results confirm findings from cross-sectional studies of reading difficulty in the relatively transparent Greek orthography and are consistent with a phonological processing deficit underlying and reciprocally interacting with underdevelopment of reading and spelling skills in the impaired population. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  5. The Use of Learning Journals to Foster Textbook Reading in the Community College Psychology Class

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartolomeo-Maida, Maria

    2016-01-01

    Across disciplines, faculty members face a common challenge of finding methods to get their students to complete assigned course readings. It becomes an even larger task to develop strategies whereby students are also engaging in deep reading that promotes critical thinking. Reading positively impacts students on a number of variables, and when…

  6. Functional localization and effective connectivity of cortical theta and alpha oscillatory activity during an attention task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuichi Kitaura

    Full Text Available Objectives: The aim of this paper is to investigate cortical electric neuronal activity as an indicator of brain function, in a mental arithmetic task that requires sustained attention, as compared to the resting state condition. The two questions of interest are the cortical localization of different oscillatory activities, and the directional effective flow of oscillatory activity between regions of interest, in the task condition compared to resting state. In particular, theta and alpha activity are of interest here, due to their important role in attention processing. Methods: We adapted mental arithmetic as an attention ask in this study. Eyes closed 61-channel EEG was recorded in 14 participants during resting and in a mental arithmetic task (“serial sevens subtraction”. Functional localization and connectivity analyses were based on cortical signals of electric neuronal activity estimated with sLORETA (standardized low resolution electromagnetic tomography. Functional localization was based on the comparison of the cortical distributions of the generators of oscillatory activity between task and resting conditions. Assessment of effective connectivity was based on the iCoh (isolated effective coherence method, which provides an appropriate frequency decomposition of the directional flow of oscillatory activity between brain regions. Nine regions of interest comprising nodes from the dorsal and ventral attention networks were selected for the connectivity analysis. Results: Cortical spectral density distribution comparing task minus rest showed significant activity increase in medial prefrontal areas and decreased activity in left parietal lobe for the theta band, and decreased activity in parietal-occipital regions for the alpha1 band. At a global level, connections among right hemispheric nodes were predominantly decreased during the task condition, while connections among left hemispheric nodes were predominantly increased. At more

  7. Disentangling longitudinal relations between physical activity, work-related fatigue, and task demands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vries, J.D. de; Claessens, B.J.C.; Hooff, M.L.M. van; Geurts, S.A.E.; Bossche, S.N.J. van den; Kompier, A.J.

    2016-01-01

    Purpose This longitudinal study examined ‘normal’, ‘reversed’, and ‘reciprocal’ relationships between (1) physical activity and work-related fatigue; and (2) physical activity and task demands. Furthermore, the effects of across-time change in meaningful physical activity groups on levels of

  8. Generación de inferencias emocionales durante la lectura de textos narrativos The generation of emotional inferences during the reading of narratives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Pablo Barreyro

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available El propósito de esta investigación fue examinar si los lectores generan inferencias emocionales durante la lectura de narraciones. Con este objetivo, se llevaron a cabo dos experimentos. En el Experimento 1, 24 participantes leyeron dos cuentos populares alemanes, y realizaron una tarea de decisión léxica. Para realizar esta tarea, la lectura fue interrumpida en puntos predeterminados, y se presentaron palabras de prueba que representaban inferencias emocionales en dos condiciones: inmediatamente antes o inmediatamente después de las oraciones que requerían que el lector activase ese concepto. En el Experimento 2, 16 participantes leyeron las mismas oraciones utilizadas en el Experimento 1, pero en forma aislada. Luego de leer cada oración, los participantes realizaron la tarea de decisión léxica. Los resultados de ambos experimentos indicaron que los lectores generan inferencias emocionales, accediendo a su conocimiento previo general, cuando el texto lo requiere para proveer explicación suficiente a los acontecimientos descritos.The purpose of this study was to examine the generation of emotional inferences during the reading of narratives. Two experiments were run with this purpose. In Experiment 1, 24 participants read two German fables, and performed a lexical decision task. In order to perform this task, the texts were interrupted at predetermined points, and participants were presented with target words that represented emotional inferences in two conditions: immediately before or immediately after the sentences that required the reader to activate this concept. In Experiment 2, 16 participants read the same sentences used in Experiment 1, but in isolation. After reading each isolated sentence, participants performed the lexical decision task. Results from both experiments indicated that readers do generate emotional inferences, activating their background knowledge when the text demands it to obtain sufficient explanation for

  9. Preschoolers´ Physical Activity and Time on Task During a Mastery Motivational Climate and Free Play

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danielle D Wadsworth

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of a structured, mastery motivation physical education climate and an unstructured physical activity climate on time spent on task in a small sample of preschool children. Children enrolled in a public, federal-subsidized childcare center (N= 12 participated in two 45 minute physical activity programs within the school day. The structured climate consisted of a biweekly program of motor skill instruction that was based upon the key principles of a mastery motivational climate. The unstructured program was a daily 45 minute free play environment. Actigraph accelerometers monitored children’s participation in physical activity and time-on task was observed by a momentary time sampling technique. Results showed that time on-task significantly improved following a mastery motivational climate, and children spent 36% of their time in moderate-to-vigorous activity in this climate.  In contrast, time on-task did not significantly improve following participation in a free play environment and participants spent a majority of their time in sedentary behavior and accumulated no vigorous physical activity. Our results indicate that participation in physical activity impacts a preschooler’s ability to stay on task and the amount of physical activity accumulated during physical activity programming is dependent upon the climate delivered.

  10. Writing and reading in a multicultural classroom

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ingerslev, Gitte Holten

    2007-01-01

    The study investigates how interpretive reading skills and literary understanding may be enhanced through initial narrative writing tasks. In the class in question the majority of students are children of migrant workers in Denmark. The class in question belongs to what is called an ethnic lingui...

  11. Speech fluency profile on different tasks for individuals with Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juste, Fabiola Staróbole; Andrade, Claudia Regina Furquim de

    2017-07-20

    To characterize the speech fluency profile of patients with Parkinson's disease. Study participants were 40 individuals of both genders aged 40 to 80 years divided into 2 groups: Research Group - RG (20 individuals with diagnosis of Parkinson's disease) and Control Group - CG (20 individuals with no communication or neurological disorders). For all of the participants, three speech samples involving different tasks were collected: monologue, individual reading, and automatic speech. The RG presented a significant larger number of speech disruptions, both stuttering-like and typical dysfluencies, and higher percentage of speech discontinuity in the monologue and individual reading tasks compared with the CG. Both groups presented reduced number of speech disruptions (stuttering-like and typical dysfluencies) in the automatic speech task; the groups presented similar performance in this task. Regarding speech rate, individuals in the RG presented lower number of words and syllables per minute compared with those in the CG in all speech tasks. Participants of the RG presented altered parameters of speech fluency compared with those of the CG; however, this change in fluency cannot be considered a stuttering disorder.

  12. Differences in perceptual learning transfer as a function of training task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, C Shawn; Kattner, Florian; Siegel, Max H; Kersten, Daniel; Schrater, Paul R

    2015-01-01

    A growing body of research--including results from behavioral psychology, human structural and functional imaging, single-cell recordings in nonhuman primates, and computational modeling--suggests that perceptual learning effects are best understood as a change in the ability of higher-level integration or association areas to read out sensory information in the service of particular decisions. Work in this vein has argued that, depending on the training experience, the "rules" for this read-out can either be applicable to new contexts (thus engendering learning generalization) or can apply only to the exact training context (thus resulting in learning specificity). Here we contrast learning tasks designed to promote either stimulus-specific or stimulus-general rules. Specifically, we compare learning transfer across visual orientation following training on three different tasks: an orientation categorization task (which permits an orientation-specific learning solution), an orientation estimation task (which requires an orientation-general learning solution), and an orientation categorization task in which the relevant category boundary shifts on every trial (which lies somewhere between the two tasks above). While the simple orientation-categorization training task resulted in orientation-specific learning, the estimation and moving categorization tasks resulted in significant orientation learning generalization. The general framework tested here--that task specificity or generality can be predicted via an examination of the optimal learning solution--may be useful in building future training paradigms with certain desired outcomes.

  13. The attentional blink is related to phonemic decoding, but not sight-word recognition, in typically reading adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tyson-Parry, Maree M; Sailah, Jessica; Boyes, Mark E; Badcock, Nicholas A

    2015-10-01

    This research investigated the relationship between the attentional blink (AB) and reading in typical adults. The AB is a deficit in the processing of the second of two rapidly presented targets when it occurs in close temporal proximity to the first target. Specifically, this experiment examined whether the AB was related to both phonological and sight-word reading abilities, and whether the relationship was mediated by accuracy on a single-target rapid serial visual processing task (single-target accuracy). Undergraduate university students completed a battery of tests measuring reading ability, non-verbal intelligence, and rapid automatised naming, in addition to rapid serial visual presentation tasks in which they were required to identify either two (AB task) or one (single target task) target/s (outlined shapes: circle, square, diamond, cross, and triangle) in a stream of random-dot distractors. The duration of the AB was related to phonological reading (n=41, β=-0.43): participants who exhibited longer ABs had poorer phonemic decoding skills. The AB was not related to sight-word reading. Single-target accuracy did not mediate the relationship between the AB and reading, but was significantly related to AB depth (non-linear fit, R(2)=.50): depth reflects the maximal cost in T2 reporting accuracy in the AB. The differential relationship between the AB and phonological versus sight-word reading implicates common resources used for phonemic decoding and target consolidation, which may be involved in cognitive control. The relationship between single-target accuracy and the AB is discussed in terms of cognitive preparation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Auditory working memory and early reading skills in Hebrew-speaking preschool children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banai, Karen; Yifat, Rachel

    2012-01-01

    The hypothesis that different subcomponents of auditory working memory are differentially related to early reading skills was tested in 63 Hebrew speaking 4-year-old children, using a battery of early reading (phonological processing and familiarity with written language) and memory (simple and complex spans) tasks. Complex spans accounted for significant amounts of variance on both facets of early reading even after the contribution of simple spans was accounted for. These findings suggest that the unique contribution of complex working memory to early reading can be identified as early as preschool and that the structure of correlations between reading and memory is similar across ages.

  15. READING COMPREHENSION. NOTION OF READING AND USE OF MACRORREGLAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana María Montes-Salas

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In the NMS has been relevant to investigate the notion of reading and how reading comprehension skills are developed as they are the basis of learning. According to Frida Diaz Barriga and Hernandez (2002 critical and reflective understanding of the composition of texts written are nodal activities in the construction of meanings. We now know that the skills of reading and typesetting apprentices develop in subjects strategically and self-regulated, thanks to this research. Promote the development of communication skills contributes to the foundation of the curriculum consists of educating for students to acquire skills that allow them to face problems collaboratively and competently.

  16. The COMT Val/Met polymorphism is associated with reading related skills and consistent patterns of functional neural activation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landi, Nicole; Frost, Stephen J.; Mencl, W. Einar; Preston, Jonathan L.; Jacobsen, Leslie K.; Lee, Maria; Yrigollen, Carolyn; Pugh, Kenneth R.; Grigorenko, Elena L.

    2013-01-01

    In both children and adults there is large variability in reading skill, with approximately 5–10% of individuals characterized as having reading disability; these individuals struggle to learn to read despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although it is well established that a substantial portion of this variability is attributed to the genetic differences between individuals, specifics of the connections between reading and the genome are not understood. This article presents data that suggest that variation in the COMT gene, which has previously been associated with variation in higher-order cognition, is associated with reading and reading-related skills, both at the level of brain and behavior. In particular, we found that the COMT Val/Met polymorphism at rs4680, which results in the substitution of the ancestral Valine (Val) by Methionine (Met), was associated with better performance on a number of critical reading measures and with patterns of functional neural activation that have been linked to better readers. We argue that this polymorphism, known for its broad effects on cognition, may modulate (likely through frontal lobe function) reading skill. PMID:23278923

  17. Embodied simulation as part of affective evaluation processes: task dependence of valence concordant EMG activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinreich, André; Funcke, Jakob Maria

    2014-01-01

    Drawing on recent findings, this study examines whether valence concordant electromyography (EMG) responses can be explained as an unconditional effect of mere stimulus processing or as somatosensory simulation driven by task-dependent processing strategies. While facial EMG over the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomaticus major was measured, each participant performed two tasks with pictures of album covers. One task was an affective evaluation task and the other was to attribute the album covers to one of five decades. The Embodied Emotion Account predicts that valence concordant EMG is more likely to occur if the task necessitates a somatosensory simulation of the evaluative meaning of stimuli. Results support this prediction with regard to Corrugator supercilii in that valence concordant EMG activity was only present in the affective evaluation task but not in the non-evaluative task. Results for the Zygomaticus major were ambiguous. Our findings are in line with the view that EMG activity is an embodied part of the evaluation process and not a mere physical outcome.

  18. Character order processing in Chinese reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Junjuan; Li, Xingshan; Liversedge, Simon P

    2015-02-01

    We explored how character order information is encoded in isolated word processing or Chinese sentence reading in 2 experiments using a masked priming paradigm and a gaze-contingent display-change paradigm. The results showed that response latencies in the lexical decision task and reading times on the target word region were longer in the unrelated condition (the prime or the preview was unrelated with the target word) than the transposed-character condition (the prime or the preview was a transposition of the 2 characters of the target word), which were respectively longer than in the identity condition (the prime or preview was identical to the target word). These results show that character order is encoded at an early stage of processing in Chinese reading, but character position encoding was not strict. We also found that character order encoding was similar for single-morpheme and multiple-morpheme words, suggesting that morphemic status does not affect character order encoding. The current results represent an early contribution to our understanding of character order encoding during Chinese reading.

  19. Universal Visual Features Might Be Necessary for Fluent Reading. A Longitudinal Study of Visual Reading in Braille and Cyrillic Alphabets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bola, Łukasz; Radziun, Dominika; Siuda-Krzywicka, Katarzyna; Sowa, Joanna E; Paplińska, Małgorzata; Sumera, Ewa; Szwed, Marcin

    2017-01-01

    It has been hypothesized that efficient reading is possible because all reading scripts have been matched, through cultural evolution, to the natural capabilities of the visual cortex. This matching has resulted in all scripts being made of line-junctions, such as T, X, or L. Our aim was to test a critical prediction of this hypothesis: visual reading in an atypical script that is devoid of line-junctions (such as the Braille alphabet read visually) should be much less efficient than reading in a "normal" script (e.g., Cyrillic). Using a lexical decision task, we examined Visual Braille reading speed and efficiency in sighted Braille teachers. As a control, we tested learners of a natural visual script, Cyrillic. Both groups participated in a two semester course of either visual Braille or Russian while their reading speed and accuracy was tested at regular intervals. The results show that visual Braille reading is slow, prone to errors and highly serial, even in Braille readers with years of prior reading experience. Although subjects showed some improvements in their visual Braille reading accuracy and speed following the course, the effect of word length on reading speed (typically observed in beginning readers) was remained very sizeable through all testing sessions. These results are in stark contrast to Cyrillic, a natural script, where only 3 months of learning were sufficient to achieve relative proficiency. Taken together, these results suggest that visual features such as line junctions and their combinations might be necessary for efficient reading.

  20. Training improves reading speed in peripheral vision: is it due to attention?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Hye-Won; Kwon, Miyoung; Legge, Gordon E; Gefroh, Joshua J

    2010-06-01

    Previous research has shown that perceptual training in peripheral vision, using a letter-recognition task, increases reading speed and letter recognition (S. T. L. Chung, G. E. Legge, & S. H. Cheung, 2004). We tested the hypothesis that enhanced deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision explains this training effect. Subjects were pre- and post-tested with 3 tasks at 10° above and below fixation-RSVP reading speed, trigram letter recognition (used to construct visual-span profiles), and deployment of spatial attention (measured as the benefit of a pre-cue for target position in a lexical-decision task). Groups of five normally sighted young adults received 4 days of trigram letter-recognition training in upper or lower visual fields, or central vision. A control group received no training. Our measure of deployment of spatial attention revealed visual-field anisotropies; better deployment of attention in the lower field than the upper, and in the lower-right quadrant compared with the other three quadrants. All subject groups exhibited slight improvement in deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision in the post-test, but this improvement was not correlated with training-related increases in reading speed and the size of visual-span profiles. Our results indicate that improved deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision does not account for improved reading speed and letter recognition in peripheral vision.

  1. Teaching Reading in Vocational Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    South Carolina State Dept. of Education, Columbia. Office of Vocational Education.

    This handbook on teaching reading in vocational education is designed to provide vocational education teachers with a resource to use in helping students to develop sound reading skills. Provided in the handbook are information sheets, self-checks, practice activities, and suggestions for further reading dealing with the following topics:…

  2. Reporting instructions significantly impact false positive rates when reading chest radiographs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Robinson, John W.; Brennan, Patrick C.; Mello-Thoms, Claudia; Lewis, Sarah J. [The University of Sydney, Medical Image Optimisation and Perception Group, Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lidcombe, NSW (Australia)

    2016-10-15

    To determine the impact of specific reporting tasks on the performance of radiologists when reading chest radiographs. Ten experienced radiologists read a set of 40 postero-anterior (PA) chest radiographs: 21 nodule free and 19 with a proven solitary nodule. There were two reporting conditions: an unframed task (UFT) to report any abnormality and a framed task (FT) reporting only lung nodule/s. Jackknife free-response operating characteristic (JAFROC) figure of merit (FOM), specificity, location sensitivity and number of true positive (TP), false positive (FP), true negative (TN) and false negative (FN) decisions were used for analysis. JAFROC FOM for tasks showed a significant reduction in performance for framed tasks (P = 0.006) and an associated decrease in specificity (P = 0.011) but no alteration to the location sensitivity score. There was a significant increase in number of FP decisions made during framed versus unframed tasks for nodule-containing (P = 0.005) and nodule-free (P = 0.011) chest radiographs. No significant differences in TP were recorded. Radiologists report more FP decisions when given specific reporting instructions to search for nodules on chest radiographs. The relevance of clinical history supplied to radiologists is called into question and may induce a negative effect. (orig.)

  3. Reporting instructions significantly impact false positive rates when reading chest radiographs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robinson, John W.; Brennan, Patrick C.; Mello-Thoms, Claudia; Lewis, Sarah J.

    2016-01-01

    To determine the impact of specific reporting tasks on the performance of radiologists when reading chest radiographs. Ten experienced radiologists read a set of 40 postero-anterior (PA) chest radiographs: 21 nodule free and 19 with a proven solitary nodule. There were two reporting conditions: an unframed task (UFT) to report any abnormality and a framed task (FT) reporting only lung nodule/s. Jackknife free-response operating characteristic (JAFROC) figure of merit (FOM), specificity, location sensitivity and number of true positive (TP), false positive (FP), true negative (TN) and false negative (FN) decisions were used for analysis. JAFROC FOM for tasks showed a significant reduction in performance for framed tasks (P = 0.006) and an associated decrease in specificity (P = 0.011) but no alteration to the location sensitivity score. There was a significant increase in number of FP decisions made during framed versus unframed tasks for nodule-containing (P = 0.005) and nodule-free (P = 0.011) chest radiographs. No significant differences in TP were recorded. Radiologists report more FP decisions when given specific reporting instructions to search for nodules on chest radiographs. The relevance of clinical history supplied to radiologists is called into question and may induce a negative effect. (orig.)

  4. Test-Taking Strategies and Task-based Assessment: The Case of Iranian EFL Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hossein Barati

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study examined the effect of task-based assessment on the type and frequency of test-taking strategies that three proficiency groups of Iranian adult EFL learners used when completing the First Certificate in English FCE reading paper. A total of 70 EFL university undergraduates (53 females and 17 males took part in the main phase of this study. They were divided into three proficiency groups: high, intermediate, and low. A set of Chi-square analyses was used to explore the type and frequency of test-taking strategies used by participants. The results suggested that the intermediate group test takers used the strategies significantly different after completing each task (sub-test in the FCE reading paper. However, the high and low proficient test takers› use of strategies was only significant after completing the third task of the FCE reading paper. The findings also revealed that a pattern could be drawn of the type of strategies used by the three proficiency groups who participated in this study. Nonetheless, such a pattern shifted at times depending on the ability of the test takers and/or the task under study.

  5. When bicycle pump is harder to read than bicycle bell: effects of parsing cues in first and second language compound reading

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lemhöfer, K.M.L.; Koester, D.; Schreuder, R.

    2011-01-01

    Reading and understanding morphologically complex words can sometimes be a particular challenge to nonnative speakers. For example, compound words consist of multiple free morphemes, oftentimes without explicit marking of the morpheme boundaries. In a lexical decision task, we investigated compound

  6. A neural measure of behavioral engagement: task-residual low-frequency blood oxygenation level-dependent activity in the precuneus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Sheng; Li, Chiang-Shan Ray

    2010-01-15

    Brain imaging has provided a useful tool to examine the neural processes underlying human cognition. A critical question is whether and how task engagement influences the observed regional brain activations. Here we highlighted this issue and derived a neural measure of task engagement from the task-residual low-frequency blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the precuneus. Using independent component analysis, we identified brain regions in the default circuit - including the precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) - showing greater activation during resting as compared to task residuals in 33 individuals. Time series correlations with the posterior cingulate cortex as the seed region showed that connectivity with the precuneus was significantly stronger during resting as compared to task residuals. We hypothesized that if the task-residual BOLD activity in the precuneus reflects engagement, it should account for a certain amount of variance in task-related regional brain activation. In an additional experiment of 59 individuals performing a stop signal task, we observed that the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) of the precuneus but not the mPFC accounted for approximately 10% of the variance in prefrontal activation related to attentional monitoring and response inhibition. Taken together, these results suggest that task-residual fALFF in the precuneus may be a potential indicator of task engagement. This measurement may serve as a useful covariate in identifying motivation-independent neural processes that underlie the pathogenesis of a psychiatric or neurological condition.

  7. Evaluation of Reading, Writing, and Watching TV Using the Dutch ICF Activity Inventory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bruijning, J.E.; van Rens, G.H.M.B.; Knol, D.L.; van Nispen, R.M.A.

    2014-01-01

    PURPOSE: To investigate the longitudinal outcomes of rehabilitation (from baseline to 4 and 12 months) at a multidisciplinary rehabilitation center. The three goals (“Reading,” “Writing,” and “Watching TV”) were measured with the Dutch ICF Activity Inventory (D-AI). In addition, outcomes were

  8. The Potential of Web 2.0 Tools to Promote Reading Engagement in a General Education Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Seung Won

    2013-01-01

    General education classes involve extensive course readings. College instructors have a limited time to cover every detail of the materials students are supposed to learn in class; thus, they expect students to learn through course readings. However, many college students demonstrate a low level of engagement in course reading tasks. Existing…

  9. Frontal brain activation during a working memory task: a time-domain fNIRS study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molteni, E.; Baselli, G.; Bianchi, A. M.; Caffini, M.; Contini, D.; Spinelli, L.; Torricelli, A.; Cerutti, S.; Cubeddu, R.

    2009-02-01

    We evaluated frontal brain activation during a working memory task with graded levels of difficulty in a group of 19 healthy subjects, by means of time-resolved fNIRS technique. Brain activation was computed, and was then separated into a "block-related" and a "tonic" components. Load-related increases of blood oxygenation were studied for the four different levels of task difficulty. Generalized Linear Models were applied to the data in order to explore the metabolic processes occurring during the mental effort and, possibly, their involvement in short term memorization. Results attest the presence of a persistent attentional-related metabolic activity, superimposed to a task-related mnemonic contribution. Moreover, a systemic component probably deriving from the extra-cerebral capillary bed was detected.

  10. Impacts of the Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy on English Learners' Reading Comprehension, Strategy Use, and Active Learning Attitudes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Lu-Fang

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated whether an English reading course integrated with the problem-based learning approach could foster foreign language learners' reading comprehension ability, strategy use, and their active learning attitudes. The pedagogy was featured with the small group scaffolding. Two intact English classes in a Taiwanese university were…

  11. Generic cognitive adaptations to task interference in task switching

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poljac, E.; Bekkering, H.

    2009-01-01

    The present study investigated how the activation of previous tasks interferes with the execution of future tasks as a result of temporal manipulations. Color and shape matching tasks were organized in runs of two trials each. The tasks were specified by a cue presented before a task run, cueing

  12. Ventrolateral prefrontal activation during a N-back task assessed with multichannel functional near-infrared spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yuan; Zhu, Ye; Jiang, Tianzi

    2007-05-01

    Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been used to investigate the changes in the concentration of oxygenated (O2Hb) and deoxygenated (HHb) hemoglobin in brain issue during several cognitive tasks. In the present study, by means of multichannel dual wavelength light-emitting diode continuous-wave (CW) NIRS, we investigated the blood oxygenation changes of prefrontal cortex in 18 healthy subjects while performing a verbal n-back task (0-back and 2-back), which has been rarely investigated by fNIRS. Compared to the 0-back task (control task), we found a significant increase of O2Hb and total amount of hemoglobin (THb) in left and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) during the execution of the 2-back task compared to the 0-back task (pdominance. In addition, the effects of gender and its interaction with task performance on O2Hb concentration change were suggested in the present study. Our findings not only confirm that multichannel fNIRS is suitable to detect spatially specific activation during the performance of cognitive tasks; but also suggest that it should be cautious of gender-dependent difference in cerebral activation when interpreting the fNIRS data during cognitive tasks.

  13. The Effect of Problem Solving Task on Critical Reading of Intermediate EFL Learners in Iranian Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masoud Khalili Sabet

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The attempt in this study is to investigate the effect of teaching critical thinking through problem solving on  reading comprehension performance of EFL intermediate learners. In so doing, forty including twenty male and twenty female intermediate students studying English in an institute in Ardabil, Iran, were selected based on their scores on Preliminary English Test and assigned into control and experimental groups. Afterwards, the sample TOEFL reading comprehension pre-test was administered to both of these groups to ensure homogeneity. The learners in experimental group were taught through problem solving instruction and the learners in control group were taught through traditional method of instructing reading comprehension. After ten sessions of instruction, the same sample TOEFL reading comprehension as post-test was given to the learners to measure the possible differences between pre-test and post-test. The finding revealed teaching problem solving had statistically significant effect on EFL learners reading comprehension performance. Conclusion can be drawn to confirm that teaching critical thinking through problem solving bring better understanding of the text.

  14. Effects of mora deletion, nonword repetition, rapid naming, and visual search performance on beginning reading in Japanese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Maya Shiho; Haynes, Charles W; Macaruso, Paul; Hook, Pamela E; Kato, Junko

    2005-06-01

    This study examined the extent to which mora deletion (phonological analysis), nonword repetition (phonological memory), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual search abilities predict reading in Japanese kindergartners and first graders. Analogous abilities have been identified as important predictors of reading skills in alphabetic languages like English. In contrast to English, which is based on grapheme-phoneme relationships, the primary components of Japanese orthography are two syllabaries-hiragana and katakana (collectively termed "kana")-and a system of morphosyllabic symbols (kanji). Three RAN tasks (numbers, objects, syllabary symbols [hiragana]) were used with kindergartners, with an additional kanji RAN task included for first graders. Reading measures included accuracy and speed of passage reading for kindergartners and first graders, and reading comprehension for first graders. In kindergartners, hiragana RAN and number RAN were the only significant predictors of reading accuracy and speed. In first graders, kanji RAN and hiragana RAN predicted reading speed, whereas accuracy was predicted by mora deletion. Reading comprehension was predicted by kanji RAN, mora deletion, and nonword repetition. Although number RAN did not contribute unique variance to any reading measure, it correlated highly with kanji RAN. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

  15. libgapmis: extending short-read alignments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alachiotis, Nikolaos; Berger, Simon; Flouri, Tomáš; Pissis, Solon P; Stamatakis, Alexandros

    2013-01-01

    show that libgapmis is better-suited and more efficient than existing algorithms for this task. The importance of our contribution is underlined by the fact that the provided functions may be seamlessly integrated into any short-read alignment pipeline. The open-source code of libgapmis is available at http://www.exelixis-lab.org/gapmis.

  16. Preferences and Practices among Students Who Read Braille and Use Assistive Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Andrea, Frances Mary

    2012-01-01

    Introduction: Students who read braille use assistive technology to engage in literacy tasks and to access the general curriculum. There is little research on the ways in which technology has changed the reading and writing practices and preferences of students who use braille, nor is there much research on how assistive technology is learned by…

  17. Assessment of Working Memory Components at 6 Years of Age as Predictors of Reading Achievements a Year Later

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nevo, Einat; Breznitz, Zvia

    2011-01-01

    The ability of working memory skills (measured by tasks assessing all four working memory components), IQ, language, phonological awareness, literacy, rapid naming, and speed of processing at 6 years of age, before reading was taught, to predict reading abilities (decoding, reading comprehension, and reading time) a year later was examined in 97…

  18. Reproducibility of proton MR spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI): comparison of dyslexic and normal-reading children and effects of treatment on brain lactate levels during language tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, Todd L; Berninger, Virginia W; Aylward, Elizabeth H; Richards, Anne L; Thomson, Jennifer B; Nagy, William E; Carlisle, Joanne F; Dager, Stephen R; Abbott, Robert D

    2002-01-01

    We repeated a proton echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI) study to test the hypothesis that children with dyslexia and good readers differ in brain lactate activation during a phonologic judgment task before but not after instructional treatment. We measured PEPSI brain lactate activation (TR/TE, 4000/144; 1.5 T) at two points 1-2 months apart during two language tasks (phonologic and lexical) and a control task (passive listening). Dyslexic participants (n = 10) and control participants (n = 8) (boys and girls aged 9-12 years) were matched in age, verbal intelligence quotients, and valid PEPSI voxels. In contrast to patients in past studies who received combined treatment, our patients were randomly assigned to either phonologic or morphologic (meaning-based) intervention between the scanning sessions. Before treatment, the patients showed significantly greater lactate elevation in the left frontal regions (including the inferior frontal gyrus) during the phonologic task. Both patients and control subjects differed significantly in the right parietal and occipital regions during both tasks. After treatment, the two groups did not significantly differ in any brain region during either task, but individuals given morphologic treatment were significantly more likely to have reduced left frontal lactate activation during the phonologic task. The previous finding of greater left frontal lactate elevation in children with dyslexia during a phonologic judgment task was replicated, and brain activation changed as a result of treatment. However, the treatment effect was due to the morphologic component rather than the phonologic component.

  19. The role of visual processing speed in reading speed development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lobier, Muriel; Dubois, Matthieu; Valdois, Sylviane

    2013-01-01

    A steady increase in reading speed is the hallmark of normal reading acquisition. However, little is known of the influence of visual attention capacity on children's reading speed. The number of distinct visual elements that can be simultaneously processed at a glance (dubbed the visual attention span), predicts single-word reading speed in both normal reading and dyslexic children. However, the exact processes that account for the relationship between the visual attention span and reading speed remain to be specified. We used the Theory of Visual Attention to estimate visual processing speed and visual short-term memory capacity from a multiple letter report task in eight and nine year old children. The visual attention span and text reading speed were also assessed. Results showed that visual processing speed and visual short term memory capacity predicted the visual attention span. Furthermore, visual processing speed predicted reading speed, but visual short term memory capacity did not. Finally, the visual attention span mediated the effect of visual processing speed on reading speed. These results suggest that visual attention capacity could constrain reading speed in elementary school children.

  20. The role of visual processing speed in reading speed development.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muriel Lobier

    Full Text Available A steady increase in reading speed is the hallmark of normal reading acquisition. However, little is known of the influence of visual attention capacity on children's reading speed. The number of distinct visual elements that can be simultaneously processed at a glance (dubbed the visual attention span, predicts single-word reading speed in both normal reading and dyslexic children. However, the exact processes that account for the relationship between the visual attention span and reading speed remain to be specified. We used the Theory of Visual Attention to estimate visual processing speed and visual short-term memory capacity from a multiple letter report task in eight and nine year old children. The visual attention span and text reading speed were also assessed. Results showed that visual processing speed and visual short term memory capacity predicted the visual attention span. Furthermore, visual processing speed predicted reading speed, but visual short term memory capacity did not. Finally, the visual attention span mediated the effect of visual processing speed on reading speed. These results suggest that visual attention capacity could constrain reading speed in elementary school children.

  1. Factors in the development of higher levels of reading literacy: Argumentation skills in educational practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Branković Marija

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The highest levels of reading literacy, as defined within PISA study, include the ability to use various cognitive skills, with argumentative skills being one of the most important among them. In the present study our goal was to reveal some of the factors that influence the development of argumentative skills in Serbian schools. We investigated the extent to which argumentative skills are required in PISA reading literacy tasks, as well as the specific difficulties our students have faced on these tasks, through an analysis of student performance. We also conducted an analysis of the educational practice - by doing in-depth interviews with teachers and content analysis of students' textbooks. The results revealed that: 1 Argumentations skills are an important requirement within PISA tasks; 2 Serbian students are mostly successful at basic tasks of recognizing arguments or providing arguments for the given position; they face difficulties answering the tasks which require precise formulation of relevant arguments as well as those demanding meta-cognitive skills (e.g. recognizing persuasive strategies in the given text. Their performance is particularly poor on tasks requiring the combination of information from different sources or information presented in different formats (text, tables, or graphs; 3 There is a significant gap between the requirements for argumentation skills our students usually encounter and PISA reading literacy tasks. In this paper we discuss some of the difficulties and obstacles to encouraging the development of argumentative thinking.

  2. Association of School-Based Physical Activity Opportunities, Socioeconomic Status, and Third-Grade Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kern, Ben D.; Graber, Kim C.; Shen, Sa; Hillman, Charles H.; McLoughlin, Gabriella

    2018-01-01

    Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is the most accurate predictor of academic performance in US schools. Third-grade reading is highly predictive of high school graduation. Chronic physical activity (PA) is shown to improve cognition and academic performance. We hypothesized that school-based PA opportunities (recess and physical education)…

  3. Computerised working memory based cognitive remediation therapy does not affect Reading the Mind in the Eyes test performance or neural activity during a Facial Emotion Recognition test in psychosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mothersill, David; Dillon, Rachael; Hargreaves, April; Castorina, Marco; Furey, Emilia; Fagan, Andrew J; Meaney, James F; Fitzmaurice, Brian; Hallahan, Brian; McDonald, Colm; Wykes, Til; Corvin, Aiden; Robertson, Ian H; Donohoe, Gary

    2018-05-27

    Working memory based cognitive remediation therapy (CT) for psychosis has recently been associated with broad improvements in performance on untrained tasks measuring working memory, episodic memory and IQ, and changes in associated brain regions. However, it is unclear if these improvements transfer to the domain of social cognition and neural activity related to performance on social cognitive tasks. We examined performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (Eyes test) in a large sample of participants with psychosis who underwent working memory based CT (N = 43) compared to a Control Group of participants with psychosis (N = 35). In a subset of this sample, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine changes in neural activity during a facial emotion recognition task in participants who underwent CT (N = 15) compared to a Control Group (N = 15). No significant effects of CT were observed on Eyes test performance or on neural activity during facial emotion recognition, either at pworking memory based CT does not significantly impact an aspect of social cognition which was measured behaviourally and neurally. It provides further evidence that deficits in the ability to decode mental state from facial expressions are dissociable from working memory deficits, and suggests that future CT programs should target social cognition in addition to working memory for the purposes of further enhancing social function. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  4. Dual-Task Performance: Influence of Frailty, Level of Physical Activity, and Cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giusti Rossi, Paulo; Pires de Andrade, Larissa; Hotta Ansai, Juliana; Silva Farche, Ana Claudia; Carnaz, Leticia; Dalpubel, Daniela; Ferriolli, Eduardo; Assis Carvalho Vale, Francisco; de Medeiros Takahashi, Anielle Cristhine

    2018-03-08

    Cognition and level of physical activity have been associated with frailty syndrome. The development of tools that assess deficits related to physical and cognitive frailties simultaneously are of common interest. However, little is known about how much these aspects influence the performance of dual-task tests. Our aims were (a) to verify the influence of frailty syndrome and objectively measured physical activity and cognition on the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and Timed Up and Go associated with dual-task (TUG-DT) performances; and (b) to compare TUG and TUG-DT performances between older adults who develop frailty syndrome. Sixty-four community-dwelling older adults were divided into frail, prefrail, and nonfrail groups, according to frailty phenotype. Assessments included anamnesis, screening of frailty syndrome, cognitive assessment (Addenbrooke's cognitive examination), placement of a triaxial accelerometer to assess level of physical activity, and TUG and TUG-DT (TUG associated with a motor-cognitive task of calling a phone number) performances. After 7 days, the accelerometer was removed. A multiple linear regression was applied to identify which independent variables could explain performances in the TUG and TUG-DT. Subsequently, the analysis of covariance test, adjusted for age, cognition, and level of physical activity covariates, was used to compare test performances. There were no differences in cognition between groups. Significant differences in the level of physical activity were found in the frail group. Compared with the frail group, the nonfrail group required less time and fewer steps to complete the TUG. Regarding the TUG-DT, cognition and age influenced the time spent and number of steps, respectively; however, no differences were found between groups. Frail older adults presented worse performance in the TUG when compared with nonfrail older adults. The dual-task test does not differentiate older adults with frailty syndrome, regardless of

  5. Working Memory Intervention: A Reading Comprehension Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perry, Tracy L.; Malaia, Evguenia

    2013-01-01

    For any complex mental task, people rely on working memory. Working memory capacity (WMC) is one predictor of success in learning. Historically, attempts to improve verbal WM through training have not been effective. This study provided elementary students with WM consolidation efficiency training to answer the question, Can reading comprehension…

  6. Functional Neuroanatomy of Impaired Reading in Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salmelin, Riitta; Helenius, Paivi

    2004-01-01

    In reading tasks, an underactivation of the left inferior occipitotemporal cortex in dyslexia seems to be the most consistent finding both in neurophysiological and hemodynamic studies. This marked difference appears at about 150 msec after word presentation when the brain enters the letter-string-specific (or, more generally, object-specific)…

  7. The Effect of Task-based Teaching on Incidental Vocabulary Learning in English for Specific Purposes

    OpenAIRE

    FALLAHRAFIE, Zahra; RAHMANY, Ramin; SADEGHI, Bahador

    2015-01-01

    Abstract. Learning vocabulary is an essential part of language learning linking the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing together. This paper considers the incidental vocabulary teaching and learning within the framework of task-based activities in the hope of improving learners’ vocabulary acquiring in English for Specific Purposes courses (ESP), concentrating on Mechanical Engineering students at Islamic Azad University of Hashtgerd, Iran. A total number of 55 male and fe...

  8. Reading, writing, and reserve: Literacy activities are linked to hippocampal volume and memory in multiple sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumowski, James F; Rocca, Maria A; Leavitt, Victoria M; Riccitelli, Gianna; Meani, Alessandro; Comi, Giancarlo; Filippi, Massimo

    2016-10-01

    Engagement in cognitive leisure activities during early adulthood has been linked to preserved memory and larger hippocampal volume in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). To investigate which specific types of cognitive leisure activities contribute to hippocampal volume and memory. We investigated links between three types of cognitive activities (Reading-Writing, Art-Music, Games-Hobbies) and (a) hippocampal volume within independent samples of Italian (n=187) and American (n=55) MS patients and (b) memory in subsamples of Italian (n=97) and American (n=53) patients. Reading-Writing was the only predictor of hippocampal volume (rp=.204, p=.002), and the best predictor of memory (rp=.288, p=.001). Findings inform the development of targeted evidence-based enrichment programs aiming to bolster reserve against memory decline. © The Author(s), 2016.

  9. A Working Memory Test Battery: Java-Based Collection of Seven Working Memory Tasks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James M Stone

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Working memory is a key construct within cognitive science. It is an important theory in its own right, but the influence of working memory is enriched due to the widespread evidence that measures of its capacity are linked to a variety of functions in wider cognition. To facilitate the active research environment into this topic, we describe seven computer-based tasks that provide estimates of short-term and working memory incorporating both visuospatial and verbal material. The memory span tasks provided are; digit span, matrix span, arrow span, reading span, operation span, rotation span, and symmetry span. These tasks are built to be simple to use, flexible to adapt to the specific needs of the research design, and are open source. All files can be downloaded from the project website http://www.cognitivetools.uk and the source code is available via Github.

  10. Active listening: task-dependent plasticity of spectrotemporal receptive fields in primary auditory cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fritz, Jonathan; Elhilali, Mounya; Shamma, Shihab

    2005-08-01

    Listening is an active process in which attentive focus on salient acoustic features in auditory tasks can influence receptive field properties of cortical neurons. Recent studies showing rapid task-related changes in neuronal spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) in primary auditory cortex of the behaving ferret are reviewed in the context of current research on cortical plasticity. Ferrets were trained on spectral tasks, including tone detection and two-tone discrimination, and on temporal tasks, including gap detection and click-rate discrimination. STRF changes could be measured on-line during task performance and occurred within minutes of task onset. During spectral tasks, there were specific spectral changes (enhanced response to tonal target frequency in tone detection and discrimination, suppressed response to tonal reference frequency in tone discrimination). However, only in the temporal tasks, the STRF was changed along the temporal dimension by sharpening temporal dynamics. In ferrets trained on multiple tasks, distinctive and task-specific STRF changes could be observed in the same cortical neurons in successive behavioral sessions. These results suggest that rapid task-related plasticity is an ongoing process that occurs at a network and single unit level as the animal switches between different tasks and dynamically adapts cortical STRFs in response to changing acoustic demands.

  11. Comparison of fMRI data from passive listening and active-response story processing tasks in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vannest, Jennifer J; Karunanayaka, Prasanna R; Altaye, Mekibib; Schmithorst, Vincent J; Plante, Elena M; Eaton, Kenneth J; Rasmussen, Jerod M; Holland, Scott K

    2009-04-01

    To use functional MRI (fMRI) methods to visualize a network of auditory and language-processing brain regions associated with processing an aurally-presented story. We compare a passive listening (PL) story paradigm to an active-response (AR) version including online performance monitoring and a sparse acquisition technique. Twenty children (ages 11-13 years) completed PL and AR story processing tasks. The PL version presented alternating 30-second blocks of stories and tones; the AR version presented story segments, comprehension questions, and 5-second tone sequences, with fMRI acquisitions between stimuli. fMRI data was analyzed using a general linear model approach and paired t-test identifying significant group activation. Both tasks showed activation in the primary auditory cortex, superior temporal gyrus bilaterally, and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). The AR task demonstrated more extensive activation, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior/posterior cingulate cortex. Comparison of effect size in each paradigm showed a larger effect for the AR paradigm in a left inferior frontal region-of-interest (ROI). Activation patterns for story processing in children are similar in PL and AR tasks. Increases in extent and magnitude of activation in the AR task are likely associated with memory and attention resources engaged across acquisition intervals.

  12. Mutual Disambiguation of Eye Gaze and Speech for Sight Translation and Reading

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kulkarni, Rucha; Jain, Kritika; Bansal, Himanshu

    2013-01-01

    and composition of the two modalities was used for integration. F-measure for Eye-Gaze and Word Accuracy for ASR were used as metrics to evaluate our results. In reading task, we demonstrated a significant improvement in both Eye-Gaze f-measure and speech Word Accuracy. In sight translation task, significant...

  13. The COMT Val/Met polymorphism is associated with reading-related skills and consistent patterns of functional neural activation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landi, Nicole; Frost, Stephen J; Mencl, W Einar; Preston, Jonathan L; Jacobsen, Leslie K; Lee, Maria; Yrigollen, Carolyn; Pugh, Kenneth R; Grigorenko, Elena L

    2013-01-01

    In both children and adults there is large variability in reading skill, with approximately 5-10% of individuals characterized as having reading disability; these individuals struggle to learn to read despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although it is well established that a substantial portion of this variability is attributed to the genetic differences between individuals, specifics of the connections between reading and the genome are not understood. This article presents data that suggest that variation in the COMT gene, which has previously been associated with variation in higher-order cognition, is associated with reading and reading-related skills, at the level of both brain and behavior. In particular, we found that the COMT Val/Met polymorphism at rs4680, which results in the substitution of the ancestral Valine (Val) by Methionine (Met), was associated with better performance on a number of critical reading measures and with patterns of functional neural activation that have been linked to better readers. We argue that this polymorphism, known for its broad effects on cognition, may modulate (likely through frontal lobe function) reading skill. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  14. Reading for tracing evidence: developing scientific knowledge through science text

    Science.gov (United States)

    Probosari, R. M.; Widyastuti, F.; Sajidan, S.; Suranto, S.; Prayitno, B. A.

    2018-05-01

    The purposes of this study were to investigate students’ learning progression on reading activity, science concept comprehension and how they imply it in scientific communication in the classroom. Fifty-nine biology education students participated in this study. This classroom research was developed to portray students’ reading activity, factors affecting reading comprehension, and the development of reading motivation. Qualitative analysis was used to describe the whole activities, involve the instruction, process and the product of reading activity. The result concluded that each student has their own way in interpreting the information from scientific text, but generally, they can filter and apply it in their argument as a part of reasoning and evidence. The findings can be used to direct reading activity to the goal of inquiry in order to support the nature of reading as evidence.

  15. Encouraging Students to Read Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepherd, Mary D.

    2005-01-01

    It is generally agreed that the ability to read mathematics is an important skill--one that few of our students possess. A number of people have published some suggestions for helping students learn to read their mathematics textbooks. What these have in common is suggestions for getting students more active while reading. Using these resources as…

  16. Analysis of Time-Dependent Brain Network on Active and MI Tasks for Chronic Stroke Patients.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Da-Hye Kim

    Full Text Available Several researchers have analyzed brain activities by investigating brain networks. However, there is a lack of the research on the temporal characteristics of the brain network during a stroke by EEG and the comparative studies between motor execution and imagery, which became known to have similar motor functions and pathways. In this study, we proposed the possibility of temporal characteristics on the brain networks of a stroke. We analyzed the temporal properties of the brain networks for nine chronic stroke patients by the active and motor imagery tasks by EEG. High beta band has a specific role in the brain network during motor tasks. In the high beta band, for the active task, there were significant characteristics of centrality and small-worldness on bilateral primary motor cortices at the initial motor execution. The degree centrality significantly increased on the contralateral primary motor cortex, and local efficiency increased on the ipsilateral primary motor cortex. These results indicate that the ipsilateral primary motor cortex constructed a powerful subnetwork by influencing the linked channels as compensatory effect, although the contralateral primary motor cortex organized an inefficient network by using the connected channels due to lesions. For the MI task, degree centrality and local efficiency significantly decreased on the somatosensory area at the initial motor imagery. Then, there were significant correlations between the properties of brain networks and motor function on the contralateral primary motor cortex and somatosensory area for each motor execution/imagery task. Our results represented that the active and MI tasks have different mechanisms of motor acts. Based on these results, we indicated the possibility of customized rehabilitation according to different motor tasks. We expect these results to help in the construction of the customized rehabilitation system depending on motor tasks by understanding temporal

  17. Subjective Significance Shapes Arousal Effects on Modified Stroop Task Performance: A Duality of Activation Mechanisms Account.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imbir, Kamil K

    2016-01-01

    Activation mechanisms such as arousal are known to be responsible for slowdown observed in the Emotional Stroop and modified Stroop tasks. Using the duality of mind perspective, we may conclude that both ways of processing information (automatic or controlled) should have their own mechanisms of activation, namely, arousal for an experiential mind, and subjective significance for a rational mind. To investigate the consequences of both, factorial manipulation was prepared. Other factors that influence Stroop task processing such as valence, concreteness, frequency, and word length were controlled. Subjective significance was expected to influence arousal effects. In the first study, the task was to name the color of font for activation charged words. In the second study, activation charged words were, at the same time, combined with an incongruent condition of the classical Stroop task around a fixation point. The task was to indicate the font color for color-meaning words. In both studies, subjective significance was found to shape the arousal impact on performance in terms of the slowdown reduction for words charged with subjective significance.

  18. Subjective Significance Shapes Arousal Effects on Modified Stroop Task Performance: a Duality of Activation Mechanisms Account

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamil Konrad Imbir

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Activation mechanisms such as arousal are known to be responsible for slowdown observed in the Emotional Stroop (EST and modified Stroop tasks. Using the duality of mind perspective, we may conclude that both ways of processing information (automatic or controlled should have their own mechanisms of activation, namely, arousal for an experiential mind, and subjective significance for a rational mind. To investigate the consequences of both, factorial manipulation was prepared. Other factors that influence Stroop task processing such as valence, concreteness, frequency and word length were controlled. Subjective significance was expected to influence arousal effects. In the first study, the task was to name the color of font for activation charged words. In the second study, activation charged words were, at the same time, combined with an incongruent condition of the classical Stroop task around a fixation point. The task was to indicate the font color for color-meaning words. In both studies, subjective significance was found to shape the arousal impact on performance in terms of the slowdown reduction for words charged with subjective significance.

  19. The Influence of Teachers’ Schema in Teaching Reading on Students’ Understanding

    OpenAIRE

    Putri Basmalah

    2013-01-01

    This paper tells about teachers’ schema in teaching reading. Based on some articles that the writer given, there are teachers who success in teaching reading and who are failed. The one of the cause why they are failed is because they did not apply the complete activities  (pre-reading activities, while-reading and post-reading) in teaching reading. The types of reading activities are also explained to give a point of view for readers how to be a successful teacher in teaching reading.

  20. Abnormal Brain Activation During Theory of Mind Tasks in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kronbichler, Lisa; Tschernegg, Melanie; Martin, Anna Isabel; Schurz, Matthias; Kronbichler, Martin

    2017-10-21

    Social cognition abilities are severely impaired in schizophrenia (SZ). The current meta-analysis used foci of 21 individual studies on functional abnormalities in the schizophrenic brain in order to identify regions that reveal convergent under- or over-activation during theory of mind (TOM) tasks. Studies were included in the analyses when contrasting tasks that require the processing of mental states with tasks which did not. Only studies that investigated patients with an ICD or DSM diagnosis were included. Quantitative voxel-based meta-analyses were done using Seed-based d Mapping software. Common TOM regions like medial-prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction revealed abnormal activation in schizophrenic patients: Under-activation was identified in the medial prefrontal cortex, left orbito-frontal cortex, and in a small section of the left posterior temporo-parietal junction. Remarkably, robust over-activation was identified in a more dorsal, bilateral section of the temporo-parietal junction. Further abnormal activation was identified in medial occipito-parietal cortex, right premotor areas, left cingulate gyrus, and lingual gyrus. The findings of this study suggest that SZ patients simultaneously show over- and under-activation in TOM-related regions. Especially interesting, temporo-parietal junction reveals diverging activation patterns with an under-activating left posterior and an over-activating bilateral dorsal section. In conclusion, SZ patients show less specialized brain activation in regions linked to TOM and increased activation in attention-related networks suggesting compensatory effects. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.

  1. Right prefrontal activity reflects the ability to overcome sleepiness during working memory tasks: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Motoyasu Honma

    Full Text Available It has been speculated that humans have an inherent ability to overcome sleepiness that counteracts homeostatic sleep pressure. However, it remains unclear which cortical substrate activities are involved in the ability to overcome sleepiness during the execution of cognitive tasks. Here we sought to confirm that this ability to overcome sleepiness in task execution improves performance on cognitive tasks, showing activation of neural substrates in the frontal cortex, by using a modified n-back (2- and 0-back working memory task and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The change in alertness was just correlated with performances on the 2-back task. Activity in the right prefrontal cortex changed depending on alertness changes on the 2- and 0-back tasks independently, which indicates that activity in this region clearly reflects the ability to overcome sleepiness; it may contribute to the function of providing sufficient activity to meet the task load demands. This study reveals characteristics of the ability to overcome sleepiness during the n-back working memory task which goes beyond the attention-control function traditionally proposed.

  2. Attention and Facilitation: Converging Information Versus Inadvertent Reading in Stroop Task Performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roelofs, A.P.A.

    2010-01-01

    Disagreement exists about whether color-word Stroop facilitation is caused by converging information (e.g.. Cohen et al.. 1990: Roelofs, 2003) or inadvertent reading (MacLeod & MacDonald, 2000). Four experiments tested between these hypotheses by examining Stroop effects oil response time (RT) both

  3. Predicting English Word Reading Skills for Spanish-Speaking Students in First Grade.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Páez, Mariela; Rinaldi, Claudia

    2006-10-01

    This article describes the word reading skills in English and Spanish for a sample of 244 Spanish-speaking, English-learning (hence, bilingual) students in first grade and presents a predictive model for English word reading skills. The children in the study were assessed at the end of kindergarten and first grade, respectively. Data were gathered with 3 subtests of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery and a researcher-developed phonological awareness task. Results showed that, on average, children's English word reading skills were similar to monolingual norms whereas their Spanish word reading skills averaged 1 SD below the mean. English vocabulary, English phonological awareness, and Spanish word reading skills in kindergarten were found to be significant predictors of English word reading skills in first grade. Educational implications for screening language and reading skills and promising areas for targeted instruction for this population are discussed.

  4. Reading Strategy Use and Comprehension Performance of More Successful and Less Successful Readers: A Think-Aloud Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yen-Hui

    2016-01-01

    This study explores the differences between more successful and less successful EFL readers in their comprehension performance and abilities to use reading strategies in interaction with English texts through thinking aloud while reading in pairs. Ten freshman high school students participated in pairs in four think-aloud reading tasks to think…

  5. Upper Extremity Muscle Activity During In-Phase and Anti-Phase Continuous Pushing Tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gruevski, Kristina M; Hodder, Joanne N; Keir, Peter J

    2017-11-01

    To determine the effect of anti-phase, in-phase bimanual and unimanual simulated industrial pushing tasks and frequency on upper extremity muscle activity. Research investigating symmetrical (in-phase) and asymmetrical (anti-phase) pushing exertions is limited despite a high prevalence in industry. Fifteen female participants completed five pushing tasks using a dual handle apparatus at three frequencies: 15 cycles per minute (cpm), 30 cpm, and self-selected. Tasks included two bimanual symmetrical pushes (constrained and unconstrained), two bimanual asymmetrical pushes (reciprocating and continuous), and one right unimanual push. Surface electromyography (EMG) from the right anterior, middle, and posterior deltoid (AD, MD, and PD); right and left trapezius (RT and LT); right pectoralis major (PM); and right and left external obliques (REO and LEO) was collected and normalized to maximum voluntary effort. There was a task by frequency interaction in the AD, MD, PD, and RT ( p pushes and constrained, in-phase pushes had the highest muscle activity demands and the least amount of variability in muscle activity and therefore may present the greatest risk of injury. Anti-phase pushing is known to have a greater cognitive demand, and this study demonstrated that it also has a greater physical demand when performed continuously.

  6. A Longitudinal Examination of the Persistence of Late Emerging Reading Disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etmanskie, Jill M; Partanen, Marita; Siegel, Linda S

    2016-01-01

    There are some children who encounter unexpected reading difficulties in the fourth grade. This phenomenon has been described as late emerging reading disabilities (LERD). Using Grade 4 as a starting point, this study examined the reading development of 964 children between kindergarten and Grade 7. The results showed that 72.0% of children had typical reading performance in Grade 4, whereas there was 0.7% with poor word reading, 12.6% with poor reading comprehension, 2.5% with poor word reading and comprehension, and 12.2% with borderline performance. We also showed that there were similar proportions of children who had early versus late emerging reading difficulties; however, most of the late emerging poor readers recovered by Grade 7. Furthermore, our study showed that poor comprehenders showed poorer performance than typical readers on word reading, pseudoword decoding, and spelling between Grade 1 and Grade 7 and poorer performance on a working memory task in kindergarten. Overall, this study showed that most children recover from late emerging reading problems and that working memory may be an early indicator for reading comprehension difficulties. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

  7. Semantic Categorization and Reading Skill across Dutch Primary Grades: Development Yes, Relationship No

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gijsel, Martine A. R.; Ormel, Ellen A.; Hermans, Daan; Verhoeven, L.; Bosman, Anna M. T.

    2011-01-01

    In the present study, the development of semantic categorization and its relationship with reading was investigated across Dutch primary grade students. Three Exemplar-level tasks (Experiment 1) and two Superordinate-level tasks (Experiment 2) with different types of distracters (phonological, semantic and perceptual) were administered to assess…

  8. 32 CFR 518.9 - Reading room.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... RELATIONS THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROGRAM FOIA Reading Rooms § 518.9 Reading room. (a) Reading room... clearly unwarranted invasions of privacy, or competitive harm to business submitters. In appropriate cases... information concerning munitions, equipment, systems, and intelligence activities. (4) (a)(2)(D) records...

  9. Usage of fMRI for pre-surgical planning in brain tumor and vascular lesion patients: Task and statistical threshold effects on language lateralization☆☆☆

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nadkarni, Tanvi N.; Andreoli, Matthew J.; Nair, Veena A.; Yin, Peng; Young, Brittany M.; Kundu, Bornali; Pankratz, Joshua; Radtke, Andrew; Holdsworth, Ryan; Kuo, John S.; Field, Aaron S.; Baskaya, Mustafa K.; Moritz, Chad H.; Meyerand, M. Elizabeth; Prabhakaran, Vivek

    2014-01-01

    Background and purpose Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive pre-surgical tool used to assess localization and lateralization of language function in brain tumor and vascular lesion patients in order to guide neurosurgeons as they devise a surgical approach to treat these lesions. We investigated the effect of varying the statistical thresholds as well as the type of language tasks on functional activation patterns and language lateralization. We hypothesized that language lateralization indices (LIs) would be threshold- and task-dependent. Materials and methods Imaging data were collected from brain tumor patients (n = 67, average age 48 years) and vascular lesion patients (n = 25, average age 43 years) who received pre-operative fMRI scanning. Both patient groups performed expressive (antonym and/or letter-word generation) and receptive (tumor patients performed text-reading; vascular lesion patients performed text-listening) language tasks. A control group (n = 25, average age 45 years) performed the letter-word generation task. Results Brain tumor patients showed left-lateralization during the antonym-word generation and text-reading tasks at high threshold values and bilateral activation during the letter-word generation task, irrespective of the threshold values. Vascular lesion patients showed left-lateralization during the antonym and letter-word generation, and text-listening tasks at high threshold values. Conclusion Our results suggest that the type of task and the applied statistical threshold influence LI and that the threshold effects on LI may be task-specific. Thus identifying critical functional regions and computing LIs should be conducted on an individual subject basis, using a continuum of threshold values with different tasks to provide the most accurate information for surgical planning to minimize post-operative language deficits. PMID:25685705

  10. Reading Actively Online: An Exploratory Investigation of Online Annotation Tools for Inquiry Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Jingyan; Deng, Liping

    2012-01-01

    This study seeks to design and facilitate active reading among secondary school students with an online annotation tool--Diigo. Two classes of different academic performance levels were recruited to examine their annotation behavior and perceptions of Diigo. We wanted to determine whether the two classes differed in how they used Diigo; how they…

  11. A Reverse Stroop Task with Mouse Tracking

    OpenAIRE

    Yamamoto, Naohide; Incera, Sara; McLennan, Conor T.

    2016-01-01

    In a reverse Stroop task, observers respond to the meaning of a color word irrespective of the color in which the word is printed—for example, the word red may be printed in the congruent color (red), an incongruent color (e.g., blue), or a neutral color (e.g., white). Although reading of color words in this task is often thought to be neither facilitated by congruent print colors nor interfered with incongruent print colors, this interference has been detected by using a response method that...

  12. Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura, 2000 (Reading and Life: Latin American Reading Magazine, 2000).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura, 2001

    2001-01-01

    Articles in this volume, written in Spanish, focus on the following: reading and writing assessment: Some characteristics of new assessment practices; how to support active participation in the reading of expository texts; argumentative writing as a problem in the written composition of students in teacher training; reading in a workshop…

  13. Age-related increase in brain activity during task-related and -negative networks and numerical inductive reasoning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Li; Liang, Peipeng; Jia, Xiuqin; Qi, Zhigang; Li, Kuncheng

    2014-01-01

    Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that elderly adults exhibit increased and decreased activation on various cognitive tasks, yet little is known about age-related changes in inductive reasoning. To investigate the neural basis for the aging effect on inductive reasoning, 15 young and 15 elderly subjects performed numerical inductive reasoning while in a magnetic resonance (MR) scanner. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis revealed that numerical inductive reasoning, relative to rest, yielded multiple frontal, temporal, parietal, and some subcortical area activations for both age groups. In addition, the younger participants showed significant regions of task-induced deactivation, while no deactivation occurred in the elderly adults. Direct group comparisons showed that elderly adults exhibited greater activity in regions of task-related activation and areas showing task-induced deactivation (TID) in the younger group. Our findings suggest an age-related deficiency in neural function and resource allocation during inductive reasoning.

  14. Neuronal activity in primate auditory cortex during the performance of audiovisual tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brosch, Michael; Selezneva, Elena; Scheich, Henning

    2015-03-01

    This study aimed at a deeper understanding of which cognitive and motivational aspects of tasks affect auditory cortical activity. To this end we trained two macaque monkeys to perform two different tasks on the same audiovisual stimulus and to do this with two different sizes of water rewards. The monkeys had to touch a bar after a tone had been turned on together with an LED, and to hold the bar until either the tone (auditory task) or the LED (visual task) was turned off. In 399 multiunits recorded from core fields of auditory cortex we confirmed that during task engagement neurons responded to auditory and non-auditory stimuli that were task-relevant, such as light and water. We also confirmed that firing rates slowly increased or decreased for several seconds during various phases of the tasks. Responses to non-auditory stimuli and slow firing changes were observed during both the auditory and the visual task, with some differences between them. There was also a weak task-dependent modulation of the responses to auditory stimuli. In contrast to these cognitive aspects, motivational aspects of the tasks were not reflected in the firing, except during delivery of the water reward. In conclusion, the present study supports our previous proposal that there are two response types in the auditory cortex that represent the timing and the type of auditory and non-auditory elements of a auditory tasks as well the association between elements. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Verbal working memory and reading abilities among students with visual impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Argyropoulos, Vassilios; Masoura, Elvira; Tsiakali, Thomai K; Nikolaraizi, Magda; Lappa, Christina

    2017-05-01

    This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading abilities among students with visual impairment (VI). Seventy-five students with VI (visually impairment and blindness), aged 10-15 years old participated in the study, of whom 44 were visually impaired and 31 were blind. The participants' reading ability was assessed with the standardized reading ability battery Test-A (Padeliadu & Antoniou, 2008) and their verbal working memory ability was assessed with the listening recall task from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Pickering et al., 2001). Data analysis indicated a strong correlation between verbal WM and decoding, reading comprehension and overall reading ability among the participants with VI, while no correlation was found between reading fluency and verbal WM. The present study points out the important role of verbal WM in reading among students who are VI and carries implications for the education of those individuals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Proceedings of the IRI task force activity 1995

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radicella, S.M.

    1996-05-01

    The report contains the programme, conclusions and the write up of 11 presentations delivered during the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) Task Force Activity 1995 that took place at the ICTP Trieste between 13-17 November 1995. The presentations included have been grouped in three chapters: Status report and data availability (2 presentations), Electron density profile shape below Nmax (5 presentations) and Intermediate regions (F1) electron density profile (4 presentations). Each presentation was indexed separately. Refs, figs, tabs

  17. Sympathetic nervous system activity measured by skin conductance quantifies the challenge of walking adaptability tasks after stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, David J; Chatterjee, Sudeshna A; McGuirk, Theresa E; Porges, Eric C; Fox, Emily J; Balasubramanian, Chitralakshmi K

    2018-02-01

    Walking adaptability tasks are challenging for people with motor impairments. The construct of perceived challenge is typically measured by self-report assessments, which are susceptible to subjective measurement error. The development of an objective physiologically-based measure of challenge may help to improve the ability to assess this important aspect of mobility function. The objective of this study to investigate the use of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity measured by skin conductance to gauge the physiological stress response to challenging walking adaptability tasks in people post-stroke. Thirty adults with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis performed a battery of seventeen walking adaptability tasks. SNS activity was measured by skin conductance from the palmar surface of each hand. The primary outcome variable was the percent change in skin conductance level (ΔSCL) between the baseline resting and walking phases of each task. Task difficulty was measured by performance speed and by physical therapist scoring of performance. Walking function and balance confidence were measured by preferred walking speed and the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale, respectively. There was a statistically significant negative association between ΔSCL and task performance speed and between ΔSCL and clinical score, indicating that tasks with greater SNS activity had slower performance speed and poorer clinical scores. ΔSCL was significantly greater for low functioning participants versus high functioning participants, particularly during the most challenging walking adaptability tasks. This study supports the use of SNS activity measured by skin conductance as a valuable approach for objectively quantifying the perceived challenge of walking adaptability tasks in people post-stroke. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  18. Understanding Learner Strengths and Weaknesses: Assessing Performance on an Integrated Writing Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawaki, Yasuyo; Quinlan, Thomas; Lee, Yong-Won

    2013-01-01

    The present study examined the factor structures across features of 446 examinees' responses to a writing task that integrates reading and listening modalities as well as reading and listening comprehension items of the TOEFL iBT[R] (Internet-based test). Both human and automated scores obtained for the integrated essays were utilized. Based on a…

  19. Reading Comprehension and Working Memory's Executive Processes: An Intervention Study in Primary School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia-Madruga, Juan A.; Elosua, Maria Rosa; Gil, Laura; Gomez-Veiga, Isabel; Vila, Jose Oscar; Orjales, Isabel; Contreras, Antonio; Rodriguez, Raquel; Melero, Maria Angeles; Duque, Gonzalo

    2013-01-01

    Reading comprehension is a highly demanding task that involves the simultaneous process of extracting and constructing meaning in which working memory's executive processes play a crucial role. In this article, a training program on working memory's executive processes to improve reading comprehension is presented and empirically tested in two…

  20. An application of CCD read-out technique to neutron distribution measurement using the self-activation method with a CsI scintillator plate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nohtomi, Akihiro; Kurihara, Ryosuke; Kinoshita, Hiroyuki; Honda, Soichiro; Tokunaga, Masaaki; Uno, Heita; Shinsho, Kiyomitsu; Wakabayashi, Genichiro; Koba, Yusuke; Fukunaga, Junichi; Umezu, Yoshiyuki; Nakamura, Yasuhiko; Ohga, Saiji

    2016-01-01

    In our previous paper, the self-activation of an NaI scintillator had been successfully utilized for detecting photo-neutrons around a high-energy X-ray radiotherapy machine; individual optical pulses from the self-activated scintillator are read-out by photo sensors such as a photomultiplier tube (PMT). In the present work, preliminary observations have been performed in order to apply a direct CCD read-out technique to the self-activation method with a CsI scintillator plate using a Pu-Be source and a 10-MV linac. In conclusion, it has been revealed that the CCD read-out technique is applicable to neutron measurement around a high-energy X-ray radiotherapy machine with the self-activation of a CsI plate. Such application may provide a possibility of novel method for simple neutron dose-distribution measurement. - Highlights: • Preliminary observations have been performed by a CCD for the CsI self-activation method. • It has been revealed that the CCD read-out technique is applicable to neutron measurement. • Such application may provide a novel method for simple neutron distribution measurement.