Facilitating English-Language Learners' Oral Reading Fluency with Digital Pen Technology

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Chen, Chih-Ming; Tan, Chia-Chen; Lo, Bey-Jane

2016-01-01

Oral reading fluency is an indicator of overall reading competence. Many studies have claimed that repeated reading can promote oral reading fluency. Currently, novel Web- or computer-based reading technologies offer interactive digital materials that promote English oral reading fluency using the repeated reading strategy; however, paper-based…

The Keefe Inventory of Silent Reading: A Window into the Reading Process.

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Keefe, Donald

1993-01-01

Contains part of the Keefe Inventory of Silent Reading, a silent informal reading inventory. Presents a case study of a student to whom it was administered, including analysis of this individual's reading ability and description of the specific strategies used with this individual on the basis of the results of the inventory. (RS)

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

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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.

The Effect of Background Music While Silent Reading on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

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sakineh sahebdel

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This study attempted to determine the effect of background music while silent reading on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The participants were 57 Iranian EFL learners between the ages of 14 and 16 in two 3rd grade high schoolclasses at pre-intermediate proficiency level. Before treatment,both experimental and control groups took a reading comprehension pretest. In the experimental group, the researchers played Mozart sonatas as background music and asked them to read the passage silently and then answer the reading comprehension questions. In the control group, the procedure was the same, but no music was played while silent reading by the students. After ten sessions, the students of both groups were asked to answer another independent but parallel form of reading section of PET as their post-test. The independent samples t-testresultsindicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in reading comprehension posttest, and listening to background music while silent reading had a significantly positive effect on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The results of the present study have implications for EFL students, teachers, and teacher educators as well as syllabus designers and materials developers.

Oral Reading Fluency with iPods

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Arens, Karla; Gove, Mary K.; Abate, Ron

2018-01-01

Research suggests that oral reading fluency frees up working memory so readers can focus on the meaning of a text, but traditional instruction in oral reading can be problematic in classrooms with students at different reading levels. Differentiating instruction, providing motivation to practice, as well as timely corrective feedback are practical…

Reading Fluency Techniques from the Bottom-up: A Grounded Theory

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Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In many EFL contexts, including language education milieu in Iran, reading fluency is usually taken for granted since language education in public high schools mainly focuses on reading comprehension. Taking the detrimental effect of fluency deficiency into account, some practitioners foreground reading fluency and try to develop it early on. To give voice to their theories of practice, this qualitative study interviewed teachers who were willing to share their experience with the researchers. In line with grounded theory, the iterative process of data collection and analysis continued until the conceptualization of fluency development techniques was saturated. The techniques emerged are conducive to fluency development and as such the findings have clear implications for practitioners and policy makers nation-wide.

Examining Oral Reading Fluency Trajectories Among English Language Learners and English Speaking Students

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Shane R. Jimerson

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Students’ oral reading fluency growth from first through fourth grade was used to predict their achievement on the Stanford Achievement Test (9th ed.; SAT-9 Reading using a latent growth model. Two conditional variables related to student status were used to determine the effects on reading performance - English language learners (ELLs with low socioeconomic status and low socioeconomic (SES status alone. Results revealed that both types of student status variables reliably predicted low performance on initial first grade oral reading fluency, which later predicted fourth grade performance on the SAT-9. However, the reading fluency trajectories of the ELLs and monolingual English students were not significantly different. In addition, when both student status variables and letter naming fluency were used to predict initial oral reading fluency, letter naming fluency dominated the prediction equation, suggesting that an initial pre-reading skill, letter naming fluency, better explained fourth grade performance on the SAT-9 than either ELL with low SES or low SES alone. The discussion focuses on how to better enable these readers and how oral reading fluency progress monitoring can be used to assist school personnel in determining which students need additional instructional assistance.

Alternative Text Types to Improve Reading Fluency for Competent to Struggling Readers

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Timothy V. Rasinski

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article offers instructional suggestions and strategies based on research and theoretical literature for developing reading fluency through the use of rhyming poetry and other texts beyond the narrative and informational texts that have been traditionally used for reading instruction. Readers’ lack of fluency in reading can be a monumental impediment to proficiency in good comprehension and overall reading competency. For all readers it is well established that as they progress in reading competence their reading ability grows (Stanovich, 1993/1994. This continued reading success begets continued reading growth; however, many struggling readers have difficulty in moving to a level of automaticity and fluency in their reading that enables them to engage in a successful practice. Lack of practice inhibits their reading comprehension. Readers’ abilities to effectively comprehend texts are significantly affected by their proficiency in accurate and automatic word recognition and prosody (May, 1998; Stanovich, 1993/1994; LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Schreiber, 1991. Repeated reading practice has been shown to be a powerful way to improve these important fluency competencies. Certain texts are particularly well suited for repeated reading that improves both aspects of fluency

Reading Fluency Instruction for Students at Risk for Reading Failure

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Ring, Jeremiah J.; Barefoot, Lexie C.; Avrit, Karen J.; Brown, Sasha A.; Black, Jeffrey L.

2013-01-01

The important role of reading fluency in the comprehension and motivation of readers is well documented. Two reading rate intervention programs were compared in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of students who were considered at-risk for reading failure. One program focused instruction at the word level; the second program focused instruction…

Effects of Metalinguistic Awareness on Reading Comprehension and the Mediator Role of Reading Fluency from Grades 2 to 4

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Li, Liping; Wu, Xinchun

2015-01-01

Purpose This study examined the contribution of metalinguistic awareness including morphological awareness, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness to reading comprehension, and the role of reading fluency as a mediator of the effects of metalinguistic awareness on reading comprehension from grades 2 to 4. Methods Four hundred and fifteen elementary students in China mainland were administered a test battery that included measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographical awareness, reading fluency, reading comprehension and IQ. Hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Results Morphological awareness uniquely explained 9%, 10% and 13% variance of reading comprehension respectively from grade 2 to grade 4, however, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness did not contribute to reading comprehension; Reading fluency partially mediated the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension in grades 2-4. Conclusions These findings indicated that reading fluency and morphological awareness should be facilitated in the Chinese instruction. Morphological awareness played an important role in Chinese reading and affected reading comprehension in grades 2 to 4; Reading fluency was a significant link between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in grades 2-4. PMID:25799530

Effects of Listening While Reading (LWR on Swahili Reading Fluency and Comprehension

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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.

Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension among Chinese Learners of English

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Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John

2012-01-01

This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…

Understanding Oral Reading Fluency among Adults with Low Literacy: Dominance Analysis of Contributing Component Skills

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Mellard, Daryl F.; Anthony, Jason L.; Woods, Kari L.

2012-01-01

This study extends the literature on the component skills involved in oral reading fluency. Dominance analysis was applied to assess the relative importance of seven reading-related component skills in the prediction of the oral reading fluency of 272 adult literacy learners. The best predictors of oral reading fluency when text difficulty was…

Incorporating Vocabulary Instruction in Individual Reading Fluency Interventions with English Language Learners

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Johnston, Lauren E.; Mercer, Sterett H.; Geres-Smith, Rhonda

2018-01-01

The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine whether incorporating vocabulary instruction in individual reading fluency interventions for English Language Learners (ELLs) would improve reading comprehension. Two vocabulary instructional procedures were contrasted with a fluency-building only condition in an alternating-treatments design…

The Role of Reading Fluency in Children's Text Comprehension.

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Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Cuetos, Fernando

2015-01-01

Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however, they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade). Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances), pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency.

The written voice: implicit memory effects of voice characteristics following silent reading and auditory presentation.

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Abramson, Marianne

2007-12-01

After being familiarized with two voices, either implicit (auditory lexical decision) or explicit memory (auditory recognition) for words from silently read sentences was assessed among 32 men and 32 women volunteers. In the silently read sentences, the sex of speaker was implied in the initial words, e.g., "He said, ..." or "She said...". Tone in question versus statement was also manipulated by appropriate punctuation. Auditory lexical decision priming was found for sex- and tone-consistent items following silent reading, but only up to 5 min. after silent reading. In a second study, similar lexical decision priming was found following listening to the sentences, although these effects remained reliable after a 2-day delay. The effect sizes for lexical decision priming showed that tone-consistency and sex-consistency were strong following both silent reading and listening 5 min. after studying. These results suggest that readers create episodic traces of text from auditory images of silently read sentences as they do during listening.

The Relationship between Reading Fluency and Lexile Measures

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Purvis, Joshua Steve

2017-01-01

With increasing emphasis being placed on teachers to show an improvement in student achievement, schools are relying on indicators such as reading fluency and reading comprehension to gauge student progress throughout the year. Since the growth on these assessments are used in calculating teachers and administrators' yearly job evaluations, the…

Reading Fluency and Students with Reading Disabilities: How Fast Is Fast Enough to Promote Reading Comprehension?

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O'Connor, Rollanda E.

2018-01-01

The goal of improving reading rate and fluency is to positively impact reading comprehension; however, it is unclear how fast students with learning disabilities (LD) need to read to reap this benefit. The purpose of this research was to identify the point of diminishing return for students who were dysfluent readers. Participants included 337…

Prosody as a Tool for Assessing Reading Fluency of Adult ESL Students

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Seftirina Evina Sinambela

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The prosodic features in reading aloud assignment has been associated with the students’ decoding skill. The goal of the present study is to determine the reliability of prosody for assessing reading fluency of adult ESL students in Indonesia context. The participants were all Indonesian natives, undergraduate students, adult females and males who have learned English in school (at the very least twice a week for more than 12 years. Text reading prosody was assessed by reading aloud task and the students’ speaking manner was taped and measured by using the Multidimensional Fluency Scale, as for text comprehension was assessed with a standardized test. It was discovered by the current study that prosody is a reliable sign to determine reading fluency and also reading comprehension. The student who did not read the text prosodically (with appropriate expression actually showed that he/she failed to comprehend the text. This study also revealed that a struggling reader was also having low comprehension capacity in listening spoken texts. The ESL students’ common problems to acquire prosodic reading skill are low exposure to the target language and do not have a good model to imitate prosodic reading.

Specificity and overlap in skills underpinning reading and arithmetical fluency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Daal, V.; van der Leij, A.; Adèr, H.

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine unique and common causes of problems in reading and arithmetic fluency. 13- to 14-year-old students were placed into one of five groups: reading disabled (RD, n = 16), arithmetic disabled (AD, n = 34), reading and arithmetic disabled (RAD, n = 17), reading,

Specificity and Overlap in Skills Underpinning Reading and Arithmetical Fluency

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van Daal, Victor; van der Leij, Aryan; Ader, Herman

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine unique and common causes of problems in reading and arithmetic fluency. 13- to 14-year-old students were placed into one of five groups: reading disabled (RD, n = 16), arithmetic disabled (AD, n = 34), reading and arithmetic disabled (RAD, n = 17), reading, arithmetic, and listening comprehension disabled…

Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Reading Proficiency in Low-Performing, High-Poverty Schools

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Baker, Scott K.; Smolkowski, Keith; Katz, Rachell; Fien, Hank; Seeley, John R.; Kame'enui, Edward J.; Beck, Carrie Thomas

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine oral reading fluency (ORF) in the context of a large-scale federal reading initiative conducted in low performing, high poverty schools. The objectives were to (a) investigate the relation between ORF and comprehensive reading tests, (b) examine whether slope of performance over time on ORF predicted…

Teachers Engaging Parents as Tutors to Improve Oral Reading Fluency

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Kupzyk, Sara S.

2012-01-01

This dissertation examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Measures used to determine the impact of parent tutoring included treatment integrity, student reading outcomes, attitudes towards involvement and reading, and social validity. Six teachers…

The role of reading fluency in children’s text comprehension

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Marta eÁlvarez-Cañizo

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade. Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances, pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency.

Enhancing the Reading Fluency and Comprehension of Children with Reading Disabilities in an Orthographically Transparent Language

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Snellings, Patrick; van der Leij, Aryan; de Jong, Peter F.; Blok, Henk

2009-01-01

Breznitz (2006) demonstrated that Hebrew-speaking adults with reading disabilities benefited from a training in which reading rate was experimentally manipulated. In the present study, the authors examine whether silent reading training enhances the sentence reading rate and comprehension of children with reading disabilities and whether results…

Boosting Reading Fluency: An Intervention Case Study at Subword Level

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Kairaluoma, Leila; Ahonen, Timo; Aro, Mikko; Holopainen, Leena

2007-01-01

This study is an intervention case study of fluency in Finnish-speaking children with dyslexia. Two 7-year-old children, a girl and a boy, were selected from the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. The intervention emphasised syllables as reading units, and proceeded from reading syllables to reading words and text. Letter knowledge, reading…

Does phonological recoding occur during silent reading and is it necessary for orthographic learning?

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de Jong, P.F.; Bitter, D.J.L.; van Setten, M.; Marinus, E.

2009-01-01

Two studies were conducted to test the central claim of the self-teaching hypothesis (i.e., phonological recoding is necessary for orthographic learning) in silent reading. The first study aimed to demonstrate the use of phonological recoding during silent reading. Texts containing pseudowords were

Using video self- and peer modeling to facilitate reading fluency in children with learning disabilities.

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Decker, Martha M; Buggey, Tom

2014-01-01

The authors compared the effects of video self-modeling and video peer modeling on oral reading fluency of elementary students with learning disabilities. A control group was also included to gauge general improvement due to reading instruction and familiarity with researchers. The results indicated that both interventions resulted in improved fluency. Students in both experimental groups improved their reading fluency. Two students in the self-modeling group made substantial and immediate gains beyond any of the other students. Discussion is included that focuses on the importance that positive imagery can have on student performance and the possible applications of both forms of video modeling with students who have had negative experiences in reading.

Reading with Ease: The Impact of an Oral Reading Fluency Intervention with Adolescent Struggling Readers

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Van Wig, Ann

2016-01-01

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact of a repeated reading fluency intervention focused on prosody, counterbalanced with an intervention focused on reading strategies. Both of these interventions were designed to promote feelings of achievement through participation in activities intended to…

The Role of Word Recognition, Oral Reading Fluency and Listening Comprehension in the Simple View of Reading: A Study in an Intermediate Depth Orthography

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Cadime, Irene; Rodrigues, Bruna; Santos, Sandra; Viana, Fernanda Leopoldina; Chaves-Sousa, Séli; do Céu Cosme, Maria; Ribeiro, Iolanda

2017-01-01

Empirical research has provided evidence for the simple view of reading across a variety of orthographies, but the role of oral reading fluency in the model is unclear. Moreover, the relative weight of listening comprehension, oral reading fluency and word recognition in reading comprehension seems to vary across orthographies and schooling years.…

Text (Oral) Reading Fluency as a Construct in Reading Development: An Investigation of Its Mediating Role for Children from Grades 1 to 4

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Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Wagner, Richard K.

2015-01-01

In the present study we investigated a developmentally changing role of text reading fluency in mediating the relations of word reading fluency and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. We addressed this question by using longitudinal data from Grades 1 to 4 and employing structural equation models. Results showed that the role of text…

The visual attention span deficit in Chinese children with reading fluency difficulty.

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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.

The role of working memory and fluency practice on the reading comprehension of students who are dysfluent readers.

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Swanson, H Lee; O'Connor, Rollanda

2009-01-01

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with untreated dysfluent and fluent readers on posttest measures of fluency, word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (a) The influence of WM on text comprehension was not related to fluency training, (b) dysfluent readers in the continuous-reading condition had higher posttest scores than dysfluent readers in the other conditions on measures of text comprehension but not on vocabulary, and (c) individual differences in WM better predicted posttest comprehension performance than word-attack skills. In general, the results suggested that although continuous reading increased comprehension, fluency practice did not compensate for WM demands. The results were interpreted within a model that viewed reading comprehension processes as competing for a limited supply of WM resources that operate independent of fluency.

Do Dispositional Characteristics Influence Reading? Examining the Impact of Personality on Reading Fluency

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Krach, S. Kathleen; McCreery, Michael P.; Loe, Scott A.; Jones, W. Paul

2016-01-01

Previous research demonstrates specific relationships between personality traits and general academic performance. In addition, research studies have demonstrated relationships among personality and variables related to reading fluency (i.e. speed, accuracy, automaticity, and prosody). However, little investigation has examined specific links…

A Mixed Method Study of the Effects of iPod Touch, Partner-Reading, and Independent Practice on Reading Fluency Performance, Perceived Reading Efficacy, and Engagement of Second Grade Students

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Wilder-Kingsby, Ceylynda

2014-01-01

This mixed method study explored three approaches to reading fluency and their impact on students' reading fluency, perceived reading efficacy, and engagement. The quantitative portion of the study was conducted with 182 second-grade students and was guided by the following questions: (a) Which instructional method, iPod Touch, student-pairing, or…

Silent reading of music and texts; eye movements and integrative reading mechanisms

OpenAIRE

Cara, Michel André; Gómez, Gabriela

2016-01-01

This study investigates to what extent structural units defined by physical and structural markers elicit different eye movement patterns when reading contrasting stimuli of music and verbal texts. Eye movements were tracked and compared in ten musicians undergoing Bachelor’s degrees as they silently read six texts and six pieces of music for piano: the music was contemporary, in modal style, and the style of the texts was informative and literary. Participants were music students at Universi...

Is Earlier Better? Mastery of Reading Fluency in Early Schooling

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Park, Yonghan; Chaparro, Erin A.; Preciado, Jorge; Cummings, Kelli D.

2015-01-01

Research Findings: The goal of the present study was to provide empirical evidence for the importance of mastering reading fluency in early schooling. Study participants were 1,322 students in 3rd grade in 42 schools in a northwestern state. These students were assessed using a battery of reading skill tests as well as comprehensive tests of more…

Using Vocal and Silent Reading Approaches for the Enhancement ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nekky Umera

An International Multi-Disciplinary Journal. Vol. 3 (1) ... expresses his thoughts and feelings in such a way that the person can be ... creative, critical and evaluative. .... In the first week, the research assistants taught the oral and silent reading.

Rapid naming, phonological memory and reading fluency in Brazilian bilingual students.

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Fleury, Fernanda Oppenheimer; Avila, Clara Regina Brandão de

2015-01-01

To characterize the performance of Brazilian students exposed to two languages in reading fluency, phonological memory, and rapid naming, according to grade level, and to investigate correlations between these variables. Sixty students took part in this study (50% female), enrolled in the third to the fifth grades of two elementary schools of the city of São Paulo. They constituted two groups - bilingual group: 30 Brazilian children whose mother tongue and language spoken at home was Brazilian Portuguese and who were daily exposed to English at school for a period not shorter than three years; monolingual group: 30 students, from a monolingual Brazilian elementary school, who were paired by gender, age, and grade level with the bilingual students. Foreign children, children with complaint or indication of speech and language disorder, or who had been retained were excluded. A rapid automatized naming, pseudoword repetition, and oral reading tests were administered. The bilingual children were assessed in both languages and their performances were compared among themselves and with the monolingual group, which was only assessed in Brazilian Portuguese. The bilingual group showed better performance in English, rapid naming, and pseudoword repetition tasks, whereas Brazilian Portuguese, in reading fluency. A higher number of correlations were found in Brazilian Portuguese. The results suggest that the acquisition of a second language may positively influence the abilities of rapid naming, reading rate, and accuracy. Brazilian bilingual students performed better in tasks of phonological memory in English and Brazilian Portuguese performed better in reading fluency. Different correlation patterns were found between the rapid naming, accuracy, and reading rate, in the bilingual group analysis, in both languages.

Exploring Relationships between Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension amongst English Second Language Readers in South Africa

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Pretorius, Elizabeth J.; Spaull, Nic

2016-01-01

Most analyses of oral reading fluency (ORF) are based on L1 reading, and the norms that have been developed in English are based on first language reading data. This is problematic for developing countries where many children are learning in English as a second language. The aim of the present study is to model the relationship between English…

The Quality of Evidence in Reading Fluency Intervention for Korean Readers with Reading Difficulties and Disabilities

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Park, Yujeong; Kim, Min Kyung

2015-01-01

This study aimed to provide information about the quality of the evidence on reading fluency instruction for at-risk students and students with reading/learning disabilities as a way to evaluate whether an instructional strategy is evidence-based and has potential for classroom use. An extensive search process with inclusion and exclusion criteria…

Predictors of Response to Intervention of Word Reading Fluency in Dutch

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Scheltinga, Femke; van der Leij, Aryan; Struiksma, Chris

2010-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of rapid digit naming, phonological memory, letter sound naming, and orthographic knowledge to the prediction of responsiveness to a school-based, individual intervention of word reading fluency problems of 122 Dutch second and third graders whose reading scores were below the 10th…

The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek

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George Manolitsis

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the role of three morphological awareness (MA skills (inflection, derivation, and compounding in word reading fluency and reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography (Greek. Two hundred and fifteen (104 girls; Mage = 67.40 months, at kindergarten Greek children were followed from kindergarten (K to grade 2 (G2. In K and grade 1 (G1, they were tested on measures of MA (two inflectional, two derivational, and three compounding, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN, and general cognitive ability (vocabulary and non-verbal IQ. At the end of G1 and G2, they were also tested on word reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the inflectional and derivational aspects of MA in K as well as all aspects of MA in G1 accounted for 2–5% of unique variance in reading comprehension. None of the MA skills predicted word reading fluency, after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and RAN. These findings suggest that the MA skills, even when assessed as early as in kindergarten, play a significant role in reading comprehension development.

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...

Identifying Children in Middle Childhood Who Are at Risk for Reading Problems.

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Speece, Deborah L; Ritchey, Kristen D; Silverman, Rebecca; Schatschneider, Christopher; Walker, Caroline Y; Andrusik, Katryna N

2010-06-01

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate a universal screening battery for reading that is appropriate for older elementary students in a response to intervention model. Multiple measures of reading and reading correlates were administered to 230 fourth-grade children. Teachers rated children's reading skills, academic competence, and attention. Children were classified as not-at-risk or at-risk readers based on a three-factor model reflecting reading comprehension, word recognition/decoding, and word fluency. Predictors of reading status included group-administered tests of reading comprehension, silent word reading fluency, and teacher ratings of reading problems. Inclusion of individually administered tests and growth estimates did not add substantial variance. The receiver-operator characteristic curve analysis yielded an area under the curve index of 0.90, suggesting this model may both accurately and efficiently screen older elementary students with reading problems.

Direct speech quotations promote low relative-clause attachment in silent reading of English.

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Yao, Bo; Scheepers, Christoph

2018-07-01

The implicit prosody hypothesis (Fodor, 1998, 2002) proposes that silent reading coincides with a default, implicit form of prosody to facilitate sentence processing. Recent research demonstrated that a more vivid form of implicit prosody is mentally simulated during silent reading of direct speech quotations (e.g., Mary said, "This dress is beautiful"), with neural and behavioural consequences (e.g., Yao, Belin, & Scheepers, 2011; Yao & Scheepers, 2011). Here, we explored the relation between 'default' and 'simulated' implicit prosody in the context of relative-clause (RC) attachment in English. Apart from confirming a general low RC-attachment preference in both production (Experiment 1) and comprehension (Experiments 2 and 3), we found that during written sentence completion (Experiment 1) or when reading silently (Experiment 2), the low RC-attachment preference was reliably enhanced when the critical sentences were embedded in direct speech quotations as compared to indirect speech or narrative sentences. However, when reading aloud (Experiment 3), direct speech did not enhance the general low RC-attachment preference. The results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggest a quantitative boost to implicit prosody (via auditory perceptual simulation) during silent production/comprehension of direct speech. By contrast, when reading aloud (Experiment 3), prosody becomes equally salient across conditions due to its explicit nature; indirect speech and narrative sentences thus become as susceptible to prosody-induced syntactic biases as direct speech. The present findings suggest a shared cognitive basis between default implicit prosody and simulated implicit prosody, providing a new platform for studying the effects of implicit prosody on sentence processing. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Cross-Sectional Study of Fluency and Reading Comprehension in Spanish Primary School Children

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Calet, Nuria; Gutiérrez-Palma, Nicolás; Defior, Sylvia

2015-01-01

The importance of prosodic elements is recognised in most definitions of fluency. Although speed and accuracy have been typically considered the constituents of reading fluency, prosody is emerging as an additional component. The relevance of prosody in comprehension is increasingly recognised in the latest studies. The purpose of this research is…

From fluency to comprehension powerful instruction through authentic reading

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Rasinski, Timothy

2013-01-01

Helping teachers move beyond fluency as measured by speed alone, this book focuses on building the skills that students need to read accurately, meaningfully, and expressively--the essential components of reading comprehension. Each concise chapter presents a tried-and-true instructional or assessment strategy and shows how K-12 teachers can apply it in their own classrooms, using a wide variety of engaging texts. Special features include classroom examples, ""Your Turn"" activities, and 24 reproducible forms, in a large-size format for easy photocopying. Purchasers also get access to a

Silent reading of direct versus indirect speech activates voice-selective areas in the auditory cortex.

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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.

Using an iPad® App to Improve Sight Word Reading Fluency for At-Risk First Graders

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Musti-Rao, Shobana; Lo, Ya-yu; Plati, Erin

2015-01-01

We used a multiple baseline across word lists design nested within a multiple baseline across participants design to examine the effects of instruction delivered using an iPad® app on sight word fluency and oral reading fluency of six first graders identified as at risk for reading failure. In Study 1, three students participated in…

The Relationship of Error Rate and Comprehension in Second and Third Grade Oral Reading Fluency.

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Abbott, Mary; Wills, Howard; Miller, Angela; Kaufman, Journ

2012-01-01

This study explored the relationships of oral reading speed and error rate on comprehension with second and third grade students with identified reading risk. The study included 920 2nd graders and 974 3rd graders. Participants were assessed using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (WRMT) Passage Comprehension subtest. Results from this study further illuminate the significant relationships between error rate, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension performance, and grade-specific guidelines for appropriate error rate levels. Low oral reading fluency and high error rates predict the level of passage comprehension performance. For second grade students below benchmark, a fall assessment error rate of 28% predicts that student comprehension performance will be below average. For third grade students below benchmark, the fall assessment cut point is 14%. Instructional implications of the findings are discussed.

Examining Predictive Validity of Oral Reading Fluency Slope in Upper Elementary Grades Using Quantile Regression.

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Cho, Eunsoo; Capin, Philip; Roberts, Greg; Vaughn, Sharon

2017-07-01

Within multitiered instructional delivery models, progress monitoring is a key mechanism for determining whether a child demonstrates an adequate response to instruction. One measure commonly used to monitor the reading progress of students is oral reading fluency (ORF). This study examined the extent to which ORF slope predicts reading comprehension outcomes for fifth-grade struggling readers ( n = 102) participating in an intensive reading intervention. Quantile regression models showed that ORF slope significantly predicted performance on a sentence-level fluency and comprehension assessment, regardless of the students' reading skills, controlling for initial ORF performance. However, ORF slope was differentially predictive of a passage-level comprehension assessment based on students' reading skills when controlling for initial ORF status. Results showed that ORF explained unique variance for struggling readers whose posttest performance was at the upper quantiles at the end of the reading intervention, but slope was not a significant predictor of passage-level comprehension for students whose reading problems were the most difficult to remediate.

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

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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…

The Effects of the Sustained Silent Reading Program on Cultivating Students' Habits and Attitudes in Reading Books for Leisure

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Chua, Siah Poh

2008-01-01

The author examines the effects of the sustained silent reading program on cultivating students' habits and attitudes in reading books for leisure. The author used a time-series design and measured students' reading habits and attitudes three times in twelve months. It was expected that if the program created positive effects on cultivating…

Effect of Music-Integrated Instruction on First Graders' Reading Fluency

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Bryant, Kerry G.

2012-01-01

The study examined music-integrated (MI) instruction, framed by automatic information processing theory and elements of prosody. A quasi-experimental, pre- and posttest design was utilized to ascertain the effect of MI instruction on reading fluency among first grade students. Subjects were students in two public elementary schools in Georgia. To…

Oral Reading Fluency Testing: Pitfalls for Children with Speech Disorders

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Howland, Karole; Scaler Scott, Kathleen

2016-01-01

As school districts nationwide have moved toward data driven intervention, oral reading fluency measures have become a prevalent means to monitor progress by assessing the degree to which a child is becoming a fast (and therefore fluent) reader. This article reviews results of a survey of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with children…

Predictive Validity and Accuracy of Oral Reading Fluency for English Learners

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Vanderwood, Michael L.; Tung, Catherine Y.; Checca, C. Jason

2014-01-01

The predictive validity and accuracy of an oral reading fluency (ORF) measure for a statewide assessment in English language arts was examined for second-grade native English speakers (NESs) and English learners (ELs) with varying levels of English proficiency. In addition to comparing ELs with native English speakers, the impact of English…

Mejorar la fluidez lectora en dislexia: diseño de un programa de intervención en español / Improving reading fluency in dyslexia: designing a Spanish

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Esther Gómez Zapata

2011-08-01

Full Text Available This article describes the process of planning an intervention program aimed at improving reading fluency in children with developmental dyslexia. Reading fluency is considered a crucial component in achieving literacy, especially regarding its role in facilitating reading comprehension. Improving reading fluency is particularly important for children with developmental dyslexia as they have difficulties automatizing word recognition. These difficulties lead to suboptimal reading skills that ultimately affect reading comprehension. This study shows the steps involved in planning an intervention program that combines accelerated and repeated reading, two methodologies commonly used to improve fluency. This is a structured and sequential training programme which includes syllable, word and text reading. The aim is to automatize the reading of sublexical units-which are easily recognizable in Spanish-to facilitate faster and more efficient word recognition. This will improve fluency when reading full texts. The program also includes metaphonological ability training.

Maternal reading fluency is positively associated with greater functional connectivity between the child's future reading network and regions related to executive functions and language processing in preschool-age children.

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Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Hutton, John S; Phelan, Kieran; Holland, Scott K

2018-03-01

The role of the parent or educator in a child's learning is a key feature in child development. Evidence supports the impact of early language exposure for future language and cognitive abilities and of home reading environment on neural circuits supporting language and reading. As shared parent-child reading is largely contingent on the reading ability of the parent, the aim of the current study was to explore association of parental reading ability on functional connectivity of brain networks involved with reading acquisition in their children. Twenty-two 4-year-old girls and their mothers participated in the current study. Maternal reading fluency was applied as predictors of functional connectivity analyses of a stories-listening functional MRI task. Results indicate a positive association between maternal fluency scores and greater functional connectivity between regions in the future reading network and brain regions supporting language and cognitive control in the children. Maternal reading fluency is important in facilitating development of a child's reading network. Implications regarding shared reading are discussed, and an extended ecological model for child language and literacy development is proposed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of aging, education, reading and writing, semantic processing and depression symptoms on verbal fluency

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André Luiz Moraes

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Verbal fluency tasks are widely used in (clinical neuropsychology to evaluate components of executive functioning and lexical-semantic processing (linguistic and semantic memory. Performance in those tasks may be affected by several variables, such as age, education and diseases. This study investigated whether aging, education, reading and writing frequency, performance in semantic judgment tasks and depression symptoms predict the performance in unconstrained, phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. This study sample comprised 260 healthy adults aged 19 to 75 years old. The Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression models were used for data analysis. The variables under analysis were associated in different ways and had different levels of contribution according to the type of verbal fluency task. Education had the greatest effect on verbal fluency tasks. There was a greater effect of age on semantic fluency than on phonemic tasks. The semantic judgment tasks predicted the verbal fluency performance alone or in combination with other variables. These findings corroborate the importance of education in cognition supporting the hypothesis of a cognitive reserve and confirming the contribution of lexical-semantic processing to verbal fluency.

Cross-Language Transfer of Word Reading Accuracy and Word Reading Fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English Bilinguals: Script-Universal and Script-Specific Processes

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Pasquarella, Adrian; Chen, Xi; Gottardo, Alexandra; Geva, Esther

2015-01-01

This study examined cross-language transfer of word reading accuracy and word reading fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants included 51 Spanish-English and 64 Chinese-English bilinguals. Both groups of children completed parallel measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy,…

Oral reading fluency analysis in patients with Alzheimer disease and asymptomatic control subjects.

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Martínez-Sánchez, F; Meilán, J J G; García-Sevilla, J; Carro, J; Arana, J M

2013-01-01

Many studies highlight that an impaired ability to communicate is one of the key clinical features of Alzheimer disease (AD). To study temporal organisation of speech in an oral reading task in patients with AD and in matched healthy controls using a semi-automatic method, and evaluate that method's ability to discriminate between the 2 groups. A test with an oral reading task was administered to 70 subjects, comprising 35 AD patients and 35 controls. Before speech samples were recorded, participants completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. There were no differences between groups with regard to age, sex, or educational level. All of the study variables showed impairment in the AD group. According to the results, AD patients' oral reading was marked by reduced speech and articulation rates, low effectiveness of phonation time, and increases in the number and proportion of pauses. Signal processing algorithms applied to reading fluency recordings were shown to be capable of differentiating between AD patients and controls with an accuracy of 80% (specificity 74.2%, sensitivity 77.1%) based on speech rate. Analysis of oral reading fluency may be useful as a tool for the objective study and quantification of speech deficits in AD. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Modeling individual differences in text reading fluency: a different pattern of predictors for typically developing and dyslexic readers

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Pierluigi eZoccolotti

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This study was aimed at predicting individual differences in text reading fluency. The basic proposal included two factors, i.e., the ability to decode letter strings (measured by discrete pseudo-word reading and integration of the various sub-components involved in reading (measured by Rapid Automatized Naming, RAN. Subsequently, a third factor was added to the model, i.e., naming of discrete digits. In order to use homogeneous measures, all contributing variables considered the entire processing of the item, including pronunciation time. The model, which was based on commonality analysis, was applied to data from a group of 43 typically developing readers (11- to 13-year-olds and a group of 25 chronologically matched dyslexic children. In typically developing readers, both orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components contributed significantly to the overall prediction of text reading fluency. The model prediction was higher (from ca. 37% to 52% of the explained variance when we included the naming of discrete digits variable, which had a suppressive effect on pseudo-word reading. In the dyslexic readers, the variance explained by the two-factor model was high (69% and did not change when the third factor was added. The lack of a suppression effect was likely due to the prominent individual differences in poor orthographic decoding of the dyslexic children. Analyses on data from both groups of children were replicated by using patches of colours as stimuli (both in the RAN task and in the discrete naming task obtaining similar results. We conclude that it is possible to predict much of the variance in text-reading fluency using basic processes, such as orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components, even without taking into consideration higher-order linguistic factors such as lexical, semantic and contextual abilities. The approach validity of using proximal vs distal causes to predict reading fluency is

The Effects of a Reader's Theater Instructional Intervention on Second Grade Students' Reading Fluency and Comprehension Skills

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Johnson, Diane D.

2011-01-01

An estimated 75% of students who are poor readers in third grade continue to be lower achieving readers in ninth grade. The National Reading Panel has identified fluency as a prominent cause of reading comprehension problems which ultimately affect overall reading development. The purpose of this study was to test the theoretical framework of…

Improving Second Grade Student's Reading Fluency and Comprehension Using Teacher-Guided iPad® App Instruction

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Redcay, Jessica D.; Preston, Sean M.

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to examine the differences in second grade students' reading fluency and comprehension scores when using varying levels of teacher-guided iPad® app instruction to determine effective reading practices. Design/methodology/approach: This study reports the results of the quasi-experimental pre-post study by providing…

Writing fluency and quality in kindergarten and first grade: The role of attention, reading, transcription, and oral language

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Kent, Shawn; Wanzek, Jeanne; Petscher, Yaacov; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Kim, Young-Suk

2013-01-01

In the present study, we examined the influence of kindergarten component skills on writing outcomes, both concurrently and longitudinally to first grade. Using data from 265 students, we investigated a model of writing development including attention regulation along with students’ reading, spelling, handwriting fluency, and oral language component skills. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that a model including attention was better fitting than a model with only language and literacy factors. Attention, a higher-order literacy factor related to reading and spelling proficiency, and automaticity in letter-writing were uniquely and positively related to compositional fluency in kindergarten. Attention and higher-order literacy factor were predictive of both composition quality and fluency in first grade, while oral language showed unique relations with first grade writing quality. Implications for writing development and instruction are discussed. PMID:25132722

The Relationship between Reading Comprehension, Decoding, and Fluency in Greek: A Cross-Sectional Study

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Padeliadu, Susana; Antoniou, Faye

2014-01-01

Experts widely consider decoding and fluency as the basis of reading comprehension, while at the same time consistently documenting problems in these areas as major characteristics of students with learning disabilities. However, scholars have developed most of the relevant research within phonologically deep languages, wherein decoding problems…

Using Arabic word identification fluency to monitor first-grade reading progress.

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Abu-Hamour, Bashir

2014-05-01

This study examined the applicability, reliability and validity of the Arabic version of the curriculum-based measurement word identification fluency (CBM WIF) measure in Jordanian students. A sample of 75 first-grade students, 50 average readers and 25 with reading difficulties, were recruited from two public primary schools. Results indicated that the CBM WIF is a reliable, valid and cost-effective measure. A 15-week trial demonstrated the effectiveness of using CBM WIF with the first-grade students. In addition, CBM WIF was a good predictor of grade point average in the native language. Moreover, students who were struggling with reading scored significantly lower on CBM WIF probes than did average readers. Results suggest that the CBM WIF measures may be useful for evaluating and predicting reading performance in Arabic. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Effects of the Use of Renzulli Learning on Student Achievement in Reading Comprehension, Reading Fluency, Social Studies, and Science

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Gara B Field

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Renzulli Learning is an on-line educational profile and educational learning system designed to match student interests, learning styles, and expression styles with a vast array of educational activities and resources designed to enrich and engage students’ learning process. In this experimental study, quantitative procedures were used to investigate the use of Renzulli Learning on oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, science achievement, social studies achievement of 383 elementary and middle schools students. The research took place in two schools, an urban middle school in Georgia where half of all students are considered to be at risk due to poverty or other factors, and a suburban elementary school in southern California. Students in grades 3 5 (n = 185 and grades 6 8 (n = 198 were randomly assigned to use Renzulli Learning for 2-3 hours each week for a 16-week period. Students in the treatment groups were compared to students who did not have the opportunity to use Renzulli Learning in control classes in the same schools. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to explore differences between treatment and control students. After 16 weeks, students who participated in Renzulli Learning demonstrated significantly higher growth in reading comprehension (p < .001, significantly higher growth in oral reading fluency (p = .016, and significantly higher growth in social studies achievement (p = .013 than those students who did not participate in Renzulli Learning.

Measurement Properties of DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency in Grade 2: Implications for Equating Studies

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Stoolmiller, Michael; Biancarosa, Gina; Fien, Hank

2013-01-01

Lack of psychometric equivalence of oral reading fluency (ORF) passages used within a grade for screening and progress monitoring has recently become an issue with calls for the use of equating methods to ensure equivalence. To investigate the nature of the nonequivalence and to guide the choice of equating method to correct for nonequivalence,…

The effects of whispering-to-oneself and silent reading on text memory and comprehension in children

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Matsumi, Norio; Furumoto, Yumi; Mitsuke, Ai

2005-01-01

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of whispering-to-oneself reading on text memory and comprehension in children (6th grade). A2×2 factorial design was used in the experiment: the first independent variable was whispering-to-oneself or silent reading, the second was large- or small-working memory span which were measured by the reading span test (RST). Four aspects of the text memory and comprehension were observed as dependent variables: text memory both on the literal ...

Teaching children with dyslexia to spell in a reading-writers' workshop.

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Berninger, Virginia W; Lee, Yen-Ling; Abbott, Robert D; Breznitz, Zvia

2013-04-01

To identify effective treatment for both the spelling and word decoding problems in dyslexia, 24 students with dyslexia in grades 4 to 9 were randomly assigned to treatments A (n=12) or B (n=12) in an after-school reading-writers' workshop at the university (thirty 1-h sessions twice a week over 5 months). First, both groups received step 1 treatment of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (gpc) for oral reading. At step 2, treatment A received gpc training for both oral reading and spelling, and treatment B received gpc training for oral reading and phonological awareness. At step 3, treatment A received orthographic spelling strategy and rapid accelerated reading program (RAP) training, and treatment B continued step 2 training. At step 4, treatment A received morphological strategies and RAP training, and treatment B received orthographic spelling strategy training. Each treatment also had the same integrated reading-writing activities, which many school assignments require. Both groups improved significantly in automatic letter writing, spelling real words, compositional fluency, and oral reading (decoding) rate. Treatment A significantly outperformed treatment B in decoding rate after step 3 orthographic training, which in turn uniquely predicted spelling real words. Letter processing rate increased during step 3 RAP training and correlated significantly with two silent reading fluency measures. Adding orthographic strategies with "working memory in mind" to phonics helps students with dyslexia spell and read English words.

Influence of Verbal Working Memory Depends on Vocabulary: Oral Reading Fluency in Adolescents with Dyslexia

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Rose, L. Todd; Rouhani, Parisa

2012-01-01

Most research on dyslexia to date has focused on early childhood, while comparatively little is known about the nature of dyslexia in adolescence. The current study had two objectives. The first was to investigate the relative contributions of several cognitive and linguistic factors to connected-text oral reading fluency in a sample of…

Is Morphological Awareness a Relevant Predictor of Reading Fluency and Comprehension? New Evidence From Italian Monolingual and Arabic-Italian Bilingual Children

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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.

Reading Comprehension Level and Development in Native and Language Minority Adolescent Low Achievers: Roles of Linguistic and Metacognitive Knowledge and Fluency

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Dr E.J. van Schooten; Dr. A.J.S. van Gelderen; M. Trapman; J. Hulstijn

2016-01-01

In a longitudinal design, we measured 50 low-achieving adolescents’ reading comprehension development from Grades 7 to 9. There were 24 native Dutch and 26 language minority students. In addition, we assessed the roles of (a) linguistic knowledge, (b) metacognitive knowledge, and (c) reading fluency

Reading comprehension level and development in native and language minority adolescent low achievers : Roles of linguistic and metacognitive knowledge and fluency

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Trapman, M.; van Gelderen, A.; van Schooten, E.; Hulstijn, J.

2017-01-01

In a longitudinal design, we measured 50 low-achieving adolescents’ reading comprehension development from Grades 7 to 9. There were 24 native Dutch and 26 language minority students. In addition, we assessed the roles of (a) linguistic knowledge, (b) metacognitive knowledge, and (c) reading fluency

A Randomized Controlled Trial on The Beneficial Effects of Training Letter-Speech Sound Integration on Reading Fluency in Children with Dyslexia.

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Gorka Fraga González

Full Text Available A recent account of dyslexia assumes that a failure to develop automated letter-speech sound integration might be responsible for the observed lack of reading fluency. This study uses a pre-test-training-post-test design to evaluate the effects of a training program based on letter-speech sound associations with a special focus on gains in reading fluency. A sample of 44 children with dyslexia and 23 typical readers, aged 8 to 9, was recruited. Children with dyslexia were randomly allocated to either the training program group (n = 23 or a waiting-list control group (n = 21. The training intensively focused on letter-speech sound mapping and consisted of 34 individual sessions of 45 minutes over a five month period. The children with dyslexia showed substantial reading gains for the main word reading and spelling measures after training, improving at a faster rate than typical readers and waiting-list controls. The results are interpreted within the conceptual framework assuming a multisensory integration deficit as the most proximal cause of dysfluent reading in dyslexia.ISRCTN register ISRCTN12783279.

Modeling Oral Reading Fluency Development in Latino Students: A Longitudinal Study across Second and Third Grade

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Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Petscher, Yaacov; Pappamihiel, N. Eleni; Williams, Rihana S.; Dyrlund, Allison K.; Connor, Carol

2009-01-01

This study examines growth in oral reading fluency across 2nd and 3rd grade for Latino students grouped in 3 English proficiency levels: students receiving English as a second language (ESL) services (n = 2,182), students exited from ESL services (n = 965), and students never designated as needing services (n = 1,857). An important focus was to…

Using Supplementary Readings (Short Stories) in Increasing the Conceptual Fluency, the Case of Idioms in English

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Mokhtari, Elahe; Talebinezhad, Mohammed Reza

2014-01-01

The aim of this research was to probed whether using supplementary readings (short stories containing idioms) increase conceptual fluency of L2 learners. In line with the goal of the study, first, the researcher selected a sample of 30 female lower-intermediate L2 learners from Sadr Private Language Centre in Isfahan. She selected them based on…

Considering the Context and Texts for Fluency: Performance, Readers Theater, and Poetry

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Young, Chase; Nageldinger, James

2014-01-01

This article describes the importance of teaching reading fluency and all of its components, including automaticity and prosody. The authors explain how teachers can create a context for reading fluency instruction by engaging students in reading performance activities. To support the instructional contexts, the authors suggest particular…

Preliminary validation of FastaReada as a measure of reading fluency

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Zena eElhassan

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Fluent reading is characterized by speed and accuracy in the decoding and comprehension of connected text. Although a variety of measures are available for the assessment of reading skills most tests do not evaluate rate of text recognition as reflected in fluent reading. Here we evaluate FastaReada, a customized computer-generated task that was developed to address some of the limitations of currently available measures of reading skills. FastaReada provides a rapid assessment of reading fluency quantified as words read per minute for connected, meaningful text. To test the criterion validity of FastaReada, 124 mainstream school children with typical sensory, mental and motor development were assessed. Performance on FastaReada was correlated with the established Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA measures of text reading accuracy, rate and comprehension, and common single word measures of pseudoword (non-word reading, phonetic decoding, phonological awareness and mode of word decoding (i.e., visual or eidetic versus auditory or phonetic. The results demonstrated strong positive correlations between FastaReada performance and NARA reading rate (r = .75, accuracy (r = .83 and comprehension (r = .63 scores providing evidence for criterion-related validity. Additional evidence for criterion validity was demonstrated through strong positive correlations between FastaReada and both single word eidetic (r = .81 and phonetic decoding skills (r = .68. The results also demonstrated FastaReada to be a stronger predictor of eidetic decoding than the NARA rate measure, with FastaReada predicting 14.4% of the variance compared to 2.6% predicted by NARA rate. FastaReada was therefore deemed to be a valid tool for educators, clinicians, and research related assessment of reading accuracy and rate. As expected, analysis with hierarchical regressions also highlighted the closer relationship of fluent reading to rapid visual word recognition than to

Reading faster

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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.

The Effectiveness of Neurological Impress Method on Reading Fluency of Students with Learning Disabilities in Amman, Jordan

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Ziadat, Ayed H.; AL-Awan, Mohammad Soud A.

2018-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Neurological Impress Method (NIM) on reading fluency of students with learning disabilities in Amman, Jordan. A sample of forty students (boys and girls) between the ages 10-12 years old with learning disabilities were selected from the Fourth Amman Educational Directorate in the Hashemite…

Why so fast? : An investigation of the cognitive and affective processes underlying successful and failing development of reading fluency

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Zeguers, M.H.T.

2017-01-01

The studies in this thesis aimed to improve our understanding of cognitive and affective mechanisms involved in the development of reading fluency, both in Dutch typical and dyslexic readers. In typical readers we investigated the timing of orthography-phonology integration. Time course analyses of

Punctuation and Implicit Prosody in Silent Reading: An ERP Study Investigating English Garden-Path Sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Drury, John E; Baum, Shari R; Valeriote, Hope; Steinhauer, Karsten

2016-01-01

This study presents the first two ERP reading studies of comma-induced effects of covert (implicit) prosody on syntactic parsing decisions in English. The first experiment used a balanced 2 × 2 design in which the presence/absence of commas determined plausibility (e.g., John, said Mary, was the nicest boy at the party vs. John said Mary was the nicest boy at the party ). The second reading experiment replicated a previous auditory study investigating the role of overt prosodic boundaries in closure ambiguities (Pauker et al., 2011). In both experiments, commas reliably elicited CPS components and generally played a dominant role in determining parsing decisions in the face of input ambiguity. The combined set of findings provides further evidence supporting the claim that mechanisms subserving speech processing play an active role during silent reading.

How Problems of Reading Fluency and Comprehension Are Related to Difficulties in Syntactic Awareness Skills among Fifth Graders

Science.gov (United States)

Mokhtari, Kouider; Thompson, H. Brian

2006-01-01

In this study, we assessed and analyzed 5th grade students' levels of syntactic awareness in relation to their reading fluency and comprehension. The aim was to examine the role of syntactic awareness (children's awareness of the syntactic structure of sentences and their ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure) as a potential source…

Assessing reading comprehension with narrative and expository texts: Dimensionality and relationship with fluency, vocabulary and memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Sandra; Cadime, Irene; Viana, Fernanda L; Chaves-Sousa, Séli; Gayo, Elena; Maia, José; Ribeiro, Iolanda

2017-02-01

Reading comprehension assessment should rely on valid instruments that enable adequate conclusions to be taken regarding students' reading comprehension performance. In this article, two studies were conducted to collect validity evidence for the vertically scaled forms of two Tests of Reading Comprehension for Portuguese elementary school students in the second to fourth grades, one with narrative texts (TRC-n) and another with expository ones (TRC-e). Two samples of 950 and 990 students participated in Study 1, the study of the dimensionality of the TRC-n and TRC-e forms, respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence of an acceptable fit for the one-factor solution for all test forms. Study 2 included 218 students to collect criterion-related validity. The scores obtained in each of the test forms were significantly correlated with the ones obtained in other reading comprehension measures and with the results obtained in oral reading fluency, vocabulary and working memory tests. Evidence suggests that the test forms are valid measures of reading comprehension. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Punctuation and Implicit Prosody in Silent Reading: An ERP Study Investigating English Garden-Path Sentences

Science.gov (United States)

Drury, John E.; Baum, Shari R.; Valeriote, Hope; Steinhauer, Karsten

2016-01-01

This study presents the first two ERP reading studies of comma-induced effects of covert (implicit) prosody on syntactic parsing decisions in English. The first experiment used a balanced 2 × 2 design in which the presence/absence of commas determined plausibility (e.g., John, said Mary, was the nicest boy at the party vs. John said Mary was the nicest boy at the party). The second reading experiment replicated a previous auditory study investigating the role of overt prosodic boundaries in closure ambiguities (Pauker et al., 2011). In both experiments, commas reliably elicited CPS components and generally played a dominant role in determining parsing decisions in the face of input ambiguity. The combined set of findings provides further evidence supporting the claim that mechanisms subserving speech processing play an active role during silent reading. PMID:27695428

Punctuation and implicit prosody in silent reading: An ERP study investigating English garden-path sentences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John E. Drury

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This study presents the first two ERP reading studies of comma-induced effects of covert (implicit prosody on syntactic parsing decisions in English. The first experiment used a balanced 2 x 2 design in which the presence/absence of commas determined plausibility (e.g., John, said Mary, was the nicest boy at the party versus John said Mary was the nicest boy at the party. The second reading experiment replicated a previous auditory study investigating the role of overt prosodic boundaries in closure ambiguities (Pauker et al., 2011. In both experiments, commas reliably elicited CPS components and generally played a dominant role in determining parsing decisions in the face of input ambiguity. The combined set of findings provides further evidence supporting the claim that mechanisms subserving speech processing play an active role during silent reading.

Remediation of fluency: Word specific or generalised training effects?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berends, I.E.; Reitsma, P.

2006-01-01

The present study examines whether reading fluency benefits more from repeated reading of a limited set of words or from practicing reading with many different words. A group of 37 reading delayed Dutch children repeatedly read the same 20 words with limited exposure duration, whereas another group

Reduced neural integration of letters and speech sounds in dyslexic children scales with individual differences in reading fluency.

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Gojko Žarić

Full Text Available The acquisition of letter-speech sound associations is one of the basic requirements for fluent reading acquisition and its failure may contribute to reading difficulties in developmental dyslexia. Here we investigated event-related potential (ERP measures of letter-speech sound integration in 9-year-old typical and dyslexic readers and specifically test their relation to individual differences in reading fluency. We employed an audiovisual oddball paradigm in typical readers (n = 20, dysfluent (n = 18 and severely dysfluent (n = 18 dyslexic children. In one auditory and two audiovisual conditions the Dutch spoken vowels/a/and/o/were presented as standard and deviant stimuli. In audiovisual blocks, the letter 'a' was presented either simultaneously (AV0, or 200 ms before (AV200 vowel sound onset. Across the three children groups, vowel deviancy in auditory blocks elicited comparable mismatch negativity (MMN and late negativity (LN responses. In typical readers, both audiovisual conditions (AV0 and AV200 led to enhanced MMN and LN amplitudes. In both dyslexic groups, the audiovisual LN effects were mildly reduced. Most interestingly, individual differences in reading fluency were correlated with MMN latency in the AV0 condition. A further analysis revealed that this effect was driven by a short-lived MMN effect encompassing only the N1 window in severely dysfluent dyslexics versus a longer MMN effect encompassing both the N1 and P2 windows in the other two groups. Our results confirm and extend previous findings in dyslexic children by demonstrating a deficient pattern of letter-speech sound integration depending on the level of reading dysfluency. These findings underscore the importance of considering individual differences across the entire spectrum of reading skills in addition to group differences between typical and dyslexic readers.

Modeling Oral Reading Fluency Development in Latino Students: A Longitudinal Study Across Second and Third Grade

OpenAIRE

Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Petscher, Yaacov; Williams, Rihana S.; Pappamihiel, N. Eleni; Dyrlund, Allison K.; Connor, Carol

2009-01-01

This study examines growth in oral reading fluency across 2nd and 3rd grade for Latino students grouped in 3 English proficiency levels: students receiving English as a second language (ESL) services (n = 2,182), students exited from ESL services (n = 965), and students never designated as needing services (n = 1,857). An important focus was to learn whether, within these 3 groups, proficiency levels and growth were reliably related to special education status. Using hierarchical linear model...

A randomized controlled trial on the beneficial effects of training letter-speech sound integration on reading fluency in children with dyslexia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fraga González, G.; Žarić, G.; Tijms, J.; Bonte, M.; Blomert, L.; van der Molen, M.W.

2015-01-01

A recent account of dyslexia assumes that a failure to develop automated letter-speech sound integration might be responsible for the observed lack of reading fluency. This study uses a pre-test-training-post-test design to evaluate the effects of a training program based on letter-speech sound

Investigating Patterns of Errors for Specific Comprehension and Fluency Difficulties

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Koriakin, Taylor A.; Kaufman, Alan S.

2017-01-01

Although word reading has traditionally been viewed as a foundational skill for development of reading fluency and comprehension, some children demonstrate "specific" reading comprehension problems, in the context of intact word reading. The purpose of this study was to identify specific patterns of errors associated with reading…

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

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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

Developmental Relations Between Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Muijselaar, M.; Swart, N.M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G,.; Droop, M.; Verhoeven, L.; de Jong, P.F.

2017-01-01

We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary,

Teaching Reading

Science.gov (United States)

Day, Richard R.

2013-01-01

"Teaching Reading" uncovers the interactive processes that happen when people learn to read and translates them into a comprehensive easy-to-follow guide on how to teach reading. Richard Day's revelations on the nature of reading, reading strategies, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading objectives make fascinating…

Multilevel Analysis of Multiple-Baseline Data Evaluating Precision Teaching as an Intervention for Improving Fluency in Foundational Reading Skills for at Risk Readers

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Brosnan, Julie; Moeyaert, Mariola; Brooks Newsome, Kendra; Healy, Olive; Heyvaert, Mieke; Onghena, Patrick; Van den Noortgate, Wim

2018-01-01

In this article, multiple-baseline across participants designs were used to evaluate the impact of a precision teaching (PT) program, within a Tier 2 Response to Intervention framework, targeting fluency in foundational reading skills with at risk kindergarten readers. Thirteen multiple-baseline design experiments that included participation from…

Cognitive Abilities Underlying Reading Accuracy, Fluency and Spelling Acquisition in Korean Hangul Learners from Grades 1 to 4: A Cross-Sectional Study.

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Park, Hyun-Rin; Uno, Akira

2015-08-01

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the cognitive abilities that predict reading and spelling performance in Korean children in Grades 1 to 4, depending on expertise and reading experience. As a result, visual cognition, phonological awareness, naming speed and receptive vocabulary significantly predicted reading accuracy in children in Grades 1 and 2, whereas visual cognition, phonological awareness and rapid naming speed did not predict reading accuracy in children in higher grades. For reading, fluency, phonological awareness, rapid naming speed and receptive vocabulary were crucial abilities in children in Grades 1 to 3, whereas phonological awareness was not a significant predictor in children in Grade 4. In spelling, reading ability and receptive vocabulary were the most important abilities for accurate Hangul spelling. The results suggested that the degree of cognitive abilities required for reading and spelling changed depending on expertise and reading experience. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reading Intervention and Special Education Referrals

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Polcyn, Dawn M.; Levine-Donnerstein, Deborah; Perfect, Michelle M.; Obrzut, John E.

2014-01-01

This study examined whether consistently implementing reading fluency interventions prior to referring students for a special education evaluation led to fewer overall special education referrals, as well as more accurate special education referrals. Results indicated that the implementation of a peer-mediated reading fluency intervention…

Silent store detection and recording in memory storage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bose, Pradip; Cher, Chen-Yong; Nair, Ravi

2017-03-14

An aspect includes receiving a write request that includes a memory address and write data. Stored data is read from a memory location at the memory address. Based on determining that the memory location was not previously modified, the stored data is compared to the write data. Based on the stored data matching the write data, the write request is completed without writing the write data to the memory and a corresponding silent store bit, in a silent store bitmap is set. Based on the stored data not matching the write data, the write data is written to the memory location, the silent store bit is reset and a corresponding modified bit is set. At least one of an application and an operating system is provided access to the silent store bitmap.

Silent store detection and recording in memory storage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bose, Pradip; Cher, Chen-Yong; Nair, Ravi

2017-03-07

An aspect includes receiving a write request that includes a memory address and write data. Stored data is read from a memory location at the memory address. Based on determining that the memory location was not previously modified, the stored data is compared to the write data. Based on the stored data matching the write data, the write request is completed without writing the write data to the memory and a corresponding silent store bit, in a silent store bitmap is set. Based on the stored data not matching the write data, the write data is written to the memory location, the silent store bit is reset and a corresponding modified bit is set. At least one of an application and an operating system is provided access to the silent store bitmap.

Developmental relations between reading comprehension and reading strategies

OpenAIRE

Muijselaar, M.M.L.; Swart, N.M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.; Droop, W.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.; Jong, P.F. de

2017-01-01

We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory were administered. A structural equation model was constructed to estimate the unique relations between reading strategies and reading comprehension, while controlling for reading...

The Habit of Reading: A Neglected Dimension of Adult Reading Instruction.

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Fink, Katherine T.; Devine, Thomas G.

1993-01-01

Less competent adult readers have not developed the habit of reading. Ways to cultivate adult reading habits include relevant material, environment saturated with reading material, reading aloud to adults, having them read to children, sustained silent reading, modeling, book sharing, author conferences, and recognition. (SK)

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.

The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson.

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Kerstetter, Ned

1996-01-01

Presents a lesson plan examining Rachel Carson's call to arms concerning the harmful consequences of pesticides. Students view a video documentary on Carson's work and read a synopsis of her book, "Silent Spring." Assessment is provided by various activities including writing assignments, creating posters, and editorial cartoons. (MJP)

Parâmetros de fluência e tipos de erros na leitura de escolares com indicação de dificuldades para ler e escrever Fluency parameters and types of errors in the reading of students with signs of reading and writing difficulties

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Cinthya Eiko Kawano

2011-03-01

school grade, error categories, reading fluency parameters, and the correlation between these variables. METHODS: Sixty children (48% girls, 3rd to the 5th grade students of public elementary schools, were evaluated. Thirty (ten from each grade who presented signs of reading and writing difficulties composed the Research Group. Thirty children, paired by age and school grade, classified by their teachers as good readers, composed the Control Group. All subjects read aloud two lists of isolated items (38 words and 29 pseudowords and a text. The reading sessions were recorded and transcribed, and parameters and errors were analyzed. RESULTS: Differences were found between the groups, and the Research Group had worse performances in all the studied variables. The following types of reading errors were more frequent in this group: non-compliance with the context-independent matching rule, omissions and additions, non-compliance with stress, complex errors, and refusals. Fluency rates and values were lower in the students with reading complaints, when compared to the good readers. Negative correlations were identified between reading fluency variables and the different types of errors, with different correlation values for each group, and showed that, in the present sample, the total number of errors decreased with school progression. CONCLUSION: The students with signs of reading and writing difficulties had worse reading fluency performance, and higher number of errors in all the grades studied. The correlations found evidenced the influence of the type of error on reading fluency, according to different patterns for each group.

Examining the core: relations among reading curricula, poverty, and first through third grade reading achievement.

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Crowe, Elizabeth Coyne; Connor, Carol McDonald; Petscher, Yaacov

2009-06-01

Policy changes at the federal and state level are endeavoring to improve student achievement at schools serving children from lower-SES homes. One important strategy is the focus on using evidence-based core reading curricula to provide a consistent framework for instruction across schools. However, rarely have these curricula undergone rigorous comparative testing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effects of six core reading curricula on oral reading fluency growth, while appraising whether these effects differ by grade level and for children living in lower socioeconomic (SES) households. Over 30,000 students in first through third grade Florida Reading First classrooms comprise this academically and economically diverse cross-sectional. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to model latent growth curves for students' reading fluency scores over the school year. Growth curves revealed differences across curricula as well as between students of lower and higher SES, suggesting that reading fluency growth trajectories for curricula varied depending on student SES and grade level. Findings indicate that while there are similarities among curricula, they sometimes differ in their ability to promote reading skill growth. Differences by grade level and SES were also detected. However, many of these differences were small. Implications for the use of curriculum as a conduit for improving reading instruction are discussed.

Lexical semantic access and letter access are involved in different aspects of reading

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Mads

). In this subset sample, both letter access and lexical access accounted for unique variance in reading fluency. The pattern of effects for lexical access did not change by controlling for serial rapid naming (RAN). Conclusions: The results suggest that letter access and lexical access are important for different......Purpose: This study investigated the effects of lexical access speed and letter access speed on reading fluency and reading comprehension. We hypothesized that 1) letter access speed would correlate with reading fluency but not comprehension, while 2) lexical access speed would influence reading...... comprehension. For readers who are struggling with recoding, most of the reading effort is probably tied up with recoding, leaving little to be explained by lexical access. Therefore we expected that 3) lexical access speed would primarily predict reading fluency for readers who were no longer struggling...

Improving Dorsal Stream Function in Dyslexics by Training Figure/Ground Motion Discrimination Improves Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawton, Teri

2016-01-01

There is an ongoing debate about whether the cause of dyslexia is based on linguistic, auditory, or visual timing deficits. To investigate this issue three interventions were compared in 58 dyslexics in second grade (7 years on average), two targeting the temporal dynamics (timing) of either the auditory or visual pathways with a third reading intervention (control group) targeting linguistic word building. Visual pathway training in dyslexics to improve direction-discrimination of moving test patterns relative to a stationary background (figure/ground discrimination) significantly improved attention, reading fluency, both speed and comprehension, phonological processing, and both auditory and visual working memory relative to controls, whereas auditory training to improve phonological processing did not improve these academic skills significantly more than found for controls. This study supports the hypothesis that faulty timing in synchronizing the activity of magnocellular with parvocellular visual pathways is a fundamental cause of dyslexia, and argues against the assumption that reading deficiencies in dyslexia are caused by phonological deficits. This study demonstrates that visual movement direction-discrimination can be used to not only detect dyslexia early, but also for its successful treatment, so that reading problems do not prevent children from readily learning.

Improving Dorsal Stream Function in Dyslexics By Training Figure/Ground Motion Discrimination Improves Reading Fluency, Attention, and Working Memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teri Lawton

2016-08-01

Full Text Available There is an ongoing debate about whether the cause of dyslexia is based on linguistic, auditory, or visual timing deficits. To investigate this issue three interventions were compared in 58 dyslexics in second grade (7 years on average, two targeting the temporal dynamics (timing of either the auditory or visual pathways with a third reading intervention (control group using linguistic word building. Visual pathway training in dyslexics to improve direction-discrimination of moving test patterns relative to a stationary background (figure/ground discrimination significantly improved attention, reading fluency, both speed and comprehension, phonological processing, and both auditory and visual working memory relative to controls, whereas auditory training to improve phonological processing did not improve these academic skills significantly more than found for controls. This study supports the hypothesis that faulty timing in synchronizing the activity of magnocellular with parvocellular visual pathways is a fundamental cause of dyslexia, and argues against the assumption that reading deficiencies in dyslexia are caused by phonological deficits. This study demonstrates that visual movement direction-discrimination can be used to not only detect dyslexia early, but also for its successful treatment, so that reading problems do not prevent children from readily learning.

Rethinking spoken fluency

OpenAIRE

McCarthy, Michael

2009-01-01

This article re-examines the notion of spoken fluency. Fluent and fluency are terms commonly used in everyday, lay language, and fluency, or lack of it, has social consequences. The article reviews the main approaches to understanding and measuring spoken fluency and suggest that spoken fluency is best understood as an interactive achievement, and offers the metaphor of ‘confluence’ to replace the term fluency. Many measures of spoken fluency are internal and monologue-based, whereas evidence...

The role of auditory temporal cues in the fluency of stuttering adults

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Juliana Furini

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose: to compare the frequency of disfluencies and speech rate in spontaneous speech and reading in adults with and without stuttering in non-altered and delayed auditory feedback (NAF, DAF. Methods: participants were 30 adults: 15 with Stuttering (Research Group - RG, and 15 without stuttering (Control Group - CG. The procedures were: audiological assessment and speech fluency evaluation in two listening conditions, normal and delayed auditory feedback (100 milliseconds delayed by Fono Tools software. Results: the DAF caused a significant improvement in the fluency of spontaneous speech in RG when compared to speech under NAF. The effect of DAF was different in CG, because it increased the common disfluencies and the total of disfluencies in spontaneous speech and reading, besides showing an increase in the frequency of stuttering-like disfluencies in reading. The intergroup analysis showed significant differences in the two speech tasks for the two listening conditions in the frequency of stuttering-like disfluencies and in the total of disfluencies, and in the flows of syllable and word-per-minute in the NAF. Conclusion: the results demonstrated that delayed auditory feedback promoted fluency in spontaneous speech of adults who stutter, without interfering in the speech rate. In non-stuttering adults an increase occurred in the number of common disfluencies and total of disfluencies as well as reduction of speech rate in spontaneous speech and reading.

Verbal and visuospatial working memory as predictors of children's reading ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Andy V; Hasson, Ramzi M

2014-08-01

Children with reading difficulties often demonstrate weaknesses in working memory (WM). This research study explored the relation between two WM systems (verbal and visuospatial WM) and reading ability in a sample of school-aged children with a wide range of reading skills. Children (N = 157), ages 9-12, were administered measures of short-term memory, verbal WM, visuospatial WM, and reading measures (e.g., reading fluency and comprehension). Although results indicated that verbal WM was a stronger predictor in reading fluency and comprehension, visuospatial WM also significantly predicted reading skills, but provided more unique variance in reading comprehension than reading fluency. These findings suggest that visuospatial WM may play a significant role in higher level reading processes, particularly in reading comprehension, than previously thought. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Is Reading Instruction Evidence-Based? Analyzing Teaching Practices Using T-Patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Suárez, Natalia; Sánchez, Carmen R; Jiménez, Juan E; Anguera, M Teresa

2018-01-01

The main goal of this study was to analyze whether primary teachers use evidence-based reading instruction for primary-grade readers. The study sample consisted of six teachers whose teaching was recorded. The observation instrument used was developed ad hoc for this study. The recording instrument used was Match Vision Studio. The data analysis was performed using SAS, GT version 2.0 E, and THEME. The results indicated that the teaching practices used most frequently and for the longest duration were: feedback (i.e., correcting the student when reading); fluency (i.e., individual and group reading, both out loud and silently, with and without intonation); literal or inference comprehension exercises (i.e., summarizing, asking questions); and use of educational resources (i.e., stories, songs, poems). Later, we conducted analyses of T-Patterns that showed the sequence of instruction in detail. We can conclude that practices used by the majority of teachers were based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel (NRP). Only one teacher followed best practices. The same was the case for instructional time spent on the five essential components of reading, with the exception of teacher E., who dedicated 70.31% of class time implementing best practices. Teaching practices (i.e., learners' activities) designed and implemented to exercise and master alphabetic knowledge and phonological awareness skills were used less frequently in the classroom.

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.

Examining the relationship between rapid automatized naming and arithmetic fluency in Chinese kindergarten children.

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Jiaxin; Georgiou, George K; Zhang, Yiyun; Li, Yixun; Shu, Hua; Zhou, Xinlin

2017-02-01

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) has been found to predict mathematics. However, the nature of their relationship remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to examine how RAN (numeric and non-numeric) predicts a subdomain of mathematics (arithmetic fluency) and (b) to examine what processing skills may account for the RAN-arithmetic fluency relationship. A total of 160 third-year kindergarten Chinese children (83 boys and 77 girls, mean age=5.11years) were assessed on RAN (colors, objects, digits, and dice), nonverbal IQ, visual-verbal paired associate learning, phonological awareness, short-term memory, speed of processing, approximate number system acuity, and arithmetic fluency (addition and subtraction). The results indicated first that RAN was a significant correlate of arithmetic fluency and the correlations did not vary as a function of type of RAN or arithmetic fluency tasks. In addition, RAN continued to predict addition and subtraction fluency even after controlling for all other processing skills. Taken together, these findings challenge the existing theoretical accounts of the RAN-arithmetic fluency relationship and suggest that, similar to reading fluency, multiple processes underlie the RAN-arithmetic fluency relationship. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Clinical evidence of the role of the cerebellum in the suppression of overt articulatory movements during reading. A study of reading in children and adolescents treated for cerebellar pilocytic astrocytoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Ait Khelifa-Gallois, N; Puget, S; Longaud, A; Laroussinie, F; Soria, C; Sainte-Rose, C; Dellatolas, G

2015-04-01

It has been suggested that the cerebellum is involved in reading acquisition and in particular in the progression from automatic grapheme-phoneme conversion to the internalization of speech required for silent reading. This idea is in line with clinical and neuroimaging data showing a cerebellar role in subvocal rehearsal for printed verbalizable material and with computational "internal models" of the cerebellum suggesting its role in inner speech (i.e. covert speech without mouthing the words). However, studies examining a possible cerebellar role in the suppression of articulatory movements during silent reading acquisition in children are lacking. Here, we report clinical evidence that the cerebellum plays a part in this transition. Reading performances were compared between a group of 17 paediatric patients treated for benign cerebellar tumours and a group of controls matched for age, gender, and parental socio-educational level. The patients scored significantly lower on all reading, but the most striking difference concerned silent reading, perfectly acquired by almost all controls, contrasting with 41 % of the patients who were unable to read any item silently. Silent reading was correlated with the Working Memory Index. The present findings converge with previous reports on an implication of the cerebellum in inner speech and in the automatization of reading. This cerebellar implication is probably not specific to reading, as it also seems to affect non-reading tasks such as counting.

Examining oral reading fluency among Grade 5 rural English Second Language (ESL learners in South Africa? An analysis of NEEDU 2013

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Draper

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The ability to read for meaning and pleasure is arguably the most important skill children learn in primary school. One integral component of learning to read is Oral Reading Fluency (ORF, defined as the ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with meaningful expression. Although widely acknowledged in the literature as important, to date there have been no large-scale studies on ORF in English in South Africa, despite this being the language of learning and teaching for 80% of ESL students from Grade 4 onwards. We analyze data provided by the National Education and Evaluation Development Unit (NEEDU of South Africa, which tested 4667 Grade 5 English Second Language (ESL students from 214 schools across rural areas in South Africa in 2013. This included ORF and comprehension measures for a subset of 1772 students. We find that 41% of the sample were non-readers in English (<40 Words Correct Per Minute, WCPM and only 6% achieved comprehension scores above 60%. By calibrating comprehension levels and WCPM rates we develop tentative benchmarks and argue that a range of 90-100 WCPM in English is acceptable for Grade 5 ESL students in South Africa. In addition we outline policy priorities for remedying the reading crisis in the country.

Transcranial direct current stimulation over left inferior frontal cortex improves speech fluency in adults who stutter.

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Chesters, Jennifer; Möttönen, Riikka; Watkins, Kate E

2018-04-01

See Crinion (doi:10.1093/brain/awy075) for a scientific commentary on this article.Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting 5% of children, and persisting in 1% of adults. Promoting lasting fluency improvement in adults who stutter is a particular challenge. Novel interventions to improve outcomes are of value, therefore. Previous work in patients with acquired motor and language disorders reported enhanced benefits of behavioural therapies when paired with transcranial direct current stimulation. Here, we report the results of the first trial investigating whether transcranial direct current stimulation can improve speech fluency in adults who stutter. We predicted that applying anodal stimulation to the left inferior frontal cortex during speech production with temporary fluency inducers would result in longer-lasting fluency improvements. Thirty male adults who stutter completed a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over left inferior frontal cortex. Fifteen participants received 20 min of 1-mA stimulation on five consecutive days while speech fluency was temporarily induced using choral and metronome-timed speech. The other 15 participants received the same speech fluency intervention with sham stimulation. Speech fluency during reading and conversation was assessed at baseline, before and after the stimulation on each day of the 5-day intervention, and at 1 and 6 weeks after the end of the intervention. Anodal stimulation combined with speech fluency training significantly reduced the percentage of disfluent speech measured 1 week after the intervention compared with fluency intervention alone. At 6 weeks after the intervention, this improvement was maintained during reading but not during conversation. Outcome scores at both post-intervention time points on a clinical assessment tool (the Stuttering Severity Instrument, version 4) also showed significant improvement in the group receiving

General and Specific Contributions of RAN to Reading and Arithmetic Fluency in First Graders: A Longitudinal Latent Variable Approach

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Caroline Hornung

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In the present study, we opted for a longitudinal design and examined rapid automatized naming (RAN performance from two perspectives. In a first step, we examined the structure of RAN performance from a general cognitive perspective. We investigated whether rapid naming measures (e.g., digit RAN and color RAN reflect a mainly domain-general factor or domain-specific factors. In a second step, we examined how the best fitting RAN model was related to reading and arithmetic outcomes, assessed several months later. Finally in a third step we took a clinical perspective and investigated specific contributions of RAN measures to reading and arithmetic outcomes. While RAN has emerged as a promising predictor of reading, the relationship between RAN and arithmetic has been less examined in the past. Hundred and twenty-two first graders completed seven RAN tasks, each comprising visually familiar stimuli such as digits, vowels, consonants, dice, finger-numeral configurations, objects, and colors. Four months later the same children completed a range of reading and arithmetic tasks. From a general descriptive perspective, structural equation modeling supports a one-dimensional RAN factor in 6- to -7-year-old children. However, from a clinical perspective, our findings emphasize the specific contributions of RANs. Interestingly, alphanumeric RANs (i.e., vowel RAN were most promising when predicting reading skills and number-specific RANs (i.e., finger-numeral configuration RAN were most promising when predicting arithmetic fluency. The implications for clinical and educational practices will be discussed.

General and Specific Contributions of RAN to Reading and Arithmetic Fluency in First Graders: A Longitudinal Latent Variable Approach.

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Hornung, Caroline; Martin, Romain; Fayol, Michel

2017-01-01

In the present study, we opted for a longitudinal design and examined rapid automatized naming (RAN) performance from two perspectives. In a first step, we examined the structure of RAN performance from a general cognitive perspective. We investigated whether rapid naming measures (e.g., digit RAN and color RAN) reflect a mainly domain-general factor or domain-specific factors. In a second step, we examined how the best fitting RAN model was related to reading and arithmetic outcomes, assessed several months later. Finally in a third step we took a clinical perspective and investigated specific contributions of RAN measures to reading and arithmetic outcomes. While RAN has emerged as a promising predictor of reading, the relationship between RAN and arithmetic has been less examined in the past. Hundred and twenty-two first graders completed seven RAN tasks, each comprising visually familiar stimuli such as digits, vowels, consonants, dice, finger-numeral configurations, objects, and colors. Four months later the same children completed a range of reading and arithmetic tasks. From a general descriptive perspective, structural equation modeling supports a one-dimensional RAN factor in 6- to -7-year-old children. However, from a clinical perspective, our findings emphasize the specific contributions of RANs. Interestingly, alphanumeric RANs (i.e., vowel RAN) were most promising when predicting reading skills and number-specific RANs (i.e., finger-numeral configuration RAN) were most promising when predicting arithmetic fluency. The implications for clinical and educational practices will be discussed.

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

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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…

Executive Functions Contribute Uniquely to Reading Competence in Minority Youth

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Jacobson, Lisa A.; Koriakin, Taylor; Lipkin, Paul; Boada, Richard; Frijters, Jan; Lovett, Maureen; Hill, Dina; Willcutt, Erik; Gottwald, Stephanie; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R.; Mahone, E. Mark

2018-01-01

Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing “higher-level” or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty. PMID:26755569

Reorganizing the Instructional Reading Components: Could There Be a Better Way to Design Remedial Reading Programs to Maximize Middle School Students with Reading Disabilities' Response to Treatment?

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Calhoon, Mary Beth; Sandow, Alexia; Hunter, Charles V.

2010-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to explore if there could be a more beneficial method in organizing the individual instructional reading components (phonological decoding, spelling, fluency, and reading comprehension) within a remedial reading program to increase sensitivity to instruction for middle school students with reading disabilities…

Is Reading Instruction Evidence-Based? Analyzing Teaching Practices Using T-Patterns

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Natalia Suárez

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The main goal of this study was to analyze whether primary teachers use evidence-based reading instruction for primary-grade readers. The study sample consisted of six teachers whose teaching was recorded. The observation instrument used was developed ad hoc for this study. The recording instrument used was Match Vision Studio. The data analysis was performed using SAS, GT version 2.0 E, and THEME. The results indicated that the teaching practices used most frequently and for the longest duration were: feedback (i.e., correcting the student when reading; fluency (i.e., individual and group reading, both out loud and silently, with and without intonation; literal or inference comprehension exercises (i.e., summarizing, asking questions; and use of educational resources (i.e., stories, songs, poems. Later, we conducted analyses of T-Patterns that showed the sequence of instruction in detail. We can conclude that <50% of the teaching practices used by the majority of teachers were based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel (NRP. Only one teacher followed best practices. The same was the case for instructional time spent on the five essential components of reading, with the exception of teacher E., who dedicated 70.31% of class time implementing best practices. Teaching practices (i.e., learners' activities designed and implemented to exercise and master alphabetic knowledge and phonological awareness skills were used less frequently in the classroom.

Fluency Effects in Recognition Memory: Are Perceptual Fluency and Conceptual Fluency Interchangeable?

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Lanska, Meredith; Olds, Justin M.; Westerman, Deanne L.

2014-01-01

On a recognition memory test, both perceptual and conceptual fluency can engender a sense of familiarity and elicit recognition memory illusions. To date, perceptual and conceptual fluency have been studied separately but are they interchangeable in terms of their influence on recognition judgments? Five experiments compared the effect of…

Reimagining Reading: Creating a Classroom Culture That Embraces Independent Choice Reading

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Dickerson, Katie

2015-01-01

Many of us are plagued by negative memories of sustained silent reading. In some of these memories, we are the students, attempting to read a book that didn't hold our interest or trying to read over the din of our disengaged classmates. In other memories, we are the teachers, suffering through a ten-minute classroom management nightmare, deciding…

Reading Big Words: Instructional Practices to Promote Multisyllabic Word Reading Fluency

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Toste, Jessica R.; Williams, Kelly J.; Capin, Philip

2017-01-01

Poorly developed word recognition skills are the most pervasive and debilitating source of reading challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD). With a notable decrease in word reading instruction in the upper elementary grades, struggling readers receive fewer instructional opportunities to develop proficient word reading skills, yet…

Measuring College Students' Reading Comprehension Ability Using Cloze Tests

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Williams, Rihana Shiri; Ari, Omer; Santamaria, Carmen Nicole

2011-01-01

Recent investigations challenge the construct validity of sustained silent reading tests. Performance of two groups of post-secondary students (e.g. struggling and non-struggling) on a sustained silent reading test and two types of cloze test (i.e. maze and open-ended) was compared in order to identify the test format that contributes greater…

Eye movements and the perceptual span during first- and second-language sentence reading in bilingual older adults.

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Whitford, Veronica; Titone, Debra

2016-02-01

This study addressed a central yet previously unexplored issue in the psychological science of aging, namely, whether the advantages of healthy aging (e.g., greater lifelong experience with language) or disadvantages (e.g., decreases in cognitive and sensory processing) drive L1 and L2 reading performance in bilingual older adults. To this end, we used a gaze-contingent moving window paradigm to examine both global aspects of reading fluency (e.g., reading rates, number of regressions) and the perceptual span (i.e., allocation of visual attention into the parafovea) in bilingual older adults during L1 and L2 sentence reading, as a function of individual differences in current L2 experience. Across the L1 and L2, older adults exhibited reduced reading fluency (e.g., slower reading rates, more regressions), but a similar perceptual span compared with matched younger adults. Also similar to matched younger adults, older adults' reading fluency was lower for L2 reading than for L1 reading as a function of current L2 experience. Specifically, greater current L2 experience increased L2 reading fluency, but decreased L1 reading fluency (for global reading measures only). Taken together, the dissociation between intact perceptual span and impaired global reading measures suggests that older adults may prioritize parafoveal processing despite age-related encoding difficulties. Consistent with this interpretation, post hoc analyses revealed that older adults with higher versus lower executive control were more likely to adopt this strategy. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Using Digital Texts to Promote Fluent Reading

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Thoermer, Andrea; Williams, Lunetta

2012-01-01

Fluency is a critical skill of adept readers. As listening to read alouds and performing Readers Theatre scripts are two prevalent strategies that can increase students' fluency skills, this article provides suggestions in using these strategies with digital texts through free, online resources. Digital texts can be accessed using a desktop,…

Developing L2 Listening Fluency through Extended Listening-Focused Activities in an Extensive Listening Programme

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Chang, Anna C-S.; Millett, Sonia

2016-01-01

This study investigates the effects on developing L2 listening fluency through doing extended listening-focused activities after reading and listening to audio graded readers. Seventy-six EFL university students read and listened to a total of 15 graded readers in a 15-week extensive listening programme. They were divided into three groups (Group…

The Interplay of Silent Reading, Reading-While-Listening and Listening-Only

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Nakashima, Kohji; Stephens, Meredith; Kamata, Suzanne

2018-01-01

Leading scholars (Gilbert, 2009; Walter, 2008) have highlighted the importance of phonological processing in learning to read. Nevertheless, reading in Japan has traditionally been taught without adequate attention to the role of phonological processing. Accordingly, it was speculated that Japanese university students would demonstrate superior…

Predictors of Reading Skills for Kindergartners and First Grade Students in Spanish: A Longitudinal Study

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Kim, Young-Suk; Pallante, Daniel

2012-01-01

This study investigated predictors of word reading and reading comprehension skills using longitudinal data from Spanish-speaking kindergartners (N = 163) and first grade students (N = 305) from high SES families in Chile. Individual differences in letter-naming fluency and phonemic segmentation fluency, but not vocabulary, were positive…

Reading Interventions to Support English Language Learners

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Corella, Jolene

2012-01-01

High stakes assessments conducted in the southwestern United States demonstrate that fewer than 50% of English language learners (ELLs) are achieving proficiency levels in reading fluency. The purpose of this study was to understand if reading interventions using the framework of Samuels's repeated reading (RR) strategy increased student…

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

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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.

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

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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.

Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning, Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory

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Teri Lawton

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination (PATH to Reading neurotraining acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream, thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining. This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading (Raz-Kids (RK. The neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire second and third grade classrooms (42 students for 30 min twice a week before guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of 12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills. Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the causal role of visual

Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning, Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory.

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Lawton, Teri; Shelley-Tremblay, John

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination ( PATH to Reading neurotraining) acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream, thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining. This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading ( Raz-Kids ( RK )). The neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire second and third grade classrooms (42 students) for 30 min twice a week before guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of 12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills. Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the causal role of visual movement

Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning, Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Lawton, Teri; Shelley-Tremblay, John

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination (PATH to Reading neurotraining) acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream, thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining. This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading (Raz-Kids (RK)). The neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire second and third grade classrooms (42 students) for 30 min twice a week before guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of 12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills. Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the causal role of visual movement

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

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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 ...

Prediction and Stability of Reading Problems in Middle Childhood

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Ritchey, Kristen D.; Silverman, Rebecca D.; Schatschneider, Christopher; Speece, Deborah L.

2015-01-01

The longitudinal prediction of reading problems from fourth grade to sixth grade was investigated with a sample of 173 students. Reading problems at the end of sixth grade were defined by significantly below average performance (= 15th percentile) on reading factors defining word reading, fluency, and reading comprehension. Sixth grade poor reader…

Knowledge of teachers about teaching reading

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Hurk, H. T. G.; Houtveen, A. A. M.; van de Grift, W. J. C. M.

2012-01-01

A test is developed for teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the field of reading. Items on phonological awareness, alphabetic principle and fluency were presented to a panel of 30 reading experts. This procedure resulted in a test consisting of 45 items that was completed by 215 elementary

Effect of Repeated Reading and Self-Directed Behavior on Reading Skills and Generalization of the Reading Skills of Third-Grade Hill Tribe Students.

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Compan, Boonlert; Iamsupasit, Sompoch; Samuels, Jay

A study tested a method for developing reading fluency with third-grade Hill Tribe children in a welfare school in Chiang Mai, a city located in northern Thailand. Most of the students were bilingual, speaking their native tongues and Thai, their second language. Only 18.7% of the Hill Tribe population can read Thai, and many students fail to…

Reading with Maggie: The Effect of the Presence/Absence of a Classroom Pet Dog in a Reading Intervention Package

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Bassette, Laura A.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine if the presence/absence of a classroom pet dog impacted reading skills in four 5th grade middle school students with emotional/ behavioral disabilities. An alternating treatment design was used to assess the fluency and comprehension measures in students during reading a reading intervention package…

Colors, colored overlays, and reading skills

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Arcangelo eUccula

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In this article, we are concerned with the role of colors in reading written texts. It has been argued that colored overlays applied above written texts positively influence both reading fluency and reading speed. These effects would be particularly evident for those individuals affected by the so called Meares-Irlen syndrome, i.e. who experience eyestrain and/or visual distortions – e.g. color, shape or movement illusions – while reading. This condition would interest the 12-14% of the general population and up to the 46% of the dyslexic population. Thus, colored overlays have been largely employed as a remedy for some aspects of the difficulties in reading experienced by dyslexic individuals, as fluency and speed. Despite the wide use of colored overlays, how they exert their effects has not been made clear yet. Also, according to some researchers, the results supporting the efficacy of colored overlays as a tool for helping readers are at least controversial. Furthermore, the very nature of the Meares-Irlen syndrome has been questioned. Here we provide a concise, critical review of the literature.

Phonological working memory and reading in students with dyslexia

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Carolina Alves Ferreira De Carvalho

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To investigate parameters related to fluency, reading comprehension and phonological processing (operational and short-term memory and identify potential correlation between the variables in Dyslexia and in the absence of reading difficulties. Method: One hundred and fifteen students from the third to eighth grade of elementary school were grouped into a Control Group (CG and Group with Dyslexia (GDys. Reading of words, pseudowords and text (decoding; listening and reading comprehension; phonological short-term and working memory (repetition of pseudowords and Digit Span were evaluated. Results: The comparison of the groups showed significant differences in decoding, phonological short-term memory (repetition of pseudowords and answers to text-connecting questions (TC on reading comprehension, with the worst performances identified for GDys. In this group there were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both on listening comprehension. No correlations were found between operational and short-term memory (Digit Span and parameters of fluency and reading comprehension in dyslexia. For the sample without complaint, there were positive correlations between some parameters of reading fluency and repetition of pseudowords and also between answering literal questions in listening comprehension and repetition of digits on the direct and reverse order. There was no correlation with the parameters of reading comprehension. Conclusion: GDys and CG showed similar performance in listening comprehension and in understanding of explicit information and gap-filling inference on reading comprehension. Students of GDys showed worst performance in reading decoding, phonological short-term memory (pseudowords and on inferences that depends on textual cohesion understanding in reading. There were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both in listening comprehension.

Phonological working memory and reading in students with dyslexia.

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de Carvalho, Carolina A F; Kida, Adriana de S B; Capellini, Simone A; de Avila, Clara R B

2014-01-01

To investigate parameters related to fluency, reading comprehension and phonological processing (operational and short-term memory) and identify potential correlation between the variables in Dyslexia and in the absence of reading difficulties. One hundred and fifteen students from the third to eighth grade of elementary school were grouped into a Control Group (CG) and Group with Dyslexia (GDys). Reading of words, pseudowords and text (decoding); listening and reading comprehension; phonological short-term and working memory (repetition of pseudowords and Digit Span) were evaluated. The comparison of the groups showed significant differences in decoding, phonological short-term memory (repetition of pseudowords) and answers to text-connecting questions (TC) on reading comprehension, with the worst performances identified for GDys. In this group there were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both on listening comprehension. No correlations were found between operational and short-term memory (Digit Span) and parameters of fluency and reading comprehension in dyslexia. For the sample without complaint, there were positive correlations between some parameters of reading fluency and repetition of pseudowords and also between answering literal questions in listening comprehension and repetition of digits on the direct and reverse order. There was no correlation with the parameters of reading comprehension. GDys and CG showed similar performance in listening comprehension and in understanding of explicit information and gap-filling inference on reading comprehension. Students of GDys showed worst performance in reading decoding, phonological short-term memory (pseudowords) and on inferences that depends on textual cohesion understanding in reading. There were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both in listening comprehension.

Reading and spelling skills in German third graders: Examining the role of student and context characteristics.

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von Suchodoletz, Antje; Larsen, Ross A A; Gunzenhauser, Catherine; Fäsche, Anika

2015-12-01

Educational processes and outcomes are influenced by a multitude of factors, including individual and contextual characteristics. Recently, studies have demonstrated that student and context characteristics may produce unique and cumulative effects on educational outcomes. The study aimed to investigate (1) the relative contribution of student, classroom, and school characteristics to reading fluency and orthographic spelling, (2) the relative contribution of specific predictors to reading fluency and orthographic spelling within the sets of student, classroom, and school characteristics, and (3) whether the contribution of student, classroom, and school characteristics differs for reading fluency and orthographic spelling. Participants were 789 German third-grade students from 56 classrooms in 34 schools. Students completed an intelligence test and a questionnaire assessing self-control. Reading fluency and orthographic spelling performance were assessed using standardized achievement tests. Multilevel structural equation modelling was used to control for the hierarchical structure of educational data. Variances in students' reading and spelling skills were in large part explained by student characteristics (>90%). Classroom and school characteristics yielded little variance. Student-level intelligence and self-control were significantly related to reading fluency. For orthographic spelling, student-level intelligence and self-control, class-average intelligence, and, at the school level, the socio-economic status of the school's neighbourhood were significant predictors. Future research needs to investigate relevant classroom and school factors that may directly and indirectly relate to academic outcomes. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

White matter and reading deficits after pediatric traumatic brain injury: A diffusion tensor imaging study

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Chad Parker Johnson

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Pediatric traumatic brain injury often results in significant long-term deficits in mastery of reading ability. This study aimed to identify white matter pathways that, when damaged, predicted reading deficits in children. Based on the dual-route model of word reading, we predicted that integrity of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus would be related to performance in sight word identification while integrity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus would be related to performance in phonemic decoding. Reading fluency and comprehension were hypothesized to relate to the superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and cingulum bundle. The connectivity of white matter pathways was used to predict reading deficits in children aged 6 to 16 years with traumatic brain injury (n = 29 and those with orthopedic injury (n = 27 using tract-based spatial statistics. Results showed that children with traumatic brain injury and reduced microstructural integrity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus demonstrated reduced word-reading ability on sight word and phonemic decoding tasks. Additionally, children with traumatic brain injury and microstructural changes involving the cingulum bundle demonstrated reduced reading fluency. Results support the association of a dorsal pathway via the superior longitudinal fasciculus with both sight word reading and phonemic decoding. No association was identified between the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and sight word reading or phonemic decoding. Reading fluency was associated with the integrity of the cingulum bundle. These findings support dissociable pathways predicting word reading and fluency using Diffusion Tensor Imaging and provide additional information for developing models of acquired reading deficits by specifying areas of brain damage which may predict reading deficits following recovery from the acute phase of TBI.

The ABCs of Math: A Genetic Analysis of Mathematics and Its Links With Reading Ability and General Cognitive Ability

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Sara A.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Thompson, Lee A.; Plomin, Robert

2009-01-01

The goal of this first major report from the Western Reserve Reading Project Math component is to explore the etiology of the relationship among tester-administered measures of mathematics ability, reading ability, and general cognitive ability. Data are available on 314 pairs of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins analyzed across 5 waves of assessment. Univariate analyses provide a range of estimates of genetic (h2 = .00 –.63) and shared (c2 = .15–.52) environmental influences across math calculation, fluency, and problem solving measures. Multivariate analyses indicate genetic overlap between math problem solving with general cognitive ability and reading decoding, whereas math fluency shares significant genetic overlap with reading fluency and general cognitive ability. Further, math fluency has unique genetic influences. In general, math ability has shared environmental overlap with general cognitive ability and decoding. These results indicate that aspects of math that include problem solving have different genetic and environmental influences than math calculation. Moreover, math fluency, a timed measure of calculation, is the only measured math ability with unique genetic influences. PMID:20157630

Reading problems and dyslexia : Identification, intervention and treatment within a RTI framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scheltinga, F.

2017-01-01

This thesis focuses on the characteristics of reading problems and dyslexia and its treatment. Reading development and reading difficulties have drawn interest of many researchers. Accurate and fast word decoding is important for reading fluency and this in turn contributes to reading comprehension.

Effect of age and gender on children’s reading performance: The possible neural underpinnings

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Filippos Vlachos

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The present study aimed to assess the effect of age and gender on second-grade children’s reading performance. Two hundred and eighty-seven children aged 7.1–8.2 years were divided into two age subgroups (the younger, 85–91 months and the older, 92–98 months and were examined in reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension tasks. Results showed a significant effect of age in reading performance, with the older children having better scores than younger ones for reading fluency, reading comprehension, and the total reading performance. Gender was not found to play an important role in reading performance. The findings are discussed on the ground of functional brain development and the different rates of cerebral maturation.

An analysis of reading profiles of first-year students at Potchefstroom ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An analysis of reading profiles of first-year students at Potchefstroom University: a cross-sectional study and a case study. ... South African Journal of Education ... that these students experienced problems across all aspects of the reading process (i.e. vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, and reading strategy use).

The prevalence and quality of silent, socially silent, and disclosed autobiographical memories across adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Alea, Nicole

2010-02-01

Two separate studies examined the prevalence and quality of silent (infrequently recalled), socially silent (i.e., recalled but not shared), and disclosed autobiographical memories. In Study 1 young and older men and women remembered positive events. Positive memories were more likely to be disclosed than to be kept socially silent or completely silent. However, socially silent and disclosed memories did not differ in memory quality: the memories were equally vivid, significant, and emotional. Silent memories were less qualitatively rich. This pattern of results was generally replicated in Study 2 with a lifespan sample for both positive and negative memories, and with additional qualitative variables. The exception was that negative memories were kept silent more often. Age differences were minimal. Women disclosed their autobiographical memories more, but men told a greater variety of people. Results are discussed in terms of the functions that memory telling and silences might serve for individuals.

Teacher Modeling: Its Impact on an Extensive Reading Program

Science.gov (United States)

Loh, Jason Kok Khiang

2009-01-01

This case study investigates whether teachers model reading in 1 Singapore primary school during an exercise called "uninterrupted sustained silent reading" (USSR) carried out in the classroom. Even though reading is an important determinant of a student's growth in language skills and ability, and modeling the act of reading is…

Okuma Motivasyonu, Akıcı Okuma ve Okuduğunu Anlamanın Beşinci Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Akademik Başarılarındaki Rolü The Role Of The Reading Motivation, Reading Fluency And Reading Comprehension On Turkish 5th Graders’ Academic Achievement

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Mustafa YILDIZ

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to define how and what way thereading motivation, reading fluency and reading comprehension effectthe academic achievement fifth grade. There was a structural modeldeveloped and tested in the framework of the correlational desingn.There were 135 students fifth year primary students studying in aschool located in Etimesgut town of Ankara province. The readingmotivation of the students were determined by the use of Motivationsfor Reading Questionnaire in Turkish Form . The level of the readingfluency was determined by oral reading an appropriate text in theclassroom. The errors made throughout the study were determined tofind the reading rate and accuracy. The prosody which anotherindicator of the reading fluency was determined by the use ofMultidimensional Fluency Scale. The data necessary for thedetermination of the reading comprehension levels of the students wereobtained from the narrative and expository comprehension andvocabulary tests. The academic achievements of the students weredetermined from their mathematics, science and social sciences grades.The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM was employed in order toanswer the research question. The data analyses were carried out bythe SPSS and AMOS statiscal software. The data obtained in the studyshowed that the reading motivation, reading fluency and the readingcomprehension explain %61 of the variance in the academicachievements of the students. This is thought to be a very bigcontribution to the literature. The approaches towards the readingcomprehension in texts book should be thoroughly revised. The numberof the studies for the promotion of the reading motivation, teaching thereading fluency and furnishing the students with readingcomprehension skill should definitely be increased. Bu çalışmanın amacı; okuma motivasyonu, akıcı okuma ve okuduğunu anlamanın akademik başarıyı hangi yolla ve ne düzeyde etkilediğini belirlemektir. İlişkisel tarama

Colors, colored overlays, and reading skills

OpenAIRE

Uccula, Arcangelo; Enna, Mauro; Mulatti, Claudio

2014-01-01

In this article, we are concerned with the role of colors in reading written texts. It has been argued that colored overlays applied above written texts positively influence both reading fluency and reading speed. These effects would be particularly evident for those individuals affected by the so called Meares-Irlen syndrome, i.e., who experience eyestrain and/or visual distortions – e.g., color, shape, or movement illusions – while reading. This condition would interest the 12–14% of the ge...

Using reading to teach a world language strategies and activities

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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...

The Effect of Word Meaning on Speech DysFluency in Adults with Developmental Stuttering

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Elham Masumi

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Stuttering is one of the most prevalent speech and language disorders. Symptomology of stuttering has been surveyed from different aspects such as biological, developmental, environmental, emotional, learning and linguistic. Previous researches in English-speaking people have suggested that some linguistic features such as word meanings may play a role in the frequency of speech non-fluency in people who stutter. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of word meanings on the frequency of dysfluency in Persian-speaking adults with developmental stuttering. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was performed on 14 adults who stuttered. Their average age was 25 years. The frequency of non-fluency instances was evaluated upon reading two lists containing 60 words and 60 non-words. The words were selected on the basis of common Persian syllable structures. ‘Kolmogoro-Smirnov one sample test’ and paired t-test was used to analyze data the significance level was set at P<0.05. Results:There was a significant difference between the dysfluency in word and non-word lists (P<0.05. Discussion: The findings of this study indicate a significant increase in the frequency of dysfluency on non-words than on real words. It seems that the phonological encodingprocess of non-word reading is much more complex than for word reading, because, in non-word reading, the component of semantic content retrieval (word meaning is missing when compared to word reading.

Achieve3000®. Beginning Reading. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

Science.gov (United States)

What Works Clearinghouse, 2018

2018-01-01

"Achieve3000®" is a supplemental online literacy program that provides nonfiction reading content to students in grades preK-12 and focuses on building phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. "Achieve3000®" is designed to help students advance their nonfiction reading skills…

Putting the Fun Back into Fluency Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Cahill, Mary Ann; Gregory, Anne E.

2011-01-01

Based on recent research in fluency instruction, the authors present a scenario in which a teacher focuses her fluency instruction on authentic fluency tasks based in performance. Beginning with establishing a student-friendly definition of fluency and culminating with student engagement in fun fluency activities, this article explores the…

A case of exceptional reading accuracy in a child with Down syndrome – underlying skills and the relation to reading comprehension

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, M.A.; Laws, G.; Nation, K.; Bishop, D.V.M.

2006-01-01

We report on a case of a girl with Down syndrome (DS), K.S., whose reading accuracy is exceptional. This ability is associated with robust phonological skills and relative strengths in visual and verbal short-term memory, articulation, and speech fluency. Although her reading comprehension is age

It felt fluent, and I liked it: subjective feeling of fluency rather than objective fluency determines liking.

Science.gov (United States)

Forster, Michael; Leder, Helmut; Ansorge, Ulrich

2013-04-01

According to the processing-fluency explanation of aesthetics, more fluently processed stimuli are preferred (R. Reber, N. Schwarz, & P. Winkielman, 2004, Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 8, pp. 364-382.). In this view, the subjective feeling of ease of processing is considered important, but this has not been directly tested in perceptual processing. In two experiments, we therefore objectively manipulated fluency (ease of processing) with subliminal perceptual priming (Study 1) and variations in presentation durations (Study 2). We assessed the impact of objective fluency on feelings of fluency and liking, as well as their interdependence. In line with the processing-fluency account, we found that objectively more fluent images were indeed judged as more fluent and were also liked more. Moreover, differences in liking were even stronger when data were analyzed according to felt fluency. These findings demonstrate that perceptual fluency is not only explicitly felt, it can also be reported and is an important determinant of liking. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

On Which Abilities Are Category Fluency and Letter Fluency Grounded A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of 53 Alzheimer's Dementia Patients

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Ilaria Bizzozero

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims: In Alzheimer's dementia (AD, letter fluency is less impaired than category fluency. To check whether category fluency and letter fluency depend differently on semantics and attention, 53 mild AD patients were given animal and letter fluency tasks, two semantic tests (the Verbal Semantic Questionnaire and the BORB Association Match test, and two attentional tests (the Stroop Colour-Word Interference test and the Digit Cancellation test. Methods: We conducted a LISREL confirmatory factor analysis to check the extent to which category fluency and letter fluency tasks were related to semantics and attention, viewed as latent variables. Results: Both types of fluency tasks were related to the latent variable Semantics but not to the latent variable Attention. Conclusions: Our findings warn against interpreting the disproportionate impairment of AD patients on category and letter fluency as a contrast between semantics and attention.

Reading and company

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuzmičová, Anežka; Dias, Patrícia; Vogrinčič Čepič, Ana

2017-01-01

in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments....... Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential...

The Relationship between Temporal Measures of Oral Fluency and Ratings of Fluency: A Case of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners

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Ali Akbar Farahani

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Objective fluency judgment has always been a formidable task in language testing. Nonetheless, temporal fluency is the type of fluency which can be measured and quantified. Given that, temporal fluency is also known as temporal measures of fluency (Luoma, 2004. Furthermore, it has aroused considerable interest in analyzing speech of language learners in terms of quantitative measures (Kormos & Denes, 2004; Freed, 1995; Riggenbach, 1991; Lennon, 1990. They suggested that certain measures of fluency can more objectively specify fluency level and that perceptual understanding of fluency to a high extent correlate with these measures. Following these studies, the present study was an endeavor to relate quantitative measures of fluency and assessment of fluency in oral speech of L2 learners. To do so 30 advanced EFL learners whose speaking score on TOEFL iBT scale was between 19 to 22, i.e. B2 on CEFR scale, were selected. Then, they were given a picture strip as the elicitation task and asked to make up a story based on that. Their voice was recorded, transcribed and further analyzed by voice analysis software called PRAAT to calculate seven measures of fluency. Meanwhile, two trained listeners were required to rate the recordings, scoring them from 1 to 9. Finally, the relationship between these variables was calculated. The results showed that judge listeners’ ratings of fluency were highly correlated with speech rate, phonation time ratio, and mean length of runs. Moreover, among the measures of temporal fluency speech rate proved significantly correlated with articulation rate, phonation time ratio, and mean length of runs.

One Year of Extensive Reading on Mobile Devices: Engagement and Impressions

Science.gov (United States)

Milliner, Brett; Cote, Travis

2015-01-01

Extensive Reading (ER) is a popular strategy to improve reading fluency, vocabulary knowledge and reading confidence. The process of ER, traditionally done with paperbacks, is a practice being transformed by smartphone technology. This paper introduces Xreading® (www.xreading.com), an online Graded Reader (GR) library and Learning Management…

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…

Reading Speed of Contracted French Braille

Science.gov (United States)

Laroche, Louise; Boule, Jacinthe; Wittich, Walter

2012-01-01

This study was designed to address three hypotheses: (1) The reading speed of both readers of French braille and readers of French print will be faster in the silent condition; however, this gain in speed will be larger for print readers; (2) Individuals who acquired braille before age 10 will display faster reading speeds at lower error rates…

Fixing fluency: Neurocognitive assessment of a dysfluent reading intervention

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fraga González, G.

2016-01-01

The ability to read is essential to attain society’s literacy demands. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of the population experiences major difficulties in mastering reading and spelling skills. Individuals diagnosed with developmental dyslexia are at severe risk for adverse academic,

'Silent mentors'

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Douglas-Jones, Rachel

2017-01-01

Unlike cadaver donation in the West, which has to a large degree maintained the anonymity of the body used to teach medical students, the Taiwanese Tzu Chi Buddhist Silent Mentor programme at the centre of this article foregrounds the identity of the training cadaver as an essential element in me...... for medical pedagogy, body donation, and Buddhist practices prompted by this programme, putting the ‘Silent Mentors’ into conversation with the ‘new immortalities’ of this special issue....

An Evaluation of Supplemental Reading Instruction for At-Risk Middle School Readers

Science.gov (United States)

Berkeley, Sheri; Lindstrom, Jennifer H.; Regan, Kelley; Nealy, Allison; Southall, Candice; Stagliano, Christina

2012-01-01

One middle school's implementation of corrective reading was evaluated for student reading outcomes and treatment fidelity. Findings indicated that sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students made progress in decoding and oral reading fluency over the school year; however, students did not demonstrate greater gains during the semester enrolled in…

Examining Listening Previewing as a Classwide Strategy to Promote Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkins, Renee O.; Musti-Rao, Shobana; Hale, Andrea D.; McGuire, Shannon; Hailley, Jennifer

2010-01-01

Classwide instructional strategies to improve not only reading fluency but also comprehension and vocabulary knowledge are essential for student reading success. The current study examined the immediate effects of two classwide listening previewing strategies on reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Twenty-one, fourth-grade general…

The role of auditory temporal cues in the fluency of stuttering adults

OpenAIRE

Furini, Juliana; Picoloto, Luana Altran; Marconato, Eduarda; Bohnen, Anelise Junqueira; Cardoso, Ana Claudia Vieira; Oliveira, Cristiane Moço Canhetti de

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Purpose: to compare the frequency of disfluencies and speech rate in spontaneous speech and reading in adults with and without stuttering in non-altered and delayed auditory feedback (NAF, DAF). Methods: participants were 30 adults: 15 with Stuttering (Research Group - RG), and 15 without stuttering (Control Group - CG). The procedures were: audiological assessment and speech fluency evaluation in two listening conditions, normal and delayed auditory feedback (100 milliseconds dela...

Technical Adequacy of the easyCBM Grade 2 Reading Measures. Technical Report #1004

Science.gov (United States)

Jamgochian, Elisa; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Nese, Joseph F. T.; Lai, Cheng-Fei; Saez, Leilani; Anderson, Daniel; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

2010-01-01

In this technical report, we provide reliability and validity evidence for the easyCBM[R] Reading measures for grade 2 (word and passage reading fluency and multiple choice reading comprehension). Evidence for reliability includes internal consistency and item invariance. Evidence for validity includes concurrent, predictive, and construct…

The threat of silent earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Cervelli, Peter

2004-01-01

Not all earthquakes shake the ground. The so-called silent types are forcing scientists to rethink their understanding of the way quake-prone faults behave. In rare instances, silent earthquakes that occur along the flakes of seaside volcanoes may cascade into monstrous landslides that crash into the sea and trigger towering tsunamis. Silent earthquakes that take place within fault zones created by one tectonic plate diving under another may increase the chance of ground-shaking shocks. In other locations, however, silent slip may decrease the likelihood of destructive quakes, because they release stress along faults that might otherwise seem ready to snap.

Sexual-orientation-related differences in verbal fluency.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Qazi; Abrahams, Sharon; Wilson, Glenn D

2003-04-01

This study examined the performance of 60 heterosexual men, 60 gay men, 60 heterosexual women, and 60 lesbians on 3 tests of verbal fluency known to show gender differences: letter, category, and synonym fluency. Gay men and lesbians showed opposite-sex shifts in their profile of scores. For letter fluency, gay men outperformed all other groups; lesbians showed the lowest scores. For category fluency, gay men and heterosexual women jointly outperformed lesbians and heterosexual men. Finally, gay men outperformed all other groups on synonym fluency, whereas lesbians and heterosexual men performed similarly. A difference between heterosexual men and women was demonstrated on category and synonym fluency only. The findings implicate within-sex differences in the functioning of the prefrontal and temporal cortices.

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

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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

Longitudinal Effect of a Volunteer Tutoring Program on Reading Skills of Students Identified as At-Risk for Reading Failure: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, Matthew K.; Senesac, Barbara J.; Silberglitt, Benjamin

2008-01-01

There is a recent interest in volunteer tutoring programs and research has suggested effectiveness in improving reading skills. Previous research found that the Help One Student to Succeed (HOSTS) volunteer tutoring program increased reading fluency and comprehension over a 5-month interval (Burns, Senesac, & Symington, 2004). The current…

Monocular oral reading after treatment of dense congenital unilateral cataract

Science.gov (United States)

Birch, Eileen E.; Cheng, Christina; Christina, V; Stager, David R.

2010-01-01

Background Good long-term visual acuity outcomes for children with dense congenital unilateral cataracts have been reported following early surgery and good compliance with postoperative amblyopia therapy. However, treated eyes rarely achieve normal visual acuity and there has been no formal evaluation of the utility of the treated eye for reading. Methods Eighteen children previously treated for dense congenital unilateral cataract were tested monocularly with the Gray Oral Reading Test, 4th edition (GORT-4) at 7 to 13 years of age using two passages for each eye, one at grade level and one at +1 above grade level. In addition, right eyes of 55 normal children age 7 to 13 served as a control group. The GORT-4 assesses reading rate, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. Results Visual acuity of treated eyes ranged from 0.1 to 2.0 logMAR and of fellow eyes from −0.1 to 0.2 logMAR. Treated eyes scored significantly lower than fellow and normal control eyes on all scales at grade level and at +1 above grade level. Monocular reading rate, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension were correlated with visual acuity of treated eyes (rs = −0.575 to −0.875, p < 0.005). Treated eyes with 0.1-0.3 logMAR visual acuity did not differ from fellow or normal control eyes in rate, accuracy, fluency, or comprehension when reading at grade level or at +1 above grade level. Fellow eyes did not differ from normal controls on any reading scale. Conclusions Excellent visual acuity outcomes following treatment of dense congenital unilateral cataracts are associated with normal reading ability of the treated eye in school-age children. PMID:20603057

Development and Relationships Between Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness and Word Reading in Spoken and Standard Arabic

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Rachel Schiff

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This study addressed the development of and the relationship between foundational metalinguistic skills and word reading skills in Arabic. It compared Arabic-speaking children’s phonological awareness (PA, morphological awareness, and voweled and unvoweled word reading skills in spoken and standard language varieties separately in children across five grade levels from childhood to adolescence. Second, it investigated whether skills developed in the spoken variety of Arabic predict reading in the standard variety. Results indicate that although individual differences between students in PA are eliminated toward the end of elementary school in both spoken and standard language varieties, gaps in morphological awareness and in reading skills persisted through junior and high school years. The results also show that the gap in reading accuracy and fluency between Spoken Arabic (SpA and Standard Arabic (StA was evident in both voweled and unvoweled words. Finally, regression analyses showed that morphological awareness in SpA contributed to reading fluency in StA, i.e., children’s early morphological awareness in SpA explained variance in children’s gains in reading fluency in StA. These findings have important theoretical and practical contributions for Arabic reading theory in general and they extend the previous work regarding the cross-linguistic relevance of foundational metalinguistic skills in the first acquired language to reading in a second language, as in societal bilingualism contexts, or a second language variety, as in diglossic contexts.

Development and Relationships Between Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness and Word Reading in Spoken and Standard Arabic

Science.gov (United States)

Schiff, Rachel; Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor

2018-01-01

This study addressed the development of and the relationship between foundational metalinguistic skills and word reading skills in Arabic. It compared Arabic-speaking children’s phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness, and voweled and unvoweled word reading skills in spoken and standard language varieties separately in children across five grade levels from childhood to adolescence. Second, it investigated whether skills developed in the spoken variety of Arabic predict reading in the standard variety. Results indicate that although individual differences between students in PA are eliminated toward the end of elementary school in both spoken and standard language varieties, gaps in morphological awareness and in reading skills persisted through junior and high school years. The results also show that the gap in reading accuracy and fluency between Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA) was evident in both voweled and unvoweled words. Finally, regression analyses showed that morphological awareness in SpA contributed to reading fluency in StA, i.e., children’s early morphological awareness in SpA explained variance in children’s gains in reading fluency in StA. These findings have important theoretical and practical contributions for Arabic reading theory in general and they extend the previous work regarding the cross-linguistic relevance of foundational metalinguistic skills in the first acquired language to reading in a second language, as in societal bilingualism contexts, or a second language variety, as in diglossic contexts. PMID:29686633

Comparing Performance Standards on the Retention of Words Read Correctly per Minute

Science.gov (United States)

Kubina, Richard M., Jr.; Amato, Janelle; Schwilk, Christopher L.; Therrien, William J.

2008-01-01

To measure retention of oral reading fluency, three students attending a learning support classroom used a repeating reading strategy with two passages. Each student read one passage to a high performance standard and the other passage to a lower performance standard. Results show it took the students more practice to reach the higher performance…

Improved reading measures in adults with dyslexia following transcranial direct current stimulation treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Heth, Inbahl; Lavidor, Michal

2015-04-01

To better understand the contribution of the dorsal system to word reading, we explored transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effects when adults with developmental dyslexia received active stimulation over the visual extrastriate area MT/V5, which is dominated by magnocellular input. Stimulation was administered in 5 sessions spread over two weeks, and reading speed and accuracy as well as reading fluency were assessed before, immediately after, and a week after the end of the treatment. A control group of adults with developmental dyslexia matched for age, gender, reading level, vocabulary and block-design WAIS-III sub-tests and reading level was exposed to the same protocol but with sham stimulation. The results revealed that active, but not sham stimulation, significantly improved reading speed and fluency. This finding suggests that the dorsal stream may play a role in efficient retrieval from the orthographic input lexicon in the lexical route. It also underscores the potential of tDCS as an intervention tool for improving reading speed, at least in adults with developmental dyslexia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Silent ischaemia and hypertension

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boon, D.; Piek, J. J.; van Montfrans, G. A.

2000-01-01

For many years now, silent ischaemia has been recognized as a distinct clinical entity, and its relevance in different patient groups has been established. However, a number of basic questions have not been answered. In explaining the pathophysiology of silent ischaemia, factors affecting both the

Mathematics Preservice Teachers Are Literacy Educators Too: Learning How to Administer and Use Data from the Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment to Plan Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks. Benita R.

2017-01-01

House Bill (HB) 2237 (80th Legislature), Section 6: Adolescent Reading Assessment requires districts and public charter schools to administer the Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (TMSFA) or some other state approved alternative assessment to students in grade seven who do not demonstrate reading proficiency on the grade six state reading…

Reading-Related Causal Attributions for Success and Failure: Dynamic Links With Reading Skill.

Science.gov (United States)

Frijters, Jan C; Tsujimoto, Kimberley C; Boada, Richard; Gottwald, Stephanie; Hill, Dina; Jacobson, Lisa A; Lovett, Maureen W; Mahone, E Mark; Willcutt, Erik G; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R

2018-01-01

The present study investigated the relation among reading skills and attributions, naming speed, and phonological awareness across a wide range of reading skill. Participants were 1,105 school-age children and youths from two understudied populations: African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Individual assessments of children ranging in age from 8 to 15 years were conducted for reading outcomes, cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading, and attributions for success and failure in reading situations. Quantile regressions were formulated to estimate these relations across the full skill span of each outcome. Reading-related attributions predicted contextual word recognition, sight word and decoding fluency, and comprehension skills. Attributions to ability in success situations were positively related to each outcome across the full span. On three reading outcomes, this relation strengthened at higher skill levels. Attributions to effort in success situations were consistently and negatively related to all reading outcomes. The results provide evidence that the strength of the relation between reading and attributions varies according to reading skill levels, with the strongest evidence for ability-based attributions in situations of reading success.

Effects of early language, speech, and cognition on later reading: A mediation analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vanessa N Durand

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This longitudinal secondary analysis examined which early language and speech abilities are associated with school-aged reading skills, and whether these associations are mediated by cognitive ability. We analyzed vocabulary, syntax, speech sound maturity, and cognition in a sample of healthy children at age 3 years (N=241 in relation to single word reading (decoding, comprehension, and oral reading fluency in the same children at age 9 to 11 years. All predictor variables and the mediator variable were associated with the three reading outcomes. The predictor variables were all associated with cognitive abilities, the mediator. Cognitive abilities partially mediated the effects of language on reading. After mediation, decoding was associated with speech sound maturity; comprehension was associated with receptive vocabulary; and oral fluency was associated with speech sound maturity, receptive vocabulary, and syntax. In summary, all of the effects of language on reading could not be explained by cognition as a mediator. Specific components of language and speech skills in preschool made independent contributions to reading skills 6 to 8 years later. These early precursors to later reading skill represent potential targets for early intervention to improve reading.

Does Emotional Arousal Influence Swearing Fluency?

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Richard; Zile, Amy

2017-08-01

This study assessed the effect of experimentally manipulated emotional arousal on swearing fluency. We hypothesised that swear word generation would be increased with raised emotional arousal. The emotional arousal of 60 participants was manipulated by having them play a first-person shooter video game or, as a control, a golf video game, in a randomised order. A behavioural measure of swearing fluency based on the Controlled Oral Word Association Test was employed. Successful experimental manipulation was indicated by raised State Hostility Questionnaire scores after playing the shooter game. Swearing fluency was significantly greater after playing the shooter game compared with the golf game. Validity of the swearing fluency task was demonstrated via positive correlations with self-reported swearing fluency and daily swearing frequency. In certain instances swearing may represent a form of emotional expression. This finding will inform debates around the acceptability of using taboo language.

Reading in a second language: Considering the "simple view of reading" as a foundation to support ESL readers in Lesotho, Southern Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

van Staden, Annalene

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Globally, reading proficiency has been a major area of difficulty for English second-language (ESL learners. This research inter alia utilised a quantitative, quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test research design to address the paucity of evidence-based second-language reading research internationally, as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Lesotho in particular; and to determine if second-language learners (L2 in the experimental group can improve their L2 reading abilities after being exposed to reading intervention strategies, based on the “simple view of reading”. Drawing from both psycholinguistic and cognitive linguistic principles, the authors considered this as a working model to develop reading strategies to support ESL learners in Lesotho who experienced significant delays in L2 reading abilities and comprehension. In the present study, strategies based on the “simple view of reading”, , included, inter alia, effective language exposure, building a rich vocabulary, improving reading fluency and word recognition abilities, and creating socio-linguistic opportunities to develop vocabulary and enhance reading comprehension (for example, creating a “word wall”, interactive story-book reading and the application of the ReQuest reading method. Results from this quantitative study demonstrated that Grade 4 ESL learners in the experimental group (N=36 significantly outperformed those in the control group (N=36 with regard to sight word fluency, word recognition, syntactic awareness, vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. As we move forward in an attempt to understand the nuances of creating a responsive reading environment to support ESL learners’ reading development, assessing the effectiveness of strategies to improve their reading skills is essential.

Impacts of Comprehensive Reading Instruction on Diverse Outcomes of Low- and High-Achieving Readers

Science.gov (United States)

Guthrie, John T.; McRae, Angela; Coddington, Cassandra S.; Klauda, Susan Lutz; Wigfield, Allan; Barbosa, Pedro

2009-01-01

Low-achieving readers in Grade 5 often lack comprehension strategies, domain knowledge, word recognition skills, fluency, and motivation to read. Students with such multiple reading needs seem likely to benefit from instruction that supports each of these reading processes. The authors tested this expectation experimentally by comparing the…

Nudging Fledgling Teen Readers from the Nest: From Round Robin to Real Reading

Science.gov (United States)

Fair, Ginni Chase; Combs, Dorie

2011-01-01

Middle and Secondary teachers often find it difficult to help their students read textbooks and other instructional materials. In order to ensure they read the text, teachers may rely on "round robin reading" and other ineffective strategies. In this article, the authors explain why this strategy hinders comprehension, fluency and development of…

SSR: Its Effects on Students' Reading Habits after They Complete the Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiesendanger, Katherine D.; Bader, Lois

1989-01-01

Studies the effect of sustained silent reading (SSR) on recreational reading habits after termination of instruction. Finds that SSR students read more than those not in the program, and that SSR has no impact on above average readers, great impact on average readers, and little impact on below average readers. (RS)

Exploring EFL fluency in Asia

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Muller, T; Brown, P; Herder, S

2014-01-01

In EFL contexts, an absence of chances to develop fluency in the language classroom can lead to marked limitations in English proficiency. This volume explores fluency development from a number of different perspectives, investigating measurements and classroom strategies for promoting its development.

Second-Grade Urban Learners: Preliminary Findings for a Computer-Assisted, Culturally Relevant, Repeated Reading Intervention

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Jessica G.; Gardner, Ralph, III; Cartledge, Gwendolyn; Ramnath, Rajiv; Council, Morris R., III

2017-01-01

This study investigated the effects of a multicomponent, supplemental intervention on the reading fluency of second-grade African-American urban students who showed reading and special education risk. The packaged intervention combined repeated readings and culturally relevant stories, delivered through a novel computer software program to enhance…

Tactile Sensitivity and Braille Reading in People with Early Blindness and Late Blindness

Science.gov (United States)

Oshima, Kensuke; Arai, Tetsuya; Ichihara, Shigeru; Nakano, Yasushi

2014-01-01

Introduction: The inability to read quickly can be a disadvantage throughout life. This study focused on the associations of braille reading fluency and individual factors, such as the age at onset of blindness and number of years reading braille, and the tactile sensitivity of people with early and late blindness. The relationship between reading…

The way we encounter reading material influences how frequently we mind wander

OpenAIRE

Trish L Varao Sousa; Jonathan S A Carriere; Dan eSmilek

2013-01-01

We examined whether different encounters of reading material influence the likelihood of mind wandering, memory for the material, and the ratings of interest in the material. In a within-subjects design participants experienced three different reading encounters: (1) reading a passage aloud, (2) listening to a passage being read to them, and (3) reading a passage silently. Throughout each reading encounter probes were given in order to identify mind wandering. After finishing the passage part...

Semantic, phonologic, and verb fluency in Huntington's disease

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Mariana Jardim Azambuja

Full Text Available Abstract Verbal fluency tasks have been identified as important indicators of executive functioning impairment in patients with frontal lobe dysfunction. Although the usual evaluation of this ability considers phonologic and semantic criteria, there is some evidence that fluency of verbs would be more sensitive in disclosing frontostriatal physiopathology since frontal regions primarily mediate retrieval of verbs. Huntington's disease usually affects these circuitries. Objective: To compare three types of verbal fluency task in the assessment of frontal-striatal dysfunction in HD subjects. Methods: We studied 26 Huntington's disease subjects, divided into two subgroups: mild (11 and moderate (15 along with 26 normal volunteers matched for age, gender and schooling, for three types of verbal fluency: phonologic fluency (F-A-S, semantic fluency and fluency of verbs. Results: Huntington's disease subjects showed a significant reduction in the number of words correctly generated in the three tasks when compared to the normal group. Both controls and Huntington's disease subjects showed a similar pattern of decreasing task performance with the greatest number of words being generated by semantic elicitation followed by verbs and lastly phonologic criteria. We did not find greater production of verbs compared with F-A-S and semantic conditions. Moreover, the fluency of verbs distinguished only the moderate group from controls. Conclusion: Our results indicated that phonologic and semantic fluency can be used to evaluate executive functioning, proving more sensitive than verb fluency. However, it is important to point out that the diverse presentations of Huntington's disease means that an extended sample is necessary for more consistent analysis of this issue.

Action verbal fluency in Parkinson’s patients

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Inês Tello Rodrigues

2015-06-01

Full Text Available We compared the performance of 31 non-demented Parkinson´s disease (PD patients to 61 healthy controls in an action verbal fluency task. Semantic and phonemic fluencies, cognitive impairment and behavioural dysfunction were also assessed. The mean disease duration of PD was 9.8 years (standard deviation (SD = 6.13. There were no age (U = 899.5, p = 0.616, gender(chi-square = 0.00, p = 1.00 or literacy (U = 956, p = 0.96 differences between the two groups. A significant difference was observed between the two groups in the action verbal fluency task (U = 406.5, p < 0.01 that was not found in the other fluency tasks. The education level was the only biographical variable that influenced the action (verb fluency outcomes, irrespective of disease duration. Our findings suggest a correlation between the disease mechanisms in PD and a specific verb deficit, support the validity of the action (verb fluency as an executive function measure and suggest that this task provides unique information not captured with traditional executive function tasks.

Contextual modulation of reading rate for direct versus indirect speech quotations.

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Yao, Bo; Scheepers, Christoph

2011-12-01

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, the processing consequences of this distinction are largely unclear. In two experiments, participants were asked to either orally (Experiment 1) or silently (Experiment 2, eye-tracking) read written stories that contained either a direct speech or an indirect speech quotation. The context preceding those quotations described a situation that implied either a fast-speaking or a slow-speaking quoted protagonist. It was found that this context manipulation affected reading rates (in both oral and silent reading) for direct speech quotations, but not for indirect speech quotations. This suggests that readers are more likely to engage in perceptual simulations of the reported speech act when reading direct speech as opposed to meaning-equivalent indirect speech quotations, as part of a more vivid representation of the former. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Nordic comparison of national objectives for reading instruction and teachers' responses about actual reading practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rønberg, Louise; Mejding, Jan

2014-01-01

and functional goals in Finland. It appears that the Finnish descriptions are more aligned with current empirical research on reading comprehension. Swedish and Norwegian teachers have the most varied used of both literary and informational text types during a week, whereas Finnish teachers give informational...... texts a higher priority than literary texts – and the opposite is apparent for Danish teachers. The Finnish and Norwegian teachers prioritise activities that enhance students’ oral reading fluency, which is important for reading comprehension development, to a greater extent than teachers in Denmark......This article presents a comparison of the Nordic countries’ official objectives for reading and analyses of 1005 Nordic teachers’ responses regarding their reading instruction. The specificity and transparency vary greatly in the objectives, from broad outlines in Norway to more specific...

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

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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.

Learning to read Dutch as a transparent orthography

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Verhoeven, L.T.W.

2017-01-01

The present longitudinal study investigated the growth of word reading fluency in Dutch as a transparent orthography as a function of meaning (words vs pseudowords) and orthographic complexity throughout the elementary school years. For a representative sample of 511 Dutch children, decoding

I read, you read, we read: the history of reading in Slovenia

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Anja Dular

2013-03-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACTPurpose: The aim of the article is to research reading habits in Slovenia in the period between 16th and 19th century and to find similarities with Austria and other European countries of that time.Methodology/approach: For the purpose of the analysis different resources were used – study books, catechisms, prayer books and manuals. We were focused on introductions in which readers are advised how to read, explaining to whom the work is intended and emphasizing the importance of meditation on the texts.Results: Historically the laud reading was prefered, as to continue the folk tradition. However, the 16th century texts were transmitted by women while the folk tradition was narrated by males. In the 18th century the higher level of literacy and greater book production and availability caused that the books were not a privilege of a few. At that time more texts were intended for silent, individual reading. Interestingly, the authors emphasized the importance of meditation on the texts, too. It was also advised when to read – it wasrecommedend to read in leisure time on Sundays, and on holidays. The role of books was also to breakaway with the reality and to forget everyday problems. Due to the overproduction of books in the 17th centrury it was concerned that books are misleading the crowds. The church considered the reading of books as inappropriate, and criticized fiction, novels and adventure stories mostly read by women.Research limitation: The study is based on Slovenian texts only, although the foreign literature, especially in German, was generally available, too.Originality/practical implications: The study is fullfiling the gap in the history of reading in Slovenia.

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

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wallot, S.; Hollis, G.; Rooij, M. de

2013-01-01

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

A Nordic comparison of national objectives for reading instruction and teachers' responses about actual reading practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rønberg, Louise Flensted-Jensen; Mejding, Jan

2014-01-01

and Sweden do. The Nordic teachers in general appear to prioritise advanced comprehension activities to a lesser extent than teachers in the English-speaking countries do. Furthermore, 138 Northern Lights on TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 Danish teachers put the least emphasis on formative assessments compared...... texts a higher priority than literary texts – and the opposite is apparent for Danish teachers. The Finnish and Norwegian teachers prioritise activities that enhance students’ oral reading fluency, which is important for reading comprehension development, to a greater extent than teachers in Denmark...

Multiple mediation analysis of the relationship between rapid naming and reading

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Mads; Juul, Holger; Elbro, Carsten

2015-01-01

It is well established that rapid automatised naming (RAN) correlates with reading ability. Despite several attempts, no single component process (mediator) has been identified that fully accounts for the correlation. The present paper estimated the explanatory value of several mediators....... The influence of the mediators on the RAN-reading correlation was estimated as indirect effects in mediation analyses. Phonological awareness and letter knowledge significantly mediated the RAN-reading relationship, each accounted for a moderate part of the correlation between RAN and reading fluency. Thus...

The influence of working memory on reading growth in subgroups of children with reading disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Swanson, H Lee; Jerman, Olga

2007-04-01

This 3-year longitudinal study determined whether (a) subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) (children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal IQ readers) and skilled readers varied in working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) growth and (b) whether growth in an executive system and/or a phonological storage system mediated growth in reading performance. A battery of memory and reading measures was administered to 84 children (11-17 years of age) across three testing waves spaced 1 year apart. The results showed that skilled readers yielded higher WM growth estimates than did the RD groups. No significant differentiation among subgroups of children with RD on growth measures emerged. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that WM (controlled attention), rather than STM (phonological loop), was related to growth in reading comprehension and reading fluency. The results support the notion that deficient growth in the executive component of WM underlies RD.

Memory Retention after Reading Alould and its Effects on the Internalization of New Items

OpenAIRE

佐藤, あずさ; Azusa, SATO; 安田女子大学大学院

2014-01-01

This paper reports the results of two studies focusing on internalization of newly learned items. In study 1, internalization was not confirmed, but reading and memory retention abilities of the reading-aloud subgroup (i.e., students with lower reading proficiency) improved significantly more than the reading-silently subgroup. In study 2 the same effects were confirmed in the reading-aloud subgroup, and internalization of newly learned items was finally confirmed in the reading-aloud group.

Challenging the Superiority of Phonological Fluency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Erz, Antonia; Christensen, Bo

2014-01-01

The results of three laboratory experiments contribute to our understanding of effects of phonological fluency on correct recognition and recall of novel brand names, being relevant to the areas of information processing, memory, and branding. Employing the full range of fluency, the results offer...

Teacher Survey of the Accessibility and Text Features of the Computerized Oral Reading Evaluation (CORE). Technical Report #1601

Science.gov (United States)

Kahn, Josh; Nese, Joseph T.; Alonzo, Julie

2016-01-01

There is strong theoretical support for oral reading fluency (ORF) as an essential building block of reading proficiency. The current and standard ORF assessment procedure requires that students read aloud a grade-level passage (˜ 250 words) in a one-to-one administration, with the number of words read correctly in 60 seconds constituting their…

RADAR: A novel fast-screening method for reading difficulties with special focus on dyslexia

Science.gov (United States)

Smyrnakis, Ioannis; Andreadakis, Vassilios; Selimis, Vassilios; Kalaitzakis, Michail; Bachourou, Theodora; Kaloutsakis, Georgios; Kymionis, George D.; Smirnakis, Stelios; Aslanides, Ioannis M.

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is a developmental learning disorder of single word reading accuracy and/or fluency, with compelling research directed towards understanding the contributions of the visual system. While dyslexia is not an oculomotor disease, readers with dyslexia have shown different eye movements than typically developing students during text reading. Readers with dyslexia exhibit longer and more frequent fixations, shorter saccade lengths, more backward refixations than typical readers. Furthermore, readers with dyslexia are known to have difficulty in reading long words, lower skipping rate of short words, and high gaze duration on many words. It is an open question whether it is possible to harness these distinctive oculomotor scanning patterns observed during reading in order to develop a screening tool that can reliably identify struggling readers, who may be candidates for dyslexia. Here, we introduce a novel, fast, objective, non-invasive method, named Rapid Assessment of Difficulties and Abnormalities in Reading (RADAR) that screens for features associated with the aberrant visual scanning of reading text seen in dyslexia. Eye tracking parameter measurements that are stable under retest and have high discriminative power, as indicated by their ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves, were obtained during silent text reading. These parameters were combined to derive a total reading score (TRS) that can reliably separate readers with dyslexia from typical readers. We tested TRS in a group of school-age children ranging from 8.5 to 12.5 years of age. TRS achieved 94.2% correct classification of children tested. Specifically, 35 out of 37 control (specificity 94.6%) and 30 out of 32 readers with dyslexia (sensitivity 93.8%) were classified correctly using RADAR, under a circular validation condition (see section Results/Total Reading Score) where the individual evaluated was not included in the test construction group. In conclusion, RADAR is a novel

RADAR: A novel fast-screening method for reading difficulties with special focus on dyslexia.

Science.gov (United States)

Smyrnakis, Ioannis; Andreadakis, Vassilios; Selimis, Vassilios; Kalaitzakis, Michail; Bachourou, Theodora; Kaloutsakis, Georgios; Kymionis, George D; Smirnakis, Stelios; Aslanides, Ioannis M

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is a developmental learning disorder of single word reading accuracy and/or fluency, with compelling research directed towards understanding the contributions of the visual system. While dyslexia is not an oculomotor disease, readers with dyslexia have shown different eye movements than typically developing students during text reading. Readers with dyslexia exhibit longer and more frequent fixations, shorter saccade lengths, more backward refixations than typical readers. Furthermore, readers with dyslexia are known to have difficulty in reading long words, lower skipping rate of short words, and high gaze duration on many words. It is an open question whether it is possible to harness these distinctive oculomotor scanning patterns observed during reading in order to develop a screening tool that can reliably identify struggling readers, who may be candidates for dyslexia. Here, we introduce a novel, fast, objective, non-invasive method, named Rapid Assessment of Difficulties and Abnormalities in Reading (RADAR) that screens for features associated with the aberrant visual scanning of reading text seen in dyslexia. Eye tracking parameter measurements that are stable under retest and have high discriminative power, as indicated by their ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves, were obtained during silent text reading. These parameters were combined to derive a total reading score (TRS) that can reliably separate readers with dyslexia from typical readers. We tested TRS in a group of school-age children ranging from 8.5 to 12.5 years of age. TRS achieved 94.2% correct classification of children tested. Specifically, 35 out of 37 control (specificity 94.6%) and 30 out of 32 readers with dyslexia (sensitivity 93.8%) were classified correctly using RADAR, under a circular validation condition (see section Results/Total Reading Score) where the individual evaluated was not included in the test construction group. In conclusion, RADAR is a novel

RADAR: A novel fast-screening method for reading difficulties with special focus on dyslexia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ioannis Smyrnakis

Full Text Available Dyslexia is a developmental learning disorder of single word reading accuracy and/or fluency, with compelling research directed towards understanding the contributions of the visual system. While dyslexia is not an oculomotor disease, readers with dyslexia have shown different eye movements than typically developing students during text reading. Readers with dyslexia exhibit longer and more frequent fixations, shorter saccade lengths, more backward refixations than typical readers. Furthermore, readers with dyslexia are known to have difficulty in reading long words, lower skipping rate of short words, and high gaze duration on many words. It is an open question whether it is possible to harness these distinctive oculomotor scanning patterns observed during reading in order to develop a screening tool that can reliably identify struggling readers, who may be candidates for dyslexia. Here, we introduce a novel, fast, objective, non-invasive method, named Rapid Assessment of Difficulties and Abnormalities in Reading (RADAR that screens for features associated with the aberrant visual scanning of reading text seen in dyslexia. Eye tracking parameter measurements that are stable under retest and have high discriminative power, as indicated by their ROC (receiver operating characteristic curves, were obtained during silent text reading. These parameters were combined to derive a total reading score (TRS that can reliably separate readers with dyslexia from typical readers. We tested TRS in a group of school-age children ranging from 8.5 to 12.5 years of age. TRS achieved 94.2% correct classification of children tested. Specifically, 35 out of 37 control (specificity 94.6% and 30 out of 32 readers with dyslexia (sensitivity 93.8% were classified correctly using RADAR, under a circular validation condition (see section Results/Total Reading Score where the individual evaluated was not included in the test construction group. In conclusion, RADAR is a

Cognitive Attributes of Adequate and Inadequate Responders to Reading Intervention in Middle School

OpenAIRE

Miciak, Jeremy; Stuebing, Karla K.; Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Greg; Barth, Amy Elizabeth; Fletcher, Jack M.

2014-01-01

No studies have investigated the cognitive attributes of middle school students who are adequate and inadequate responders to Tier 2 reading intervention. We compared students in Grades 6 and 7 representing groups of adequate responders (n = 77) and inadequate responders who fell below criteria in (a) comprehension (n = 54); (b) fluency (n = 45); and (c) decoding, fluency, and comprehension (DFC; n = 45). These students received measures of phonological awareness, listening comprehension, rap...

THE CONTRIBUTION OF COMPLEXITY, ACCURACY AND FLUENCY TO LANGUAGE FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

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Anthony Rausch

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper will outline an instructional approach that proposes a Complexity, Accuracy, Fluency (CAF paradigm as a means of providing learners with the CAF-based communication consciousness and CAF-oriented manipulative skills that are increasingly important in language use in Language for Specific Purposes. Given the complex combinations of communicative tasks, communicative formats and communicative circumstances that accompany the wide-ranging and various contexts of contemporary professional communication, communicative competence demands a combinative consciousness and informed application of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency as a communication paradigm. Viewed as a combination of its three components, a CAF paradigm constitutes a fundamental ‘information, language and communication’ triad that can guide professional language use in any communicative circumstance. Viewed as a communicative skill set, the CAF triad implies the capability to adjust specific elements and aspects of information, language and communication as needed for a communicative task, whether in oral or print communication and regardless of task category. Adjusting complexity in this context refers to both content and language complexity. Adjusting accuracy refers to the conventions that dictate appropriate or acceptable language in a given context. Finally, adjusting fluency refers to a sense of communicative fluency, that which yields either smooth and persuasive language as in a native-speaker normative view or explicit and clearly explanatory language as necessary in some communicative encounters. The need to manipulate these three components depends on circumstance variables such as objective, available time, audience characteristics and the degree of detail desired. This paper will outline this combinative CAF notion as background to a materials development project being undertaken in a Japanese university, introducing the specifics of an Extended Reading Aloud

The Relationship between Multiplication Fact Speed-Recall and Fluency and Higher Level Mathematics Learning with Eighth Grade Middle School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Curry, Steven James

2012-01-01

This quantitative study investigated relationships between higher level mathematics learning and multiplication fact fluency, multiplication fact speed-recall, and reading grade equivalency of eighth grade students in Algebra I and Pre-Algebra. Higher level mathematics learning was indicated by an average score of 80% or higher on first and second…

Ocoee Junior High School's Total School Reading Program on a Shoestring.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinson, Bess; Williams, Robert W.

The total school reading program described in this booklet includes a program for remedial, developmental, and special education students. Faculty members and students not participating in this program spend one half hour a day in a silent reading program. The booklet outlines each facet of the program, lists the equipment and materials used,…

Visiting digital fluency for pre-service teachers in Turkey

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Kadir Demir

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Digital literacy is to know how to use digital tools, however digital fluency is a new concept. Beyond the digital literacy, digital fluency requires skills to know when to use the technology and even why to use the technology. The technology advances rapidly; as a result, education and instruction are getting digitalized. So it could be estimated that; pre-service teachers who are future teachers, should have digital skills. This is the main point of this study which aims to visit pre-service teachers in Turkey from the perspective of digital fluency, give insights about digital fluency, scrutinize its difference from digital literacy and provide literature review on the previous studies about digital fluency. Accordingly; a through literature review was performed. At first, the connection between digital fluency and the 21st century analyzed, then the differences between digital literacy and digital fluency are described. Worldwide and specifically Turkish literature review revealed that, certain studies foresaw the increasing importance of digital fluency based on development of digital devices, and Turkish literature was limited to some scale development and descriptive studies solely determining the digital literacy level of the participants. Thus, it could be stated that further and up-to-date studies are required, which would be conducted with pre-service teachers and current assessment instruments should be developed to determine digital fluency level, considering the rapid advances in technology.

Confrontation Naming and Reading Abilities at Primary School: A Longitudinal Study

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Chiara Luoni

2015-01-01

naming (i.e., the Boston Naming Test (BNT in a nonclinical sample of Italian primary school children was conducted (n=126, testing them at the end of each school year, to assess nonverbal intelligence, confrontation naming, and reading abilities. Results. Performance on the BNT emerged as a function of IQ and SES. Significant correlations between confrontation naming and reading abilities, especially comprehension, were found; BNT scores correlated better with reading fluency than with reading accuracy. Conclusions. The longitudinal data obtained in this study are discussed with regard to reading abilities, intelligence, age, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension.

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Lynne G; McGeown, Sarah P; Griffiths, Yvonne M; Stothard, Susan E; Dobai, Anna

2016-05-01

This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13 years) or middle adolescence (14-15 years) participated from a range of SES backgrounds. Word identification emerged as a strong predictor of reading comprehension across adolescence and text genres. Gender effects favouring female students were evident for reading frequency but not for reading skill itself. Reading habits also differed, and comprehension advantages were observed among females for fiction and males for non-fiction. Age effects emerged for reading frequency, which was lower in middle adolescence. Although more time was spent on digital than on traditional texts, traditional extended text reading was the only reading habit to predict inference-making in comprehension and to distinguish skilled from less skilled comprehenders. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

iPad Use for Accelerating Reading Gains in Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Retter, Shannan; Anderson, Christine; Kieran, Laura

2013-01-01

This action research project explored the use of the iPad 2 in a special education classroom with high school students who were considered struggling readers to determine if an academic gain in reading comprehension, reading fluency, and vocabulary implementing the intervention of an iPad and four specific applications (apps). The high school…

Processing changes across reading encounters.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, B A; Newell, S; Snyder, J; Timmins, K

1986-10-01

Five experiments examined changes in the processing of a text across reading encounters. Experiment 1 showed that reading speed increased systematically across encounters, with no loss in the extensiveness of analyses of the printed text, as indicated by the ability to detect nonword errors embedded within that passage. Experiment 2 replicated this improved reading fluency with experience and showed that it occurred even with typescript changes across trials, thus indicating that a primed visual operations explanation cannot account for the effect. The third and fourth experiments then extended the study of the familiarity effect to higher level processing, as indicated by the detection of word errors. Familiarity facilitated the detection of these violations at the syntactic-semantic levels. Finally, Experiment 5 showed that these higher level violations continued to be well detected over a series of reading encounters with the same text. The results indicate that prior experience improves reading speed, with no attenuation of analysis of the printed words or of the passage's message.

Reading skills in children and adults with albinism: the role of visual impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

MacDonald, John T; Kutzbach, Beth R; Holleschau, Ann M; Wyckoff, Suzanne; Summers, C Gail

2012-01-01

To evaluate whether visual impairment in albinism contributes significantly to the acquisition of normal reading skills. The authors administered standardized reading tests to 41 children and 18 adults with albinism. The Young Children's Achievement Test was used for children between 4 and 6 years old and the Woodcock-Johnson III was used for children 7 years and older and adults. Parents of children and adult subjects also completed a questionnaire to document developmental, academic, and/or work experiences. The Spearman test was used to evaluate the relationship between binocular best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and reading test results. Standardized reading tests in both children and adults with albinism showed a normal distribution of scores. BCVA did not appear to play a significant role in the development of normal reading ability in these individuals who were visually impaired except for a mild correlation of decreased reading fluency on the Woodcock-Johnson III with decreased BCVA (r = 0.287, P = .046). Many young children with albinism had superior reading skills despite having a BCVA of 20/200 or worse (legal blindness). This study of cognitively normal children and adults with albinism demonstrates that impaired vision during childhood does not by itself significantly impede a child's ability to acquire normal reading skills. However, the lower reading fluency that occurs in the more visually impaired individuals suggests they would benefit, both in the school system and workplace, with an accommodation involving more time to complete reading tasks. Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.

Growth in Oral Reading Fluency of Spanish ELL Students with Learning Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Rubin, Daniel Ian

2016-01-01

The process of learning to read is difficult for many children, and this is especially true for students with learning disabilities (LD). Reading in English becomes even more difficult when a student's home language is not English. For English language learner (ELL) students with LD, acquiring the necessary skills to read fluently is an even…

A test of the cerebellar hypothesis of dyslexia in adequate and inadequate responders to reading intervention.

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Barth, Amy E; Denton, Carolyn A; Stuebing, Karla K; Fletcher, Jack M; Cirino, Paul T; Francis, David J; Vaughn, Sharon

2010-05-01

The cerebellar hypothesis of dyslexia posits that cerebellar deficits are associated with reading disabilities and may explain why some individuals with reading disabilities fail to respond to reading interventions. We tested these hypotheses in a sample of children who participated in a grade 1 reading intervention study (n = 174) and a group of typically achieving children (n = 62). At posttest, children were classified as adequately responding to the intervention (n = 82), inadequately responding with decoding and fluency deficits (n = 36), or inadequately responding with only fluency deficits (n = 56). Based on the Bead Threading and Postural Stability subtests from the Dyslexia Screening Test-Junior, we found little evidence that assessments of cerebellar functions were associated with academic performance or responder status. In addition, we did not find evidence supporting the hypothesis that cerebellar deficits are more prominent for poor readers with "specific" reading disabilities (i.e., with discrepancies relative to IQ) than for poor readers with reading scores consistent with IQ. In contrast, measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and vocabulary were strongly associated with responder status and academic outcomes. These results add to accumulating evidence that fails to associate cerebellar functions with reading difficulties.

Scaffolded Silent Reading (ScSR): Advocating a Policy for Adolescents' Independent Reading

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Walker, Karen P.

2013-01-01

Structured independent reading among students is often a vital missing component in many school districts' literacy curriculum. The nationwide implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) requires districts to re-think their literacy curriculum and what instruction might entail in order for students to demonstrate proficiency in…

Processing fluency and impressions of joy and pride

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kravchenko Yu.E.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The mere exposure effect consists in the increasing of affective preference (sympathy/ liking for a previously encountered stimulus. Many researches connect it with processing fluency and effort savings (hedonic marking hypothesis [17]. The present study investigates, whether processing fluency connects with other positive emotions. We supposed higher processing fluency correlates with grater intensity of pride and joy. In 1 Experiment participants (n = 98 recognize 10 well-known proverbs in guessing game. Then they marked proverbs about that they would brag to their friends and ranked all proverbs from the most to the lest pleasant. In 2 Experiment 4 groups each of that concluded 24 different complicated joy statements were pairwise compared. Participants (n = 55 chosen most funny and marked unfunny statements. Results shows most sympathy is connect with higher processing fluency, but pride and joy appear more often in connection with more complicated stimuli required lower processing fluency.

Comprehension from the Ground Up: Simplified, Sensible Instruction for the K-3 Reading Workshop

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Taberski, Sharon

2010-01-01

The author cuts through the pressurized, strategy-overloaded, fluency-crazed atmosphere surrounding reading instruction to lay out the reading and writing workshop practices that are most effective in developing readers in the primary grades. She shares the daily how-tos needed to sustain a literacy block that engages children in authentic reading…

Effects of working memory and reading acceleration training on improving working memory abilities and reading skills among third graders.

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Nevo, Einat; Breznitz, Zvia

2014-01-01

Working memory (WM) plays a crucial role in supporting learning, including reading. This study investigated the influence of reading acceleration and WM training programs on improving reading skills and WM abilities. Ninety-seven children in third grade were divided into three study groups and one control group. The three study groups each received a different combination of two training programs: only reading acceleration, WM followed by reading acceleration, and reading acceleration followed by WM. All training programs significantly improved reading skills and WM abilities. Compared with the control group, the group trained with only the reading acceleration program improved word accuracy, whereas the groups trained with a combination of reading and WM programs improved word and pseudo-word fluency. The reading-acceleration-alone group and the WM-program-followed-by-reading-acceleration group improved phonological complex memory. We conclude that a training program that combines a long reading acceleration program and a short WM program is the most effective for improving the abilities most related to scholastic achievement.

Motivating Adolescent Readers: A Middle School Reading Fluency and Prosody Intervention

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Whittington, Marta

2012-01-01

Adolescent learners face a complexity of reading content they have never before encountered as they enter middle school and become independent in structuring their own academic frameworks. Some students become disconnected and unmotivated readers as school competes with their multiple reading lives. This study examined the use of choice along with…

Revisiting the Relations between the WJ-IV Measures of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Cognitive Abilities and Reading Achievement during the School-Age Years

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Cormier, Damien C.; McGrew, Kevin S.; Bulut, Okan; Funamoto, Allyson

2017-01-01

This study examined associations between broad cognitive abilities (Fluid Reasoning [Gf], Short-Term Working Memory [Gwm], Long-Term Storage and Retrieval [Glr], Processing Speed [Gs], Comprehension-Knowledge [Gc], Visual Processing [Gv], and Auditory Processing [Ga]) and reading achievement (Basic Reading Skills, Reading Rate, Reading Fluency,…

Applying a Reading Program Based on Cognitive Science in Rural Areas of Malawi: Preliminary Results

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Iyengar, Radhika; Karim, Alia; Chagwira, Florie

2016-01-01

Reading fluency is a skill foundational to academic performance, and acquiring this skill in early grades is crucial. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, reading levels of students are far below grade level, and Malawi is no exception. Research suggests that students, particularly in consistently spelled languages, acquire automaticity most easily by…

Characteristics of silent countingin synchronized swimmers

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Sergey V. Leonov

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes the temporal characteristics of silent counting as used duringa competition by the Russian youth team of synchronized swimmers. Theathletes listened to the music that accompanied their performance at the competition.Diff erent indices of silent counting were defi ned, such as the beginningand cessation of diff erent periods of counting, counting frequency, the stabilityof the temporal structure of silent counting, the degree of synchronization of silentcounting at diff erent moments during the sports program. We studied therelationship of these characteristics of counting with expert estimates of the athletes’sense of tempo, coordination of movements, and choreographic abilities.

Myocardial perfusion in silent myocardial ischemia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narita, Michihiro; Kurihara, Tadashi; Murano, Kenichi; Usami, Masahisa

1989-01-01

To investigate myocardial perfusion in silent myocardial ischemia, we performed exercise stress myocardial tomography with thallium-201 (Tl) in 85 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Exercise stress myocardial tomography was obtained both immediately after exercise and three hours later. Patients were classified into two groups according to the presence (Symptomatic Group, n=36) or absence (Silent Group, n=49) of chest pain during exercise stress. Clinical features (age, gender and history of myocardial infarction) and arteriographically determined severity of CAD were the same in both groups. The extent of myocardial ischemia (% Ischemia) estimated by exercise stress myocardial tomography was the same in each group (30±10 % in Silent Group, 28±12 % in Symptomatic Group, NS). The severity of exercise-induced myocardial ischemia was expressed as a minimal value of myocardial Tl washout rate (minimal WOR) of each patient. Although exercise heart rate was identical in both groups, minimal WOR in Silent Group was significantly higher than that of Symptomatic Group (4±10% vs -16±14%, p<0.001). The study in patients who exhibited both silent and symptomatic ischemia showed the same results. These findings suggest that the severity of ischemia is a fundamental factor in determining the presence or absence of pain during exercise induced ischemia. (author)

Improvements in reading accuracy as a result of increased interletter spacing are not specific to children with dyslexia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hakvoort, Britt; van den Boer, Madelon; Leenaars, Tineke; Bos, Petra; Tijms, Jurgen

2017-01-01

Recently, increased interletter spacing (LS) has been studied as a way to enhance reading fluency. It is suggested that increased LS improves reading performance, especially in poor readers. Theoretically, these findings are well substantiated as a result of diminished crowding effects. Empirically,

Unusual ocular manifestations of silent sinus syndrome

OpenAIRE

Fonseca, Fabricio Lopes da; Mazoti, Luciana; Polati, Mariza

2014-01-01

Silent sinus syndrome is an acquired condition in which there is a gradual collapse of the orbital floor and inward retraction of the maxillary sinus (atelectasis of the maxillary sinus). This in turn may cause associated ocular occurrences of enophthalmos and hypotropia. This is a report of an 8 year-old boy with silent sinus syndrome and associated ocular motility disorders. The association between silent sinus syndrome and ocular motility disturbance has been recently described in the lite...

Languages on the screen: is film comprehension related to the viewers' fluency level and to the language in the subtitles?

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Lavaur, Jean-Marc; Bairstow, Dominique

2011-12-01

This research aimed at studying the role of subtitling in film comprehension. It focused on the languages in which the subtitles are written and on the participants' fluency levels in the languages presented in the film. In a preliminary part of the study, the most salient visual and dialogue elements of a short sequence of an English film were extracted by the means of a free recall task after showing two versions of the film (first a silent, then a dubbed-into-French version) to native French speakers. This visual and dialogue information was used in the setting of a questionnaire concerning the understanding of the film presented in the main part of the study, in which other French native speakers with beginner, intermediate, or advanced fluency levels in English were shown one of three versions of the film used in the preliminary part. Respectively, these versions had no subtitles or they included either English or French subtitles. The results indicate a global interaction between all three factors in this study: For the beginners, visual processing dropped from the version without subtitles to that with English subtitles, and even more so if French subtitles were provided, whereas the effect of film version on dialogue comprehension was the reverse. The advanced participants achieved higher comprehension for both types of information with the version without subtitles, and dialogue information processing was always better than visual information processing. The intermediate group similarly processed dialogues in a better way than visual information, but was not affected by film version. These results imply that, depending on the viewers' fluency levels, the language of subtitles can have different effects on movie information processing.

Teacher quality moderates the genetic effects on early reading.

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Taylor, J; Roehrig, A D; Soden Hensler, B; Connor, C M; Schatschneider, C

2010-04-23

Children's reading achievement is influenced by genetics as well as by family and school environments. The importance of teacher quality as a specific school environmental influence on reading achievement is unknown. We studied first- and second-grade students in Florida from schools representing diverse environments. Comparison of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, differentiating genetic similarities of 100% and 50%, provided an estimate of genetic variance in reading achievement. Teacher quality was measured by how much reading gain the non-twin classmates achieved. The magnitude of genetic variance associated with twins' oral reading fluency increased as the quality of their teacher increased. In circumstances where the teachers are all excellent, the variability in student reading achievement may appear to be largely due to genetics. However, poor teaching impedes the ability of children to reach their potential.

Silent communication: toward using brain signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Xiaomei; Hill, Jeremy; Schalk, Gerwin

2012-01-01

From the 1980s movie Firefox to the more recent Avatar, popular science fiction has speculated about the possibility of a persons thoughts being read directly from his or her brain. Such braincomputer interfaces (BCIs) might allow people who are paralyzed to communicate with and control their environment, and there might also be applications in military situations wherever silent user-to-user communication is desirable. Previous studies have shown that BCI systems can use brain signals related to movements and movement imagery or attention-based character selection. Although these systems have successfully demonstrated the possibility to control devices using brain function, directly inferring which word a person intends to communicate has been elusive. A BCI using imagined speech might provide such a practical, intuitive device. Toward this goal, our studies to date addressed two scientific questions: (1) Can brain signals accurately characterize different aspects of speech? (2) Is it possible to predict spoken or imagined words or their components using brain signals?

Does Writing System Influence the Associations between Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness, and Reading? A Meta-Analysis

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Ruan, Yufang; Georgiou, George K.; Song, Shuang; Li, Yixun; Shu, Hua

2018-01-01

Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about the extent to which the role of linguistic skills such as phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA) in reading is universal. In this meta-analysis, the authors examined the relationship between PA, MA, and reading (accuracy, fluency, and…

Information fluency for undergraduate biology majors: applications of inquiry-based learning in a developmental biology course.

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Gehring, Kathleen M; Eastman, Deborah A

2008-01-01

Many initiatives for the improvement of undergraduate science education call for inquiry-based learning that emphasizes investigative projects and reading of the primary literature. These approaches give students an understanding of science as a process and help them integrate content presented in courses. At the same time, general initiatives to promote information fluency are being promoted on many college and university campuses. Information fluency refers to discipline-specific processing of information, and it involves integration of gathered information with specific ideas to form logical conclusions. We have implemented the use of inquiry-based learning to enhance and study discipline-specific information fluency skills in an upper-level undergraduate Developmental Biology course. In this study, an information literacy tutorial and a set of linked assignments using primary literature analysis were integrated with two inquiry-based laboratory research projects. Quantitative analysis of student responses suggests that the abilities of students to identify and apply valid sources of information were enhanced. Qualitative assessment revealed a set of patterns by which students gather and apply information. Self-assessment responses indicated that students recognized the impact of the assignments on their abilities to gather and apply information and that they were more confident about these abilities for future biology courses and beyond.

Evaluating the Interpretations and Use of Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading and Word Lists for Universal Screening in First and Second Grade

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January, Stacy-Ann A.; Ardoin, Scott P.; Christ, Theodore J.; Eckert, Tanya L.; White, Mary Jane

2016-01-01

Universal screening in elementary schools often includes administering curriculum-based measurement in reading (CBM-R); but in first grade, nonsense word fluency (NWF) and, to a lesser extent, word identification fluency (WIF) are used because of concerns that CBM-R is too difficult for emerging readers. This study used Kane's argument-based…

Lexical factors and cerebral regions influencing verbal fluency performance in MCI.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, D G; Wadley, V G; Kapur, P; DeRamus, T P; Singletary, B; Nicholas, A P; Blanton, P D; Lokken, K; Deshpande, H; Marson, D; Deutsch, G

2014-02-01

To evaluate assumptions regarding semantic (noun), verb, and letter fluency in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD) using novel techniques for measuring word similarity in fluency lists and a region of interest (ROI) analysis of gray matter correlates. Fifty-eight individuals with normal cognition (NC, n=25), MCI (n=23), or AD (n=10) underwent neuropsychological tests, including 10 verbal fluency tasks (three letter tasks [F, A, S], six noun categories [animals, water creatures, fruits and vegetables, tools, vehicles, boats], and verbs). All pairs of words generated by each participant on each task were compared in terms of semantic (meaning), orthographic (spelling), and phonemic (pronunciation) similarity. We used mixed-effects logistic regression to determine which lexical factors were predictive of word adjacency within the lists. Associations between each fluency raw score and gray matter volumes in sixteen ROIs were identified by means of multiple linear regression. We evaluated causal models for both types of analyses to specify the contributions of diagnosis and various mediator variables to the outcomes of word adjacency and fluency raw score. Semantic similarity between words emerged as the strongest predictor of word adjacency for all fluency tasks, including the letter fluency tasks. Semantic similarity mediated the effect of cognitive impairment on word adjacency only for three fluency tasks employing a biological cue. Orthographic similarity was predictive of word adjacency for the A and S tasks, while phonemic similarity was predictive only for the S task and one semantic task (vehicles). The ROI analysis revealed different patterns of correlations among the various fluency tasks, with the most common associations in the right lower temporal and bilateral dorsal frontal regions. Following correction with gray matter volumes from the opposite hemisphere, significant associations persisted for animals, vehicles, and a composite

The Compensatory Effectiveness of Optical Character Recognition/Speech Synthesis on Reading Comprehension of Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Higgins, Eleanor L.; Raskind, Marshall H.

1997-01-01

Thirty-seven college students with learning disabilities were given a reading comprehension task under the following conditions: (1) using an optical character recognition/speech synthesis system; (2) having the text read aloud by a human reader; or (3) reading silently without assistance. Findings indicated that the greater the disability, the…

Longitudinal mediators of achievement in mathematics and reading in typical and atypical development.

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Barnes, Marcia A; Raghubar, Kimberly P; English, Lianne; Williams, Jeffrey M; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan

2014-03-01

Longitudinal studies of neurodevelopmental disorders that are diagnosed at or before birth and are associated with specific learning difficulties at school-age provide one method for investigating developmental precursors of later-emerging academic disabilities. Spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with particular problems in mathematics, in contrast to well-developed word reading. Children with SBM (n=30) and typically developing children (n=35) were used to determine whether cognitive abilities measured at 36 and 60 months of age mediated the effect of group on mathematical and reading achievement outcomes at 8.5 and 9.5 years of age. A series of multiple mediator models showed that: visual-spatial working memory at 36 months and phonological awareness at 60 months partially mediated the effect of group on math calculations, phonological awareness partially mediated the effect of group on small addition and subtraction problems on a test of math fluency, and visual-spatial working memory mediated the effect of group on a test of math problem solving. Groups did not differ on word reading, and phonological awareness was the only mediator for reading fluency and reading comprehension. The findings are discussed with reference to theories of mathematical development and disability and with respect to both common and differing cognitive correlates of math and reading. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unusual ocular manifestations of silent sinus syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabricio Lopes da Fonseca

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Silent sinus syndrome is an acquired condition in which there is a gradual collapse of the orbital floor and inward retraction of the maxillary sinus (atelectasis of the maxillary sinus. This in turn may cause associated ocular occurrences of enophthalmos and hypotropia. This is a report of an 8 year-old boy with silent sinus syndrome and associated ocular motility disorders. The association between silent sinus syndrome and ocular motility disturbance has been recently described in the literature. However, this is an infrequent association, mainly in childhood.

Personality traits prospectively predict verbal fluency in a lifespan sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutin, Angelina R; Terracciano, Antonio; Kitner-Triolo, Melissa H; Uda, Manuela; Schlessinger, David; Zonderman, Alan B

2011-12-01

In a community-dwelling sample (N = 4,790; age range 14-94), we examined whether personality traits prospectively predicted performance on a verbal fluency task. Open, extraverted, and emotionally stable participants had better verbal fluency. At the facet level, dispositionally happy and self-disciplined participants retrieved more words; those prone to anxiety and depression and those who were deliberative retrieved fewer words. Education moderated the association between conscientiousness and fluency such that participants with lower education performed better on the fluency task if they were also conscientious. Age was not a moderator at the domain level, indicating that the personality-fluency associations were consistent across the life span. A disposition toward emotional vulnerability and being less open, less happy, and undisciplined may be detrimental to cognitive performance.

Performances on five verbal fluency tests in a healthy, elderly Danish sample

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stokholm, Jette; Jørgensen, Kasper; Vogel, Asmus

2013-01-01

Verbal fluency tests are widely used as measures of language and executive functions. This study presents data for five tests; semantic fluency (animals, supermarket items and alternating between cities and professions), lexical fluency (s-words), and action fluency (verbs) based on a sample of 100...

Evaluating lexical characteristics of verbal fluency output in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Juhasz, Barbara J; Chambers, Destinee; Shesler, Leah W; Haber, Alix; Kurtz, Matthew M

2012-12-30

Standardized lexical analysis of verbal output has not been applied to verbal fluency tasks in schizophrenia. Performance of individuals with schizophrenia on both a letter (n=139) and semantic (n=137) fluency task was investigated. The lexical characteristics (word frequency, age-of-acquisition, word length, and semantic typicality) of words produced were evaluated and compared to those produced by a healthy control group matched on age, gender, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) vocabulary scores (n=20). Overall, individuals with schizophrenia produced fewer words than healthy controls, replicating past research (see Bokat and Goldberg, 2003). Words produced in the semantic fluency task by individuals with schizophrenia were, on average, earlier acquired and more typical of the category. In contrast, no differences in lexical characteristics emerged in the letter fluency task. The results are informative regarding how individuals with schizophrenia access their mental lexicons during the verbal fluency task. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptual fluency and judgments of vocal aesthetics and stereotypicality.

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Babel, Molly; McGuire, Grant

2015-05-01

Research has shown that processing dynamics on the perceiver's end determine aesthetic pleasure. Specifically, typical objects, which are processed more fluently, are perceived as more attractive. We extend this notion of perceptual fluency to judgments of vocal aesthetics. Vocal attractiveness has traditionally been examined with respect to sexual dimorphism and the apparent size of a talker, as reconstructed from the acoustic signal, despite evidence that gender-specific speech patterns are learned social behaviors. In this study, we report on a series of three experiments using 60 voices (30 females) to compare the relationship between judgments of vocal attractiveness, stereotypicality, and gender categorization fluency. Our results indicate that attractiveness and stereotypicality are highly correlated for female and male voices. Stereotypicality and categorization fluency were also correlated for male voices, but not female voices. Crucially, stereotypicality and categorization fluency interacted to predict attractiveness, suggesting the role of perceptual fluency is present, but nuanced, in judgments of human voices. © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Reading for Pleasure: More than Just a Distant Possibility?

Science.gov (United States)

Barber, Karen Slikas

2014-01-01

Much has been written about the importance of extensive reading for the development of language fluency, yet it is not often an activity of choice by students as a means of improving language learning. Many of my multi-level (elementary-intermediate) Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Certificates in Spoken and Written English (CSWE) students…

Silent Synapse-Based Circuitry Remodeling in Drug Addiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Yan

2016-05-01

Exposure to cocaine, and likely other drugs of abuse, generates α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor-silent glutamatergic synapses in the nucleus accumbens. These immature synaptic contacts evolve after drug withdrawal to redefine the neurocircuital properties. These results raise at least three critical questions: (1) what are the molecular and cellular mechanisms that mediate drug-induced generation of silent synapses; (2) how are neurocircuits remodeled upon generation and evolution of drug-generated silent synapses; and (3) what behavioral consequences are produced by silent synapse-based circuitry remodeling? This short review analyzes related experimental results, and extends them to some speculations. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CINP.

Affect intensity and processing fluency of deterrents.

Science.gov (United States)

Holman, Andrei

2013-01-01

The theory of emotional intensity (Brehm, 1999) suggests that the intensity of affective states depends on the magnitude of their current deterrents. Our study investigated the role that fluency--the subjective experience of ease of information processing--plays in the emotional intensity modulations as reactions to deterrents. Following an induction phase of good mood, we manipulated both the magnitude of deterrents (using sets of photographs with pre-tested potential to instigate an emotion incompatible with the pre-existent affective state--pity) and their processing fluency (normal vs. enhanced through subliminal priming). Current affective state and perception of deterrents were then measured. In the normal processing conditions, the results revealed the cubic effect predicted by the emotional intensity theory, with the initial affective state being replaced by the one appropriate to the deterrent only in participants exposed to the high magnitude deterrence. In the enhanced fluency conditions the emotional intensity pattern was drastically altered; also, the replacement of the initial affective state occurred at a lower level of deterrence magnitude (moderate instead of high), suggesting the strengthening of deterrence emotional impact by enhanced fluency.

Mere exposure effect: A consequence of direct and indirect fluency-preference links.

Science.gov (United States)

Willems, Sylvie; Van der Linden, Martial

2006-06-01

In three experiments, picture quality between test items was manipulated to examine whether subjects' expectations about the fluency normally associated with these different stimuli might influence the effects of fluency on preference or familiarity-based recognition responses. The results showed that fluency due to pre-exposure influenced responses less when objects were presented with high picture quality, suggesting that attributions of fluency to preference and familiarity are adjusted according to expectations about the different test pictures. However, this expectations influence depended on subjects' awareness of these different quality levels. Indeed, imperceptible differences seemed not to induce expectations about the test item fluency. In this context, fluency due to both picture quality and pre-exposure influenced direct responses. Conversely, obvious, and noticed, differences in test picture quality did no affect responses, suggesting that expectations moderated attributions of fluency only when fluency normally associated with these different stimuli was perceptible but difficult to assess.

The Melding of Literacy Strategies to Enhance Reading Fluency, Comprehension, and Enjoyment

Science.gov (United States)

Weih, Timothy G.

2013-01-01

This report describes an individualized literacy intervention program that was developed for a fifth grade boy who struggled with reading. Based upon informal assessment and evaluation procedures, the following literacy strategies were taught within a one-to-one instructional setting: Repeated Readings, Personal Vocabulary Journal, Phonemic…

Stillelesing i norskfaget – pustepause for læreren eller veiledningsøkt i lesing?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ingvill Krogstad Svanes

2016-08-01

activity in Norwegian classrooms, but the knowledge about what the teacher does during this time and how she provides instructional support, is limited. This study aims to increase knowledge about this. To illuminate the teacher’s role during silent reading, the study combines research on silent reading with research on teachers’ feedback during oral reading. The four teachers are observed one week each, and the material consists of video recordings from the silent reading periods. The recordings are analyzed in light of the five pillars of reading instruction (National reading panel 2000: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension. The study shows that the teachers spend the time during silent reading very differently. Two of them mostly spend the time on listening to the pupils read and on instructional support. The other two spend most time on organizing, or for instance tidying. Through close analyses of the teachers’ instructional support, the study finds that the teachers support the pupils in all the relevant pillars of reading instruction, but to a different degree. The teachers also vary in what kind of feedback they provide, using both ‘terminal’ and ‘sustaining’ feedback. The teachers vary their instructional support more than previous classroom studies have indicated. It looks, however, as if the teachers could profit on increased awareness about silent reading as teaching and about different kinds of feedback.Keywords: silent reading, oral feedback, reading instruction, primary school, Language arts

Supporting Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders' Comprehension and Reading Fluency

Science.gov (United States)

Garwood, Justin D.; Ciullo, Stephen; Brunsting, Nelson

2017-01-01

This article discusses two strategies to improve reading outcomes for middle and high school adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The first is providing secondary students a choice of accessible, engaging activities to more actively engage them during reading instruction and foster intrinsic motivation to engage in literacy…

Middle Level Teachers' Perceptions of Interim Reading Assessments: An Exploratory Study of Data-Based Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Deborah K.

2015-01-01

This study explored the data-based decision making of 12 teachers in grades 6-8 who were asked about their perceptions and use of three required interim measures of reading performance: oral reading fluency (ORF), retell, and a benchmark comprised of released state test items. Focus group participants reported they did not believe the benchmark or…

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back in Teaching an Endangered Language? Revisiting L2 Reading in Irish

Science.gov (United States)

Hickey, Tina M.; Stenson, Nancy

2016-01-01

Hickey's (1991) article ["Leisure reading in a second language: An experiment with audio tapes." "Language, Culture and Curriculum," 4(2), 119-131. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908319109525098] reported the benefits of audio-support for L2 reading of real books, showing gains in fluency and motivation among…

Impact of low vision care on reading performance in children with multiple disabilities and visual impairment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krishna Kumar Ramani

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Lack of evidence in literature to show low vision care enhances the reading performance in children with Multiple Disabilities and Visual Impairment (MDVI. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of Low Vision Care intervention on the reading performance of children with MDVI. Materials and Methods: Three subjects who were diagnosed to have cerebral palsy and visual impairment, studying in a special school were recruited for the study. All of them underwent detailed eye examination and low vision care evaluation at a tertiary eye care hospital. A single subject multiple baseline (study design was adopted and the study period was 16 weeks. The reading performance (reading speed, reading accuracy, reading fluency was evaluated during the baseline phase and the intervention phase. The median of all the reading parameters for each week was noted. The trend of the reading performance was graphically represented in both the phases. Results: Reading speed increased by 37 Word per minute, 37 Letters per minute and 5 letters per minute for the subject 1, 2 and 3 respectively after the intervention. Reading accuracy was 84%, 91% and 86.4% at the end of the baseline period and 98.7%, 98.4% and 99% at the end of 16 weeks for subject 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Average reading fluency score was 8.3, 7.1 and 5.5 in the baseline period and 10.2, 10.2 and 8.7 in the intervention period. Conclusion: This study shows evidence of noticeable improvement in reading performance of children with MDVI using a novel study design.

Modification of hormonal secretion in clinically silent pituitary adenomas.

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Daems, Tania; Verhelst, Johan; Michotte, Alex; Abrams, Pascale; De Ridder, Dirk; Abs, Roger

2009-01-01

Silent pituitary adenomas are a subtype of adenomas characterized by positive immunoreactivity for one or more hormones classically secreted by normal pituitary cells but without clinical expression, although in some occasions enhanced or changed secretory activity can develop over time. Silent corticotroph adenomas are the classical example of this phenomenon. A series of about 500 pituitary adenomas seen over a period of 20 years were screened for modification in hormonal secretion. Biochemical and immunohistochemical data were reviewed. Two cases were retrieved, one silent somatotroph adenoma and one thyrotroph adenoma, both without specific clinical features or biochemical abnormalities, which presented 20 years after initial surgery with evidence of acromegaly and hyperthyroidism, respectively. While the acromegaly was controlled by a combination of somatostatin analogs and growth hormone (GH) receptor antagonist therapy, neurosurgery was necessary to manage the thyrotroph adenoma. Immunohistochemical examination demonstrated an increase in the number of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)-immunoreactive cells compared to the first tissue. Apparently, the mechanisms responsible for the secretory modifications are different, being a change in secretory capacity in the silent somatotroph adenoma and a quantitative change in the silent thyrotroph adenoma. These two cases, one somatotroph and one thyrotroph adenoma, are an illustration that clinically silent pituitary adenomas may in rare circumstances evolve over time and become active, as previously demonstrated in silent corticotroph adenomas.

The Influence of Spanish Vocabulary and Phonemic Awareness on Beginning English Reading Development: A Three-Year (K-2nd) Longitudinal Study

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Kelley, Michael F.; Roe, Mary; Blanchard, Jay; Atwill, Kim

2015-01-01

This investigation examined the influence of varying levels of Spanish receptive vocabulary and phonemic awareness ability on beginning English vocabulary, phonemic awareness, word reading fluency, and reading comprehension development across kindergarten through second grade. The 80 respondents were Spanish speaking children with no English…

Eye Movements Reveal Readers' Lexical Quality and Reading Experience

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Taylor, Jessica Nelson; Perfetti, Charles A.

2016-01-01

Two experiments demonstrate that individual differences among normal adult readers, including lexical quality, are expressed in silent reading at the word level. In the first of two studies we identified major dimensions of variability among college readers and among words using factor analysis. We then examined the effects of these dimensions of…

Predicting factors of verbal fluency and the effects of stereotype threat and boost

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Aims: Verbal Fluency (VF tasks are often utilised to assist in the neuropsychological assessment of cognitive impairment and diagnosis of cognitive disorders. VF performance can also provide information about an individual’s vocabulary and speed of cognitive processes. In order to further develop our understanding of predictors of VF, this study explored how age, education and time spent reading and writing can affect performance. Furthermore, this study investigated the effects of a stereotype threat (STT or boost (STB. Method: VF tasks (pre and post stereotype manipulation were administrated to 30 adults with 15 receiving a STT and 15 receiving a STB. The stereotype threat/boost was activated by informing participants that they read and wrote less/more than their peers. Results: Medium to strong positive correlations (with some being significant were found between education level and both the number of words generated and with word commonality scores (i.e. how common the words were for these participants. Negative medium to weak correlations were found between age and both the number of words generated and with commonality scores. There was also a significant interaction showing that the words generated by a category prompt were less common following a STB and more common following a STT. Conclusions: These results support those of previous literature in regards to the respective impacts of education and age on VF. Furthermore, the impacts found of age and education on the commonality of words generated provides information on the nature of their influences. Lastly, the present study sheds light on the potential effects of STT and STB on verbal fluency.

Recurrent Silent Thyroiditis as a Sequela of Postpartum Thyroiditis

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Kim, Paul

2014-01-01

Thyroiditis encompasses a group of disorders characterized by thyroid inflammation. Though clinically indistinguishable from silent thyroiditis, postpartum thyroiditis occurs in women within 12 months after delivery. Recurrent postpartum thyroiditis in subsequent pregnancies is common, but recurrent silent thyroiditis is rare. We reported a case of patient with recurrent episodes of thyroiditis, unrelated to pregnancy, after an episode of postpartum thyroiditis. It is of interest that postpartum thyroiditis and silent thyroiditis could occur closely to each other; however, the link between these disorders is not well established. This report is to remind physicians of the possibility of recurrent silent thyroiditis in women with a history of postpartum thyroiditis. PMID:24987536

Developing Mathematical Fluency: Comparing Exercises and Rich Tasks

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Foster, Colin

2018-01-01

Achieving fluency in important mathematical procedures is fundamental to students' mathematical development. The usual way to develop procedural fluency is to practise repetitive exercises, but is this the only effective way? This paper reports three quasi-experimental studies carried out in a total of 11 secondary schools involving altogether 528…

Auditory hindsight bias: Fluency misattribution versus memory reconstruction.

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Higham, Philip A; Neil, Greg J; Bernstein, Daniel M

2017-06-01

We report 4 experiments investigating auditory hindsight bias-the tendency to overestimate the intelligibility of distorted auditory stimuli after learning their identity. An associative priming manipulation was used to vary the amount of processing fluency independently of prior target knowledge. For hypothetical designs, in which hindsight judgments are made for peers in foresight, we predicted that judgments would be based on processing fluency and that hindsight bias would be greater in the unrelated- compared to related-prime context (differential-fluency hypothesis). Conversely, for memory designs, in which foresight judgments are remembered in hindsight, we predicted that judgments would be based on memory reconstruction and that there would be independent effects of prime relatedness and prior target knowledge (recollection hypothesis). These predictions were confirmed. Specifically, we found support for the differential-fluency hypothesis when a hypothetical design was used in Experiments 1 and 2 (hypothetical group). Conversely, when a memory design was used in Experiments 2 (memory group), 3A, and 3B, we found support for the recollection hypothesis. Together, the results suggest that qualitatively different mechanisms create hindsight bias in the 2 designs. The results are discussed in terms of fluency misattributions, memory reconstruction, anchoring-and-adjustment, sense making, and a multicomponent model of hindsight bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessment of Silent T1-weighted head imaging at 7 T

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Costagli, Mauro; Tiberi, Gianluigi; Tosetti, Michela [Imago7 Foundation, Pisa (Italy); IRCCS Stella Maris, Laboratory of Medical Physics and Biotechnologies for Magnetic Resonance, Pisa (Italy); Symms, Mark R. [GE Applied Science Laboratory, Pisa (Italy); Angeli, Lorenzo [University of Pisa, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, Pisa (Italy); Kelley, Douglas A.C. [GE Healthcare Technologies, San Francisco, CA (United States); Biagi, Laura [IRCCS Stella Maris, Laboratory of Medical Physics and Biotechnologies for Magnetic Resonance, Pisa (Italy); Farnetani, Andrea [University of Ferrara, Engineering Department, Ferrara (Italy); Materiacustica s.r.l., Ferrara (Italy); Rua, Catarina [University of Pisa, Department of Physics, Pisa (Italy); Donatelli, Graziella [Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana (AOUP), Neuroradiology Unit, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Pisa (Italy); Cosottini, Mirco [Imago7 Foundation, Pisa (Italy); University of Pisa, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, Pisa (Italy)

2016-06-15

This study aimed to assess the performance of a ''Silent'' zero time of echo (ZTE) sequence for T1-weighted brain imaging using a 7 T MRI system. The Silent sequence was evaluated qualitatively by two neuroradiologists, as well as quantitatively in terms of tissue contrast, homogeneity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and acoustic noise. It was compared to conventional T1-weighted imaging (FSPGR). Adequacy for automated segmentation was evaluated in comparison with FSPGR acquired at 7 T and 1.5 T. Specific absorption rate (SAR) was also measured. Tissue contrast and homogeneity in Silent were remarkable in deep brain structures and in the occipital and temporal lobes. Mean tissue contrast was significantly (p < 0.002) higher in Silent (0.25) than in FSPGR (0.11), which favoured automated tissue segmentation. On the other hand, Silent images had lower SNR with respect to conventional imaging: average SNR of FSPGR was 2.66 times that of Silent. Silent images were affected by artefacts related to projection reconstruction, which nevertheless did not compromise the depiction of brain tissues. Silent acquisition was 35 dB(A) quieter than FSPGR and less than 2.5 dB(A) louder than ambient noise. Six-minute average SAR was <2 W/kg. The ZTE Silent sequence provides high-contrast T1-weighted imaging with low acoustic noise at 7 T. (orig.)

Update on Didactic and Clinical Education in Fluency Disorders: 2013-2014.

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Scott Yaruss, J; Lee, Jieun; Kikani, Kaya B; Leslie, Paula; Herring, Caryn; Ramachandar, Sujini; Tichenor, Seth; Quesal, Robert W; McNeil, Malcolm R

2017-02-01

This study surveyed didactic and clinical education in fluency disorders at undergraduate and graduate institutions in the United States that provide education in speech-language pathology to determine whether a previously observed reduction in requirements has continued since prior surveys (Yaruss, 1999; Yaruss & Quesal, 2002). The study involved a detailed questionnaire that was sent to 282 communication science and disorders departments. Questions examined didactic and clinical education, as well as faculty knowledge about fluency disorders. Comparisons with prior surveys revealed several findings, including (a) on average, programs have increased academic coursework and incorporated more practical sessions and competency-based testing in the classroom; (b) the number of faculty who possess extensive clinical experience with fluency disorders has decreased; and (c) although an increase in clinical requirements in fluency disorders was detected, the number of programs providing minimal education about fluency disorders remains high. Given an expanding scope of practice, many programs have continued to try to provide adequate education about fluency disorders. Still, direct clinical experiences are limited, and faculty expertise in this area has continued to decrease. To raise students' confidence and competence in fluency disorders, efforts beyond graduate work-or systemic changes in the profession-may be necessary.

Evidence for presynaptically silent synapses in the immature hippocampus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Jae Young; Choi, Sukwoo

2017-01-01

Silent synapses show NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-mediated synaptic responses, but not AMPAR-mediated synaptic responses. A prevailing hypothesis states that silent synapses contain NMDARs, but not AMPARs. However, alternative presynaptic hypotheses, according to which AMPARs are present at silent synapses, have been proposed; silent synapses show slow glutamate release via a fusion pore, and glutamate spillover from the neighboring synaptic terminals. Consistent with these presynaptic hypotheses, the peak glutamate concentrations at silent synapses have been estimated to be ≪170 μM, much lower than those seen at functional synapses. Glutamate transients predicted based on the two presynaptic mechanisms have been shown to activate only high-affinity NMDARs, but not low-affinity AMPARs. Interestingly, a previous study has developed a new approach to distinguish between the two presynaptic mechanisms using dextran, an inert macromolecule that reduces the diffusivity of released glutamate: postsynaptic responses through the fusion pore mechanism, but not through the spillover mechanism, are potentiated by reduced glutamate diffusivity. Therefore, we reasoned that if the fusion pore mechanism underlies silent synapses, dextran application would reveal AMPAR-mediated synaptic responses at silent synapses. In the present study, we recorded AMPAR-mediated synaptic responses at the CA3-CA1 synapses in neonatal rats in the presence of blockers for NMDARs and GABAARs. Bath application of dextran revealed synaptic responses at silent synapses. GYKI53655, a selective AMPAR-antagonist, completely inhibited the unsilenced synaptic responses, indicating that the unsilenced synaptic responses are mediated by AMPARs. The dextran-mediated reduction in glutamate diffusivity would also lead to the activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), which might induce unsilencing via the activation of unknown intracellular signaling. Hence, we determined whether mGluR-blockers alter

Exploring "fringe" consciousness: the subjective experience of perceptual fluency and its objective bases.

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Reber, Rolf; Wurtz, Pascal; Zimmermann, Thomas D

2004-03-01

Perceptual fluency is the subjective experience of ease with which an incoming stimulus is processed. Although perceptual fluency is assessed by speed of processing, it remains unclear how objective speed is related to subjective experiences of fluency. We present evidence that speed at different stages of the perceptual process contributes to perceptual fluency. In an experiment, figure-ground contrast influenced detection of briefly presented words, but not their identification at longer exposure durations. Conversely, font in which the word was written influenced identification, but not detection. Both contrast and font influenced subjective fluency. These findings suggest that speed of processing at different stages condensed into a unified subjective experience of perceptual fluency.

Usefulness of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in silent myocardial ischemia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hou, Mami

1996-01-01

The usefulness of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) was assessed in patients with exercise-induced asymptomatic myocardial ischemia (silent ischemia) and compared with exercise-induced symptomatic myocardial ischemia (symptomatic ischemia). Patients with single vessel coronary artery disease (51 with angina pectoris, 40 with old myocardial infarction) and evidence of stress-induced ischemia on thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) underwent successful PTCA. Thirty-seven percent of angina patients and 60% of infarction patients showed asymptomatic exercise-induced ischemia. There was no significant difference in population characteristics between silent and symptomatic patients. Patients with silent angina had significantly higher percentage thallium uptake and washout rate than symptomatic patients. After PTCA, both percentage diameter stenosis and percentage thallium uptake were improved in all patients with angina irrespective of the presence or absence of symptoms. There were no significant differences in percentage thallium uptake and washout rate between patients with silent and symptomatic infarction. After PTCA, percentage diameter stenosis, percentage thallium uptake, and washout rate improved in all infarction patients irrespective of the symptoms. Zero percent of silent angina patients, 12% of symptomatic angina patients, 12% of silent infarction patients, 19% of symptomatic infarction patients had cardiac events during about 4.5 years after PTCA. The incidence of cardiac events did not significantly differ in any patient group. PTCA improved myocardial perfusion in all patients, and the incidence of cardiac events did not differ between the silent and symptomatic groups. Revascularization with PTCA is suitable for patients with silent as well as symptomatic ischemia. (author)

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

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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.

A Study to Determine the Existence and Characteristics of Distinctively Different Subpopulations Subsumed within the Reading Disabled Population.

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Steinberg, Laurie S.

Forty-five third-grade and fourth-grade boys identified by their schools as being both normal in intelligence and severely disabled in reading were given a battery of tests of language, visual perception, silent reading comprehension, and finger agnosia. Three consistent groups of subjects emerged from cluster analyses of the results. One group…

Specialty Board on Fluency Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

... or large groups of speech-language pathologists. Speech-language pathologists who are Board Certified Specialists in Fluency may be found on this website by searching name, city(location) or zip code. ...

Linguistic Skills and Speaking Fluency in a Second Language

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De Jong, Nivja H.; Steinel, Margarita P.; Florijn, Arjen; Schoonen, Rob; Hulstijn, Jan H.

2013-01-01

This study investigated how individual differences in linguistic knowledge and processing skills relate to individual differences in speaking fluency. Speakers of Dutch as a second language ("N" = 179) performed eight speaking tasks, from which several measures of fluency were derived such as measures for pausing, repairing, and speed…

Comparison of Animal, Action and Phonemic Fluency in Aphasia

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Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Milman, Lisa

2018-01-01

Background: The ability to generate words that follow certain constraints, or verbal fluency, is a sensitive indicator of neurocognitive impairment, and is impacted by a variety of variables. Aims: To investigate the effect of post-stroke aphasia, elicitation category and linguistic variables on verbal fluency performance. Methods &…

Basic Concepts of Reading Instruction

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Gökhan ARI

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Reading act is performed by connected physiological, psychological and cognitive processes. The operations taking place in these processes are expected to continue for life by being developed with certain strategies. A lot of information is gained with reading skill in education life. Therefore, basic concepts that constitute reading education in teaching and improving reading are important for teachers. The aim of this study is to submit information compiled from the literature about reading education process and which basic concepts are used in reading education. While teaching reading from part to whole, from whole to part and interactional approaches are used. From part to whole approach is at the forefront. Then with interactional approach strategies, both code solving and making sense is improved. Teachers should know the characteristics of bouncing, stopping, turning back, and scanning movements of the eye both in code solving and making sense. The teacher should configure the teaching for the students to gain fluid reading elements by making use of reading out and reading silently. After reading act is acquired; good reader characteristics should be gained by improving asking questions, guessing, summarizing, interpretation skills in integrated readings. Reading skill is improved by studies on the text. Therefore, the students should come across texts that are suitable to their levels, textuality and readability criteria. The vocabulary of children should be improved in a planned way with text-based word and meaning studies. Fluid reading, making sense and interpretation skills of children should be pursued with different evaluation types. In the long term, work should be done to make reading a habit for them.

Relativistic numerical cosmology with silent universes

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Bolejko, Krzysztof

2018-01-01

Relativistic numerical cosmology is most often based either on the exact solutions of the Einstein equations, or perturbation theory, or weak-field limit, or the BSSN formalism. The silent universe provides an alternative approach to investigate relativistic evolution of cosmological systems. The silent universe is based on the solution of the Einstein equations in 1  +  3 comoving coordinates with additional constraints imposed. These constraints include: the gravitational field is sourced by dust and cosmological constant only, both rotation and magnetic part of the Weyl tensor vanish, and the shear is diagnosable. This paper describes the code simsilun (free software distributed under the terms of the reposi General Public License), which implements the equations of the silent universe. The paper also discusses applications of the silent universe and it uses the Millennium simulation to set up the initial conditions for the code simsilun. The simulation obtained this way consists of 16 777 216 worldlines, which are evolved from z  =  80 to z  =  0. Initially, the mean evolution (averaged over the whole domain) follows the evolution of the background ΛCDM model. However, once the evolution of cosmic structures becomes nonlinear, the spatial curvature evolves from ΩK =0 to ΩK ≈ 0.1 at the present day. The emergence of the spatial curvature is associated with ΩM and Ω_Λ being smaller by approximately 0.05 compared to the ΛCDM.

Home Environmental and Behavioral Risk Indices for Reading Achievement.

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Taylor, Jeanette; Ennis, Chelsea R; Hart, Sara A; Mikolajewski, Amy J; Schatschneider, Christopher

2017-07-01

The goal of this study was to identify home environmental and temperament/behavior variables that best predict standardized reading comprehension scores among school-aged children. Data from 269 children aged 9-16 ( M = 12.08; SD = 1.62) were used in discriminant function analyses to create the Home and Behavior indices. Family income was controlled in each index. The final Home and Behavior models each classified around 75% of cases correctly (reading comprehension at grade level vs. not). Each index was then used to predict other outcomes related to reading. Results showed that Home and/or Behavior accounted for 4-7% of the variance in reading fluency and spelling and 20-35% of the variance in parent-rated problems in math, social anxiety, and other dimensions. These metrics show promise as environmental and temperament/behavior risk scores that could be used to predict and potentially screen for further assessment of reading related problems.

Altered patterns of directed connectivity within the reading network of dyslexic children and their relation to reading dysfluency

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Gojko Žarić

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Reading is a complex cognitive skill subserved by a distributed network of visual and language-related regions. Disruptions of connectivity within this network have been associated with developmental dyslexia but their relation to individual differences in the severity of reading problems remains unclear. Here we investigate whether dysfunctional connectivity scales with the level of reading dysfluency by examining EEG recordings during visual word and false font processing in 9-year-old typically reading children (TR and two groups of dyslexic children: severely dysfluent (SDD and moderately dysfluent (MDD dyslexics. Results indicated weaker occipital to inferior-temporal connectivity for words in both dyslexic groups relative to TRs. Furthermore, SDDs exhibited stronger connectivity from left central to right inferior-temporal and occipital sites for words relative to TRs, and for false fonts relative to both MDDs and TRs. Importantly, reading fluency was positively related with forward and negatively with backward connectivity. Our results suggest disrupted visual processing of words in both dyslexic groups, together with a compensatory recruitment of right posterior brain regions especially in the SDDs during word and false font processing. Functional connectivity in the brain’s reading network may thus depend on the level of reading dysfluency beyond group differences between dyslexic and typical readers.

Verbal working memory and reading abilities among students with visual impairment.

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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.

Silent Flange Coupling Design Used for the Schenck Eddy Current Dynamometer

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Schinteie, D.; Croitorescu, V.

2016-11-01

The silent flange used for coupling different machines/systems to an eddy current dynamometer represents one of the modular components each test-bench should use. By introducing a silent flange into a dynamometer, the coupling steps are easier and faster. For an appropriate design, the silent flange was analyzed using dedicated software during different operation procedures and scenarios, for materials that allow easy manufacturing. This study shows that the design for this silent flange model has no danger of failure due to the small deformation and the values for the equivalent stresses. The silent flange coupling is suitable for the dynamometer for his high positioning accuracy, the zero backlash and the fact that there is no motion between the shafts.

Identifying high-functioning dyslexics: is self-report of early reading problems enough?

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Deacon, S Hélène; Cook, Kathryn; Parrila, Rauno

2012-07-01

We used a questionnaire to identify university students with self-reported difficulties in reading acquisition during elementary school (self-report; n=31). The performance of the self-report group on standardized measures of word and non-word reading and fluency, passage comprehension and reading rate, and phonological awareness was compared to that of two other groups of university students: one with a recent diagnosis (diagnosed; n=20) and one with no self-reported reading acquisition problems (comparison group; n=33). The comparison group outperformed both groups with a history of reading difficulties (self-report and diagnosed) on almost all measures. The self-report and diagnosed groups performed similarly on most tasks, with the exception of untimed reading comprehension (better performance for diagnosed) and reading rate (better performance for self-report). The two recruitment methods likely sample from the same underlying population but identify individuals with different adaptive strategies.

I RAN Fast and I Remembered What I Read: The Relationship between Reading, Rapid Automatic Naming, and Auditory and Visual Short-Term Memory

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Sheila G. Crewther

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Although rapid automatic naming (RAN speed and short-term auditory memory are widely recognised as good predictors of reading ability in most age groups, the predictive value of short-term memory for visually presented digits for reading and RAN in young typically developing learner readers (mean age 91.5 months has seldom been investigated. We found that visual digit span is a better predictor of reading ability than auditory digit span in learner readers. A significant correlation has also been found between RAN speed and visual, but not auditory digit span. These results suggests that RAN speed may be a good predictor of a child's future reading ability and eventual fluency because like visual digit span, it is a measure of rate of access to memory for the visual icons and their semantic name and meaning. The results also suggest that auditory memory is not an important factor in young children learning to read.

Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Chinese-English Bilingual Children.

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Tong, Xiuhong; McBride, Catherine; Shu, Hua; Ho, Connie Suk-Han

2018-02-01

The co-occurrence of reading comprehension difficulties for first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English and associated longitudinal cognitive-linguistic correlates in each language were investigated. Sixteen poor comprehenders in English and 16 poor comprehenders in Chinese, 18 poor readers in both, and 18 children with normal performance in both were identified at age 10. The prevalence rate for being poor in both was 52.94%, suggesting that approximately half of children who are at risk for Chinese reading comprehension difficulty are also at risk for English reading comprehension difficulty. Chinese word reading, phonological, and morphological awareness were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in Chinese. English word reading and vocabulary were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in English. Chinese phonological awareness was an additional correlate of poor comprehension in English. Moreover, poor comprehenders in both Chinese and English showed slower rapid automatized naming scores than the other groups. Findings highlight some factors that might be critical for reading comprehension in L1 Chinese and L2 English; fluency is likely to be a critical part of reading comprehension across languages. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multiple Silent Lacunes Are Associated with Recurrent Ischemic Stroke

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Søren Due; Skjøth, Flemming; Yavarian, Yousef

2016-01-01

ackground: Silent lacunes are a common finding on brain imaging in ischemic stroke patients, but the prognostic significance of these lesions is uncertain. We aimed at investigating the association of silent lacunes and the risk of ischemic stroke recurrence, death, and cardiovascular events...... in a cohort of patients with incident ischemic stroke and no atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: We included 786 patients (mean age 59.5 (SD 14.0); 42.9% females) in a registry-based, observational cohort study on patients with first-ever ischemic stroke. On brain MRI we assessed the number of silent lacunes...... as none, single, or multiple and we calculated stratified incidence rates of the outcomes. Cox proportional hazard ratios (HRs) adjusted for age, gender, congestive heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, and vascular disease were calculated with no silent lacunes as reference. In additional analyses, we...

Cross-age comparisons reveal multiple strategies for lexical ambiguity resolution during natural reading

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Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.

2013-01-01

Eye-tracking was used to investigate how younger and older (60+) adults use syntactic and semantic information to disambiguate noun/verb (NV) homographs (e.g. park). In event-related potential work using the same materials, Lee and Federmeier (2009, 2011) found that young adults elicited a sustained frontal negativity to NV-homographs when only syntactic cues were available (i.e., in syntactic prose); this effect was eliminated by semantic constraints. The negativity was only present in older adults with high verbal fluency. The current study shows parallel findings: young adults exhibit inflated first fixation durations to NV-homographs in syntactic prose, but not semantically congruent sentences. This effect is absent in older adults as a group. Verbal fluency modulates the effect in both age groups: high fluency is associated with larger first fixation effects in syntactic prose. Older, but not younger, adults also show significantly increased rereading of the NV-homographs in syntactic prose. Verbal fluency modulates this effect as well: high fluency is associated with a reduced tendency to reread, regardless of age. This relationship suggests a tradeoff between initial and downstream processing costs for ambiguity during natural reading. Together, the eye-tracking and ERP data suggest that effortful meaning selection recruits mechanisms important for suppressing contextually inappropriate meanings, which also slow eye movements. Efficacy of fronto-temporal circuitry, as captured by verbal fluency, predicts the success of engaging these mechanisms in both young and older adults. Failure to recruit these processes requires compensatory rereading or leads to comprehension failures (Lee & Federmeier, 2012). PMID:23687920

Contributions of Letter-Speech Sound Learning and Visual Print Tuning to Reading Improvement: Evidence from Brain Potential and Dyslexia Training Studies

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Gorka Fraga González

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We use a neurocognitive perspective to discuss the contribution of learning letter-speech sound (L-SS associations and visual specialization in the initial phases of reading in dyslexic children. We review findings from associative learning studies on related cognitive skills important for establishing and consolidating L-SS associations. Then we review brain potential studies, including our own, that yielded two markers associated with reading fluency. Here we show that the marker related to visual specialization (N170 predicts word and pseudoword reading fluency in children who received additional practice in the processing of morphological word structure. Conversely, L-SS integration (indexed by mismatch negativity (MMN may only remain important when direct orthography to semantic conversion is not possible, such as in pseudoword reading. In addition, the correlation between these two markers supports the notion that multisensory integration facilitates visual specialization. Finally, we review the role of implicit learning and executive functions in audiovisual learning in dyslexia. Implications for remedial research are discussed and suggestions for future studies are presented.

Cognitive correlates of verbal memory and verbal fluency in schizophrenia, and differential effects of various clinical symptoms between male and female patients.

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Brébion, Gildas; Villalta-Gil, Victoria; Autonell, Jaume; Cervilla, Jorge; Dolz, Montserrat; Foix, Alexandrina; Haro, Josep Maria; Usall, Judith; Vilaplana, Miriam; Ochoa, Susana

2013-06-01

Impairment of higher cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia might stem from perturbation of more basic functions, such as processing speed. Various clinical symptoms might affect cognitive efficiency as well. Notably, previous research has revealed the role of affective symptoms on memory performance in this population, and suggested sex-specific effects. We conducted a post-hoc analysis of an extensive neuropsychological study of 88 patients with schizophrenia. Regression analyses were conducted on verbal memory and verbal fluency data to investigate the contribution of semantic organisation and processing speed to performance. The role of negative and affective symptoms and of attention disorders in verbal memory and verbal fluency was investigated separately in male and female patients. Semantic clustering contributed to verbal recall, and a measure of reading speed contributed to verbal recall as well as to phonological and semantic fluency. Negative symptoms affected verbal recall and verbal fluency in the male patients, whereas attention disorders affected these abilities in the female patients. Furthermore, depression affected verbal recall in women, whereas anxiety affected it in men. These results confirm the association of processing speed with cognitive efficiency in patients with schizophrenia. They also confirm the previously observed sex-specific associations of depression and anxiety with memory performance in these patients, and suggest that negative symptoms and attention disorders likewise are related to cognitive efficiency differently in men and women. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differences in autonomic nerve function in patients with silent and symptomatic myocardial ischaemia.

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Shakespeare, C. F.; Katritsis, D.; Crowther, A.; Cooper, I. C.; Coltart, J. D.; Webb-Peploe, M. W.

1994-01-01

BACKGROUND--Autonomic neuropathy provides a mechanism for the absence of symptoms in silent myocardial ischaemia, but characterisation of the type of neuropathy is lacking. AIM--To characterise and compare autonomic nerve function in patients with silent and symptomatic myocardial ischaemia. METHODS AND RESULTS--The Valsalva manoeuvre, heart rate variation (HRV) in response to deep breathing and standing, lower body negative pressure, isometric handgrip, and the cold pressor test were performed by patients with silent (n = 25) and symptomatic (n = 25) ambulatory ischaemia and by controls (n = 21). No difference in parasympathetic efferent function between patients with silent and symptomatic ischaemia was recorded, but both had significantly less HRV in response to standing than the controls (p < 0.005 for silent and p < 0.01 for symptomatic). Patients with silent ischaemia showed an increased propensity for peripheral vasodilatation compared with symptomatic patients (p < 0.02) and controls (p < 0.04). Impaired sympathetic function was found in patients with pure silent ischaemia (n = 4) compared with the remaining patients with silent ischaemia whose pain pathways were presumed to be intact. CONCLUSIONS--Patients with silent ischaemia and pain pathways presumed to be intact have an enhanced peripheral vasodilator response, and if this applied to the coronary vasculature it could provide a mechanism for limiting ischaemia to below the pain threshold. Patients with pure silent ischaemia have evidence of sympathetic autonomic dysfunction. Images PMID:8297687

Music Reading in Digital Environments; Apps for Tablets

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Javier Félix MERCHÁN SÁNCHEZ-JARA

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Reading music allows, through different processes, learnt abilities and previous experiences, for the recreation or interpretation of the musical message which had been previously coded using one of the many notation systems available. In the same way, reading music enables the experienced musician to generate musical images internally, which silently represent the coded message. The most generic processes and characteristics amongst musical reading will be analysed, along with the most common forms and applications of these reading models and the most widely used codes and notation systems. In the second part, the development and use of new tecnologies for reading music in electronic devices are described and the penetration of these tools in the musical community analysed and classified, bearing in mind the most common types and functions and the characteristics and basic functionalities of the most representative applications. Some solutions, developed in order to deal with historical problems within the reading of music, such as the turning over of the page, are also considered.

Middle School Students' Perceptions of Their Interests in Reading as Defined by Engagement and Social Interaction When Using Sustained Silent Reading, SSR, and Peer Interests Reading Strategies, PIRS

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Ware, Regina J.

2012-01-01

Alarming statistics report that middle school students are not reading as much as they should be reading. This study is an examination of two interventions that were incorporated into the regular curriculum to determine if these two reading interventions would encourage this researcher's students to read more. The "Nation's Report Card"…

Phonological fluency strategy of switching differentiates relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis patients.

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Messinis, L; Kosmidis, M H; Vlahou, C; Malegiannaki, A C; Gatzounis, G; Dimisianos, N; Karra, A; Kiosseoglou, G; Gourzis, P; Papathanasopoulos, P

2013-01-01

The strategies used to perform a verbal fluency task appear to be reflective of cognitive abilities necessary for successful daily functioning. In the present study, we explored potential differences in verbal fluency strategies (switching and clustering) used to maximize word production by patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) versus patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). We further assessed impairment rates and potential differences in the sensitivity and specificity of phonological versus semantic verbal fluency tasks in discriminating between those with a diagnosis of MS and healthy adults. We found that the overall rate of impaired verbal fluency in our MS sample was consistent with that in other studies. However, we found no differences between types of MS (SPMS, RRMS), on semantic or phonological fluency word production, or the strategies used to maximize semantic fluency. In contrast, we found that the number of switches differed significantly in the phonological fluency task between the SPMS and RRMS subtypes. The clinical utility of semantic versus phonological fluency in discriminating MS patients from healthy controls did not indicate any significant differences. Further, the strategies used to maximize performance did not differentiate MS subgroups or MS patients from healthy controls.

An Evaluation of Project iRead: A Program Created to Improve Sight Word Recognition

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Marshall, Theresa Meade

2014-01-01

This program evaluation was undertaken to examine the relationship between participation in Project iRead and student gains in word recognition, fluency, and comprehension as measured by the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) Test. Linear regressions compared the 2012-13 PALS results from 5,140 first and second grade students at…

EARLY READING ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS: ABILITIES AND PROCESSES INVOLVED

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Ana Cláudia de Souza

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the following early reading assessment instruments: “Bateria de Recepção e Produção da Linguagem Verbal” (SCLIAR-CABRAL, 2003a and “Teste de Competência de Leitura de Palavras e Pseudopalavras” (SEABRA; CAPOVILLA, 2010. The main research goal is to analyze in each one of these reading assessment instruments some of the multiple cognitive processes and basic low-level abilities involved in reading. In this sense, decoding, word recognition, lexical access, syntactic and textual processing, and comprehension are the cognitive processes taken into account. With regard to the basic reading abilities, accuracy and fluency (rhythm, prosody and speed are considered. The results indicate that each one of the analyzed reading assessment instruments assesses different aspects of the reading processes and abilities, mainly through off-line measures. ScliarCabral’s assessment battery allows the researcher or the teacher to evaluate the following processes: perception of the grapheme opposition in minimal pairs of words and in sentences, difficulties in sentence processing, skills in decoding the graphemic-phonemic relationship, and textual comprehension. In its turn, the reading assessment instrument proposed by Seabra e Capovilla allows one to evaluate student’s reading development level, by classifying the kind of processing as logographic, alphabetic or orthographic.

Neurophysiological evidence that perceptions of fluency produce mere exposure effects.

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Leynes, P Andrew; Addante, Richard J

2016-08-01

Recent exposure to people or objects increases liking ratings, the "mere exposure effect" (Zajonc in American Psychologist, 35, 117-123, 1968), and an increase in processing fluency has been identified as a potential mechanism for producing this effect. This fluency hypothesis was directly tested by altering the trial-by-trial image clarity (i.e., fluency) while Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded. In Experiment 1, clarity was altered across two trial blocks that each had homogenous trial-by-trial clarity, whereas clarity varied randomly across trials in Experiment 2. Blocking or randomizing image clarity across trials was expected to produce different levels of relative fluency and alter mere exposure effects. The mere exposure effect (i.e., old products liked more than new products) was observed when stimulus clarity remained constant across trials, and clear image ERPs were more positive than blurry image ERPs. Importantly, these patterns were reversed when clarity varied randomly across test trials, such that participants liked clear images more than blurry (i.e., no mere exposure effect) and clear image ERPs were more negative than blurry image ERPs. The findings provide direct experimental support from both behavioral and electrophysiological measures that, in some contexts, mere exposure is the product of top-down interpretations of fluency.

Cognitive Attributes of Adequate and Inadequate Responders to Reading Intervention in Middle School

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Miciak, Jeremy; Stuebing, Karla K.; Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Greg; Barth, Amy E.; Fletcher, Jack M.

2014-01-01

No studies have investigated the cognitive attributes of middle school students who are adequate and inadequate responders to Tier 2 reading intervention. We compared students in Grades 6 and 7 representing groups of adequate responders (n = 77) and inadequate responders who fell below criteria in (a) comprehension (n = 54); (b) fluency (n = 45);…

Using Early Silent Film to Teach French: The Language of "Cinema Muet."

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Bloom, Michelle E.

1995-01-01

Discusses the use of early silent films in second-language classrooms, focusing on the experiences of one instructor in using early French silents in elementary and intermediate French courses. Sample lesson plans and information on the availability of French silents are also provided. (Contains 17 references.) (MDM)

Apathy and Reduced Speed of Processing Underlie Decline in Verbal Fluency following DBS

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Jennifer A. Foley

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. Reduced verbal fluency is a strikingly uniform finding following deep brain stimulation (DBS for Parkinson’s disease (PD. The precise cognitive mechanism underlying this reduction remains unclear, but theories have suggested reduced motivation, linguistic skill, and/or executive function. It is of note, however, that previous reports have failed to consider the potential role of any changes in speed of processing. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine verbal fluency changes with a particular focus on the role of cognitive speed. Method. In this study, 28 patients with PD completed measures of verbal fluency, motivation, language, executive functioning, and speed of processing, before and after DBS. Results. As expected, there was a marked decline in verbal fluency but also in a timed test of executive functions and two measures of speed of processing. Verbal fluency decline was associated with markers of linguistic and executive functioning, but not after speed of processing was statistically controlled for. In contrast, greater decline in verbal fluency was associated with higher levels of apathy at baseline, which was not associated with changes in cognitive speed. Discussion. Reduced generativity and processing speed may account for the marked reduction in verbal fluency commonly observed following DBS.

Apathy and Reduced Speed of Processing Underlie Decline in Verbal Fluency following DBS

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Foltynie, Tom; Zrinzo, Ludvic; Hyam, Jonathan A.; Limousin, Patricia

2017-01-01

Objective. Reduced verbal fluency is a strikingly uniform finding following deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD). The precise cognitive mechanism underlying this reduction remains unclear, but theories have suggested reduced motivation, linguistic skill, and/or executive function. It is of note, however, that previous reports have failed to consider the potential role of any changes in speed of processing. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine verbal fluency changes with a particular focus on the role of cognitive speed. Method. In this study, 28 patients with PD completed measures of verbal fluency, motivation, language, executive functioning, and speed of processing, before and after DBS. Results. As expected, there was a marked decline in verbal fluency but also in a timed test of executive functions and two measures of speed of processing. Verbal fluency decline was associated with markers of linguistic and executive functioning, but not after speed of processing was statistically controlled for. In contrast, greater decline in verbal fluency was associated with higher levels of apathy at baseline, which was not associated with changes in cognitive speed. Discussion. Reduced generativity and processing speed may account for the marked reduction in verbal fluency commonly observed following DBS. PMID:28408788

Apathy and Reduced Speed of Processing Underlie Decline in Verbal Fluency following DBS.

Science.gov (United States)

Foley, Jennifer A; Foltynie, Tom; Zrinzo, Ludvic; Hyam, Jonathan A; Limousin, Patricia; Cipolotti, Lisa

2017-01-01

Objective . Reduced verbal fluency is a strikingly uniform finding following deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD). The precise cognitive mechanism underlying this reduction remains unclear, but theories have suggested reduced motivation, linguistic skill, and/or executive function. It is of note, however, that previous reports have failed to consider the potential role of any changes in speed of processing. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine verbal fluency changes with a particular focus on the role of cognitive speed. Method . In this study, 28 patients with PD completed measures of verbal fluency, motivation, language, executive functioning, and speed of processing, before and after DBS. Results . As expected, there was a marked decline in verbal fluency but also in a timed test of executive functions and two measures of speed of processing. Verbal fluency decline was associated with markers of linguistic and executive functioning, but not after speed of processing was statistically controlled for. In contrast, greater decline in verbal fluency was associated with higher levels of apathy at baseline, which was not associated with changes in cognitive speed. Discussion . Reduced generativity and processing speed may account for the marked reduction in verbal fluency commonly observed following DBS.

Involving Parents in a Summer Book Reading Program to Promote Reading Comprehension, Fluency, and Vocabulary in Grade 3 and Grade 5 Children

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Pagan, Stephanie; Sénéchal, Monique

2014-01-01

In this research, parents and children participated in a comprehensive book reading intervention designed to improve children's literacy. Over eight weeks during the summer, children in the intervention condition were encouraged to read one book weekly and parents were trained to foster reading comprehension. Forty-eight Grades 3 and 5 children…

Verbal and Non-verbal Fluency in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia: Phonological Processing or Executive Control Problems?

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Smith-Spark, James H; Henry, Lucy A; Messer, David J; Zięcik, Adam P

2017-08-01

The executive function of fluency describes the ability to generate items according to specific rules. Production of words beginning with a certain letter (phonemic fluency) is impaired in dyslexia, while generation of words belonging to a certain semantic category (semantic fluency) is typically unimpaired. However, in dyslexia, verbal fluency has generally been studied only in terms of overall words produced. Furthermore, performance of adults with dyslexia on non-verbal design fluency tasks has not been explored but would indicate whether deficits could be explained by executive control, rather than phonological processing, difficulties. Phonemic, semantic and design fluency tasks were presented to adults with dyslexia and without dyslexia, using fine-grained performance measures and controlling for IQ. Hierarchical regressions indicated that dyslexia predicted lower phonemic fluency, but not semantic or design fluency. At the fine-grained level, dyslexia predicted a smaller number of switches between subcategories on phonemic fluency, while dyslexia did not predict the size of phonemically related clusters of items. Overall, the results suggested that phonological processing problems were at the root of dyslexia-related fluency deficits; however, executive control difficulties could not be completely ruled out as an alternative explanation. Developments in research methodology, equating executive demands across fluency tasks, may resolve this issue. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fluency Training in the ESL Classroom: An Experimental Study of Fluency Development and Proceduralization

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Jong, N. de; Perfetti, C.A.

2011-01-01

The present study investigates the role of speech repetition in oral fluency development. Twenty-four students enrolled in English-as-a-second-language classes performed three training sessions in which they recorded three speeches, of 4, 3, and 2 min, respectively. Some students spoke about the

A Strategic Necessity: Building Senior Leadership's Fluency in Digital Technology

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Kolomitz, Kara; Cabellon, Edmund T.

2016-01-01

This chapter describes the opportunity for senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) to develop an increased digital fluency to meet the needs of various constituencies in the digital age. The authors explore what a digital fluency is, how it might impact SSAOs' leadership potential, and the benefits for their respective divisions.

Event-Related Potential (ERP) Evidence for Fluency-Based Recognition Memory

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Leynes, P. Andrew; Zish, Kevin

2012-01-01

Two experiments investigated the influence of perceptual fluency on recognition memory. Words were studied using a shallow encoding task to decrease the contribution of recollection on recognition. Fluency was manipulated by blurring half of the test probes. Clarity varied randomly across trials in one experiment and was grouped into two blocks…

Current practice for diagnosis and management of silent atrial fibrillation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dobreanu, Dan; Svendsen, Jesper Hastrup; Lewalter, Thorsten

2013-01-01

for the diagnosis and management of silent AF. This survey is based on an electronic questionnaire sent to the European Heart Rhythm Association Research Network partners. Responses were received from 33 centres in 16 countries. The preferred screening methods for silent AF in patients with rhythm control...... for such patients. Most responders preferred rate control over rhythm control in patients with silent AF, although some favoured pulmonary vein isolation in young patients. However, oral anticoagulant therapy in patients at high thromboembolic risk was considered mandatory by most, provided that at least one......Although it is well known that silent atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with morbidity and mortality rates similar to those of symptomatic AF, no specific strategy for screening and management of this form of AF has been advocated. The purpose of this survey was to identify current practices...

Visual supports for shared reading with young children: the effect of static overlay design.

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Wood Jackson, Carla; Wahlquist, Jordan; Marquis, Cassandra

2011-06-01

This study examined the effects of two types of static overlay design (visual scene display and grid display) on 39 children's use of a speech-generating device during shared storybook reading with an adult. This pilot project included two groups: preschool children with typical communication skills (n = 26) and with complex communication needs (n = 13). All participants engaged in shared reading with two books using each visual layout on a speech-generating device (SGD). The children averaged a greater number of activations when presented with a grid display during introductory exploration and free play. There was a large effect of the static overlay design on the number of silent hits, evidencing more silent hits with visual scene displays. On average, the children demonstrated relatively few spontaneous activations of the speech-generating device while the adult was reading, regardless of overlay design. When responding to questions, children with communication needs appeared to perform better when using visual scene displays, but the effect of display condition on the accuracy of responses to wh-questions was not statistically significant. In response to an open ended question, children with communication disorders demonstrated more frequent activations of the SGD using a grid display than a visual scene. Suggestions for future research as well as potential implications for designing AAC systems for shared reading with young children are discussed.

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

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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.

Silent pituitary macroadenoma co-secreting growth hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone.

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Sen, Orhan; Ertorer, M Eda; Aydin, M Volkan; Erdogan, Bulent; Altinors, Nur; Zorludemir, Suzan; Guvener, Nilgun

2005-04-01

Silent pituitary adenomas are a group of tumors showing heterogenous morphological features with no hormonal function observed clinically. To date no explanation has been provided as to why these tumors remain "silent". We report a case of a silent macroadenoma with both growth hormone (GH) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) staining and secretion but with no clinical manifestations, in particular, the absence of features of acromegaly or hyperthyroidism. The relevant literature is reviewed.

Fluency: an aim in teaching and a criterion in assessment

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Aud Marit Simensen

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the concept ‘fluency’ from different perspectives. When fluency is an aim in teaching, a thorough comprehension of the concept among teachers is a prerequisite for appropriate planning of instruction, including the choice of appropriate classroom activities. When fluency is an assessment criterion, it is even more important that examiners have a shared perception of the concept. The present article starts by presenting common perceptions of the concept and goes on to explore some of the current research. Next, it provides a historical overview of the place of fluency in teaching theory and explains some of the preconditions for the inclusion of this concept among teaching objectives and assessment criteria. It will also, as an illustration, give an outline of the position of the concept over time in the Norwegian school system on the basis of an analysis of the relevant syllabuses. Finally, the article explicates the notion of language use as a complex cognitive skill and explores current method¬ological ideas about teaching towards fluency.

Some Semi-Deep Thoughts about Deep Reading: Rejoinder to "Digital Technology and Student Cognitive Development: The Neuroscience of the University Classroom"

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Mannheimer, Steve

2016-01-01

The author of this thought-provoking article joins an impressive cohort of current commentators and scholars united in their concern over the state of the art of reading. Mostly, they are concerned with the sustained, silent, generally solitary process of reading in which the reader is deeply focused on and immersed in the text. Their fear is that…

Preschool Phonological and Morphological Awareness As Longitudinal Predictors of Early Reading and Spelling Development in Greek.

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Diamanti, Vassiliki; Mouzaki, Angeliki; Ralli, Asimina; Antoniou, Faye; Papaioannou, Sofia; Protopapas, Athanassios

2017-01-01

Different language skills are considered fundamental for successful reading and spelling acquisition. Extensive evidence has highlighted the central role of phonological awareness in early literacy experiences. However, many orthographic systems also require the contribution of morphological awareness. The goal of this study was to examine the morphological and phonological awareness skills of preschool children as longitudinal predictors of reading and spelling ability by the end of first grade, controlling for the effects of receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. At Time 1 preschool children from kindergartens in the Greek regions of Attika, Crete, Macedonia, and Thessaly were assessed on tasks tapping receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness (syllable and phoneme), and morphological awareness (inflectional and derivational). Tasks were administered through an Android application for mobile devices (tablets) featuring automatic application of ceiling rules. At Time 2 one year later the same children attending first grade were assessed on measures of word and pseudoword reading, text reading fluency, text reading comprehension, and spelling. Complete data from 104 children are available. Hierarchical linear regression and commonality analyses were conducted for each outcome variable. Reading accuracy for both words and pseudowords was predicted not only by phonological awareness, as expected, but also by morphological awareness, suggesting that understanding the functional role of word parts supports the developing phonology-orthography mappings. However, only phonological awareness predicted text reading fluency at this age. Longitudinal prediction of reading comprehension by both receptive vocabulary and morphological awareness was already evident at this age, as expected. Finally, spelling was predicted by preschool phonological awareness, as expected, as well as by morphological awareness, the contribution of which is expected to

Preschool Phonological and Morphological Awareness As Longitudinal Predictors of Early Reading and Spelling Development in Greek

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vassiliki Diamanti

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Different language skills are considered fundamental for successful reading and spelling acquisition. Extensive evidence has highlighted the central role of phonological awareness in early literacy experiences. However, many orthographic systems also require the contribution of morphological awareness. The goal of this study was to examine the morphological and phonological awareness skills of preschool children as longitudinal predictors of reading and spelling ability by the end of first grade, controlling for the effects of receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. At Time 1 preschool children from kindergartens in the Greek regions of Attika, Crete, Macedonia, and Thessaly were assessed on tasks tapping receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness (syllable and phoneme, and morphological awareness (inflectional and derivational. Tasks were administered through an Android application for mobile devices (tablets featuring automatic application of ceiling rules. At Time 2 one year later the same children attending first grade were assessed on measures of word and pseudoword reading, text reading fluency, text reading comprehension, and spelling. Complete data from 104 children are available. Hierarchical linear regression and commonality analyses were conducted for each outcome variable. Reading accuracy for both words and pseudowords was predicted not only by phonological awareness, as expected, but also by morphological awareness, suggesting that understanding the functional role of word parts supports the developing phonology–orthography mappings. However, only phonological awareness predicted text reading fluency at this age. Longitudinal prediction of reading comprehension by both receptive vocabulary and morphological awareness was already evident at this age, as expected. Finally, spelling was predicted by preschool phonological awareness, as expected, as well as by morphological awareness, the contribution of which is

Emotion Decoding and Incidental Processing Fluency as Antecedents of Attitude Certainty.

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Petrocelli, John V; Whitmire, Melanie B

2017-07-01

Previous research demonstrates that attitude certainty influences the degree to which an attitude changes in response to persuasive appeals. In the current research, decoding emotions from facial expressions and incidental processing fluency, during attitude formation, are examined as antecedents of both attitude certainty and attitude change. In Experiment 1, participants who decoded anger or happiness during attitude formation expressed their greater attitude certainty, and showed more resistance to persuasion than participants who decoded sadness. By manipulating the emotion decoded, the diagnosticity of processing fluency experienced during emotion decoding, and the gaze direction of the social targets, Experiment 2 suggests that the link between emotion decoding and attitude certainty results from incidental processing fluency. Experiment 3 demonstrated that fluency in processing irrelevant stimuli influences attitude certainty, which in turn influences resistance to persuasion. Implications for appraisal-based accounts of attitude formation and attitude change are discussed.

Silent stroke and advance in neuroimaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okada, Yasushi; Sadoshima, Seizo; Hasuo, Kanehiro; Saku, Yoshisuke; Fujishima, Masatoshi (Kyushu Univ., Fukuoka (Japan). Faculty of Medicine)

1990-10-01

Recently, silent strokes are more frequently demonstrated by CT and MRI with the advance of neuroimaging. The infarcted lesions unrelated to the neurological symptoms were detected in 8, 30, 28, 34, 60, 63% of the patients with cerebral infarction in 1977-78, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, respectively, by CT and/or MRI, and the asymptomatic patients with incidentally diagnosed cerebral infarction were amounted to 16% (8 of 51 cases) in 1988. Of the recent 50 patients with cerebral infarction examined by CT and MRI, asymptomatic cerebrovascular lesions were detected in 25 (50%) by CT and in 35 (70%) by MRI. MRI also revealed asymptomatic old hemorrhage in 7 (14%). The clinical significance of silent stroke was discussed. (author).

Shall we use non-verbal fluency in schizophrenia? A pilot study.

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Rinaldi, Romina; Trappeniers, Julie; Lefebvre, Laurent

2014-05-30

Over the last few years, numerous studies have attempted to explain fluency impairments in people with schizophrenia, leading to heterogeneous results. This could notably be due to the fact that fluency is often used in its verbal form where semantic dimensions are implied. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of fluency deficits, a non-verbal fluency task - the Five-Point Test (5PT) - was proposed to 24 patients with schizophrenia and to 24 healthy subjects categorized in terms of age, gender and schooling. The 5PT involves producing as many abstract figures as possible within 1min by connecting points with straight lines. All subjects also completed the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) while those with schizophrenia were further assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results show that the 5PT evaluation differentiates patients from healthy subjects with regard to the number of figures produced. Patients׳ results also suggest that the number of figures produced is linked to the "overall executive functioning" and to some inhibition components. Although this study is a first step in the non-verbal efficiency research field, we believe that experimental psychopathology could benefit from the investigations on non-verbal fluency. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Left ventricular function abnormalities as a manifestation of silent myocardial ischemia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lambert, C R; Conti, C R; Pepine, C J

1986-11-01

A large body of evidence exists indicating that left ventricular dysfunction is a common occurrence in patients with severe coronary artery disease and represents silent or asymptomatic myocardial ischemia. Such dysfunction probably occurs early in the time course of every ischemic episode in patients with coronary artery disease whether symptoms are eventually manifested or not. The pathophysiology of silent versus symptomatic left ventricular dysfunction due to ischemia appears to be identical. Silent ischemia-related left ventricular dysfunction can be documented during spontaneous or stress-induced perturbations in the myocardial oxygen supply/demand ratio. It also may be detected by nitroglycerin-induced improvement in ventricular function or by salutary changes in wall motion following revascularization. Silent left ventricular dysfunction is a very early occurrence during ischemia and precedes electrocardiographic abnormalities. In this light, its existence should always be kept in mind when dealing with patients with ischemic heart disease. It can be hypothesized that because silent ischemia appears to be identical to ischemia with symptoms in a pathophysiologic sense, prognosis and treatment in both cases should be the same.

VBOT: Motivating computational and complex systems fluencies with constructionist virtual/physical robotics

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Berland, Matthew W.

As scientists use the tools of computational and complex systems theory to broaden science perspectives (e.g., Bar-Yam, 1997; Holland, 1995; Wolfram, 2002), so can middle-school students broaden their perspectives using appropriate tools. The goals of this dissertation project are to build, study, evaluate, and compare activities designed to foster both computational and complex systems fluencies through collaborative constructionist virtual and physical robotics. In these activities, each student builds an agent (e.g., a robot-bird) that must interact with fellow students' agents to generate a complex aggregate (e.g., a flock of robot-birds) in a participatory simulation environment (Wilensky & Stroup, 1999a). In a participatory simulation, students collaborate by acting in a common space, teaching each other, and discussing content with one another. As a result, the students improve both their computational fluency and their complex systems fluency, where fluency is defined as the ability to both consume and produce relevant content (DiSessa, 2000). To date, several systems have been designed to foster computational and complex systems fluencies through computer programming and collaborative play (e.g., Hancock, 2003; Wilensky & Stroup, 1999b); this study suggests that, by supporting the relevant fluencies through collaborative play, they become mutually reinforcing. In this work, I will present both the design of the VBOT virtual/physical constructionist robotics learning environment and a comparative study of student interaction with the virtual and physical environments across four middle-school classrooms, focusing on the contrast in systems perspectives differently afforded by the two environments. In particular, I found that while performance gains were similar overall, the physical environment supported agent perspectives on aggregate behavior, and the virtual environment supported aggregate perspectives on agent behavior. The primary research questions

Mirror Asymmetry of Category and Letter Fluency in Traumatic Brain Injury and Alzheimer's Patients

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Capitani, Erminio; Rosci, Chiara; Saetti, Maria Cristina; Laiacona, Marcella

2009-01-01

In this study we contrasted the Category fluency and Letter fluency performance of 198 normal subjects, 57 Alzheimer's patients and 57 patients affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim was to check whether, besides the prevalence of Category fluency deficit often reported among Alzheimer's patients, the TBI group presented the opposite…

EFFICACY OF METOPROLOL AND DILTIAZEM IN TREATING SILENT-MYOCARDIAL-ISCHEMIA

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PORTEGIES, MCM; SIJBRING, P; GOBEL, JAM; VIERSMA, JW; LIE, KI

1994-01-01

Recent studies strongly support the prognostic importance of transient silent ischemia. Because patients with silent ischemia are at higher risk of a cardiac event, they are likely to benefit not only from control of symptoms, but also from treatment directed at prevention of ischemia. The efficacy

(In-)Secure messaging with the Silent Circle instant messaging protocol

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Verschoor, S.R.; Lange, T.

2016-01-01

Silent Text, the instant messaging application by the company Silent Circle, provides its users with end-to-end encrypted communication on the Blackphone and other smartphones. The underlying protocol, SCimp, has received many extensions during the update to version 2, but has not been subjected to

Perceptual Fluency, Auditory Generation, and Metamemory: Analyzing the Perceptual Fluency Hypothesis in the Auditory Modality

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Besken, Miri; Mulligan, Neil W.

2014-01-01

Judgments of learning (JOLs) are sometimes influenced by factors that do not impact actual memory performance. One recent proposal is that perceptual fluency during encoding affects metamemory and is a basis of metacognitive illusions. In the present experiments, participants identified aurally presented words that contained inter-spliced silences…

Verbal fluency in bilingual Spanish/English Alzheimer's disease patients.

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Salvatierra, Judy; Rosselli, Monica; Acevedo, Amarilis; Duara, Ranjan

2007-01-01

Studies have demonstrated that in verbal fluency tests, monolinguals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show greater difficulties retrieving words based on semantic rather than phonemic rules. The present study aimed to determine whether this difficulty was reproduced in both languages of Spanish/English bilinguals with mild to moderate AD whose primary language was Spanish. Performance on semantic and phonemic verbal fluency of 11 bilingual AD patients was compared to the performance of 11 cognitively normal, elderly bilingual individuals matched for gender, age, level of education, and degree of bilingualism. Cognitively normal subjects retrieved significantly more items under the semantic condition compared to the phonemic, whereas the performance of AD patients was similar under both conditions, suggesting greater decline in semantic verbal fluency tests. This pattern was produced in both languages, implying a related semantic decline in both languages. Results from this study should be considered preliminary because of the small sample size.

Teaching Reading Strategies and Resources for Grades K-6

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McCormack, Rachel L

2009-01-01

Elementary teachers of reading have one essential goal—to prepare diverse children to be independent, strategic readers in real life. This innovative text helps preservice and inservice teachers achieve this goal by providing knowledge and research-based strategies for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, all aspects of comprehension, and writing in response to literature. Special features include sample lessons and photographs of literacy-rich classrooms. Uniquely interactive, the text is complete with pencil-and-paper exercises and reproducibles that facilitate learning

Recurrent Silent Thyroiditis as a Sequela of Postpartum Thyroiditis

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Hanseree, Preaw; Salvador, Vincent Bryan; Sachmechi, Issac; Kim, Paul

2014-01-01

Thyroiditis encompasses a group of disorders characterized by thyroid inflammation. Though clinically indistinguishable from silent thyroiditis, postpartum thyroiditis occurs in women within 12 months after delivery. Recurrent postpartum thyroiditis in subsequent pregnancies is common, but recurrent silent thyroiditis is rare. We reported a case of patient with recurrent episodes of thyroiditis, unrelated to pregnancy, after an episode of postpartum thyroiditis. It is of interest that postpar...

So Long, Robot Reader! A Superhero Intervention Plan for Improving Fluency

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Marcell, Barclay; Ferraro, Christine

2013-01-01

This article presents an engaging means for turning disfluent readers into prosody superstars. Each week students align with Poetry Power Man and his superhero friends to battle the evil Robot Reader and his sidekicks. The Fluency Foursome helps students adhere to the multidimensional aspects of fluency where expression and comprehension are…

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

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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.

The effect of topic selection on writing fluency among Japanese high school students

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Sarah Lin Lubold

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Written fluency and fluency building activities have been shown to promote linguistic choice and student voice development, increased ability to express ideas using complex grammatical structures and greater intrinsic motivation in English language learners. Since the 1970’s, process-oriented writing has been emphasized, yielding an amplified focus on meaning of student content over linguistic form precision. Current research of writing fluency must delve deeper into questions of student ownership of topic and the outcomes for low-risk activities that support fluency practice and encourage confidence building in students. The purpose of this replication study is to further explore previous findings on the effects of topic selection on writing fluency for high school English as foreign language learners. Building off of the work of Bonzo (2008, this study focused on a timed, non-graded writing activity administered to groups of Japanese engineering students in three departments: mechanical, electrical, and global engineering. The six subsequent samples for each participating student were analyzed using online text-analysis for total and unique word counts, providing data used to perform a t-test. Responses to bi-lingual student questionnaires, with prompts on self-perceived written English ability, self-efficacy and strategies for success while writing, provided additional insight into the facets of fluency. The results of these writing sessions offer both confirmation of and contrast to Bonzo’s original work, demonstrate increased student meaning making, and support the use of free writing activities in English language classrooms as a means by which student written fluency may be improved.

Neural correlates of rhyming vs. lexical and semantic fluency.

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Kircher, Tilo; Nagels, Arne; Kirner-Veselinovic, André; Krach, Sören

2011-05-19

Rhyming words, as in songs or poems, is a universal feature of human language across all ages. In the present fMRI study a novel overt rhyming task was applied to determine the neural correlates of rhyme production. Fifteen right-handed healthy male volunteers participated in this verbal fluency study. Participants were instructed to overtly articulate as many words as possible either to a given initial letter (LVF) or to a semantic category (SVF). During the rhyming verbal fluency task (RVF), participants had to generate words that rhymed with pseudoword stimuli. On-line overt verbal responses were audiotaped in order to correct the imaging results for the number of generated words. Fewer words were generated in the rhyming compared to both the lexical and the semantic condition. On a neural level, all language tasks activated a language network encompassing the left inferior frontal gyrus, the middle and superior temporal gyri as well as the contralateral right cerebellum. Rhyming verbal fluency compared to both lexical and semantic verbal fluency demonstrated significantly stronger activation of left inferior parietal region. Generating novel rhyme words seems to be mainly mediated by the left inferior parietal lobe, a region previously found to be associated with meta-phonological as well as sub-lexical linguistic processes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improving English Speaking Fluency: The Role of Six Factors

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Gholamhossein Shahini

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This qualitative study, using an open interview, set out to investigate the roles six factors, including age, university education, teachers of English Language institutes, teaching English, dictionary, and note-taking, played in improving English speaking fluency of seventeen fluent Iranian EFL speakers. The participants were chosen purposefully based on the speaking scale of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL. The findings indicated that early age had a great impact on the participants’ speaking fluency. They mentioned that they could not pick up fluency if they had started learning English at older ages. Moreover, university education had no effect on enhancing their fluency. They stated that not having enough opportunities to speak English in classrooms, being exposed to wrong amounts of input from their classmates or even from some university instructors, having no access to English native speakers in English Language Departments, professors’ talking in native language out of classes, in their offices or even sometimes in classes all led to their losing motivation after entering the university. In contrast, teachers in English language institutes had a supportive role in increasing the participants’ English learning. Although two participants quit teaching English since it had a negative influence on their speaking, it had a positive impact on improving speaking ability of the rest. And finally, fruitful strategies were suggested on how to use dictionaries and note-takings.

Visiting digital fluency for pre-service teachers in Turkey

OpenAIRE

Kadir Demir; Betül Aydın; Nazife Şen Ersoy; Aydın Kelek; İsmail Tatar; Abdullah Kuzu; Hatice Ferhan Odabaşı

2015-01-01

Digital literacy is to know how to use digital tools, however digital fluency is a new concept. Beyond the digital literacy, digital fluency requires skills to know when to use the technology and even why to use the technology. The technology advances rapidly; as a result, education and instruction are getting digitalized. So it could be estimated that; pre-service teachers who are future teachers, should have digital skills. This is the main point of this study which aims to visit pre-ser...

Silent Conversations in the Labyrinth of Artistic Research and Practice

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Eis, Andrea

2013-01-01

This essay explores silent conversations with the past, but also navigates through the labyrinth of artistic process, with its manifold passages of research, chance occurrence and aesthetic experimentation. The double metaphors of silent conversations and labyrinths apply to the essay and the artwork within it, to the research and to the practice.…

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.

Impact of Attending Jump Start Literacy Camp on Reading Achievement among Third and Fourth Grade Students

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Padgett, Carrie B.

2010-01-01

The Jump Start Literacy Camp was developed as a means to combat summer learning loss. The camp utilized high-energy activities to target phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This study examined the effects of the Jump Start Literacy Camp on reading achievement for rising third and fourth grade students in an urban…

Impairments of speech fluency in Lewy body spectrum disorder.

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Ash, Sharon; McMillan, Corey; Gross, Rachel G; Cook, Philip; Gunawardena, Delani; Morgan, Brianna; Boller, Ashley; Siderowf, Andrew; Grossman, Murray

2012-03-01

Few studies have examined connected speech in demented and non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We assessed the speech production of 35 patients with Lewy body spectrum disorder (LBSD), including non-demented PD patients, patients with PD dementia (PDD), and patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), in a semi-structured narrative speech sample in order to characterize impairments of speech fluency and to determine the factors contributing to reduced speech fluency in these patients. Both demented and non-demented PD patients exhibited reduced speech fluency, characterized by reduced overall speech rate and long pauses between sentences. Reduced speech rate in LBSD correlated with measures of between-utterance pauses, executive functioning, and grammatical comprehension. Regression analyses related non-fluent speech, grammatical difficulty, and executive difficulty to atrophy in frontal brain regions. These findings indicate that multiple factors contribute to slowed speech in LBSD, and this is mediated in part by disease in frontal brain regions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phrasing in the speech and reading of the hearing impaired.

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Gregory, J F

1986-08-01

The study reported here explored a partial explanation for the fourth-grade "bottleneck" in literacy advancement by hearing-impaired students. Speech samples from 21 deaf subjects were rated for degree of evident phrasal quality. Likewise, reading comprehension scores for each student were obtained under four reading conditions: reading in whole sentences, in phrases, in fragmented word groups, and in single words. Degree of rated speech phrasality was found to relate significantly and positively to correct recall answers to questions based upon silent reading of passages typed in meaningful word groups (but not when the passages were typed in whole sentences, fragmented word groups, or in single words). The results were taken to suggest that--whereas staccato-speaking deaf students may lack a sense of the phrase altogether--phrasal-speaking deaf youngsters fail to independently apply their phrase sense in the normal reading situation. Thus, both types of deaf youngsters have difficulty affecting the transition to phrase reading that is common for hearing students at or about the fourth-grade level. Finally, I argue that this phrase sense can be instilled in hearing-impaired students and that they can be trained to use it in reading.

Correlation between increased platelet ADP aggregability and silent brain infarcts

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Ono, Kenichiro; Arimoto, Hirohiko; Shirotani, Toshiki

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between platelet aggregability and silent brain infarcts. The study subjects were 445 people (264 men, 181 women; mean age, 53±14 years) with no neurologic signs, history of brain tumor, trauma, cerebrovascular disease, or antiplatelet medications. Adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-induced platelet aggregation was measured by the aggregation-size analytic method. Platelet aggregability was classified into 9 classes. The presence of headache/vertigo, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, or smoking was elicited by questioning or blood sampling. A head MRI scan was performed, and if marked atherosclerosis or obvious stenosis in the intracranial vessels was detected, it was defined as a positive MR angiography (MRA) finding. Silent brain infarcts were detected in 26.3% of subjects. Hyperaggregability defined as that above class 6, 7, and 8 was present in 43.8%, 30.8%, and 15.7% of subjects, respectively. The risk factors for silent brain infarcts by multiple logistic regression analysis were aging, hypertension, positive MRA findings, and hyperaggregability. Platelet ADP hyperaggregability might be a risk factor for silent brain infarcts. (author)

Silent (painless) thyroiditis. Evidence of a geographic variation in frequency

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Vitug, A.C.; Goldman, J.M.

1985-03-01

Recent reports suggest that 14% to 23% of thyrotoxic patients have silent (painless) thyroiditis, a newly described syndrome characterized by transient thyrotoxicosis with a low radioactive iodine uptake. A three-year review at a Brooklyn (NY) hospital showed only one definite and three possible cases of silent thyroiditis among 86 thyrotoxic patients. At most, 4% to 5% of thyrotoxic patients had silent thyroiditis. The authors suggest a geographic variation in this syndrome. Most cases and the largest series are from Japan and the Great Lakes area of North America. The latter may be related to increased iodine intake over many years in a previously endemic area of hypoiodidism and goiter, although other local factors may also be involved.

Silent (painless) thyroiditis. Evidence of a geographic variation in frequency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vitug, A.C.; Goldman, J.M.

1985-01-01

Recent reports suggest that 14% to 23% of thyrotoxic patients have silent (painless) thyroiditis, a newly described syndrome characterized by transient thyrotoxicosis with a low radioactive iodine uptake. A three-year review at a Brooklyn (NY) hospital showed only one definite and three possible cases of silent thyroiditis among 86 thyrotoxic patients. At most, 4% to 5% of thyrotoxic patients had silent thyroiditis. The authors suggest a geographic variation in this syndrome. Most cases and the largest series are from Japan and the Great Lakes area of North America. The latter may be related to increased iodine intake over many years in a previously endemic area of hypoiodidism and goiter, although other local factors may also be involved

Orthographic Learning in Dyslexic Spanish Children

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Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Ramos, Sara; Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Cuetos, Fernando

2014-01-01

Reading fluency is one of the basic processes of learning to read. Children begin to develop fluency when they are able to form orthographic representations of words, which provide direct, smooth, and fast reading. Dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems are mainly characterized by poor reading fluency (Cuetos & Suárez-Coalla…

Episodic Memory, Semantic Memory, and Fluency.

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Schaefer, Carl F.

1980-01-01

Suggests that creating a second-language semantic network can be conceived as developing a plan for retrieving second-language word forms. Characteristics of linguistic performance which will promote fluency are discussed in light of the distinction between episodic and semantic memory. (AMH)

Is semantic verbal fluency impairment explained by executive function deficits in schizophrenia?

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Arthur A. Berberian

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: To investigate if verbal fluency impairment in schizophrenia reflects executive function deficits or results from degraded semantic store or inefficient search and retrieval strategies. Method: Two groups were compared: 141 individuals with schizophrenia and 119 healthy age and education-matched controls. Both groups performed semantic and phonetic verbal fluency tasks. Performance was evaluated using three scores, based on 1 number of words generated; 2 number of clustered/related words; and 3 switching score. A fourth performance score based on the number of clusters was also measured. Results: SZ individuals produced fewer words than controls. After controlling for the total number of words produced, a difference was observed between the groups in the number of cluster-related words generated in the semantic task. In both groups, the number of words generated in the semantic task was higher than that generated in the phonemic task, although a significant group vs. fluency type interaction showed that subjects with schizophrenia had disproportionate semantic fluency impairment. Working memory was positively associated with increased production of words within clusters and inversely correlated with switching. Conclusion: Semantic fluency impairment may be attributed to an inability (resulting from reduced cognitive control to distinguish target signal from competing noise and to maintain cues for production of memory probes.

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

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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.

Spanish normative studies in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project): norms for verbal fluency tests.

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Casals-Coll, M; Sánchez-Benavides, G; Quintana, M; Manero, R M; Rognoni, T; Calvo, L; Palomo, R; Aranciva, F; Tamayo, F; Peña-Casanova, J

2013-01-01

Lexical fluency tests are frequently used in clinical practice to assess language and executive function. As part of the Spanish normative studies project in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project), we provide age- and education-adjusted normative data for 3 semantic fluency tasks (animals, fruits and vegetables, and kitchen tools), three formal lexical fluency tasks (words beginning with P, M and R), three excluded-letter fluency tasks (words excluding A, E and S) and a verb fluency task. The sample consisted of 179 participants who are cognitively normal and range in age from 18 to 49 years. Tables are provided to convert raw scores to scaled scores. Age- and education-adjusted scores are provided by applying linear regression techniques. The results show that education impacted most of the verbal fluency test scores, with no effects related to age and only minimal effects related to sex. The norms obtained will be extremely useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Linguistic and Cultural Factors Associated with Phonemic Fluency Performance in Bilingual Hispanics

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Bennett, Jennifer

2012-01-01

Verbal fluency tasks are used extensively in clinical settings because of their sensitivity to a wide variety of disorders, including cognitive decline and dementia, and their usefulness in differential diagnoses. However, the effects of bilingualism on neuropsychological assessment, and verbal fluency in particular, are currently not completely…

Migraine with aura and silent brain infarcts lack of mediation of patent foramen ovale.

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Calviere, L; Tall, P; Massabuau, P; Bonneville, F; Larrue, V

2013-12-01

Population-based studies have shown a heightened prevalence of clinically silent brain infarcts in subjects who have migraine with aura (MA). We sought to determine whether this association could be confirmed in young patients with cryptogenic ischemic stroke, and explored the role of patent foramen ovale (PFO) as a potential underlying mechanism. Patients were selected from a registry of young patients consecutively treated for ischemic stroke in a tertiary university hospital among those without definite cause of stroke. Patients with PFO were matched for age and gender with patients with normal atrial septum. Migraine and MA were evaluated after patient selection and matching. Silent brain infarcts were independently evaluated on MRI. We included 100 patients [60 men; mean age (SD), 44.8 years (8.3)], 50 patients with PFO. We found silent brain infarcts in 36 patients and MA in 13 patients. MA was more frequent in patients with silent brain infarcts than in patients without silent brain infarcts (25.0% vs. 6.3%; OR, 5; 95% CI, 1.4-17.6; P = 0.01). Traditional cardiovascular risk factors were not associated with silent brain infarcts. PFO was neither associated with MA (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 0.5-5.3) nor silent brain infarcts (OR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.3-1.5). The association of MA with silent brain infarcts was not altered after adjustment for PFO. Findings suggest that silent brain infarcts in young patients with cryptogenic stroke is associated with MA. We found no evidence for a mediating effect of PFO on this association. © 2013 The Author(s) European Journal of Neurology © 2013 EFNS.

Towards identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian: the development of a reading assessment battery.

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Jap, Bernard A J; Borleffs, Elisabeth; Maassen, Ben A M

2017-01-01

With its transparent orthography, Standard Indonesian is spoken by over 160 million inhabitants and is the primary language of instruction in education and the government in Indonesia. An assessment battery of reading and reading-related skills was developed as a starting point for the diagnosis of dyslexia in beginner learners. Founded on the International Dyslexia Association's definition of dyslexia, the test battery comprises nine empirically motivated reading and reading-related tasks assessing word reading, pseudoword reading, arithmetic, rapid automatized naming, phoneme deletion, forward and backward digit span, verbal fluency, orthographic choice (spelling), and writing. The test was validated by computing the relationships between the outcomes on the reading-skills and reading-related measures by means of correlation and factor analyses. External variables, i.e., school grades and teacher ratings of the reading and learning abilities of individual students, were also utilized to provide evidence of its construct validity. Four variables were found to be significantly related with reading-skill measures: phonological awareness, rapid naming, spelling, and digit span. The current study on reading development in Standard Indonesian confirms findings from other languages with transparent orthographies and suggests a test battery including preliminary norm scores for screening and assessment of elementary school children learning to read Standard Indonesian.

The struggling reader: Identifying and addressing reading problems successfully at an early stage

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Le Cordeur, Michael

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The standard of reading of learners in the intermediate phase is cause for considerable concern. In this article, the intermediate phase refers to grades 4, 5 and 6 (roughly ages 10 – 12. According to the 2008 Evaluation Assessment Tests for Reading, only 15% of learners in Grade 6 achieved the required literacy level. Clearly, reading achievement is a problem in South Africa. Although approximately 4% of any given population experience neurological reading problems, the focus of this article is on the significant number of learners in the intermediate phase who experience reading problems and the generic causes of reading problems for learners in general. The intent is to alert teachers and parents to the characteristics of a struggling reader so that the problem can be identified and addressed early. Firstly, ways in which learning problems are manifested are described. Secondly, a discussion of various types of reading problems, of which four, namely poor reading comprehension, inadequate reading fluency, a lack of vocabulary and a negative attitude towards reading, are discussed in depth. Strategies for struggling readers are presented and recommendations are made. The conclusion is that learners who experience reading problems can learn to read successfully when given the necessary support.

The appropriacy of fluency tests in assessing epileptic seizure lateralization in children with partial epilepsy

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Vuksanović Jasmina

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Fluency tests are frequently used in clinical practice to asses executive functions. The literature data are not unequivocal although in a great number of papers is pointed out the importance of the left hemisphere, specially of the left frontal lobes in the mediation of phonological fluency and the right hemisphere in the mediation of nonverbal fluency. This paper considers the suitability of fluency tests for the detection of left versus right seizure laterality. The sample consisted of thirty-two epilepsy patients divided into two groups: LHF-participants with the seizure focus in the left hemisphere (n=16, and DHF-participants with the seizure focus in the right hemisphere (n=16, and K-the control group of t age-matched healthy children (n=50 aged 7-11 years. The qualitative and quantitative comparison of the phonological and nonverbal fluency performance was carried out in consideration of the seizure laterality as well as compared to the healthy controls. The results of phonological fluency performance revealed that the performance of the LHF group was significantly reduced as compared to both DHF and K group. The analysis of nonverbal fluency performance revealed that the performance of the DHF group was significantly reduced as compared to both LHF and K group The qualitative analysis obtained valuable data, which could additionally contribute to the neuropsychological evaluation of the left versus right seizure laterality.

Testing the Acceleration Hypothesis: Fluency Outcomes Utilizing Still- versus Accelerated-Text in Sixth-Grade Students with Reading Disabilities

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Paige, David D.

2011-01-01

The acceleration hypothesis views reading rate simultaneously as both an independent and dependent variable that can be manipulated to encourage increases in reading indicators (Breznitz, 2006). Within this conceptualization, reading rate represents all the component sub-processes required for proficient reading and presents the opportunity for a…

The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Activities in Enhancing EFL Learners' Fluency

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Alrayah, Hassan

2018-01-01

This research-paper aims at examining the effectiveness of cooperative learning activities in enhancing EFL learners' fluency. The researcher has used the descriptive approach, recorded interviews for testing fluency as tools of data collection and the software program SPSS as a tool for the statistical treatment of data. Research sample consists…

Using an Intelligent Tutor and Math Fluency Training to Improve Math Performance

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Arroyo, Ivon; Royer, James M.; Woolf, Beverly P.

2011-01-01

This article integrates research in intelligent tutors with psychology studies of memory and math fluency (the speed to retrieve or calculate answers to basic math operations). It describes the impact of computer software designed to improve either strategic behavior or math fluency. Both competencies are key to improved performance and both…

Emotional verbal fluency: a new task on emotion and executive function interaction.

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Sass, Katharina; Fetz, Karolina; Oetken, Sarah; Habel, Ute; Heim, Stefan

2013-09-01

The present study introduces "Emotional Verbal Fluency" as a novel (partially computerized) task, which is aimed to investigate the interaction between emotionally loaded words and executive functions. Verbal fluency tasks are thought to measure executive functions but the interaction with emotional aspects is hardly investigated. In the current study, a group of healthy subjects (n = 21, mean age 25 years, 76% females) were asked to generate items that are either part of a semantic category (e.g., plants, toys, vehicles; standard semantic verbal fluency) or can trigger the emotions joy, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. The results of the task revealed no differences between performance on semantic and emotional categories, suggesting a comparable task difficulty for healthy subjects. Hence, these first results on the comparison between semantic and emotional verbal fluency seem to highlight that both might be suitable for examining executive functioning. However, an interaction was found between the category type and repetition (first vs. second sequence of the same category) with larger performance decrease for semantic in comparison to emotional categories. Best performance overall was found for the emotional category "joy" suggesting a positivity bias in healthy subjects. To conclude, emotional verbal fluency is a promising approach to investigate emotional components in an executive task, which may stimulate further research, especially in psychiatric patients who suffer from emotional as well as cognitive deficits.

Fluency profile: comparison between Brazilian and European Portuguese speakers.

Science.gov (United States)

Castro, Blenda Stephanie Alves e; Martins-Reis, Vanessa de Oliveira; Baptista, Ana Catarina; Celeste, Letícia Correa

2014-01-01

The purpose of the study was to compare the speech fluency of Brazilian Portuguese speakers with that of European Portuguese speakers. The study participants were 76 individuals of any ethnicity or skin color aged 18-29 years. Of the participants, 38 lived in Brazil and 38 in Portugal. Speech samples from all participants were obtained and analyzed according to the variables of typology and frequency of speech disruptions and speech rate. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed to assess the association between the fluency profile and linguistic variant variables. We found that the speech rate of European Portuguese speakers was higher than the speech rate of Brazilian Portuguese speakers in words per minute (p=0.004). The qualitative distribution of the typology of common dysfluencies (pPortuguese speakers is not available, speech therapists in Portugal can use the same speech fluency assessment as has been used in Brazil to establish a diagnosis of stuttering, especially in regard to typical and stuttering dysfluencies, with care taken when evaluating the speech rate.

Verbal fluency as a prefrontal activation probe: a validation study using 99mTc-ECD brain SPET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Audenaert, K.; Brans, B.; Laere, K. van; Versijpt, J.; Dierckx, R.; Lahorte, P.; Heeringen, K. van

2000-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of brain single-photon emission tomography (SPET) in the letter and category fluency paradigm of the Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA) test in healthy volunteers. Two groups each comprising ten right-handed healthy volunteers were injected twice with 370 MBq technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer following a split-dose paradigm (resting and activation condition). Statistical parametric mapping (SPM96) was used to determine voxelwise significant changes. The letter fluency and the category fluency activation paradigm had a differential brain activation pattern. The posterior part of the left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC) was activated in both paradigms, with the category fluency task having an extra activation in the anterior LIPC. In the category fluency task, but not the letter fluency task, an activation in the right inferior prefrontal cortex was found. These findings confirm to a large extent the results of previous functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography studies in semantic and phonological activation paradigms. The choice and validity of various methodological characteristics of the experimental design leading to these results are critically discussed. It is concluded that brain SPET activation with the letter fluency and category fluency paradigm under standard neuropsychological conditions in healthy volunteers is both technically and practically feasible. (orig.)

Training directionally selective motion pathways can significantly improve reading efficiency

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Lawton, Teri

2004-06-01

This study examined whether perceptual learning at early levels of visual processing would facilitate learning at higher levels of processing. This was examined by determining whether training the motion pathways by practicing leftright movement discrimination, as found previously, would improve the reading skills of inefficient readers significantly more than another computer game, a word discrimination game, or the reading program offered by the school. This controlled validation study found that practicing left-right movement discrimination 5-10 minutes twice a week (rapidly) for 15 weeks doubled reading fluency, and significantly improved all reading skills by more than one grade level, whereas inefficient readers in the control groups barely improved on these reading skills. In contrast to previous studies of perceptual learning, these experiments show that perceptual learning of direction discrimination significantly improved reading skills determined at higher levels of cognitive processing, thereby being generalized to a new task. The deficits in reading performance and attentional focus experienced by the person who struggles when reading are suggested to result from an information overload, resulting from timing deficits in the direction-selectivity network proposed by Russell De Valois et al. (2000), that following practice on direction discrimination goes away. This study found that practicing direction discrimination rapidly transitions the inefficient 7-year-old reader to an efficient reader.

Distinct transmitter release properties determine differences in short-term plasticity at functional and silent synapses.

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Cabezas, Carolina; Buño, Washington

2006-05-01

Recent evidence suggests that functional and silent synapses are not only postsynaptically different but also presynaptically distinct. The presynaptic differences may be of functional importance in memory formation because a proposed mechanism for long-term potentiation is the conversion of silent synapses into functional ones. However, there is little direct experimentally evidence of these differences. We have investigated the transmitter release properties of functional and silent Schaffer collateral synapses and show that on the average functional synapses displayed a lower percentage of failures and higher excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) amplitudes than silent synapses at +60 mV. Moreover, functional but not silent synapses show paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) at +60 mV and thus presynaptic short-term plasticity will be distinct in the two types of synapse. We examined whether intraterminal endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ stores influenced the release properties of these synapses. Ryanodine (100 microM) and thapsigargin (1 microM) increased the percentage of failures and decreased both the EPSC amplitude and PPF in functional synapses. Caffeine (10 mM) had the opposite effects. In contrast, silent synapses were insensitive to both ryanodine and caffeine. Hence we have identified differences in the release properties of functional and silent synapses, suggesting that synaptic terminals of functional synapses express regulatory molecular mechanisms that are absent in silent synapses.

Responsivity to dyslexia training indexed by the N170 amplitude of the brain potential elicited by word reading

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fraga González, G.; Žarić, G.; Tijms, J.; Bonte, M.; Blomert, L.; Leppänen, P.; van der Molen, M.W.

The present study examined training effects in dyslexic children on reading fluency and the amplitude of N170, a negative brain-potential component elicited by letter and symbol strings. A group of 18 children with dyslexia in 3rd grade (9.05 ± 0.46 years old) was tested before and after following a

Effects of literacy on semantic verbal fluency in an immigrant population

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, T. Rune; Waldemar, Gunhild

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: A significant impact of limited schooling and illiteracy has been found on numerous neuropsychological tests, which may partly be due to the ecological relevance of the tests in the context of illiteracy. The aims of this study were to compare the performance of illiterate and literate...... and acculturation score did not affect this interaction effect. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results are in line with previous studies comparing semantic fluency in illiterate and literate individuals. The results lend further support to the strong associations between literacy, semantic verbal fluency performance...... immigrants on two semantic criteria for the verbal fluency test, and examine the influence of acculturation on test performances. METHOD: Performances of 20 cognitively unimpaired illiterate and 21 literate Turkish immigrants aged ≥50 years were compared on an animal and supermarket criterion...

The phonological and visual basis of developmental dyslexia in Brazilian Portuguese reading children.

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Giseli Donadon Germano

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Evidence from opaque languages suggests that visual attention processing abilities in addition to phonological skills may act as cognitive underpinnings of developmental dyslexia. We explored the role of these two cognitive abilities on reading fluency in Brazilian Portuguese, a more transparent orthography than French or English. Sixty-six dyslexic and normal Brazilian Portuguese children participated. They were administered three tasks of phonological skills (phoneme identification, phoneme and syllable blending and three visual tasks (a letter global report task and two non-verbal tasks of visual closure and visual constancy. Results show that Brazilian Portuguese dyslexic children are impaired not only in phonological processing but further in visual processing. The phonological and visual processing abilities significantly and independently contribute to reading fluency in the whole population. Last, different cognitively homogeneous subtypes can be identified in the Brazilian Portuguese dyslexic population. Two subsets of dyslexic children were identified as having a single cognitive disorder, phonological or visual; another group exhibited a double deficit and a few children showed no visual or phonological disorder. Thus the current findings extend previous data from more opaque orthographies as French and English, in showing the importance of investigating visual processing skills in addition to phonological skills in dyslexic children whatever their language orthography transparency.

Do textbooks used in university reading education courses conform to the instructional recommendations of the national reading panel?

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Malatesha Joshi, R; Binks, Emily; Graham, Lori; Ocker-Dean, Emily; Smith, Dennie L; Boulware-Gooden, Regina

2009-01-01

Two reasons may be responsible for the poor grasp of the linguistic concepts related to literacy acquisition by preservice and in-service teachers: a lack of attention given to such concepts by teacher educators (college faculty members) and a lack of relevant information provided in the textbooks used in college courses. In an earlier study, the authors found that many teacher educators involved in the training of preservice and in-service teachers were not well acquainted with these concepts. In this study, the authors examined the extent to which textbooks used in reading education courses contain the information about the five components of literacy instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension) recommended by the National Reading Panel. Such scrutiny shows that many textbooks do not adequately cover these five components and the related instructional procedures for teaching them. In addition to the paucity of information about teaching the five components, some textbooks present inaccurate information.

On the (elusive) role of oral motor-movements in fluency-based memory illusions.

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Westerman, Deanne L; Klin, Celia M; Lanska, Meredith

2015-07-01

It is well established that the ease with which a stimulus is processed affects many different types of evaluative judgments. Recently, it has been proposed that for verbal stimuli the effect of fluency on such judgments is mediated by the muscles that are involved in speech (Topolinski & Strack, 2009, 2010). Evidence for this claim can be found in studies that have shown that fluency effects are eliminated if such judgments are made while these muscles are otherwise engaged (such as while chewing gum or eating). Additional research has found that oral-motor tasks block familiarity-based responding on recognition memory tasks (Topolinski, 2012). The current study investigated the effect of an oral-motor task on recognition memory. Of particular interest was whether the fluency-blocking effects of an oral-motor task would extend to fluency-based illusions of recognition memory. Although we found robust fluency-based illusions of familiarity, we did not find that the effects were modulated by the nature of the concurrent task (gum-chewing vs. a manual-motor task). Moreover, we found no evidence that oral-motor tasks affected recognition more generally, nor did we find that an oral-motor task modulated affective ratings to repeated stimuli. We were also unable to replicate the finding that an oral-motor task blocks the false fame effect (Topolinski & Strack, 2010). These results call into question the assertion that oral-motor movements mediate fluency effects in recognition memory and other evaluative judgments. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Typography and color: effects of salience and fluency on conscious recollective experience.

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Wehr, Thomas; Wippich, Werner

2004-12-01

Within one experiment the central assumptions of the distinctiveness/fluency account of recollective experience were tested and contrasted with predictions of processing theory. To manipulate perceptual salience, the typography of words was varied. Effects of conceptual salience were induced by a variation of word color. In the study phase participants generated different word or object images according to presented words. To manipulate perceptual and conceptual fluency one test group underwent a priming procedure in the test phase, consisting of a recognition test, whereby some primes were identical to the target words typographically or by color and others were not. Additionally, all participants were asked to make judgments of recollective experience (remember, know, guess) after the old/new decisions. The results of the data analyses confirm the distinctiveness/fluency account. Words written in an unusual typography or color were judged significantly more often as "remembered" than normal words. The priming procedure uncovered some effects of fluency on reaction times: old/new decisions took less time if prime and target words were perceptually or conceptually identical.

The limited use of the fluency heuristic: Converging evidence across different procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Pohl, Rüdiger F; Erdfelder, Edgar; Michalkiewicz, Martha; Castela, Marta; Hilbig, Benjamin E

2016-10-01

In paired comparisons based on which of two objects has the larger criterion value, decision makers could use the subjectively experienced difference in retrieval fluency of the objects as a cue. According to the fluency heuristic (FH) theory, decision makers use fluency-as indexed by recognition speed-as the only cue for pairs of recognized objects, and infer that the object retrieved more speedily has the larger criterion value (ignoring all other cues and information). Model-based analyses, however, have previously revealed that only a small portion of such inferences are indeed based on fluency alone. In the majority of cases, other information enters the decision process. However, due to the specific experimental procedures, the estimates of FH use are potentially biased: Some procedures may have led to an overestimated and others to an underestimated, or even to actually reduced, FH use. In the present article, we discuss and test the impacts of such procedural variations by reanalyzing 21 data sets. The results show noteworthy consistency across the procedural variations revealing low FH use. We discuss potential explanations and implications of this finding.

A comparison of three interventions for increasing oral reading performance: Application of the instructional hierarchy

OpenAIRE

Daly, Edward J.; Martens, Brian K.

1994-01-01

The instructional hierarchy is a behavior-analytic model that links level of academic skill development (i.e., acquisition, fluency, generalization, adaptation) with appropriate instructional techniques. The present study used the instructional hierarchy to compare the effects of three instructional interventions (listening passage preview, subject passage preview, and taped words) on subjects' oral reading performance on word lists and passages. Subjects were 4 male students with learning di...

Early preschool processing abilities predict subsequent reading outcomes in bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Science.gov (United States)

Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Pérez-Castelló, Josep A; Rigo-Carratalà, Eduard; Adrover-Roig, Daniel

2014-01-01

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have severe language difficulties without showing hearing impairments, cognitive deficits, neurological damage or socio-emotional deprivation. However, previous studies have shown that children with SLI show some cognitive and literacy problems. Our study analyses the relationship between preschool cognitive and linguistic abilities and the later development of reading abilities in Spanish-Catalan bilingual children with SLI. The sample consisted of 17 bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI and 17 age-matched controls. We tested eight distinct processes related to phonological, attention, and language processing at the age of 6 years and reading at 8 years of age. Results show that bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI show significantly lower scores, as compared to typically developing peers, in phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming (RAN), together with a lower outcome in tasks measuring sentence repetition and verbal fluency. Regarding attentional processes, bilingual Spanish-Catalan children with SLI obtained lower scores in auditory attention, but not in visual attention. At the age of 8 years Spanish-Catalan children with SLI had lower scores than their age-matched controls in total reading score, letter identification (decoding), and in semantic task (comprehension). Regression analyses identified both phonological awareness and verbal fluency at the age of 6 years to be the best predictors of subsequent reading performance at the age of 8 years. Our data suggest that language acquisition problems and difficulties in reading acquisition in bilingual children with SLI might be related to the close interdependence between a limitation in cognitive processing and a deficit at the linguistic level. After reading this article, readers will be able to: identify their understanding of the relation between language difficulties and reading outcomes; explain how processing

Linguistic Phenomena in Men and Women - TOT, FOK, Verbal Fluency

OpenAIRE

Ewa Szepietowska; Barbara Gawda; Agnieszka Gawda

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to describe the differences between women and men in the phenomena of feeling of knowing/know (FOK), tip of the tongue (TOT), and verbal fluency. Two studies are presented. The first included a group of 60 participants and focused on the analysis of FOK and TOT in men and women. The second study described the performance of 302 participants in verbal fluency tasks. Both studies showed that sex is not a significant predictor of linguistic abilities. Rather, the main fa...

Phonemic verbal fluency and severity of anxiety disorders in young children

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Rudineia Toazza

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: Previous studies have implicated impaired verbal fluency as being associated with anxiety disorders in adolescents. Objectives: To replicate and extend previously reported evidence by investigating whether performance in phonemic verbal fluency tasks is related to severity of anxiety symptoms in young children with anxiety disorders. We also aim to investigate whether putative associations are independent from co-occurring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD symptoms. Methods: Sixty children (6-12 years old with primary diagnoses of anxiety disorders participated in this study. Severity of symptoms was measured using clinician-based, parent-rated and self-rated validated scales. Verbal fluency was assessed using a simple task that measures the number of words evoked in 1-minute with the letter F, from which we quantified the number of isolated words, number of clusters (groups of similar words and number of switches (transitions between clusters and/or between isolated words. Results: There was a significant association between the number of clusters and anxiety scores. Further analysis revealed associations were independent from co-occurring ADHD symptoms. Conclusion: We replicate and extend previous findings showing that verbal fluency is consistently associated with severity in anxiety disorders in children. Further studies should explore the potential effect of cognitive training on symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Verbal fluency in idiopathic Parkinson's disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thut, G.; Antonini, A.; Roelcke, U.; Missimer, J.; Maguire, R.P.; Leenders, K.L.; Regard, M.

1997-01-01

In the present study, the relationship between resting metabolism and verbal fluency, a correlate of frontal lobe cognition, was examined in 33 PD patients. We aimed to determine brain structures involved in frontal lobe cognitive impairment with special emphasis on differences between demented and non-demented PD patients. (author) 3 figs., 2 refs

Neurophysiological studies of reading fluency : Towards visual and auditory markers of developmental dyslexia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Qin, Rui

2016-01-01

Developmental dyslexia is a neurobiologically based learning disorder that impairs a child’s ability to read and write. To minimize the detrimental effects of dyslexia, it is important to provide optimal intervention at the youngest possible age. Early diagnosis of dyslexia, which is a prerequisite

Efficacy of a Word- and Text-Based Intervention for Students With Significant Reading Difficulties.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Garrett J; Miciak, Jeremy; Taylor, Pat; Fletcher, Jack M

2018-05-01

We examine the efficacy of an intervention to improve word reading and reading comprehension in fourth- and fifth-grade students with significant reading problems. Using a randomized control trial design, we compare the fourth- and fifth-grade reading outcomes of students with severe reading difficulties who were provided a researcher-developed treatment with reading outcomes of students in a business-as-usual (BAU) comparison condition. A total of 280 fourth- and fifth-grade students were randomly assigned within school in a 1:1 ratio to either the BAU comparison condition ( n = 139) or the treatment condition ( n = 141). Treatment students were provided small-group tutoring for 30 to 45 minutes for an average of 68 lessons (mean hours of instruction = 44.4, SD = 11.2). Treatment students performed statistically significantly higher than BAU students on a word reading measure (effect size [ES] = 0. 58) and a measure of reading fluency (ES = 0.46). Though not statistically significant, effect sizes for students in the treatment condition were consistently higher than BAU students for decoding measures (ES = 0.06, 0.08), and mixed for comprehension (ES = -0.02, 0.14).

SEMANTIC VERBAL FLUENCY OF THE BILINGUAL CHILDREN WITH MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

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Nenad GLUMBIKJ

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Semantic verbal fluency test is reliable instrument for detection of various kinds of neuropsychological deficits. Participants’ attainments in this test are influenced by array of socio-cultural factors. The occurrence of “twofold semilingualism” belongs to these cultural factors.The objective of this research is to determine differences between monolingual and bilingual children with mild mental retardation in semantic verbal fluency test.The sample consisted of 90 participants with mild mental retardation, of both sexes, aged from 12 to 15. The whole sample was divided into three subsets: 30 monolingual children (M1, who speak only Serbian, 30 monolingual Roma children who do not speak Romany (M2 and 30 bilingual Roma children who speak both, Romany and Serbian language (B.It was found that both groups of monolingual children have better performances in semantic fluency tasks than bilingual children.

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.

Verbal fluency as a prefrontal activation probe: a validation study using {sup 99m}Tc-ECD brain SPET

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Audenaert, K. [Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ghent University Hospital (Belgium); Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital and Ghent University (Belgium); Brans, B.; Laere, K. van; Versijpt, J.; Dierckx, R. [Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ghent University Hospital (Belgium); Lahorte, P. [Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ghent University Hospital (Belgium); Laboratory of Subatomic and Radiation Physics, Ghent University (Belgium); Heeringen, K. van [Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital and Ghent University (Belgium)

2000-12-01

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of brain single-photon emission tomography (SPET) in the letter and category fluency paradigm of the Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA) test in healthy volunteers. Two groups each comprising ten right-handed healthy volunteers were injected twice with 370 MBq technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer following a split-dose paradigm (resting and activation condition). Statistical parametric mapping (SPM96) was used to determine voxelwise significant changes. The letter fluency and the category fluency activation paradigm had a differential brain activation pattern. The posterior part of the left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC) was activated in both paradigms, with the category fluency task having an extra activation in the anterior LIPC. In the category fluency task, but not the letter fluency task, an activation in the right inferior prefrontal cortex was found. These findings confirm to a large extent the results of previous functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography studies in semantic and phonological activation paradigms. The choice and validity of various methodological characteristics of the experimental design leading to these results are critically discussed. It is concluded that brain SPET activation with the letter fluency and category fluency paradigm under standard neuropsychological conditions in healthy volunteers is both technically and practically feasible. (orig.)

The clinical dilemma of "silent desensitization" in aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease.

Science.gov (United States)

White, Andrew A; Bosso, John V; Stevenson, Donald D

2013-01-01

Aspirin desensitization is a treatment option for patients with aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD). Some patients with an excellent history of aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) reactions have negative aspirin challenges/desensitization. This study discusses the clinical entity of silent desensitization in AERD and the dilemma that this presents to the practicing allergist/immunologist. We discuss a series of patients with a strong history of NSAID reactions who initially underwent a negative challenge/silent desensitization. These patients were subsequently proven to have AERD after a second positive aspirin challenge. Silent desensitization is an uncommon but important outcome to recognize in AERD. Clinicians performing aspirin desensitization should understand that this can occur and consider a second confirmatory aspirin challenge in some patients.

Image Ambiguity and Fluency

Science.gov (United States)

Jakesch, Martina; Leder, Helmut; Forster, Michael

2013-01-01

Ambiguity is often associated with negative affective responses, and enjoying ambiguity seems restricted to only a few situations, such as experiencing art. Nevertheless, theories of judgment formation, especially the “processing fluency account”, suggest that easy-to-process (non-ambiguous) stimuli are processed faster and are therefore preferred to (ambiguous) stimuli, which are hard to process. In a series of six experiments, we investigated these contrasting approaches by manipulating fluency (presentation duration: 10ms, 50ms, 100ms, 500ms, 1000ms) and testing effects of ambiguity (ambiguous versus non-ambiguous pictures of paintings) on classification performance (Part A; speed and accuracy) and aesthetic appreciation (Part B; liking and interest). As indicated by signal detection analyses, classification accuracy increased with presentation duration (Exp. 1a), but we found no effects of ambiguity on classification speed (Exp. 1b). Fifty percent of the participants were able to successfully classify ambiguous content at a presentation duration of 100 ms, and at 500ms even 75% performed above chance level. Ambiguous artworks were found more interesting (in conditions 50ms to 1000ms) and were preferred over non-ambiguous stimuli at 500ms and 1000ms (Exp. 2a - 2c, 3). Importantly, ambiguous images were nonetheless rated significantly harder to process as non-ambiguous images. These results suggest that ambiguity is an essential ingredient in art appreciation even though or maybe because it is harder to process. PMID:24040172

Processing rhythmic pattern during Chinese sentence reading: An eye movement study

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Yingyi eLuo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010. Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2+1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1+1] or [2+2]. This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader’s eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed, less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis

Processing Rhythmic Pattern during Chinese Sentence Reading: An Eye Movement Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Yingyi; Duan, Yunyan; Zhou, Xiaolin

2015-01-01

Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O) combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010). Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2 + 1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively) and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1 + 1] or [2 + 2]). This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader's eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed), less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis processing at the

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)

Silent method for mathematics instruction: An overview of teaching subsets

Science.gov (United States)

Sugiman, Apino, Ezi

2017-05-01

Generally, teachers use oral communication for teaching mathematics. Taking an opposite perspective, this paper describes how instructional practices for mathematics can be carried out namely a silent method. Silent method uses body language, written, and oral communication for classroom interaction. This research uses a design research approach consisting of four phases: preliminary, prototyping and developing the instruction, and assessment. There are four stages of silent method. The first stage is conditioning stage in which the teacher introduces the method and makes agreement about the `rule of the game'. It is followed by the second one, elaborating stage, where students guess and explore alternative answers. The third stage is developing mathematical thinking by structuring and symbolizing. Finally, the method is ended by reinforcing stage which aims at strengthening and reflecting student's understanding. In this paper, every stage is described on the basis of practical experiences in a real mathematics classroom setting.

Screening for silent myocardial ischemia caseof diabetics : interest of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bahri, Haifa

2007-01-01

Silent myocardial ischemia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. Its diagnosis by noninvasive means such as myocardial SPECT would improve the management of these patients. The purpose of this study is to assess the frequency of silent myocardial ischemia in asymptomatic diabetics and their evolution. As a result, the myocardial SPECT is a reliable tool for screening for silent myocardial ischemia in diabetic patients. Its prognostic value allows to stratify the cardiac risk and guide therapeutic management. Its integration into a screening strategy in Tunisia seems limited by its low availability and cost. The latter could be reduced by better patient selection.

Music education for improving reading skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia.

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Cogo-Moreira, Hugo; Andriolo, Régis B; Yazigi, Latife; Ploubidis, George B; Brandão de Ávila, Clara Regina; Mari, Jair J

2012-08-15

Dyslexia (or developmental dyslexia or specific reading disability) is a specific learning disorder that has a neurobiological origin. It is marked by difficulties with accurate or fluent recognition of words and poor spelling in people who have average or above average intelligence and these difficulties cannot be attributed to another cause, for example, poor vision, hearing difficulty, or lack of socio-environmental opportunities, motivation, or adequate instruction. Studies have correlated reading skills with musical abilities. It has been hypothesized that musical training may be able to remediate timing difficulties, improve pitch perception, or increase spatial awareness, thereby having a positive effect on skills needed in the development of language and literacy. To study the effectiveness of music education on reading skills (that is, oral reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and spelling) in children and adolescents with dyslexia. We searched the following electronic databases in June 2012: CENTRAL (2012, Issue 5), MEDLINE (1948 to May Week 4 2012 ), EMBASE (1980 to 2012 Week 22), CINAHL (searched 7 June 2012), LILACS (searched 7 June 2012), PsycINFO (1887 to May Week 5 2012), ERIC (searched 7 June 2012), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1970 to 6 June 2012), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Sciences and Humanities (1990 to 6 June 2012), and WorldCat (searched 7 June 2012). We also searched the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and reference lists of studies. We did not apply any date or language limits. We planned to include randomized controlled trials. We looked for studies that included at least one of our primary outcomes. The primary outcomes were related to the main domain of the reading: oral reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and spelling, measured through validated instruments. The secondary outcomes were self

Eye movement analysis of reading from computer displays, eReaders and printed books.

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Zambarbieri, Daniela; Carniglia, Elena

2012-09-01

To compare eye movements during silent reading of three eBooks and a printed book. The three different eReading tools were a desktop PC, iPad tablet and Kindle eReader. Video-oculographic technology was used for recording eye movements. In the case of reading from the computer display the recordings were made by a video camera placed below the computer screen, whereas for reading from the iPad tablet, eReader and printed book the recording system was worn by the subject and had two cameras: one for recording the movement of the eyes and the other for recording the scene in front of the subject. Data analysis provided quantitative information in terms of number of fixations, their duration, and the direction of the movement, the latter to distinguish between fixations and regressions. Mean fixation duration was different only in reading from the computer display, and was similar for the Tablet, eReader and printed book. The percentage of regressions with respect to the total amount of fixations was comparable for eReading tools and the printed book. The analysis of eye movements during reading an eBook from different eReading tools suggests that subjects' reading behaviour is similar to reading from a printed book. © 2012 The College of Optometrists.

When Does Modality Matter? Perceptual versus Conceptual Fluency-Based Illusions in Recognition Memory

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Miller, Jeremy K.; Lloyd, Marianne E.; Westerman, Deanne L.

2008-01-01

Previous research has shown that illusions of recognition memory based on enhanced perceptual fluency are sensitive to the perceptual match between the study and test phases of an experiment. The results of the current study strengthen that conclusion, as they show that participants will not interpret enhanced perceptual fluency as a sign of…

Silent ischemic brain lesions after transcatheter aortic valve replacement : lesion distribution and predictors

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Samim, Mariam; Hendrikse, Jeroen; van der Worp, H. Bart; Agostoni, Pierfrancesco; Nijhoff, Freek; Doevendans, Pieter A.; Stella, Pieter R.

Silent ischemic brain lesions and ischemic stroke are known complications of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). We aimed to investigate the occurrence and distribution of TAVR-related silent ischemic brain lesions using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI). Consecutive

Fluency-dependent cortical activation associated with speech production and comprehension in second language learners.

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Shimada, K; Hirotani, M; Yokokawa, H; Yoshida, H; Makita, K; Yamazaki-Murase, M; Tanabe, H C; Sadato, N

2015-08-06

This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the brain regions underlying language task performance in adult second language (L2) learners. Specifically, we identified brain regions where the level of activation was associated with L2 fluency levels. Thirty Japanese-speaking adults participated in the study. All participants were L2 learners of English and had achieved varying levels of fluency, as determined by a standardized L2 English proficiency test, the Versant English Test (Pearson Education Inc., 2011). When participants performed the oral sentence building task from the production tasks administered, the dorsal part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) showed activation patterns that differed depending on the L2 fluency levels: The more fluent the participants were, the more dIFG activation decreased. This decreased activation of the dIFG might reflect the increased automaticity of a syntactic building process. In contrast, when participants performed an oral story comprehension task, the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) showed increased activation with higher fluency levels. This suggests that the learners with higher L2 fluency were actively engaged in post-syntactic integration processing supported by the left pSTG. These data imply that L2 fluency predicts neural resource allocation during language comprehension tasks as well as in production tasks. This study sheds light on the neural underpinnings of L2 learning by identifying the brain regions recruited during different language tasks across different modalities (production vs. comprehension). Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Event-related potentials indicate that fluency can be interpreted as familiarity.

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Bruett, Heather; Leynes, P Andrew

2015-11-01

Recent evidence suggests that fluency may be capable of supporting recognition independently of familiarity. This hypothesis was further tested in the present study. 29 participants encoded name-brand and off-brand products in an incidental task. Participants then judged whether the product was old or new during two tests with products from one category (i.e., only name-brand or only off-brand products) and a mixed test (where both name-brand and off-brand products were shown). The ERP data elicited by off-brand products varied as a function of test format. During the mixed test, off-brand products were correlated with a FN400 effect, whereas a fluency ERP (old ERPs were more negative than new at parietal electrodes 225-400ms) was observed during the other test. Importantly, no FN400 was detected during this test. The ERP results suggest that viewing the off-brand products during the mixed test produced a familiarity experience; however, fluency supported recognition when viewing off-brand products on the other test. The results are strong evidence that top-down processing of visual features during recognition interprets the information relative to the context. This process results in either fluency or, in other contexts, it is interpreted as familiarity as the Discrepancy-Attribution Hypothesis (Whittlesea and Williams, 2001a, 2001b) contends. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A normative study of lexical verbal fluency in an educationally-diverse elderly population.

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Kim, Bong Jo; Lee, Cheol Soon; Oh, Byoung Hoon; Hong, Chang Hyung; Lee, Kang Soo; Son, Sang Joon; Han, Changsu; Park, Moon Ho; Jeong, Hyun-Ghang; Kim, Tae Hui; Park, Joon Hyuk; Kim, Ki Woong

2013-12-01

Lexical fluency tests are frequently used to assess language and executive function in clinical practice. We investigated the influences of age, gender, and education on lexical verbal fluency in an educationally-diverse, elderly Korean population and provided its' normative information. We administered the lexical verbal fluency test (LVFT) to 1676 community-dwelling, cognitively normal subjects aged 60 years or over. In a stepwise linear regression analysis, education (B=0.40, SE=0.02, standardized B=0.506) and age (B=-0.10, SE=0.01, standardized B=-0.15) had significant effects on LVFT scores (p0.05). Education explained 28.5% of the total variance in LVFT scores, which was much larger than the variance explained by age (5.42%). Accordingly, we presented normative data of the LVFT stratified by age (60-69, 70-74, 75-79, and ≥80 years) and education (0-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, and ≥13 years). The LVFT norms should provide clinically useful data for evaluating elderly people and help improve the interpretation of verbal fluency tasks and allow for greater diagnostic accuracy.

Production improves memory equivalently following elaborative vs non-elaborative processing.

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Forrin, Noah D; Jonker, Tanya R; MacLeod, Colin M

2014-01-01

Words that are read aloud are better remembered than those read silently. Recent research has suggested that, rather than reflecting a benefit for produced items, this production effect may reflect a cost to reading silently in a list containing both aloud and silent items (Bodner, Taikh, & Fawcett, 2013). This cost is argued to occur because silent items are lazily read, receiving less attention than aloud items which require an overt response. We examined the possible role of lazy reading in the production effect by testing whether the effect would be reduced under elaborative encoding, which precludes lazy reading of silent items. Contrary to a lazy reading account, we found that production benefited generated words as much as read words (Experiment 1) and deeply imagined words as much as shallowly imagined words (Experiment 2). We conclude that production stands out as equally distinct-and consequently as equally memorable-regardless of whether it accompanies deep or shallow processing, evidence that is inconsistent with a lazy reading account.

Reduced verbal fluency for proper names in nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease: a quantitative and qualitative analysis.

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Fine, Eric M; Delis, Dean C; Paul, Brianna M; Filoteo, J Vincent

2011-02-01

There has been an increasing interest within neuropsychology in comparing verbal fluency for different grammatical classes (e.g., verb generation vs. noun generation) in neurological populations, including Parkinson's disease (PD). However, to our knowledge, few studies have compared verbal fluency for common nouns and proper names in PD. Common nouns and proper names differ in terms of their semantic characteristics, as categories of common nouns are organized hierarchically based on semantics, while categories of proper nouns lack a well-defined semantic organization. In addition, there is accumulating evidence that the retrieval of these distinct grammatical classes are subserved by somewhat distinct neural systems. Given that verbal fluency deficits are among the first impairments to emerge in PD, and that such deficits are predictors of future cognitive decline, it is important to examine all aspects of verbal fluency in this population. For the current study, we compared the performance of a group of 32 nondemented PD patients with 32 healthy participants (HP) on verbal fluency tasks for common nouns (animals) and proper names (boys' first names). A significant interaction between verbal fluency task and diagnostic status emerged, as the PD group performed significantly worse on only the proper name fluency task. This finding may reflect the absence of well-defined semantic organization that structures the verbal search for first names, thus placing a greater onus on strategic or "executive" verbal retrieval processes.

Reading and writing development of low-achieving adolescents: The roles of linguistic knowledge, fluency, and metacognitive knowledge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trapman, M.J.W.

2016-01-01

Whereas school and society pose high demands on youngsters’ reading and writing skills, many adolescents experience difficulties in understanding what they read and in expressing their thoughts in comprehensible texts. Especially low-achieving students in the lowest educational tracks in the

Purely Magnetic Silent Universes do not Exist

Science.gov (United States)

Vu, K. T.; Carminati, J.

2008-09-01

We present a new Maple package called STeM (Symbolic Tetrad Manipulation). Using STeM, we outline, using a formalism which is a hybrid of the NP and Orthonormal ones, the proof of the nonexistence of purely magnetic silent universes.

The phonological and visual basis of developmental dyslexia in Brazilian Portuguese reading children

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Germano, Giseli D.; Reilhac, Caroline; Capellini, Simone A.; Valdois, Sylviane

2014-01-01

Evidence from opaque languages suggests that visual attention processing abilities in addition to phonological skills may act as cognitive underpinnings of developmental dyslexia. We explored the role of these two cognitive abilities on reading fluency in Brazilian Portuguese, a more transparent orthography than French or English. Sixty-six children with developmental dyslexia and normal Brazilian Portuguese children participated. They were administered three tasks of phonological skills (phoneme identification, phoneme, and syllable blending) and three visual tasks (a letter global report task and two non-verbal tasks of visual closure and visual constancy). Results show that Brazilian Portuguese children with developmental dyslexia are impaired not only in phonological processing but further in visual processing. The phonological and visual processing abilities significantly and independently contribute to reading fluency in the whole population. Last, different cognitively homogeneous subtypes can be identified in the Brazilian Portuguese population of children with developmental dyslexia. Two subsets of children with developmental dyslexia were identified as having a single cognitive disorder, phonological or visual; another group exhibited a double deficit and a few children showed no visual or phonological disorder. Thus the current findings extend previous data from more opaque orthographies as French and English, in showing the importance of investigating visual processing skills in addition to phonological skills in children with developmental dyslexia whatever their language orthography transparency. PMID:25352822

Parallel effects of processing fluency and positive affect on familiarity-based recognition decisions for faces

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Devin eDuke

2014-04-01

Full Text Available According to attribution models of familiarity assessment, people can use a heuristic in recognition-memory decisions, in which they attribute the subjective ease of processing of a memory probe to a prior encounter with the stimulus in question. Research in social cognition suggests that experienced positive affect may be the proximal cue that signals fluency in various experimental contexts. In the present study, we compared the effects of positive affect and fluency on recognition-memory judgments for faces with neutral emotional expression. We predicted that if positive affect is indeed the critical cue that signals processing fluency at retrieval, then its manipulation should produce effects that closely mirror those produced by manipulations of processing fluency. In two experiments, we employed a masked-priming procedure in combination with a Remember-Know paradigm that aimed to separate familiarity- from recollection-based memory decisions. In addition, participants performed a prime-discrimination task that allowed us to take inter-individual differences in prime awareness into account. We found highly similar effects of our priming manipulations of processing fluency and of positive affect. In both cases, the critical effect was specific to familiarity-based recognition responses. Moreover, in both experiments it was reflected in a shift towards a more liberal response bias, rather than in changed discrimination. Finally, in both experiments, the effect was found to be related to prime awareness; it was present only in participants who reported a lack of such awareness on the prime-discrimination task. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that points not only to a role of fluency, but also of positive affect in familiarity assessment. As such they are consistent with the idea that fluency itself may be hedonically marked.

Parallel effects of processing fluency and positive affect on familiarity-based recognition decisions for faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Duke, Devin; Fiacconi, Chris M; Köhler, Stefan

2014-01-01

According to attribution models of familiarity assessment, people can use a heuristic in recognition-memory decisions, in which they attribute the subjective ease of processing of a memory probe to a prior encounter with the stimulus in question. Research in social cognition suggests that experienced positive affect may be the proximal cue that signals fluency in various experimental contexts. In the present study, we compared the effects of positive affect and fluency on recognition-memory judgments for faces with neutral emotional expression. We predicted that if positive affect is indeed the critical cue that signals processing fluency at retrieval, then its manipulation should produce effects that closely mirror those produced by manipulations of processing fluency. In two experiments, we employed a masked-priming procedure in combination with a Remember-Know (RK) paradigm that aimed to separate familiarity- from recollection-based memory decisions. In addition, participants performed a prime-discrimination task that allowed us to take inter-individual differences in prime awareness into account. We found highly similar effects of our priming manipulations of processing fluency and of positive affect. In both cases, the critical effect was specific to familiarity-based recognition responses. Moreover, in both experiments it was reflected in a shift toward a more liberal response bias, rather than in changed discrimination. Finally, in both experiments, the effect was found to be related to prime awareness; it was present only in participants who reported a lack of such awareness on the prime-discrimination task. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that points not only to a role of fluency, but also of positive affect in familiarity assessment. As such they are consistent with the idea that fluency itself may be hedonically marked.

Analysis of Speech Fluency in Williams Syndrome

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Rossi, Natalia Freitas; Sampaio, Adriana; Goncalves, Oscar F.; Giacheti, Celia Maria

2011-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder, often referred as being characterized by dissociation between verbal and non-verbal abilities, although the number of studies disputing this proposal is emerging. Indeed, although they have been traditionally reported as displaying increased speech fluency, this topic has not been…

Silent Thyroiditis

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Peter

1984-01-01

Silent or painless thyroiditis is a frequent cause of transient hyperthyroidism, which is characterized by recent onset of symptoms in a patient with a normal to modestly enlarged and firm thyroid gland. The hallmarks of the disease are the absence of thyroidal pain or tenderness and a markedly reduced radioiodine uptake. Histologically, the gland is characterized by an important lymphocytic infiltration, occasionally to the point of lymphoid follicle formation. However, other indices of an autoimmune cause are usually absent. The disease appears to have a predilection for the postpartum period. Relapses may occur with subsequent pregnancies. Otherwise, the course is usually benign and transient, requiring moderate doses of β-adrenergic blocking agents for symptomatic relief. No pathogenetic factors are known, but the disease may conceivably have an autoimmune basis, particularly in the postpartum patient. PMID:21278944

Measuring autobiographical fluency in the self-memory system.

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Rathbone, Clare J; Moulin, Chris J A

2014-01-01

Autobiographical memory is widely considered to be fundamentally related to concepts of self and identity. However, few studies have sought to test models of self and memory directly using experimental designs. Using a novel autobiographical fluency paradigm, the present study investigated memory accessibility for different levels of self-related knowledge. Forty participants generated 20 "I am" statements about themselves, from which the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th were used as cues in a two-minute autobiographical fluency task. The most salient aspects of the self, measured by both serial position and ratings of personal significance, were associated with more accessible sets of autobiographical memories. This finding supports theories that view the self as a powerful organizational structure in memory. Results are discussed with reference to models of self and memory.

Transluminal coronary angioplasty in the treatment of silent ischemia