learning to read ● letters activate words – some correct and others not ● letters activate...

Learning to Read

● Letters activate words– some correct and others not

● Letters activate sounds

Learning to Read

● Letters activate words– some correct and others not

● Letters activate sounds● More frequent words are more quickly

activated

Learning to Read

● Do we parse?– misunderstanding > mis+understand+ing

Learning to Read


● Do we recognize whole words?

Learning to Read


● Do we recognize whole words?● Do we do both at the same time? (race model)

Learning to Read

● Actual sounds are mapped to phonemes● Do letters need to be mapped to something

abstract?

Learning to Read

● Actual sounds are mapped to phonemes● Do letters need to be mapped to something

abstract?– Yes.

• g G g G g GG g g

Learning to Read

● Word superiority effect– People recognize letters faster when

presented in a word than by themselves

Learning to Read


presented in a word than by themselves● How is that possible if words are made of

letters not vice versa?

Learning to Read


presented in a word than by themselves● How is that possible if words are made of

letters not vice versa?● Seeing a letter only activates the letter● Seeing a letter in a words activates all kinds of

words● Those words pass activation down to the letter

Learning to Read

● Sentence superiority effect– Words are recognized faster in a sentence that

when alone– man vs. the man in the moon

• Activation boost in sentence– “the” is often followed by nouns– nouns are often followed by prepositional phrases

Learning to Read

● Sentence superiority effect– Words are recognized faster in a sentence that

when alone– man vs. the man in the moon

• Activation boost in sentence– “the” is often followed by nouns– nouns are often followed by prepositional phrases– The entire clause is a unit

Learning to Read

● Why is English spelling so nasty?– It hasn't been updated to reflect sound

changes

Learning to Read


changes– English often borrows words from other

language and keeps the foreign spelling• debut, depot• schizophrenia

– English uses the Latin alphabet that has no unique letter for all of the sounds in English

Learning to Read


changes– English often borrows words from other

language and keeps the foreign spelling• debut, depot• schizophrenia

– English uses the Latin alphabet that has no unique letter for all of the sounds in English

– The great vowel shift wreaked its havoc

Learning to Read

● Two theories/methods of reading– Phonics

• Learn sound and letter correspondences• Sound the words out

Learning to Read

● Two theories/methods of reading– Phonics

• Learn sound and letter correspondences• Sound the words out

– Whole word• English spelling is only quasi phonetic• recognize whole words without sounding them

out

Learning to Read

● Two theories/methods of reading– As usual both are partially right

Learning to Read


• Good readers recognize words as wholes

Learning to Read


• Good readers recognize words as wholes• But, phonics is needed to handle new words

Learning to Read

● Phonics is bottom up processing● Whole word is top down processing

Learning to Read

● Word recognition– All words with same letters partially activated

Learning to Read

● Word recognition– All words with same letters partially activated– The more letters in common the more

activated

Learning to Read


activated– Words that are semantically similar are also

activated

Learning to Read



activated– Words that fit the sentence are also activated

• The ___ in the hat

Learning to Read



activated– Words that fit the sentence are also activated

• The ___ in the hat– At some point the word that are not correct are

inhibited until the word on the page matches the one in the mental lexicon

Learning to Read

● Orthographic dazzle– The written word is thought to be the model

Learning to Read


• Problem: written is based on oral not vice versa

Learning to Read


• But, written is based on oral not vice versa• Played music preceded written music

– Is the written form more correct?

Learning to Read



– Is the written form more correct?• Written words aren't sounds in the vocal tract

that are naturally modified by surrounding sounds

Learning to Read





• Written words don't change when you read them fast

Learning to Read





• Written words don't change when you read them fast

• Written words are ambiguous– Ghoti

• Written words have lots of useless letters– castle, knight, depot

Learning to Read


• If no one pronounces a letter then why insist it be pronounced?

– the w in sword or the gh in sight– it is ridiculous to pronounce them

Learning to Read




• Then why is it “wrong” to pronounce – t in city as a flap?– t in batboy as a glottal stop?

Learning to Read




• Then why is it “wrong” to pronounce – t in city as a flap?– t in batboy as a glottal stop?

• If z can can have several pronunciations– zoo, schizophrenia, azure

• Why can't t have several pronunciations?

Learning to Read

● Dyslexia– Not related to low IQ

Learning to Read

● Dyslexia– Not related to low IQ– Is often comorbid with ADHD, late language

emergence

Learning to Read

● Dyslexia– Not related to low IQ– Is often comorbid with ADHD, late language

emergence– Involves problems linking sounds and symbols

Learning to Read

● Dyslexia– Symptoms

• bad spelling• bad rhyming• problems segmenting words into sounds

Learning to Read

● Dyslexia– Symptoms

• bad spelling• bad rhyming• problems segmenting words into sounds• hard time reading clock• hard time telling right from left• misunderstanding spoken speech, especially

non-literal speech (puns, jokes, proverbs)• trouble following a series of instructions• trouble organizing time

Learning to Read

● Dyslexia– Is partially genetic– Shows up as processing deficiencies in MRI

and PET scans

learning to read ● letters activate words – some correct and others not ● letters activate...

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