Sensitivity to distributional properties of the orthography in the spelling of Italian children with dyslexia

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182199892
Author(s):  
Chiara Valeria Marinelli ◽  
Marika Iaia ◽  
Cristina Burani ◽  
Paola Angelelli
Keyword(s):  
Low Frequency ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Lexical Priming ◽  
Distributional Properties ◽  
Developing Readers ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Italian Children

The study examines statistical learning in the spelling of Italian children with dyslexia and typically developing readers by studying their sensitivity to probabilistic cues in phoneme-grapheme mappings. In the first experiment children spelled to dictation regular words and words with unpredictable spelling that contained either a high- or a low-frequency (i.e., typical or atypical) sound-spelling mappings. Children with dyslexia were found to rely on probabilistic cues in writing stimuli with unpredictable spelling to a greater extent than typically developing children. The difficulties of children with dyslexia on words with unpredictable spelling were limited to those containing atypical mappings. In the second experiment children spelled new stimuli, that is, pseudowords, containing phonological segments with unpredictable mappings. The interaction between lexical knowledge and reliance on probabilistic cues was examined through a lexical priming paradigm in which pseudowords were primed by words containing related typical or atypical sound-to-spelling mappings. In spelling pseudowords, children with dyslexia showed sensitivity to probabilistic cues in the phoneme-to-grapheme mapping but lexical priming effects were also found, although to a smaller extent than in typically developing readers. The results suggest that children with dyslexia have a limited orthographic lexicon but are able to extract regularities from the orthographic system and rely on probabilistic cues in spelling words and pseudowords.

scholarly journals Distributional learning aids linguistic category formation in school-age children

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica HALL ◽  
Amanda OWEN VAN HORNE ◽  
Thomas FARMER
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Learning Aids ◽  
Distributional Properties ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
Distributional Learning ◽  
Category Formation

AbstractThe goal of this study was to determine if typically developing children could form grammatical categories from distributional information alone. Twenty-seven children aged six to nine listened to an artificial grammar which contained strategic gaps in its distribution. At test, we compared how children rated novel sentences that fit the grammar to sentences that were ungrammatical. Sentences could be distinguished only through the formation of categories of words with shared distributional properties. Children's ratings revealed that they could discriminate grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. These data lend support to the hypothesis that distributional learning is a potential mechanism for learning grammatical categories in a first language.

EXPRESS: Consonant and vowel transpositions effects during reading development: a study on Italian children and adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110663
Author(s):  
Lucia Colombo ◽  
Giacomo Spinelli ◽  
Stephen Lupker
Keyword(s):  
Reading Development ◽  
Orthographic Processing ◽  
Cluster Effect ◽  
Developmental Trend ◽  
Phonological Recoding ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Italian Children

Recently, Colombo, Spinelli, and Lupker (2020), using a masked transposed letter (TL) priming paradigm, investigated whether consonant/vowel (CV) status is important early in orthographic processing. In four experiments with Italian and English adults, they found equivalent TL priming effects for CC, CV, and VC transpositions. Here, we investigated that question with younger readers (age 7 to 10) and adults, as well as whether masked TL priming effects might have a phonological basis.  That is, because young children are likely to use phonological recoding in reading, the question was whether they would show TL priming that is affected by CV status. In Experiment 1, target words were preceded by primes in which two letters (either CV, VC, or CC) were transposed versus substituted (SL). We found significant TL priming effects, with an increasing developmental trend, but, again, no letter type by priming interaction. In Experiment 2 the transpositions/substitutions involved only pairs of vowels with those vowels having either diphthong or hiatus status. The difference between these vowel clusters is only phonological, thus the question was would TL priming interact with this factor. TL priming was again found with an increasing trend with age, but there was no vowel cluster by priming interaction.  There was, however, an overall vowel cluster effect (slower responding to words with hiatuses) which decreased with age. The results suggest that TL priming only taps the orthographic level, and that CV status only becomes important at a later phonological level.

Probed Serial Recall in Williams Syndrome

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Brock ◽  
Teresa McCormack ◽  
Jill Boucher
Keyword(s):  
Serial Recall ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Serial Order ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Lexical Knowledge

Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder that, it has been claimed, results in an unusual pattern of linguistic strengths and weaknesses. The current study investigated the hypothesis that there is a reduced influence of lexical knowledge on phonological short-term memory in Williams syndrome. Fourteen children with Williams syndrome and 2 vocabulary-matched control groups, 20 typically developing children and 13 children with learning difficulties, were tested on 2 probed serial-recall tasks. On the basis of previous findings, it was predicted that children with Williams syndrome would demonstrate (a) a reduced effect of lexicality on the recall of list items, (b) relatively poorer recall of list items compared with recall of serial order, and (c) a reduced tendency to produce lexicalization errors in the recall of nonwords. In fact, none of these predictions were supported. Alternative explanations for previous findings and implications for accounts of language development in Williams syndrome are discussed.

Morphosyntax in children with word finding difficulties

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
VICTORIA A. MURPHY ◽  
JULIE DOCKRELL ◽  
DAVID MESSER ◽  
HANNAH FARR
Keyword(s):  
Low Frequency ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Mechanism Model ◽  
The Past ◽  
Word Finding ◽  
Mixed Support ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Dual Mechanism ◽  
Past Tenses

ABSTRACTChildren with word finding difficulties (CwWFDs) are slower and less accurate at naming monomorphemic words than typically developing children (Dockrell, Messer & George, 2001), but their difficulty in naming morphologically complex words has not yet been investigated. One aim of this paper was to identify whether CwWFDs are similar to typically developing children at producing inflected (morphologically complex) words. A second aim was to investigate whether the dual-mechanism model could account for the use of morphology in a sample of CwWFDs, exemplifying the notion that regular inflections are part of a rule-based system and computed on-line, while irregular inflections are retrieved directly from the associative system (Pinker, 1999). The inflectional knowledge of a group of CwWFDs was compared against a group of language age-matched typically developing peers in three experiments. In Experiment 1 children produced the past tenses of high- and low-frequency regular and irregular English verbs. In Experiment 2 children generalized their knowledge of the past tense system onto nonsense verbs and in Experiment 3 children produced past tenses of verbs used in either a denominal or a verb root context. In each of these three studies, the CwWFDs performed similarly to matched typical children, suggesting that they do not have a selective problem with morphosyntactic features of words. The findings provide mixed support for the dual-mechanism model.

Age Norms for Auditory-Perceptual Neurophonetic Parameters: A Prerequisite for the Assessment of Childhood Dysarthria

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1071-1082
Author(s):  
Theresa Schölderle ◽  
Elisabet Haas ◽  
Wolfram Ziegler
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Age Norms ◽  
Elementary School Age ◽  
Speech Characteristics ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Computer Based

Purpose The aim of this study was to collect auditory-perceptual data on established symptom categories of dysarthria from typically developing children between 3 and 9 years of age, for the purpose of creating age norms for dysarthria assessment. Method One hundred forty-four typically developing children (3;0–9;11 [years;months], 72 girls and 72 boys) participated. We used a computer-based game specifically designed for this study to elicit sentence repetitions and spontaneous speech samples. Speech recordings were analyzed using the auditory-perceptual criteria of the Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales, a standardized German assessment tool for dysarthria in adults. The Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales (scales and features) cover clinically relevant dimensions of speech and allow for an evaluation of well-established symptom categories of dysarthria. Results The typically developing children exhibited a number of speech characteristics overlapping with established symptom categories of dysarthria (e.g., breathy voice, frequent inspirations, reduced articulatory precision, decreased articulation rate). Substantial progress was observed between 3 and 9 years of age, but with different developmental trajectories across different dimensions. In several areas (e.g., respiration, voice quality), 9-year-olds still presented with salient developmental speech characteristics, while in other dimensions (e.g., prosodic modulation), features typically associated with dysarthria occurred only exceptionally, even in the 3-year-olds. Conclusions The acquisition of speech motor functions is a prolonged process not yet completed with 9 years. Various developmental influences (e.g., anatomic–physiological changes) shape children's speech specifically. Our findings are a first step toward establishing auditory-perceptual norms for dysarthria in children of kindergarten and elementary school age. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12133380

Combining the Post-Cue Task and the Perceptual Identification Task to Assess Parallel Activation and Mutual Facilitation of Related Primes and Targets

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Demian Scherer ◽  
Dirk Wentura
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
The Other ◽  
Perceptual Identification ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Parallel Activation ◽  
Prime Target

Abstract. Recent theories assume a mutual facilitation in case of semantic overlap for concepts being activated simultaneously. We provide evidence for this claim using a semantic priming paradigm. To test for mutual facilitation of related concepts, a perceptual identification task was employed, presenting prime-target pairs briefly and masked, with an SOA of 0 ms (i.e., prime and target were presented concurrently, one above the other). Participants were instructed to identify the target. In Experiment 1, a cue defining the target was presented at stimulus onset, whereas in Experiment 2 the cue was not presented before the offset of stimuli. Accordingly, in Experiment 2, a post-cue task was merged with the perceptual identification task. We obtained significant semantic priming effects in both experiments. This result is compatible with the view that two concepts can both be activated in parallel and can mutually facilitate each other if they are related.

Automatic Stereotype Activation Is Context Dependent

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catharina Casper ◽  
Klaus Rothermund ◽  
Dirk Wentura
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Stereotype Activation ◽  
Social Stereotypes ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Automatic Activation ◽  
Mental Schemas

Processes involving an automatic activation of stereotypes in different contexts were investigated using a priming paradigm with the lexical decision task. The names of social categories were combined with background pictures of specific situations to yield a compound prime comprising category and context information. Significant category priming effects for stereotypic attributes (e.g., Bavarians – beer) emerged for fitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a marquee) but not for nonfitting contexts (e.g., in combination with a picture of a shop). Findings indicate that social stereotypes are organized as specific mental schemas that are triggered by a combination of category and context information.

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