THE INFLUENCE OF TASK DEMANDS ON FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN VISUAL WORD RECOGNITION: A COHORT MODEL PERSPECTIVE DISSERTATION

Size: px
Start display at page:

Download "THE INFLUENCE OF TASK DEMANDS ON FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN VISUAL WORD RECOGNITION: A COHORT MODEL PERSPECTIVE DISSERTATION"

Transcription

1 THE INFLUENCE OF TASK DEMANDS ON FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN VISUAL WORD RECOGNITION: A COHORT MODEL PERSPECTIVE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Scott Steven Jankowski, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2006 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: Dr. Neal Johnson, adviser Dr. Mark A. Pitt Dr. John Opfer Adviser Psychology Graduate Program

2 ABSTRACT Familiar words are recognized more easily than are unfamiliar words. Readers become more familiar with words occurring frequently in the language, as well as with the letter-patterns that are common to many words. One measure of letter-pattern familiarity is the number of letter-positions within a word that can be changed to form another word. Two experiments examined the effects of changing task demands on how easily readers recognize words of varying levels of familiarity. In Experiment 1, readers made word/nonword decisions on words varying in their frequency of occurrence in written English texts and their number of letter-positions that yield more than one word. The response latency advantage for familiar words was greater when readers pronounced the words as opposed to a button-press response. This effect was also greater when wordlike nonwords were used in the task as opposed to unwordlike consonant strings. Additionally, words with many positions yielding multiple words delayed responses, but only in the context of wordlike nonwords. While consonant strings would be distinguishable from words almost immediately due to their highly irregular letter-patterns, wordlike nonwords would force readers to resolve each letter-position until either one candidate remained (in the case of a word) or all were eliminated (in the case of a nonword). Furthermore, readers responded to unwordlike nonwords more quickly in the context of words with many positions that could be changed to form other words, again indicating the readers sensitivity to this dimension of familiarity. ii

3 In Experiment 2, the subsequent recognition memory of the readers was tested. Pronouncing words during the lexical-decision task led to more reliable memory for the words, as did the inclusion of regular nonwords during the lexical-decision task. The latter observation reinforces the notion that wordlike nonwords force the readers to completely resolve each letter-position until a point of uniqueness is reached. These findings support a view of visual word recognition in which readers must resolve all of the letter positions in a word only under certain circumstances, depending on the demands of the particular reading task. iii

4 Dedicated to my wife and son iv

5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Neal Johnson for all of his patience, support, and encouragement. I would also like to thank John Opfer and Mark Pitt for their insight and suggestions. Thanks to Vincent Davis, Shellie Dubose, Dan Ford, Kim Moran, and Josh Vittie for their hard work during data collection. Finally, I would like to thank the members of the Johnson lab: Terri Childers, Virginia Gonsman, Leslee Martin, and Zach Schendel for making graduate school a bit more enjoyable. v

6 VITA August 7, Born Detroit, Michigan 1999 B.A. Psychology, Oakland University present.....graduate Teaching Assistant, The Ohio State University (OSU) M.A. Cognitive Psychology, OSU Major Field: Psychology FIELDS OF STUDY vi

7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Dedication. iv Acknowledgments... v Vita... vi List of Figures ix Chapters: 1. Introduction:.. 1 Page 1.1 Familiarity Effects: Word Frequency Neighborhood Size as an Index of Familiarity A Cohort Model View Task Demands Affect Reading Strategies The Proposed Experiments Experiment I Participants Materials and Apparatus Design Procedure Results Discussion.. 37 vii

8 3. Experiment II Participants Materials and Apparatus Design Procedure Results Discussion General Discussion Summary Ecological Validity of the Tasks Reconsidering Neighborhood Effects The Importance of the Number of Positions Yielding Neighbors...56 Bibliography..58 Appendix viii

9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 2.1 Experiment 1: Interaction of number of positions yielding neighbors and nonword type for correct responses to words Experiment 1: Interaction of word frequency and nonword type for correct responses to words Experiment 1: Interaction of word frequency and response mode for correct responses to words Experiment 1: Interaction of word frequency and number of positions at the regular nonword condition for correct responses to words Experiment 1: Interaction of word frequency and number of positions at the irregular nonword condition for correct responses to words Experiment 1: Interaction of word frequency and nonword type for correct responses to nonwords Experiment 1: Interaction of nonword type and number of positions yielding neighbors for correct responses to nonwords Experiment 1: Mean number of errors for high and low frequency words Experiment 1: Mean number of errors on word items in the regular and irregular nonword conditions Experiment 1: Mean number of errors on word items in the spoken and buttonpress conditions..36 ix

10 Figure Page 3.1 Experiment 2: Mean d-prime scores for recognition task for participants in the regular and irregular nonword conditions during the lexical-decision task Experiment 2: Mean d-prime scores for recognition task for participants in the spoken and button-press conditions during the lexical-decision task Experiment 2: Mean beta scores for recognition task for participants in the spoken and button-press conditions of the lexical-decision task x

11 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Models of visual word recognition have been shaped by studies of familiarity effects. A long-standing robust finding is that common words are read more easily than are rare words. Although this effect is widely considered to be due to the lexical entries of common words being more available during lexical selection, pre-lexical as well as post-lexical influences have been proposed. Despite these differences, common to all views of lexical access is the notion that familiarity with common words facilitates processing. However, the same notion should also extend to sub-lexical units, such as syllables or letter-patterns, with greater familiarity with the items facilitating processing at this level as well. The extent of a reader s familiarity with a word s letter-patterns may be indexed by neighborhood size, a measure commonly assumed to indicate the level of similarity a word shares with other words. The effects of large neighborhoods are commonly assumed to arise from competition between entries or the total amount of activation at the lexical level by words with large neighborhoods. However, if readers make use of sublexical units, then one possible contradiction that arises is that familiarity at these lower levels is associated with an increase in similarity to many other words. The 1

12 literature regarding neighborhood size effects has been inconsistent, especially when involving the lexical-decision task. Another neighborhood metric, the number of positions yielding neighbors, may be the cause of the confusing pattern of data. An account of familiarity effects will be offered in which letter-pattern familiarity facilitates processing at the pre-lexical level, word familiarity facilitates at the lexical level, and the number of positions yielding neighbors interferes with processing only under circumstances when the most careful scrutiny of the nonword items is required in order to distinguish them from real words. Furthermore, could the strategies and goals of the reader affect how well the words are later remembered? Memory for material that is more thoroughly processed should be more accurate. If the reader s task at hand requires only a passing glance, then the words may not be remembered well. On the other hand, if the reader must carefully consider each word, their memory for the words should be enhanced. Such an approach will provide behavioral clues to the nature of lexical access independent of the analysis of response times and error rates. Familiarity Effects: Word Frequency Although it is agreed upon that readers respond more quickly to words that appear more often in print, researchers have disagreed over the locus of this effect during lexical access. Solomon and Howes (1951) presented words tachistiscopically to participants and measured their identification thresholds for display duration. The words varied in the frequency they appeared in print according to the Thorndike-Lorge count (1944). They 2

13 found that common words yielded shorter identification thresholds. What remained to be determined was whether the effect was perceptually based, with common words being seen more easily, or due to differences in availability of the memory for high and low frequency words, with more common words being retrieved more easily. Addressing this issue, Duncan (1966) found that people tend to produce high frequency words when asked to generate an example that fits a few given constraints. Participants were either given some of the letters in the word or the class of object named by the word, and were then asked to name words that fit the constraints. This finding provides evidence that the word frequency effect is not entirely perceptually based because in this study the participants are presented with no stimuli, but instead must search their memories. In an early study on word frequency effects using the lexical-decision task, Rubenstein, Garfield, and Millikan (1970) reported faster response times to high frequency words. The authors proposed a model in which the stimulus is segmented, and consistent lexical entries are marked for comparison as more information arrives. The marking and comparison processes are assumed to proceed starting with high frequency words first, and to continue to lower frequency words after these are eliminated. This early model placed the effect late in lexical access, during the lexical selection stage. Landauer and Streeter (1973) questioned the validity of the word-frequency effect. They argued that many researchers assumed that rare and common words were structurally equivalent, and that word frequency effects were due to differences in frequency of usage. The authors demonstrated that rare and common words differ in the size of their orthographic neighborhoods and that they differ in their graphemic and 3

14 phonemic composition. They suggested that the apparent effect of word frequency might be due to these often-confounded dimensions. However, Gardner, Rothkopf, Laper, and Lafferty (1987) found word frequency effects when holding all the other dimensions constant and varying the readers exposure to the words. They constructed stimulus lists including words taken from the indices of engineering and nursing textbooks. Changing one or two letters from half of the items formed pronounceable and orthographically regular nonwords. They then tested a group of engineering students and professionals as well as a group of nursing students and professionals using the lexical-decision task. Each group responded more quickly to words that were common to their occupation. The difference was not found for the nonwords. The authors interpret the finding as evidence for a frequency based component of the word frequency effect, because even when all other word-level variables are held constant greater familiarity with a word improves performance. Balota and Chumbley (1984) questioned some assumptions concerning the locus of word-frequency effects. They argued that word frequency effects may not be due to an availability advantage enjoyed by common words during lexical identification, but may rather be due to post identification processes. They presented their participants the same set of words in the context of different tasks: lexical decision, pronunciation, and category verification. They found that the magnitude of the word-frequency effect varied among the tasks, with lexical decision demonstrating the greatest effect and category verification task showing no significant effects. Because all of the tasks were assumed to depend on lexical identification, the authors argue that identification must be insensitive to word frequency, and that the large effect often observed in the lexical-decision task is 4

15 task-specific. Balota and Chumbley (1985) suggested another argument against the location of word frequency effects in lexical identification. They presented words of varying frequency to their participants. They used a delayed naming task in which the participants were instructed to pronounce the words when prompted by a cue given after short delays of varying length. Since frequency effects were found after delays of 1400 ms, the authors argue that lexical access must have been completed and that word frequency must therefore influence production. Monsell, Doyle, and Haggard (1989) offered a criticism of these two studies. They pointed out that nine categories were used in the category verification task, which is substantially different than the two categories in a lexical-decision task. They also argued that the presentation of the category label at the beginning of each trial could have influenced the results because semantic priming attenuates frequency effects. They also suggested that category verification may not be dependent on unique identification, but could be influenced by prelexical semantic activation. If the reader could decide on the basis of the presence or absence of semantic activation consistent with the category label, no unique identification would be required. To address these issues, they performed an experiment comparing performance on a lexical-decision task to that on a modified semantic-categorization task. The same words were used for both tasks, and in the categorization task there was a choice between only two categories, with no category label presented before the presentation of the target. Significant effects of word frequency were observed for both tasks. Comparison of effects on the two tasks revealed no evidence of an interaction. When the specifics of the 5

16 categorization task more closely resembled those of the lexical-decision task, the frequency effect returned. The authors conclude that the categorization task is also sensitive to word frequency. As for the delayed-pronunciation task, Monsell, Doyle, and Haggard (1989) noted that the phonological characteristics of the words were not controlled in the Balota and Chumbley (1985) study. Furthermore, they also noted that responses were longer than a typical simple reaction time, suggesting that the readers were not completely prepared to give a response upon presentation of the cue, and may have needed to process some part of the stimulus again. The authors conducted a study that included a warning signal before the cue to permit adequate preparation of a response, the removal of the stimulus before the go signal, and a fixed interval to avoid uncertainty on part of the participants. Under these conditions, no effects of word frequency were found. The authors conclude that word frequency has little influence on post identification processes. Monsell, Doyle, and Haggard (1989) also addressed the comparison of word frequency effects in lexical-decision and naming tasks. They pointed out that pronunciation could depend on spelling-to-sound correspondences, and that word frequency should not influence the phonological assembly process. They compiled a list of words with both regular and irregular stress patterns. The items were intermixed to preclude the pronunciation based on assembly rules, thereby forcing lexical identification. The same participants also completed a lexical-decision task on the same set of words. The word-frequency effects were comparable between the two tasks. The authors argue that when naming tasks require lexical identification, the pattern of results resembles those found in lexical-decision tasks. 6

17 Jankowski (2002) took a similar approach in comparing the task demands in naming and lexical-decision tasks. In that study, participants completed a lexical-decision task in which the response mode of the participants was manipulated. Half of the participants made their responses by pronouncing the words and the other half made their responses by pressing a button. The requirement of pronunciation mandated that the participant choose a unique lexical entry prior to making a response. In the button-press condition, the participants did not have to settle on any particular word, but instead only needed to know whether or not the item in question was a word (i.e., any word). Because the spoken-response condition produced a larger word-frequency effect, the data supported the notion that high-frequency words enjoy an advantage during lexical selection. This study complements the Monsell, Doyle, and Haggard (1987) finding that making a naming task more demanding enhances the word-frequency effect. However, instead of comparing the magnitude of the effect across tasks, the demands of the lexicaldecision task were altered slightly in one condition in order to make the decision less dependent on access to a unique entry, which produced a relatively weaker effect. Neighborhood Size as an Index of Familiarity Neighborhood size was first used as a measure of a word s similarity to other words, with the expectation that a large number of words similar to the target would interfere with responses. Landauer and Streeter (1973) defined the orthographic neighborhood as the number of words that could be created by changing one position within a word, while leaving the others constant. Coltheart, Davelaar, Jonasson, and 7

18 Besner (1977) used neighborhood size to demonstrate shortcomings of serial search models of lexical access (Forster, 1976; Rubenstein, Lewis, & Rubenstein, 1971) in which the reader segments the incoming word, and compares the results to lexical entries in descending order of word frequency. For example, Forster (1976) proposed a model in which the lexical entries are searched serially until a match is found; much like a reader looks up an entry in a dictionary. The searches were assumed to run not in alphabetical order, but in order of relative word frequency in order to account for the word-frequency effect. The search would pause for verification when a sufficiently similar candidate was located, and would continue exhaustively until either a match was made (in the case of a word) or until no match was found (in the case of a nonword). The presence of similar many similarly spelled items would slow the responses due to a greater number of pauses to check similar items. Coltheart and colleagues (1977) demonstrated a shortcoming in these early word recognition models by demonstrating a neighborhood-size effect. The originally reported finding was a null effect for words, and an interference effect for nonwords. Because search models centered on a serial search of the lexicon in word-frequency order, large neighborhoods should interfere with both word and nonword responses. Coltheart and colleagues interpreted their findings as consistent with a logogen-style model (Morton, 1970) in which individual entries have evidence collectors (logogens) that receive activation in parallel. To account for the word-frequency effect, the threshold for access is assumed to be inversely related to the word s relative frequency. Because nonwords would have no evidence collectors, a deadline for making the nonword decision was 8

19 proposed. The interfering effect on nonword decisions was attributed to the reader s sensitivity to overall lexical activation. Nonwords with many neighbors would produce a high level of activation, as would the word stimuli, thus producing the neighborhood interference for nonword items. In this way, neighborhood effects were interpreted as interference due to similarity. The original report of neighborhood interference fit well with another class of models that shortly followed (i.e., the connectionist models). According to these models, upon visual presentation a word is assumed to provide activation to all similarly spelled items through activation of the lower levels of features and letters. Words with large neighborhoods would therefore activate many words. The best candidate is selected through means of lateral inhibition, with entries receiving more activation from the lower levels gradually inhibiting similar entries. The interactive-activation model (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981) predicted interference from large neighborhoods due to the added time necessary to work through the interference. Later findings of facilitation by large-neighborhood items rather than interference (Andrews, 1987) conflicted with the explanation of interference by lateral inhibition. Words with large neighborhoods should activate a large number of similar candidates that will have to be deactivated. Andrews attempted to reconcile the data with the interactiveactivation model by proposing that neighborhood facilitation could be accounted for by feedback to lower levels from the lexical level. Pollatsek, Perea, and Binder (1999) later simulated a weak facilitation effect using a version of the interactive-activation model by slightly changing the word-letter excitation parameter. 9

20 To account for these new findings, new versions of the search model (Paap & Johansen, 1994), the logogen model (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001), and the interaction-activation model (Grainger & Jacobs, 1996) were proposed, each including one common additional feature. In these new models, as with previous versions, lexical access could be achieved when a single candidate entry was selected. What is new to these models is that they assumed that readers are also sensitive to the amount of overall lexical activity. Items will be judged to be words if the overall level of activation exceeds a predetermined threshold. This feature allows the models to account for the reported neighborhood facilitation for low-frequency words. Low-frequency words from large neighborhoods would produce sufficient activation to meet the criterion allowing a fast response to words. Andrews (1997) reviewed the scores of subsequent studies, and she noted that while neighborhood size always facilitated responses in a naming task, in lexical-decision tasks the effects ranged from that of facilitation through null to interference. Johnson & Pugh (1994) reported several findings that began to shed light on the confusing pattern of data produced by the lexical-decision task. They observed that large neighborhoods should correspond to a reader s greater familiarity with the word s letterpattern. In Experiment 3, the participants made lexical decisions on items that varied in terms of their neighborhood size as well as the number of positions yielding the neighbors. These two variables were positively correlated, as they are in the English language (and in all of the prior work done on neighborhood effects). When the participants had to decide between words and orthographically regular nonwords, more neighbors and positions produced slower responses. When the nonwords were 10

21 orthographically irregular, the words (from the same list) with more neighbors and positions yielding them produced faster responses. Further study was necessary to separate the unique effects of these two variables. In their fifth experiment, Johnson and Pugh (1994) controlled neighborhood size while manipulating the number of positions yielding neighbors. They used a lexicaldecision task with regular nonwords for foils. They found that words that had more letter positions yielding neighbors produced relatively slower responses. In this task, the words and nonwords were matched on both neighborhood size and number of positions. The nonwords were pronounceable and orthographically regular, so that they could potentially be English words, but they just happen not to be. Therefore, words would be indistinguishable from nonwords early in processing. They argued that since the participants could not use any of the early arriving information to make a lexical decision, each position had to be resolved to distinguish words from nonwords. Johnson and Pugh (1994) proposed a framework to account for these findings based on the COHORT model (Marslen-Wilson & Welsh, 1978) in which the speech signal is segmented, and the first arriving segment establishes an initial cohort of possible entries. Subsequently arriving segments deactivate incompatible cohort members until only the target remains. Although visual language is not spread out over time, as is speech, the encoding of each sublexical segment in a word is unlikely to occur simultaneously in printed language, even though the entire signal may arrive at the eye all at once. With more positions within a word yielding possible cohort members, the longer it should take to eliminate these possibilities, or to resolve the cohort. The reader is not expected to engage in this process under all circumstances, however. 11

22 Johnson and colleagues, (Johnson, et. al., 2005) further explored this notion by comparing performance across different tasks. In Experiment 4, participants completed a naming task in which they simply read the displayed items out loud. Neighborhood size and number of positions were independently varied. Large neighborhoods led to faster responses, and more positions yielding neighbors produced a null result. The naming task allows readers to assemble responses through phonological conversion. Therefore, cohort resolution was not required, and the positions effect was not observed. In Experiment 5, the same word lists were used in a lexical-decision task. Because assembling a response would lead to many incorrect responses, cohort resolution was necessary prior to initiating a response. While large neighborhoods again produced faster responses, more positions yielding the neighbors slowed responses. Jankowski (2002) investigated the same issue, but instead of comparing performance across tasks, he manipulated neighborhood size and the number of positions yielding neighbors, as well as the orthographic regularity of the nonwords within the context of a lexical-decision task. The purpose of the experiment was to observe the positions effect while changing the readers need for cohort resolution within the context of a lexical-decision task. The positions effect is only expected when cohort resolution is necessary. When regular nonwords were used, the Johnson & Pugh (1994) positions effect was replicated (i.e., more positions yielding neighbors resulted in slower response times). However, when irregular nonwords were used, the number of positions had no effect on response time. According to the cohort framework, word displays would produce lexical activity, while the nonwords would produce little activity, if any at all. The participants in the irregular nonword condition could take advantage of the early 12

23 arriving information regarding lexical activity that would permit a reliable lexical decision without the reader having to resolve the cohort. The manipulation of nonword type did not interact with the neighborhood-size effect, however. The stability of the effect suggests that neighborhood size influences processes early on in lexical access. The findings parallel those of the Johnson and colleagues (2005) experiments: neighborhood size facilitates responses regardless of the need for cohort resolution due to enhanced letter-pattern familiarity, and interference from the positions yielding neighbors depends on the need for cohort resolution, determined by the nature of the nonword displays. A Cohort Model View The concept of a cohort originated in the speech recognition literature (Marslen- Wilson & Welsh, 1978). According to their COHORT model, the listener segments the speech signal as it is received over time. The first arriving segment activates a subset of all lexical entries with which it is consistent, thus establishing the item s initial cohort. Subsequently encoded segments deactivate all cohort members with which they are inconsistent. Lexical access is therefore achieved when the cohort is resolved by narrowing down the original cohort to one member, when the point of uniqueness is reached. Due to the static nature of the signal, a cohort model in visual language may seem like a counterintuitive idea. Unlike the case of spoken language, in which the signal from a particular word is necessarily spread out over time, in written language the printed word 13

24 sits on the page. However, this apparent problem holds only if it is assumed that all of the information from the display is encoded simultaneously. Even if it were the case that all of the light reflecting from a printed word were to arrive at the retina at exactly the same time, there is no reason to believe that the user would encode all of the relevant information carried in the light at exactly the same time. If instead the signal is parsed and the segments are encoded gradually, the initial establishment and possible subsequent resolution of a cohort becomes possible. The cohort model of visual-word recognition (Johnson, 1992; Johnson & Pugh, 1994; Johnson, Childers, Jankowski, Miller, Gonsman, & Seifert, 2005) applies the cohort concept to the problem of reading. The model assumes that lexical access proceeds in a series of stages. Initially, the retina recodes the physical information in the light into a biological format. As segments of information become available, they are then recoded into the psychological formats of semantic, phonological, orthographic, and graphic information, in that order. These pieces of information, in turn, activate all lexical entries with which they are consistent, resulting in the item s cohort. Although many entries will be activated initially, those receiving activation from multiple sources will stand out. As more segments are encoded, lexical entries consistent with the new information would receive even more activation, while the activation would fade for those that are inconsistent with the new information. The model assumes that the reader will act as soon as sufficient information becomes available. If the reader s task is to simply pronounce a string of words, then the lexical entry that stands out early on could be selected with little chance of error. Because the reader correctly assumes that all of the to be encountered items are real words, the 14

25 entry with the highest activation level should most often correspond to the target. Words with more familiar letter-patterns will be processed more quickly, contributing to neighborhood size and word-frequency facilitation. However, a task that is often used in the reading literature, the lexical-decision task, introduces complications that may require the reader to resolve the cohort. For example, if the reader s task is to respond by pressing one button for words and another for the nonwords, then discriminating evidence will arrive earlier or later, depending on the composition of the nonwords. In the case when irregular nonwords, such as consonant strings, are used as foils, the reader could use the presence of an initial flush of lexical activation (in the case of the words) or the lack thereof (in the case of the nonwords) to decide without having to wait for one entry to stand out. However, when word-like (pronounceable and orthographically regular) nonwords are used, the reader will have to resolve the cohort in order to make the word/nonword decision. The level of initial lexical activity will not provide discriminating information, as it will be about the same for both words and nonword items. Furthermore, even nonwords will cause some particular lexical entry to stand out from the lexical noise, so simply choosing the most active member will result in many mistakes. Therefore, in this case, the reader will have to resolve the cohort by waiting until the encoding of further segments deactivates all of the other cohort members until either a single candidate remains (as in the case of a word), or all are eliminated (as in the case of a nonword). 15

26 Task Demands Affect Reading Strategies The previously discussed studies regarding the positions effect have indicated that readers may be able to adjust their reading strategies according to the demands of the task. Several other findings support this notion. Meyer and Schandeveldt (1971) reported that responses to a pair of words in a lexical-decision task were facilitated if the words were semantically related. Shulman and Davison (1977) later noted that they used orthographically regular nonwords in their task. They observed that only semantic information would differentiate words from nonwords in the task, and conducted another experiment using irregular nonwords. Under these conditions, the advantage for semantically related pairs was diminished. They argued that the participants could selectively monitor different streams of information about the items when making their decisions. Monsell, Patterson, Graham, Hughes, and Milroy (1997) sought to determine if readers could make use of different strategies within a naming task. Exception words, such as those with uncommon stress patterns, were chosen for the words. Some of the subjects were also exposed to nonwords intermixed with the words. The exception words must be pronounced by the activation of a lexical entry. Using an assembled-phonology process to pronounce these words would produce errors. However, the lexical route will not help the reader pronounce the nonwords, because nonwords do not have entries present in the lexicon. When the readers pronounced the words in pure blocks with no nonwords, they were faster and more accurate in their pronunciation than they were when nonwords were present in the list. This suggests that not only are both lexical and 16

27 sublexical routes present, but again that readers seem to make selective use of them depending on the particular demands of the task. The following experiments will manipulate task demands in a similar fashion in order to change the point at which the reader obtains information sufficient to make a reliable lexical decision. The Proposed Experiments Neighborhood size has typically been considered a measure of lexical similarity (Landauer & Streeter, 1973), meaning that words with large neighborhoods have many words that share similar spelling patterns. An influential connectionist model (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981) predicts that a large number of similar candidates in the lexicon will interfere with the identification of a word. In their model, lexical entries receive activation from lower levels and laterally inhibit each other. The process of lateral inhibition will take longer if the target word has a large neighborhood. Furthermore, if lexical access proceeds in this fashion, then neighborhood-size effects should occur relatively late in the process, and should be sensitive to the particular task s demands for narrowing the field of candidates to a unique entry. However, another possibility is that words with large neighborhoods necessarily share more common spelling patterns. These commonly seen letter combinations could facilitate the encoding of the visual display very early on in lexical access (i.e., during perceptual encoding), regardless of the reader s task. The previously discussed findings support the notion that neighborhood size provides an index of letter-pattern familiarity. The facilitative effect of a large 17

28 neighborhood seems to be present regardless of the task or the particular task demands, as any reading task requires the initial encoding of letters. However, a large number of positions yielding neighbors can interfere with lexical access, but only when cohort resolution is required, as in a lexical-decision task which employs sufficiently word-like nonwords. Other tasks, such as a naming task, allow the reader to make use of other strategies such as using grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence rules to generate responses, or to select the most active lexical entry from the background of lexical activation. Under such circumstances, when only valid words are expected and encountered, the reader would not have to completely resolve the cohort. This notion may account for some of the contradictions apparent in the early studies on neighborhood-size effects. The null or inhibitory effects demonstrated in prior lexical-decision experiments may have been due to neighborhood size being confounded with the number of positions, with a result of the two effects having canceled each other out. Additionally, words that appear more frequently in print demonstrate a response time advantage. The magnitude of the effect varies with the nature of the task (Balota & Chumbley, 1984,1985; Monsell, et al., 1989). The cohort framework assumes that high frequency words will have more familiar letter-patterns due to the reader s increased familiarity with the pattern due to increased exposure. The facilitation due to ease of encoding relatively familiar letter patterns should be observed regardless of the particular reading task. Another source of this advantage is assumed to arise from a greater ease in picking frequently encountered items from the lexicon during the selection of a unique lexical entry. What is not yet clear is how the two late processes of cohort resolution and lexical selection interact. Prior studies examining the effect of positions have controlled 18

29 word frequency in order to avoid a potential confound. The reader should shift strategies depending on the demands of the task, and that the response times will shift accordingly. The cohort model predicts that if the reader must select a unique lexical entry, then the word-frequency effect should be relatively strong, as the high-frequency words will gain an advantage during both perceptual processing and lexical selection. However, instead of choosing the most active entry, if the reader will have to resolve the cohort, the process of cohort resolution could attenuate the word-frequency effect. If the cohort is narrowed to one remaining candidate, the target, high-frequency words may not gain an advantage under these conditions, as there would be only one entry to select, regardless of its familiarity. Furthermore, the type and amount of processing necessary to complete a lexical decision should not only affect the time necessary to make the response, and the accuracy of the response, but it should also affect the reader s subsequent memory for the words. If the readers vary their lexical access strategy based on the task demands, some of these strategies should lead to better memory performance than do others. The second experiment will provide converging evidence that the requirement of cohort resolution changes the reader s lexical access strategy. By changing the type of nonwords present during the lexical-decision phase, the resulting differential need for cohort resolution should produce predictable differences in memory performance. Readers in the irregularnonword condition may use incomplete information to make a lexical decision and should therefore demonstrate relatively poor memory performance compared to readers in the regular-nonword condition who must resolve the cohort in order to make a lexical decision. 19

30 CHAPTER 2 EXPERIMENT ONE The cohort model assumes that word frequency influences two stages of processing. High frequency of usage should increase the reader s familiarity with the word s letter-patterns. The encoding of sublexical units should be facilitated for highfrequency words. High-frequency words should also have an advantage at the lexical level, being more available for selection. The word-frequency effect should be weakened if the reader does not have to select a unique lexical entry. If readers give their responses by button-press, then they need not necessarily settle on a unique lexical entry prior to their decision. Participants who must pronounce the displayed words will be forced to choose a unique lexical entry, unlike those in the button-press condition who can initiate a response after any discriminating information becomes available. The manipulation of response mode (keyboard versus spoken responses) should change the reader s need for a unique lexical selection. This manipulation should attenuate the word-frequency effect, but not eliminate it, as readers in both conditions should respond more quickly to common words due to increased letter-pattern familiarity. The cohort model assumes that the facilitative effect of large-neighborhood words is also due to their relative ease of encoding due to enhanced familiarity with their common letter-patterns. However, a related effect, the number of positions yielding 20

31 neighbors, can attenuate or mask this effect if left uncontrolled in circumstances where cohort resolution is required. The need for cohort resolution will be manipulated by changing the type of nonwords present in the task. Participants who encounter orthographically regular and pronounceable nonwords should have to engage in cohort resolution in order to complete the task. Those who encounter unpronounceable consonant strings will get the benefit of early arriving discriminating information to make reliable lexical decisions (i.e., there is an activated cohort, or there is no activated cohort). In many of the prior experiments examining word-frequency effects and neighborhood effects, the number of positions yielding neighbors was left uncontrolled and it was correlated with neighborhood size. For example, Coltheart and colleagues (1977) reported a null neighborhood size effect for word items. Because the number of positions was not controlled in the experiment, the possibility exists that the facilitation from large neighborhoods was offset by the interference from many positions yielding neighbors. Furthermore, Andrews (1989) reported that the facilitative neighborhood-size effect interacted with word frequency, in that lower frequency words produced a more pronounced neighborhood advantage. This finding has become a cornerstone of models of lexical access. However, as the number of positions was left uncontrolled, it presents a potential confound. The apparent interaction of word frequency and neighborhood size may be influenced by the number of positions. In the current experiment, word frequency will be crossed with the number of positions yielding neighbors allowing the examination of whether the positions effect depends upon word frequency. Interactions observed between frequency and positions indicate the presence of a possible confound in studies in which the number of positions is left uncontrolled. 21

32 Method Participants. Two hundred fifty-six psychology students participated in the study. All spoke English as their native language. They received course credit for their participation. Apparatus. The items were presented to the participants on a Televideo 920C terminal controlled by a computer. The keyboard responses were collected using two keys on the terminal, and the spoken response times were collected using a microphone connected to a voice key. Materials. In order to manipulate the readers need for cohort resolution, two lists of nonwords were created. In one list, the nonwords were unpronounceable and orthographically irregular consonant arrays. An example is ptrw. In the other list, pronounceable and orthographically regular nonwords were used. These items were matched to the words in terms of both neighborhood size and the number of positions yielding neighbors, an example of which is nipe. One list of words was selected to cross word frequency and the number of positions yielding neighbors. Half of the words had high word-frequencies, averaging 106 occurrences per million according to the Kucera and Francis (1967) count, and the other half had low frequencies averaging about 5.5 per million. Half of the words chosen had two positions that yield neighbors, and the other half had four. The number of neighbors was balanced at an average of nine neighbors. The crossing of the two variables yielded four word sublists. All of the items used in the study were four letters long. The items appear in Appendix A. 22

33 Design. There are two between-subject variables in the study. The first is response mode. Half of the participants made their naming responses into a microphone, and half responded yes and no by button-press. The other between-subjects variable is the type of nonwords used in the stimulus lists. Half of the participants were exposed to the orthographically regular and pronounceable nonwords, while the other half were exposed to the orthographically irregular and unpronounceable nonwords. The within-subjects independent variables were manipulated using the four word sublists. Each sublist of words was combined with an equal number of nonwords to create the blocked lists. Each subject responded to all four lists. The order of the lists was counterbalanced, and the order of items within each list was randomized. Response latencies and error rates were recorded. Procedure. Single items were presented one at a time on the terminal. The items appeared white against a black background. An X marked the fixation point for 500 ms, after which it was replaced by a dot for an additional 500 ms. The test item immediately followed, and remained visible until the participant responded. The fixation point indicated the location of the second letter. Participants in the keyboard response condition were instructed to press a key labeled Y in response to words, and to press a key marked N in response to nonwords. In the spoken response condition, the participants were instructed to pronounce the words, and to respond to the non-words by saying no. A microphone triggered the computer to stop timing and record the response latency. All participants were instructed to make their responses as quickly as possible while making few mistakes. On every trial, participants were provided immediate feedback regarding their 23

34 accuracy on each item via a message on the terminal. Results Analysis of response times of correct responses to words Both task variables produced significant main effects. Irregular consonant strings produced faster responses than did the regular nonwords, F(1,240)=137.08, p <.001. This finding is expected as the decision is much easier with consonant strings used as foils. Also, button-press responses produced faster responses than did spoken responses, F(1,240)=130.78, p<.001. This is a typical finding as the spoken response not only requires a more physically complicated response, but also requires the reader to reach a unique lexical entry before the initiation of the response. These two variables did not produce a two-way interaction. The main effect of the number of positions yielding neighbors did not reach significance, F(1,240)=1.85, p >.05. However, as expected, the positions effect interacted with the type of nonword present in the list, F(1,240)=7.89, p <.01, with words yielding neighbors at a greater number of positions producing longer responses only when regular nonwords were used as foils. Figure 2.1 plots the interaction of nonword type and the number of positions yielding neighbors. Words with high word frequencies produced faster responses than did those with low frequencies, F(1,240)=386.03, p <.001. Word frequency also interacted with nonword type, with regular nonwords producing a more pronounced word-frequency effect, F(1,240)=87.67, p <.001. This was expected because the requirement of cohort 24

35 Response time (ms) Four Positions Two Positions Regular Irregular Nonword Type Figure 2.1: Interaction of number of positions yielding neighbors and nonword type for correct responses to words 25

36 resolution mandates the selection of a unique lexical entry. Figure 2.2 shows the interaction of word frequency and nonword type. Word frequency interacted with the reader s response mode as well, with spoken responses producing a stronger word frequency effect, F(1,240)=10.67, p <.001. When the readers are required to pronounce the target words, they must select a unique lexical entry prior to the initiation of their vocal response. High frequency words gain an advantage under these circumstances. Figure 2.3 shows the interaction of word frequency and response mode. The three-way interaction of word frequency, number of positions, and nonword type also reached significance, F(1,240)=5.23, p <.05. In the regular nonword condition, a greater number of positions led to slower response times. However, in the irregular nonword condition, a greater number of positions led to faster response times for low frequency words. Figure 2.4 shows the interaction of word frequency and the number of positions at the regular nonword condition. Figure 2.5 shows the interaction of word frequency and number of positions at the irregular nonword condition. Furthermore, the three-way interaction of word frequency, number of positions, and response mode also reached significance, F(1,240)=5.80, p <.05. In the button-press condition, a greater number of positions led to slower responses. In the spoken response condition, a greater number of positions led to faster response times for low frequency words. Analysis of correct responses to nonwords The main effect of word frequency was significant, F(1,240)=48.66, p <.001, with participants making decisions about nonwords more quickly when high-frequency words were present in the lists. The frequency effect interacted with the type of nonword, 26

An Evaluation of the Interactive-Activation Model Using Masked Partial-Word Priming. Jason R. Perry. University of Western Ontario. Stephen J.

An Evaluation of the Interactive-Activation Model Using Masked Partial-Word Priming. Jason R. Perry. University of Western Ontario. Stephen J. An Evaluation of the Interactive-Activation Model Using Masked Partial-Word Priming Jason R. Perry University of Western Ontario Stephen J. Lupker University of Western Ontario Colin J. Davis Royal Holloway

More information

Mandarin Lexical Tone Recognition: The Gating Paradigm

Mandarin Lexical Tone Recognition: The Gating Paradigm Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 0 (008), p. 8 Abstract Mandarin Lexical Tone Recognition: The Gating Paradigm Yuwen Lai and Jie Zhang University of Kansas Research on spoken word recognition

More information

The Perception of Nasalized Vowels in American English: An Investigation of On-line Use of Vowel Nasalization in Lexical Access

The Perception of Nasalized Vowels in American English: An Investigation of On-line Use of Vowel Nasalization in Lexical Access The Perception of Nasalized Vowels in American English: An Investigation of On-line Use of Vowel Nasalization in Lexical Access Joyce McDonough 1, Heike Lenhert-LeHouiller 1, Neil Bardhan 2 1 Linguistics

More information

CLASSIFICATION OF PROGRAM Critical Elements Analysis 1. High Priority Items Phonemic Awareness Instruction

CLASSIFICATION OF PROGRAM Critical Elements Analysis 1. High Priority Items Phonemic Awareness Instruction CLASSIFICATION OF PROGRAM Critical Elements Analysis 1 Program Name: Macmillan/McGraw Hill Reading 2003 Date of Publication: 2003 Publisher: Macmillan/McGraw Hill Reviewer Code: 1. X The program meets

More information

Processing Lexically Embedded Spoken Words

Processing Lexically Embedded Spoken Words Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1999, Vol. 25, No. 1,174-183 Copyright 1999 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0095-1523/99/S3.00 Processing Lexically

More information

Author: Justyna Kowalczys Stowarzyszenie Angielski w Medycynie (PL) Feb 2015

Author: Justyna Kowalczys Stowarzyszenie Angielski w Medycynie (PL)  Feb 2015 Author: Justyna Kowalczys Stowarzyszenie Angielski w Medycynie (PL) www.angielskiwmedycynie.org.pl Feb 2015 Developing speaking abilities is a prerequisite for HELP in order to promote effective communication

More information

Intra-talker Variation: Audience Design Factors Affecting Lexical Selections

Intra-talker Variation: Audience Design Factors Affecting Lexical Selections Tyler Perrachione LING 451-0 Proseminar in Sound Structure Prof. A. Bradlow 17 March 2006 Intra-talker Variation: Audience Design Factors Affecting Lexical Selections Abstract Although the acoustic and

More information

Phonological and Phonetic Representations: The Case of Neutralization

Phonological and Phonetic Representations: The Case of Neutralization Phonological and Phonetic Representations: The Case of Neutralization Allard Jongman University of Kansas 1. Introduction The present paper focuses on the phenomenon of phonological neutralization to consider

More information

Automatization and orthographic development in second language visual word recognition

Automatization and orthographic development in second language visual word recognition Reading in a Foreign Language April 2016, Volume 28, No. 1 ISSN 1539-0578 pp. 43 62 Automatization and orthographic development in second language visual word recognition Shusaku Kida Hiroshima University

More information

Improved Effects of Word-Retrieval Treatments Subsequent to Addition of the Orthographic Form

Improved Effects of Word-Retrieval Treatments Subsequent to Addition of the Orthographic Form Orthographic Form 1 Improved Effects of Word-Retrieval Treatments Subsequent to Addition of the Orthographic Form The development and testing of word-retrieval treatments for aphasia has generally focused

More information

Running head: DELAY AND PROSPECTIVE MEMORY 1

Running head: DELAY AND PROSPECTIVE MEMORY 1 Running head: DELAY AND PROSPECTIVE MEMORY 1 In Press at Memory & Cognition Effects of Delay of Prospective Memory Cues in an Ongoing Task on Prospective Memory Task Performance Dawn M. McBride, Jaclyn

More information

Rote rehearsal and spacing effects in the free recall of pure and mixed lists. By: Peter P.J.L. Verkoeijen and Peter F. Delaney

Rote rehearsal and spacing effects in the free recall of pure and mixed lists. By: Peter P.J.L. Verkoeijen and Peter F. Delaney Rote rehearsal and spacing effects in the free recall of pure and mixed lists By: Peter P.J.L. Verkoeijen and Peter F. Delaney Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L, & Delaney, P. F. (2008). Rote rehearsal and spacing

More information

Deliberate Learning and Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language

Deliberate Learning and Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language Language Learning ISSN 0023-8333 Deliberate Learning and Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language Irina Elgort Victoria University of Wellington This study investigates outcomes of deliberate learning

More information

SOFTWARE EVALUATION TOOL

SOFTWARE EVALUATION TOOL SOFTWARE EVALUATION TOOL Kyle Higgins Randall Boone University of Nevada Las Vegas rboone@unlv.nevada.edu Higgins@unlv.nevada.edu N.B. This form has not been fully validated and is still in development.

More information

Lexical Access during Sentence Comprehension (Re)Consideration of Context Effects

Lexical Access during Sentence Comprehension (Re)Consideration of Context Effects JOURNAL OF VERBAL LEARNING AND VERBAL BEHAVIOR 18, 645-659 (1979) Lexical Access during Sentence Comprehension (Re)Consideration of Context Effects DAVID A. SWINNEY Tufts University The effects of prior

More information

Improving Conceptual Understanding of Physics with Technology

Improving Conceptual Understanding of Physics with Technology INTRODUCTION Improving Conceptual Understanding of Physics with Technology Heidi Jackman Research Experience for Undergraduates, 1999 Michigan State University Advisors: Edwin Kashy and Michael Thoennessen

More information

Phonological encoding in speech production

Phonological encoding in speech production Phonological encoding in speech production Niels O. Schiller Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

More information

A Bayesian Model of Stress Assignment in Reading

A Bayesian Model of Stress Assignment in Reading Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository March 2014 A Bayesian Model of Stress Assignment in Reading Olessia Jouravlev The University of Western Ontario Supervisor

More information

Understanding and Supporting Dyslexia Godstone Village School. January 2017

Understanding and Supporting Dyslexia Godstone Village School. January 2017 Understanding and Supporting Dyslexia Godstone Village School January 2017 By then end of the session I will: Have a greater understanding of Dyslexia and the ways in which children can be affected by

More information

AGENDA LEARNING THEORIES LEARNING THEORIES. Advanced Learning Theories 2/22/2016

AGENDA LEARNING THEORIES LEARNING THEORIES. Advanced Learning Theories 2/22/2016 AGENDA Advanced Learning Theories Alejandra J. Magana, Ph.D. admagana@purdue.edu Introduction to Learning Theories Role of Learning Theories and Frameworks Learning Design Research Design Dual Coding Theory

More information

Is Event-Based Prospective Memory Resistant to Proactive Interference?

Is Event-Based Prospective Memory Resistant to Proactive Interference? DOI 10.1007/s12144-015-9330-1 Is Event-Based Prospective Memory Resistant to Proactive Interference? Joyce M. Oates 1 & Zehra F. Peynircioğlu 1 & Kathryn B. Bates 1 # Springer Science+Business Media New

More information

An Empirical and Computational Test of Linguistic Relativity

An Empirical and Computational Test of Linguistic Relativity An Empirical and Computational Test of Linguistic Relativity Kathleen M. Eberhard* (eberhard.1@nd.edu) Matthias Scheutz** (mscheutz@cse.nd.edu) Michael Heilman** (mheilman@nd.edu) *Department of Psychology,

More information

Kelli Allen. Vicki Nieter. Jeanna Scheve. Foreword by Gregory J. Kaiser

Kelli Allen. Vicki Nieter. Jeanna Scheve. Foreword by Gregory J. Kaiser Kelli Allen Jeanna Scheve Vicki Nieter Foreword by Gregory J. Kaiser Table of Contents Foreword........................................... 7 Introduction........................................ 9 Learning

More information

BENCHMARK TREND COMPARISON REPORT:

BENCHMARK TREND COMPARISON REPORT: National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) BENCHMARK TREND COMPARISON REPORT: CARNEGIE PEER INSTITUTIONS, 2003-2011 PREPARED BY: ANGEL A. SANCHEZ, DIRECTOR KELLI PAYNE, ADMINISTRATIVE ANALYST/ SPECIALIST

More information

Infants learn phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience

Infants learn phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience B69 Cognition 87 (2003) B69 B77 www.elsevier.com/locate/cognit Brief article Infants learn phonotactic regularities from brief auditory experience Kyle E. Chambers*, Kristine H. Onishi, Cynthia Fisher

More information

REVIEW OF CONNECTED SPEECH

REVIEW OF CONNECTED SPEECH Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol8num1/review2/ January 2004, Volume 8, Number 1 pp. 24-28 REVIEW OF CONNECTED SPEECH Title Connected Speech (North American English), 2000 Platform

More information

Developing a College-level Speed and Accuracy Test

Developing a College-level Speed and Accuracy Test Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive All Faculty Publications 2011-02-18 Developing a College-level Speed and Accuracy Test Jordan Gilbert Marne Isakson See next page for additional authors Follow

More information

PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT OF TEACHERS AND STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT. James B. Chapman. Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia

PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT OF TEACHERS AND STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT. James B. Chapman. Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT OF TEACHERS AND STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT by James B. Chapman Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment

More information

University of Waterloo School of Accountancy. AFM 102: Introductory Management Accounting. Fall Term 2004: Section 4

University of Waterloo School of Accountancy. AFM 102: Introductory Management Accounting. Fall Term 2004: Section 4 University of Waterloo School of Accountancy AFM 102: Introductory Management Accounting Fall Term 2004: Section 4 Instructor: Alan Webb Office: HH 289A / BFG 2120 B (after October 1) Phone: 888-4567 ext.

More information

The French Lexicon Project: Lexical decision data for 38,840 French words. and 38,840 pseudowords

The French Lexicon Project: Lexical decision data for 38,840 French words. and 38,840 pseudowords The French Lexicon Project: Lexical decision data for 38,840 French words and 38,840 pseudowords Ludovic FERRAND CNRS and University Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France Boris NEW CNRS and University

More information

Specification and Evaluation of Machine Translation Toy Systems - Criteria for laboratory assignments

Specification and Evaluation of Machine Translation Toy Systems - Criteria for laboratory assignments Specification and Evaluation of Machine Translation Toy Systems - Criteria for laboratory assignments Cristina Vertan, Walther v. Hahn University of Hamburg, Natural Language Systems Division Hamburg,

More information

Summary / Response. Karl Smith, Accelerations Educational Software. Page 1 of 8

Summary / Response. Karl Smith, Accelerations Educational Software. Page 1 of 8 Summary / Response This is a study of 2 autistic students to see if they can generalize what they learn on the DT Trainer to their physical world. One student did automatically generalize and the other

More information

Oklahoma State University Policy and Procedures

Oklahoma State University Policy and Procedures Oklahoma State University Policy and Procedures REAPPOINTMENT, PROMOTION AND TENURE PROCESS FOR RANKED FACULTY 2-0902 ACADEMIC AFFAIRS September 2015 PURPOSE The purpose of this policy and procedures letter

More information

Source-monitoring judgments about anagrams and their solutions: Evidence for the role of cognitive operations information in memory

Source-monitoring judgments about anagrams and their solutions: Evidence for the role of cognitive operations information in memory Memory & Cognition 2007, 35 (2), 211-221 Source-monitoring judgments about anagrams and their solutions: Evidence for the role of cognitive operations information in memory MARY ANN FOLEY AND HUGH J. FOLEY

More information

SARDNET: A Self-Organizing Feature Map for Sequences

SARDNET: A Self-Organizing Feature Map for Sequences SARDNET: A Self-Organizing Feature Map for Sequences Daniel L. James and Risto Miikkulainen Department of Computer Sciences The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712 dljames,risto~cs.utexas.edu

More information

How to Judge the Quality of an Objective Classroom Test

How to Judge the Quality of an Objective Classroom Test How to Judge the Quality of an Objective Classroom Test Technical Bulletin #6 Evaluation and Examination Service The University of Iowa (319) 335-0356 HOW TO JUDGE THE QUALITY OF AN OBJECTIVE CLASSROOM

More information

Language Acquisition Fall 2010/Winter Lexical Categories. Afra Alishahi, Heiner Drenhaus

Language Acquisition Fall 2010/Winter Lexical Categories. Afra Alishahi, Heiner Drenhaus Language Acquisition Fall 2010/Winter 2011 Lexical Categories Afra Alishahi, Heiner Drenhaus Computational Linguistics and Phonetics Saarland University Children s Sensitivity to Lexical Categories Look,

More information

Course Law Enforcement II. Unit I Careers in Law Enforcement

Course Law Enforcement II. Unit I Careers in Law Enforcement Course Law Enforcement II Unit I Careers in Law Enforcement Essential Question How does communication affect the role of the public safety professional? TEKS 130.294(c) (1)(A)(B)(C) Prior Student Learning

More information

Effects of Open-Set and Closed-Set Task Demands on Spoken Word Recognition

Effects of Open-Set and Closed-Set Task Demands on Spoken Word Recognition J Am Acad Audiol 17:331 349 (2006) Effects of Open-Set and Closed-Set Task Demands on Spoken Word Recognition Cynthia G. Clopper* David B. Pisoni Adam T. Tierney Abstract Closed-set tests of spoken word

More information

raıs Factors affecting word learning in adults: A comparison of L2 versus L1 acquisition /r/ /aı/ /s/ /r/ /aı/ /s/ = individual sound

raıs Factors affecting word learning in adults: A comparison of L2 versus L1 acquisition /r/ /aı/ /s/ /r/ /aı/ /s/ = individual sound 1 Factors affecting word learning in adults: A comparison of L2 versus L1 acquisition Junko Maekawa & Holly L. Storkel University of Kansas Lexical raıs /r/ /aı/ /s/ 2 = meaning Lexical raıs Lexical raıs

More information

Dyslexia/dyslexic, 3, 9, 24, 97, 187, 189, 206, 217, , , 367, , , 397,

Dyslexia/dyslexic, 3, 9, 24, 97, 187, 189, 206, 217, , , 367, , , 397, Adoption studies, 274 275 Alliteration skill, 113, 115, 117 118, 122 123, 128, 136, 138 Alphabetic writing system, 5, 40, 127, 136, 410, 415 Alphabets (types of ) artificial transparent alphabet, 5 German

More information

BEST OFFICIAL WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE RULES

BEST OFFICIAL WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE RULES BEST OFFICIAL WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE RULES Adapted from official World Schools Debate Championship Rules *Please read this entire document thoroughly. CONTENTS I. Vocabulary II. Acceptable Team Structure

More information

Cued Recall From Image and Sentence Memory: A Shift From Episodic to Identical Elements Representation

Cued Recall From Image and Sentence Memory: A Shift From Episodic to Identical Elements Representation Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 2006, Vol. 32, No. 4, 734 748 Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 0278-7393/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.32.4.734

More information

Evidence for Reliability, Validity and Learning Effectiveness

Evidence for Reliability, Validity and Learning Effectiveness PEARSON EDUCATION Evidence for Reliability, Validity and Learning Effectiveness Introduction Pearson Knowledge Technologies has conducted a large number and wide variety of reliability and validity studies

More information

Reference to Tenure track faculty in this document includes tenured faculty, unless otherwise noted.

Reference to Tenure track faculty in this document includes tenured faculty, unless otherwise noted. PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT FACULTY DEVELOPMENT and EVALUATION MANUAL Approved by Philosophy Department April 14, 2011 Approved by the Office of the Provost June 30, 2011 The Department of Philosophy Faculty

More information

Early Warning System Implementation Guide

Early Warning System Implementation Guide Linking Research and Resources for Better High Schools betterhighschools.org September 2010 Early Warning System Implementation Guide For use with the National High School Center s Early Warning System

More information

Visual processing speed: effects of auditory input on

Visual processing speed: effects of auditory input on Developmental Science DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00627.x REPORT Blackwell Publishing Ltd Visual processing speed: effects of auditory input on processing speed visual processing Christopher W. Robinson

More information

Software Security: Integrating Secure Software Engineering in Graduate Computer Science Curriculum

Software Security: Integrating Secure Software Engineering in Graduate Computer Science Curriculum Software Security: Integrating Secure Software Engineering in Graduate Computer Science Curriculum Stephen S. Yau, Fellow, IEEE, and Zhaoji Chen Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-8809 {yau, zhaoji.chen@asu.edu}

More information

Which verb classes and why? Research questions: Semantic Basis Hypothesis (SBH) What verb classes? Why the truth of the SBH matters

Which verb classes and why? Research questions: Semantic Basis Hypothesis (SBH) What verb classes? Why the truth of the SBH matters Which verb classes and why? ean-pierre Koenig, Gail Mauner, Anthony Davis, and reton ienvenue University at uffalo and Streamsage, Inc. Research questions: Participant roles play a role in the syntactic

More information

An Introduction to Simio for Beginners

An Introduction to Simio for Beginners An Introduction to Simio for Beginners C. Dennis Pegden, Ph.D. This white paper is intended to introduce Simio to a user new to simulation. It is intended for the manufacturing engineer, hospital quality

More information

The Representation of Concrete and Abstract Concepts: Categorical vs. Associative Relationships. Jingyi Geng and Tatiana T. Schnur

The Representation of Concrete and Abstract Concepts: Categorical vs. Associative Relationships. Jingyi Geng and Tatiana T. Schnur RUNNING HEAD: CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT CONCEPTS The Representation of Concrete and Abstract Concepts: Categorical vs. Associative Relationships Jingyi Geng and Tatiana T. Schnur Department of Psychology,

More information

A Bootstrapping Model of Frequency and Context Effects in Word Learning

A Bootstrapping Model of Frequency and Context Effects in Word Learning Cognitive Science 41 (2017) 590 622 Copyright 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0364-0213 print / 1551-6709 online DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12353 A Bootstrapping Model of Frequency

More information

10.2. Behavior models

10.2. Behavior models User behavior research 10.2. Behavior models Overview Why do users seek information? How do they seek information? How do they search for information? How do they use libraries? These questions are addressed

More information

Test Administrator User Guide

Test Administrator User Guide Test Administrator User Guide Fall 2017 and Winter 2018 Published October 17, 2017 Prepared by the American Institutes for Research Descriptions of the operation of the Test Information Distribution Engine,

More information

Aging and the Use of Context in Ambiguity Resolution: Complex Changes From Simple Slowing

Aging and the Use of Context in Ambiguity Resolution: Complex Changes From Simple Slowing Cognitive Science 30 (2006) 311 345 Copyright 2006 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. All rights reserved. Aging and the Use of Context in Ambiguity Resolution: Complex Changes From Simple Slowing Karen Stevens

More information

Speech Recognition at ICSI: Broadcast News and beyond

Speech Recognition at ICSI: Broadcast News and beyond Speech Recognition at ICSI: Broadcast News and beyond Dan Ellis International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley CA Outline 1 2 3 The DARPA Broadcast News task Aspects of ICSI

More information

Conceptual Framework: Presentation

Conceptual Framework: Presentation Meeting: Meeting Location: International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board New York, USA Meeting Date: December 3 6, 2012 Agenda Item 2B For: Approval Discussion Information Objective(s) of Agenda

More information

Stimulating Techniques in Micro Teaching. Puan Ng Swee Teng Ketua Program Kursus Lanjutan U48 Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu, SAS, Ulu Kinta

Stimulating Techniques in Micro Teaching. Puan Ng Swee Teng Ketua Program Kursus Lanjutan U48 Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu, SAS, Ulu Kinta Stimulating Techniques in Micro Teaching Puan Ng Swee Teng Ketua Program Kursus Lanjutan U48 Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu, SAS, Ulu Kinta Learning Objectives General Objectives: At the end of the 2

More information

An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Mexican American Studies Participation on Student Achievement within Tucson Unified School District

An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Mexican American Studies Participation on Student Achievement within Tucson Unified School District An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Mexican American Studies Participation on Student Achievement within Tucson Unified School District Report Submitted June 20, 2012, to Willis D. Hawley, Ph.D., Special

More information

Progress Monitoring for Behavior: Data Collection Methods & Procedures

Progress Monitoring for Behavior: Data Collection Methods & Procedures Progress Monitoring for Behavior: Data Collection Methods & Procedures This event is being funded with State and/or Federal funds and is being provided for employees of school districts, employees of the

More information

CEFR Overall Illustrative English Proficiency Scales

CEFR Overall Illustrative English Proficiency Scales CEFR Overall Illustrative English Proficiency s CEFR CEFR OVERALL ORAL PRODUCTION Has a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of connotative levels of meaning. Can convey

More information

Florida Reading Endorsement Alignment Matrix Competency 1

Florida Reading Endorsement Alignment Matrix Competency 1 Florida Reading Endorsement Alignment Matrix Competency 1 Reading Endorsement Guiding Principle: Teachers will understand and teach reading as an ongoing strategic process resulting in students comprehending

More information

1. REFLEXES: Ask questions about coughing, swallowing, of water as fast as possible (note! Not suitable for all

1. REFLEXES: Ask questions about coughing, swallowing, of water as fast as possible (note! Not suitable for all Human Communication Science Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street London WC1N 1PF http://www.hcs.ucl.ac.uk/ ACOUSTICS OF SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY IN DYSARTHRIA EUROPEAN MASTER S S IN CLINICAL LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY

More information

A Case Study: News Classification Based on Term Frequency

A Case Study: News Classification Based on Term Frequency A Case Study: News Classification Based on Term Frequency Petr Kroha Faculty of Computer Science University of Technology 09107 Chemnitz Germany kroha@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de Ricardo Baeza-Yates Center

More information

The influence of orthographic transparency on word recognition. by dyslexic and normal readers

The influence of orthographic transparency on word recognition. by dyslexic and normal readers The influence of orthographic transparency on word recognition by dyslexic and normal readers Renske Berckmoes, 3932338 Master thesis Taal, Mens & Maatschappij (Taalwetenschappen) First supervisor: dr.

More information

Effective Instruction for Struggling Readers

Effective Instruction for Struggling Readers Section II Effective Instruction for Struggling Readers Chapter 5 Components of Effective Instruction After conducting assessments, Ms. Lopez should be aware of her students needs in the following areas:

More information

The New Theory of Disuse Predicts Retrieval Enhanced Suggestibility (RES)

The New Theory of Disuse Predicts Retrieval Enhanced Suggestibility (RES) Seton Hall University erepository @ Seton Hall Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs) Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses Spring 5-1-2017 The New Theory of Disuse Predicts Retrieval

More information

NCEO Technical Report 27

NCEO Technical Report 27 Home About Publications Special Topics Presentations State Policies Accommodations Bibliography Teleconferences Tools Related Sites Interpreting Trends in the Performance of Special Education Students

More information

Multi-sensory Language Teaching. Seamless Intervention with Quality First Teaching for Phonics, Reading and Spelling

Multi-sensory Language Teaching. Seamless Intervention with Quality First Teaching for Phonics, Reading and Spelling Zena Martin BA(Hons), PGCE, NPQH, PG Cert (SpLD) Educational Consultancy and Training Multi-sensory Language Teaching Seamless Intervention with Quality First Teaching for Phonics, Reading and Spelling

More information

Economics 201 Principles of Microeconomics Fall 2010 MWF 10:00 10:50am 160 Bryan Building

Economics 201 Principles of Microeconomics Fall 2010 MWF 10:00 10:50am 160 Bryan Building Economics 201 Principles of Microeconomics Fall 2010 MWF 10:00 10:50am 160 Bryan Building Professor: Dr. Michelle Sheran Office: 445 Bryan Building Phone: 256-1192 E-mail: mesheran@uncg.edu Office Hours:

More information

Evaluation of a College Freshman Diversity Research Program

Evaluation of a College Freshman Diversity Research Program Evaluation of a College Freshman Diversity Research Program Sarah Garner University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 Michael J. Tremmel University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 Sarah

More information

Longman English Interactive

Longman English Interactive Longman English Interactive Level 3 Orientation Quick Start 2 Microphone for Speaking Activities 2 Course Navigation 3 Course Home Page 3 Course Overview 4 Course Outline 5 Navigating the Course Page 6

More information

Individual Differences & Item Effects: How to test them, & how to test them well

Individual Differences & Item Effects: How to test them, & how to test them well Individual Differences & Item Effects: How to test them, & how to test them well Individual Differences & Item Effects Properties of subjects Cognitive abilities (WM task scores, inhibition) Gender Age

More information

Success Factors for Creativity Workshops in RE

Success Factors for Creativity Workshops in RE Success Factors for Creativity s in RE Sebastian Adam, Marcus Trapp Fraunhofer IESE Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany {sebastian.adam, marcus.trapp}@iese.fraunhofer.de Abstract. In today

More information

Using SAM Central With iread

Using SAM Central With iread Using SAM Central With iread January 1, 2016 For use with iread version 1.2 or later, SAM Central, and Student Achievement Manager version 2.4 or later PDF0868 (PDF) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing

More information

Books Effective Literacy Y5-8 Learning Through Talk Y4-8 Switch onto Spelling Spelling Under Scrutiny

Books Effective Literacy Y5-8 Learning Through Talk Y4-8 Switch onto Spelling Spelling Under Scrutiny By the End of Year 8 All Essential words lists 1-7 290 words Commonly Misspelt Words-55 working out more complex, irregular, and/or ambiguous words by using strategies such as inferring the unknown from

More information

have to be modeled) or isolated words. Output of the system is a grapheme-tophoneme conversion system which takes as its input the spelling of words,

have to be modeled) or isolated words. Output of the system is a grapheme-tophoneme conversion system which takes as its input the spelling of words, A Language-Independent, Data-Oriented Architecture for Grapheme-to-Phoneme Conversion Walter Daelemans and Antal van den Bosch Proceedings ESCA-IEEE speech synthesis conference, New York, September 1994

More information

Coast Academies Writing Framework Step 4. 1 of 7

Coast Academies Writing Framework Step 4. 1 of 7 1 KPI Spell further homophones. 2 3 Objective Spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1) KPI Place the possessive apostrophe accurately in words with regular plurals: e.g. girls, boys and

More information

STAFF DEVELOPMENT in SPECIAL EDUCATION

STAFF DEVELOPMENT in SPECIAL EDUCATION STAFF DEVELOPMENT in SPECIAL EDUCATION Factors Affecting Curriculum for Students with Special Needs AASEP s Staff Development Course FACTORS AFFECTING CURRICULUM Copyright AASEP (2006) 1 of 10 After taking

More information

SLINGERLAND: A Multisensory Structured Language Instructional Approach

SLINGERLAND: A Multisensory Structured Language Instructional Approach SLINGERLAND: A Multisensory Structured Language Instructional Approach nancycushenwhite@gmail.com Lexicon Reading Center Dubai Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science 5% will learn to read on their own. 20-30%

More information

Delaware Performance Appraisal System Building greater skills and knowledge for educators

Delaware Performance Appraisal System Building greater skills and knowledge for educators Delaware Performance Appraisal System Building greater skills and knowledge for educators DPAS-II Guide for Administrators (Assistant Principals) Guide for Evaluating Assistant Principals Revised August

More information

1 st Quarter (September, October, November) August/September Strand Topic Standard Notes Reading for Literature

1 st Quarter (September, October, November) August/September Strand Topic Standard Notes Reading for Literature 1 st Grade Curriculum Map Common Core Standards Language Arts 2013 2014 1 st Quarter (September, October, November) August/September Strand Topic Standard Notes Reading for Literature Key Ideas and Details

More information

Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Demmert/Klein Experiment: Additional Evidence from Germany

Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Demmert/Klein Experiment: Additional Evidence from Germany Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Demmert/Klein Experiment: Additional Evidence from Germany Jana Kitzmann and Dirk Schiereck, Endowed Chair for Banking and Finance, EUROPEAN BUSINESS SCHOOL, International

More information

On-Line Data Analytics

On-Line Data Analytics International Journal of Computer Applications in Engineering Sciences [VOL I, ISSUE III, SEPTEMBER 2011] [ISSN: 2231-4946] On-Line Data Analytics Yugandhar Vemulapalli #, Devarapalli Raghu *, Raja Jacob

More information

Session Six: Software Evaluation Rubric Collaborators: Susan Ferdon and Steve Poast

Session Six: Software Evaluation Rubric Collaborators: Susan Ferdon and Steve Poast EDTECH 554 (FA10) Susan Ferdon Session Six: Software Evaluation Rubric Collaborators: Susan Ferdon and Steve Poast Task The principal at your building is aware you are in Boise State's Ed Tech Master's

More information

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY Respond to the prompts below (no more than 7 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or

More information

On-the-Fly Customization of Automated Essay Scoring

On-the-Fly Customization of Automated Essay Scoring Research Report On-the-Fly Customization of Automated Essay Scoring Yigal Attali Research & Development December 2007 RR-07-42 On-the-Fly Customization of Automated Essay Scoring Yigal Attali ETS, Princeton,

More information

NCU IISR English-Korean and English-Chinese Named Entity Transliteration Using Different Grapheme Segmentation Approaches

NCU IISR English-Korean and English-Chinese Named Entity Transliteration Using Different Grapheme Segmentation Approaches NCU IISR English-Korean and English-Chinese Named Entity Transliteration Using Different Grapheme Segmentation Approaches Yu-Chun Wang Chun-Kai Wu Richard Tzong-Han Tsai Department of Computer Science

More information

Phonological Encoding in Sentence Production

Phonological Encoding in Sentence Production Phonological Encoding in Sentence Production Caitlin Hilliard (chillia2@u.rochester.edu), Katrina Furth (kfurth@bcs.rochester.edu), T. Florian Jaeger (fjaeger@bcs.rochester.edu) Department of Brain and

More information

WiggleWorks Software Manual PDF0049 (PDF) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

WiggleWorks Software Manual PDF0049 (PDF) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company WiggleWorks Software Manual PDF0049 (PDF) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Table of Contents Welcome to WiggleWorks... 3 Program Materials... 3 WiggleWorks Teacher Software... 4 Logging In...

More information

First Grade Curriculum Highlights: In alignment with the Common Core Standards

First Grade Curriculum Highlights: In alignment with the Common Core Standards First Grade Curriculum Highlights: In alignment with the Common Core Standards ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Foundational Skills Print Concepts Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features

More information

WE GAVE A LAWYER BASIC MATH SKILLS, AND YOU WON T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

WE GAVE A LAWYER BASIC MATH SKILLS, AND YOU WON T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WE GAVE A LAWYER BASIC MATH SKILLS, AND YOU WON T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF RANDOM SAMPLING IN ediscovery By Matthew Verga, J.D. INTRODUCTION Anyone who spends ample time working

More information

WHAT ARE VIRTUAL MANIPULATIVES?

WHAT ARE VIRTUAL MANIPULATIVES? by SCOTT PIERSON AA, Community College of the Air Force, 1992 BS, Eastern Connecticut State University, 2010 A VIRTUAL MANIPULATIVES PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR TECHNOLOGY

More information

LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Coding Activities

LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Coding Activities LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Coding Activities s t e e h s k r o W t n e d Stu LEGOeducation.com/MINDSTORMS Contents ACTIVITY 1 Performing a Three Point Turn 3-6 ACTIVITY 2 Written Instructions for a

More information

Process Evaluations for a Multisite Nutrition Education Program

Process Evaluations for a Multisite Nutrition Education Program Process Evaluations for a Multisite Nutrition Education Program Paul Branscum 1 and Gail Kaye 2 1 The University of Oklahoma 2 The Ohio State University Abstract Process evaluations are an often-overlooked

More information

Extending Learning Across Time & Space: The Power of Generalization

Extending Learning Across Time & Space: The Power of Generalization Extending Learning: The Power of Generalization 1 Extending Learning Across Time & Space: The Power of Generalization Teachers have every right to celebrate when they finally succeed in teaching struggling

More information

Student-led IEPs 1. Student-led IEPs. Student-led IEPs. Greg Schaitel. Instructor Troy Ellis. April 16, 2009

Student-led IEPs 1. Student-led IEPs. Student-led IEPs. Greg Schaitel. Instructor Troy Ellis. April 16, 2009 Student-led IEPs 1 Student-led IEPs Student-led IEPs Greg Schaitel Instructor Troy Ellis April 16, 2009 Student-led IEPs 2 Students with disabilities are often left with little understanding about their

More information

English Language Arts Summative Assessment

English Language Arts Summative Assessment English Language Arts Summative Assessment 2016 Paper-Pencil Test Audio CDs are not available for the administration of the English Language Arts Session 2. The ELA Test Administration Listening Transcript

More information

ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE

ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE ANG-5055-6 DEFINITION OF THE DOMAIN SEPTEMBRE 1995 ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE ANG-5055-6 DEFINITION OF THE DOMAIN SEPTEMBER 1995 Direction de la formation générale des adultes Service

More information

Unit 3. Design Activity. Overview. Purpose. Profile

Unit 3. Design Activity. Overview. Purpose. Profile Unit 3 Design Activity Overview Purpose The purpose of the Design Activity unit is to provide students with experience designing a communications product. Students will develop capability with the design

More information