Interactive/Cognitive/Connectionist/ Compensatory Model of Reading S. Rosenberg, Ed.D. EDU 5367 Manhattanville College

2 Haskins Laboratories Four Processing Systems Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989 Four Processing Systems Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989 background information sentence context vocabulary Context Processor Orthographic Processor Phonological Processor Meaning Processor writing outputspeech output reading input speech sound system letter memory phonics

Interactive/Cognitive/Connection Model of Reading When people read, they process many different types of information. The process is divided among relatively autonomous subsystems that perform their own tasks. Each sub system sends what it knows or has figured out to at least one other subsystem. Therefore, readers have many different cues to make sense of a sentence. One processor can send its cues to other processors to help them make sense of their own clues; the processors work interactively with one another.

Orthographic Processor Orthographic knowledge consist of the individual symbols of a written language. Processing and recognizing strings of letters (i.e words) Word recognition occurs when the units for each letter of a word attain a sufficient degree of activation (through direct perception of the letter it represents in the mind) Any unit that has been partially activated by “spreading” activation turns on faster than it would have if the letter was presented alone; t__. (called “Priming”) Thus associations and spreading activation promote faster reading. Any familiar word is a highly associated pattern of letters and each letter in the word primes the perception of the others. As a result the entire word is recognized very quickly and automatically as a result of perceiving every one of the letters.

“Priming” Based on your knowledge of English orthography: Which letters would you expect to come next? Which letters would you not expext? sk_____________ fro_______ va________ zo________ wint_____

The Meaning Processor Sentence comprehension requires an orthographic processor to recognize letter strings and a meaning processor to access word meaning Drap fimble chope. The veterinarian derived an hypothesis regarding the demise of the canine.

Word meanings attain a high activation level if words to which they are attached occur frequently. A person’s experiences determine which meaning elements are associated and stored for a given word. Since the meaning processor is linked to the orthographic processor, knowing the meaning of a word can help the reader identify the word faster. The reverse is true too! Orthographic knowledge can improve the capacity of the meaning processor.

Demise death Veterinarian doctor Canine dog

The Phonological Processor The phonemes in the readers spoken language are associated with each other. Words can also be represented by their “onset” (phonemes preceding the vowel) and “rime” (the vowel phoneme and the final consonant). Skilled readers do not have to recode the orthography to phonology to access the meaning of a word. However, skilled readers often do access the phonology of a word. The phonological processor provides a backup system for unfamiliar written words that are in the reader’s oral vocabulary. Readers can also use the phonological information to help them hold onto the words in short term and working memory,

The Context Processor Background knowledge Schema The context processor constructs a coherent interpretation of text. The output of this processor is a mental representation of everything the reader has read up to that point. When the judge entered the courtroom, everyone rose. The panelists need to judge the talent show.

Semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic knowledge all contribute to the construction of a situation model. John went to the store to buy a p_____________. (‘pepper,” “ promise,” “pencil,” “peninsula,” “preposterous.”) Skilled readers use their semantic knowledge to access the meaning of all of the words in the sentence. Skilled readers use their pragmatic knowledge to expect John to buy something that people usually buy in a store. Syntactic knowledge sets up an expectation of the part of speech the word will be. Written words have to be mentally associated with grammatical classes in addition to the meaning.

1.They fed her the dog biscuits. They fed her dog the biscuits. 2.The old train the young. 3. Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.

The skilled reader uses semantic, pragmatic and syntactic knowledge to help construct a situation model. The situation model helps the reader to form expectations about what will occur next in the text. As each new segment is read, the skilled reader interprets it in a way that is consistent with his current situation model. Prior context can influence the meaning given to a word and that current meanings help to reconstruct the situation model. John removed the thorns from the rose. The crowd rose to sing the national anthem. The men were fishing for bass. The leader of the band was looking for a new bass player.

Orthographic - meaning relationships are stronger than context-meaning relationships. Readers are better at predicting possible meanings of a word based on its spelling than from the context. Skilled reading consists of learning the relationships between written words and their meaning. Context effects occur after the word is identified. Context, orthography, meanings, and phonology work together to help the reader comprehend a text.