Learning to Read ● Letters activate words – some correct and others not ● Letters activate sounds

Learning to Read ● Letters activate words – some correct and others not ● Letters activate sounds ● More frequent words are more quickly activated

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

Learning to Read ● Do we parse? – misunderstanding > mis+understand+ing ● Do we recognize whole words?

Learning to Read ● Do we parse? – misunderstanding > mis+understand+ing ● Do we recognize whole words? ● Do we do both at the same time? (race model)

Learning to Read ● Actual sounds are mapped to phonemes ● Do letters need to be mapped to something abstract?

Learning to Read ● Actual sounds are mapped to phonemes ● Do letters need to be mapped to something abstract? – Yes. g G g G g G G g g

Learning to Read ● Word superiority effect – People recognize letters faster when presented in a word than by themselves

Learning to Read ● Word superiority effect – People recognize letters faster when presented in a word than by themselves ● How is that possible if words are made of letters not vice versa?

Learning to Read ● Word superiority effect – People recognize letters faster when presented in a word than by themselves ● How is that possible if words are made of letters not vice versa? ● Seeing a letter only activates the letter ● Seeing a letter in a words activates all kinds of words ● Those words pass activation down to the letter

Learning to Read ● Sentence superiority effect – Words are recognized faster in a sentence that when alone – man vs. the man in the moon Activation boost in sentence – “the” is often followed by nouns – nouns are often followed by prepositional phrases

Learning to Read ● Sentence superiority effect – Words are recognized faster in a sentence that when alone – man vs. the man in the moon Activation boost in sentence – “the” is often followed by nouns – nouns are often followed by prepositional phrases – The entire clause is a unit

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

Learning to Read ● Why is English spelling so nasty? – It hasn't been updated to reflect sound changes – English often borrows words from other language and keeps the foreign spelling debut, depot schizophrenia – English uses the Latin alphabet that has no unique letter for all of the sounds in English

Learning to Read ● Why is English spelling so nasty? – It hasn't been updated to reflect sound changes – English often borrows words from other language and keeps the foreign spelling debut, depot schizophrenia – English uses the Latin alphabet that has no unique letter for all of the sounds in English – The great vowel shift wreaked its havoc

Learning to Read ● Two theories/methods of reading – Phonics Learn sound and letter correspondences Sound the words out

Learning to Read ● Two theories/methods of reading – Phonics Learn sound and letter correspondences Sound the words out – Whole word English spelling is only quasi phonetic recognize whole words without sounding them out

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

Learning to Read ● Two theories/methods of reading – As usual both are partially right Good readers recognize words as wholes

Learning to Read ● Two theories/methods of reading – As usual both are partially right Good readers recognize words as wholes But, phonics is needed to handle new words

Learning to Read ● Phonics is bottom up processing ● Whole word is top down processing

Learning to Read ● Word recognition – All words with same letters partially activated

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

Learning to Read ● Word recognition – All words with same letters partially activated – The more letters in common the more activated – Words that are semantically similar are also activated

Learning to Read ● Word recognition – All words with same letters partially activated – The more letters in common the more activated – Words that are semantically similar are also activated – Words that fit the sentence are also activated The ___ in the hat

Learning to Read ● Word recognition – All words with same letters partially activated – The more letters in common the more activated – Words that are semantically similar are also activated – Words that fit the sentence are also activated The ___ in the hat – At some point the word that are not correct are inhibited until the word on the page matches the one in the mental lexicon

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

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model Problem: written is based on oral not vice versa

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model But, written is based on oral not vice versa Played music preceded written music – Is the written form more correct?

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model But, written is based on oral not vice versa Played music preceded written music – Is the written form more correct? Written words aren't sounds in the vocal tract that are naturally modified by surrounding sounds

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model But, written is based on oral not vice versa Played music preceded written music – Is the written form more correct? Written words aren't sounds in the vocal tract that are naturally modified by surrounding sounds Written words don't change when you read them fast

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model But, written is based on oral not vice versa Played music preceded written music – Is the written form more correct? Written words aren't sounds in the vocal tract that are naturally modified by surrounding sounds Written words don't change when you read them fast Written words are ambiguous – Ghoti Written words have lots of useless letters – castle, knight, depot

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model If no one pronounces a letter then why insist it be pronounced? – the w in sword or the gh in sight – it is ridiculous to pronounce them

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model If no one pronounces a letter then why insist it be pronounced? – the w in sword or the gh in sight – it is ridiculous to pronounce them Then why is it “wrong” to pronounce – t in city as a flap? – t in batboy as a glottal stop?

Learning to Read ● Orthographic dazzle – The written word is thought to be the model If no one pronounces a letter then why insist it be pronounced? – the w in sword or the gh in sight – it is ridiculous to pronounce them Then why is it “wrong” to pronounce – t in city as a flap? – t in batboy as a glottal stop? If z can can have several pronunciations – zoo, schizophrenia, azure Why can't t have several pronunciations?

Learning to Read ● Dyslexia – Not related to low IQ

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

Learning to Read ● Dyslexia – Not related to low IQ – Is often comorbid with ADHD, late language emergence – Involves problems linking sounds and symbols

Learning to Read ● Dyslexia – Symptoms bad spelling bad rhyming problems segmenting words into sounds

Learning to Read ● Dyslexia – Symptoms bad spelling bad rhyming problems segmenting words into sounds hard time reading clock hard time telling right from left misunderstanding spoken speech, especially non-literal speech (puns, jokes, proverbs) trouble following a series of instructions trouble organizing time

Learning to Read ● Dyslexia – Is partially genetic – Shows up as processing deficiencies in MRI and PET scans