Cross-linguistic syntactic priming as rational expectation for syntactic repetition in the bilingual environment.

Recent research suggests that syntactic priming in language comprehension-the facilitated processing of repeated syntactic structures-arises from the expectation for syntactic repetition due to rational adaptation to the linguistic environment. To further evaluate the generalizability of this expectation adaptation account in cross-linguistic syntactic priming and explore the influence of second language (L2) proficiency, we conducted a self-paced reading study with Chinese L2 learners of English by utilizing the sentential complement-direct object (SC-DO) ambiguity. The results showed that participants exposed to clusters of SC structures subsequently processed repetitions of this structure more rapidly (i.e., larger priming effects) than those exposed to the same number of SC structures but spaced in time, despite the prime and target being in two different languages (Chinese and English). Furthermore, this difference in priming strength was more pronounced for participants with higher L2 (English) proficiency. These findings demonstrate that cross-linguistic syntactic priming is consistent with the expectation for syntactic repetition that rationally adapts to syntactic clustering properties in surrounding bilingual environments, and such adaptation is enhanced as L2 proficiency increases. Taken together, our study extends the expectation adaptation account to cross-linguistic syntactic priming and integrates the role of L2 proficiency, which can shed new light on the mechanisms underlying syntactic priming, bilingual shared syntactic representations and expectation-based sentence processing.

The relation between reading and externalizing behavior: a correlational meta-analysis.

Reading proficiency is important because it has life-long consequences and influences success in other academic areas. Many students with behavior problems are poor readers and many students with learning disabilities have more behavior problems than their typical peers. We conducted a correlational meta-analysis to examine the association between reading and externalizing behavior in students ages 5-12. We identified 33 studies that reported 88 effect sizes. Using a random-effects linear regression model with robust variance estimation, we found a significant, negative correlation (r= -0.1698, SE = 0.01, p < 0.0001) between reading and externalizing behavior. We tested several moderators related to measurement and sample characteristics. We found that rater type, behavior dimension (e.g., aggression), time between longitudinal measurement points, age of the sample, and percentage male of the sample moderated the relation between reading and behavior. Whether the reading assessment measured comprehension or word reading and socioeconomic status of the sample did not moderate the relation. Understanding the association between reading and externalizing behavior has implications for disability identification and intervention practices for children in elementary school. Future research should examine shared cognitive factors and environmental influences that explain the relation between the constructs.

Exploring the linguistic complexity of third-grade numerical literacy.

Reading numbers aloud, a central aspect of numerical literacy, is a challenging skill to acquire, but the origins of this difficulty remain poorly understood. To investigate this matter, we examined the performance of 127 third- and fourth-grade children who read aloud, in Hebrew, numbers with 2-5 digits. We found several key observations. First, we observed a substantial variation among the 3rd graders-7% and 59% errors in the top and bottom deciles, respectively. Second, the task difficulty stemmed from syntactic processing: Most errors were distortions of the number's syntax, as opposed to digit substitutions or transpositions, and the main factor affecting a specific number's difficulty was not its magnitude, as is commonly assumed, but rather its syntactic structure. Third, number reading performance was not predicted by a school-like task that assessed syntactic-conceptual knowledge of the decimal system structure, but rather by knowledge of specific syntactic-verbal rules, suggesting that the syntactic-verbal knowledge is separate from the syntactic-conceptual knowledge. Last, there was a double dissociation between 4-digit numbers and 5-digit numbers, which in Hebrew have completely different syntactic structures: Half of the children showed a significant advantage in one number length compared to the other, with equal numbers of children preferring either length. This indicates that the different syntactic-verbal rules are learned relatively independently of each other, with little or no generalization from one rule to another. In light of these findings, we propose that schools should specifically teach number reading, with focus on specific syntactic-verbal rules.

Reading acquisition among students in Grades 1-3 with intellectual disabilities in Sweden.

This study investigates the reading performance of younger students with intellectual disabilities to gain insight into their needs in reading education. Participants were 428 students in Grades 1 to 3 in Sweden. They performed LegiLexi tests measuring pre-reading skills, decoding and reading comprehension based on the model of Simple View of Reading. Results demonstrate a great variation in reading acquisition among students. Some students are able to decode single words and read shorter texts with comprehension already in Grade 1. Other students still struggle with learning letters and developing phonological awareness in Grade 3. According to their longitudinal data over grades, results show that most students progress in pre-reading skills, decoding, and reading comprehension. Hence, assessing reading skills among students with intellectual disabilities in Grades 1-3 using tools aligned with the Simple View of Reading seems applicable and informative for teachers. This study underscores the significance of informed instructional practices for empowering these students in reading education.

The impact of temporal processing on reading in dyslexia with rapid automatized naming deficits.

In the present study, we aimed to investigate the different impacts of temporal processing on reading by Chinese children with and without dyslexia. In total, 27 children with dyslexia who had a deficit in rapid automatized naming (RAN) (D_R), 37 children with dyslexia who had deficits in both RAN and phonological awareness (PA) (D_RP), and 40 typically developing children (TD) were recruited in Taiwan. The children were asked to complete non-verbal intelligence, PA, RAN, Chinese character reading tasks and an auditory temporal order judgement (ATOJ) task. Our results of a multiple regression model showed that the ATOJ accounted for unique variances in the reading differences between the children in the D_R and TD groups; performance was controlled for non-verbal intelligence, PA and RAN tasks. Theoretically, we provide possible explanations for the controversial findings in the field of Chinese children with dyslexia and, practically, suggest different interventions should be provided for children with dyslexia with different underlying impairments.

The Reading of Deaf Arabic Children in Israel.

Studies on the reading acquisition of deaf children investigate the similarities and differences in the reading process between these readers and typical hearing readers. There is no consensus on the nature of the reading process among deaf readers, whether they use the same reading processing strategies as typical readers or depend on other strategies to close the gap. The present study aimed to test the types of strategies used to process written words by deaf Arabic readers with prelingual deafness, compared to their hearing peers, and to test the effectiveness of deaf readers' use of these strategies. Three experimental paradigms were tested. The findings indicated that deaf Arabic readers rely on essentially similar processing strategies to those used by hearing readers. However, deaf Arabic readers employ these strategies with significantly less effectiveness. The results are discussed in light of international data.

Comparative analyses of the information content of letters, characters, and inter-word spaces across writing systems.

One difference among writing systems is how orthographic cues are used to demarcate words; although most alphabetic scripts use inter-word spaces, some Asian scripts do not explicitly mark word boundaries (e.g., Chinese). It is unclear whether these differences are arbitrary or whether they are designed to maximize reading efficiency. Here, we show that spaces inserted between words in non-demarcated scripts provide less information about word boundaries than spaces in demarcated scripts. Furthermore, despite the fact that less information is contained by inter-word spaces than characters/letters of the same size, the information content of inter-word spaces in demarcated scripts is closer to that of characters/letters compared to the information content of inter-word spaces that are inserted in non-demarcated scripts. These results suggest that the conventions used to demarcate word boundaries are sufficient to support efficient reading. Our findings provide new insights into the universals and variation across writing systems and shed light on the mental processes that support skilled reading.

A Curiosity Estimation in Storytelling with Picture Books for Children Using Wearable Sensors.

Storytelling is one of the most important learning activities for children since reading aloud from a picture book stimulates children's curiosity, emotional development, and imagination. For effective education, the procedures for storytelling activities need to be improved according to the children's level of curiosity. However, young children are not able to complete questionnaires, making it difficult to analyze their level of interest. This paper proposes a method to estimate children's curiosity in picture book reading activities at five levels by recognizing children's behavior using acceleration and angular velocity sensors placed on their heads. We investigated the relationship between children's behaviors and their levels of curiosity, listed all observed behaviors, and clarified the behavior for estimating curiosity. Furthermore, we conducted experiments using motion sensors to estimate these behaviors and confirmed that the accuracy of estimating curiosity from sensor data is approximately 72%.

The jingle fallacy in comprehension tests for reading.

The Jingle fallacy is the false assumption that instruments which share the same name measure the same underlying construct. In this experiment, we focus on the comprehension subtests of the Nelson Denny Reading Test (NDRT) and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-II). 91 university students read passages for comprehension whilst their eye movements were recorded. Participants took part in two experimental blocks of which the order was counterbalanced, one with higher comprehension demands and one with lower comprehension demands. We assumed that tests measuring comprehension would be able to predict differences observed in eye movement patterns as a function of varying comprehension demands. Overall, readers were able to adapt their reading strategy to read more slowly, making more and longer fixations, coupled with shorter saccades when comprehension demands were higher. Within an experimental block, high scorers on the NDRT were able to consistently increase their pace of reading over time for both higher and lower comprehension demands, whereas low scorers approached a threshold where they could not continue to increase their reading speed or further reduce the number of fixations to read a text, even when comprehension demands were low. Individual differences based on the WIAT-II did not explain similar patterns. The NDRT comprehension test was therefore more predictive of differences in the reading patterns of skilled adult readers in response to comprehension demands than the WIAT-II (which also suffered from low reliability). Our results revealed that these different comprehension measures should not be used interchangeably, and researchers should be cautious when choosing reading comprehension tests for research.

Reading language of the eyes in female depression.

Aberrations in non-verbal social cognition have been reported to coincide with major depressive disorder. Yet little is known about the role of the eyes. To fill this gap, the present study explores whether and, if so, how reading language of the eyes is altered in depression. For this purpose, patients and person-by-person matched typically developing individuals were administered the Emotions in Masked Faces task and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, modified, both of which contained a comparable amount of visual information available. For achieving group homogeneity, we set a focus on females as major depressive disorder displays a gender-specific profile. The findings show that facial masks selectively affect inferring emotions: recognition of sadness and anger are more heavily compromised in major depressive disorder as compared with typically developing controls, whereas the recognition of fear, happiness, and neutral expressions remains unhindered. Disgust, the forgotten emotion of psychiatry, is the least recognizable emotion in both groups. On the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test patients exhibit lower accuracy on positive expressions than their typically developing peers, but do not differ on negative items. In both depressive and typically developing individuals, the ability to recognize emotions behind a mask and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test are linked to each other in processing speed, but not recognition accuracy. The outcome provides a blueprint for understanding the complexities of reading language of the eyes within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investigating the crowding effect on letters and symbols in deaf adults.

Reading requires the transformation of a complex array of visual features into sounds and meaning. For deaf signers who experience changes in visual attention and have little or no access to the sounds of the language they read, understanding the visual constraints underlying reading is crucial. This study aims to explore a fundamental aspect of visual perception intertwined with reading: the crowding effect. This effect manifests as the struggle to distinguish a target letter when surrounded by flanker letters. Through a two-alternative forced choice task, we assessed the recognition of letters and symbols presented in isolation or flanked by two or four characters, positioned either to the left or right of fixation. Our findings reveal that while deaf individuals exhibit higher accuracy in processing letters compared to symbols, their performance falls short of that of their hearing counterparts. Interestingly, despite their proficiency with letters, deaf individuals didn't demonstrate quicker letter identification, particularly in the most challenging scenario where letters were flanked by four characters. These outcomes imply the development of a specialized letter processing system among deaf individuals, albeit one that may subtly diverge from that of their hearing counterparts.

In emotion and reading motivation, children with a diagnosis of dyslexia are not just the end of a continuum.

Children with dyslexia (CwD) often report poor psychological well-being. We examined (i) whether anxiety, self-concept and reading motivation in CwD differed from those of typically developing children (TDC; case-control design, Study 1a) and (ii) whether these differences mirrored the linear relationships that these variables present with reading ability in the TDC group (dimensional approach, Study 1b). In Study 1a, 34 CwD were compared with 191 TDC in grades 4-8 on anxiety, self-concept, reading motivation and reading strategy using self-reports (controlling for sex, intelligence and math ability scores). In Study 1b, the differences that emerged in Study 1a were compared with the results obtained from a simulation procedure that generated dyslexia observations under the assumptions of a dimensional hypothesis. The CwD group presented small-to-moderate difficulties, which partially mirrored the predictions in the TDC group. However, violations of predictions based on the population without dyslexia were found for reading self-concept, social anxiety and reading competitiveness. In sum, children's diagnoses affect their self-perception as readers and social anxiety in a way that cannot be inferred from linear relationships. CwD need support to preserve an adequate image of themselves as readers and cope with social anxiety.

[Analysis of myopia status and related factors among primary school students in a certain district of Beijing City in 2022].

Objective: To analyze the current situation of myopia and its related factors among primary school students in a certain district of Beijing City in 2022, and provide a basis for the risk assessment of myopia among primary school students. Method: In June 2022, a cluster sampling method was used to include 376 third-grade students from a primary school in a certain district of Beijing. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect basic information about students, including eye usage habits, reading and writing postures, and parents' myopia conditions. The examination of students' distant visual acuity and refractive status was performed. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the related factors of myopia occurrence. Results: The age of 376 primary school students was (8.87±0.417) years old, with 48.40% (182) being male. A total of 196 myopia cases were identified, with a myopia rate of 52.13%. The results of the multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that students who sometimes read while lying down (OR=2.003, 95%CI: 1.128-3.555), often read while lying down (OR=18.853, 95%CI: 4.512-78.778), had outdoor activity time less than 120 minutes per day (OR=4.937, 95%CI: 2.4464-9.892), were engaged in indoor break activities (OR=4.995, 95%CI: 2.773-8.996), performed eye exercises less than once per day (OR=8.710, 95%CI: 4.464-16.995), had a reading distance from the book less than 30 cm (OR=5.098, 95%CI: 2.410-10.787), occasionally maintained a fist distance from the edge of the desk (OR=1.918, 95%CI: 1.086-3.385), and had high school desks and tables (OR=5.325, 95%CI: 1.465-19.359) could have a higher risk of myopia occurrence, compared with those who never read while lying down, had outdoor activity time more than 120 minutes per day, maintained outdoor break activities, performed eye exercises more than once per day, had a reading distance from the book more than 30 cm, always maintained a fist distance from the edge of the desk, and had short school desks and tables. Conclusion: The incidence rate of myopia among primary school students in a certain district of Beijing City. in 2022 is relatively high. The occurrence of myopia is related to insufficient outdoor activity time and poor eye usage habits.

Performance and eye movement patterns of industrial design students reading sustainable design articles.

Sustainable design education plays a crucial role in cultivating sustainability awareness and competencies among students studying industrial design. This research investigates their sustainability levels, reading performance when engaging with articles, and fixation patterns during reading. 60 industrial design students participated in the study. We evaluated their sustainability levels using the Sustainable Consumption Measurement Scale. After reading both theoretical and case article, they completed tests assessing their recall and perspective scores. We collected eye-tracking data to analyze fixation duration and conducted lag sequential analysis on fixation transitions. Students were categorized into higher and lower sustainability groups based on their sustainability scores. Female students demonstrated higher sustainability levels, and students with design experience performed better in the higher sustainability group. While recall scores did not differ significantly, the higher sustainability group exhibited elevated perspective scores in theory article. Perspective scores were generally higher for case article compared to theory article. The higher sustainability group exhibited longer fixation durations in theory article, while the case article had longer fixation durations on images. Fixation transition patterns varied between theoretical and case article, with the former featuring transitions from images to texts, and the latter demonstrating transitions between images. This study provides valuable insights into sustainable design education for students studying industrial design.

Early parafoveal semantic integration in natural reading.

Humans can read and comprehend text rapidly, implying that readers might process multiple words per fixation. However, the extent to which parafoveal words are previewed and integrated into the evolving sentence context remains disputed. We investigated parafoveal processing during natural reading by recording brain activity and eye movements using MEG and an eye tracker while participants silently read one-line sentences. The sentences contained an unpredictable target word that was either congruent or incongruent with the sentence context. To measure parafoveal processing, we flickered the target words at 60 Hz and measured the resulting brain responses (i.e. Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging, RIFT) during fixations on the pre-target words. Our results revealed a significantly weaker tagging response for target words that were incongruent with the previous context compared to congruent ones, even within 100ms of fixating the word immediately preceding the target. This reduction in the RIFT response was also found to be predictive of individual reading speed. We conclude that semantic information is not only extracted from the parafovea but can also be integrated with the previous context before the word is fixated. This early and extensive parafoveal processing supports the rapid word processing required for natural reading. Our study suggests that theoretical frameworks of natural reading should incorporate the concept of deep parafoveal processing.

Assessing readability of online patient educational material on concussion and return to play.

OBJECTIVE: Concussions are self-limited forms of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Gradual return to play (RTP) is crucial to minimizing the risk of second impact syndrome. Online patient educational materials (OPEM) are often used to guide decision-making. Previous literature has reported that grade-level readability of OPEM is higher than recommended by the American Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health. The authors evaluated the readability of OPEM on concussion and RTP. METHODS: An online search engine was used to identify websites providing OPEM on concussion and RTP. Text specific to concussion and RTP was extracted from each website and readability was assessed using the following six standardized indices: Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index, and Automated Readability Index. One-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test were used to compare readability across sources of information. RESULTS: There were 59 concussion and RTP articles, and readability levels exceeded the recommended 6th grade level, irrespective of the source of information. Academic institutions published OPEM at simpler readability levels (higher FRE scores). Private organizations published OPEM at more complex (higher) grade-level readability levels in comparison with academic and nonprofit institutions (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The readability of OPEM on RTP after concussions exceeds the literacy of the average American. There is a critical need to modify the concussion and RTP OPEM to improve comprehension by a broad audience.

Assessing students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties through multiple diagnostic assessments.

This article aims to assist practitioners in understanding dyslexia and other reading difficulties and assessing students' learning needs. We describe the essential components of language and literacy, universal screening, diagnostic assessments, curriculum-based measurement and eligibility determination. We then introduce four diagnostic assessments as examples, including norm-referenced assessments (i.e. the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing second edition and the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement) and criterion-referenced assessments (i.e. the Gallistel-Ellis Test of Coding Skills and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). Finally, We use a makeup case as a concrete example to illustrate how multiple diagnostic assessments are recorded and how the results can be used to inform intervention and eligibility for special education services.

An ERP Study on the Processing of Subject-Verb and Object-Verb Gender Agreement in Punjabi.

This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the general parsing mechanisms involved in processing different kinds of dependency relations, namely verb agreement with subjects versus objects in Punjabi, an SOV Indo-Aryan language. Event related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as twenty-five native Punjabi speakers read transitive sentences. Critical stimuli were either fully acceptable as regards verb agreement, or alternatively violated gender agreement with the subject or object. A linear mixed-models analysis confirmed a P600 effect at the position of the verb for all violations, regardless of whether subject or object agreement was violated. These results thus suggest that an identical mechanism is involved in gender agreement computation in Punjabi regardless of whether the agreement is with the subject or the object argument.

Electroencephalographic Classification Reveals Atypical Speech Motor Planning in Stuttering Adults.

PURPOSE: This study explores speech motor planning in adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who do not stutter (ANS) by applying machine learning algorithms to electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. In this study, we developed a technique to holistically examine neural activity differences in speaking and silent reading conditions across the entire cortical surface. This approach allows us to test the hypothesis that AWS will exhibit lower separability of the speech motor planning condition. METHOD: We used the silent reading condition as a control condition to isolate speech motor planning activity. We classified EEG signals from AWS and ANS individuals into speaking and silent reading categories using kernel support vector machines. We used relative complexities of the learned classifiers to compare speech motor planning discernibility for both classes. RESULTS: AWS group classifiers require a more complex decision boundary to separate speech motor planning and silent reading classes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the EEG signals associated with speech motor planning are less discernible in AWS, which may result from altered neuronal dynamics in AWS. Our results support the hypothesis that AWS exhibit lower inherent separability of the silent reading and speech motor planning conditions. Further investigation may identify and compare the features leveraged for speech motor classification in AWS and ANS. These observations may have clinical value for developing novel speech therapies or assistive devices for AWS.