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Naming-Speed Processes, Timing, and Reading A Conceptual Review
Abstract
This article integrates the findings in the special issue with a comprehensive review of the evidence for seven central questions about the role of naming-speed deficits in developmental reading disabilities. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-linguistic research on naming-speed processes, timing processes, and reading is presented. An evolving model of visual naming illustrates areas of difference and areas of overlap between naming speed and phonology in their underlying requirements. Work in the cognitive neurosciences is used to explore two nonexclusive hypotheses about the putative links between naming speed and reading processes and about the sources of disruption that may cause subtypes of reading disabilities predicted by the double-deficit hypothesis. Finally, the implications of the work in this special issue for diagnosis and intervention are elaborated.
... Yet, more recent empirical studies tend to explore each of the phonological skills' components (PA, RAN and phonological working memory) as a distinct skill (beyond the umbrella term of the phonological skills). That is because they seem to tap into distinct (though interrelated) cognitive skills (Wolf et al. 2000). Thus, the phonological retrieval (known as RAN) has been found an independent and robust predictor of reading difficulties, even when PA skills were intact (Wolf et al. 2000). ...
... That is because they seem to tap into distinct (though interrelated) cognitive skills (Wolf et al. 2000). Thus, the phonological retrieval (known as RAN) has been found an independent and robust predictor of reading difficulties, even when PA skills were intact (Wolf et al. 2000). Phonological working memory (henceforth PWM) seems to be more intuitively related to the phonological skills as its main function is to simultaneously store and process sounds, while other operations are ...
... Another account proposed by Wolf and colleagues (2000), often referred to as the orthographic processing account, argues that the complexity of cognitive structure of RAN tasks goes beyond the phonological processes. RAN tasks require precise temporal coordination of several subprocesses (attentional, visual, phonological, semantic) that resemble to some extent fine temporal integration of different processes involved in reading (Wolf et al. 2000). colleagues (1994, 1999) suggest that the speed of processing account explains the relationship between skilled reading performance and rapid naming. ...
This dissertation explores early (grade 1) reading acquisition of Ukrainian-Polish bilingual children from the psycholinguistic perspective. It focuses on identifying predictors of individual differences in emerging reading skills. Here, the bilingual learners are compared against their monolingual (Polish-speaking and Ukrainian- speaking) peers, to identify potential differences between the mono- and bilingual patterns of learning.
... Their reading behaviour in terms of comprehension and reading experience was documented and compared. As multiple research studies have correlated reading time as overall reading behaviour (Liversedge et al. 1998;Wolf et al. 2000;Rayner, Reichle 2010;Miller 2015), the same measure was compared across the reading conditions. The activation of interactive features was coupled with dwell time for seamless usage. ...
In the article an interactive text-reading platform based on the Text 2.0 framework is presented. An experiment was carried out to investigate the reading behaviour of Italian language learners using this platform. Average reading time and comprehension scores did not differ across the conditions (a dedicated eye tracker PCeye Go, webcam-based eye tracking and mouse-only interaction). Additionally, participants in all the groups rated high on the perceived usefulness of the developed platform and overall reading experience. The implications of using such a tool for interactive reading are presented in this paper.
... Finally, as we reviewed above, the idea of automaticity theory (DeKeyser, 2001;LaBerge & Samuels, 1974) could explain, from the perspective of theory, the role of word reading fluency in reading comprehension. However, it is undeniable that the process of automaticity also requires individuals to rapidly correct and instantaneously identify various stimuli, including words (Ostovar-Namaghi et al., 2015) or other more fundamental items (e.g., colors, digits, etc.), and the latter one could be considered as the rapid automatized naming (RAN) (Wolf et al., 2000). It is noteworthy that RAN involves a series of complex processes, including stimuli input and reaction output (Georgiou et al., 2013), similar to the processing of ORF. ...
This study aims to expand our understanding of the relations of oral reading fluency at word, sentence, and passage levels to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking secondary school-aged students. In total, 80 participants (46 males and 34 females) ranging from 13 to 15 years old joined this study and were tested on tasks of oral reading fluency at three levels, reading comprehension, and nonverbal IQ. Our results showed a clear relationship from fluency at the level of the word to the sentence and then the passage in oral reading fluency as well as both the direct and indirect importance of word-level oral reading fluency in reading comprehension. Only the indirect effect from word-level oral reading fluency to reading comprehension through passage-level oral reading fluency was significant. Our findings suggest that sentence-level oral reading fluency is the crucial component to reading comprehension in Chinese. Additionally, recognition of the potential value of unique features, such as syntactic awareness and word segment accuracy, that happen at the sentence level should be integrated into instructional activities for reading.
... According to several authors, two specific language processes have been consistently and strongly demonstrated to be a key skill set underlying the successful development of reading skill (Frijters et al., 2011;Landerl et al., 2013;Ramus et al., 2013). These processes are phonological awareness (Liberman et al., 1990;Liberman & Shankweiler, 1985;Torgesen et al., 1997;Wagner et al., 1993Wagner et al., , 1994, and RAN (Bowers & Ishaik, 2003;Wolf et al., 2000). Deficits in phonological awareness and naming speed have been demonstrated to be characteristic of individuals with developmental dyslexia and those who struggle to acquire basic reading skills. ...
This study reports on several specific neurocognitive processes and eye-tracking predictors of reading outcomes for a sample of children with Developmental Dyslexia (DD) and At-tention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder – inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) compared to typical readers. Participants included 19 typical readers, 21 children diagnosed with ADHD-I and 19 children with DD. All participants were attending 4th grade and had a mean age of 9.08 years. The psycholinguistic profile of each group was assessed using a battery of neuropsy-chological and linguistic tests. Participants were submitted to a silent reading task with lex-ical manipulation of the text. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the predictive capability of developing dyslexia or ADHD-I based on the following measures: (a) a linguistic model that included measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and reading fluency and accuracy; (b) a cognitive neuropsychological model that included measures of memory, attention, visual processes, and cognitive or intellectual functioning, and (c) an additive model of lexical word properties with manipulation of word-frequency and word-length effects through eye-tracking. The additive model in conjunction with the neuropsychological model classification improved the prediction of who develops dyslexia or ADHD-I having as baseline normal readers. Several of the neuropsychological and eye-tracking variables have power to predict the degree of reading outcomes in children with learning disabilities.
... En los niños con dificultades en la lectura, Wolf, Bowers y Biddle (2000) proponen tres subtipos de problemas: 1-los que tienen déficit fonológico, con una buena habilidad en velocidad en denominación. 2-los que tienen déficit en velocidad en denominación, con buenas habilidades fonológicas y 3-los que tienen doble déficit, es decir, los que tienen problemas en conciencia fonológica y en la velocidad en denominación. ...
En este trabajo se analiza el desarrollo de los predictores de la lectura (conciencia fonológica y velocidad en denominación) en primero, segundo y tercero de educación infantil y primero de primaria.
Se seleccionó una muestra de 484 alumnos de cinco colegios de Galicia. Para la evaluación de la conciencia fonológica se utilizó la Prueba de Conocimiento Fonológico PECO (Ramos y Cuadrado, 2006) y una serie de pruebas basadas en la técnica de Denckla y Rudel (1976), para evaluar la velocidad en denominación “Rapid Automatized Naming” (RAN). Los resultados muestran que, cuanto más alto es su nivel educativo, los niños son más rápidos y más exactos en tareas de velocidad de denominación y en identificación de sílabas y fonemas. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en tareas de velocidad y exactitud de denominación de colores, dibujos y letras, ni en identificación de silabas y fonemas entre los niños de tercero de educación infantil y primero de primaria.
... Efficient reading involves accurate reading skill and fluent reading ability (Hook & Jones, 2004). Many scholars have highlighted that automaticity of language processing is an important predictor of reading skill (Wimmer et al., 2000;Wolf et al., 2000). Both semantic or categorical fluency and phonemic or letter fluency, which are integral to language automaticity, involve naming which is embedded in a complex cognitive structure with a demanding array of multiple attentional, perceptual, memory, lexical and articulatory sub processes (Wolf & Bowers, 1999). ...
The study explored the role of verbal fluency in determining reading and comprehension skills in Bengali among 10-year old typically developing Bengali children. Robust correlations were found between semantic fluency and word reading (0.63) as well as semantic fluency and comprehension (0.70). Good correlation was found between letter fluency and comprehension (0.49), and, word reading and comprehension (0.62). The findings suggest that good word storing capacity and executive functions led to enhanced automaticity of retrieval and verbal fluency, which together with improved orthographic and phonological processing led to good word reading scores, contributing to lesser cognitive load thereby easing out the complex text comprehension task. Transcending narrow empirical base of reading theories derived from Western writing typologies delimited to orthographic depth and psycholinguistic grain size, the study contends that verbal fluency is another interesting variable determining the reading and comprehension skills in Bengali along with visuo-spatial complexity and complex phonology-orthography inconsistencies.
This thesis investigates dyslexia and the cognitive-linguistics skills, namely phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, morphological awareness and rapid naming, of bilingual learners in Singapore whose first language is English and second language is Chinese. The two main research aims are to investigate whether the English-Chinese bilingual learners with dyslexia diagnosed only in English are weaker than their typical counterparts in reading and all cognitive-linguistic skills in both languages or either language, and to investigate which cognitive-linguistic skills are strong predictors of reading in each language. Results show that the bilingual learners with dyslexia performed significantly poorer than their typical counterparts in reading and all cognitive-linguistic skills in both languages, although their dyslexia were diagnosed only in English. Results also found all English cognitive-linguistic skills predictive of English word reading, especially the unique predictive roles of morphological awareness and orthographic knowledge after rapid naming and phonological awareness were controlled. However, only rapid naming and morphological awareness were found to be predictive of Chinese word reading. The results suggest that dyslexia may manifest differently in reading and cognitive-linguistic skills of English and Chinese languages in the English-Chinese bilingual learners, based on the two different predictive models with different empirically and theoretically supported orders of cognitive-linguistic skills as predictors for reading development in the two languages. The difference in the unique contributions of the four cognitive-linguistic skills underlying the reading development of both languages may suggest the difference lies in language structure and instruction.
Absztrakt. Az iskolára való felkészültség egyik eleme az írás-olvasáshoz tartozó képességek, készségek fejlettségi szintje. A következőkben a magyar gyakorlatban használt négy teszten
keresztül mutatom be, milyen vizsgálatokat alkalmaznak a gyermekek írás-olvasási, tanulási képességének előrejelzésére óvodáskorban, illetve iskolakezdéskor. Röviden jellemzem a teszteket, majd a különböző mérőeszközökben található feladattípusok szerint csoportosítom a vizsgálatokat, melyek mentén áttekintem az írás-olvasás elsajátításához szükséges képességterületeket, azok gyakorlati vetületét hangsúlyozva. A különböző tesztekben mért képességterületek és a hozzájuk tartozó feladatok együttesen alkalmasak az írás-olvasási előkészültség pontosabb megállapítására. A tesztekben lévő feladattípusokat a fejlesztésben is lehet használni.
This academic article is a compilation and analysis of literature related to rapid automatized naming in school-aged children with dyslexia, which is a group of people with learning disabilities who have difficulty in reading comprehension, spelling, and accurate word recognition, including fluency in reading. These difficulties are not in relation to cognitive abilities and the provision of classroom instruction. One of the factors that can predict reading skills is rapid automatized naming, which is the ability to name visual stimuli as quickly as possible (such as numbers, letters, colors, or objects). This analysis of the compiled literature shows that children with dyslexia have a slower ability to name symbols and have less accuracy in reading than typical children without dyslexia. Therefore, assessment and training in rapid automatized naming are of great importance for children with dyslexia in order to be able to identify the nature of reading disabilities and to plan and further promote children's ability to read with speed and accuracy.
The existence of a phonemic deficit that is predictive of, and probably causal to, many cases of reading difficulty is well established. Tallal (1984) has suggested that this phonemic deficit is in fact a symptom of an underlying auditory temporal processing deficit. Our purpose in this paper is to evaluate the plausibility of this hypothesis. The various components that might constitute sequential (or temporal) processing are described. Our review of the literature reveals considerable evidence for a deficit in dyslexics in stimulus individuation tasks (e.g., gap detection) and temporal order judgments in both the auditory and visual modalities. The possibility that a general temporal processing deficit is associated with dyslexia, as suggested by Tallal (1984), is explored, and possible etiologies for such a deficit are discussed. The possibility of a causal link between temporal processing deficits and some reading disabilities is demonstrated, and converging evidence from morphological studies is reviewed. It is concluded that a temporal processing deficit does appear to be present in many developmental dyslexics, and strategies are suggested for further research aimed at evaluating the hypothesis that this deficit may be the root cause of a number of cases of dyslexia itself.
The title of this volume is The varieties of orthographic knowledge I: Theoretical and developmental issues. The authors have met this charge so well that the reader may be overwhelmed by the varieties of orthographic knowledge and despairing of any hope for consensus. Yet there are at least three points of consensus among the authors. First, in studying reading, phonological processing skill has been over-emphasized at the expense of orthographic processing skill. Second, orthographic processing can be operationalized and assessed separately from phonological processing. Third, although orthographic and phonological processing can be dissociated statistically, they are conceptually intertwined.
A cohort of 92 children was followed through sixth grade to investigate the relationship of preschool skills and first grade phonological awareness to reading and spelling. In particular, the focus was on the changing roles of letter naming, orthographic awareness, and phonological processing in prediction, as reading experience increased. Preschool letter naming was a consistently significant predictor of reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and spelling at each grade level, but the preschool orthographic task contributed most to reading comprehension and spelling at the higher grades. Conversely, the contribution of the first grade phonemic awareness measures to reading skills dropped sharply after third grade, although they continued to contribute to spelling prediction. When preschool precursors of phonological processing were examined, letter naming was found to be a predictor of first and third grade phonemic awareness. Findings confirm the importance of letter naming as a predictor and of the role of phonemic awareness in early reading acquisition, but also highlight the contribution of orthographic processing skills to later reading.
This study compared the performance of children with reading disability (RD) and normal reading achievement (NRA) on tasks of serial rapid naming, verbal fluency, letter-based word retrieval, and articulatory speed. The groups, composed of children at two discrete age levels, one younger and one older, were matched for age, gender, and neighborhood school. Analyses of the on-line measurement of the children's serial rapid naming indicated that the children with RD had significantly larger reaction times and production durations than their NRA peers despite similar levels of accuracy. They also performed significantly worse on the categorical verbal fluency task, the letter-based word retrieval task, and the test of articulatory speed. The findings suggest that both access and post-access processes, such as oral-motor inefficiency that extends the duration of word production, may be implicated in the slower serial rapid naming that has typified many samples of children with RD.
To clarify the role of decoding in reading and reading disability, a simple model of reading is proposed, which holds that reading equals the product of decoding and comprehension. It follows that there must be three types of reading disability, resulting from an inability to decode, an inability to comprehend, or both. It is argued that the first is dyslexia, the second hyperlexia, and the third common, or garden variety, reading disability.
This study used simple and multiple regression to examine the relation between auditory comprehension of language, fine motor skill, phoneme perception, and mental age in children between the ages of 4 and 7 years 9 months with receptive language delay. Participants were assessed using the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language‐Revised (TACL‐R), the fine motor components of the Bruininks‐Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, a test of phoneme perception, and the Goodenough‐Harris Draw‐A‐Man Test. The subsets of the motor test made different demands of the child for speed, precise timing, and repetitive sequencing, whereas subsets of the TACL‐R varied length of processing and linguistic demands. The pattern of results showed that performance declined on both language and fine motor tasks as the requirements for rapid timing and repetitive sequencing increased, suggesting that some aspects of timing may be shared by both language and fine motor skill. The test of phoneme perception, but not mental age, was moderately correlated with TACL‐R.
This two-part essay discusses how research in the developmental cognitive neurosciences can contribute to an understanding of the complex relations between various aspects of naming and reading processes. The first section reviews findings from both neuropsychological and reading research on letter-naming and general naming speed, and analyzes the methodological differences between discrete-trial and continuous naming formats. The findings taken together suggest that the relations between subprocesses change both with development and as the cognitive requirements for naming and reading tasks become more differentiated. Findings from a number of studies also suggest the existence of a naming-rate deficit that differentiates dyslexic from average and garden-variety poor readers; this deficit appears to persist well into middle childhood. The second section speculates more broadly about whether the relations between naming and reading deficits are causal or associative, and also about associations between deficits in naming speed and deficits in motoric speed. These associations could be explained by the existence of a connector variable common to some processes in both language and motoric domains, such as a hypothesized precise timing mechanism that may inhibit the ability of some dyslexic readers to achieve rapid processing. /// [French] Le present article est un essais qui vise à établir l'apport des neurosciences cognitives à la compréhension des relations entre la lecture et différentes processus reliés à l'identification des lettres de l'alphabet, des nombres ou des mots. La première partie de l'article, est consacrée à une analyse des recherches réalisées dans deux cadres différents, celui des neurosciences cognitives et celui des recherches en lecture sur la rapidité d'identification et la lecture. Nous analysons les différences entre deux approches méthodologiques à la tâche d'identification, l'une ayant recours à un mode de présentation discontinu et l'autre un mode de présentation continu. L'ensemble des résultats semblent montrer que les relations entre les sous processus impliqués dans la tâche d'identification changent en fonction du développement et au fur et à mesure que les exigences cognitives de la tâche deviennent plus différenciées. Plusieurs recherches semblent montrer, en outre, que la vitesse d'identification permet de discriminer entre les enfants dyslexiques, les lecteurs moyens et les lecteurs faibles; ces différences semblent persister jusqu'au milieu du cycle primaire. Dans la deuxième partie de l'article nous poussons plus loin la réflexion sur les associations entre la vitesse d'identification et les troubles de lecture de même qu'entre les déficits au niveau de la vitesse d'identification et la rapidité dans des tâches de motricité. Ces associations pourraient s'expliquer par un facteur commun à des tâches de motricité et à des tâches de lecture que nous identifions comme étant un mécanisme de règlage de la vitesse d'exécution dont le mauvais fonctionnement empêcherait les lecteurs dyslexiques de traiter rapidement l'information en cours de lecture. /// [Spanish] Este ensayo en dos partes discute cómo la investigación en las neurociencias cognitivas puede contribuir a la comprensión de las complejas relaciones entre varios aspectos de los procesos de nombramiento y lectura. En la primera sección, revisamos hallazgos tanto en la investigación neurosicológica como en la de lectura acerca el nombramiento de letras y la rapidez de nombramiento, y analizamos las diferencias metodológicas entre ensayos discretos y formatos de nombramiento continuo. Los hallazgos en conjunto parecen indicar que las relaciones entre los subprocesos cambian tanto con el desarrollo como cuando los requerimientos cognitivos para las tareas de nombramiento y lectura se hacen más diferenciados. Los hallazgos de un buen número de estudios tambien sugieren la existencia de un deficit en la tasa de nombramiento que diferencia a los lectores disléxicos del promedio de lectores pobres; este deficit parece persistir hasta la niñez tardía. En la segunda sección especulamos más ampliamente acerca de las asociaciones entre los deficits de nombramiento y lectura, y entre los deficits en la velocidad de acceso al nombramiento y los deficits de velocidad motora. Estas asociaciones pudieran ser explicadas por la existencia de una variable conectora en común con procesos tanto en los dominios de lenguaje como en los motores, tales como un mecanismo hipotético de tiempo preciso que pudiera inhibir la habilidad de algunos lectores disléxicos para lograr un procesamiento rápido. /// [German] Dieser zweiteilige Aufsatz befaßt sich mit der Art und Weise, auf die die Forschung in den sich entwickelnden kognitiven Neurowissenschaften zum Verstehen der komplexen Beziehungen zwischen verschiedenen Aspekten der Benennungs- und Leseprozesse beitragen kann. Im ersten Teil werden Ergebnisse aus der neuropsychologischen und auch Leseforschung, die sich mit dem Benennen von Buchstaben und der Benennungsrate beschäftigten, präsentiert und die methodologischen Unterschiede zwischen dem Format der detailierten Einzelbenennung und andauernden Benennung analysiert. Insgesamt gesehen deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, daß sich die Beziehungen zwischen den Subprozessen ändern, und zwar in bezug auf die Entwicklung und auch auf eine zunehmende Differenzierung der kognitiven Anforderungen für die Benennungs- und Leseaufgaben. Des weiteren lassen die Ergebnisse einer Reihe von Forschungen erkennen, daß ein Benennungsratendefizit vorhanden ist, anhand dessen legasthenische Leser von durchschnittlichen und mittelmäßig schlechten Lesern unterschieden werden können. Dieses Defizit scheint sich zeitlich bis zur Mitte der Kindheit zu behaupten. Im zweiten Teil werden Betrachtungen im weiteren Sinne über die Assoziationen zwischen Benennungs- und Lesedefiziten einerseits und zwischen Defiziten in den Benennungszugriffsraten und den Motorgeschwindigkeiten andererseits aufgestellt. Diese Assoziationen können durch das Vorhandensein einer Verbindungsvariablen, die einigen Prozessen im Sprachen- und motorischen Bereich gemeinsam ist, erklärt werden - wie z. B. anhand des hier vorgestellten präzisen Zeitgebermechanismus, der die Fähigkeit einiger legasthenischer Leser, eine schnelle Verarbeitung zu erreichen, unterbinden könnte.
Letter-naming speed was investigated to determine if it measures cognitive speed, a theoretical factor that purportedly influences or limits reading rate. A group of 47 students in Grades 2 through 10 were administered a large battery of computerized tests. A factor analysis of seven rate measures resulted in two factors that correlated .37: a cognitive speed factor (Cs) and a rauding rate level factor (Rl.), with the two measures of letter-naming speed loading highly on the Cs factor. Empirical measures of these two factors were derived by averaging across tests that loaded highly on each factor, and these new measures of Cs and Rl. correlated substantially---.51. Cs correlated near zero (-.18) with a traditional measure of intelligence, called cognitive power (Cp). Thus, cognitive speed and cognitive power seem to be two independent factors influencing reading ability. Whereas cognitive power has traditionally been used to diagnose reading disabilities, it now appears that letter-naming speed can be used to measure an equally important factor, called cognitive speed.