Previous research has shown that, unlike misspelled common words, misspelled brand names are sensitive to visual letter similarity effects (e.g., is often recognized as a legitimate brand name, but not ). This pattern poses problems for those models that assume that word identification is exclusively based on abstract codes. Here, we investigated the role of visual letter similarity using another type of word often presented in a more homogenous format than common words: city names. We found a visual letter similarity effect for misspelled city names (e.g., was often recognized as a word, but not ) for relatively short durations of the stimuli (200 ms; Experiment 2), but not when the stimuli were presented until response (Experiment 1). Notably, misspelled common words did not show a visual letter similarity effect for brief 200- and 150-ms durations (e.g., was not as often recognized as a word than ; Experiments 3–4). These findings provide further evidence that the consistency in the format of presentations may shape the representation of words in the mental lexicon, which may be more salient in scenarios where processing resources are limited (e.g., brief exposure presentations).
We studied how children begin to produce spellings that reflect the sounds in words. We asked 75 U.S. preschoolers (mean age = 4 years, 11 months) to participate in two sessions. In one session, the children were asked to spell words (e.g., bead) that begin with a sequence of sounds that matches the name of a letter; in another session, they were asked to spell control words (e.g., bed). The phonological plausibility of children’s spellings, particularly their spellings of the words’ first phonemes, was higher for letter-name words than for control words. When we categorized spelling performance in a session as prephonological if the child used phonologically appropriate letters no more often than would be expected by chance, we found that children were more likely to be prephonological spellers in the session with control words than in the session with letter-name words. Words with letter names can help children move from prephonological spellings to spellings that symbolize at least some of the sounds in words.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10549231
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Psychological Science
- Volume:
- 31
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0956-7976
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 43-50
- Size(s):
- p. 43-50
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract -
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Abstract The present study tested the hypothesis that verbal labels support category induction by providing compact hypotheses. Ninety‐seven 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children (
M = 63.2 months; 46 female, 51 male; 77% White, 8% more than one race, 4% Asian, and 3% Black; tested 2018) and 90 adults (M = 20.1 years; 70 female, 20 male) in the Midwestern United States learned novel categories with features that were easy (e.g., “red”) or difficult (e.g., “mauve”) to name. Adults (d = 1.06) and—to a lesser extent—children (d = 0.57; final training block) learned categories composed of more nameable features better. Children's knowledge of difficult‐to‐name color words predicted their learning for categories with difficult‐to‐name features. Rule‐based category learning may be supported by the emerging ability to form verbal hypotheses. -
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Abstract To improve early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we need objective, reliable, and accessible measures. To that end, a previous study demonstrated that a tablet‐based application (app) that assessed several autism risk behaviors distinguished between toddlers with ASD and non‐ASD toddlers. Using vocal data collected during this study, we investigated whether vocalizations uttered during administration of this app can distinguish among toddlers aged 16–31 months with typical development (TD), language or developmental delay (DLD), and ASD. Participant's visual and vocal responses were recorded using the camera and microphone in a tablet while toddlers watched movies designed to elicit behaviors associated with risk for ASD. Vocalizations were then coded offline. Results showed that (a) children with ASD and DLD were less likely to produce words during app administration than TD participants; (b) the ratio of syllabic vocalizations to all vocalizations was higher among TD than ASD or DLD participants; and (c) the rates of nonsyllabic vocalizations were higher in the ASD group than in either the TD or DLD groups. Those producing more nonsyllabic vocalizations were 24 times more likely to be diagnosed with ASD. These results lend support to previous findings that early vocalizations might be useful in identifying risk for ASD in toddlers and demonstrate the feasibility of using a scalable tablet‐based app for assessing vocalizations in the context of a routine pediatric visit.
Lay Summary Although parents often report symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infancy, we are not yet reliably diagnosing ASD until much later in development. A previous study tested a tablet‐based application (app) that recorded behaviors we know are associated with ASD to help identify children at risk for the disorder. Here we measured how children vocalize while they watched the movies presented on the tablet. Children with ASD were less likely to produce words, less likely to produce speechlike sounds, and more likely to produce atypical sounds while watching these movies. These measures, combined with other behaviors measured by the app, might help identify which children should be evaluated for ASD.
Autism Res 2020, 13: 1373–1382 -
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Background Children's spellings are often scored as correct or incorrect, but other measures may be better predictors of later spelling performance.
Method We examined seven measures of spelling in Reception Year and Year 1 (5–6 years old) as predictors of performance on a standardised spelling test in Year 2 (age 7).
Results Correctness was the best predictor of later spelling by the middle of Year 1, and it significantly outperformed a binary measure of phonological plausibility at the end of Reception Year. Nonbinary measures based on Levenshtein distance were significant predictors of later spelling in the middle of Reception Year and in children who produced no correct spellings. Some widely used scales performed less well with children who did not yet produce any correct spellings.
Conclusions Nonbinary measures of spelling performance can predict later spelling performance but for a more restricted period than anticipated based on many theories.
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Abstract What makes a word easy to learn? Early‐learned words are frequent and tend to name concrete referents. But words typically do not occur in isolation. Some words are predictable from their contexts; others are less so. Here, we investigate whether predictability relates to when children start producing different words (age of acquisition; AoA). We operationalized predictability in terms of a word's surprisal in child‐directed speech, computed using n‐gram and long‐short‐term‐memory (LSTM) language models. Predictability derived from LSTMs was generally a better predictor than predictability derived from n‐gram models. Across five languages, average surprisal was positively correlated with the AoA of predicates and function words but not nouns. Controlling for concreteness and word frequency, more predictable predicates and function words were learned earlier. Differences in predictability between languages were associated with cross‐linguistic differences in AoA: the same word (when it was a predicate) was produced earlier in languages where the word was more predictable.
