Individual Differences in Subphonemic Sensitivity and Phonological Skills

Overview

Journal J Mem Lang

Publisher Elsevier

Date 2019 Aug 22

PMID 31431796

Citations 6

Authors

Monica Y C Li

David Braze

Anuenue Kukona

Clinton L Johns

Whitney Tabor

Julie A Van Dyke

W Einar Mencl

Donald P Shankweiler

Kenneth R Pugh

James S Magnuson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Many studies have established a link between phonological abilities (indexed by phonological awareness and phonological memory tasks) and typical and atypical reading development. Individuals who perform poorly on phonological assessments have been mostly assumed to have (or "fuzzy") phonological representations, with typical phonemic categories, but with greater category overlap due to imprecise encoding. An alternative posits that poor readers have phonological representations, with speech sounds perceived allophonically (phonetically distinct variants of a single phonemic category). On both accounts, mismatch between phonological categories and orthography leads to reading difficulty. Here, we consider the implications of these accounts for online speech processing. We used eye tracking and an individual differences approach to assess sensitivity to subphonemic detail in a community sample of young adults with a wide range of reading-related skills. Subphonemic sensitivity inversely correlated with meta-phonological task performance, consistent with overspecification.

Citing Articles

Resolving competing predictions in speech: How qualitatively different cues and cue reliability contribute to phoneme identification.

Crinnion A, Luthra S, Gaston P, Magnuson J Atten Percept Psychophys. 2024; 86(3):942-961.

PMID: 38383914 PMC: 11233028. DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02849-y.

IDLaS-NL - A platform for running customized studies on individual differences in Dutch language skills via the Internet.

Hintz F, Shkaravska O, Dijkhuis M, van t Hoff V, Huijsmans M, van Dongen R Behav Res Methods. 2023; 56(3):2422-2436.

PMID: 37749421 PMC: 10991024. DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02156-8.

Idiosyncratic use of bottom-up and top-down information leads to differences in speech perception flexibility: Converging evidence from ERPs and eye-tracking.

Kapnoula E, McMurray B Brain Lang. 2021; 223:105031.

PMID: 34628259 PMC: 11251822. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.105031.

Allophonic perception of VOT contrasts in Spanish children with dyslexia.

Serniclaes W, Lopez-Zamora M, Bordoy S, Luque J Brain Behav. 2021; 11(6):e02194.

PMID: 34018705 PMC: 8213943. DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2194.

Is that a pibu or a pibo? Children with reading and language deficits show difficulties in learning and overnight consolidation of phonologically similar pseudowords.

Malins J, Landi N, Ryherd K, Frijters J, Magnuson J, Rueckl J Dev Sci. 2020; 24(2):e13023.

PMID: 32691904 PMC: 7988620. DOI: 10.1111/desc.13023.

References

Harm M, Seidenberg M . Phonology, reading acquisition, and dyslexia: insights from connectionist models. Psychol Rev. 1999; 106(3):491-528. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295x.106.3.491. View

Gallagher A, Frith U, Snowling M . Precursors of literacy delay among children at genetic risk of dyslexia. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000; 41(2):203-13. View

Molfese D . Predicting dyslexia at 8 years of age using neonatal brain responses. Brain Lang. 2000; 72(3):238-45. DOI: 10.1006/brln.2000.2287. View

Paulesu E, Demonet J, Fazio F, McCrory E, Chanoine V, Brunswick N . Dyslexia: cultural diversity and biological unity. Science. 2001; 291(5511):2165-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.1057179. View

Serniclaes W, Sprenger-Charolles L, Carre R, Demonet J . Perceptual discrimination of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2001; 44(2):384-99. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2001/032). View

Simos P, Fletcher J, Bergman E, Breier J, Foorman B, Castillo E . Dyslexia-specific brain activation profile becomes normal following successful remedial training. Neurology. 2002; 58(8):1203-13. DOI: 10.1212/wnl.58.8.1203. View

Snowling M, Gallagher A, Frith U . Family risk of dyslexia is continuous: individual differences in the precursors of reading skill. Child Dev. 2003; 74(2):358-73. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.7402003. View

Ramus F . Developmental dyslexia: specific phonological deficit or general sensorimotor dysfunction?. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2003; 13(2):212-8. DOI: 10.1016/s0959-4388(03)00035-7. View

Magnuson J, Tanenhaus M, Aslin R, Dahan D . The time course of spoken word learning and recognition: studies with artificial lexicons. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2003; 132(2):202-27. DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.132.2.202. View

10.

Guttorm T, Leppanen P, Tolvanen A, Lyytinen H . Event-related potentials in newborns with and without familial risk for dyslexia: principal component analysis reveals differences between the groups. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2003; 110(9):1059-74. DOI: 10.1007/s00702-003-0014-x. View

11.

Serniclaes W, Van Heghe S, Mousty P, Carre R, Sprenger-Charolles L . Allophonic mode of speech perception in dyslexia. J Exp Child Psychol. 2004; 87(4):336-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2004.02.001. View

12.

Chambers C, Tanenhaus M, Magnuson J . Actions and affordances in syntactic ambiguity resolution. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2004; 30(3):687-96. DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.30.3.687. View

13.

Stanovich K, Cunningham A . Studying the consequences of literacy within a literate society: the cognitive correlates of print exposure. Mem Cognit. 1992; 20(1):51-68. DOI: 10.3758/bf03208254. View

14.

Molfese V, Molfese D, Modgline A . Newborn and preschool predictors of second-grade reading scores: an evaluation of categorical and continuous scores. J Learn Disabil. 2004; 34(6):545-54. DOI: 10.1177/002221940103400607. View

15.

Lyytinen H, Aro M, Eklund K, Erskine J, Guttorm T, Laakso M . The development of children at familial risk for dyslexia: birth to early school age. Ann Dyslexia. 2005; 54(2):184-220. DOI: 10.1007/s11881-004-0010-3. View

16.

Huettig F, Altmann G . Word meaning and the control of eye fixation: semantic competitor effects and the visual world paradigm. Cognition. 2005; 96(1):B23-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2004.10.003. View

17.

Guttorm T, Leppanen P, Poikkeus A, Eklund K, Lyytinen P, Lyytinen H . Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) measured at birth predict later language development in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Cortex. 2005; 41(3):291-303. DOI: 10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70267-3. View

18.

Desroches A, Joanisse M, Robertson E . Specific phonological impairments in dyslexia revealed by eyetracking. Cognition. 2005; 100(3):B32-42. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2005.09.001. View

19.

Kuhl P, Stevens E, Hayashi A, Deguchi T, Kiritani S, Iverson P . Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months. Dev Sci. 2006; 9(2):F13-F21. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00468.x. View

20.

Pennington B . From single to multiple deficit models of developmental disorders. Cognition. 2006; 101(2):385-413. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2006.04.008. View