Background: A significant portion of adults struggle to read at a basic level. Word reading (defined here as decoding and word recognition) appears to play a pivotal role for this population of readers; however, less is known about how word reading relates to other important semantic processes (e.g., vocabulary, sentence processing) known to…

The current study compared eye fixation patterns during word and sentence processing in a consistent and an inconsistent alphabetic orthography. German and English children as well as adults matched on word reading ability read matched sentences while their eye fixation behavior was recorded. Results indicated that German children read in a more…

In this study of the project DyAdd, three aspects of visual attention were investigated in adults (18-55 years) with dyslexia (n = 35) or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 22), and in healthy controls (n = 35). Temporal characteristics of visual attention were assessed with Attentional Blink (AB), capacity of visual attention…

We report a study that investigated the widely held belief that naming-speed deficits in developmental dyslexia reflect impaired access to lexical-phonological codes. To investigate this issue, we compared adult dyslexic and adult non-dyslexic readers' performance when naming and semantically categorizing arrays of objects. Dyslexic readers…

This article reviews literature relating to the role of severe congenital speech impairment on phonological processing before reporting on a study of five adults with severe congenital speech impairments and their responses on tasks involving reading, receptive vocabulary, lexical decision making, and phoneme identification. Difficulties with…

Investigates whether orthographic processing ability in adults accounts for variance in individual word recognition and spelling skills. Finds that some individual differences in reading and spelling are caused by variation in orthographic processing skills linked to print exposure. (RS)

Compared to controls, adults (n=102) who reported a history of difficulties in learning to read were disabled in phonological coding, but less disabled in reading comprehension. Adults with poor phonological coding skills had basic deficits in phonological representations of spoken words, even when semantic word knowledge, phonemic awareness,…

Reinterprets the question of whether second-language reading is a language problem (linguistic threshold) or a reading problem (linguistic interdependence), using data from a study of 186 adult native English speakers reading in English and Spanish. Results indicated that neither hypothesis is wholly reflective of the second-language reading…

Investigates the phenomenon of topic shift (sentences initiating a new topic are given additional processing time by skilled readers). Finds adults showed a proportionately greater effect than fifth graders when more difficult expository texts were used but not with easy narratives. Finds that paragraph marking did not influence the processing of…

Nassaji and Geva (1999) concluded that lower level processes, particularly efficiency in phonological and orthographic processing contributed significantly to individual differences in adult ESL reading. Moreover, they reported that speed of letter naming, while not directly associated with reading comprehension, was related to linguistic…

The amount of print that 42 college students apprehended in 40 millisecond tachistoscopic flash presentations was monitored for strings of random letters, unrelated words, and words in context (sentences). The results indicated that mean apprehension spans per flash were 3.7 letters for random letters, 9.3 letters (2.0 words) for unrelated words,…

Compares the dependence of Hebrew-reading children and adults on graphemes and their translation to phonemes while reading. Concludes that when written Hebrew words are being named by both children and adults, their graphemes are phonemically recorded, with the effect being more pronounced in children. (AEA)

Purpose: The temporal offset of auditory saltation is thought to be reflective of the limits of temporal resolution, and has recently been used to compare dyslexic and control adults and children, with mixed results (R. Hari & P. Kiesila, 1996; M. Kronbichler, F. Hutzler, & H. Wimmer, 2002). This study sought to document and understand normative…

In response to the assertion that reading is a fixed set of processes that can be identified and studied independently of context, a study was initiated based on the following assumptions: that different types of reading (prose comprehension and text search) can be identified and measured, that reading competencies are highly associated with uses…