Chiara V. Marinelli
Does the mean adequately represent reading performance? Evidence from a cross-linguistic study
Marinelli, Chiara V.; McGeown, Sarah P.; Horne, Joanna; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi; Martelli, Marialuisa
Authors
Sarah P. McGeown
Joanna Horne
Pierluigi Zoccolotti
Marialuisa Martelli
Abstract
Reading models are largely based on the interpretation of average data from normal or impaired readers, mainly drawn from English-speaking individuals. In the present study we evaluated the possible contribution of orthographic consistency in generating individual differences in reading behavior. We compared the reading performance of young adults speaking English (one of the most irregular orthographies) and Italian (a very regular orthography). In the 1st experiment we presented 22 English and 30 Italian readers with 5-letter words using the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) paradigm. In a 2nd experiment, we evaluated a new group of 26 English and 32 Italian proficient readers through the RSVP procedure and lists matched in the two languages for both number of phonemes and letters. The results of the two experiments indicate that English participants read at a similar rate but with much greater individual differences than the Italian participants. In a 3rd experiment, we extended these results to a vocal reaction time (vRT) task, examining the effect of word frequency. An ex-Gaussian distribution analysis revealed differences between languages in the size of the exponential parameter (tau) and in the variance (sigma), but not the mean, of the Gaussian component. Notably, English readers were more variable for both tau and sigma than Italian readers. The pattern of performance in English individuals runs counter to models of performance in timed tasks (Faust et al., 1999; Myerson et al., 2003) which envisage a general relationship between mean performance and variability; indeed, this relationship does not hold in the case of the English participants. The present data highlight the importance of developing reading models that not only capture mean level performance, but also variability across individuals, especially in order to account for cross-linguistic differences in reading behavior. © 2014 Marinelli, Horne, McGeown, Zoccolotti and Martelli.
Citation
Marinelli, C. V., McGeown, S. P., Horne, J., Zoccolotti, P., & Martelli, M. (2014). Does the mean adequately represent reading performance? Evidence from a cross-linguistic study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(AUG), Article ARTN 903. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00903
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jul 29, 2014 |
Online Publication Date | Aug 19, 2014 |
Publication Date | 2014-08 |
Deposit Date | May 27, 2015 |
Publicly Available Date | May 27, 2015 |
Journal | Frontiers in psychology |
Electronic ISSN | 1664-1078 |
Publisher | Frontiers Media |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 5 |
Issue | AUG |
Article Number | ARTN 903 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00903 |
Keywords | Reading, Individual differences, Cross-linguistic comparison |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/374428 |
Publisher URL | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00903/abstract |
Additional Information | This document is protected by copyright and was first published by Frontiers. All rights reserved. It is reproduced with permission. |
Contract Date | May 27, 2015 |
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Copyright Statement
© 2014 Marinelli, Horne, McGeown, Zoccolotti and Martelli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCBY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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