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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

Chiara V. Marinelli

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 Mar 28, 2024
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.

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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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