TY - JOUR

T1 - Literacy effects on language and vision

T2 - emergent effects from an amodal shared resource (ASR) computational model

AU - Smith, Alastair C.

AU - Monaghan, Padraic

AU - Huettig, Falk

PY - 2014/12

Y1 - 2014/12

N2 - Learning to read and write requires an individual to connect additional orthographic representations to pre-existing mappings between phonological and semantic representations of words. Past empirical results suggest that the process of learning to read and write (at least in alphabetic languages) elicits changes in the language processing system, by either increasing the cognitive efficiency of mapping between representations associated with a word, or by changing the granularity of phonological processing of spoken language, or through a combination of both. Behavioural effects of literacy have typically been assessed in offline explicit tasks that have addressed only phonological processing. However, a recent eye tracking study compared high and low literate participants on effects of phonology and semantics in processing measured implicitly using eye movements. High literates' eye movements were more affected by phonological overlap in online speech than low literates, with only subtle differences observed in semantics. We determined whether these effects were due to cognitive efficiency and/or granularity of speech processing in a multi-modal model of speech processing the amodal shared resource model (ASR, Smith, Monaghan, & Huettig, 2013a,b). We found that cognitive efficiency in the model had only a marginal effect on semantic processing and did not affect performance for phonological processing, whereas fine-grained versus coarse-grained phonological representations in the model simulated the high/low literacy effects on phonological processing, suggesting that literacy has a focused effect in changing the grain-size of phonological mappings. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AB - Learning to read and write requires an individual to connect additional orthographic representations to pre-existing mappings between phonological and semantic representations of words. Past empirical results suggest that the process of learning to read and write (at least in alphabetic languages) elicits changes in the language processing system, by either increasing the cognitive efficiency of mapping between representations associated with a word, or by changing the granularity of phonological processing of spoken language, or through a combination of both. Behavioural effects of literacy have typically been assessed in offline explicit tasks that have addressed only phonological processing. However, a recent eye tracking study compared high and low literate participants on effects of phonology and semantics in processing measured implicitly using eye movements. High literates' eye movements were more affected by phonological overlap in online speech than low literates, with only subtle differences observed in semantics. We determined whether these effects were due to cognitive efficiency and/or granularity of speech processing in a multi-modal model of speech processing the amodal shared resource model (ASR, Smith, Monaghan, & Huettig, 2013a,b). We found that cognitive efficiency in the model had only a marginal effect on semantic processing and did not affect performance for phonological processing, whereas fine-grained versus coarse-grained phonological representations in the model simulated the high/low literacy effects on phonological processing, suggesting that literacy has a focused effect in changing the grain-size of phonological mappings. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

KW - Literacy

KW - Computational modelling

KW - Visual attention

KW - Speech processing

KW - Eye movements

KW - Visual world paradigm

KW - SPOKEN-WORD RECOGNITION

KW - MEDIATED EYE-MOVEMENTS

KW - WHITE-MATTER INTEGRITY

KW - DIVISION-OF-LABOR

KW - PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

KW - READING ACQUISITION

KW - PROCESSING-SPEED

KW - VISUAL WORLD

KW - CONDUCTION-VELOCITY

KW - ORTHOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES

U2 - 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.07.002

DO - 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2014.07.002

M3 - Journal article

VL - 75

SP - 28

EP - 54

JO - Cognitive Psychology

JF - Cognitive Psychology

SN - 0010-0285

ER -