TY - BOOK

T1 - Atypically-reading adults: a profile

T2 - an exploratory, longitudinal study of single word recognition processes

AU - Mills, Emma

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Approximately 16% of school leavers cannot read to a sufficient skill level soas to be called “functionally literate” (Castles et al., 2018; Leitch, 2006). Thisexploratory study explores the single word recognition processes of a group ofatypically-reading adults in comparison with groups of younger and older readers.In the main study, we assessed orthographic, phonological and semantic skillslongitudinally. We estimated their influence plus that of psycholinguistic properties such as word-frequency, consistency and neighbourhood-size on single word recognition processes by way of reaction time and accuracy data from four experimental tasks (letter search, lexical decision, single word naming and sentence reading).To support the estimation of our statistical models for the main study, weconducted a wide ranging meta-analysis of psycholinguistic predictor effects. Wereport the findings here and introduce the study as an accessible resource for use by the research community.Linear-mixed-effects-models estimated that the rate of change in reading-related skills was either too small or too slow to detect within the time-frameor data. Adult-learners perform similarly to all comparison groups in responselatencies across all tasks. They perform similarly to 11-12- and 16-17-year-old readers in the lexical decision and sentence reading accuracy measures. They are more accurate in letter search and less accurate in word naming accuracy measures.Nonword reading skill, rather than word reading skill, is a reliable predictorin this sample. Word-frequency, age-of-acquisition, consistency and neighbourhood size show influence across tasks.We interpret the results through the lexical quality hypothesis. The predictors that are influential across the models, and the similarity of adult-learners’performance to younger readers suggests that their orthographic, phonological and semantic knowledge is weakly correlated. Further, adult-learners may be using a dominant reading strategy that reflects sublexical processing, thereby impeding development of orthographic learning and knowledge over the longer term.

AB - Approximately 16% of school leavers cannot read to a sufficient skill level soas to be called “functionally literate” (Castles et al., 2018; Leitch, 2006). Thisexploratory study explores the single word recognition processes of a group ofatypically-reading adults in comparison with groups of younger and older readers.In the main study, we assessed orthographic, phonological and semantic skillslongitudinally. We estimated their influence plus that of psycholinguistic properties such as word-frequency, consistency and neighbourhood-size on single word recognition processes by way of reaction time and accuracy data from four experimental tasks (letter search, lexical decision, single word naming and sentence reading).To support the estimation of our statistical models for the main study, weconducted a wide ranging meta-analysis of psycholinguistic predictor effects. Wereport the findings here and introduce the study as an accessible resource for use by the research community.Linear-mixed-effects-models estimated that the rate of change in reading-related skills was either too small or too slow to detect within the time-frameor data. Adult-learners perform similarly to all comparison groups in responselatencies across all tasks. They perform similarly to 11-12- and 16-17-year-old readers in the lexical decision and sentence reading accuracy measures. They are more accurate in letter search and less accurate in word naming accuracy measures.Nonword reading skill, rather than word reading skill, is a reliable predictorin this sample. Word-frequency, age-of-acquisition, consistency and neighbourhood size show influence across tasks.We interpret the results through the lexical quality hypothesis. The predictors that are influential across the models, and the similarity of adult-learners’performance to younger readers suggests that their orthographic, phonological and semantic knowledge is weakly correlated. Further, adult-learners may be using a dominant reading strategy that reflects sublexical processing, thereby impeding development of orthographic learning and knowledge over the longer term.

KW - Adult Literacy

KW - Single word recognition

KW - Letter search

KW - Lexical decision

KW - Word naming

KW - Sentence reading

KW - Lexical quality hypothesis

KW - Parallel distributed processes models

KW - Division of labour hypothesis

KW - Meta-analysis

KW - Psycholinguistics

U2 - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/2304

DO - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/2304

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - Lancaster University

ER -