6533b833fe1ef96bd129b8ef
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Costs and Benefits of Orthographic Inconsistency in Reading: Evidence from a Cross-Linguistic Comparison.
Chiara Valeria MarinelliVictoria A. McgowanCristina RomaniCristina BuraniPierluigi Zoccolottisubject
Maleorthographic consistencyCost-Benefit AnalysisSocial Scienceslcsh:MedicineAcademic SkillsPsycholinguisticsLiteracyFamilies0302 clinical medicineSociologyReading (process)PsychologyEthnicitiesChildlcsh:ScienceChildrenreading; cross-linguistic; orthographymedia_commonLanguageorthographyMultidisciplinaryPsycholinguisticsSchoolsCost–benefit analysis05 social sciencesOrthographic projectionSyllablescross-linguisticItalian PeopleLanguage developmentEnglandItalyFemalePsychologyCognitive psychologyCross linguisticResearch Articlemedia_common.quotation_subjectPhonologyLanguage Development050105 experimental psychologyEducation03 medical and health sciencesLiteracyReading acquisitionHumans0501 psychology and cognitive scienceslcsh:RCognitive PsychologyBiology and Life SciencesPhonemesReproducibility of ResultsLinguisticsReadingAge Groupscross-linguistic comparisonPeople and PlacesCognitive SciencePopulation Groupingslcsh:Q030217 neurology & neurosurgeryOrthographyNeurosciencedescription
We compared reading acquisition in English and Italian children up to late primary school analyzing RTs and errors as a function of various psycholinguistic variables and changes due to experience. Our results show that reading becomes progressively more reliant on larger processing units with age, but that this is modulated by consistency of the language. In English, an inconsistent orthography, reliance on larger units occurs earlier on and it is demonstrated by faster RTs, a stronger effect of lexical variables and lack of length effect (by fifth grade). However, not all English children are able to master this mode of processing yielding larger inter-individual variability. In Italian, a consistent orthography, reliance on larger units occurs later and it is less pronounced. This is demonstrated by larger length effects which remain significant even in older children and by larger effects of a global factor (related to speed of orthographic decoding) explaining changes of performance across ages. Our results show the importance of considering not only overall performance, but inter-individual variability and variability between conditions when interpreting cross-linguistic differences.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-01-01 | PLoS ONE |