The contribution of lexical access speed to RAN and reading

TY - CONF

T1 - The contribution of lexical access speed to RAN and reading

AU - Poulsen, Mads

N1 - Conference code: 16

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - Purpose: The study investigated why and when rapid automatised naming is a predictor of reading. Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that (1) RAN-objects predicts reading because it is a measure of lexical (e.g. phonological) access speed, but (2) that RAN only becomes a predictor of reading development once a certain level of phonological recoding proficiency has been reached. Method: Forty Danish students without reading difficulties were administered tests of reading speed and accuracy, phoneme awareness, RAN-objects, timed confrontation picture naming, and visio-motor reaction time. The students were sampled from two age groups representing two levels of recoding proficiency: Beginning readers in Grade 2-3 and proficient decoders in grade 5-6. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses on reading speed and accuracy to determine whether the relationship between RAN and reading was mediated by lexical and/or general speed of processing. Results: We found that RAN-objects contributed significant variance to reading speed but not accuracy in grade 5-6, but not in grade 2-3. In grade 2-3 reading speed and accuracy were predicted by phoneme awareness. The relationship between RAN and reading speed in the older age group was still strong after controlling for general speed of processing, but controlling for confrontation picture naming speed reduced the contribution of RAN to only marginally significant. Conclusions: We conclude that RAN-objects relationship with reading speed is to a large extent due to the lexical access speed component of the task. However, this relationship only exists once a certain level of decoding proficiency has been reached. 

AB - Purpose: The study investigated why and when rapid automatised naming is a predictor of reading. Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that (1) RAN-objects predicts reading because it is a measure of lexical (e.g. phonological) access speed, but (2) that RAN only becomes a predictor of reading development once a certain level of phonological recoding proficiency has been reached. Method: Forty Danish students without reading difficulties were administered tests of reading speed and accuracy, phoneme awareness, RAN-objects, timed confrontation picture naming, and visio-motor reaction time. The students were sampled from two age groups representing two levels of recoding proficiency: Beginning readers in Grade 2-3 and proficient decoders in grade 5-6. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses on reading speed and accuracy to determine whether the relationship between RAN and reading was mediated by lexical and/or general speed of processing. Results: We found that RAN-objects contributed significant variance to reading speed but not accuracy in grade 5-6, but not in grade 2-3. In grade 2-3 reading speed and accuracy were predicted by phoneme awareness. The relationship between RAN and reading speed in the older age group was still strong after controlling for general speed of processing, but controlling for confrontation picture naming speed reduced the contribution of RAN to only marginally significant. Conclusions: We conclude that RAN-objects relationship with reading speed is to a large extent due to the lexical access speed component of the task. However, this relationship only exists once a certain level of decoding proficiency has been reached. 

M3 - Poster

T2 - Annual meeting of the Society for Scientific Studies of Reading

Y2 - 25 July 2009 through 27 July 2009

ER -