The literate brain Flashcards
(25 cards)
Logographs
Written languages based on the one-word-one-symbol principle.
Kanji
A Japanese writing system based on the logographic principle.
Kana
A Japanse writing system in which each character denotes a syllable.
Grapheme
The smallest meaningful unit of written language.
Opaque orthography
A system of written language with an irregular (or semi-regular) correspondence between phonemes and graphemes.
Transparent orthography
A system of written language with a regular correspondence beween phonemes and graphemes.
Word superiority effect
It is easier to detect the presence of a single letter presented briefly if the letter is presented in the context of a word.
Lexical decision
A two-way forced-choice judgment about whether a letter string (or phoneme string) is a word or not.
Visual lexicon
A store of the structure of known written words.
Pure alexia
A difficulty in reading words in which reading time increases proportionately to the length of the word.
Peripheral dyslexia
Disruption of reading arising up to the level of computation of a visual word form.
Central dyslexia
Disruption of reading arising after computation of a visual word form (e.g., in accessing meaning, or translating to speech).
Fixation
A stationary pause between eye movements.
Phonological mediation
The claim that accessing the spoken forms of words is an obligatory component of understanding visually presented words.
Homophone
Words that sound the same but have different meanings (and often different spellings), e.g., ROWS and ROSE.
Surface dyslexia
Ability to read nonwords and regularly spelled words better than irregularly spelled words.
Phonological dyslexia
Ability to read real words better than nonwords.
Deep dyslexia
Real words are read better than nonwords, and semantic errors are made in reading.
Developmental dyslexia
Problems in literacy acquisition that cannot be attributed to lack of opportunity, or basic sensory deficits.
Phonological awareness
The ability to explicitly segment a speech stream into units such as syllables, rimes and phonemes.
Dysgraphia
Difficulties in spelling and writing.
Graphemic buffer
A short-term memory component that maintains a string of abstract letter identities while output processes (for writing, typing etc.) are engaged.
Allograph
Letters that are specified for shape (e.g., case print versus script).
Graph
Letters that are specified in terms of stroke order, size and direction.
