Basic processes in visual word identification

阅读能力是现代生活中必不可少的一项技能。这项技能是后天获得的，即使是大学生，他们的技能也千差万别。这项技能也与注意力和自觉性密切相关。我认为，“自动性”的个别属性需要单独调查。例如，许多过程在有限的意义上是自动的，即它们是无意识的，但它们使用或需要不同类型的注意的程度(例如，空间注意、中心注意、执行注意)是需要个别调查的问题。 一个有效的假设是，根据我在上一次授权期的研究，这些指数之间存在各种不同的分离。例如，空间注意力是所有单词识别过程的必要基础，无论读者的技能有多高(实际上，简单地增加单词中字母之间的间距有助于阅读困难的年轻读者；这是因为对这类读者来说，他们的困难之一是空间注意力较弱，因此正常间隔的字母相互拥挤)。相比之下，对“中央”注意的需求(在操作上定义为两个任务在时间上重叠的范式，可以说类似于对一个单词的单词识别过程与对相邻单词的正在进行的理解过程重叠)可能会随着各种单独过程的技能而有所不同(亚词汇-低于单词水平；词汇-单词水平，以及语义)。在过去的授予期间，我们的许多出版物都专注于熟练读者中的这些问题，在这次的赠款申请中，我继续这一工作，但包括注意力和自动性(以多种方式衡量和定义)和技能(定义为单字水平的阅读技能)与工作记忆容量水平之间的相互关系。我继续讨论哪些单词识别过程(次词汇、词汇和语义)需要哪种形式的注意，而不是“自动”的问题。 我提出的实验工作涉及(A)空间注意(B)中央注意，(B)执行注意(Set)，以及它们作为阅读技能和工作记忆容量的功能如何参与(或不参与)次词汇、词汇和语义水平的加工。我将利用认知和认知神经科学的范式来研究这些问题。我的实验室的这项研究走在了单词识别和注意力交叉领域的前沿，并使加拿大成为这一努力的主要参与者。重要的是，考虑到加拿大200万功能性文盲(如上面提供的例子中的重新空间注意)，这种工作是有实际回报的。至于与我共事的研究生和博士后，他们要么进入行业(就像一些人已经做的那样)，要么进入学术岗位。

The ability to read is a skill that is essential to modern living. This skill is acquired, and even university students vary widely in how skilled they are. This skill is also intimately related to attention and automaticity. I hold the view that individual properties of “automaticity” need to be investigated separately. For example, many processes are automatic in the restricted sense that they are unconscious, but the extent to which they use or require different kinds of attention (e.g., spatial attention; central attention; executive attention), are issues that need individual investigation. A working hypothesis is that there are various dissociations between these indices, based on my previous research in the last granting period. For example, spatial attention is a necessary preliminary for all word recognition processes, regardless of how skilled the reader is (indeed, simply increasing the spacing between letters in a word helps young dyslexics readers; this occurs because for such readers one of their difficulties is weak spatial attention and hence normally spaced letters crowd each other). In contrast, the need for "central" attention (operationally defined in the context a paradigm where two tasks overlap in time, similar, arguably, to word identification processes on one word overlapping with ongoing comprehension processes for adjacent words) may well vary as a function of skill for various individual processes (sublexical- below the level of the word; lexical-word level, and semantic). Many of our publications in the last granting period have focused on these issues in skilled readers, and in this grant application I continue this line of work, but include the inter-relationships between attention and automaticity (measured and defined in multiple ways) and skill (defined as “reading” skill at the single word level) combined with levels of working memory capacity. I continue to address the issue of which word recognition processes (sublexical, lexical and semantic) require which form of attention, rather than being “automatic”. The experimental work I am proposing involves the role of (a) spatial attention (b) central attention, (b) executive attention (set), and how they are involved (or not) in sublexical, lexical and semantic level processing as a function of reading skill and working memory capacity. I will utilize both cognitive and cognitive neuroscience paradigms to investigate these issues. The research from my lab is at the forefront of the field which considers the intersection of word recognition and attention, and makes Canada a major player in this endeavour. Importantly, there is an applied payoff for such work given the 2 million people in Canada who are functionally illiterate (as in the example provided above re spatial attention). As for graduate students and post docs who work with me, they can either go into industry (as several have done) or go in academic positions.