Reading without words: a paradigm to examine developmental aspects of normal and dyslectic reading

本项目的第一阶段确立了朗道特范式，作为一种创新的研究工具，允许在无语言任务中近似地进行阅读眼球运动。一项从幼儿园到二年级的纵向研究表明，即使在开始阅读教学之前，朗德阅读的好坏就可以被辨别出来，而且随着发展的进展，这项任务中的眼动变得越来越像阅读。其他发现表明，阅读障碍儿童中的一部分在朗道扫描方面存在严重困难，这会影响阅读过程中的眼动。我们从不同原因可能导致阅读障碍的假设出发，导致不同病因的阅读障碍亚型。根据这一假设，在一些阅读障碍儿童中，非典型眼动似乎是由语言加工过程中的问题引起的，而在第二组中，这种异常可能与非语言加工过程中的缺陷有关。当将学龄前儿童的扫描数据与后来的阅读行为进行比较时，对这种缺陷的更详细的分析成为可能。实验研究聚焦于在Landolt扫描任务中更成功和更不成功的儿童，可以阐明导致非典型眼动和相关文字处理困难的因素。基于这一理论背景，两个相关的子项目旨在追求以下目标：1.结合眼动记录和心理测量学评估的纵向研究将继续进行，以进一步阐明非典型眼动行为在阅读发展过程中的作用。一个关键的假设是，4或5年级的阅读障碍儿童中的一小部分在阅读习得之前就会被发现在朗道任务中存在异常，这会对以后的阅读行为产生影响。同样重要的是，这项纵向研究有望为文字处理和眼动控制的联合开发提供重要的新见解。一系列创新性的实验研究(再次使用朗道特任务)将考察目前未被充分研究的两个关键阅读过程是否以及如何导致发展困难达到阅读困难的水平。这项工作的重点是空间分布(旁中央凹)信息的获取，另一方面，空间导航和记忆，这两者都与注意过程密切相关。尤其有希望的问题是，由效率较低的基本处理程序引起的资源超载是否会导致阅读理解能力下降。对这两个次级项目使用统一的以理论为基础的评估组合，将能够确定实验结果与阅读技能关键组成部分的个人表现之间的关系。

The first phase of the present project established the Landolt paradigm as an innovative research tool that allows for an approximation of reading eye movements in a language free task. A longitudinal study from kindergarten to 2nd grade demonstrated that even before the start of reading instruction children with good vs. poor Landold reading can be identified and that as development progresses eye movements in this task become more and more reading-like. Other findings suggest that a subgroup of children with dyslexia has substantial difficulties with Landolt scanning and that this impacts on eye movements during reading.We start from the assumption that different causes can contribute to reading deficits, leading to subtypes of dyslexia with variable etiologies. Following this hypothesis, it appears likely that in some dyslectic children atypical eye movements are caused by problems in linguistic processing, while in a second group such irregularities may be related to deficits in non-linguistic processes. More detailed analyses of such deficits become possible when preschool scanning data are compared to later reading behavior. Focusing on children who are more vs. less successful in the Landolt scanning task, experimental studies can illuminate factors contributing to atypical eye movements and associated word processing difficulties. Based on this theoretical context, two related subprojects are intended to pursue the following objectives:1. The longitudinal study with combined eye movement recording and psychometric assessments will be continued to further clarify the role of atypical eye movement behavior over the course of reading development. A key hypothesis is that a subgroup of children with dyslexia in grade 4 or 5 will be identified who had irregularities in the Landolt task even before reading acquisition and that this has consequences for later reading behavior. Equally important, the longitudinal study is expected to deliver important new insights into the joint development of word processing and eye movement control.2. A series of innovative experimental studies (again using the Landolt task) will examine whether and how two currently understudied key processes of reading contribute to developmental difficulties up to the level of dyslexia. This work is focused on spatially distributed (parafoveal) information acquisition and, on the other hand, spatial navigation and memory, which are both intimately interwoven with attentional processes. Especially promising is the question of whether resource overload caused by less effective basic processing routines can lead to deficits in reading comprehension. The use of a unified theory-based battery of assessments for both subprojects will allow for the identification of relationships between experimental findings and individual profiles of performance with respect to key components of reading skill.