READING IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: EYE MOVEMENTS AND EARLY WORD PROCESSES IN DEAF READERS OF FRENCH Nathalie Bélanger School of Communication Sciences and Disorders McGill University, Montréal, Canada January, 2009 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. © Nathalie Bélanger, 2009 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 6 RÉSUMÉ......................................................................................................................................... 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... 9 FUNDING AND SUPPORT ........................................................................................................ 12 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY............................................................................................ 13 CONTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS ............................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................... 16 1.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 16 1.2 HEARING READERS............................................................................................................... 18 1.2.1 Development ................................................................................................................ 18 1.2.2 Expert Readers and Models of Word Recognition....................................................... 21 1.3 DEAF READERS..................................................................................................................... 28 1.3.1 Use of Phonological and Orthographic Codes in Reading.......................................... 29 1.3.2 Other Factors Affecting Reading Achievement............................................................ 43 1.3.3 Visual Processing Abilities .......................................................................................... 46 1.4 EYE MOVEMENTS AND READING –BASIC CHARACTERISTICS .............................................. 47 1.5 EYE MOVEMENT CONTROL MODELS.................................................................................... 48 1.5.1 THE WORD RECOGNITION COMPONENT OF EYE MOVEMENT CONTROL MODELS ............. 49 1.5.2 DISTRIBUTION OF ATTENTION IN EYE MOVEMENT CONTROL MODELS ............................. 51 1.6 THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION .............................................................................................. 54 PREFACE TO CHAPTER 2....................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER TWO.......................................................................................................................... 59 UNMASKING THE USE OF ORTHOGRAPHIC AND PHONOLOGICAL INFORMATION BY SKILLED AND LESS SKILLED DEAF READERS OF FRENCH .. 59 2.1 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ 60 2.2 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 61 2.3 METHODS ............................................................................................................................. 66 2.3.1 Participants.................................................................................................................. 66 2.3.2 Background Measures ................................................................................................. 67 2.3.2.1 Hearing Status ...................................................................................................... 67 2.3.2.2 Speech Use and Comprehension .......................................................................... 67 2.3.2.3 Reading Level Measure........................................................................................ 67 2.3.3 Reading Group Assignment for the Deaf Participants................................................. 68 2 2.3.4 Stimuli.......................................................................................................................... 68 2.3.5 Design .......................................................................................................................... 71 2.3.6 Procedure and Apparatus ............................................................................................ 72 2.4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................................... 73 2.4.1 Additional Analyses ..................................................................................................... 75 2.5 DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................... 76 2.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 82 TABLE 1. ...................................................................................................................................... 83 TABLE 2. ...................................................................................................................................... 84 TABLE 3. ...................................................................................................................................... 85 FIGURE 1. .................................................................................................................................... 86 PREFACE TO CHAPTER 3....................................................................................................... 87 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................. 88 CASTING AN EYE ON SKILLED AND LESS SKILLED DEAF READERS: EYE MOVEMENT PATTERNS DURING SENTENCE READING. ............................................. 88 3.1 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ 89 3.2 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 90 3.3 EXPERIMENT 1...................................................................................................................... 93 3.3.1 Methods........................................................................................................................ 94 3.3.1.1 Participants........................................................................................................... 94 3.3.1.2 Reading Level Measure........................................................................................ 95 3.3.1.2.1 Reading Group Assignment for the Deaf Participants.................................. 95 3.3.1.3 Stimuli.................................................................................................................. 96 3.3.1.4 Apparatus and Procedure ..................................................................................... 97 3.3.1.5 Data Analyses....................................................................................................... 98 3.3.2 Results.......................................................................................................................... 99 3.3.2.1 Additional Analyses ........................................................................................... 103 3.3.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................. 106 3.4 EXPERIMENT 2.................................................................................................................... 109 3.4.1 Methods...................................................................................................................... 109 3.4.1.1 Participants......................................................................................................... 109 3.4.1.2 Stimuli................................................................................................................ 109 3.4.1.3 Apparatus, Procedure and Design ...................................................................... 109 3.4.1.4 Data Analyses..................................................................................................... 110 3.4.2 Results........................................................................................................................ 110 3 3.4.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................. 112 3.5 GENERAL DISCUSSION........................................................................................................ 113 3.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 122 TABLE 1. .................................................................................................................................... 123 TABLE 2. ...................................................................................................................................