UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Why so fast? Zeguers, M.H.T. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Zeguers, M. H. T. (2017). Why so fast? An investigation of the cognitive and affective processes underlying successful and failing development of reading fluency General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. 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FAST?An investigation of the cognitive and affective processes underlying successful SO and failing development of reading fluency AFAST?n investigation of the cognitive and affective processes underlying successful and failing development of reading fluency door Maaike Zeguers Maaike Zeguers DINSDAG 11 APRIL 2017 OM 12:00 UUR Agnietenkapel Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231 in Amsterdam Aansluitend lunch en borrel in: Café de Paris Rokin 83 Paranimfen: Maaike Zeguers Rianne Schilder en Madelon van den Boer 508531-os-Zeguers.indd 1,6 07-03-17 09:56 508531-L-os-Zeguers Processed on: 7-3-2017 Why so fast? An investigation of the cognitive and affective processes underlying successful and failing development of reading fluency Maaike H.T. Zeguers Copyright © 2017 Maaike Zeguers Cover design by Bram van der Laan Layout by Maaike Zeguers and Bram van der Laan Printed by Ipskamp Printing, Enschede ISBN: 978-94-028-0567-3 Why so fast? An investigation of the cognitive and affective processes underlying successful and failing development of reading fluency ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. ir. K.I.J. Maex ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op dinsdag 11 april 2017, te 12.00 uur door Maaike Helena Titia Zeguers geboren te Hoorn Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof. Dr. M.W. van der Molen Universiteit van Amsterdam Copromotor: Dr. P.J.F. Snellings Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: Prof. Dr. W. van den Broeck Vrije universiteit Brussel Prof. Dr. M. Brysbaert Universiteit Gent Dr. B.R.J. Jansen Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. Dr. P.F. de Jong Universiteit van Amsterdam Dr. J. Tijms Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Contents Chapter 1 General introduction 7 Chapter 2 Time course analyses of orthographic and phonological priming effects during word recognition in a transparent orthography 19 Chapter 3 Time course analyses of orthographic and phonological priming effects in developing readers 41 Chapter 4 Specifying theories of developmental dyslexia: A diffusion model analysis of word recognition 59 Chapter 5 Universal and language specific predictors of early word reading in a foreign language. An analysis of the skills that underlie reading acquisition in three different orthographies 85 Chapter 6 General discussion 115 Summary 133 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch) 137 References 141 Supplemental material 169 Dankwoord (acknowledgements in Dutch) 181 About the author 189 List of publications 191 Chapter 1 General introduction Chapter 1 You may not realize it, but the fact that you are able to read this thesis is actually a remarkable accomplishment. While we learn to speak automatically, learning to read requires explicit instruction. And in contrast to spoken language, which is as old as mankind, written language is a fairly recent cultural invention. It was developed only around 6000 years ago (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989) and for centuries, the ability to read and write was a privilege of only a small percentage of the world population. Therefore, our brains have most likely not been evolutionarily equipped for the task of reading, but rather had to ‘recycle’ areas that were originally developed for other purposes when humans began to read (Dehaene, 2009; Dehaene, Cohen, Morais & Kolinsky, 2015). However, despite the absence of a specialized brain area for reading, most adults in western society are able to recognize written words quickly and seemingly automatically. In fact, the ability to read fluently has become essential for successful participation in modern society (National Reading Council, 1998; Snowling, 2000; Stichting Lezen en Schrijven, 2017). For example, road signs along the highway, subtitles on television and timed examinations in educational settings all require the quick and accurate interpretation of text. This raises the question how beginning readers learn to become so fluent in the complex skill of reading for which their brain was not inherently adapted. This question is especially relevant for children with dyslexia, who are characterized by severe and persistent difficulties in achieving appropriate levels of reading fluency. Therefore, the studies presented in the current thesis aim to improve our understanding of the development of reading fluency in typical readers and children with dyslexia. Specifically, the studies focus on the cognitive and affective processes that underlie both successful and failing reading fluency. We are especially interested in fluent reading because, although decades of reading research has primarily addressed reading accuracy (Share, 2008), in transparent orthographies such as Dutch, reading accuracy approaches ceiling level after the first year of reading instruction (Seymour, Aro & Erskine, 2003). Accordingly, in a study of Dutch children in first to sixth grade, there was little room for improvement in reading accuracy after grade one, whereas reading fluency continued to ameliorate until grade six (Vaessen & Blomert, 2010). In addition, reading fluency problems are characteristic of children with dyslexia. They can be trained to achieve adequate reading accuracy, but often remain dysfluent (Thaler, Ebner, Wimmer & Landerl, 2004; Torgesen et al., 2001). In fact, dysfluency has been identified as the ‘most notorious’ or ‘typical’ problem of dyslexic readers in languages with transparent orthographies (Blomert, 2011; Wimmer & Mayringer, 2002). The studies in this thesis focus on reading at the word level. Word reading is assumed to be the ‘hallmark of skilled reading’ (Ehri, 2005), with word recognition skills distinguishing between individuals with poor and high overall reading ability (Perfetti, Goldman & Hogaboam, 1979) and constituting a crucial factor in reading comprehension (Gough & Turner, 1986). In addition, the reading disability of dyslexic readers is most pronounced during reading at the word level. That is, although dyslexic readers have been shown to experience difficulties with text level reading (e.g. Hutzler & Wimmer, 2004; Wimmer, 1993) and reading comprehension (Swanson & Alexander, 1998), they can use contextual cues to compensate for their decoding deficit during reading above 8 General introduction the word level (Nation & Snowling, 2008). Word reading fluency thus seems to be at the heart of both typical reading development as well as the impairment of dyslexic readers. Reading development The foundation for reading development is formed long before the start of formal education, since reading skills build upon spoken language skills. That is, when children first learn to use spoken words to represent objects in their environment, they form word representations in memory. These word representations contain two components: a phonological representation, which represents the word’s pronunciation, and a semantic representation identifying the meaning of the word. Initially, children’s phonological representations are relatively global, and refer to whole words. However, throughout development, representations become increasingly specific and identify word parts, such as syllables, onsets, rhymes, and phonemes. This enables children to combine these word parts into whole words, and to identify which words rhyme or have identical onsets (Goswami, 2000). When children learn to read, a third component is added to the word representations. This is the orthographic representation, or the spelling of words. Several theories have been influential in forming our knowledge of these orthographic representations and reading development. According to the phase-theory of Ehri (2005), the development of orthographic representations proceeds in four phases. During the initial, pre- alphabetic phase, children do not yet master orthography-phonology (‘or grapheme- phoneme’) relations, but recognize certain words on the basis of salient, visual features or contextual cue. This occurs for example when a child recognizes the word ‘McDonalds’ on the basis of the yellow M. When children learn the pronunciation of certain letters, they progress to the partial