Progress Monitoring Instrument Development: Silent Reading Fluency, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension. Technical Report #1110

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nese, Joseph F. T.; Anderson, Daniel; Hoelscher, Kyle; Tindal, Gerald; Alonzo, Julie

2011-01-01

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is designed to measure students' academic status and growth so the effectiveness of instruction may be evaluated. In the most popular forms of reading CBM, the student's oral reading fluency is assessed. This behavior is difficult to sample in a computer-based format, a limitation that may be a function of the…

Magnetic properties of Fe implanted SrTiO{sub 3} perovskite crystal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Şale, A.G.; Kazan, S.; Gatiiatova, Ju.I.

2013-08-01

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • The results of investigations of magnetic properties of Fe implanted SrTiO{sub 3} are presented. • The measurements of the temperature dependence of the magnetization were performed. • Ferromagnetic hysteresis loops in Fe implanted SrTiO{sub 3} were observed at low temperatures. • Superparamagnetic behavior of the samples at high temperatures was revealed. • It was shown that the magnetization of the samples depends on the fluency of implantation. - Abstract: The results of investigations of magnetic properties of SrTiO{sub 3} perovskite crystal implanted with 40 keV Fe ions at the fluencies between 0.5 × 10{sup 17}more » and 1.5 × 10{sup 17} ion/cm{sup 2} are presented. It has been revealed that high-fluency implantation with Fe ions results in the formation of a granular metal particulate composite in the irradiated near-surface layer of SrTiO{sub 3} substrate, which exhibits remarkable ferromagnetic behavior. The measurements of the temperature dependence of the magnetic moment showed that the samples exhibit blocking temperature at about 350 K, above which a superparamagnetic behavior has been observed. Ferromagnetic ordering and magnetic hysteresis loops were observed in Fe implanted SrTiO{sub 3} at the temperatures lower than 350 K. It has been shown that the magnetization of the ferromagnetic state depends on the fluency of implantation.« less

Effects of Task Complexity on L2 Writing Behaviors and Linguistic Complexity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Révész, Andrea; Kourtali, Nektaria-Efstathia; Mazgutova, Diana

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether task complexity influences second language (L2) writers' fluency, pausing, and revision behaviors and the cognitive processes underlying these behaviors; whether task complexity affects linguistic complexity of written output; and whether relationships between writing behaviors and linguistic complexity are…

Neurophysiological evidence that perceptions of fluency produce mere exposure effects.

PubMed

Leynes, P Andrew; Addante, Richard J

2016-08-01

Recent exposure to people or objects increases liking ratings, the "mere exposure effect" (Zajonc in American Psychologist, 35, 117-123, 1968), and an increase in processing fluency has been identified as a potential mechanism for producing this effect. This fluency hypothesis was directly tested by altering the trial-by-trial image clarity (i.e., fluency) while Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded. In Experiment 1, clarity was altered across two trial blocks that each had homogenous trial-by-trial clarity, whereas clarity varied randomly across trials in Experiment 2. Blocking or randomizing image clarity across trials was expected to produce different levels of relative fluency and alter mere exposure effects. The mere exposure effect (i.e., old products liked more than new products) was observed when stimulus clarity remained constant across trials, and clear image ERPs were more positive than blurry image ERPs. Importantly, these patterns were reversed when clarity varied randomly across test trials, such that participants liked clear images more than blurry (i.e., no mere exposure effect) and clear image ERPs were more negative than blurry image ERPs. The findings provide direct experimental support from both behavioral and electrophysiological measures that, in some contexts, mere exposure is the product of top-down interpretations of fluency.

Disease progression in C9orf72 mutation carriers.

PubMed

Floeter, Mary K; Traynor, Bryan J; Farren, Jennifer; Braun, Laura E; Tierney, Michael; Wiggs, Edythe A; Wu, Tianxia

2017-07-18

To assess changes in 3 clinical measures, the Revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R), letter fluency, and Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI), over time in C9orf72 mutation carriers (C9+) with varied clinical phenotypes. Thirty-four unrelated participants with mutations in C9orf72 were enrolled in a prospective natural history study. Participants were classified as asymptomatic, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), ALS-familial frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or behavioral-variant FTD by clinical diagnostic criteria. Diagnostic cognitive and motor tests were repeated at 6 and 18 months. The ALSFRS-R, letter fluency, and FBI were administered at baseline and follow-up visits at 6, 12, and 18 months. The clinical diagnosis of most patients did not change over the follow-up. ALSFRS-R scores correlated with measures of motor function. Letter fluency correlated with FBI and cognitive tests. ALSFRS-R, letter fluency, and FBI differed among the C9+ diagnostic subgroups at enrollment and worsened over follow-up in symptomatic patients, with different slopes among the subgroups. Most patients survived to the 6-month time point after enrollment. Survival of C9+ patients with ALS and C9+ patients with ALS-FTD declined over the 12- and 18-month follow-up. The pattern of scores of the ALSFRS-R, letter fluency, and FBI distinguished between ALS, ALS-FTD, and FTD presentations of C9orf72 mutation carriers and asymptomatic carriers. Longitudinal changes in these measures occurred with disease progression in a manner consistent with presenting phenotype. © 2017 American Academy of Neurology.

Investigating Executive Working Memory and Phonological Short-Term Memory in Relation to Fluency and Self-Repair Behavior in L2 Speech.

PubMed

Georgiadou, Effrosyni; Roehr-Brackin, Karen

2017-08-01

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating the relationship of executive working memory (WM) and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) to fluency and self-repair behavior during an unrehearsed oral task performed by second language (L2) speakers of English at two levels of proficiency, elementary and lower intermediate. Correlational analyses revealed a negative relationship between executive WM and number of pauses in the lower intermediate L2 speakers. However, no reliable association was found in our sample between executive WM or PSTM and self-repair behavior in terms of either frequency or type of self-repair. Taken together, our findings suggest that while executive WM may enhance performance at the conceptualization and formulation stages of the speech production process, self-repair behavior in L2 speakers may depend on factors other than working memory.

Developing Behavioral Fluency with Movement Cycles Using SAFMEDS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kubina, Richard M., Jr.; Yurich, Kirsten K. L.; Durica, Krina C.; Healy, Nora M.

2016-01-01

The Precision Teaching term "movement cycle" refers to a behavior with a clearly observable movement and a distinct beginning and end. The present experiment examined whether behavior analysts and special education teachers could become fluent identifying movement cycles. A frequency-building intervention called SAFMEDS, an acronym for…

The frontal-anatomic specificity of design fluency repetitions and their diagnostic relevance for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

PubMed

Possin, Katherine L; Chester, Serana K; Laluz, Victor; Bostrom, Alan; Rosen, Howard J; Miller, Bruce L; Kramer, Joel H

2012-09-01

On tests of design fluency, an examinee draws as many different designs as possible in a specified time limit while avoiding repetition. The neuroanatomical substrates and diagnostic group differences of design fluency repetition errors and total correct scores were examined in 110 individuals diagnosed with dementia, 53 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 37 neurologically healthy controls. The errors correlated significantly with volumes in the right and left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the right and left superior frontal gyrus, the right inferior frontal gyrus, and the right striatum, but did not correlate with volumes in any parietal or temporal lobe regions. Regression analyses indicated that the lateral OFC may be particularly crucial for preventing these errors, even after excluding patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from the analysis. Total correct correlated more diffusely with volumes in the right and left frontal and parietal cortex, the right temporal cortex, and the right striatum and thalamus. Patients diagnosed with bvFTD made significantly more repetition errors than patients diagnosed with MCI, Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, or corticobasal syndrome. In contrast, total correct design scores did not differentiate the dementia patients. These results highlight the frontal-anatomic specificity of design fluency repetitions. In addition, the results indicate that the propensity to make these errors supports the diagnosis of bvFTD. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1-11).

The neural correlates of reading fluency deficits in children.

PubMed

Langer, Nicolas; Benjamin, Christopher; Minas, Jennifer; Gaab, Nadine

2015-06-01

Multiple studies have shown that individuals with a reading disability (RD) demonstrate deficits in posterior left-hemispheric brain regions during reading-related tasks. These studies mainly focused on reading sub-skills, and it remains debated whether such dysfunction is apparent during more ecologically valid reading skills, such as reading fluency. In this fMRI study, reading fluency was systematically varied to characterize neural correlates of reading fluency in 30 children with (RD) and without (typical developing children, TYP) a RD. Sentences were presented at constrained, comfortable, and accelerated speeds, which were determined based on individual reading speed. Behaviorally, RD children displayed decreased performance in several reading-related tasks. Using fMRI, we demonstrated that both TYP and RD children display increased activation in several components of the reading network during fluent reading. When required to read at an accelerated speed, RD children exhibited less activation in the fusiform gyrus (FG) compared with the TYP children. A region of interest analysis substantiated differences in the FG and demonstrated a relationship to behavioral reading performance. These results suggest that the FG plays a key role in fluent reading and that it can be modulated by speed. These results and their implications for remediation strategies should be considered in educational practice. Published by Oxford University Press 2013. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

Interacting effects of age and time of day on verbal fluency performance and intraindividual variability.

PubMed

Iskandar, Sam; Murphy, Kelly J; Baird, Anne D; West, Robert; Armilio, Maria; Craik, Fergus I M; Stuss, Donald T

2016-01-01

We explored the effects of age and time of day (TOD) on verbal fluency ability with respect to performance level and intraindividual variability (IIV). Verbal fluency, which involves complex cognitive operations, was examined in 20 older (mean age = 72.8 years) and 20 younger (mean age = 24.2 years) adults with test start time alternating between morning and evening across four days. Older adults generated more words in the morning and younger adults more in the evening, corresponding with self-report peak TOD. Age by TOD interactions were also observed across fluency tasks on the number of switches among subcategory exemplars during word generation and on the IIV observed in switching behavior. Older adults exhibited greater variability in switching in the evening than in the morning, whereas younger adults showed the opposite pattern. These findings demonstrate that processes involving energization (initiating and sustaining) and attentional control may be particularly sensitive to age differences in TOD influences on cognition.

Language Networks Associated with Computerized Semantic Indices

PubMed Central

Pakhomov, Serguei V. S.; Jones, David T.; Knopman, David S.

2014-01-01

Tests of generative semantic verbal fluency are widely used to study organization and representation of concepts in the human brain. Previous studies demonstrated that clustering and switching behavior during verbal fluency tasks is supported by multiple brain mechanisms associated with semantic memory and executive control. Previous work relied on manual assessments of semantic relatedness between words and grouping of words into semantic clusters. We investigated a computational linguistic approach to measuring the strength of semantic relatedness between words based on latent semantic analysis of word co-occurrences in a subset of a large online encyclopedia. We computed semantic clustering indices and compared them to brain network connectivity measures obtained with task-free fMRI in a sample consisting of healthy participants and those differentially affected by cognitive impairment. We found that semantic clustering indices were associated with brain network connectivity in distinct areas including fronto-temporal, fronto-parietal and fusiform gyrus regions. This study shows that computerized semantic indices complement traditional assessments of verbal fluency to provide a more complete account of the relationship between brain and verbal behavior involved organization and retrieval of lexical information from memory. PMID:25315785

Functional connectivity in resting state as a phonemic fluency ability measure.

PubMed

Miró-Padilla, Anna; Bueichekú, Elisenda; Ventura-Campos, Noelia; Palomar-García, María-Ángeles; Ávila, César

2017-03-01

There is some evidence that functional connectivity (FC) measures obtained at rest may reflect individual differences in cognitive capabilities. We tested this possibility by using the FAS test as a measure of phonemic fluency. Seed regions of the main brain areas involved in this task were extracted from meta-analysis results (Wagner et al., 2014) and used for pairwise resting-state FC analysis. Ninety-three undergraduates completed the FAS test outside the scanner. A correlation analysis was conducted between the F-A-S scores (behavioral testing) and the pairwise FC pattern of verbal fluency regions of interest. Results showed that the higher FC between the thalamus and the cerebellum, and the lower FCs between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right insula and between the supplementary motor area and the right insula were associated with better performance on the FAS test. Regression analyses revealed that the first two FCs contributed independently to this better phonemic fluency, reflecting a more general attentional factor (FC between thalamus and cerebellum) and a more specific fluency factor (FC between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right insula). The results support the Spontaneous Trait Reactivation hypothesis, which explains how resting-state derived measures may reflect individual differences in cognitive abilities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Verbal fluency and positron emission tomographic mapping of regional cerebral glucose metabolism.

PubMed

Boivin, M J; Giordani, B; Berent, S; Amato, D A; Lehtinen, S; Koeppe, R A; Buchtel, H A; Foster, N L; Kuhl, D E

1992-06-01

Impairment in verbal fluency (VF) has been a consistently reported clinical feature of focal cerebral deficits in frontal and temporal regions. More recent behavioral activation studies with healthy control subjects using positron emission tomography (PET), however, have noted a negative correlation between performance on verbal fluency tasks and regional cortical activity. To see if this negative relationship extends to steady-state non-activation PET measures, thirty-three healthy adults were given a VF task within a day of their 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose PET scan. VF was found to correlate positively with left temporal cortical region metabolic activity but to correlate negatively with right and left frontal activity. VF was not correlated significantly with right temporal cortical metabolic activity. Some previous studies with normals using behavioral activation paradigms and PET have reported negative correlations between metabolic activity and cognitive performance similar to that reported here. An explanation for the disparate relationships that were observed between frontal and temporal brain areas and VF might be found in the mediation of different task demands by these separate locations, i.e., task planning and/or initiation by frontal regions and verbal memory by the left temporal area.

Language networks associated with computerized semantic indices.

PubMed

Pakhomov, Serguei V S; Jones, David T; Knopman, David S

2015-01-01

Tests of generative semantic verbal fluency are widely used to study organization and representation of concepts in the human brain. Previous studies demonstrated that clustering and switching behavior during verbal fluency tasks is supported by multiple brain mechanisms associated with semantic memory and executive control. Previous work relied on manual assessments of semantic relatedness between words and grouping of words into semantic clusters. We investigated a computational linguistic approach to measuring the strength of semantic relatedness between words based on latent semantic analysis of word co-occurrences in a subset of a large online encyclopedia. We computed semantic clustering indices and compared them to brain network connectivity measures obtained with task-free fMRI in a sample consisting of healthy participants and those differentially affected by cognitive impairment. We found that semantic clustering indices were associated with brain network connectivity in distinct areas including fronto-temporal, fronto-parietal and fusiform gyrus regions. This study shows that computerized semantic indices complement traditional assessments of verbal fluency to provide a more complete account of the relationship between brain and verbal behavior involved organization and retrieval of lexical information from memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Competency: The Language of the Behavioral Objectives Movement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craig, Samuel B., Jr.

Several external and internal factors combine to hinder optimal communication in "Competency," the language of behavior modification. As a language, Competency a) is spoken with varying degrees of fluency and facility, b) is difficult to translate into English because the common vocabulary is used descriptively in English while it is…

Protective Role of Parenting Attitude on the Behavioral and Neurocognitive Development of the Children from Economically Disadvantaged Families.

PubMed

Jung, Da-Eun; Bhang, Soo-Young; Lee, Won-Hye; Yoon, Hae-Joo; Jung, Hee-Yeon; Kim, Yeni

2018-06-01

Association between home environment and the behavioral and neurocognitive development of children from a community childcare center for low-income families was examined (aged 6 to 12 years, n=155). The parents performed a questionnaire on home environment (K-HOME-Q) to assess home environment including parenting attitude and the Child Behavior Checklist (K-CBCL). The children performed the Wechsler Intelligence (IQ) Scale, Stroop interference test (Stroop), word fluency test (WF), and design fluency test (DF) to assess their neurocognitive development. 'Nurturing of Development' and 'Variety of Language Interaction' scores from the K-HOME-Q, were inversely associated with total behavior problems, externalization, rule-breaking, and aggressive behavior subscales of K-CBCL, and 'Emotional atmosphere' and 'Tolerance toward the child' scores showed inverse associations with the total behavior problems, rule-breaking, aggressive behavior, and withdrawn/depressed subscales. Despite economic hardship, the mean scores of the neurocognitive tests were comparable to the average level of Korean children's normative sample. However, 'Nurturing of Development' and 'Tolerance toward the Child' score of K-HOME-Q were associated with better executive function (IQ, WF, DF). These results suggest that parental stimulation of development and tolerant parenting attitude may offer protection against the negative effects of suboptimal economic environment on children's behavior and neurocognitive development.

Fluency disorders in genetic syndromes.

PubMed

Van Borsel, John; Tetnowski, John A

2007-01-01

The characteristics of various genetic syndromes have included "stuttering" as a primary symptom associated with that syndrome. Specifically, Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Tourette syndrome, Neurofibromatosis type I, and Turner syndrome all list "stuttering" as a characteristic of that syndrome. An extensive review of these syndromes indicated clients diagnosed with these syndromes do show evidence of nonfluency patterns, but not all would be considered stuttering. Many of the syndromes are marked by degrees of mental retardation that probably contribute to a higher than average prevalence of stuttering, as well as a higher than average prevalence of other fluency disorders (when compared to the population at large). An in-depth analysis of the available data indicates that some of these genetic syndromes show patterns of stuttering that may be indicative of only that syndrome (or similar syndromes) that can be differentially diagnosed from developmental stuttering. Among these patterns are the word-final nonfluencies noted in Prader-Willi syndrome; the presence of stuttering in the absence of secondary behaviors noted in Prader-Willi syndrome and; the presence of palilalia, word-final and word-medial nonfluencies, and word-medial and word-final nonfluencies in Tourette syndrome. Implications for future research are discussed in light of these findings. The reader will be able to: (1) describe the various different genetic syndromes that are associated with fluency disorders; (2) describe the types of nonfluencies that are associated with the major types of genetic syndromes that have fluency disorders; (3) describe the behaviors that may assist in differentially diagnosing different types of speech characteristics associated with various genetic syndromes.

Associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior with academic skills--a follow-up study among primary school children.

PubMed

Haapala, Eero A; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina; Tompuri, Tuomo; Lintu, Niina; Väistö, Juuso; Leppänen, Paavo H T; Laaksonen, David E; Lindi, Virpi; Lakka, Timo A

2014-01-01

There are no prospective studies that would have compared the relationships of different types of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) with academic skills among children. We therefore investigated the associations of different types of PA and SB with reading and arithmetic skills in a follow-up study among children. The participants were 186 children (107 boys, 79 girls, 6-8 yr) who were followed-up in Grades 1-3. PA and SB were assessed using a questionnaire in Grade 1. Reading fluency, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills were assessed using standardized tests at the end of Grades 1-3. Among all children more recess PA and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across Grades 1-3. In boys, higher levels of total PA, physically active school transportation and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across the Grades 1-3. Among girls, higher levels of total PA were related to worse arithmetic skills across Grades 1-3. Moreover, total PA was directly associated with reading fluency and arithmetic skills in Grades 1-3 among girls whose parents had a university degree, whereas these relationships were inverse in girls of less educated parents. Total PA, physically active school transportation and SB related to academic skills may be beneficial for the development of reading skills in boys, whereas factors that are independent of PA or SB may be more important for academic skills in girls. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01803776.

On the Use of Fluency Training in the Behavioral Treatment of Autism: A Commentary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heinicke, Megan R.; Carr, James E.; LeBlanc, Linda A.; Severtson, Jamie M.

2010-01-01

The substantial demand for behavior-analytic treatment of early childhood autism has been associated with rapid dissemination of treatment procedures to practitioners and caregivers. This level of demand could plausibly induce premature dissemination of treatments that do not yet have sufficient empirical support. We argue that this might have…

Examining the Developmental Dynamics between Achievement Strategies and Different Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgiou, George K.; Manolitsis, George; Zhang, Xiao; Parrila, Rauno; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2013-01-01

We examined the developmental dynamics between task-avoidant behavior and different literacy outcomes, and possible precursors of task-avoidant behavior. Seventy Greek children were followed from Grade 4 until Grade 6 and were assessed every year on reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension. The teachers assessed the children's…

Supporting Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders' Comprehension and Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garwood, Justin D.; Ciullo, Stephen; Brunsting, Nelson

2017-01-01

This article discusses two strategies to improve reading outcomes for middle and high school adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The first is providing secondary students a choice of accessible, engaging activities to more actively engage them during reading instruction and foster intrinsic motivation to engage in literacy…

Dissociable executive functions in behavioral variant frontotemporal and Alzheimer dementias

PubMed Central

Feigenbaum, Dana; Rankin, Katherine P.; Smith, Glenn E.; Boxer, Adam L.; Wood, Kristie; Hanna, Sherrie M.; Miller, Bruce L.; Kramer, Joel H.

2013-01-01

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine which aspects of executive functions are most affected in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and best differentiate this syndrome from Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: We compared executive functions in 22 patients diagnosed with bvFTD, 26 with AD, and 31 neurologically healthy controls using a conceptually driven and comprehensive battery of executive function tests, the NIH EXAMINER battery (http://examiner.ucsf.edu). Results: The bvFTD and the AD patients were similarly impaired compared with controls on tests of working memory, category fluency, and attention, but the patients with bvFTD showed significantly more severe impairments than the patients with AD on tests of letter fluency, antisaccade accuracy, social decision-making, and social behavior. Discriminant function analysis with jackknifed cross-validation classified the bvFTD and AD patient groups with 73% accuracy. Conclusions: Executive function assessment can support bvFTD diagnosis when measures are carefully selected to emphasize frontally specific functions. PMID:23658382

Cognitive performance and electrophysiological indices of cognitive control: a validation study of conflict adaptation.

PubMed

Clayson, Peter E; Larson, Michael J

2012-05-01

Psychiatric and neurologic disorders are associated with deficits in the postconflict recruitment of cognitive control. The primary aim of this study was to validate the relationship between cognitive functioning and indices of conflict adaptation. Event-related potentials were obtained from 89 healthy individuals who completed an Eriksen flanker task. Neuropsychological domains tested included memory, verbal fluency, and attention/executive functioning. Behavioral measures and N2 amplitudes showed significant conflict adaptation (i.e., previous-trial congruencies influenced current-trial measures). Higher scores on the attention/executive functioning and verbal fluency domains were associated with larger incongruent-trial N2 conflict adaptation; measures of cognitive functioning were not related to behavioral indices. This study provides initial validation of N2 conflict adaptation effects as cognitive function-related aspects of cognitive control. Copyright © 2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Word and pseudoword superiority effects reflected in the ERP waveform

PubMed Central

Coch, Donna; Mitra, Priya

2010-01-01

A variant of the Reicher-Wheeler task was used to determine when in the event-related potential (ERP) waveform indices of word and pseudoword superiority effects might be present, and whether ERP measures of superiority effects correlated with standardized behavioral measures of orthographic fluency and single word reading. ERPs were recorded to briefly presented, masked letter strings that included real words (DARK/PARK), pseudowords (DARL/PARL), nonwords (RDKA/RPKA), and letter-in-xs (DXXX, PXXX) stimuli. Participants decided which of two letters occurred at a given position in the string (here, forced-choice alternatives D and P). Behaviorally, both word (more accurate choices for letters in words than in baseline nonwords or letter-in-xs) and pseudoword (more accurate choices for letters in pseudowords than in baseline conditions) superiority effects were observed. Electrophysiologically, effects of orthographic regularity and familiarity were apparent as early as the P150 time window (100–160 ms), an effect of lexicality was observed as early as the N200 time window (160–200 ms), and peak amplitude of the N300 and N400 also differentiated word and pseudoword as compared to baseline stimuli. Further, the size of the P150 and N400 ERP word superiority effects was related to standardized behavioral measures of fluency and reading. Results suggest that orthographic fluency is reflected in both lower-level, sublexical, perceptual processing and higher-level, lexical processing in fluently reading adults. PMID:20211607

Mirror neurons as a model for the science and treatment of stuttering.

PubMed

Snyder, Gregory J; Waddell, Dwight E; Blanchet, Paul

2016-01-06

Persistent developmental stuttering is generally considered a speech disorder and affects ∼1% of the global population. While mainstream treatments continue to rely on unreliable behavioral speech motor targets, an emerging research perspective utilizes the mirror neuron system hypothesis as a neural substrate in the science and treatment of stuttering. The purpose of this exploratory study is to test the viability of the mirror neuron system hypothesis in the fluency enhancement of those who stutter. Participants were asked to speak while they were producing self-generated manual gestures, producing and visually perceiving self-generated manual gestures, and visually perceiving manual gestures, relative to a nonmanual gesture control speaking condition. Data reveal that all experimental speaking conditions enhanced fluent speech in all research participants, and the simultaneous perception and production of manual gesturing trended toward greater efficacious fluency enhancement. Coupled with existing research, we interpret these data as suggestive of fluency enhancement through subcortical involvement within multiple levels of an action understanding mirror neuron network. In addition, incidental findings report that stuttering moments were observed to simultaneously occur both orally and manually. Consequently, these data suggest that stuttering behaviors are compensatory, distal manifestations over multiple expressive modalities to an underlying centralized genetic neural substrate of the disorder.

Evolution of phonemic word fluency performance in post-stroke aphasia.

PubMed

Sarno, Martha Taylor; Postman, Whitney Anne; Cho, Young Susan; Norman, Robert G

2005-01-01

In this longitudinal study, quantitative and qualitative changes in responses of people with aphasia were examined on a phonemic fluency task. Eighteen patients were tested at 3-month intervals on the letters F-A-S while they received comprehensive, intensive treatment from 3 to 12 months post-stroke. They returned for a follow-up evaluation at an average of 10 months post-intervention. Mean group scores improved significantly from beginning to end of treatment, but declined post-intervention. Patients produced a significantly greater number and proportion of modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) between the beginning and end of treatment, with no decline afterwards, implying that they had access to a wider range of grammatical categories over time. Moreover, patients used significantly more phonemic clusters in generating word lists by the end of treatment. These gains may be attributed to the combined effects of time since onset and the linguistic and cognitive stimulation that patients received in therapy. Readers of this paper should (1) gain a better understanding of verbal fluency performance in the assessment of aphasia, (2) recognize the importance of analyzing qualitative aspects of single word production in aphasia, and (3) contribute to their clinical judgment of long term improvement in aphasia.

Impaired category fluency in medial temporal lobe amnesia: the role of episodic memory.

PubMed

Greenberg, Daniel L; Keane, Margaret M; Ryan, Lee; Verfaellie, Mieke

2009-09-02

Memory tasks are often classified as semantic or episodic, but recent research shows that these types of memory are highly interactive. Category fluency, for example, is generally considered to reflect retrieval from semantic memory, but behavioral evidence suggests that episodic memory is also involved: participants frequently draw on autobiographical experiences while generating exemplars of certain categories. Neuroimaging studies accordingly have reported increased medial temporal lobe (MTL) activation during exemplar generation. Studies of fluency in MTL amnesics have yielded mixed results but were not designed to determine the precise contributions of episodic memory. We addressed this issue by asking MTL amnesics and controls to generate exemplars of three types of categories. One type tended to elicit autobiographical and spatial retrieval strategies (AS). Another type elicited strategies that were autobiographical but nonspatial (AN). The third type elicited neither autobiographical nor spatial strategies (N). Amnesic patients and control participants generated exemplars for eight categories of each type. Patients were impaired on all category types but were more impaired on AS and AN categories. After covarying for phonemic fluency (total FAS score), the N category impairment was not significant, but the impairment on AS and AN categories remained. The same results were obtained for patients with lesions restricted to the MTL and those with more extensive lesions. We conclude that patients' episodic memory impairment hindered their performance on this putatively semantic task. This interaction between episodic and semantic memory might partially account for fluency deficits seen in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease.

Brazilian Normative Data on Letter and Category Fluency Tasks: Effects of Gender, Age, and Geopolitical Region

PubMed Central

Hazin, Izabel; Leite, Gilmara; Oliveira, Rosinda M.; Alencar, João C.; Fichman, Helenice C.; Marques, Priscila d. N.; de Mello, Claudia Berlim

2016-01-01

Verbal fluency is a basic function of language that refers to the ability to produce fluent speech. Despite being an essentially linguistic function, its measurements are also used to evaluate executive aspects of verbal behavior. Performance in verbal fluency (VF) tasks varies according to age, education, and cognitive development. Neurodevelopmental disorders that affect the functioning of frontal areas tend to cause lower performance in VF tasks. Despite the relative consensus that has been reached in terms of the use of VF tasks for the diagnosis of dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, few studies have considered regional variations in Brazil. The present study sought to provide normative data on VF tasks in children by considering gender, age, education, and geopolitical region of origin with auxiliary purposes in neuropsychological diagnosis of disorders that occur with executive changes The study included 298 participants, 7–10 years of age of both genders, who performed three letter fluency tasks and three category fluency tasks. The data were subjected to correlational and variance analyses, with age and gender as factors. No effect of gender on the children's performance was found. However, significant differences between age groups were observed, with better performance in letter tasks in older children and better performance in letter tasks compared with category tasks. Significant regional differences in performance on the letter VF task were observed. These results reinforce the importance of regional normative data in countries with high regional cultural variations, such as Brazil. PMID:27242598

Dopamine Modulates Option Generation for Behavior.

PubMed

Ang, Yuen-Siang; Manohar, Sanjay; Plant, Olivia; Kienast, Annika; Le Heron, Campbell; Muhammed, Kinan; Hu, Michele; Husain, Masud

2018-05-21

Animals make innumerable decisions every day, each of which involves evaluating potential options for action. But how are options generated? Although much is now known about decision making when a fixed set of potential options is provided, surprisingly little progress has been made on self-generated options. Some researchers have proposed that such abilities might be modulated by dopamine. Here, we used a new measure of option generation that is quantitative, objective, and culture fair to investigate how humans generate different behavioral options. Participants were asked to draw as many different paths (options) as they could between two points within a fixed time. Healthy individuals (n = 96) exhibited a trade-off between uniqueness (how individually different their options were) and fluency (number of options), generating either many similar or few unique options. To assess influence of dopamine, we first examined patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 35) ON and OFF their dopaminergic medication and compared them to elderly healthy controls (n = 34). Then we conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study of the D2 agonist cabergoline in healthy older people (n = 29). Across both studies, dopamine increased fluency but diminished overall uniqueness of options generated, due to the effect of fluency trading off with uniqueness. Crucially, however, when this trade-off was corrected for, dopamine was found to increase uniqueness for any given fluency. Three carefully designed control studies showed that performance on our option-generation task was not related to executing movements, planning actions, or selecting between generated options. These findings show that dopamine plays an important role in modulating option generation. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Associations of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior with Academic Skills – A Follow-Up Study among Primary School Children

PubMed Central

Haapala, Eero A.; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina; Tompuri, Tuomo; Lintu, Niina; Väistö, Juuso; Leppänen, Paavo H. T.; Laaksonen, David E.; Lindi, Virpi; Lakka, Timo A.

2014-01-01

Background There are no prospective studies that would have compared the relationships of different types of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) with academic skills among children. We therefore investigated the associations of different types of PA and SB with reading and arithmetic skills in a follow-up study among children. Methods The participants were 186 children (107 boys, 79 girls, 6–8 yr) who were followed-up in Grades 1–3. PA and SB were assessed using a questionnaire in Grade 1. Reading fluency, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills were assessed using standardized tests at the end of Grades 1–3. Results Among all children more recess PA and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across Grades 1–3. In boys, higher levels of total PA, physically active school transportation and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across the Grades 1–3. Among girls, higher levels of total PA were related to worse arithmetic skills across Grades 1–3. Moreover, total PA was directly associated with reading fluency and arithmetic skills in Grades 1–3 among girls whose parents had a university degree, whereas these relationships were inverse in girls of less educated parents. Conclusions Total PA, physically active school transportation and SB related to academic skills may be beneficial for the development of reading skills in boys, whereas factors that are independent of PA or SB may be more important for academic skills in girls. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01803776 PMID:25207813

Using Brief Assessments to Select Math Fluency and On-Task Behavior Interventions: An Investigation of Treatment Utility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbertson, Donna; Witt, Joseph C.; Duhon, Gary; Dufrene, Brad

2008-01-01

This study examined the utility of a brief assessment approach for identifying a potentially effective intervention to improve math performance and on-task behavior. Participants included four elementary students referred for intervention services in the general education classroom. A brief individual assessment was conducted with each participant…

Cross-Cultural Skills for Deployed Air Force Personnel: Defining Cross-Cultural Performance

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

Van Der Molen , 2005). However, other research shows that as a person’s fluency in a for- eign language increases, so do the expectations that the...and Van Der Molen , 2005). Changing behavior to fit cultural context. Changing behavior to fit cultural context involves adapting one’s behavior to...2003); it has also been shown to relate to job performance (Mol, Born, Willemsen, and Van Der Molen , 2005). The relationship between this behavior

Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension.

PubMed

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2015-01-01

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)-how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children ( N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development.

Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2015-01-01

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)—how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children (N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development. PMID:26435550

Aesthetic appreciation of poetry correlates with ease of processing in event-related potentials.

PubMed

Obermeier, Christian; Kotz, Sonja A; Jessen, Sarah; Raettig, Tim; von Koppenfels, Martin; Menninghaus, Winfried

2016-04-01

Rhetorical theory suggests that rhythmic and metrical features of language substantially contribute to persuading, moving, and pleasing an audience. A potential explanation of these effects is offered by "cognitive fluency theory," which stipulates that recurring patterns (e.g., meter) enhance perceptual fluency and can lead to greater aesthetic appreciation. In this article, we explore these two assertions by investigating the effects of meter and rhyme in the reception of poetry by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants listened to four versions of lyrical stanzas that varied in terms of meter and rhyme, and rated the stanzas for rhythmicity and aesthetic liking. The behavioral and ERP results were in accord with enhanced liking and rhythmicity ratings for metered and rhyming stanzas. The metered and rhyming stanzas elicited smaller N400/P600 ERP responses than their nonmetered, nonrhyming, or nonmetered and nonrhyming counterparts. In addition, the N400 and P600 effects for the lyrical stanzas correlated with aesthetic liking effects (metered-nonmetered), implying that modulation of the N400 and P600 has a direct bearing on the aesthetic appreciation of lyrical stanzas. We suggest that these effects are indicative of perceptual-fluency-enhanced aesthetic liking, as postulated by cognitive fluency theory.

Aspects of fluency in writing.

PubMed

Uppstad, Per Henning; Solheim, Oddny Judith

2007-03-01

The notion of 'fluency' is most often associated with spoken-language phenomena such as stuttering. The present article investigates the relevance of considering fluency in writing. The basic argument for raising this question is empirical-it follows from a focus on difficulties in written and spoken language as manifestations of different problems which should be investigated separately on the basis of their symptoms. Key-logging instruments provide new possibilities for the study of writing. The obvious use of this new technology is to study writing as it unfolds in real time, instead of focusing only on aspects of the end product. A more sophisticated application is to exploit the key-logging instrument in order to test basic assumptions of contemporary theories of spelling. The present study is a dictation task involving words and non-words, intended to investigate spelling in nine-year-old pupils with regard to their mastery of the doubling of consonants in Norwegian. In this study, we report on differences with regard to temporal measures between a group of strong writers and a group of poor ones. On the basis of these pupils' writing behavior, the relevance of the concept of 'fluency' in writing is highlighted. The interpretation of the results questions basic assumptions of the cognitive hypothesis about spelling; the article concludes by hypothesizing a different conception of spelling.

Advanced lesion symptom mapping analyses and implementation as BCBtoolkit.

PubMed

Foulon, Chris; Cerliani, Leonardo; Kinkingnéhun, Serge; Levy, Richard; Rosso, Charlotte; Urbanski, Marika; Volle, Emmanuelle; Thiebaut de Schotten, Michel

2018-03-01

Patients with brain lesions provide a unique opportunity to understand the functioning of the human mind. However, even when focal, brain lesions have local and remote effects that impact functionally and structurally connected circuits. Similarly, function emerges from the interaction between brain areas rather than their sole activity. For instance, category fluency requires the associations between executive, semantic, and language production functions. Here, we provide, for the first time, a set of complementary solutions for measuring the impact of a given lesion on the neuronal circuits. Our methods, which were applied to 37 patients with a focal frontal brain lesions, revealed a large set of directly and indirectly disconnected brain regions that had significantly impacted category fluency performance. The directly disconnected regions corresponded to areas that are classically considered as functionally engaged in verbal fluency and categorization tasks. These regions were also organized into larger directly and indirectly disconnected functional networks, including the left ventral fronto-parietal network, whose cortical thickness correlated with performance on category fluency. The combination of structural and functional connectivity together with cortical thickness estimates reveal the remote effects of brain lesions, provide for the identification of the affected networks, and strengthen our understanding of their relationship with cognitive and behavioral measures. The methods presented are available and freely accessible in the BCBtoolkit as supplementary software [1].

State Authenticity as Fit to Environment: The Implications of Social Identity for Fit, Authenticity, and Self-Segregation.

PubMed

Schmader, Toni; Sedikides, Constantine

2017-10-01

People seek out situations that "fit," but the concept of fit is not well understood. We introduce State Authenticity as Fit to the Environment (SAFE), a conceptual framework for understanding how social identities motivate the situations that people approach or avoid. Drawing from but expanding the authenticity literature, we first outline three types of person-environment fit: self-concept fit, goal fit, and social fit. Each type of fit, we argue, facilitates cognitive fluency, motivational fluency, and social fluency that promote state authenticity and drive approach or avoidance behaviors. Using this model, we assert that contexts subtly signal social identities in ways that implicate each type of fit, eliciting state authenticity for advantaged groups but state inauthenticity for disadvantaged groups. Given that people strive to be authentic, these processes cascade down to self-segregation among social groups, reinforcing social inequalities. We conclude by mapping out directions for research on relevant mechanisms and boundary conditions.

Comparison of Repeated and Non-Repeated Readings on the Reading Performances of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Escarpio, Raul; Barbetta, Patricia M.

2016-01-01

This study used an alternating treatments design to compare the effects of three conditions on the reading fluency, errors, and comprehension of four, sixth-grade students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who were struggling readers. The conditions were (a) repeated readings in which participants read three times a passage of 100 or…

Predictors of hyperphagia in institutionalized patients with dementia.

PubMed

Wu, Hua-Shan

2014-12-01

Hyperphagia, a common eating behavioral change in patients with dementia, is one of the risk factors for institutional placement. No study of hyperphagia has yet been conducted on institutionalized patients with dementia. There is currently no academic consensus over the correlations among hyperphagic behaviors, agitated behaviors, cognitive function, and demographic characteristics in this patient group. This study explores the prevalence and predictors of hyperphagic behaviors in institutionalized patients with dementia. A cross-sectional and correlational design was used. The participants were recruited from seven dementia special care units and assisted living facilities in Taiwan. One hundred seventy-nine patients with dementia agreed to participate. Two research assistants were trained to collect data using the subscale for hyperphagic behaviors, the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument, and a dementia patient demographic characteristics datasheet. The prevalence of hyperphagic behaviors in institutionalized patients with dementia was 50.8% (91/179). After excluding the variables from the long-term memory, short-term memory, attention, abstraction and judgment, and verbally nonaggressive behavior subscales scores, we found gender, length of institutionalization, category fluency, and physically nonaggressive behavior subscale scores to be significant predictors of hyperphagic behaviors (p < .05). Findings suggest that institutionalized male patients with dementia with longer institutionalization who have either a relatively low-fluency task score or a relatively high frequency of physically nonaggressive behaviors are at greater risk for exhibiting hyperphagic behaviors. Once hyperphagic behaviors are found in a patient, a transdisciplinary case meeting should be held to develop an appropriate dietary management plan, and further identification and treatment should be done by a neurologist or a psychiatrist.

Cerebellar tDCS as a novel treatment for aphasia? Evidence from behavioral and resting-state functional connectivity data in healthy adults.

PubMed

Turkeltaub, Peter E; Swears, Mary K; D'Mello, Anila M; Stoodley, Catherine J

2016-05-24

Aphasia is an acquired deficit in the ability to communicate through language. Noninvasive neuromodulation offers the potential to boost neural function and recovery, yet the optimal site of neuromodulation for aphasia has yet to be established. The right posterolateral cerebellum is involved in multiple language functions, interconnects with left-hemisphere language cortices, and is crucial for optimization of function and skill acquisition, suggesting that cerebellar neuromodulation could enhance aphasia rehabilitation. To provide preliminary behavioral and functional connectivity evidence from healthy participants that cerebellar neuromodulation may be useful for rehabilitation of aphasia. In Experiment 1, 76 healthy adults performed articulation and verbal fluency tasks before and after anodal, cathodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was applied over two cerebellar locations (anterior, right posterolateral). In Experiment 2, we examined whether anodal tDCS over the right posterolateral cerebellum modulated resting-state functional connectivity in language networks in 27 healthy adults. TDCS over the right posterolateral cerebellum significantly improved phonemic fluency. Cerebellar neuromodulation increased functional connectivity between the cerebellum and areas involved in the motor control of speech, and enhanced the correlations between left-hemisphere language and speech-motor regions. We provide proof-of-principle evidence that cerebellar neuromodulation improves verbal fluency and impacts resting-state connectivity in language circuits. These findings suggest that the cerebellum is a viable candidate for neuromodulation in people with aphasia.

Effects of Differential Reinforcement of Short Latencies on Response Latency, Task Completion, and Accuracy of an Adolescent with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donohue, Melanie M.; Casey, Laura Baylot; Bicard, David F.; Bicard, Sara E.

2012-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are faced with many challenging behaviors that could impede their learning. One commonly reported problem behavior is noncompliance, which is often defined as a delay in response (latency), decrease in rate of responding (fluency), or failure to complete a task. This failure to comply in an appropriate…

Instructional Practices for Students with Behavioral Disorders: Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Math. What Works for Special-Needs Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, J. Ron; Benner, Gregory J.; Mooney, Paul

2008-01-01

Presenting a broad range of instructional programs and practices that are proven effective for students with behavioral disorders, this is the first resource of its kind for K-3 teachers and special educators. Described are clear-cut strategies for promoting mastery and fluency in early reading, writing, and math, while tailoring instruction to…

Developmental relations between reading fluency and reading comprehension: A longitudinal study from grade one to two

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk; Wagner, Richard K.; Lopez, Danielle

2012-01-01

From a developmental framework, relations among list reading fluency, oral and silent reading fluency, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension might be expected to change as children’s reading skills develop. We examined developmental relations among these constructs in a latent-variable longitudinal study of first- and second-grade students. Results showed that list reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension in grade one, but not in grade two after accounting for text reading fluency (oral or silent) and listening comprehension. In contrast, text reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension in grade two, but not in grade one, after accounting for list reading fluency and listening comprehension. When oral and silent reading fluency were compared, oral reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension after accounting for silent reading fluency in grade one whereas in grade two, silent reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension after accounting for oral reading fluency. PMID:22726256

Understanding the Misunderstanding: An Analysis of the Relationships between Reading Fluency Constructs, Reading Fluency Instruction and Oral Reading Fluency Assessment in the Elementary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cribbs, Aimee M.

2013-01-01

This study focused on the relationships between educator reading fluency constructs, reading fluency instruction and oral reading fluency assessment. Survey responses from sixty-six elementary educators in rural and urban north Georgia were analyzed to reach an understanding of why educators are likely to equate reading fluency with reading fast…

Behavior Modification with an Aphasic Man

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ince, Laurence P.

1973-01-01

Techniques based upon operant conditioning were employed with a male patient who had sustained a cerebrovascular accident with consequent right hemiplegia and expressive asphasia. A combination of positive verbal reinforcement and feedback of progress were utilized to improve language fluency and speed of typing. (Author)

Putting the Fun Back into Fluency Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahill, Mary Ann; Gregory, Anne E.

2011-01-01

Based on recent research in fluency instruction, the authors present a scenario in which a teacher focuses her fluency instruction on authentic fluency tasks based in performance. Beginning with establishing a student-friendly definition of fluency and culminating with student engagement in fun fluency activities, this article explores the…

Advanced lesion symptom mapping analyses and implementation as BCBtoolkit

PubMed Central

Foulon, Chris; Cerliani, Leonardo; Kinkingnéhun, Serge; Levy, Richard; Rosso, Charlotte; Urbanski, Marika

2018-01-01

Abstract Background Patients with brain lesions provide a unique opportunity to understand the functioning of the human mind. However, even when focal, brain lesions have local and remote effects that impact functionally and structurally connected circuits. Similarly, function emerges from the interaction between brain areas rather than their sole activity. For instance, category fluency requires the associations between executive, semantic, and language production functions. Findings Here, we provide, for the first time, a set of complementary solutions for measuring the impact of a given lesion on the neuronal circuits. Our methods, which were applied to 37 patients with a focal frontal brain lesions, revealed a large set of directly and indirectly disconnected brain regions that had significantly impacted category fluency performance. The directly disconnected regions corresponded to areas that are classically considered as functionally engaged in verbal fluency and categorization tasks. These regions were also organized into larger directly and indirectly disconnected functional networks, including the left ventral fronto-parietal network, whose cortical thickness correlated with performance on category fluency. Conclusions The combination of structural and functional connectivity together with cortical thickness estimates reveal the remote effects of brain lesions, provide for the identification of the affected networks, and strengthen our understanding of their relationship with cognitive and behavioral measures. The methods presented are available and freely accessible in the BCBtoolkit as supplementary software [1]. PMID:29432527

Power2: Relapse Management with Adolescents Who Stutter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blood, Gordon W.

1995-01-01

This article describes a cognitive-behavioral treatment package for relapse management in adolescents who stutter. The package includes game-based training techniques in problem solving, communication skills, and assertiveness; coping responses for stuttering episodes; and realistic expectations for fluency and relapse. Follow-up results with…

A simple and effective treatment for stuttering: speech practice without audience.

PubMed

Yamada, Jun; Homma, Takanobu

2007-01-01

On the assumption that stuttering is essentially acquired behavior, it has been concluded that speech-related anticipatory anxiety as a major cause of stuttering accounts for virtually all apparently-different aspects of stuttering on the behavioral level. Stutterers' linguistic competence is unimpaired, although their speech production is characterized as "disfluent". Yet, such disfluency is dramatically reduced when such people speak in anxiety-free no-audience conditions. Furthermore, our pilot study of oral reading in Japanese indicates that a stutterer can easily replace stuttering events with a common interjection, "eh", and make oral reading sound natural and fluent. Given these facts, we propose the Overlearning Fluency when Alone (OFA) treatment, consisting of two distinct but overlapping steps: (1) Overlearning of fluency in a no-audience condition, and (2) Use of an interjection, "eh", as a starter when a stuttering event is anticipated. It remains to be demonstrated that this is a truly simple and effective treatment for "one of mankind's most baffling afflictions".

Effects of a play program on creative thinking of preschool children.

PubMed

Garaigordobil, Maite; Berrueco, Laura

2011-11-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a play program in the creative thinking of preschool children. The study used a repeated measures experimental pretest-posttest design with control groups. The sample included 86 participants aged 5 to 6 years (53 experimental and 33 control participants). Before and after administering the program, two evaluation instruments were applied: The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1990) and Behaviors and Traits of Creative Personality Scale (Garaigordobil & Berrueco, 2007). The program consisted of a weekly 75-minute play session throughout the school year. ANOVA results showed that the program significantly increased the verbal creativity (fluency, flexibility, originality), graphic creativity (elaboration, fluency, originality), and behaviors and traits of creative personality. In the pretest phase, there were no differences in the creativity of boys and girls, and the program stimulated a similar level of change in both sexes. The discussion focuses on the importance of implementing creative programs with preschool children.

Characteristics of clinical trials that require participants to be fluent in English

PubMed Central

Egleston, Brian L; Pedraza, Omar; Wong, Yu-Ning; Dunbrack, Roland L; Griffin, Candace L; Ross, Eric A; Beck, J Robert

2015-01-01

Background/Aims Diverse samples in clinical trials can make findings more generalizable. We sought to characterize the prevalence of clinical trials in the United States that required English fluency for participants to enroll in the trial. Methods We randomly chose over 10,000 clinical trial protocols registered with ClinicalTrials.gov and examined the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the trials. We compared the relationship of clinical trial characteristics with English fluency inclusion requirements. We merged the ClinicalTrials.gov data with U.S. Census and American Community Survey data to investigate the association of English language restrictions with ZIP-code level demographic characteristics of participating institutions. We used Chi-squared tests, t-tests, and logistic regression models for analyses. Results English fluency requirements have been increasing over time, from 1.7% of trials having such requirements before 2000 to 9.0% after 2010 (p<0.001 from Chi-squared test). Industry sponsored trials had low rates of English fluency requirements (1.8%) while behavioral trials had high rates (28.4%). Trials opening in the Northeast of the U.S. had the highest regional English requirement rates (10.7%) while trials opening in more than one region had the lowest (3.3%, p<0.001). Since 1995, trials opening in ZIP-codes with larger Hispanic populations were less likely to have English fluency requirements (OR=0.92 for each 10 percent increase in proportion of Hispanics, 95% CI 0.86–0.98, p=0.013). Trials opening in ZIP-codes with more residents self-identifying as Black/African American (OR=1.87, 95% CI 1.36–2.58, p<0.001 for restricted cubic spline term) or Asian (OR=1.16 for linear term, 95% CI 1.07–1.25, p<0.001) were more likely to have English fluency requirements. ZIP-codes with higher poverty rates had trials with more English language restrictions (OR=1.06 for a 10 percent poverty rate increase, 95% CI 1.001–1.11, p=0.045). There was a statistically significant interaction between year and intervention type, such that the increase in English fluency requirements was more common for some interventions than for others. Conclusions The proportion of clinical trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov that have English fluency requirements for study inclusion has been increasing over time. English language restrictions are associated with a number of characteristics, including the demographic characteristics of communities in which the sponsoring institutions are located. PMID:26152834

Characteristics of clinical trials that require participants to be fluent in English.

PubMed

Egleston, Brian L; Pedraza, Omar; Wong, Yu-Ning; Dunbrack, Roland L; Griffin, Candace L; Ross, Eric A; Beck, J Robert

2015-12-01

Diverse samples in clinical trials can make findings more generalizable. We sought to characterize the prevalence of clinical trials in the United States that required English fluency for participants to enroll in the trial. We randomly chose over 10,000 clinical trial protocols registered with ClinicalTrials.gov and examined the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the trials. We compared the relationship of clinical trial characteristics with English fluency inclusion requirements. We merged the ClinicalTrials.gov data with US Census and American Community Survey data to investigate the association of English-language restrictions with ZIP-code-level demographic characteristics of participating institutions. We used Chi-squared tests, t-tests, and logistic regression models for analyses. English fluency requirements have been increasing over time, from 1.7% of trials having such requirements before 2000 to 9.0% after 2010 (p < 0.001 from Chi-squared test). Industry-sponsored trials had low rates of English fluency requirements (1.8%), while behavioral trials had high rates (28.4%). Trials opening in the Northeast of the United States had the highest regional English requirement rates (10.7%), while trials opening in more than one region had the lowest (3.3%, p<0.001). Since 1995, trials opening in ZIP codes with larger Hispanic populations were less likely to have English fluency requirements (odds ratio=0.92 for each 10% increase in proportion of Hispanics, 95% confidence interval=0.86-0.98, p=0.013). Trials opening in ZIP codes with more residents self-identifying as Black/African American (odds ratio=1.87, 95% confidence interval=1.36-2.58, p<0.001 for restricted cubic spline term) or Asian (odds ratio=1.16 for linear term, 95% confidence interval=1.07-1.25, p<0.001) were more likely to have English fluency requirements. ZIP codes with higher poverty rates had trials with more English-language restrictions (odds ratio=1.06 for a 10% poverty rate increase, 95% confidence interval=1.001-1.11, p=0.045). There was a statistically significant interaction between year and intervention type, such that the increase in English fluency requirements was more common for some interventions than for others. The proportion of clinical trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov that have English fluency requirements for study inclusion has been increasing over time. English-language restrictions are associated with a number of characteristics, including the demographic characteristics of communities in which the sponsoring institutions are located. © The Author(s) 2015.

Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2015-01-01

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text-reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity): how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency, reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word-reading fluency and reading comprehension. The study examined (a) developmentally changing relations…

Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2015-01-01

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text-reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity): how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word-reading fluency, reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word-reading fluency and reading comprehension. The study examined (a) developmentally changing relations…

Oral Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Silent Reading Fluency at Secondary and Postsecondary Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seok, Soonhwa; DaCosta, Boaventura

2014-01-01

This research investigated oral reading fluency as a predictor of silent reading fluency at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Several measures were used, including the Gray Oral Reading Test, the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency, the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency, and the Reading Observation Scale. A total of 223 students…

Effects of generation mode in fMRI adaptations of semantic fluency: Paced production and overt speech

PubMed Central

Basho, Surina; Palmer, Erica D.; Rubio, Miguel A.; Wulfeck, Beverly; Müller, Ralph-Axel

2007-01-01

Verbal fluency is a widely used neuropsychological paradigm. In fMRI implementations, conventional unpaced (self-paced) versions are suboptimal due to uncontrolled timing of responses, and overt responses carry the risk of motion artifact. We investigated the behavioral and neurofunctional effects of response pacing and overt speech in semantic category-driven word generation. Twelve right-handed adults (8 female) ages 21–37 were scanned in four conditions each: Paced-Overt, Paced-Covert, Unpaced-Overt, and Unpaced-Covert. There was no significant difference in the number of exemplars generated between overt versions of the paced and unpaced conditions. Imaging results for category-driven word generation overall showed left-hemispheric activation in inferior frontal cortex, premotor cortex, cingulate gyrus, thalamus, and basal ganglia. Direct comparison of generation modes revealed significantly greater activation for the paced compared to unpaced conditions in right superior temporal, bilateral middle frontal, and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, including regions associated with sustained attention, motor planning, and response inhibition. Covert (compared to overt) conditions showed significantly greater effects in right parietal and anterior cingulate, as well as left middle temporal and superior frontal regions. We conclude that paced overt paradigms are useful adaptations of conventional semantic fluency in fMRI, given their superiority with regard to control over and monitoring of behavioral responses. However, response pacing is associated with additional non-linguistic effects related to response inhibition, motor preparation, and sustained attention. PMID:17292926

Associations between Private Speech, Behavioral Self-Regulation, and Cognitive Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aro, Tuija; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Laakso, Marja-Leena; Tolvanen, Asko; Ahonen, Timo

2015-01-01

We examined the associations between 5-year-old children's private speech, behavioural self-regulation, and cognitive abilities. Behavioural self-regulation was assessed using parental and preschool teacher questionnaires. Cognitive abilities (i.e., language, inhibition, planning and fluency, and memory) were assessed with neurocognitive tests,…

Is Oral/Text Reading Fluency a “Bridge” to Reading Comprehension?

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Park, Chea Hyeong; Wagner, Richard K.

2015-01-01

In the present study we investigated developmental relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, and text reading fluency to reading comprehension in a relatively transparent language, Korean. A total of 98 kindergartners and 170 first graders in Korea were assessed on a series of tasks involving listening comprehension, word reading fluency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Results from multigroup structural equation models showed that text reading fluency was a dissociable construct for both kindergartners and first graders. In addition, a developmental pattern emerged: listening comprehension was not uniquely related to text reading fluency for first graders, but not for kindergartners, over and above word reading fluency. In addition, text reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension for kindergartners, but not for first graders, after accounting for word reading fluency and listening comprehension. For first graders, listening comprehension dominated the relations. There were no differences in the pattern of relations for skilled and less skilled readers in first grade. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective for reading comprehension component skills including text reading fluency. PMID:25653474

The Relationship between Different Measures of Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension in Second-Grade Students Who Evidence Different Oral Reading Fluency Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wise, Justin C.; Sevcik, Rose A.; Morris, Robin D.; Lovett, Maureen W.; Wolf, Maryanne; Kuhn, Melanie; Meisinger, Beth; Schwanenflugel, Paula

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether different measures of oral reading fluency relate differentially to reading comprehension performance in two samples of second-grade students: (a) students who evidenced difficulties with nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, and oral reading fluency of…

Reading Fluency and Its Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Maryanne; Katzir-Cohen, Tami

2001-01-01

Confronts 3 large lacunae in research on reading fluency: definition, component structure, and theory-based intervention. Presents a developmental- and component-based definition of reading fluency. Discusses how different types of current fluency interventions correspond to particular components in fluency's structure and to particular phases of…

Impaired Verb Fluency: A Sign of Mild Cognitive Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostberg, Per; Fernaeus, Sven-Erik; Hellstrom, Ake; Bogdanovic, Nenad; Wahlund, Lars Olof

2005-01-01

We assessed verb fluency vs. noun and letter-based fluency in 199 subjects referred for cognitive complaints including Subjective Cognitive Impairment, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. ANCOVAs and factor analyses identified verb, noun, and letter-based fluency as distinct tasks. Verb fluency performance in Mild Cognitive…

Word Reading Fluency as a Serial Naming Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Protopapas, Athanassios; Katopodi, Katerina; Altani, Angeliki; Georgiou, George K.

2018-01-01

Word list reading fluency is theoretically expected to depend on single word reading speed. Yet the correlation between the two diminishes with increasing fluency, while fluency remains strongly correlated to serial digit naming. We hypothesized that multi-element sequence processing is an important component of fluency. We used confirmatory…

Silent Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

O'Brien, Beth A.; Wallot, Sebastian

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on reading fluency by bilingual primary school students, and the relation of text fluency to their reading comprehension. Group differences were examined in a cross-sectional design across the age range when fluency is posed to shift from word-level to text-level. One hundred five bilingual children from primary grades 3, 4, and 5 were assessed for English word reading and decoding fluency, phonological awareness, rapid symbol naming, and oral language proficiency with standardized measures. These skills were correlated with their silent reading fluency on a self-paced story reading task. Text fluency was quantified using non-linear analytic methods: recurrence quantification and fractal analyses. Findings indicate that more fluent text reading appeared by grade 4, similar to monolingual findings, and that different aspects of fluency characterized passage reading performance at different grade levels. Text fluency and oral language proficiency emerged as significant predictors of reading comprehension. PMID:27630590

Mere exposure effect: A consequence of direct and indirect fluency-preference links.

PubMed

Willems, Sylvie; Van der Linden, Martial

2006-06-01

In three experiments, picture quality between test items was manipulated to examine whether subjects' expectations about the fluency normally associated with these different stimuli might influence the effects of fluency on preference or familiarity-based recognition responses. The results showed that fluency due to pre-exposure influenced responses less when objects were presented with high picture quality, suggesting that attributions of fluency to preference and familiarity are adjusted according to expectations about the different test pictures. However, this expectations influence depended on subjects' awareness of these different quality levels. Indeed, imperceptible differences seemed not to induce expectations about the test item fluency. In this context, fluency due to both picture quality and pre-exposure influenced direct responses. Conversely, obvious, and noticed, differences in test picture quality did no affect responses, suggesting that expectations moderated attributions of fluency only when fluency normally associated with these different stimuli was perceptible but difficult to assess.

Verbal Fluency Performance in Patients with Non-demented Parkinson's Disease

PubMed Central

Khatoonabadi, Ahmad Reza; Bakhtiyari, Jalal

2013-01-01

Objective While Parkinson's disease (PD) has traditionally been defined by motor symptoms, many researches have indicated that mild cognitive impairment is common in non-demented PD patients. The purpose of this study was to compare verbal fluency performance in non-demented Parkinson's disease patients with healthy controls. Method In this cross-sectional study thirty non-demented Parkinson's disease patients and 30 healthy controls, matched by age, gender and education, were compared on verbal fluency performance. Verbal fluency was studied with a Phonemic Fluency task using the letters F, A, and S, a semantic fluency task using the categories animals and fruits. The independent t-test was used for data analysis. Results Overall, participants generated more words in the semantic fluency task than in the phonemic fluency task. Results revealed significant differences between patients and controls in semantic fluency task (p<.05). In addition, PD patients showed a significant reduction of correctly generated words in letter fluency task. The total number of words produced was also significantly lower in the PD group (p<.05). Conclusion Verbal fluency disruption is implied in non-demented PD patients in association with incipient cognitive impairment. PMID:23682253

Neuropsychological function and suicidal behavior: attention control, memory and executive dysfunction in suicide attempt.

PubMed

Keilp, J G; Gorlyn, M; Russell, M; Oquendo, M A; Burke, A K; Harkavy-Friedman, J; Mann, J J

2013-03-01

Executive dysfunction, distinct from other cognitive deficits in depression, has been associated with suicidal behavior. However, this dysfunction is not found consistently across samples. Medication-free subjects with DSM-IV major depressive episode (major depressive disorder and bipolar type I disorder) and a past history of suicidal behavior (n = 72) were compared to medication-free depressed subjects with no history of suicidal behavior (n = 80) and healthy volunteers (n = 56) on a battery of tests assessing neuropsychological functions typically affected by depression (motor and psychomotor speed, attention, memory) and executive functions reportedly impaired in suicide attempters (abstract/contingent learning, working memory, language fluency, impulse control). All of the depressed subjects performed worse than healthy volunteers on motor, psychomotor and language fluency tasks. Past suicide attempters, in turn, performed worse than depressed non-attempters on attention and memory/working memory tasks [a computerized Stroop task, the Buschke Selective Reminding Task (SRT), the Benton Visual Retention Test (VRT) and an N-back task] but not on other executive function measures, including a task associated with ventral prefrontal function (Object Alternation). Deficits were not accounted for by current suicidal ideation or the lethality of past attempts. A small subsample of those using a violent method in their most lethal attempt showed a pattern of poor executive performance. Deficits in specific components of attention control, memory and working memory were associated with suicidal behavior in a sample where non-violent attempt predominated. Broader executive dysfunction in depression may be associated with specific forms of suicidal behavior, rather than suicidal behavior per se.

Verbal and Non-verbal Fluency in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia: Phonological Processing or Executive Control Problems?

PubMed

Smith-Spark, James H; Henry, Lucy A; Messer, David J; Zięcik, Adam P

2017-08-01

The executive function of fluency describes the ability to generate items according to specific rules. Production of words beginning with a certain letter (phonemic fluency) is impaired in dyslexia, while generation of words belonging to a certain semantic category (semantic fluency) is typically unimpaired. However, in dyslexia, verbal fluency has generally been studied only in terms of overall words produced. Furthermore, performance of adults with dyslexia on non-verbal design fluency tasks has not been explored but would indicate whether deficits could be explained by executive control, rather than phonological processing, difficulties. Phonemic, semantic and design fluency tasks were presented to adults with dyslexia and without dyslexia, using fine-grained performance measures and controlling for IQ. Hierarchical regressions indicated that dyslexia predicted lower phonemic fluency, but not semantic or design fluency. At the fine-grained level, dyslexia predicted a smaller number of switches between subcategories on phonemic fluency, while dyslexia did not predict the size of phonemically related clusters of items. Overall, the results suggested that phonological processing problems were at the root of dyslexia-related fluency deficits; however, executive control difficulties could not be completely ruled out as an alternative explanation. Developments in research methodology, equating executive demands across fluency tasks, may resolve this issue. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fluency Effects in Recognition Memory: Are Perceptual Fluency and Conceptual Fluency Interchangeable?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lanska, Meredith; Olds, Justin M.; Westerman, Deanne L.

2014-01-01

On a recognition memory test, both perceptual and conceptual fluency can engender a sense of familiarity and elicit recognition memory illusions. To date, perceptual and conceptual fluency have been studied separately but are they interchangeable in terms of their influence on recognition judgments? Five experiments compared the effect of…

Story Retell: A Fluency-Based Indicator of Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Greg; Good, Roland; Corcoran, Stephanie

2005-01-01

This article presents a fluency-based measure of reading comprehension. A part of the Vitals Indicators of Progress (VIP) system, the measure outlined here represents an alternate form to the retell-fluency measure in the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy System (DIBELS). Measures of retell fluency provide an efficient, fluency-based tool…

It felt fluent, and I liked it: subjective feeling of fluency rather than objective fluency determines liking.

PubMed

Forster, Michael; Leder, Helmut; Ansorge, Ulrich

2013-04-01

According to the processing-fluency explanation of aesthetics, more fluently processed stimuli are preferred (R. Reber, N. Schwarz, & P. Winkielman, 2004, Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 8, pp. 364-382.). In this view, the subjective feeling of ease of processing is considered important, but this has not been directly tested in perceptual processing. In two experiments, we therefore objectively manipulated fluency (ease of processing) with subliminal perceptual priming (Study 1) and variations in presentation durations (Study 2). We assessed the impact of objective fluency on feelings of fluency and liking, as well as their interdependence. In line with the processing-fluency account, we found that objectively more fluent images were indeed judged as more fluent and were also liked more. Moreover, differences in liking were even stronger when data were analyzed according to felt fluency. These findings demonstrate that perceptual fluency is not only explicitly felt, it can also be reported and is an important determinant of liking. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Category and design fluency in mild cognitive impairment: Performance, strategy use, and neural correlates.

PubMed

Peter, Jessica; Kaiser, Jannis; Landerer, Verena; Köstering, Lena; Kaller, Christoph P; Heimbach, Bernhard; Hüll, Michael; Bormann, Tobias; Klöppel, Stefan

2016-12-01

The exploration and retrieval of words during category fluency involves different strategies to improve or maintain performance. Deficits in that task, which are common in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), mirror either impaired semantic memory or dysfunctional executive control mechanisms. Relating category fluency to tasks that place greater demands on either semantic knowledge or executive functions might help to determine the underlying cognitive process. The aims of this study were to compare performance and strategy use of 20 patients with aMCI to 30 healthy elderly controls (HC) and to identify the dominant component (either executive or semantic) for better task performance in category fluency. Thus, the relationship between category fluency, design fluency and naming was examined. As fluency tasks have been associated with the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the temporal pole, we further explored the relationship between gray matter volume in these areas and both performance and strategy use. Patients with aMCI showed significantly lower performance and significantly less strategy use during fluency tasks compared to HC. However, both groups equally improved their performance when repeatedly confronted with the same task. In aMCI, performance during category fluency was significantly predicted by design fluency performance, while in HC, it was significantly predicted by naming performance. In HC, volume of the SFG significantly predicted both category and design fluency performance, and strategy use during design fluency. In aMCI, the SFG and the IFG predicted performance during both category and design fluency. The IFG significantly predicted strategy use during category fluency in both groups. The reduced category fluency performance in aMCI seems to be primarily due to dysfunctional executive control mechanisms rather than impaired semantic knowledge. This finding is directly relevant to patients in the different stages of Alzheimer's disease as it links the known semantic fluency deficit in this population to executive functions. Although patients with aMCI are impaired in both performance and strategy use compared to HC, they are able to increase performance over time. However, only HC were able to significantly improve the utilization of fluency strategies in both category and design fluency over time. HC seem to rely more heavily on the SFG during fluency tasks, while in patients with aMCI additional frontal brain areas are involved, possibly reflecting compensational processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What Do We Mean by Writing Fluency and How Can It Be Validly Measured?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdel Latif, Muhammad M. Mahmoud

2013-01-01

Fluency is an essential component in writing ability and development. Writing fluency research is important to researchers and teachers interested in facilitating students' written text production and in assessing writing. This calls for reaching a better understanding of writing fluency and how it should be measured. Although fluency is the…

Text (Oral) Reading Fluency as a Construct in Reading Development: An Investigation of its Mediating Role for Children from Grades 1 to 4

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Wagner, Richard K.

2015-01-01

In the present study we investigated a developmentally changing role of text reading fluency in mediating the relations of word reading fluency and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. We addressed this question by using longitudinal data from Grades 1 to 4, and employing structural equation models. Results showed that the role of text reading fluency changes over time as children’s reading proficiency develops. In the beginning phase of reading development (Grade 1), text reading fluency was not independently related to reading comprehension over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. In Grades 2 to 4, however, text reading fluency completely mediated the relation between word reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas it partially mediated the relation between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. These results suggest that text reading fluency is a dissociable construct that plays a developmentally changing role in reading acquisition. PMID:25848201

Procedures to increase some aspects of creativity.

PubMed Central

Glover, J; Gary, A L

1976-01-01

Instructions reinforcement (team points), and practice were applied to four behaviorally defined creative behaviors of eight fourth- and fifth-grade students. All four aspects (number of different responses, fluency; number of verb forms, flexibility; number of words per response, elaboration; and statistical infrequency of response forms, originality) were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's tests of creativity. Application of the experimental procedures may well be practical for classroom teachers. PMID:943391

Procedures to increase some aspects of creativity.

PubMed

Glover, J; Gary, A L

1976-01-01

Instructions reinforcement (team points), and practice were applied to four behaviorally defined creative behaviors of eight fourth- and fifth-grade students. All four aspects (number of different responses, fluency; number of verb forms, flexibility; number of words per response, elaboration; and statistical infrequency of response forms, originality) were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's tests of creativity. Application of the experimental procedures may well be practical for classroom teachers.

Exploring "fringe" consciousness: the subjective experience of perceptual fluency and its objective bases.

PubMed

Reber, Rolf; Wurtz, Pascal; Zimmermann, Thomas D

2004-03-01

Perceptual fluency is the subjective experience of ease with which an incoming stimulus is processed. Although perceptual fluency is assessed by speed of processing, it remains unclear how objective speed is related to subjective experiences of fluency. We present evidence that speed at different stages of the perceptual process contributes to perceptual fluency. In an experiment, figure-ground contrast influenced detection of briefly presented words, but not their identification at longer exposure durations. Conversely, font in which the word was written influenced identification, but not detection. Both contrast and font influenced subjective fluency. These findings suggest that speed of processing at different stages condensed into a unified subjective experience of perceptual fluency.

The Effect of Task Complexity on Functional Adequacy, Fluency and Lexical Diversity in Speaking Performances of Native and Non-Native Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Jong, Nivja H.; Steinel, Margarita P.; Florijn, Arjen F.; Schoonen, Rob; Hulstijn, Jan H.

2012-01-01

This study investigated how task complexity affected native and non-native speakers' speaking performance in terms of a measure of communicative success (functional adequacy), three types of fluency (breakdown fluency, speed fluency, and repair fluency), and lexical diversity. Participants (208 non-native and 59 native speakers of Dutch) carried…

Reading Fluency beyond English: Investigations into Reading Fluency in Turkish Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kasim; Rasinski, Timothy

2014-01-01

Reading fluency is one of the underlying factors of successful language curricula and it is also one of the defining characteristics of good readers. A lack of fluency is a common characteristic of struggling readers. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates proficiency in reading fluency is important for success in learning to read…

How Do Utterance Measures Predict Raters' Perceptions of Fluency in French as a Second Language?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Préfontaine, Yvonne; Kormos, Judit; Johnson, Daniel Ezra

2016-01-01

While the research literature on second language (L2) fluency is replete with descriptions of fluency and its influence with regard to English as an additional language, little is known about what fluency features influence judgments of fluency in L2 French. This study reports the results of an investigation that analyzed the relationship between…

Examining the relationship between rapid automatized naming and arithmetic fluency in Chinese kindergarten children.

PubMed

Cui, Jiaxin; Georgiou, George K; Zhang, Yiyun; Li, Yixun; Shu, Hua; Zhou, Xinlin

2017-02-01

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) has been found to predict mathematics. However, the nature of their relationship remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to examine how RAN (numeric and non-numeric) predicts a subdomain of mathematics (arithmetic fluency) and (b) to examine what processing skills may account for the RAN-arithmetic fluency relationship. A total of 160 third-year kindergarten Chinese children (83 boys and 77 girls, mean age=5.11years) were assessed on RAN (colors, objects, digits, and dice), nonverbal IQ, visual-verbal paired associate learning, phonological awareness, short-term memory, speed of processing, approximate number system acuity, and arithmetic fluency (addition and subtraction). The results indicated first that RAN was a significant correlate of arithmetic fluency and the correlations did not vary as a function of type of RAN or arithmetic fluency tasks. In addition, RAN continued to predict addition and subtraction fluency even after controlling for all other processing skills. Taken together, these findings challenge the existing theoretical accounts of the RAN-arithmetic fluency relationship and suggest that, similar to reading fluency, multiple processes underlie the RAN-arithmetic fluency relationship. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive modeling as an interface between brain and behavior: Measuring the semantic decline in mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Johns, Brendan T; Taler, Vanessa; Pisoni, David B; Farlow, Martin R; Hake, Ann Marie; Kareken, David A; Unverzagt, Frederick W; Jones, Michael N

2018-06-01

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterised by subjective and objective memory impairment in the absence of dementia. MCI is a strong predictor for the development of Alzheimer's disease, and may represent an early stage in the disease course in many cases. A standard task used in the diagnosis of MCI is verbal fluency, where participants produce as many items from a specific category (e.g., animals) as possible. Verbal fluency performance is typically analysed by counting the number of items produced. However, analysis of the semantic path of the items produced can provide valuable additional information. We introduce a cognitive model that uses multiple types of lexical information in conjunction with a standard memory search process. The model used a semantic representation derived from a standard semantic space model in conjunction with a memory searching mechanism derived from the Luce choice rule (Luce, 1977). The model was able to detect differences in the memory searching process of patients who were developing MCI, suggesting that the formal analysis of verbal fluency data is a promising avenue to examine the underlying changes occurring in the development of cognitive impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Video Self-Modeling and Improving Oral Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chandler, Wanda Gail

2012-01-01

Self-modeling can take different forms but is described as a process where one observes one's own successful behavior and learns from it without dependence on any particular medium. In this study, two separate experiments were conducted to evaluate a video self-modeling (VSM) feedforward intervention. VSM feedforward (independent variable, IV),…

Stages of Change and Stuttering: A Preliminary View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floyd, Jennifer; Zebrowski, Patricia M.; Flamme, Gregory A.

2007-01-01

As a way to better understand the process of change that occurs in stuttering, Craig [Craig, A. (1998). "Relapse following treatment for stuttering: a critical review and correlative data." "Journal of Fluency Disorders," 23, 1-30] compared the behavioral changes that people who stutter often experience with and without treatment to those that…

Executive Functions in Children with Communications Impairments, in Relation to Autistic Symptomatology. I: Generativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2005-01-01

Previous research has found that people with autism generate few novel responses in ideational fluency tasks, and it has been suggested this deficit is a specific correlate of stereotyped/repetitive behavior. We assessed generativity in children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) who showed communicative abnormalities resembling those seen…

On Being Found: How Habitual Patterns of Thought Influence Creative Interest, Behavior, and Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verhaeghen, Paul; Trani, Alexandra N.; Aikman, Shelley N.

2017-01-01

This study on 138 undergraduate students used path analysis to investigate the relationship between creativity (interest, measured by a creative activities survey; and ability: fluency, originality, and elaboration) and different aspects of thought patterns presumed to influence the preparation and illumination phase of the creative process:…

A Comparison of Behavioral and Constructivist Interventions for Increasing Math-Fact Fluency in a Second-Grade Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poncy, Brian C.; McCallum, Elizabeth; Schmitt, Ara J.

2010-01-01

Although basic math skill deficits are commonly encountered across elementary and secondary school students, few empirically validated, group-administered interventions are available for educators attempting to prevent or remedy such problems. This study compared the effectiveness of two theoretically distinct interventions for improving the…

Fluency heuristic: a model of how the mind exploits a by-product of information retrieval.

PubMed

Hertwig, Ralph; Herzog, Stefan M; Schooler, Lael J; Reimer, Torsten

2008-09-01

Boundedly rational heuristics for inference can be surprisingly accurate and frugal for several reasons. They can exploit environmental structures, co-opt complex capacities, and elude effortful search by exploiting information that automatically arrives on the mental stage. The fluency heuristic is a prime example of a heuristic that makes the most of an automatic by-product of retrieval from memory, namely, retrieval fluency. In 4 experiments, the authors show that retrieval fluency can be a proxy for real-world quantities, that people can discriminate between two objects' retrieval fluencies, and that people's inferences are in line with the fluency heuristic (in particular fast inferences) and with experimentally manipulated fluency. The authors conclude that the fluency heuristic may be one tool in the mind's repertoire of strategies that artfully probes memory for encapsulated frequency information that can veridically reflect statistical regularities in the world. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

Lexical factors and cerebral regions influencing verbal fluency performance in MCI.

PubMed

Clark, D G; Wadley, V G; Kapur, P; DeRamus, T P; Singletary, B; Nicholas, A P; Blanton, P D; Lokken, K; Deshpande, H; Marson, D; Deutsch, G

2014-02-01

To evaluate assumptions regarding semantic (noun), verb, and letter fluency in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD) using novel techniques for measuring word similarity in fluency lists and a region of interest (ROI) analysis of gray matter correlates. Fifty-eight individuals with normal cognition (NC, n=25), MCI (n=23), or AD (n=10) underwent neuropsychological tests, including 10 verbal fluency tasks (three letter tasks [F, A, S], six noun categories [animals, water creatures, fruits and vegetables, tools, vehicles, boats], and verbs). All pairs of words generated by each participant on each task were compared in terms of semantic (meaning), orthographic (spelling), and phonemic (pronunciation) similarity. We used mixed-effects logistic regression to determine which lexical factors were predictive of word adjacency within the lists. Associations between each fluency raw score and gray matter volumes in sixteen ROIs were identified by means of multiple linear regression. We evaluated causal models for both types of analyses to specify the contributions of diagnosis and various mediator variables to the outcomes of word adjacency and fluency raw score. Semantic similarity between words emerged as the strongest predictor of word adjacency for all fluency tasks, including the letter fluency tasks. Semantic similarity mediated the effect of cognitive impairment on word adjacency only for three fluency tasks employing a biological cue. Orthographic similarity was predictive of word adjacency for the A and S tasks, while phonemic similarity was predictive only for the S task and one semantic task (vehicles). The ROI analysis revealed different patterns of correlations among the various fluency tasks, with the most common associations in the right lower temporal and bilateral dorsal frontal regions. Following correction with gray matter volumes from the opposite hemisphere, significant associations persisted for animals, vehicles, and a composite nouns score in the left inferior frontal gyrus, but for letter A, letter S, and a composite FAS score in the right inferior frontal gyrus. These regressions also revealed a lateralized association of the left subcortical nuclei with all letter fluency scores and fruits and vegetables fluency, and an association of the right lower temporal ROI with letter A, FAS, and verb fluency. Gray matter volume in several bihemispheric ROIs (left dorsal frontal, right lower temporal, right occipital, and bilateral mesial temporal) mediated the relationship between cognitive impairment and fluency for fruits and vegetables. Gray matter volume in the right lower temporal ROI mediated the relationship between cognitive impairment and five fluency raw scores (animals, fruits and vegetables, tools, verbs, and the composite nouns score). Semantic memory exerts the strongest influence on word adjacency in letter fluency as well as semantic verbal fluency tasks. Orthography is a stronger influence than pronunciation. All types of fluency task raw scores (letter, noun, and verb) correlate with cerebral regions known to support verbal or nonverbal semantic memory. The findings emphasize the contribution of right hemisphere regions to fluency task performance, particularly for verb and letter fluency. The relationship between diagnosis and semantic fluency performance is mediated by semantic similarity of words and by gray matter volume in the right lower temporal region. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Sexual-orientation-related differences in verbal fluency.

PubMed

Rahman, Qazi; Abrahams, Sharon; Wilson, Glenn D

2003-04-01

This study examined the performance of 60 heterosexual men, 60 gay men, 60 heterosexual women, and 60 lesbians on 3 tests of verbal fluency known to show gender differences: letter, category, and synonym fluency. Gay men and lesbians showed opposite-sex shifts in their profile of scores. For letter fluency, gay men outperformed all other groups; lesbians showed the lowest scores. For category fluency, gay men and heterosexual women jointly outperformed lesbians and heterosexual men. Finally, gay men outperformed all other groups on synonym fluency, whereas lesbians and heterosexual men performed similarly. A difference between heterosexual men and women was demonstrated on category and synonym fluency only. The findings implicate within-sex differences in the functioning of the prefrontal and temporal cortices.

Meeting your match: how attractiveness similarity affects approach behavior in mixed-sex dyads.

PubMed

van Straaten, Ischa; Engels, Rutger C M E; Finkenauer, Catrin; Holland, Rob W

2009-06-01

This experimental study investigated approach behavior toward opposite-sex others of similar versus dissimilar physical attractiveness. Furthermore, it tested the moderating effects of sex. Single participants interacted with confederates of high and low attractiveness. Observers rated their behavior in terms of relational investment (i.e., behavioral efforts related to the improvement of interaction fluency, communication of positive interpersonal affect, and positive self-presentation). As expected, men displayed more relational investment behavior if their own physical attractiveness was similar to that of the confederate. For women, no effects of attractiveness similarity on relational investment behavior were found. Results are discussed in the light of positive assortative mating, preferences for physically attractive mates, and sex differences in attraction-related interpersonal behaviors.

A coordinate-based ALE functional MRI meta-analysis of brain activation during verbal fluency tasks in healthy control subjects

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The processing of verbal fluency tasks relies on the coordinated activity of a number of brain areas, particularly in the frontal and temporal lobes of the left hemisphere. Recent studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural networks subserving verbal fluency functions have yielded divergent results especially with respect to a parcellation of the inferior frontal gyrus for phonemic and semantic verbal fluency. We conducted a coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on brain activation during the processing of phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks involving 28 individual studies with 490 healthy volunteers. Results For phonemic as well as for semantic verbal fluency, the most prominent clusters of brain activation were found in the left inferior/middle frontal gyrus (LIFG/MIFG) and the anterior cingulate gyrus. BA 44 was only involved in the processing of phonemic verbal fluency tasks, BA 45 and 47 in the processing of phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. Conclusions Our comparison of brain activation during the execution of either phonemic or semantic verbal fluency tasks revealed evidence for spatially different activation in BA 44, but not other regions of the LIFG/LMFG (BA 9, 45, 47) during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency processing. PMID:24456150

Verbal fluency in male and female schizophrenia patients: Different patterns of association with processing speed, working memory span, and clinical symptoms.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Stephan-Otto, Christian; Ochoa, Susana; Nieto, Lourdes; Contel, Montserrat; Usall, Judith

2018-01-01

Decreased processing speed in schizophrenia patients has been identified as a major impairment factor in various neuropsychological domains. Working memory span has been found to be involved in several deep or effortful cognitive processes. We investigated the impact that these 2 cognitive functions may have on phonological and semantic fluency in schizophrenia patients and healthy participants. Fifty-five patients with schizophrenia and 60 healthy participants were administered a neuropsychological battery including phonological and semantic fluency, working memory, and cognitive and motor speed. Regression analyses revealed that motor speed was related to phonological fluency in female patients, whereas cognitive speed was related to semantic fluency in male patients. In addition, working memory span was related to verbal fluency in women from both the patient and the healthy control groups. Decreased processing speed, but not decreased working memory span, accounted for the verbal fluency deficit in patients. Verbal fluency was inversely related to attention deficit in female patients and to negative symptoms in male patients. Decreased processing speed may be the main factor in verbal fluency impairment of patients. Further, the cognitive and clinical predictors of verbal fluency efficiency are different in men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect size for the main cognitive function determinants in a large cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Mura, T; Amieva, H; Goldberg, M; Dartigues, J-F; Ankri, J; Zins, M; Berr, C

2016-11-01

The aim of our study was to examine the effect sizes of different cognitive function determinants in middle and early old age. Cognitive functions were assessed in 11 711 volunteers (45 to 75 years old), included in the French CONSTANCES cohort between January 2012 and May 2014, using the free and cued selective reminding test (FCSRT), verbal fluency tasks, digit-symbol substitution test (DSST) and trail making test (TMT), parts A and B. The effect sizes of socio-demographic (age, sex, education), lifestyle (alcohol, tobacco, physical activity), cardiovascular (diabetes, blood pressure) and psychological (depressive symptomatology) variables were computed as omega-squared coefficients (ω 2 ; part of the variation of a neuropsychological score that is independently explained by a given variable). These sets of variables explained from R 2 = 10% (semantic fluency) to R 2 = 26% (DSST) of the total variance. In all tests, socio-demographic variables accounted for the greatest part of the explained variance. Age explained from ω 2 = 0.5% (semantic fluency) to ω 2 = 7.5% (DSST) of the total score variance, gender from ω 2 = 5.2% (FCSRT) to a negligible part (semantic fluency or TMT) and education from ω 2 = 7.2% (DSST) to ω 2 = 1.4% (TMT-A). Behavioral, cardiovascular and psychological variables only slightly influenced the cognitive test results (all ω 2 < 0.8%, most ω 2 < 0.1%). Socio-demographic variables (age, gender and education) are the main variables associated with cognitive performance variations between 45 and 75 years of age in the general population. © 2016 EAN.

Underlying Skills of Oral and Silent Reading Fluency in Chinese: Perspective of Visual Rapid Processing

PubMed Central

Zhao, Jing; Kwok, Rosa K. W.; Liu, Menglian; Liu, Hanlong; Huang, Chen

2017-01-01

Reading fluency is a critical skill to improve the quality of our daily life and working efficiency. The majority of previous studies focused on oral reading fluency rather than silent reading fluency, which is a much more dominant reading mode that is used in middle and high school and for leisure reading. It is still unclear whether the oral and silent reading fluency involved the same underlying skills. To address this issue, the present study examined the relationship between the visual rapid processing and Chinese reading fluency in different modes. Fifty-eight undergraduate students took part in the experiment. The phantom contour paradigm and the visual 1-back task were adopted to measure the visual rapid temporal and simultaneous processing respectively. These two tasks reflected the temporal and spatial dimensions of visual rapid processing separately. We recorded the temporal threshold in the phantom contour task, as well as reaction time and accuracy in the visual 1-back task. Reading fluency was measured in both single-character and sentence levels. Fluent reading of single characters was assessed with a paper-and-pencil lexical decision task, and a sentence verification task was developed to examine reading fluency on a sentence level. The reading fluency test in each level was conducted twice (i.e., oral reading and silent reading). Reading speed and accuracy were recorded. The correlation analysis showed that the temporal threshold in the phantom contour task did not correlate with the scores of the reading fluency tests. Although, the reaction time in visual 1-back task correlated with the reading speed of both oral and silent reading fluency, the comparison of the correlation coefficients revealed a closer relationship between the visual rapid simultaneous processing and silent reading. Furthermore, the visual rapid simultaneous processing exhibited a significant contribution to reading fluency in silent mode but not in oral reading mode. These findings suggest that the underlying mechanism between oral and silent reading fluency is different at the beginning of the basic visual coding. The current results also might reveal a potential modulation of the language characteristics of Chinese on the relationship between visual rapid processing and reading fluency. PMID:28119663

Underlying Skills of Oral and Silent Reading Fluency in Chinese: Perspective of Visual Rapid Processing.

PubMed

Zhao, Jing; Kwok, Rosa K W; Liu, Menglian; Liu, Hanlong; Huang, Chen

2016-01-01

Reading fluency is a critical skill to improve the quality of our daily life and working efficiency. The majority of previous studies focused on oral reading fluency rather than silent reading fluency, which is a much more dominant reading mode that is used in middle and high school and for leisure reading. It is still unclear whether the oral and silent reading fluency involved the same underlying skills. To address this issue, the present study examined the relationship between the visual rapid processing and Chinese reading fluency in different modes. Fifty-eight undergraduate students took part in the experiment. The phantom contour paradigm and the visual 1-back task were adopted to measure the visual rapid temporal and simultaneous processing respectively. These two tasks reflected the temporal and spatial dimensions of visual rapid processing separately. We recorded the temporal threshold in the phantom contour task, as well as reaction time and accuracy in the visual 1-back task. Reading fluency was measured in both single-character and sentence levels. Fluent reading of single characters was assessed with a paper-and-pencil lexical decision task, and a sentence verification task was developed to examine reading fluency on a sentence level. The reading fluency test in each level was conducted twice (i.e., oral reading and silent reading). Reading speed and accuracy were recorded. The correlation analysis showed that the temporal threshold in the phantom contour task did not correlate with the scores of the reading fluency tests. Although, the reaction time in visual 1-back task correlated with the reading speed of both oral and silent reading fluency, the comparison of the correlation coefficients revealed a closer relationship between the visual rapid simultaneous processing and silent reading. Furthermore, the visual rapid simultaneous processing exhibited a significant contribution to reading fluency in silent mode but not in oral reading mode. These findings suggest that the underlying mechanism between oral and silent reading fluency is different at the beginning of the basic visual coding. The current results also might reveal a potential modulation of the language characteristics of Chinese on the relationship between visual rapid processing and reading fluency.

Transcranial direct current stimulation over left inferior frontal cortex improves speech fluency in adults who stutter.

PubMed

Chesters, Jennifer; Möttönen, Riikka; Watkins, Kate E

2018-04-01

See Crinion (doi:10.1093/brain/awy075) for a scientific commentary on this article.Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting 5% of children, and persisting in 1% of adults. Promoting lasting fluency improvement in adults who stutter is a particular challenge. Novel interventions to improve outcomes are of value, therefore. Previous work in patients with acquired motor and language disorders reported enhanced benefits of behavioural therapies when paired with transcranial direct current stimulation. Here, we report the results of the first trial investigating whether transcranial direct current stimulation can improve speech fluency in adults who stutter. We predicted that applying anodal stimulation to the left inferior frontal cortex during speech production with temporary fluency inducers would result in longer-lasting fluency improvements. Thirty male adults who stutter completed a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over left inferior frontal cortex. Fifteen participants received 20 min of 1-mA stimulation on five consecutive days while speech fluency was temporarily induced using choral and metronome-timed speech. The other 15 participants received the same speech fluency intervention with sham stimulation. Speech fluency during reading and conversation was assessed at baseline, before and after the stimulation on each day of the 5-day intervention, and at 1 and 6 weeks after the end of the intervention. Anodal stimulation combined with speech fluency training significantly reduced the percentage of disfluent speech measured 1 week after the intervention compared with fluency intervention alone. At 6 weeks after the intervention, this improvement was maintained during reading but not during conversation. Outcome scores at both post-intervention time points on a clinical assessment tool (the Stuttering Severity Instrument, version 4) also showed significant improvement in the group receiving transcranial direct current stimulation compared with the sham group, in whom fluency was unchanged from baseline. We conclude that transcranial direct current stimulation combined with behavioural fluency intervention can improve fluency in adults who stutter. Transcranial direct current stimulation thereby offers a potentially useful adjunct to future speech therapy interventions for this population, for whom fluency therapy outcomes are currently limited.

Predicting verbal fluency using Word Reading: Implications for premorbid functioning.

PubMed

Davis, Andrew S; Finch, W Holmes; Drapeau, Christopher; Nogin, Margarita; E Moss, Lauren; Moore, Brittney

2016-01-01

The estimation of premorbid general intellectual functioning using word reading tests has a rich history of validation and is a common assessment practice for neuropsychologists. What is less well-researched is the approach used to estimate premorbid functioning of non-intellectual domains, such as executive functions, including verbal fluency. The current study evaluated this relationship with 41 adult college students who completed the Word Reading subtest of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II) and the Verbal Fluency test from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). Path analysis indicated that only Letter Fluency (a measure of phonemic fluency) was statistically significantly related to Word Reading and the relationship was somewhat weak. The relationship between Category Fluency (a measure of semantic fluency) and Category Switching (a measure of verbal fluency cognitive set-shifting) to Word Reading was nonsignificant. Participants also completed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III), and as expected a strong relationship was found between Word Reading and the Verbal IQ (VIQ), Performance IQ (PIQ), and Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ). Results of this study strongly suggest that caution be exercised when extrapolating an estimate of premorbid verbal fluency abilities from measures of word reading.

Phonological fluency strategy of switching differentiates relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis patients.

PubMed

Messinis, L; Kosmidis, M H; Vlahou, C; Malegiannaki, A C; Gatzounis, G; Dimisianos, N; Karra, A; Kiosseoglou, G; Gourzis, P; Papathanasopoulos, P

2013-01-01

The strategies used to perform a verbal fluency task appear to be reflective of cognitive abilities necessary for successful daily functioning. In the present study, we explored potential differences in verbal fluency strategies (switching and clustering) used to maximize word production by patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) versus patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). We further assessed impairment rates and potential differences in the sensitivity and specificity of phonological versus semantic verbal fluency tasks in discriminating between those with a diagnosis of MS and healthy adults. We found that the overall rate of impaired verbal fluency in our MS sample was consistent with that in other studies. However, we found no differences between types of MS (SPMS, RRMS), on semantic or phonological fluency word production, or the strategies used to maximize semantic fluency. In contrast, we found that the number of switches differed significantly in the phonological fluency task between the SPMS and RRMS subtypes. The clinical utility of semantic versus phonological fluency in discriminating MS patients from healthy controls did not indicate any significant differences. Further, the strategies used to maximize performance did not differentiate MS subgroups or MS patients from healthy controls.

Mental health symptoms and verbal fluency in elderly people: Evidence from the Spanish longitudinal study of aging.

PubMed

Simpson, Ian Craig; Dumitrache, Cristina Gabriela; Calet, Nuria

2018-04-10

Depression and loneliness are highly prevalent in old age. Moreover these mental health symptoms adversely affect the verbal fluency of the elderly. We examined the relationship between depression and loneliness with verbal fluency in people aged 50 years or older. Research data were collected during the pilot study of the Longitudinal Aging Study in Spain (ELES) in which a representative sample of non-institutionalized Spanish older people was assessed. Here, the cross-sectional data for 962 participants were analysed using hierarchical regressions, controlling for age, education level, overall cognitive functioning, social networks and satisfaction with family. Higher levels of cognitive functioning were associated with higher verbal fluency. Females showed higher levels of phonological fluency. Neither depression nor loneliness were significant predictors of phonological fluency but loneliness was a significant predictor of semantic fluency. For mild levels of loneliness, the rate of decline in semantic fluency slows in the oldest ages. In contrast, for severe loneliness the rate of decline in semantic fluency increases in the oldest ages. Depressive symptoms, loneliness and cognitive impairment are all prominent in ageing and therefore their impact on ageing needs to be better understood. Early detection of loneliness, along with the implementation of intervention for individuals diagnosed with loneliness is advisable in order to avoid negative repercussions for the verbal fluency of these individuals.

Verbal Fluency Performance in Amnestic MCI and Older Adults with Cognitive Complaints

PubMed Central

Nutter-Upham, Katherine E.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Rabin, Laura A.; Roth, Robert M.; Wishart, Heather A.; Pare, Nadia; Flashman, Laura A.

2009-01-01

Verbal fluency tests are employed regularly during neuropsychological assessments of older adults, and deficits are a common finding in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Little extant research, however, has investigated verbal fluency ability and subtypes in preclinical stages of neurodegenerative disease. We examined verbal fluency performance in 107 older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 37), cognitive complaints (CC, n = 37) despite intact neuropsychological functioning, and demographically-matched healthy controls (HC, n = 33). Participants completed fluency tasks with letter, semantic category, and semantic switching constraints. Both phonemic and semantic fluency were statistically (but not clinically) reduced in amnestic MCI relative to cognitively intact older adults, indicating subtle changes in both the quality of the semantic store and retrieval slowing. Investigation of the underlying constructs of verbal fluency yielded two factors: Switching (including switching and shifting tasks) and Production (including letter, category, and action naming tasks), and both factors discriminated MCI from HC albeit to different degrees. Correlational findings further suggested that all fluency tasks involved executive control to some degree, while those with an added executive component (i.e., switching and shifting) were less dependent on semantic knowledge. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of including multiple verbal fluency tests in assessment batteries targeting preclinical dementia populations and suggest that individual fluency tasks may tap specific cognitive processes. PMID:18339515

Many Roads Lead to Recognition: Electrophysiological Correlates of Familiarity Derived from Short-Term Masked Repetition Priming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lucas, Heather D.; Taylor, Jason R.; Henson, Richard N.; Paller, Ken A.

2012-01-01

The neural mechanisms that underlie familiarity memory have been extensively investigated, but a consensus understanding remains elusive. Behavioral evidence suggests that familiarity sometimes shares sources with instances of implicit memory known as priming, in that the same increases in processing fluency that give rise to priming can engender…

A Preliminary Investigation of Evidence-Based Interventions to Increase Oral Reading Fluency in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reisener, Carmen D.; Lancaster, Amity Lewis; McMullin, W. Arrel; Ho, Tuan

2014-01-01

At present, the incidence rates of children identified with autism spectrum disorders are on the rise, leading to an increased number of school-aged children needing specialized services in public schools. Most intervention efforts in the school setting focus on behavioral interventions and/or communication and social skills remediation services…

An Analysis of Learning Rate and Curricular Scope: Caution When Choosing Academic Interventions Based on Aggregated Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poncy, Brian C.; Solomon, Benjamin; Duhon, Gary; Skinner, Christopher; Moore, Kathryn; Simons, Sean

2015-01-01

We aggregated and analyzed single-case research targeting math-fact fluency to investigate whether learning (behavior change) data were sufficient to summarize and compare intervention outcomes or if learning rate (learning/cumulative instructional time) data would provide divergent effect size (ES) results. We also extracted the curricular scope…

Facilitating English-Language Learners' Oral Reading Fluency with Digital Pen Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Ming; Tan, Chia-Chen; Lo, Bey-Jane

2016-01-01

Oral reading fluency is an indicator of overall reading competence. Many studies have claimed that repeated reading can promote oral reading fluency. Currently, novel Web- or computer-based reading technologies offer interactive digital materials that promote English oral reading fluency using the repeated reading strategy; however, paper-based…

Accuracy vs. Fluency: Which Comes First in ESL Instruction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ebsworth, Miriam Eisenstein

1998-01-01

Discusses the debate over fluency versus accuracy in teaching English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL). Defines fluency and accuracy; examines alternative approaches (meaning first, accuracy first, and accuracy and fluency from the beginning); evaluates the alternatives; and highlights implications for teaching ESL. A sidebar presents an accuracy and…

Why Reading Fluency Should Be Hot

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasinski, Timothy V.

2012-01-01

This article explores problems that have surfaced in the teaching of reading fluency and how teachers and reading coaches can resolve those problems. Specific issues addressed include reading fluency being defined as reading fast and instruction that is focused on having students read fast, reading fluency viewed as solely and oral reading…

Reading Fluency Interventions That Work in High-Poverty Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fowers-Coils, Ashley

2016-01-01

This study measured the impact of targeted reading interventions on improving reading fluency for second-grade students as indicated by their performance on a statewide standardized assessment of reading fluency proficiency. Reading fluency scores for students who received intervention in second grade were measured again in their third-grade year…

The European Clinical Specialization on Fluency Disorders (ECSF)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eggers, Kurt; Leahy, Margaret

2011-01-01

The European Clinical Specialization on Fluency Disorders (ECSF) project consists of one-year post-qualification fluency specialization training and a harmonized graduate fluency program. It was developed by eight European universities/colleges to provide the means whereby graduates would meet comparable standards of competence to practice in the…

Silent Reading Fluency Using Underlining: Evidence for an Alternative Method of Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Katherine W.; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Louwerse, Max M.; D'Mello, Sidney K.

2012-01-01

Assessing silent reading fluency in classroom environments is challenging. This article reports on a method of assessing silent reading using underlining, an approach that solves many problems other silent reading fluency assessment measures face. This method computationally monitors readers' silent reading fluency by the speed they underline…

Effect of Edmark Program on Reading Fluency in Third-Grade Students with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meeks, Bryce T.; Martinez, James; Pienta, Rachel S.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this research study was to determine if the Edmark Reading Program increased reading fluency, attitudes, and engagement in third-grade students with disabilities (N = 7). Student fluency was measured using estimated oral reading fluency determined by the STAR reading assessment. A statistically significant difference was found…

Effects of Repeated Reading and Listening Passage Preview on Oral Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swain, Kristine D.; Leader-Janssen, Elizabeth M.; Conley, Perry

2017-01-01

This case study examined the effectiveness of three fluency interventions (i.e., repeated reading, audio listening passage preview and teacher modeled listening passage preview) with a fifth grade student struggling with fluency skills. When compared to baseline, each intervention increased oral reading fluency by the end of the 7 weeks of…

Liberating the Arts: Promoting IT Fluency through the Pedagogy of Digital Storytelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Kenneth Xavier, Jr.

2011-01-01

Fluency in information technology (IT Fluency) is a component of life-long learning necessary for a Liberal Arts student's post-graduate success in the global and digital economy. While challenging, promoting IT fluency at Liberal Arts colleges can be achieved through the integration of digital storytelling pedagogy in existing humanities…

Educational Factors and Experiences in English Language Learner Reading Fluency Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Christina J. T.

2013-01-01

Reading fluency has been an area of struggle for students. Certain populations of students, such as English language learners (ELLs), have struggled even more so, affecting their overall achievement. Interventions have been implemented and studied regarding the reading fluency of ELLs, yet reading fluency has continued to be problematic in this…

Speed Reading Courses and Their Effect on Reading Authentic Texts: A Preliminary Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macalister, John

2010-01-01

Fluent reading is essential for successful comprehension. One dimension of reading fluency is reading rate, or reading speed. Because of the importance of reading fluency, fluency development activities should be incorporated into classroom practice. One activity that meets the fluency development conditions proposed by Nation (2007) is speed…

Fluency Idol: Using Pop Culture to Engage Students and Boost Fluency Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calo, Kristine M.; Woolard-Ferguson, Taylor; Koitz, Ellen

2013-01-01

This article shares an oral reading practice that develops children's fluency skills, with a particular emphasis on performance reading and prosody. The authors share their experiences with Fluency Idol! as a way to engage young children by tapping into pop culture. The practice emphasizes repeated readings, feedback, practice, and…

Processing Fluency in Education: How Metacognitive Feelings Shape Learning, Belief Formation, and Affect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reber, Rolf; Greifeneder, Rainer

2017-01-01

Processing fluency--the experienced ease with which a mental operation is performed--has attracted little attention in educational psychology, despite its relevance. The present article reviews and integrates empirical evidence on processing fluency that is relevant to school education. Fluency is important, for instance, in learning,…

The Effects of Reading Fluency Interventions on the Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Performance of Elementary Students With Learning Disabilities: A Synthesis of the Research from 2001 to 2014

PubMed Central

Stevens, Elizabeth A.; Walker, Melodee A.; Vaughn, Sharon

2016-01-01

Fluent word reading is hypothesized to facilitate reading comprehension by improving automatic word reading, thus releasing a reader’s cognitive resources to focus on meaning. Many students with learning disabilities (LD) struggle to develop reading fluency, which affects reading comprehension. This synthesis extends Chard, Vaughn, and Tyler’s (2002) review, synthesizing fluency intervention research from 2001 to 2014. The search yielded 19 studies examining reading fluency and comprehension outcomes of reading fluency interventions for students with LD in kindergarten through 5th grade. Results showed repeated reading (RR), multicomponent interventions, and assisted reading with audiobooks produced gains in reading fluency and comprehension. Providing a model of fluent reading and performance feedback, using easier level text, setting a performance criterion, and practicing RR with peers also contributed to improved outcomes. Findings suggest that RR remains the most effective intervention for improving reading fluency for students with LD. Limitations include sample size, only three group design studies, and infrequent use of standardized measures. PMID:27067939

The Effects of Reading Fluency Interventions on the Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Performance of Elementary Students With Learning Disabilities: A Synthesis of the Research from 2001 to 2014.

PubMed

Stevens, Elizabeth A; Walker, Melodee A; Vaughn, Sharon

Fluent word reading is hypothesized to facilitate reading comprehension by improving automatic word reading, thus releasing a reader's cognitive resources to focus on meaning. Many students with learning disabilities (LD) struggle to develop reading fluency, which affects reading comprehension. This synthesis extends Chard, Vaughn, and Tyler's (2002) review, synthesizing fluency intervention research from 2001 to 2014. The search yielded 19 studies examining reading fluency and comprehension outcomes of reading fluency interventions for students with LD in kindergarten through 5th grade. Results showed repeated reading (RR), multicomponent interventions, and assisted reading with audiobooks produced gains in reading fluency and comprehension. Providing a model of fluent reading and performance feedback, using easier level text, setting a performance criterion, and practicing RR with peers also contributed to improved outcomes. Findings suggest that RR remains the most effective intervention for improving reading fluency for students with LD. Limitations include sample size, only three group design studies, and infrequent use of standardized measures.

Verbal fluency, clustering, and switching in patients with psychosis following traumatic brain injury (PFTBI).

PubMed

Batty, Rachel; Francis, Andrew; Thomas, Neil; Hopwood, Malcolm; Ponsford, Jennie; Johnston, Lisa; Rossell, Susan

2015-06-30

Verbal fluency in patients with psychosis following traumatic brain injury (PFTBI) has been reported as comparable to healthy participants. This finding is counterintuitive given the prominent fluency impairments demonstrated post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) and in psychotic disorders, e.g. schizophrenia. We investigated phonemic (executive) fluency (3 letters: 'F' 'A' and 'S'), and semantic fluency (1 category: fruits and/or vegetables) in four matched groups; PFTBI (N=10), TBI (N=10), schizophrenia (N=23), and healthy controls (N=23). Words produced (minus perseverations and errors), and clustering and switching scores were compared for the two fluency types across the groups. The results confirmed that PFTBI patients do show impaired fluency, aligned with existing evidence in TBI and schizophrenia. PFTBI patients produced the least amount of words on the phonemic fluency ('A') trial and total score, and demonstrated reduced switching on both phonemic and semantic tasks. No significant differences in clustering performance were found. Importantly, the pattern of results suggested that PFTBI patients share deficits with their brain-injured (primarily executive), and psychotic (executive and semantic), counterparts, and that these are exacerbated by their dual-diagnosis. These findings add to a very limited literature by providing novel evidence of the nature of fluency impairments in dually-diagnosed PFTBI. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

What do people who stutter want--fluency or freedom?

PubMed

Venkatagiri, H S

2009-04-01

In this study, the author examined the following questions: What proportion of adult persons who stutter (PWS) choose fluency and what proportion choose to be free from a need to be fluent in managing their stuttering? What demographic and stuttering-related variables influence their choice, and how consistent are they in their choice? A survey instrument administered over the Internet was used to collect the data. Overall, 8% more of the 216 respondents opted for fluency than freedom. A larger proportion of male PWS and PWS under the age of 30 years preferred fluency. Neither nationality nor language background influenced their preference. Those who received no therapy overwhelmingly chose fluency, and a slight majority of those with fewer than 5 years of therapy preferred fluency. Those with more than 5 years of therapy were evenly divided between the 2 choices. Those who preferred freedom were more consistent in their responses across items than were those who opted for fluency. Based on the consistency of responses, 20% and 23% of the sample decisively opted for fluency and freedom, respectively, and 34% in the fluency group and 23% in the freedom group were ambivalent. A majority of PWS appear to benefit from flexible treatment programs with cafeteria-style choices.

The role of answer fluency and perceptual fluency as metacognitive cues for initiating analytic thinking.

PubMed

Thompson, Valerie A; Turner, Jamie A Prowse; Pennycook, Gordon; Ball, Linden J; Brack, Hannah; Ophir, Yael; Ackerman, Rakefet

2013-08-01

Although widely studied in other domains, relatively little is known about the metacognitive processes that monitor and control behaviour during reasoning and decision-making. In this paper, we examined the conditions under which two fluency cues are used to monitor initial reasoning: answer fluency, or the speed with which the initial, intuitive answer is produced (Thompson, Prowse Turner, & Pennycook, 2011), and perceptual fluency, or the ease with which problems can be read (Alter, Oppenheimer, Epley, & Eyre, 2007). The first two experiments demonstrated that answer fluency reliably predicted Feeling of Rightness (FOR) judgments to conditional inferences and base rate problems, which subsequently predicted the amount of deliberate processing as measured by thinking time and answer changes; answer fluency also predicted retrospective confidence judgments (Experiment 3b). Moreover, the effect of answer fluency on reasoning was independent from the effect of perceptual fluency, establishing that these are empirically independent constructs. In five experiments with a variety of reasoning problems similar to those of Alter et al. (2007), we found no effect of perceptual fluency on FOR, retrospective confidence or accuracy; however, we did observe that participants spent more time thinking about hard to read stimuli, although this additional time did not result in answer changes. In our final two experiments, we found that perceptual disfluency increased accuracy on the CRT (Frederick, 2005), but only amongst participants of high cognitive ability. As Alter et al.'s samples were gathered from prestigious universities, collectively, the data to this point suggest that perceptual fluency prompts additional processing in general, but this processing may results in higher accuracy only for the most cognitively able. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The differing roles of the frontal cortex in fluency tests

PubMed Central

Shallice, Tim; Bozzali, Marco; Cipolotti, Lisa

2012-01-01

Fluency tasks have been widely used to tap the voluntary generation of responses. The anatomical correlates of fluency tasks and their sensitivity and specificity have been hotly debated. However, investigation of the cognitive processes involved in voluntary generation of responses and whether generation is supported by a common, general process (e.g. fluid intelligence) or specific cognitive processes underpinned by particular frontal regions has rarely been addressed. This study investigates a range of verbal and non-verbal fluency tasks in patients with unselected focal frontal (n = 47) and posterior (n = 20) lesions. Patients and controls (n = 35) matched for education, age and sex were administered fluency tasks including word (phonemic/semantic), design, gesture and ideational fluency as well as background cognitive tests. Lesions were analysed by standard anterior/posterior and left/right frontal subdivisions as well as a finer-grained frontal localization method. Thus, patients with right and left lateral lesions were compared to patients with superior medial lesions. The results show that all eight fluency tasks are sensitive to frontal lobe damage although only the phonemic word and design fluency tasks were specific to the frontal region. Superior medial patients were the only group to be impaired on all eight fluency tasks, relative to controls, consistent with an energization deficit. The most marked fluency deficits for lateral patients were along material specific lines (i.e. left—phonemic and right—design). Phonemic word fluency that requires greater selection was most severely impaired following left inferior frontal damage. Overall, our results support the notion that frontal functions comprise a set of specialized cognitive processes, supported by distinct frontal regions. PMID:22669082

Apathy, not depressive symptoms, as a predictor of semantic and phonemic fluency task performance in stroke and transient ischemic attack.

PubMed

Fishman, Keera N; Ashbaugh, Andrea R; Lanctôt, Krista L; Cayley, Megan L; Herrmann, Nathan; Murray, Brian J; Sicard, Michelle; Lien, Karen; Sahlas, Demetrios J; Swartz, Richard H

2018-06-01

This study examined the relationship between apathy and cognition in patients with cerebrovascular disease. Apathy may result from damage to frontal subcortical circuits causing dysexecutive syndromes, but apathy is also related to depression. We assessed the ability of apathy to predict phonemic fluency and semantic fluency performance after controlling for depressive symptoms in 282 individuals with stroke and/or transient ischemic attack. Participants (N = 282) completed the Phonemic Fluency Test, Semantic Fluency Test, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and Apathy Evaluation Scale. A cross-sectional correlational design was utilized. Using hierarchical linear regressions, apathy scores significantly predicted semantic fluency performance (β = -.159, p = .020), but not phonemic fluency performance (β = -.112, p = .129) after scaling scores by age and years of education and controlling for depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms entered into the first step of both hierarchical linear regressions did not predict semantic fluency (β = -.035, p = .554) or phonemic fluency (β = -.081, p = .173). Apathy and depressive symptoms were moderately correlated, r(280) = .58, p < .001. The results of this study are consistent with research supporting a differentiation between phonemic and semantic fluency tasks, whereby phonemic fluency tasks primarily involve frontal regions, and semantic fluency tasks involve recruitment of more extended networks. The results also highlight a distinction between apathy and depressive symptoms and suggest that apathy may be a more reliable predictor of cognitive deficits than measures of mood in individuals with cerebrovascular disease. Apathy may also be more related to cognition due to overlapping motivational and cognitive frontal subcortical circuitry. Future research should explore whether treatments for apathy could be a novel target for improving cognitive outcomes after stroke.

Video self-modeling as a post-treatment fluency recovery strategy for adults.

PubMed

Harasym, Jessica; Langevin, Marilyn; Kully, Deborah

2015-06-01

This multiple-baseline across subjects study investigated the effectiveness of video self-modeling (VSM) in reducing stuttering and bringing about improvements in associated self-report measures. Participants' viewing practices and perceptions of the utility of VSM also were explored. Three adult males who had previously completed speech restructuring treatment viewed VSM recordings twice per week for 6 weeks. Weekly speech data, treatment viewing logs, and pre- and post-treatment self-report measures were obtained. An exit interview also was conducted. Two participants showed a decreasing trend in stuttering frequency. All participants appeared to engage in fewer avoidance behaviors and had less expectations to stutter. All participants perceived that, in different ways, the VSM treatment had benefited them and all participants had unique viewing practices. Given the increasing availability and ease in using portable audio-visual technology, VSM appears to offer an economical and clinically useful tool for clients who are motivated to use the technology to recover fluency. Readers will be able to describe: (a) the tenets of video-self modeling; (b) the main components of video-self modeling as a fluency recovery treatment as used in this study; and (c) speech and self-report outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Older but still fluent? Insights from the intrinsically active baseline configuration of the aging brain using a data driven graph-theoretical approach.

PubMed

Muller, Angela M; Mérillat, Susan; Jäncke, Lutz

2016-02-15

A major part of our knowledge about the functioning of the aging brain comes from task-induced activation paradigms. However, the aging brain's intrinsic functional organization may be already a limiting factor for the outcome of an actual behavior. In order to get a better understanding of how this functional baseline configuration of the aging brain may affect cognitive performance, we analyzed task-free fMRI data of older 186 participants (mean age=70.4, 97 female) and their performance data in verbal fluency: First, we conducted an intrinsic connectivity contrast analysis (ICC) for the purpose of evaluating the brain regions whose degree of connectedness was significantly correlated with fluency performance. Secondly, using connectivity analyses we investigated how the clusters from the ICC functionally related to the other major resting-state networks. Apart from the importance of intact fronto-parietal long-range connections, the preserved capacity of the DMN for a finely attuned interaction with the executive-control network and the language network seems to be crucial for successful verbal fluency performance in older people. We provide further evidence that the right frontal regions might be more prominently affected by age-related decline. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Increasing Word Recognition with Racially Diverse Second-Grade Students Using Fluency-Oriented Reading Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Franklin Dickerson

2012-01-01

The author examined the effectiveness of 2 fluency-oriented reading programs on improving reading fluency for an ethnically diverse sample of second-grade students. The first approach is Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (S. A. Stahl & K. Heubach, 2005), which incorporates the repeated reading of a grade-level text over the course of an…

Mirror Asymmetry of Category and Letter Fluency in Traumatic Brain Injury and Alzheimer's Patients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capitani, Erminio; Rosci, Chiara; Saetti, Maria Cristina; Laiacona, Marcella

2009-01-01

In this study we contrasted the Category fluency and Letter fluency performance of 198 normal subjects, 57 Alzheimer's patients and 57 patients affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim was to check whether, besides the prevalence of Category fluency deficit often reported among Alzheimer's patients, the TBI group presented the opposite…

Reversing the Truth Effect: Learning the Interpretation of Processing Fluency in Judgments of Truth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unkelbach, Christian

2007-01-01

Repeated statements receive higher truth ratings than new statements. Given that repetition leads to greater experienced processing fluency, the author proposes that fluency is used in truth judgments according to its ecological validity. Thus, the truth effect occurs because people learn that fluency and truth tend to be positively correlated.…

Attentional Regulation in Young Twins with Probable Stuttering, High Nonfluency, and Typical Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felsenfeld, Susan; van Beljsterveldt, Catharina Eugenie Maria; Boomsma, Dorret Irene

2010-01-01

Purpose: Using a sample of 20,445 Dutch twins, this study examined the relationship between speech fluency and attentional regulation in children. A secondary objective was to identify etiological overlap between nonfluency and poor attention using fluency-discordant twin pairs. Method: Three fluency groups were created at age 5 using a parent…

How Fast Can We Read in the Mind? Developmental Trajectories of Silent Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciuffo, Massimo; Myers, Jane; Ingrassia, Massimo; Milanese, Antonio; Venuti, Maria; Alquino, Ausilia; Baradello, Alice; Stella, Giacomo; Gagliano, Antonella

2017-01-01

The silent reading fluency is not an observable behaviour and, therefore, its evaluation is perceived as more challenging and less reliable than oral reading fluency. The present research is aimed to measure the silent reading speed in a sample of proficient students, assessed by an original silent reading fluency task, based on behavioural…

The Evaluation of Second Language Fluency and Foreign Accent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Chen-Huei

2011-01-01

What is second language fluency? What is a foreign accent? Is it possible for an adult second language learner to speak fluently with a heavy accent or vice versa? What factors contribute to the perception of fluency and a foreign accent? What acoustic attributes correlate with the perception of fluency and a foreign accent? To answer these…

Native Speakers' Perceptions of Fluency and Accent in L2 Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinget, Anne-France; Bosker, Hans Rutger; Quené, Hugo; de Jong, Nivja H.

2014-01-01

Oral fluency and foreign accent distinguish L2 from L1 speech production. In language testing practices, both fluency and accent are usually assessed by raters. This study investigates what exactly native raters of fluency and accent take into account when judging L2. Our aim is to explore the relationship between objectively measured temporal,…

A Longitudinal Study of Novice-Level Changes in Fluency and Accuracy in Student Monologues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Robert W., III.

2012-01-01

Detailed research concerning the issue fluency, specifically relating to pauses, mean length runs, and fluency rates in Japanese EFL learners, is limited. Furthermore, the issue of tracking fluency gains has often been ignored, misunderstood or minimized in EFL educational research. The present study, which is based on six monologues conducted…

Assessment of immigrant certified nursing assistants' communication when responding to standardized care challenges.

PubMed

Massey, Meredith; Roter, Debra L

2016-01-01

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) provide 80% of the hands-on care in US nursing homes; a significant portion of this work is performed by immigrants with limited English fluency. This study is designed to assess immigrant CNA's communication behavior in response to a series of virtual simulated care challenges. A convenience sample of 31 immigrant CNAs verbally responded to 9 care challenges embedded in an interactive computer platform. The responses were coded with the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), CNA instructors rated response quality and spoken English was rated. CNA communication behaviors varied across care challenges and a broad repertoire of communication was used; 69% of response content was characterized as psychosocial. Communication elements (both instrumental and psychosocial) were significant predictors of response quality for 5 of 9 scenarios. Overall these variables explained between 13% and 36% of the adjusted variance in quality ratings. Immigrant CNAs responded to common care challenges using a variety of communication strategies despite fluency deficits. Virtual simulation-based observation is a feasible, acceptable and low cost method of communication assessment with implications for supervision, training and evaluation of a para-professional workforce. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sources of Group and Individual Differences in Emerging Fraction Skills

PubMed Central

Hecht, Steven A.; Vagi, Kevin J.

2010-01-01

Results from a two year longitudinal study of 181 children from fourth through fifth grade are reported. Levels of growth in children’s computation, word problem, and estimation skills using common fractions were predicted by working memory, attentive classroom behavior, conceptual knowledge about fractions, and simple arithmetic fluency. Comparisons of 55 participants identified as having mathematical difficulties to those without mathematical difficulties revealed that group differences in emerging fraction skills were consistently mediated by attentive classroom behavior and conceptual knowledge about fractions. Neither working memory nor arithmetic fluency mediated group differences in growth in fraction skills. It was also found that the development of basic fraction skills and conceptual knowledge are bidirectional in that conceptual knowledge exerted strong influences on all three types of basic fraction skills, and basic fraction skills exerted a more modest influence on subsequent conceptual knowledge. Results are discussed with reference to how the identification of potentially malleable student characteristics that contribute to the difficulties that some students have with fractions informs interventions and also will contribute to a future theoretical account concerning how domain general and domain specific factors influence the development of basic fraction skills. PMID:21170171

Analysis of brief language tests in the detection of cognitive decline and dementia

PubMed Central

Radanovic, Marcia; Carthery-Goulart, Maria Teresa; Charchat-Fichman, Helenice; Herrera Jr., Emílio; Lima, Edson Erasmo Pereira; Smid, Jerusa; Porto, Cláudia Sellitto; Nitrini, Ricardo

2007-01-01

Lexical access difficulties are frequent in normal aging and initial stages of dementia.Verbal fluency tests are valuable to detect cognitive decline, evidencing lexico-semantic and executive dysfunction. Objectives To establish which language tests can contribute in detecting dementia and to verify schooling influence on subject performance. Method 74 subjects: 33 controls, 17 Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5 and 24 (Brief Cognitive Battery - BCB e Boston Naming Test - BNT) 1 were compared in tests of semantic verbal fluency (animal and fruit), picture naming (BCB and BNT) and the language items of Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results There were significant differences between the control group and both CDR 0.5 and CDR 1 in all tests. Cut-off scores were: 11 and 10 for animal fluency, 8 for fruit fluency (in both), 8 and 9 for BCB naming. The CDR 0.5 group performed better than the CDR 1 group only in animal fluency. Stepwise multiple regression revealed fruit fluency, animal fluency and BCB naming as the best discriminators between patients and controls (specificity: 93.8%; sensitivity: 91.3%). In controls, comparison between illiterates and literates evidenced schooling influence in all tests, except for fruit fluency and BCB naming. In patients with dementia, only fruit fluency was uninfluenced by schooling. Conclusion The combination of verbal fluency tests in two semantic categories along with a simple picture naming test is highly sensitive in detecting cognitive decline. Comparison between literate and illiterate subjects shows a lesser degree of influence of schooling on the selected tests, thus improving discrimination between low performance and incipient cognitive decline. PMID:29213366

Impact of Cover, Copy, and Compare on Fluency Outcomes for Students with Disabilities and Math Deficits: A Review of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stocker, James D., Jr.; Kubina, Richard M., Jr.

2017-01-01

Fluency, a combination of response accuracy and speed, enables students to work efficiently through academic tasks. Students with disabilities and math deficits often struggle to learn math facts fluently. Although issues with fluency frequently coexist with a disability, problems gaining fluency also stem from a lack of practice and appropriate…

The Effects of Word Walls and Word Wall Activities on the Reading Fluency of First Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jasmine, Joanne; Schiesl, Pamela

2009-01-01

Reading fluency is the ability to read orally with speed and efficiency, including word recognition, decoding, and comprehension (Chard & Pikulski, 2005). Able readers achieve fluency as they recognize words with speed and build upon them to aid in comprehension (Pumfrey & Elliott, 1990). One way to help students achieve fluency is through the use…

Construct Validity of Fluency and Implications for the Factorial Structure of Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jewsbury, Paul A.; Bowden, Stephen C.

2017-01-01

Fluency is an important construct in clinical assessment and in cognitive taxonomies. In the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model, Fluency is represented by several narrow factors that form a subset of the long-term memory encoding and retrieval (Glr) broad factor. The CHC broad classification of Fluency was evaluated in five data sets, and the CHC…

The Relationship between L1 Fluency and L2 Fluency Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derwing, Tracey M.; Munro, Murray J.; Thomson, Ronald I.; Rossiter, Marian J.

2009-01-01

A fundamental question in the study of second language (L2) fluency is the extent to which temporal characteristics of speakers' first language (L1) productions predict the same characteristics in the L2. A close relationship between a speaker's L1 and L2 temporal characteristics would suggest that fluency is governed by an underlying trait. This…

Literacy Is "Not" Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age. The 21st Century Fluency Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crockett, Lee; Jukes, Ian; Churches, Andrew

2011-01-01

Educating students to traditional literacy standards is no longer enough. If students are to thrive in their academic and 21st century careers, then independent and creative thinking hold the highest currency. The authors explain in detail how to add these new components of literacy: (1) Solution Fluency; (2) Information Fluency; (3) Creativity…

Using Small-Group Instruction to Improve Students' Reading Fluency: An Evaluation of the Existing Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Begeny, John C.; Levy, Rebecca A.; Field, Stacey A.

2018-01-01

Reading fluency is necessary for reading comprehension, but approximately 40% of U.S. fourth-grade students have inadequate reading fluency skills. Because small-group (SG) instruction is often used as a first line of intervention for struggling readers, SG instruction targeting deficiencies in text reading fluency ought to be part of every…

Understanding Oral Reading Fluency among Adults with Low Literacy: Dominance Analysis of Contributing Component Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mellard, Daryl F.; Anthony, Jason L.; Woods, Kari L.

2012-01-01

This study extends the literature on the component skills involved in oral reading fluency. Dominance analysis was applied to assess the relative importance of seven reading-related component skills in the prediction of the oral reading fluency of 272 adult literacy learners. The best predictors of oral reading fluency when text difficulty was…

Update on Didactic and Clinical Education in Fluency Disorders: 2013-2014.

PubMed

Scott Yaruss, J; Lee, Jieun; Kikani, Kaya B; Leslie, Paula; Herring, Caryn; Ramachandar, Sujini; Tichenor, Seth; Quesal, Robert W; McNeil, Malcolm R

2017-02-01

This study surveyed didactic and clinical education in fluency disorders at undergraduate and graduate institutions in the United States that provide education in speech-language pathology to determine whether a previously observed reduction in requirements has continued since prior surveys (Yaruss, 1999; Yaruss & Quesal, 2002). The study involved a detailed questionnaire that was sent to 282 communication science and disorders departments. Questions examined didactic and clinical education, as well as faculty knowledge about fluency disorders. Comparisons with prior surveys revealed several findings, including (a) on average, programs have increased academic coursework and incorporated more practical sessions and competency-based testing in the classroom; (b) the number of faculty who possess extensive clinical experience with fluency disorders has decreased; and (c) although an increase in clinical requirements in fluency disorders was detected, the number of programs providing minimal education about fluency disorders remains high. Given an expanding scope of practice, many programs have continued to try to provide adequate education about fluency disorders. Still, direct clinical experiences are limited, and faculty expertise in this area has continued to decrease. To raise students' confidence and competence in fluency disorders, efforts beyond graduate work-or systemic changes in the profession-may be necessary.

Apathy and Reduced Speed of Processing Underlie Decline in Verbal Fluency following DBS.

PubMed

Foley, Jennifer A; Foltynie, Tom; Zrinzo, Ludvic; Hyam, Jonathan A; Limousin, Patricia; Cipolotti, Lisa

2017-01-01

Objective . Reduced verbal fluency is a strikingly uniform finding following deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD). The precise cognitive mechanism underlying this reduction remains unclear, but theories have suggested reduced motivation, linguistic skill, and/or executive function. It is of note, however, that previous reports have failed to consider the potential role of any changes in speed of processing. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine verbal fluency changes with a particular focus on the role of cognitive speed. Method . In this study, 28 patients with PD completed measures of verbal fluency, motivation, language, executive functioning, and speed of processing, before and after DBS. Results . As expected, there was a marked decline in verbal fluency but also in a timed test of executive functions and two measures of speed of processing. Verbal fluency decline was associated with markers of linguistic and executive functioning, but not after speed of processing was statistically controlled for. In contrast, greater decline in verbal fluency was associated with higher levels of apathy at baseline, which was not associated with changes in cognitive speed. Discussion . Reduced generativity and processing speed may account for the marked reduction in verbal fluency commonly observed following DBS.

How Is RAN Related to Reading Fluency? A Comprehensive Examination of the Prominent Theoretical Accounts

PubMed Central

Papadopoulos, Timothy C.; Spanoudis, George C.; Georgiou, George K.

2016-01-01

We examined the prominent theoretical explanations of the RAN-reading relationship in a relatively transparent language (Greek) in a sample of children (n = 286) followed from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Specifically, we tested the fit of eight different models, as defined by the type of reading performance predicted (oral vs. silent word reading fluency), the type of RAN tasks (non-alphanumeric vs. alphanumeric), and the RAN effects (direct vs. indirect). Working memory, attention, processing speed, and motor skills were used as “common cause” variables predicting both RAN and reading fluency and phonological awareness and orthographic processing were used as mediators of RAN's effects on reading fluency. The findings of both concurrent and longitudinal analyses indicated that RAN is a unique predictor of oral reading fluency, but not silent reading fluency. Using alphanumeric or non-alphanumeric RAN did not particularly affect the RAN-reading relationship. Both phonological awareness and orthographic processing partly mediated RAN's effects on reading fluency. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:27605918

Fostering multiple repertoires in undergraduate behavior analysis students

PubMed Central

Polson, David A. D.

1995-01-01

Eight techniques used by the author in teaching an introductory applied behavior analysis course are described: (a) a detailed study guide, (b) frequent tests, (c) composition of practice test questions, (d) in-class study groups, (e) fluency building with a computerized flash-card program, (f) bonus marks for participation during question-and-answer sessions, (g) student presentations that summarize and analyze recently published research, and (h) in-class behavior analysis of comic strips. Together, these techniques require an extensive amount of work by students. Nevertheless, students overwhelmingly prefer this approach to the traditional lecture-midterm-final format, and most earn an A as their final course grade. PMID:22478226

If it's hard to read, it changes how long you do it: reading time as an explanation for perceptual fluency effects on judgment.

PubMed

Sanchez, Christopher A; Jaeger, Allison J

2015-02-01

Perceptual manipulations, such as changes in font type or figure-ground contrast, have been shown to increase judgments of difficulty or effort related to the presented material. Previous theory has suggested that this is the result of changes in online processing or perhaps the post-hoc influence of perceived difficulty recalled at the time of judgment. These two experiments seek to examine by which mechanism (or both) the fluency effect is produced. Results indicate that disfluency does in fact change in situ reading behavior, and this change significantly mediates judgments. Eye movement analyses corroborate this suggestion and observe a difference in how people read a disfluent presentation. These findings support the notion that readers are using perceptual cues in their reading experiences to change how they interact with the material, which in turn produces the observed biases.

Specialty Board on Fluency Disorders

MedlinePlus

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Personality traits prospectively predict verbal fluency in a lifespan sample.

PubMed

Sutin, Angelina R; Terracciano, Antonio; Kitner-Triolo, Melissa H; Uda, Manuela; Schlessinger, David; Zonderman, Alan B

2011-12-01

In a community-dwelling sample (N = 4,790; age range 14-94), we examined whether personality traits prospectively predicted performance on a verbal fluency task. Open, extraverted, and emotionally stable participants had better verbal fluency. At the facet level, dispositionally happy and self-disciplined participants retrieved more words; those prone to anxiety and depression and those who were deliberative retrieved fewer words. Education moderated the association between conscientiousness and fluency such that participants with lower education performed better on the fluency task if they were also conscientious. Age was not a moderator at the domain level, indicating that the personality-fluency associations were consistent across the life span. A disposition toward emotional vulnerability and being less open, less happy, and undisciplined may be detrimental to cognitive performance.

Personality Traits Prospectively Predict Verbal Fluency in a Lifespan Sample

PubMed Central

Sutin, Angelina R.; Terracciano, Antonio; Kitner-Triolo, Melissa H.; Uda, Manuela; Schlessinger, David; Zonderman, Alan B.

2011-01-01

In a community-dwelling sample (N=4,790; age range 14–94), we examined whether personality traits prospectively predicted performance on a verbal fluency task. Open, extraverted, and emotionally stable participants had better verbal fluency. At the facet level, dispositionally happy and self-disciplined participants retrieved more words; those prone to anxiety and depression and those who were deliberative retrieved fewer words. Education moderated the association between Conscientiousness and fluency such that participants with lower education performed better on the fluency task if they were also conscientious. Age was not a moderator at the domain level, indicating that the personality-fluency associations were consistent across the lifespan. A disposition towards emotional vulnerability and being less open, less happy, and undisciplined may be detrimental to cognitive performance. PMID:21707179

A Rose in Any Other Font Would Not Smell as Sweet: Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Categorization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oppenheimer, Daniel M.; Frank, Michael C.

2008-01-01

Fluency--the ease with which people process information--is a central piece of information we take into account when we make judgments about the world. Prior research has shown that fluency affects judgments in a wide variety of domains, including frequency, familiarity, and confidence. In this paper, we present evidence that fluency also plays a…

Cross-Age Peer Tutoring and Fluency-Based Instruction to Achieve Fluency with Mathematics Computation Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greene, Irene; Mc Tiernan, Aoife; Holloway, Jennifer

2018-01-01

The current study employed a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the use of peer tutoring and fluency-based instruction to increase mathematics fluency with addition and subtraction computation skills. Forty-one elementary school students between the ages of eight and 12 years participated in the 8-week study using cross-age peer tutoring, Say…

Common features of fluency-evoking conditions studied in stuttering subjects and controls: an H(2)15O PET study.

PubMed

Stager, Sheila V; Jeffries, Keith J; Braun, Allen R

2003-01-01

We used H(2)15O PET to characterize the common features of two successful but markedly different fluency-evoking conditions -- paced speech and singing -- in order to identify brain mechanisms that enable fluent speech in people who stutter. To do so, we compared responses under fluency-evoking conditions with responses elicited by tasks that typically elicit dysfluent speech (quantifying the degree of stuttering and using this measure as a confounding covariate in our analyses). We evaluated task-related activations in both stuttering subjects and age- and gender-matched controls. Areas that were either uniquely activated during fluency-evoking conditions, or in which the magnitude of activation was significantly greater during fluency-evoking than dysfluency-evoking tasks included auditory association areas that process speech and voice and motor regions related to control of the larynx and oral articulators. This suggests that a common fluency-evoking mechanism might relate to more effective coupling of auditory and motor systems -- that is, more efficient self-monitoring, allowing motor areas to more effectively modify speech. These effects were seen in both PWS and controls, suggesting that they are due to the sensorimotor or cognitive demands of the fluency-evoking tasks themselves. While responses seen in both groups were bilateral, however, the fluency-evoking tasks elicited more robust activation of auditory and motor regions within the left hemisphere of stuttering subjects, suggesting a role for the left hemisphere in compensatory processes that enable fluency. The reader will learn about and be able to: (1) compare brain activation patterns under fluency- and dysfluency-evoking conditions in stuttering and control subjects; (2) appraise the common features, both central and peripheral, of fluency-evoking conditions; and (3) discuss ways in which neuroimaging methods can be used to understand the pathophysiology of stuttering.

Apathy and Reduced Speed of Processing Underlie Decline in Verbal Fluency following DBS

PubMed Central

Foltynie, Tom; Zrinzo, Ludvic; Hyam, Jonathan A.; Limousin, Patricia

2017-01-01

Objective. Reduced verbal fluency is a strikingly uniform finding following deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD). The precise cognitive mechanism underlying this reduction remains unclear, but theories have suggested reduced motivation, linguistic skill, and/or executive function. It is of note, however, that previous reports have failed to consider the potential role of any changes in speed of processing. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine verbal fluency changes with a particular focus on the role of cognitive speed. Method. In this study, 28 patients with PD completed measures of verbal fluency, motivation, language, executive functioning, and speed of processing, before and after DBS. Results. As expected, there was a marked decline in verbal fluency but also in a timed test of executive functions and two measures of speed of processing. Verbal fluency decline was associated with markers of linguistic and executive functioning, but not after speed of processing was statistically controlled for. In contrast, greater decline in verbal fluency was associated with higher levels of apathy at baseline, which was not associated with changes in cognitive speed. Discussion. Reduced generativity and processing speed may account for the marked reduction in verbal fluency commonly observed following DBS. PMID:28408788

Performance of Brazilian children on phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks

PubMed Central

Charchat-Fichman, Helenice; Oliveira, Rosinda Martins; da Silva, Andreza Morais

2011-01-01

The most used verbal fluency paradigms are semantic and letter fluency tasks. Studies suggest that these paradigms access semantic memory and executive function and are sensitive to frontal lobe disturbances. There are few studies in Brazilian samples on these paradigms. Objective The present study investigated performance, and the effects of age, on verbal fluency tasks in Brazilian children. The results were compared with those of other studies, and the consistency of the scoring criteria data is presented. Methods A sample of 119 children (7 to 10 years old) was submitted to the three phonemic fluency (F, A, M) tasks and three semantic fluency (animals, clothes, fruits) tasks. The results of thirty subjects were scored by two independent examiners. Results A significant positive correlation was found between the scores calculated by the two independent examiners. Significant positive correlations were found between performance on the semantic fluency task and the phonemic fluency task. The effect of age was significant for both tasks, and a significant difference was found between the 7- and 9-year-old subjects and between the 7- and 10-year-old subjects. The 8-year-old group did not differ to any of the other age groups. Conclusion The pattern of results was similar to that observed in previous Brazilian and international studies. PMID:29213727

Discrimination and Reliance on Conceptual Fluency Cues are Inversely Related in Patients with Mild Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Wolk, David A.; Gold, Carl A.; Signoff, Eric D.; Budson, Andrew E.

2009-01-01

Prior work suggests that patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) often base their recognition memory decisions on familiarity. It has been argued that conceptual fluency may play an important role in the feeling of familiarity. In the present study we measured the effect of conceptual fluency manipulations on recognition judgments of patients with mild AD and older adult controls. “Easy” and “hard” test conditions were created by manipulating encoding depth and list length to yield high and low discrimination, respectively. When the two participant groups performed identical procedures, AD patients displayed lower discrimination and greater reliance on fluency cues than controls. However, when the discrimination of older adult controls was decreased to the level of AD patients by use of a shallow encoding task, we found that controls reliance on fluency did not statistically differ from AD patients. Furthermore, we found that increasing discrimination using shorter study lists resulted in AD patients decreasing their reliance on fluency cues to a similar extent as controls. These findings support the notion that patients with AD are able to attribute conceptual fluency to prior experience. In addition these findings suggest that discrimination and reliance on fluency cues may be inversely related in both AD patients and older adult controls. PMID:19428418

Reading with Maggie: The Effect of the Presence/Absence of a Classroom Pet Dog in a Reading Intervention Package

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bassette, Laura A.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine if the presence/absence of a classroom pet dog impacted reading skills in four 5th grade middle school students with emotional/ behavioral disabilities. An alternating treatment design was used to assess the fluency and comprehension measures in students during reading a reading intervention package…

Functional reorganization during cognitive function tasks in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Keller, Jürgen; Böhm, Sarah; Aho-Özhan, Helena E A; Loose, Markus; Gorges, Martin; Kassubek, Jan; Uttner, Ingo; Abrahams, Sharon; Ludolph, Albert C; Lulé, Dorothée

2018-06-01

Cognitive deficits, especially in the domains of social cognition and executive function including verbal fluency, are common in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. There is yet sparse understanding of pathogenesis of the underlying, possibly adaptive, cortical patterns. To address this issue, 65 patients with ALS and 33 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls were tested on cognitive and behavioral deficits with the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), cortical activity during social cognition and executive function tasks (theory of mind, verbal fluency, alternation) adapted from the ECAS was determined in a 3 Tesla scanner. Compared to healthy controls, ALS patients performed worse in the ECAS overall (p < 0.001) and in all of its subdomains (p < 0.02), except memory. Imaging revealed altered cortical activation during all tasks, with patients consistently showing a hyperactivation in relevant brain areas compared to healthy controls. Additionally, cognitively high performing ALS patients consistently exhibited more activation in frontal brain areas than low performing patients and behaviorally unimpaired patients presented with more neuronal activity in orbitofrontal areas than behaviorally impaired patients. In conclusion, hyperactivation in fMRI cognitive tasks seems to represent an early adaptive process to overcome neuronal cell loss in relevant brain areas. The hereby presented cortical pattern change might suggest that, once this loss passes a critical threshold and no cortical buffering is possible, clinical representation of cognitive and behavioral impairment evolves. Future studies might shed light on the pattern of cortical pattern change in the course of ALS.

Processing fluency affects subjective claims of recollection.

PubMed

Kurilla, Bran P; Westerman, Deanne L

2008-01-01

Previous studies that have used the remember-know paradigm to investigate subjective awareness in memory have shown that fluency manipulations have an impact on "know" responses but not on "remember" responses (e.g., Rajaram, 1993), a finding typically accounted for by invoking inferential processing in judgments of familiarity but not of recollection. However, in light of several researchers' criticisms of this procedure, as well as findings documenting the influence of processing fluency on various subjective judgments, the present study was conducted in order to investigate whether judgments of recollection might also be subject to inferential processes and not solely the product of conscious retrieval. When the standard remember-know procedure was used (Experiment 1), manipulations of perceptual fluency increased "know" responses but had no effect on "remember" responses, replicating previous findings. However, when an independent ratings method was employed (Higham & Vokey, 2004), manipulations of perceptual fluency (Experiment 2) and conceptual fluency (Experiment 3) reliably increased claims of both familiarity and recollection, suggesting that the conclusion that fluency affects only "know" responses may be an artifact of the standard remember-know procedure.

Spanish normative studies in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project): norms for verbal fluency tests.

PubMed

Casals-Coll, M; Sánchez-Benavides, G; Quintana, M; Manero, R M; Rognoni, T; Calvo, L; Palomo, R; Aranciva, F; Tamayo, F; Peña-Casanova, J

2013-01-01

Lexical fluency tests are frequently used in clinical practice to assess language and executive function. As part of the Spanish normative studies project in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project), we provide age- and education-adjusted normative data for 3 semantic fluency tasks (animals, fruits and vegetables, and kitchen tools), three formal lexical fluency tasks (words beginning with P, M and R), three excluded-letter fluency tasks (words excluding A, E and S) and a verb fluency task. The sample consisted of 179 participants who are cognitively normal and range in age from 18 to 49 years. Tables are provided to convert raw scores to scaled scores. Age- and education-adjusted scores are provided by applying linear regression techniques. The results show that education impacted most of the verbal fluency test scores, with no effects related to age and only minimal effects related to sex. The norms obtained will be extremely useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Intuitive (in)coherence judgments are guided by processing fluency, mood and affect.

PubMed

Sweklej, Joanna; Balas, Robert; Pochwatko, Grzegorz; Godlewska, Małgorzata

2014-01-01

Recently proposed accounts of intuitive judgments of semantic coherence assume that processing fluency results in a positive affective response leading to successful assessment of semantic coherence. The present paper investigates whether processing fluency may indicate semantic incoherence as well. In two studies, we employ a new paradigm in which participants have to detect an incoherent item among semantically coherent words. In Study 1, we show participants accurately indicating an incoherent item despite not being able to provide an accurate solution to coherent words. Further, this effect is modified by affective valence of solution words that are not retrieved from memory. Study 2 replicates those results and extend them by showing that mood moderates incoherence judgments independently of affective valence of solutions. The results support processing fluency account of intuitive semantic coherence judgments and show that it is not fluency per se but fluency variations that drive judgments.

Prediction and stability of reading problems in middle childhood.

PubMed

Ritchey, Kristen D; Silverman, Rebecca D; Schatschneider, Christopher; Speece, Deborah L

2015-01-01

The longitudinal prediction of reading problems from fourth grade to sixth grade was investigated with a sample of 173 students. Reading problems at the end of sixth grade were defined by significantly below average performance (≤ 15th percentile) on reading factors defining word reading, fluency, and reading comprehension. Sixth grade poor reader status was predicted by fall of fourth grade passage reading fluency, spelling fluency, and the number of reading problems identified by teachers. Reading fluency and spelling fluency were significant predictors in logistic regression equation that combined to yield a screening battery with an area under the curve of .91. These results suggest that brief assessments of reading and spelling fluency in fourth grade may be able to identify students in middle childhood who have a reading problem or who are at risk for experiencing reading problems in sixth grade. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Medio-lateral Knee Fluency in Anterior Cruciate Ligament-Injured Athletes During Dynamic Movement Trials

PubMed Central

Panos, Joseph A.; Hoffman, Joshua T.; Wordeman, Samuel C.; Hewett, Timothy E.

2016-01-01

Background Correction of neuromuscular impairments after anterior cruciate ligament injury is vital to successful return to sport. Frontal plane knee control during landing is a common measure of lower-extremity neuromuscular control and asymmetries in neuromuscular control of the knee can predispose injured athletes to additional injury and associated morbidities. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of anterior cruciate ligament injury on knee biomechanics during landing. Methods Two-dimensional frontal plane video of single leg drop, cross over drop, and drop vertical jump dynamic movement trials was analyzed for twenty injured and reconstructed athletes. The position of the knee joint center was tracked in ImageJ software for 500 milliseconds after landing to calculate medio-lateral knee motion velocities and determine normal fluency, the number of times per second knee velocity changed direction. The inverse of this calculation, analytical fluency, was used to associate larger numerical values with fluent movement. Findings Analytical fluency was decreased in involved limbs for single leg drop trials (P=0.0018). Importantly, analytical fluency for single leg drop differed compared to cross over drop trials for involved (P<0.001), but not uninvolved limbs (P=0.5029). For involved limbs, analytical fluency values exhibited a stepwise trend in relative magnitudes. Interpretation Decreased analytical fluency in involved limbs is consistent with previous studies. Fluency asymmetries observed during single leg drop tasks may be indicative of abhorrent landing strategies in the involved limb. Analytical fluency differences in unilateral tasks for injured limbs may represent neuromuscular impairment as a result of injury. PMID:26895446

Ineffective initiation contributes to deficient verbal and non-verbal fluency in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Krukow, Paweł; Harciarek, Michał; Morylowska-Topolska, Justyna; Karakuła-Juchnowicz, Hanna; Jonak, Kamil

2017-09-01

Patients with schizophrenia (SCH) show impaired verbal and non-verbal fluency. However, these individuals' fluctuations in words or designs generation efficiency over time, a phenomenon that may significantly affect fluency, have never been studied. Thus, the aim of this research was to investigate if individuals with SCH may present with alternations in the dynamics of the information production and its control as well as to test if the potential abnormalities in this regard might affect these patients' overall performance on both verbal and non-verbal fluency tasks. Forty-four patients with SCH and 40 healthy controls (HC) completed both verbal (phonological, semantic) and non-verbal fluency tests. To analyse processing efficiency changes over time, the period in which subjects had to generate words or designs (60 s) has been divided into 15-s sections. In comparison to HCs, individuals with SCH obtained significantly lower total scores for all fluency measures. Furthermore, group differences in the dynamics of the test performance also emerged, with SCH patients having a significantly worse production during the initial 15 s of each fluency task. Additionally, the initial production deficiency seen in patients with SCH has accounted for these individuals' total performance. Moreover, comparisons of errors distribution over time during the phonemic and figural fluency performance also revealed differences, suggesting there was a rapid depletion in maintaining of cognitive control in the SCH sample. Inefficient fluency in SCH may arise from a more general initiation deficits that may partly account for these patients' cognitive problems.

Effects of disfluency in writing.

PubMed

Medimorec, Srdan; Risko, Evan F

2016-11-01

While much previous research has suggested that decreased transcription fluency has a detrimental effect on writing, there is recent evidence that decreased fluency can actually benefit cognitive processing. Across a series of experiments, we manipulated transcription fluency of ostensibly skilled typewriters by asking them to type essays in two conditions: both-handed and one-handed typewriting. We used the Coh-Metrix text analyser to investigate the effects of decreased transcription fluency on various aspects of essay writing, such as lexical sophistication, sentence complexity, and cohesion of essays (important indicators of successful writing). We demonstrate that decreased fluency can benefit certain aspects of writing and discuss potential mechanisms underlying disfluency effects in essay writing. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Alternating verbal fluency performance following bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Marshall, D F; Strutt, A M; Williams, A E; Simpson, R K; Jankovic, J; York, M K

2012-12-01

Despite common occurrences of verbal fluency declines following bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD), alternating fluency measures using cued and uncued paradigms have not been evaluated. Twenty-three STN-DBS patients were compared with 20 non-surgical PD patients on a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, including cued and uncued intradimensional (phonemic/phonemic and semantic/semantic) and extradimensional (phonemic/semantic) alternating fluency measures at baseline and 6-month follow-up. STN-DBS patients demonstrated a greater decline on the cued phonemic/phonemic fluency and the uncued phonemic/semantic fluency tasks compared to the PD patients. For STN-DBS patients, verbal learning and information processing speed accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in declines in alternating phonemic/phonemic and phonemic/semantic fluency scores, respectively, whilst only naming was related to uncued phonemic/semantic performance for the PD patients. Both groups were aided by cueing for the extradimensional task at baseline and follow-up, and the PD patients were also aided by cueing for the phonemic/phonemic task on follow-up. These findings suggest that changes in alternating fluency are not related to disease progression alone as STN-DBS patients demonstrated greater declines over time than the PD patients, and this change was related to declines in information processing speed. © 2012 The Author(s) European Journal of Neurology © 2012 EFNS.

Laughing through Rereadings: Using Joke Books to Build Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ness, Molly

2009-01-01

The author explores how the use of joke books can promote fluency in young readers. One young girl's fluency improved measurably, and her engagement and motivation to read the particular kind of text involved played a significant role. (Contains 2 tables.)

Implementing an Effective Mathematics Fact Fluency Practice Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riccomini, Paul J.; Stocker, James D., Jr.; Morano, Stephanie

2017-01-01

Proficiency in mathematics involves the seamless synchronization of conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, computational fluency, and problem solving (NMAP, 2008). Clearly, fluency with mathematics facts is one element embedded within mathematical proficiency and important for students with disabilities to develop. As more and more…

The Evolution of Primate Communication and Metacommunication

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Abstract Against the prior view that primate communication is based only on signal decoding, comparative evidence suggests that primates are able, no less than humans, to intentionally perform or understand impulsive or habitual communicational actions with a structured evaluative nonconceptual content. These signals convey an affordance‐sensing that immediately motivates conspecifics to act. Although humans have access to a strategic form of propositional communication adapted to teaching and persuasion, they share with nonhuman primates the capacity to communicate in impulsive or habitual ways. They are also similarly able to monitor fluency, informativeness and relevance of messages or signals through nonconceptual cues. PMID:27134332

Effects of Sampling Context on Spontaneous Expressive Language in Males with Fragile X Syndrome or Down Syndrome

PubMed Central

Kover, Sara T.; McDuffie, Andrea; Abbeduto, Leonard; Brown, W. Ted

2012-01-01

Purpose This study examined the impact of sampling context on multiple aspects of expressive language in males with fragile X syndrome in comparison to males with Down syndrome or typical development. Method Participants with fragile X syndrome (n = 27), ages 10 to 17 years, were matched groupwise on nonverbal mental age to adolescents with Down syndrome (n = 15) and typically developing 3- to 6-year-olds (n = 15). Language sampling contexts were an interview-style conversation and narration of a wordless book, with scripted examiner behavior. Language was assessed in terms of amount of talk, MLU of communication unit (MLCU), lexical diversity, fluency, and intelligibility. Results Participants with fragile X syndrome had lower MLCU and lexical diversity than participants with typical development. Participants with Down syndrome produced yet lower MLCU. A differential effect of context among those with fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, and typical development emerged for the number of attempts per minute, MLCU, and fluency. For participants with fragile X syndrome, autism symptom severity related to the number of utterances produced in conversation. Aspects of examiner behavior related to participant performance. Conclusions Sampling context characteristics should be considered when assessing expressive language in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities. PMID:22232386

Systematic studies of modified vocalization: the effect of speech rate on speech production measures during metronome-paced speech in persons who stutter.

PubMed

Davidow, Jason H

2014-01-01

Metronome-paced speech results in the elimination, or substantial reduction, of stuttering moments. The cause of fluency during this fluency-inducing condition is unknown. Several investigations have reported changes in speech pattern characteristics from a control condition to a metronome-paced speech condition, but failure to control speech rate between conditions limits our ability to determine if the changes were necessary for fluency. This study examined the effect of speech rate on several speech production variables during one-syllable-per-beat metronomic speech in order to determine changes that may be important for fluency during this fluency-inducing condition. Thirteen persons who stutter (PWS), aged 18-62 years, completed a series of speaking tasks. Several speech production variables were compared between conditions produced at different metronome beat rates, and between a control condition and a metronome-paced speech condition produced at a rate equal to the control condition. Vowel duration, voice onset time, pressure rise time and phonated intervals were significantly impacted by metronome beat rate. Voice onset time and the percentage of short (30-100 ms) phonated intervals significantly decreased from the control condition to the equivalent rate metronome-paced speech condition. A reduction in the percentage of short phonated intervals may be important for fluency during syllable-based metronome-paced speech for PWS. Future studies should continue examining the necessity of this reduction. In addition, speech rate must be controlled in future fluency-inducing condition studies, including neuroimaging investigations, in order for this research to make a substantial contribution to finding the fluency-inducing mechanism of fluency-inducing conditions. © 2013 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Systematic Studies of Modified Vocalization: The Effect of Speech Rate on Speech Production Measures During Metronome-Paced Speech in Persons who Stutter

PubMed Central

Davidow, Jason H.

2013-01-01

Background Metronome-paced speech results in the elimination, or substantial reduction, of stuttering moments. The cause of fluency during this fluency-inducing condition is unknown. Several investigations have reported changes in speech pattern characteristics from a control condition to a metronome-paced speech condition, but failure to control speech rate between conditions limits our ability to determine if the changes were necessary for fluency. Aims This study examined the effect of speech rate on several speech production variables during one-syllable-per-beat metronomic speech, in order to determine changes that may be important for fluency during this fluency-inducing condition. Methods and Procedures Thirteen persons who stutter (PWS), aged 18–62 years, completed a series of speaking tasks. Several speech production variables were compared between conditions produced at different metronome beat rates, and between a control condition and a metronome-paced speech condition produced at a rate equal to the control condition. Outcomes & Results Vowel duration, voice onset time, pressure rise time, and phonated intervals were significantly impacted by metronome beat rate. Voice onset time and the percentage of short (30–100 ms) phonated intervals significantly decreased from the control condition to the equivalent rate metronome-paced speech condition. Conclusions & Implications A reduction in the percentage of short phonated intervals may be important for fluency during syllable-based metronome-paced speech for PWS. Future studies should continue examining the necessity of this reduction. In addition, speech rate must be controlled in future fluency-inducing condition studies, including neuroimaging investigations, in order for this research to make a substantial contribution to finding the fluency-inducing mechanism of fluency-inducing conditions. PMID:24372888

Building Speaking Fluency with Multiword Expressions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomson, Haidee

2017-01-01

Previous research has shown a link between speaking fluently and using multiword expressions. However, evidence on how to effectively teach multiword expressions is limited. This study investigates the effect of fluency-oriented classroom teaching on speaking fluency, with special attention to multiword expressions. In this quasi-experimental…

I can, I do, and so I like: From power to action and aesthetic preferences.

PubMed

Woltin, Karl-Andrew; Guinote, Ana

2015-12-01

The current work tested the hypothesis that power increases reliance on experiences of motor fluency in forming aesthetic preferences. In 4 experiments, participants reported their aesthetic preferences regarding a variety of targets (pictures, movements, objects, and letters). Experiments 1, 2, and 3 manipulated power and motor fluency (via motoric resonance, extraocular muscle training, and dominant hand restriction). Experiment 4 manipulated power and assessed chronic interindividual differences in motor fluency. Across these experiments, power consistently increased reliance on motor fluency in aesthetic preference judgments. This finding was not mediated by differences in mood, judgment certainty, perceived task-demands or task-enjoyment, and derived from the use of motor simulations rather than from power differences in the acquisition of motor experiences. This is the first demonstration suggesting that power changes the formation of preference judgments as a function of motor fluency experiences. The implications of this research for the links between power and action, as well as the understanding of fluency processes are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Risk factors for selective cognitive decline in dialyzed patients with end-stage renal disease: evidence from verbal fluency analysis.

PubMed

Harciarek, Michał; Williamson, John B; Biedunkiewicz, Bogdan; Lichodziejewska-Niemierko, Monika; Dębska-Ślizień, Alicja; Rutkowski, Bolesław

2012-01-01

Although dialyzed patients often have cognitive problems, little is known about the nature of these deficits. We hypothesized that, in contrast to semantic fluency relying mainly on temporal lobes, phonemic fluency, preferentially depending on functions of frontal-subcortical systems, would be particularly sensitive to the constellation of physiological pathological processes associated with end-stage renal disease and dialysis. Therefore, we longitudinally compared phonemic and semantic fluency performance between 49 dialyzed patients and 30 controls. Overall, patients performed below controls only on the phonemic fluency task. Furthermore, their performance on this task declined over time, whereas there was no change in semantic fluency. Moreover, this decline was related to the presence of hypertension and higher blood urea nitrogen. We suggest that these findings may be due to a combination of vascular and topic effects that impact more on fronto-subcortical than temporal lobe networks, but this speculation requires direct confirmation.

Evaluating lexical characteristics of verbal fluency output in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Juhasz, Barbara J; Chambers, Destinee; Shesler, Leah W; Haber, Alix; Kurtz, Matthew M

2012-12-30

Standardized lexical analysis of verbal output has not been applied to verbal fluency tasks in schizophrenia. Performance of individuals with schizophrenia on both a letter (n=139) and semantic (n=137) fluency task was investigated. The lexical characteristics (word frequency, age-of-acquisition, word length, and semantic typicality) of words produced were evaluated and compared to those produced by a healthy control group matched on age, gender, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) vocabulary scores (n=20). Overall, individuals with schizophrenia produced fewer words than healthy controls, replicating past research (see Bokat and Goldberg, 2003). Words produced in the semantic fluency task by individuals with schizophrenia were, on average, earlier acquired and more typical of the category. In contrast, no differences in lexical characteristics emerged in the letter fluency task. The results are informative regarding how individuals with schizophrenia access their mental lexicons during the verbal fluency task. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reduced verbal fluency for proper names in nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease: a quantitative and qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Fine, Eric M; Delis, Dean C; Paul, Brianna M; Filoteo, J Vincent

2011-02-01

There has been an increasing interest within neuropsychology in comparing verbal fluency for different grammatical classes (e.g., verb generation vs. noun generation) in neurological populations, including Parkinson's disease (PD). However, to our knowledge, few studies have compared verbal fluency for common nouns and proper names in PD. Common nouns and proper names differ in terms of their semantic characteristics, as categories of common nouns are organized hierarchically based on semantics, while categories of proper nouns lack a well-defined semantic organization. In addition, there is accumulating evidence that the retrieval of these distinct grammatical classes are subserved by somewhat distinct neural systems. Given that verbal fluency deficits are among the first impairments to emerge in PD, and that such deficits are predictors of future cognitive decline, it is important to examine all aspects of verbal fluency in this population. For the current study, we compared the performance of a group of 32 nondemented PD patients with 32 healthy participants (HP) on verbal fluency tasks for common nouns (animals) and proper names (boys' first names). A significant interaction between verbal fluency task and diagnostic status emerged, as the PD group performed significantly worse on only the proper name fluency task. This finding may reflect the absence of well-defined semantic organization that structures the verbal search for first names, thus placing a greater onus on strategic or "executive" verbal retrieval processes.

Animal research in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.

PubMed

Edwards, Timothy L; Poling, Alan

2011-01-01

This review summarizes the 6 studies with nonhuman animal subjects that have appeared in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and offers suggestions for future research in this area. Two of the reviewed articles described translational research in which pigeons were used to illustrate and examine behavioral phenomena of applied significance (say-do correspondence and fluency), 3 described interventions that changed animals' behavior (self-injury by a baboon, feces throwing and spitting by a chimpanzee, and unsafe trailer entry by horses) in ways that benefited the animals and the people in charge of them, and 1 described the use of trained rats that performed a service to humans (land-mine detection). We suggest that each of these general research areas merits further attention and that the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis is an appropriate outlet for some of these publications.

Functional MRI evidence for the decline of word retrieval and generation during normal aging.

PubMed

Baciu, M; Boudiaf, N; Cousin, E; Perrone-Bertolotti, M; Pichat, C; Fournet, N; Chainay, H; Lamalle, L; Krainik, A

2016-02-01

This fMRI study aimed to explore the effect of normal aging on word retrieval and generation. The question addressed is whether lexical production decline is determined by a direct mechanism, which concerns the language operations or is rather indirectly induced by a decline of executive functions. Indeed, the main hypothesis was that normal aging does not induce loss of lexical knowledge, but there is only a general slowdown in retrieval mechanisms involved in lexical processing, due to possible decline of the executive functions. We used three tasks (verbal fluency, object naming, and semantic categorization). Two groups of participants were tested (Young, Y and Aged, A), without cognitive and psychiatric impairment and showing similar levels of vocabulary. Neuropsychological testing revealed that older participants had lower executive function scores, longer processing speeds, and tended to have lower verbal fluency scores. Additionally, older participants showed higher scores for verbal automatisms and overlearned information. In terms of behavioral data, older participants performed as accurate as younger adults, but they were significantly slower for the semantic categorization and were less fluent for verbal fluency task. Functional MRI analyses suggested that older adults did not simply activate fewer brain regions involved in word production, but they actually showed an atypical pattern of activation. Significant correlations between the BOLD (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent) signal of aging-related (A > Y) regions and cognitive scores suggested that this atypical pattern of the activation may reveal several compensatory mechanisms (a) to overcome the slowdown in retrieval, due to the decline of executive functions and processing speed and (b) to inhibit verbal automatic processes. The BOLD signal measured in some other aging-dependent regions did not correlate with the behavioral and neuropsychological scores, and the overactivation of these uncorrelated regions would simply reveal dedifferentiation that occurs with aging. Altogether, our results suggest that normal aging is associated with a more difficult access to lexico-semantic operations and representations by a slowdown in executive functions, without any conceptual loss.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and cognitive function: findings from the mind your heart study.

PubMed

Cohen, Beth E; Neylan, Thomas C; Yaffe, Kristine; Samuelson, Kristin W; Li, Yongmei; Barnes, Deborah E

2013-11-01

Prior studies have found that the patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have poorer performance on cognitive tests than patients without PTSD, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We examined the association between PTSD and cognitive function in a large cohort and evaluated the role of potential biological and behavioral mediators. A cohort of 535 adult outpatients (≤ 65 years) without dementia, stroke, or other neurologic disorders was recruited from 2 Veterans Affairs medical centers between February 2008 and June 2010. PTSD was assessed with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) using DSM-IV-TR criteria. Cognitive function tests included processing speed, Trails A and B, letter fluency, category fluency, and verbal learning and recognition. Linear regression was used to evaluate the association between PTSD and cognitive function test scores and to assess potential mediators of the association. For our analyses of PTSD and cognitive function, we combined 178 participants who met criteria for full PTSD and 18 who met criteria for partial PTSD and had a CAPS score > 40. After adjusting for demographics, these participants with PTSD scored significantly worse on processing speed (0.30 standard deviations [SDs], P ≤ .001), category fluency (0.23 SDs, P = .01), verbal learning (0.30 SDs, P = .001), and verbal recognition (0.18 SDs, P = .048) than those without PTSD. These associations were largely accounted for by health behaviors, vascular risk factors, and depression. In this cohort of veterans under age 65 years without known neurologic disease, patients with versus without PTSD had significantly poorer performance in several domains of cognitive function, particularly in tests involving processing speed, executive function, and learning. These cognitive deficits were largely explained by modifiable risk factors. Interventions targeted at these risk factors might minimize the impact of PTSD on cognitive decline and dementia risk as patients age. © Copyright 2013 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Reading Fluency and College Readiness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasinski, Timothy V.; Chang, Shu-Ching; Edmondson, Elizabeth; Nageldinger, James; Nigh, Jennifer; Remark, Linda; Kenney, Kristen Srsen; Walsh-Moorman, Elizabeth; Yildirim, Kasim; Nichols, William Dee; Paige, David D.; Rupley, William H.

2017-01-01

The Common Core State Standards suggest that an appropriate goal for secondary education is college and career readiness. Previous research has identified reading fluency as a critical component for proficient reading. One component of fluency is word recognition accuracy and automaticity. The present study attempted to determine the word…

A Comparison of Group-Oriented Contingencies for Addition Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Thomas J.; Duhon, Gary J.; Shutte, Greg; Rowland, Julie E.

2016-01-01

Math fact fluency is critical for understanding complex mathematics. Explicit timing interventions have shown promise for improving math fluency, and they may benefit from being paired with group-oriented contingencies. Further, investigations of independent and dependent group-oriented contingencies would help to identify their relative…

The Impact of Asking Intention or Self-Prediction Questions on Subsequent Behavior

PubMed Central

Wood, Chantelle; Conner, Mark; Miles, Eleanor; Sandberg, Tracy; Taylor, Natalie; Godin, Gaston; Sheeran, Paschal

2015-01-01

The current meta-analysis estimated the magnitude of the impact of asking intention and self-prediction questions on rates of subsequent behavior, and examined mediators and moderators of this question–behavior effect (QBE). Random-effects meta-analysis on 116 published tests of the effect indicated that intention/prediction questions have a small positive effect on behavior (d+ = 0.24). Little support was observed for attitude accessibility, cognitive dissonance, behavioral simulation, or processing fluency explanations of the QBE. Multivariate analyses indicated significant effects of social desirability of behavior/behavior domain (larger effects for more desirable and less risky behaviors), difficulty of behavior (larger effects for easy-to-perform behaviors), and sample type (larger effects among student samples). Although this review controls for co-occurrence of moderators in multivariate analyses, future primary research should systematically vary moderators in fully factorial designs. Further primary research is also needed to unravel the mechanisms underlying different variants of the QBE. PMID:26162771

Home Environmental and Behavioral Risk Indices for Reading Achievement.

PubMed

Taylor, Jeanette; Ennis, Chelsea R; Hart, Sara A; Mikolajewski, Amy J; Schatschneider, Christopher

2017-07-01

The goal of this study was to identify home environmental and temperament/behavior variables that best predict standardized reading comprehension scores among school-aged children. Data from 269 children aged 9-16 ( M = 12.08; SD = 1.62) were used in discriminant function analyses to create the Home and Behavior indices. Family income was controlled in each index. The final Home and Behavior models each classified around 75% of cases correctly (reading comprehension at grade level vs. not). Each index was then used to predict other outcomes related to reading. Results showed that Home and/or Behavior accounted for 4-7% of the variance in reading fluency and spelling and 20-35% of the variance in parent-rated problems in math, social anxiety, and other dimensions. These metrics show promise as environmental and temperament/behavior risk scores that could be used to predict and potentially screen for further assessment of reading related problems.

Oral Reading Fluency in Second Language Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeon, Eun Hee

2012-01-01

This study investigated the role of oral reading fluency in second language reading. Two hundred and fifty-five high school students in South Korea were assessed on three oral reading fluency (ORF) variables and six other reading predictors. The relationship between ORF and other reading predictors was examined through an exploratory factor…

The Effect of Processing Fluency on Impressions of Familiarity and Liking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westerman, Deanne L.; Lanska, Meredith; Olds, Justin M.

2015-01-01

Processing fluency has been shown to have wide-ranging effects on disparate evaluative judgments, including judgments of liking and familiarity. One account of such effects is the hedonic marking hypothesis (Winkielman, Schwarz, Fazendeiro, & Reber, 2003), which posits that fluency is directly linked to affective preferences via a positive…

Incorporating Vocabulary Instruction in Individual Reading Fluency Interventions with English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Lauren E.; Mercer, Sterett H.; Geres-Smith, Rhonda

2018-01-01

The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine whether incorporating vocabulary instruction in individual reading fluency interventions for English Language Learners (ELLs) would improve reading comprehension. Two vocabulary instructional procedures were contrasted with a fluency-building only condition in an alternating-treatments design…

Linguistic and Cultural Factors Associated with Phonemic Fluency Performance in Bilingual Hispanics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Jennifer

2012-01-01

Verbal fluency tasks are used extensively in clinical settings because of their sensitivity to a wide variety of disorders, including cognitive decline and dementia, and their usefulness in differential diagnoses. However, the effects of bilingualism on neuropsychological assessment, and verbal fluency in particular, are currently not completely…

Linguistic Skills and Speaking Fluency in a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Jong, Nivja H.; Steinel, Margarita P.; Florijn, Arjen; Schoonen, Rob; Hulstijn, Jan H.

2013-01-01

This study investigated how individual differences in linguistic knowledge and processing skills relate to individual differences in speaking fluency. Speakers of Dutch as a second language ("N" = 179) performed eight speaking tasks, from which several measures of fluency were derived such as measures for pausing, repairing, and speed…

Computational Fluency Performance Profile of High School Students with Mathematics Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calhoon, Mary Beth; Emerson, Robert Wall; Flores, Margaret; Houchins, David E.

2007-01-01

The purpose of this descriptive study was to develop a computational fluency performance profile of 224 high school (Grades 9-12) students with mathematics disabilities (MD). Computational fluency performance was examined by grade-level expectancy (Grades 2-6) and skill area (whole numbers: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division;…

Comparison of Animal, Action and Phonemic Fluency in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Milman, Lisa

2018-01-01

Background: The ability to generate words that follow certain constraints, or verbal fluency, is a sensitive indicator of neurocognitive impairment, and is impacted by a variety of variables. Aims: To investigate the effect of post-stroke aphasia, elicitation category and linguistic variables on verbal fluency performance. Methods &…

Fluency Instruction. Research-Based Best Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasinski, Timothy Ed.; Blachowicz, Camille Ed.; Lems, Kristin Ed.

2006-01-01

Because fluency instruction was identified, only recently, as a cornerstone literacy subject--it is still unfamiliar terrain for many teachers. This volume fills a crucial gap by offering a thorough, authoritative examination of what reading fluency is--and how it should be taught. Contributing authors, who include the field's leading authorities,…

Developing Mathematical Fluency: Comparing Exercises and Rich Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Colin

2018-01-01

Achieving fluency in important mathematical procedures is fundamental to students' mathematical development. The usual way to develop procedural fluency is to practise repetitive exercises, but is this the only effective way? This paper reports three quasi-experimental studies carried out in a total of 11 secondary schools involving altogether 528…

Considering the Context and Texts for Fluency: Performance, Readers Theater, and Poetry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Chase; Nageldinger, James

2014-01-01

This article describes the importance of teaching reading fluency and all of its components, including automaticity and prosody. The authors explain how teachers can create a context for reading fluency instruction by engaging students in reading performance activities. To support the instructional contexts, the authors suggest particular…

Concurrent Validity of the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R. Steve; Burton, Bobbie; Gray, Rebecca; Windingstad, Sunny; Moore, Jessica

2006-01-01

Relationships between the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF; Mather, Hammill, Allen, & Roberts, 2004), a recently developed measure of fluency, and other operationalizations of reading, including subtests from the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS; 1996), and the Woodcock-Johnson-III Tests of Achievement, (WJ-III; Woodcock,…

Orthographic Learning in Dyslexic Spanish Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Ramos, Sara; Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Cuetos, Fernando

2014-01-01

Reading fluency is one of the basic processes of learning to read. Children begin to develop fluency when they are able to form orthographic representations of words, which provide direct, smooth, and fast reading. Dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems are mainly characterized by poor reading fluency (Cuetos & Suárez-Coalla…

A Spectrographically Grounded Scale for Evaluating Reading Expressiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benjamin, Rebekah George; Schwanenflugel, Paula J.; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Groff, Carolyn; Kuhn, Melanie R.; Steiner, Lilly

2013-01-01

This study evaluated the validity of a new scale for assessing children's reading fluency skill called the Comprehensive Oral Reading Fluency Scale (CORFS). The CORFS consists of two subscales that capture key elements of the Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, and Meisinger (2010) definition of reading fluency: reading expression, reading rate, and accuracy.…

Efficacy of Two Mathematics Interventions for Enhancing Fluency with Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mong, Michael D.; Mong, Kristi W.

2010-01-01

An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate two curriculum-based mathematics interventions designed to enhance fluency with three elementary school students. Results indicate that both the Math to Mastery (MTM) intervention and the Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC) intervention were effective at increasing mathematics fluency, as measured by…

Differences in the Relationship of Oral Reading Fluency and High-Stakes Measures of Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Wanzek, Jeanne; Roberts, Greg; Linan-Thompson, Sylvia; Vaughn, Sharon; Woodruff, Althea L.; Murray, Christy S.

2011-01-01

The current study examined the predictive validity of oral reading fluency measures across first, second, and third grades for two reading achievement measures at the end of third grade. Oral reading fluency measures were administered to students from first grade to third. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and the Stanford Achievement Test were also administered in the third grade. Oral reading fluency was a reliable predictor of student success on both measures. Data suggest that greater student growth in oral reading fluency is needed through the grade levels to ensure high probabilities of success on the nationally normed measure, as compared to what is needed for the state-normed measure. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. PMID:21479152

Does Working Memory Enhance or Interfere With Speech Fluency in Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter? Evidence From a Dual-Task Paradigm.

PubMed

Eichorn, Naomi; Marton, Klara; Schwartz, Richard G; Melara, Robert D; Pirutinsky, Steven

2016-06-01

The present study examined whether engaging working memory in a secondary task benefits speech fluency. Effects of dual-task conditions on speech fluency, rate, and errors were examined with respect to predictions derived from three related theoretical accounts of disfluencies. Nineteen adults who stutter and twenty adults who do not stutter participated in the study. All participants completed 2 baseline tasks: a continuous-speaking task and a working-memory (WM) task involving manipulations of domain, load, and interstimulus interval. In the dual-task portion of the experiment, participants simultaneously performed the speaking task with each unique combination of WM conditions. All speakers showed similar fluency benefits and decrements in WM accuracy as a result of dual-task conditions. Fluency effects were specific to atypical forms of disfluency and were comparable across WM-task manipulations. Changes in fluency were accompanied by reductions in speaking rate but not by corresponding changes in overt errors. Findings suggest that WM contributes to disfluencies regardless of stuttering status and that engaging WM resources while speaking enhances fluency. Further research is needed to verify the cognitive mechanism involved in this effect and to determine how these findings can best inform clinical intervention.

Valence-space compatibility effects depend on situated motor fluency in both right- and left-handers.

PubMed

Milhau, Audrey; Brouillet, Thibaut; Brouillet, Denis

2015-01-01

According to the body specificity hypothesis, the way we interact with our environment participates in our conceptualization of concepts and word meanings. For instance, valence is associated to horizontal space because of the motor fluency by which one acts with one's dominant hand. We propose that the decisive factor in the compatibility effects between valence and lateral actions is the interaction between the fluency of response movement and the situational constraints of the task. In a valence judgement task with positive and negative words, right-handers (Experiment 1) and left-handers (Experiment 2) responded with lateralized actions of either their dominant or their nondominant hand. To do so, we used a response device that was either congruent or noncongruent with the fluency of the response hand. Results highlighted that when the response device was congruent with the fluency of the responding hand, response times to positive evaluations were shorter than those to negative evaluations. Conversely, when the response device was noncongruent with the fluency of the responding hand, we observed faster responses for negative evaluations than for positive evaluations. Furthermore, we obtained similar patterns for right- and left-handers, supporting the idea that compatibility effects are driven by the situated fluency of the responding hand.

Auditory Masking Effects on Speech Fluency in Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia: Comparison to Altered Auditory Feedback

PubMed Central

Haley, Katarina L.

2015-01-01

Purpose To study the effects of masked auditory feedback (MAF) on speech fluency in adults with aphasia and/or apraxia of speech (APH/AOS). We hypothesized that adults with AOS would increase speech fluency when speaking with noise. Altered auditory feedback (AAF; i.e., delayed/frequency-shifted feedback) was included as a control condition not expected to improve speech fluency. Method Ten participants with APH/AOS and 10 neurologically healthy (NH) participants were studied under both feedback conditions. To allow examination of individual responses, we used an ABACA design. Effects were examined on syllable rate, disfluency duration, and vocal intensity. Results Seven of 10 APH/AOS participants increased fluency with masking by increasing rate, decreasing disfluency duration, or both. In contrast, none of the NH participants increased speaking rate with MAF. In the AAF condition, only 1 APH/AOS participant increased fluency. Four APH/AOS participants and 8 NH participants slowed their rate with AAF. Conclusions Speaking with MAF appears to increase fluency in a subset of individuals with APH/AOS, indicating that overreliance on auditory feedback monitoring may contribute to their disorder presentation. The distinction between responders and nonresponders was not linked to AOS diagnosis, so additional work is needed to develop hypotheses for candidacy and underlying control mechanisms. PMID:26363508

Executive cognitive tests for the evaluation of patients with Parkinson’s disease

PubMed Central

Sobreira, Emmanuelle Silva Tavares; Pena, Marina Ceres Silva; Silva Filho, José Humberto; Souza, Carolina Pinto; Oliveira, Guiomar Nascimento; Tumas, Vitor; do Vale, Francisco de Assis Carvalho

2008-01-01

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by changes in movement, which are later followed by cognitive, behavioral and psychological changes. The objective of the present study was to correlate different tests used to examine executive functions in PD patients followed at a specialized outpatient clinic. Methods Thirty-five patients with idiopathic PD aged 63.0 years on average and with mean schooling of 5.5±4.2 years, were examined using the following tests: Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS), Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson’s Disease-Cognition (SCOPA-COG), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), Digit Span – Inverse Order (IO) (a subtest of the WAIS III) and Verbal Fluency Test (category animals). Results Significant correlations were detected between FAB and MDRS Conceptualization (0.814), MDRS Initiation/Perseveration (I/P) and SCOPA-COG Executive Function (0.643), FAB and MDRS I/P (0.601), FAB and Verbal Fluency (0.602), MDRS I/P and MDRS Conceptualization (0.558), Verbal Fluency and MDRS I/P (0.529), MDRS Attention and SCOPA-COG Executive Function (0.495), MDRS Conceptualization and SCOPA-COG Executive Function (0.520), FAB and Digit Span (OI) (0.503), Verbal Fluency and MDRS Conceptualization (0.501), and WCST perseverative errors and FAB (–0.379), WCST perseverative errors and MDRS Conceptualization (0.445), WCST perseverative errors and MDRS I/P (–0.407) and WCST categories completed and MDRS Conceptualization (0.382). Discussion The results demonstrated strong correlations between most of the tests applied, but no associations were detected between the WCST and the other tests, a fact that may be explained by the heterogeneity of scores obtained in the tests by the patients evaluated. A difficulty of the present study was the lack of a control groups for the establishment of adequate standards for this population. PMID:29213572

Text-fading based training leads to transfer effects on children's sentence reading fluency

PubMed Central

Nagler, Telse; Korinth, Sebastian P.; Linkersdörfer, Janosch; Lonnemann, Jan; Rump, Björn; Hasselhorn, Marcus; Lindberg, Sven

2015-01-01

Previous studies used a text-fading procedure as a training tool with the goal to increase silent reading fluency (i.e., proficient reading rate and comprehension). In recently published studies, this procedure resulted in lasting reading enhancements for adult and adolescent research samples. However, studies working with children reported mixed results. While reading rate improvements were observable for Dutch reading children in a text-fading training study, reading fluency improvements in standardized reading tests post-training attributable to the fading manipulation were not detectable. These results raise the question of whether text-fading training is not effective for children or whether research design issues have concealed possible transfer effects. Hence, the present study sought to investigate possible transfer effects resulting from a text-fading based reading training program, using a modified research design. Over a period of 3 weeks, two groups of German third-graders read sentences either with an adaptive text-fading procedure or at their self-paced reading rate. A standardized test measuring reading fluency at the word, sentence, and text level was conducted pre- and post-training. Text level reading fluency improved for both groups equally. Post-training gains at the word level were found for the text-fading group, however, no significant interaction between groups was revealed for word reading fluency. Sentence level reading fluency gains were found for the text-fading group, which significantly differed from the group of children reading at their self-paced reading routine. These findings provide evidence for the efficacy of text-fading as a training method for sentence reading fluency improvement also for children. PMID:25713554

Verbal fluency in bipolar disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Raucher-Chéné, Delphine; Achim, Amélie M; Kaladjian, Arthur; Besche-Richard, Chrystel

2017-01-01

One of the main features of bipolar disorder (BD), besides mood dysregulation, is an alteration of the structure of language. Bipolar patients present changes in semantic contents, impaired verbal associations, abnormal prosody and abnormal speed of language highlighted with various experimental tasks. Verbal fluency tasks are widely used to assess the abilities of bipolar patients to retrieve and produce verbal material from the lexico-semantic memory. Studies using these tasks have however yielded discrepant results. The aim of this study was thus to determine the extent of the verbal fluency impairment in BD patients and to evaluate if the deficits are affected by the type of task or by mood states. A systematic literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, EBSCOHost and Google Scholar and relevant data were submitted to a meta-analysis. Thirty-nine studies were retained providing data for 52 independent groups of BD patients. The overall meta-analysis revealed a moderate verbal fluency impairment in BD compared to healthy controls (effect size d=0.61). Comparisons between mood states showed significant differences only between euthymic and manic patients and only on category fluency performances. This review is limited by the heterogeneity between studies for the characteristics of BD populations. Also, few of the retained studies examined depressive or mixed episodes. This work confirms that BD patients present with moderate verbal fluency impairments, and underlines the specific effect of mood state on category fluency. This emphasizes the need to distinguish semantic from phonological processes in verbal fluency assessments in BD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Right hemisphere structures predict poststroke speech fluency.

PubMed

Pani, Ethan; Zheng, Xin; Wang, Jasmine; Norton, Andrea; Schlaug, Gottfried

2016-04-26

We sought to determine via a cross-sectional study the contribution of (1) the right hemisphere's speech-relevant white matter regions and (2) interhemispheric connectivity to speech fluency in the chronic phase of left hemisphere stroke with aphasia. Fractional anisotropy (FA) of white matter regions underlying the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), precentral gyrus (PreCG), pars opercularis (IFGop) and triangularis (IFGtri) of the inferior frontal gyrus, and the corpus callosum (CC) was correlated with speech fluency measures. A region within the superior parietal lobule (SPL) was examined as a control. FA values of regions that significantly predicted speech measures were compared with FA values from healthy age- and sex-matched controls. FA values for the right MTG, PreCG, and IFGop significantly predicted speech fluency, but FA values of the IFGtri and SPL did not. A multiple regression showed that combining FA of the significant right hemisphere regions with the lesion load of the left arcuate fasciculus-a previously identified biomarker of poststroke speech fluency-provided the best model for predicting speech fluency. FA of CC fibers connecting left and right supplementary motor areas (SMA) was also correlated with speech fluency. FA of the right IFGop and PreCG was significantly higher in patients than controls, while FA of a whole CC region of interest (ROI) and the CC-SMA ROI was significantly lower in patients. Right hemisphere white matter integrity is related to speech fluency measures in patients with chronic aphasia. This may indicate premorbid anatomical variability beneficial for recovery or be the result of poststroke remodeling. © 2016 American Academy of Neurology.

Effect of Repeated Reading and Self-Directed Behavior on Reading Skills and Generalization of the Reading Skills of Third-Grade Hill Tribe Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Compan, Boonlert; Iamsupasit, Sompoch; Samuels, Jay

A study tested a method for developing reading fluency with third-grade Hill Tribe children in a welfare school in Chiang Mai, a city located in northern Thailand. Most of the students were bilingual, speaking their native tongues and Thai, their second language. Only 18.7% of the Hill Tribe population can read Thai, and many students fail to…

Strategic Key Word Instruction: Increasing Fluency in Connected Expository Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coulter, Gail; Lambert, Michael C.

2015-01-01

The effects of preteaching key words on fluency in connected text were examined with three third-grade general education participants. Researchers used a multiple base-line design (i.e., Baseline and Wordlist Intervention) and found that preteaching increased fluency in connected text written above the participant's instructional level of reading…

Instructor Fluency Leads to Higher Confidence in Learning, but Not Better Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toftness, Alexander R.; Carpenter, Shana K.; Geller, Jason; Lauber, Sierra; Johnson, Madeline; Armstrong, Patrick I.

2018-01-01

Students' judgements of their own learning often exceed their knowledge on a given topic. One source of this pervasive overconfidence is fluency, the perceived ease with which information is acquired. Though effects of fluency on metacognitive judgments have been explored by manipulating relatively simple stimuli such as font style, few studies…

Training for Fluency and Generalization of Math Facts Using Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musti-Rao, Shobana; Lynch, Tom Liam; Plati, Erin

2015-01-01

As American students struggle with basic mathematical skills, the importance of math fact fluency has gained the attention of educators and researchers. Generalization of math fact fluency is also important for the transfer of skills to other settings and formats, assisting students in the completion of more varied and complicated math tasks. This…

Embodied Memory Judgments: A Case of Motor Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Shu-Ju; Gallo, David A.; Beilock, Sian L.

2009-01-01

It is well known that perceptual and conceptual fluency can influence episodic memory judgments. Here, the authors asked whether fluency arising from the motor system also impacts recognition memory. Past research has shown that the perception of letters automatically activates motor programs of typing actions in skilled typists. In this study,…

Using Performance Methods to Enhance Students' Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Chase; Valadez, Corinne; Gandara, Cori

2016-01-01

The quasi-experimental study examined the effects of pairing Rock and Read with Readers Theater and only Rock and Read on second grade students' reading fluency scores. The 51 subjects were pre- and post-tested on five different reading fluency measures. A series of 3 × 2 repeated measures ANOVAs revealed statistically significant interaction…

Keep Up the Good Work! Part III: Using Multimedia To Build Reading Fluency and Enjoyment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glasgow, Jacqueline N.

1997-01-01

Discusses building fluency in reading and writing and teaching students to read and write for pleasure. Highlights include multimedia storyboards; bilingual instruction; writing programs for building fluency; CD-ROM storyboards; student-created storyboards; and an annotated bibliography of CD-ROM storyboards, poetry collections, and composing…

Using Computer-Assisted Instruction to Build Math Fact Fluency: An Implementation Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Renee O.; Collins, Tai; Hernan, Colleen; Flowers, Emily

2017-01-01

Research findings support the use of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) as a curriculum supplement for improving math skills, including math fact fluency. There are a number of websites and mobile applications (i.e., apps) designed to build students' math fact fluency, but the options can become overwhelming. This article provides implementation…

A Strategic Necessity: Building Senior Leadership's Fluency in Digital Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kolomitz, Kara; Cabellon, Edmund T.

2016-01-01

This chapter describes the opportunity for senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) to develop an increased digital fluency to meet the needs of various constituencies in the digital age. The authors explore what a digital fluency is, how it might impact SSAOs' leadership potential, and the benefits for their respective divisions.

Fluency Training. NetNews . Volume 4, Number 5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LDA of Minnesota, 2004

2004-01-01

In the past, researchers believed that reading fluency developed as a result of good word recognition skills; however, it is now believed that fluency must be explicitly taught and practiced orally in order to develop. Readers who are not fluent in reading will be less motivated to practice, have more difficulty learning academic content, and…

When Two Sources of Fluency Meet One Cognitive Mindset

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reggev, Niv; Hassin, Ran R.; Maril, Anat

2012-01-01

Fluency, the subjective experience of ease associated with information processing, has been shown to affect a host of judgments. Previous research has typically focused on specific factors that affect the use of a single, specific fluency source. In the present study we examine how cognitive mindsets, or processing modes, moderate fluency…

Development of an Evidence-Based Reading Fluency Program for Adult Literacy Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shore, Jane; Sabatini, John; Lentini, Jennifer; Holtzman, Steven; McNeil, Adjua

2015-01-01

Fluency is an essential part of skilled reading that has only recently begun to receive its deserved attention. However, programs that meaningfully engage adult learners in fluency training have not been widely explored in research. In this article, the authors describe an evidence-based adult Guided Repeated Reading program developed for…

Toward a New Model of Usability: Guidelines for Selecting Reading Fluency Apps Suitable for Instruction of Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinehart, Steven D.; Ahern, Terence C.

2016-01-01

Computer applications related to reading instruction have become commonplace in schools and link with established components of the reading process, emergent skills, decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. This article focuses on computer technology in conjunction with durable methods for building oral reading fluency when readers…

Oral Reading Fluency Development for Children with Emotional Disturbance or Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wanzek, Jeanne; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Petscher, Yaacov

2014-01-01

This study used a large statewide database to examine the oral reading fluency development of second- and third-grade students with emotional disturbance or learning disabilities and their general education peers. Oral reading fluency measures were administered to 185,367 students without disabilities (general education), 2,146 students identified…

Evaluating Student Comprehension Performance Measured by Oral Reading Fluency and Retell Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGann, Rachel M.

2017-01-01

This dissertation investigated student comprehension and its relationship to oral reading fluency. The DIBELS Next reading assessment was used to determine the relationship between these reading skills. This research also examined the relationship between the two comprehension measures of the DIBELS Next assessment that are identified by the…

The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Activities in Enhancing EFL Learners' Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alrayah, Hassan

2018-01-01

This research-paper aims at examining the effectiveness of cooperative learning activities in enhancing EFL learners' fluency. The researcher has used the descriptive approach, recorded interviews for testing fluency as tools of data collection and the software program SPSS as a tool for the statistical treatment of data. Research sample consists…

Effects of a Mindful Breathing Exercise during Reading Fluency Intervention for Students with Attentional Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Idler, Alyssa M.; Mercer, Sterett H.; Starosta, Lindsay; Bartfai, Jamie M.

2017-01-01

Students with attentional difficulties are at greater risk for reading difficulties. To address this concern, we examined the extent to which adding a mindful breathing exercise to individual reading fluency interventions would improve gains in reading fluency, student-reported attention, and student-reported stress. In a restricted alternating…

The Relationship between Computational Fluency and Student Success in General Studies Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hegeman, Jennifer; Waters, Gavin

2012-01-01

Many developmental mathematics programs emphasize computational fluency with the assumption that this is a necessary contributor to student success in general studies mathematics. In an effort to determine which skills are most essential, scores on a computational fluency test were correlated with student success in general studies mathematics at…

Longitudinal Study on Fluency among Novice Learners of Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirotani, Maki; Matsumoto, Kazumi; Fukada, Atsusi

2012-01-01

The present study examined various aspects of the development of learners' fluency in Japanese using a large set of speech samples collected over a long period, using an online speaking practice/assessment system called "Speak Everywhere." The purpose of the present study was to examine: (1) how the fluency related measures changed over…

Perceptual Fluency, Auditory Generation, and Metamemory: Analyzing the Perceptual Fluency Hypothesis in the Auditory Modality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Besken, Miri; Mulligan, Neil W.

2014-01-01

Judgments of learning (JOLs) are sometimes influenced by factors that do not impact actual memory performance. One recent proposal is that perceptual fluency during encoding affects metamemory and is a basis of metacognitive illusions. In the present experiments, participants identified aurally presented words that contained inter-spliced silences…

Teaching Reading Fluency to Struggling Readers: Method, Materials, and Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasinski, Timothy; Homan, Susan; Biggs, Marie

2009-01-01

Reading fluency has been identified as a key component in reading and in learning to read. Moreover, a significantly large number of students who experience difficulty in reading manifest difficulties in reading fluency that appear to contribute to their overall struggles in reading. In this article we explore the nature of effective instruction…

Australian Curriculum Linked Lessons. Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurrell, Derek

2014-01-01

In this article, Derek Hurrell, points out that while it's easy to fall into the impression that the proficiency strand "Fluency" is all about knowing basic number facts in all its many and splendid ways. He add it is easy to overlook, that within Fluency there are requirements that are based in Algebra; Measurement and Geometry; and…

How the Brain's Performance during Mathematics and Reading Fluency Tests Compare

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortiz, Enrique

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze how participants' levels of hemoglobin as they performed mathematics fluency and reading fluency (reading comprehension) compare. We used Optical Topography (OT, helmet type brain-scanning system, also known as Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy or fNIRS) to measure levels of brain activity. A central…

Oral Reading Fluency Assessment: Issues of Construct, Criterion, and Consequential Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valencia, Sheila W.; Smith, Antony T.; Reece, Anne M.; Li, Min; Wixson, Karen K.; Newman, Heather

2010-01-01

This study investigated multiple models for assessing oral reading fluency, including 1-minute oral reading measures that produce scores reported as words correct per minute (wcpm). We compared a measure of wcpm with measures of the individual and combined indicators of oral reading fluency (rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension) to examine…

The Contributions of Oral and Silent Reading Fluency to Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Katherine W.; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Louwerse, Max M.; D'Mello, Sidney

2016-01-01

Silent reading fluency has received limited attention in the school-based literatures across the past decade. We fill this gap by examining both oral and silent reading fluency and their relation to overall abilities in reading comprehension in fourth-grade students. Lower-level reading skills (word reading, rapid automatic naming) and vocabulary…

So Long, Robot Reader! A Superhero Intervention Plan for Improving Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcell, Barclay; Ferraro, Christine

2013-01-01

This article presents an engaging means for turning disfluent readers into prosody superstars. Each week students align with Poetry Power Man and his superhero friends to battle the evil Robot Reader and his sidekicks. The Fluency Foursome helps students adhere to the multidimensional aspects of fluency where expression and comprehension are…

Corporate Versus Academic Perceptions of the Need for Language Fluency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vande Berg, Camille Kennedy

1997-01-01

Discusses the academic emphasis on students acquiring fluency in a second language to foster their advancement in the business world of international commerce. Notes that human resource experts in U.S.-based international corporations often give a low priority to linguistic fluency and emphasize the need for cultural expertise. (Seven references)…

Exploring depression, self-esteem and verbal fluency with different degrees of internet addiction among Chinese college students.

PubMed

Nie, Jia; Zhang, Wei; Liu, Ying

2017-01-01

The aims of this study were to explore depression, self-esteem and verbal fluency functions among normal internet users, mild internet addictions and severe internet addictions. The survey sample consisted of 316 college students, and their internet addiction symptoms, depression and self-esteem symptoms were assessed using the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), respectively. From this sample, 16 students with non-addictions, 19 students with mild internet addiction (sub-MIA) and 15 students with severe internet addiction (sub-SIA) were recruited and subjected to the classical verbal fluency tests, including the semantic and phonemic fluency task. The results indicated that severe internet addiction in the survey sample showed the highest tendency towards depressive symptoms and lowest self-esteem scores, and sub-SIA showed poor performance on the semantic fluency task. In conclusion, severe internet addiction was significantly associated with depression, low self-esteem and semantic verbal fluency problems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Relations Among Oral and Silent Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Middle School: Implications for Identification and Instruction of Students With Reading Difficulties

PubMed Central

Denton, Carolyn A.; Barth, Amy E.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Wexler, Jade; Vaughn, Sharon; Cirino, Paul T.; Romain, Melissa; Francis, David J.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among oral and silent reading fluency and reading comprehension for students in Grades 6 to 8 (n = 1,421) and the use of fluency scores to identify middle school students who are at risk for failure on a high-stakes reading test. Results indicated moderate positive relations between measures of fluency and comprehension. Oral reading fluency (ORF) on passages was more strongly related to reading comprehension than ORF on word lists. A group-administered silent reading sentence verification test approximated the classification accuracy of individually administered ORF passages. The correlation between a maze task and comprehension was weaker than has been reported for elementary students. The best predictor of a high-stakes reading comprehension test was the previous year’s administration of the grade-appropriate test; fluency and verbal knowledge measures accounted for only small amounts of unique variance beyond that accounted for by the previous year’s administration. PMID:21637727

The role of working memory and fluency practice on the reading comprehension of students who are dysfluent readers.

PubMed

Swanson, H Lee; O'Connor, Rollanda

2009-01-01

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with untreated dysfluent and fluent readers on posttest measures of fluency, word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (a) The influence of WM on text comprehension was not related to fluency training, (b) dysfluent readers in the continuous-reading condition had higher posttest scores than dysfluent readers in the other conditions on measures of text comprehension but not on vocabulary, and (c) individual differences in WM better predicted posttest comprehension performance than word-attack skills. In general, the results suggested that although continuous reading increased comprehension, fluency practice did not compensate for WM demands. The results were interpreted within a model that viewed reading comprehension processes as competing for a limited supply of WM resources that operate independent of fluency.

[Spanish verbal fluency. Normative data in Argentina].

PubMed

Butman, J; Allegri, R F; Harris, P; Drake, M

2000-01-01

Letter and category fluency tasks are used to assess semantic knowledge, retrieval ability, and executive functioning. The original normative data have been obtained mainly from English speaking populations; there are few papers on norms in other languages. The purpose of this study was to collect normative scores in Argentina and to evaluate the effects of sex, age, education and cognitive status on the letter and category fluency tasks, in 266 healthy Spanish-speaking participants (16 to 86 years). Mean education span was 12.8 +/- 4 years. In each subject a neuropsychological battery (Minimental State Exam, Signoret Memory Battery, Boston Naming Test and Trail Making Test) was carried out as well as category fluency (naming animals in one minute) and letter fluency (words beginning with letter "p" in one minute). The sample was arranged into a group of subjects with less than 45 years and further groups up to 10 more years, until 75 years (or more) with three different levels of education. Significant effects were found for age, education, and Minimental State Exam on performance of both fluencies. Mean performance scores are presented for each group to be used in Argentina.

Workplace in fluency management: factoring the workplace into fluency management.

PubMed

Cassar, M C; Neilson, M D

1997-01-01

This article addresses competency-based standards and guidelines for the involvement of speech-language pathologists in the workplace of clients who stutter. It advocates broadening customary practices in stuttering treatment and suggests that speech-language pathologists should extend their scope of service delivery to the workplace. It presents a sequence for the collaborative involvement of the employer and other workplace members and proposes strategies for evaluating workplace based fluency programs. Issues of fluency management, transfer, maintenance, and efficacy are discussed in the workplace context. Also addressed is workplace communication as well as such factors as stereotypes, discrimination, and resistance to change which may impinge on workplace intervention. It is argued that structured intervention, transfer, and generalization within a collaborative workplace framework facilitates best practice for the fluency clinician and more appropriate outcomes for the diversity of clients who stutter.

Extending the Administration Time of the Letter Fluency Test Increases Sensitivity to Cognitive Status in Aging

PubMed Central

Holtzer, R.; Goldin, Y.; Donovick, P.J.

2010-01-01

We examined whether extending the administration time of letter fluency from one minute per letter trial (standard administration) to two minutes increased the sensitivity of this test to cognitive status in aging. Participants (mean age = 84.6) were assigned to cognitive impairment (n=20) and control (n=40) groups. Pearson correlations and scatter plot analyses showed that associations between the Dementia Rating Scale scores and letter fluency were higher and less variable when performance on the latter was extended to two minutes. ANOVA showed that the cognitive impairment group generated fewer words in the second minute of the letter fluency task compared to the control group. Finally, discriminant function analyses revealed that extending the letter fluency trials to two minutes increased discrimination between the control and cognitive impairment groups. PMID:19449244

Differential pattern of semantic memory organization between bipolar I and II disorders.

PubMed

Chang, Jae Seung; Choi, Sungwon; Ha, Kyooseob; Ha, Tae Hyon; Cho, Hyun Sang; Choi, Jung Eun; Cha, Boseok; Moon, Eunsoo

2011-06-01

Semantic cognition is one of the key factors in psychosocial functioning. The aim of this study was to explore the differences in pattern of semantic memory organization between euthymic patients with bipolar I and II disorders using the category fluency task. Study participants included 23 euthymic subjects with bipolar I disorder, 23 matched euthymic subjects with bipolar II disorder and 23 matched control subjects. All participants were assessed for verbal learning, recall, learning strategies, and fluency. The combined methods of hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling were used to compare the pattern of semantic memory organization among the three groups. Quantitative measures of verbal learning, recall, learning strategies, and fluency did not differ between the three groups. A two-cluster structure of semantic memory organization was identified for the three groups. Semantic structure was more disorganized in the bipolar I disorder group compared to the bipolar II disorder. In addition, patients with bipolar II disorder used less elaborate strategies of semantic memory organization than those of controls. Compared to healthy controls, strategies for categorization in semantic memory appear to be less knowledge-based in patients with bipolar disorders. A differential pattern of semantic memory organization between bipolar I and II disorders indicates a higher risk of cognitive abnormalities in patients with bipolar I disorder compared to patients with bipolar II disorder. Exploring qualitative nature of neuropsychological domains may provide an explanatory insight into the characteristic behaviors of patients with bipolar disorders. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Conversational fluency and executive function in adolescents with conduct disorder

PubMed Central

Turkstra, Lyn S.; Fuller, Tracy; Youngstrom, Eric; Green, Kristen; Kuegeler, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

SUMMARY Background EF impairments are known to occur among adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) but their influence on communication ability is not well-understood. The purpose of this study was to relate scores on a clinical EF questionnaire to performance on a communication task. Extemporaneous conversation was chosen as the target task, because it places a high demand on EFs and it is a critical medium for adolescent social development. Material and Methods The participants were 18 incarcerated adolescents with conduct disorder (I-CD), 12 incarcerated adolescents without CD (I-NCD), and 26 typically developing (TD) non-incarcerated adolescents. Participants completed the Self-Report form of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and extemporaneous conversations. Results The I-CD and I-NCD groups produced four times more dysfluencies in conversation than the TD group. There was also a significant group effect on BRIEF subscores for executive memory (TD vs. I-CD), but not for planning and organization. Fluency data correlated significantly with BRIEF scores for executive memory, and the combination of fluency and BRIEF data accounted for 65% of the variance in group membership between TD adolescents and their incarcerated peers, regardless of CD diagnosis. Conclusions BRIEF scores seem to be related to performance on communication tasks relevant for adolescents in daily living. Our results also revealed very high dysfluency rates among incarcerated juveniles. The EF and conversation measures differentiated incarcerated vs. non-incarcerated juveniles, but were less sensitive to CD. PMID:29213294

Exploring the Co-development of Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

PubMed Central

Little, Callie W.; Hart, Sara A.; Quinn, Jamie M.; Tucker-Drob, Elliot M.; Taylor, Jeanette; Schatschneider, Chris

2016-01-01

The present study explores the co-development of two related but separate reading skills, reading fluency and reading comprehension, across grades 1–4. A bivariate biometric dual change score model was applied to longitudinal data collected from 1784 twin pairs between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Grade 1 skills were influenced by highly overlapping genetic and environmental factors. Growth in both skills was influenced by highly overlapping shared environmental factors. Cross-lagged parameters indicated bidirectional effects, with stronger effects from fluency to comprehension change than from comprehension to fluency change. PMID:27859016

Effects of age, education and gender on verbal fluency.

PubMed

Mathuranath, P S; George, A; Cherian, P J; Alexander, A; Sarma, S G; Sarma, P S

2003-12-01

The objective was to study the effects of age, education and gender on verbal fluency in cognitively unimpaired, older individuals. The methods used were as follows: cognitively unimpaired elderly (55-84 years) subjects (n=153), were administered category (animal) (CF) and letter (/pa/) (LF) fluency tasks, in their native language of Malayalam. Results and conclusions were (1) Level of education, but not age or gender, significantly influence LF. (2) Level of education (directly) and in the elderly subjects, age (inversely) affect CF. (3) Age, but not education, has a differential effect on the tasks of verbal fluency, influencing CF more than LF.

Reliability and Validity of Oral Reading Fluency Median and Mean Scores among Middle Grade Readers When Using Equated Texts

PubMed Central

Barth, Amy E.; Stuebing, Karla K.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Cirino, Paul T.; Romain, Melissa; Francis, David; Vaughn, Sharon

2012-01-01

We evaluated the reliability and validity of two oral reading fluency scores for one-minute equated passages: median score and mean score. These scores were calculated from measures of reading fluency administered up to five times over the school year to students in grades 6–8 (n = 1,317). Both scores were highly reliable with strong convergent validity for adequately developing and struggling middle grade readers. These results support the use of either the median or mean score for oral reading fluency assessments for middle grade readers. PMID:23087532

Effects of grammar instruction and fluency training on the learning of the and a by native speakers of japanese

PubMed Central

Shimamune, Satoru; Jitsumori, Masako

1999-01-01

In a computer-assisted sentence completion task, the effects of grammar instruction and fluency training on learning the use of the definite and indefinite articles of English were examined. Forty-eight native Japanese-speaking students were assigned to four groups: with grammar/accuracy (G/A), without grammar/accuracy (N/A), with grammar/fluency (G/F), and without grammar/fluency (N/F). In the G/A and N/A groups, training continued until performance reached 100% accuracy (accuracy criterion). In the G/F and N/F groups, training continued until 100% accuracy was reached and the correct responses were made at a high speed (fluency criterion). Grammar instruction was given to participants in the G/A and G/F groups but not to those in the N/A and N/F groups. Generalization to new sentences was tested immediately after reaching the required criterion. High levels of generalization occurred, regardless of the type of mastery criterion and whether the grammar instruction was given. Retention tests were conducted 4, 6, and 8 weeks after training. Fluency training effectively improved retention of the performance attained without the grammar instruction. This effect was diminished when grammar instruction was given during training. Learning grammatical rules was not necessary for the generalized use of appropriate definite and indefinite articles or for the maintenance of the performance attained through fluency training. PMID:22477154

[Speech fluency developmental profile in Brazilian Portuguese speakers].

PubMed

Martins, Vanessa de Oliveira; Andrade, Claudia Regina Furquim de

2008-01-01

speech fluency varies from one individual to the next, fluent or stutterer, depending on several factors. Studies that investigate the influence of age on fluency patterns have been identified; however these differences were investigated in isolated age groups. Studies about life span fluency variations were not found. to verify the speech fluency developmental profile. speech samples of 594 fluent participants of both genders, with ages between 2:0 and 99:11 years, speakers of the Brazilian Portuguese language, were analyzed. Participants were grouped as follows: pre-scholars, scholars, early adolescence, late adolescence, adults and elderlies. Speech samples were analyzed according to the Speech Fluency Profile variables and were compared regarding: typology of speech disruptions (typical and less typical), speech rate (words and syllables per minute) and frequency of speech disruptions (percentage of speech discontinuity). although isolated variations were identified, overall there was no significant difference between the age groups for the speech disruption indexes (typical and less typical speech disruptions and percentage of speech discontinuity). Significant differences were observed between the groups when considering speech rate. the development of the neurolinguistic system for speech fluency, in terms of speech disruptions, seems to stabilize itself during the first years of life, presenting no alterations during the life span. Indexes of speech rate present variations in the age groups, indicating patterns of acquisition, development, stabilization and degeneration.

Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Stone, Adam; Kartheiser, Geo; Hauser, Peter C.; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Allen, Thomas E.

2015-01-01

Studies have shown that American Sign Language (ASL) fluency has a positive impact on deaf individuals’ English reading, but the cognitive and cross-linguistic mechanisms permitting the mapping of a visual-manual language onto a sound-based language have yet to be elucidated. Fingerspelling, which represents English orthography with 26 distinct hand configurations, is an integral part of ASL and has been suggested to provide deaf bilinguals with important cross-linguistic links between sign language and orthography. Using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this study examined the relationship of age of ASL exposure, ASL fluency, and fingerspelling skill on reading fluency in deaf college-age bilinguals. After controlling for ASL fluency, fingerspelling skill significantly predicted reading fluency, revealing for the first-time that fingerspelling, above and beyond ASL skills, contributes to reading fluency in deaf bilinguals. We suggest that both fingerspelling—in the visual-manual modality—and reading—in the visual-orthographic modality—are mutually facilitating because they share common underlying cognitive capacities of word decoding accuracy and automaticity of word recognition. The findings provide support for the hypothesis that the development of English reading proficiency may be facilitated through strengthening of the relationship among fingerspelling, sign language, and orthographic decoding en route to reading mastery, and may also reveal optimal approaches for reading instruction for deaf and hard of hearing children. PMID:26427062

Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals.

PubMed

Stone, Adam; Kartheiser, Geo; Hauser, Peter C; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Allen, Thomas E

2015-01-01

Studies have shown that American Sign Language (ASL) fluency has a positive impact on deaf individuals' English reading, but the cognitive and cross-linguistic mechanisms permitting the mapping of a visual-manual language onto a sound-based language have yet to be elucidated. Fingerspelling, which represents English orthography with 26 distinct hand configurations, is an integral part of ASL and has been suggested to provide deaf bilinguals with important cross-linguistic links between sign language and orthography. Using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this study examined the relationship of age of ASL exposure, ASL fluency, and fingerspelling skill on reading fluency in deaf college-age bilinguals. After controlling for ASL fluency, fingerspelling skill significantly predicted reading fluency, revealing for the first-time that fingerspelling, above and beyond ASL skills, contributes to reading fluency in deaf bilinguals. We suggest that both fingerspelling--in the visual-manual modality--and reading--in the visual-orthographic modality--are mutually facilitating because they share common underlying cognitive capacities of word decoding accuracy and automaticity of word recognition. The findings provide support for the hypothesis that the development of English reading proficiency may be facilitated through strengthening of the relationship among fingerspelling, sign language, and orthographic decoding en route to reading mastery, and may also reveal optimal approaches for reading instruction for deaf and hard of hearing children.

What Oral Text Reading Fluency Can Reveal about Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

2015-01-01

Text reading fluency--the ability to read quickly, accurately and with a natural intonation--has been proposed as a predictor of reading comprehension. In the current study, we examined the role of oral text reading fluency, defined as text reading rate and text reading prosody, as a contributor to reading comprehension outcomes in addition to…

Three DIBELS Tasks vs. Three Informal Reading/Spelling Tasks: A Comparison of Predictive Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Darrell; Trathen, Woodrow; Perney, Jan; Gill, Tom; Schlagal, Robert; Ward, Devery; Frye, Elizabeth M.

2017-01-01

Within a developmental framework, this study compared the predictive validity of three DIBELS tasks (phoneme segmentation fluency [PSF], nonsense word fluency [NWF], and oral reading fluency [ORF]) with that of three alternative tasks drawn from the field of reading (phonemic spelling [phSPEL], word recognition-timed [WR-t], and graded passage…

A Cross-Sectional Study of Fluency and Reading Comprehension in Spanish Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calet, Nuria; Gutiérrez-Palma, Nicolás; Defior, Sylvia

2015-01-01

The importance of prosodic elements is recognised in most definitions of fluency. Although speed and accuracy have been typically considered the constituents of reading fluency, prosody is emerging as an additional component. The relevance of prosody in comprehension is increasingly recognised in the latest studies. The purpose of this research is…

Auditory-Perceptual Assessment of Fluency in Typical and Neurologically Disordered Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penttilä, Nelly; Korpijaakko-Huuhka, Anna-Maija; Kent, Ray D.

2018-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate how speech fluency in typical and atypical speech is perceptually assessed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Our research questions were as follows: (a) How do SLPs rate fluency in speakers with and without neurological communication disorders? (b) Do they differentiate the speaker groups? and…

Supporting the Development of Silent Reading Fluency: An Evidence-Based Framework for the Intermediate Grades (3-6)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reutzel, D. Ray; Juth, Stephanie

2014-01-01

Developing silent fluent reading is an important goal to be achieved in elementary literacy instruction. This article reviews characteristics of effective silent reading fluency instruction and practice. Next, the authors make the case for four components of effective silent reading fluency practice routines. Finally, the authors describe two…

Fluency: It's All about Audience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leathers, Jacqueline

2017-01-01

This essay describes the struggle to get one second grade reader who was in need of fluency practice to overcome his resistance to rereading familiar texts. This was done through the use of videos which were sent to parents on a weekly basis after the texts had been practiced several time with an eye toward all aspects of fluency--phrasing,…

An Exploration of the Relationships among Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory-Aligned Cognitive Abilities and Math Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piselli, Katherine D.

2017-01-01

Math fluency, which refers to the ability to solve single digit arithmetic problems quickly and accurately, is a foundational mathematical skill. Recent research has examined the role of phonological processing, executive control, and number sense in explaining differences in math fluency performance in school-aged children. Identifying the links…

Evaluation of Oral Fluency in English as a Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yorozuya, Ryuichi

Fluency can be defined in terms of intelligibility and effectiveness. For learners of English as a foreign language, fluency includes some degree of accuracy in phonological, syntactic, and semantic terms. It is a quality of speech that is produced in novel situations where what is said and how it is said cannot be predicted. To clarify the…

Theorization and an Empirical Investigation of the Component-Based and Developmental Text Writing Fluency Construct

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Gatlin, Brandy; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Wanzek, Jeanne

2018-01-01

We discuss a component-based, developmental view of text writing fluency, which we tested using data from children in Grades 2 and 3. "Text writing fluency" was defined as efficiency and automaticity in writing connected texts, which acts as a mediator between text generation (oral language), transcription skills, and writing quality. We…

Benefits of Repeated Reading Intervention for Low-Achieving Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vadasy, Patricia F.; Sanders, Elizabeth A.

2008-01-01

Many students have difficulty achieving reading fluency, and nearly half of fourth graders are not fluent readers in grade-level texts. Intensive and focused reading practice is recommended to help close the gap between students with poor fluency and their average reading peers. In this study, the "Quick Reads" fluency program was used…

Effects of Fluency versus Accuracy Training on Endurance and Retention of Assembly Tasks by Four Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Gabrielle T.; Singer-Dudek, Jessica

2012-01-01

Schools are increasingly being encouraged to teach vocational skills to middle and high school students. Although extensive research exists demonstrating the benefits of fluency instruction when teaching academic skills to this population of students, few studies have examined the importance of fluency training when teaching vocational skills.…

Bilingual Long-Term Working Memory: The Effects of Working Memory Loads on Writing Quality and Fluency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ransdell, Sarah; Arecco, M. Rosario; Levy, C. Michael

2001-01-01

Discusses two experiments: the first examining multilinguals ability to maintain native language writing quality and fluency in the presence of unattended irrelevant speech while maintaining a concurrent 6-digit memory load; the second in which bilinguals reduced fluency during writing with a six-digit load only. Results are interpreted in terms…

The Relation of Decoding and Fluency Skills to Skilled Reading. Research Review Series 1979-80. Volume 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Maravene Beth

The author reviews literature on fluency of decoding, sentence awareness or comprehension, and comprehension of larger than sentence texts, in relation to reading comprehension problems in learning disabled children. Initial sections look at the relation of decoding and fluency skills to skilled reading and differences between good and poor…

The Impact of Guided Reading Instruction on Elementary Students' Reading Fluency and Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teets, Agnes Jean

2017-01-01

This study examined the impact of Guided Reading instruction on elementary students' ability to read with fluency and accuracy. A one-way analysis of covariance with pre and posttest design was performed and applied to determine the impact of Guided Reading instruction on elementary students' reading fluency and accuracy. The sample of subjects…

Phase Transitions in Development of Writing Fluency from a Complex Dynamic Systems Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baba, Kyoko; Nitta, Ryo

2014-01-01

This study explored patterns in L2 writing development by focusing on one of the linguistic features of texts (fluency) from a complex dynamic systems perspective. It investigated whether two English-as-a-foreign-language university students would experience discontinuous change (phase transition) in their writing fluency through repetition of a…

Semantic Fluency in Aphasia: Clustering and Switching in the Course of 1 Minute

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bose, Arpita; Wood, Rosalind; Kiran, Swathi

2017-01-01

Background: Verbal fluency tasks are included in a broad range of aphasia assessments. It is well documented that people with aphasia (PWA) produce fewer items in these tasks. Successful performance on verbal fluency relies on the integrity of both linguistic and executive control abilities. It remains unclear if limited output in aphasia is…

A Musical Approach to Reading Fluency: An Experimental Study in First-Grade Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leguizamon, Daniel F.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to investigate the relationship between Kodaly-based music instruction and reading fluency in first-grade classrooms. Reading fluency and overall reading achievement were measured for 109 participants at mid-point in the academic year pre- and post treatment. Tests were carried out to…

Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency in Blinds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nejati, Vahid; Asadi, Anoosh

2010-01-01

A person who has suffered the total loss of a sensory system has, indirectly, suffered a brain lesion. Semantic and phonologic verbal fluency are used for evaluation of executive function and language. The aim of this study is evaluation and comparison of phonemic and semantic verbal fluency in acquired blinds. We compare 137 blinds and 124…

Treatment with Medications Affecting Dopaminergic and Serotonergic Mechanisms: Effects on Fluency and Anxiety in Persons Who Stutter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stager, Sheila V.; Calis, Karim; Grothe, Dale; Bloch, Meir; Berensen, Nannette M.; Smith, Paul J.; Braun, Allen

2005-01-01

Medications with dopamine antagonist properties, such as haloperidol, and those with serotonin reuptake inhibitor properties, such as clomipramine, have been shown to improve fluency. To examine the degree to which each of these two pharmacological mechanisms might independently affect fluency, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, paroxetine,…

L2 Fluency as Influenced by Content Familiarity and Planning: Performance, Measurement, and Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bui, Gavin; Huang, Zeping

2018-01-01

This study investigates how second language (L2) fluency is influenced by two factors: Pre-task planning and content familiarity. Planning was adopted as a between-participant variable, combined with content familiarity as a within-participant variable, in a 2 × 2 split-plot factorial design. Nineteen measures of fluency phenomena, constituting…

Examining Alphabet Writing Fluency in Kindergarten: Exploring the Issue of Time on Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Patchan, Melissa M.; Sears, Mary M.; McMaster, Kristen L.

2017-01-01

Curriculum-based measures (CBMs) are necessary for educators to quickly assess student skill levels and monitor progress. This study examined the use of the alphabet writing fluency task, a CBM of writing, to assess handwriting fluency--that is, how well children access, retrieve, and write letter forms automatically. In the current study, the…

Voice and Fluency Changes as a Function of Speech Task and Deep Brain Stimulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Lancker Sidtis, Diana; Rogers, Tiffany; Godier, Violette; Tagliati, Michele; Sidtis, John J.

2010-01-01

Purpose: Speaking, which naturally occurs in different modes or "tasks" such as conversation and repetition, relies on intact basal ganglia nuclei. Recent studies suggest that voice and fluency parameters are differentially affected by speech task. In this study, the authors examine the effects of subcortical functionality on voice and fluency,…

The Relationship between Task Difficulty and Second Language Fluency in French: A Mixed Methods Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Préfontaine, Yvonne; Kormos, Judit

2015-01-01

While there exists a considerable body of literature on task-based difficulty and second language (L2) fluency in English as a second language (ESL), there has been little investigation with French learners. This mixed methods study examines learner appraisals of task difficulty and their relationship to automated utterance fluency measures in…

Fostering First Graders' Fluency with Basic Subtraction and Larger Addition Combinations via Computer-Assisted Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baroody, Arthur J.; Purpura, David J.; Eiland, Michael D.; Reid, Erin E.

2014-01-01

Achieving fluency with basic subtraction and add-with-8 or -9 combinations is difficult for primary grade children. A 9-month training experiment entailed evaluating the efficacy of software designed to promote such fluency via guided learning of reasoning strategies. Seventy-five eligible first graders were randomly assigned to one of three…

Reading Development in European Portuguese: Relationships between Oral Reading Fluency, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernandes, Sandra; Querido, Luís; Verhaeghe, Arlette; Marques, Catarina; Araújo, Luísa

2017-01-01

This study investigated direct and indirect effects between oral reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension across reading development in European Portuguese. Participants were 329 children attending basic education, from grade 1 to grade 6. The results of path analyses showed that text reading fluency is much more dependent on the…

Identity Priming Consistently Affects Perceptual Fluency but Only Affects Metamemory When Primes Are Obvious

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Susser, Jonathan A.; Jin, Andy; Mulligan, Neil W.

2016-01-01

Perceptual fluency manipulations influence metamemory judgments, with more fluently perceived information judged as more memorable. However, it is not always clear whether this influence is driven by actual experienced processing fluency or by beliefs about memory. The current study used an identity-priming paradigm--in which words are preceded by…

Valence of Affective Verbal Fluency: fMRI Studies on Neural Organization of Emotional Concepts "Joy" and "Fear"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gawda, Barbara; Szepietowska, Ewa; Soluch, Pawel; Wolak, Tomasz

2017-01-01

The present study was designed to examine the underlying brain mechanisms of positive and negative emotional verbal fluency. Three verbal fluency tasks (one non-emotional phonemic task, two emotional tasks: "Joy" and "Fear") were used in this study. The results were analyzed for 35 healthy, Polish-speaking, right-handed adults…

The Development of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in the Written Production of L2 French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunnarsson, Cecilia

2012-01-01

The present longitudinal case study investigated the development of fluency, complexity and accuracy--and the possible relationships between them--in the written production of L2 French. We assessed fluency and complexity in five intermediate learners by means of conventional indicators for written L2 (cf. Wolfe-Quintero et al. 1998), while…

Strategy Effects on Word Searching in Japanese Letter Fluency Tests: Evidence from the NIRS Findings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatta, Takeshi; Kanari, Ayano; Mase, Mitsuhito; Nagano, Yuko; Shirataki, Tatsuaki; Hibino, Shinji

2009-01-01

Strategy effects on word searching in the Japanese letter fluency test were investigated using the Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). Participants were given a Japanese letter fluency test and they were classified into two types of strategy users, based on analysis of their recorded verbal responses. One group, AIUEO-order strategy users, employed…

What Research Has to Say about Fluency Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samuels, S. Jay, Ed.; Farstrup, Alan E., Ed.

2006-01-01

The editors of "What Research Has to Say about Reading Instruction" present the most recent research on fluency and show how it can be put into practice. A resource for classroom teachers and teacher educators alike, the reader-friendly text offers a range of expert perspectives on the key aspects of fluency such as: (1) history and definitions;…

Parallel effects of processing fluency and positive affect on familiarity-based recognition decisions for faces.

PubMed

Duke, Devin; Fiacconi, Chris M; Köhler, Stefan

2014-01-01

According to attribution models of familiarity assessment, people can use a heuristic in recognition-memory decisions, in which they attribute the subjective ease of processing of a memory probe to a prior encounter with the stimulus in question. Research in social cognition suggests that experienced positive affect may be the proximal cue that signals fluency in various experimental contexts. In the present study, we compared the effects of positive affect and fluency on recognition-memory judgments for faces with neutral emotional expression. We predicted that if positive affect is indeed the critical cue that signals processing fluency at retrieval, then its manipulation should produce effects that closely mirror those produced by manipulations of processing fluency. In two experiments, we employed a masked-priming procedure in combination with a Remember-Know (RK) paradigm that aimed to separate familiarity- from recollection-based memory decisions. In addition, participants performed a prime-discrimination task that allowed us to take inter-individual differences in prime awareness into account. We found highly similar effects of our priming manipulations of processing fluency and of positive affect. In both cases, the critical effect was specific to familiarity-based recognition responses. Moreover, in both experiments it was reflected in a shift toward a more liberal response bias, rather than in changed discrimination. Finally, in both experiments, the effect was found to be related to prime awareness; it was present only in participants who reported a lack of such awareness on the prime-discrimination task. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that points not only to a role of fluency, but also of positive affect in familiarity assessment. As such they are consistent with the idea that fluency itself may be hedonically marked.

Typical intellectual engagement and cognition in the ninth decade of life: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921.

PubMed

von Stumm, Sophie; Deary, Ian J

2012-09-01

Investment traits--the tendency to seek out and engage in cognitive activity--might affect intellectual growth across the life span, specifically the development from fluid to crystallized intelligence. Here we explore how childhood IQ at age 11 years, IQ at age 79, and the investment trait Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) at age 81 affect the mean level and change in verbal fluency scores, used as an indicator of crystallized intelligence, across the ages 79, 83, and 87 in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (maximum N = 569; Deary, Whiteman, Starr, Whalley, & Fox, 2004). A first latent growth model showed significant variance in the mean level of verbal fluency and significant decline in verbal fluency from age 79 to age 87. The rate of change was invariant across study participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. A second model found that IQ at age 11 significantly predicted IQ at age 79 (β = .66; p < .001), which in turn predicted verbal fluency and TIE in the ninth decade of life with standardized path parameters of .46 and .15 (p < .001), respectively. TIE had a significant association with verbal fluency (β = .14, p = .002); together, IQ at age 11 and 79 and TIE accounted for 25.5% of the variance in verbal fluency. A final model identified the TIE subfactor of intellectual curiosity as a significant mediator of the effect of IQ on verbal fluency; the TIE subfactors abstract thinking, reading, and problem solving showed no significant associations. In summary, TIE--in particular, intellectual curiosity--significantly mediated the effects of IQ on crystallized intelligence in old age. Because there was no significant between-subjects variance in verbal fluency trajectories in the current study, neither TIE nor IQ were associated with individual differences in cognitive decline.

Computational fluency and strategy choice predict individual and cross-national differences in complex arithmetic.

PubMed

Vasilyeva, Marina; Laski, Elida V; Shen, Chen

2015-10-01

The present study tested the hypothesis that children's fluency with basic number facts and knowledge of computational strategies, derived from early arithmetic experience, predicts their performance on complex arithmetic problems. First-grade students from United States and Taiwan (N = 152, mean age: 7.3 years) were presented with problems that differed in difficulty: single-, mixed-, and double-digit addition. Children's strategy use varied as a function of problem difficulty, consistent with Siegler's theory of strategy choice. The use of decomposition strategy interacted with computational fluency in predicting the accuracy of double-digit addition. Further, the frequency of decomposition and computational fluency fully mediated cross-national differences in accuracy on these complex arithmetic problems. The results indicate the importance of both fluency with basic number facts and the decomposition strategy for later arithmetic performance. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Advancing Stage 2 Research on Measures for Monitoring Kindergarten Reading Progress.

PubMed

Clemens, Nathan H; Soohoo, Michelle M; Wiley, Colby P; Hsiao, Yu-Yu; Estrella, Ivonne; Allee-Smith, Paula J; Yoon, Myeongsun

Although several measures exist for frequently monitoring early reading progress, little research has specifically investigated their technical properties when administered on a frequent basis with kindergarten students. In this study, kindergarten students ( N = 137) of whom the majority was receiving supplemental intervention for reading skills were monitored using Letter Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Word Reading Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, Highly Decodable Passages, and Spelling on a biweekly basis between February and May. Acceptable reliability was observed for all measures. Analyses of slope validity using latent growth models, latent change score models, and slope differences according to level of year-end achievement indicated that the relation of slope to overall reading skills varied across the measures. A suggested approach to kindergarten students' reading progress is offered that includes Letter Sound Fluency and a measure of word-reading skills to provide a comprehensive picture of student growth toward important year-end reading outcomes.

Spin exercise improves semantic fluency in previously sedentary older adults.

PubMed

Nocera, Joe R; McGregor, Keith M; Hass, Chris J; Crosson, Bruce

2015-01-01

Studies suggest improvements of neurocognitive function among older adults who undergo aerobic exercise training. This study sought to examine the impact of an aerobic exercise intervention on verbal fluency in sedentary older adults. Twenty community-dwelling older adults were recruited and enrolled in either a spin exercise group or a control condition. Participants were evaluated with an estimated V02max test and on measures of letter, category, and switching verbal fluency both before and after a 12-week intervention period. Spin exercise resulted in a significant improvement in category (semantic) verbal fluency when compared with the control group (15% vs. 2% increase, respectively; P = .001). Spin exercise also resulted in a significant improvement in estimated V02max (P = .005). Also important, the spin exercise group demonstrated a high level of adherence (mean adherence = 82.5%). Spin exercise can be an effective mode of aerobic exercise to improve semantic fluency in previously sedentary older adults.

Scanning the "Fringe" of consciousness: what is felt and what is not felt in intuitions about semantic coherence.

PubMed

Topolinski, Sascha; Strack, Fritz

2009-09-01

In intuitions concerning semantic coherence participants are able to discriminate above chance whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent triad) or not (incoherent triad). These intuitions are driven by increased fluency in processing coherent triads compared to incoherent triads, which in turn triggers a brief and short positive affect. The present work investigates which of these internal cues, fluency or positive affect, is the actual cue underlying coherence intuitions. In Experiment 1, participants liked coherent word triads more than incoherent triads, but did not rate them as being more fluent in processing. In Experiment 2, participants could intuitively detect coherence when they misattributed fluency to an external source, but lost this intuitive ability when they misattributed affect. It is concluded that the coherence-induced fluency by itself is not consciously experienced and not used in the coherence intuitions, but the fluency-triggered affective consequences.

Emotion Decoding and Incidental Processing Fluency as Antecedents of Attitude Certainty.

PubMed

Petrocelli, John V; Whitmire, Melanie B

2017-07-01

Previous research demonstrates that attitude certainty influences the degree to which an attitude changes in response to persuasive appeals. In the current research, decoding emotions from facial expressions and incidental processing fluency, during attitude formation, are examined as antecedents of both attitude certainty and attitude change. In Experiment 1, participants who decoded anger or happiness during attitude formation expressed their greater attitude certainty, and showed more resistance to persuasion than participants who decoded sadness. By manipulating the emotion decoded, the diagnosticity of processing fluency experienced during emotion decoding, and the gaze direction of the social targets, Experiment 2 suggests that the link between emotion decoding and attitude certainty results from incidental processing fluency. Experiment 3 demonstrated that fluency in processing irrelevant stimuli influences attitude certainty, which in turn influences resistance to persuasion. Implications for appraisal-based accounts of attitude formation and attitude change are discussed.

Lexical and semantic fluency discrepancy scores in aMCI and early Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Lonie, Jane A; Herrmann, Lucie L; Tierney, Kevin M; Donaghey, Claire; O'Carroll, Ronan; Lee, Andrew; Ebmeier, Klaus P

2009-03-01

Episodic memory is compromised in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), but lesser deficits in other cognitive domains are also commonly observed and may be helpful in identifying this group. The relative difference in performance on lexical and semantic fluency tasks may be a sensitive and specific measure in aMCI and early Alzheimer's disease (AD). We compared four groups of participants, 35 early AD, 47 aMCI, 24 healthy controls, and 18 depressive out-patient controls, on semantic and lexical fluency as well as other neuropsychological tests. Early AD and aMCI patients showed a distinct pattern of semantic impairment in the two fluency measures compared with the healthy and depressive controls. The findings implicate early failure of the semantic memory system in aMCI and AD and suggest that consideration of the discrepancy in performance on semantic and lexical fluency measures may help in the early identification of AD.

Counterfactual Thinking Deficit in Huntington's Disease.

PubMed

Solca, Federica; Poletti, Barbara; Zago, Stefano; Crespi, Chiara; Sassone, Francesca; Lafronza, Annalisa; Maraschi, Anna Maria; Sassone, Jenny; Silani, Vincenzo; Ciammola, Andrea

2015-01-01

Counterfactual thinking (CFT) refers to the generation of mental simulations of alternatives to past events, actions and outcomes. CFT is a pervasive cognitive feature in every-day life and is closely related to decision-making, planning and problem-solving - all of which are cognitive processes linked to unimpaired frontal lobe functioning. Huntington's Disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor, behavioral and cognitive dysfunctions. Because an impairment in frontal and executive functions has been described in HD, we hypothesised that HD patients may have a CFT impairment. Tests of spontaneous counterfactual thoughts and counterfactual-derived inferences were administered to 24 symptomatic HD patients and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Our results show a significant impairment in the spontaneous generation of CFT and low performance on the Counterfactual Inference Test (CIT) in HD patients. Low performance on the spontaneous CFT test significantly correlates with impaired attention abilities, verbal fluency and frontal lobe efficiency, as measured by Trail Making Test - Part A, Phonemic Verbal Fluency Test and FAB. Spontaneous CFT and the use of this type of reasoning are impaired in HD patients. This deficit may be related to frontal lobe dysfunction, which is a hallmark of HD. Because CFT has a pervasive role in patients' daily lives regarding their planning, decision making and problem solving skills, cognitive rehabilitation may improve HD patients' ability to analyse current behaviors and future actions.

Picture-Perfect Is Not Perfect for Metamemory: Testing the Perceptual Fluency Hypothesis with Degraded Images

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Besken, Miri

2016-01-01

The perceptual fluency hypothesis claims that items that are easy to perceive at encoding induce an illusion that they will be easier to remember, despite the finding that perception does not generally affect recall. The current set of studies tested the predictions of the perceptual fluency hypothesis with a picture generation manipulation.…

Reading Development in Upper Elementary Language Minority Readers of Hebrew: The Specific Challenge of Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shahar-Yames, Daphna; Prior, Anat

2017-01-01

We examined reading proficiency, focusing on fluency, in 56 Russian-speaking language minority (LM) students and 56 native Hebrew-speaking (NH) peers. Fifth-grade students completed measures of Hebrew reading accuracy and fluency from word to text level as well as phonological awareness (PA), RAN and vocabulary. LM students read single words less…

Verbal Fluency and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Adults with Down Syndrome and Unspecified Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stavroussi, Panayiota; Andreou, Georgia; Karagiannopoulou, Dimitra

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine verbal fluency and verbal short-term memory in 12 adults with Down syndrome (DS) and 12 adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) of unspecified origin, matched for receptive vocabulary and chronological age. Participants' performance was assessed on two conditions of a verbal fluency test, namely, semantic…

Examining the Impact of Quickreads' Technology and Print Formats on Fluency, Comprehension, and Vocabulary Development for Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trainin, Guy; Hayden, H. Emily; Wilson, Kathleen; Erickson, Joan

2016-01-01

National reports reveal one third of American fourth graders read below basic level on measures of comprehension. One critical component of comprehension is fluency: rapid, accurate, expressive reading with automaticity and prosody. Many fluency studies and classroom interventions focus only on reading rate, but this alone is not sufficient. This…

The Effects of a Supplementary Computerized Fluency Intervention on the Generalization of the Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension of First-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Lenwood, Jr.; Cartledge, Gwendolyn; Keyes, Starr E.; Yawn, Christopher D.

2014-01-01

The current study investigated the effects of a repeated reading intervention on the oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension on generalization passages for eight, first-grade students with reading risk. The intervention involved a commercial computerized program (Read Naturally Software Edition [RNSE], 2009) and a generalization principle…

Developing Reading Fluency: A Study of Extensive Reading in EFL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iwahori, Yurika

2008-01-01

Due to the great interest of practitioners on reading fluency in first language (L1) and second language (L2) English classroom settings, fluency has become a hot topic. A number of studies have suggested that an extensive reading (ER) program can lead to improvement of L2 learners' reading rate; however, studies about high school students are…

easyCBM[R] Slope Reliability: Letter Names, Word Reading Fluency, and Passage Reading Fluency. Technical Report #1111

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patarapichayatham, Chalie; Anderson, Daniel; Irvin, P. Shawn; Kamata, Akhito; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

2011-01-01

Within a response to intervention (RTI) framework, students are administered multiple tests of equivalent difficulty. Changes in students' scores over time are then attributed to changes in learning. In the current study, we evaluated the reliability of score changes (i.e., slope) for the easyCBM[R] letter names, word reading fluency, and passage…

The Effects of Repeated Readings and Attentional Cues on the Reading Fluency and Comprehension of Learning Disabled Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Shea, Lawrence J.; And Others

1987-01-01

Effects of having 32 learning disabled elementary grade students read passages orally one, three, or seven times with instructions to work for either fluency or comprehension were analyzed. Both fluency and comprehension improved with the number of readings with the greatest improvement being between one and three readings. Attentional cues…

Using a Technology-Supported Approach to Preservice Teachers' Multirepresentational Fluency: Unifying Mathematical Concepts and Their Representations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGee, Daniel; Moore-Russo, Deborah

2015-01-01

A test project at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez used GeoGebra applets to promote the concept of multirepresentational fluency among high school mathematics preservice teachers. For this study, this fluency was defined as simultaneous awareness of all representations associated with a mathematical concept, as measured by the ability to…

English Pronunciation and Fluency Development in Mandarin and Slavic Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derwing, Tracey M.; Thomson, Ron I.; Munro, Murray J.

2006-01-01

The development of accent and fluency are traced in the speech of 20 Mandarin and 20 Slavic adult immigrants to Canada over a period of 10 months. The participants were enrolled in an ESL program but had no special instruction in either pronunciation or fluency. The immigrants' self-reported exposure to English outside of class was used to…

Using Nonsense Word Fluency to Predict Reading Proficiency in Kindergarten through Second Grade for English Learners and Native English Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fien, Hank; Baker, Scott K.; Smolkowski, Keith; Smith, Jean L. Mercier; Kame'enui, Edward J.; Beck, Carrie Thomas

2008-01-01

This study examined the validity of Nonsense Word Fluency as an index of beginning reading proficiency for students in kindergarten through second grade. Validity evidence for Nonsense Word Fluency is addressed in the context of research-based instructional practices implemented on a large scale. Technical adequacy data are presented for all…

Comparing the Impact of Rates of Text-to-Speech Software on Reading Fluency and Comprehension for Adults with Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coleman, Mari Beth; Killdare, Laura K.; Bell, Sherry Mee; Carter, Amanda M.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of text-to-speech software on reading fluency and comprehension for four postsecondary students with below average reading fluency and comprehension including three students diagnosed with learning disabilities and concomitant conditions (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, seizure…

Comparing the Efficiency of Repeated Reading and Listening-While-Reading to Improve Fluency and Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Renee O.; Marsicano, Richard; Schmitt, Ara J.; McCallum, Elizabeth; Musti-Rao, Shobana

2015-01-01

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of two reading fluency interventions on the oral reading fluency and maze accuracy of four fourth-grade students. Also, by taking into account time spent in intervention, the efficiency of the two interventions was compared. In the adult-mediated repeated reading (RR) condition,…

Fluent, Fast, and Frugal? A Formal Model Evaluation of the Interplay between Memory, Fluency, and Comparative Judgments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilbig, Benjamin E.; Erdfelder, Edgar; Pohl, Rudiger F.

2011-01-01

A new process model of the interplay between memory and judgment processes was recently suggested, assuming that retrieval fluency--that is, the speed with which objects are recognized--will determine inferences concerning such objects in a single-cue fashion. This aspect of the fluency heuristic, an extension of the recognition heuristic, has…

Developing Reading Fluency and Comprehension Using Repeated Reading: Evidence from Longitudinal Student Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorsuch, Greta; Taguchi, Etsuo

2010-01-01

In recent years, interest in reading fluency development in first language, and second and foreign language (L2/FL) settings has increased. Reading fluency, in which readers decode and comprehend at the same time, is critical to successful reading. Fluent readers are accurate and fast in their ability to recognize words, and in their use of…

The Impact of Word Walls on Improving the English Reading Fluency of Saudi Kindergarten's Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AlShaiji, Ohoud Abdullatif; AlSaleem, Basma Issa

2014-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of Word Walls on improving the English reading fluency of Saudi kindergarten's children. The present study attempted to answer whether there was a statistically significant difference (a = 0.05) between the Saudi children's subjects' mean score on the English reading fluency test due to…

Insights into Fluency Instruction: Short- and Long-Term Effects of Two Reading Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwanenflugel, Paula J.; Kuhn, Melanie R.; Morris, Robin D.; Morrow, Lesley Mandel; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Woo, Deborah Gee; Quirk, Matthew; Sevcik, Rose

2009-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine short- and long-term effects of two instructional approaches designed to improve the reading fluency of second-grade children: Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (or FORI; Stahl & Heubach, 2005) and a wide reading approach (Kuhn et al., 2006). By the end of second grade, children in the wide reading…

Using Subjective and Objective Measures to Predict Level of Reading Fluency at the End of First Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Darrell; Pennell, Ashley M.; Perney, Jan; Trathen, Woodrow

2018-01-01

This study compared reading rate to reading fluency (as measured by a rating scale). After listening to first graders read short passages, we assigned an overall fluency rating (low, average, or high) to each reading. We then used predictive discriminant analyses to determine which of five measures--accuracy, rate (objective); accuracy, phrasing,…

Effects of metalinguistic awareness on reading comprehension and the mediator role of reading fluency from grades 2 to 4.

PubMed

Li, Liping; Wu, Xinchun

2015-01-01

This study examined the contribution of metalinguistic awareness including morphological awareness, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness to reading comprehension, and the role of reading fluency as a mediator of the effects of metalinguistic awareness on reading comprehension from grades 2 to 4. Four hundred and fifteen elementary students in China mainland were administered a test battery that included measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographical awareness, reading fluency, reading comprehension and IQ. Hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Morphological awareness uniquely explained 9%, 10% and 13% variance of reading comprehension respectively from grade 2 to grade 4, however, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness did not contribute to reading comprehension; Reading fluency partially mediated the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension in grades 2-4. These findings indicated that reading fluency and morphological awareness should be facilitated in the Chinese instruction. Morphological awareness played an important role in Chinese reading and affected reading comprehension in grades 2 to 4; Reading fluency was a significant link between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in grades 2-4.

Modeling Oral Reading Fluency Development in Latino Students: A Longitudinal Study Across Second and Third Grade

PubMed Central

Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Petscher, Yaacov; Williams, Rihana S.; Pappamihiel, N. Eleni; Dyrlund, Allison K.; Connor, Carol

2009-01-01

This study examines growth in oral reading fluency across 2nd and 3rd grade for Latino students grouped in 3 English proficiency levels: students receiving English as a second language (ESL) services (n = 2,182), students exited from ESL services (n = 965), and students never designated as needing services (n = 1,857). An important focus was to learn whether, within these 3 groups, proficiency levels and growth were reliably related to special education status. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors compared proficiency levels and growth in oral reading fluency in English between and within groups and then to state reading benchmarks. Findings indicate that oral reading fluency scores reliably distinguished between students with learning disabilities and typically developing students within each group (effect sizes ranging from 0.96 to 1.51). The growth trajectory included a significant quadratic trend (generally slowing over time). These findings support the effectiveness of using oral reading fluency in English to screen and monitor reading progress under Response to Intervention models, but also suggest caution in interpreting oral reading fluency data as part of the process in identifying students with learning disabilities. PMID:25132688

Effects of Metalinguistic Awareness on Reading Comprehension and the Mediator Role of Reading Fluency from Grades 2 to 4

PubMed Central

Li, Liping; Wu, Xinchun

2015-01-01

Purpose This study examined the contribution of metalinguistic awareness including morphological awareness, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness to reading comprehension, and the role of reading fluency as a mediator of the effects of metalinguistic awareness on reading comprehension from grades 2 to 4. Methods Four hundred and fifteen elementary students in China mainland were administered a test battery that included measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographical awareness, reading fluency, reading comprehension and IQ. Hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Results Morphological awareness uniquely explained 9%, 10% and 13% variance of reading comprehension respectively from grade 2 to grade 4, however, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness did not contribute to reading comprehension; Reading fluency partially mediated the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension in grades 2-4. Conclusions These findings indicated that reading fluency and morphological awareness should be facilitated in the Chinese instruction. Morphological awareness played an important role in Chinese reading and affected reading comprehension in grades 2 to 4; Reading fluency was a significant link between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in grades 2-4. PMID:25799530

The Architecture of Intuition: Fluency and Affect Determine Intuitive Judgments of Semantic and Visual Coherence and Judgments of Grammaticality in Artificial Grammar Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Topolinski, Sascha; Strack, Fritz

2009-01-01

People can intuitively detect whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent) or does not have one (incoherent) before and independently of actually retrieving the common associate. The authors argue that semantic coherence increases the processing fluency for coherent triads and that this increased fluency triggers a brief and…

Development and Preliminary Evaluation of an Adaptation of Word Identification Fluency for Beginning Readers in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaughency, Elizabeth; McLennan, Kathryn M.; McDowall, Philippa S.

2015-01-01

A New Zealand (NZ) version of Word Identification Fluency (NZWIF) was administered to 120 children in their second school year at the beginning, middle, and end of the year, along with a curriculum-based measure of oral passage reading fluency at mid- and end-year. Outcome measures included standardized and high-stakes school-used indicators of…

The Effects of Stimulus Writing Modality To Produce Writing Fluency in the Primary Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duross, Christine; And Others

An action research project set out to increase students' writing fluency and investigate whether writing fluency varies as a function of writing prompts and directions given to students. Subjects were 62 students in a first-grade class, a second-grade class, and a fifth/sixth-grade Special Day class (all in this class are learning disabled) in a…

New Metrics, Measures, and Uses for Fluency Data: An Introduction to a Special Issue on the Assessment of Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biancarosa, Gina; Cummings, Kelli D.

2015-01-01

The primary objective of this special issue is to synthesize results from recent reading fluency research endeavors, and to link these findings to practical uses of reading curriculum-based measurement (R-CBM) tools. Taken together, the manuscripts presented in this issue discuss measurement work related to new metrics of indexing student reading…

Does Working Memory Enhance or Interfere with Speech Fluency in Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter? Evidence from a Dual-Task Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eichorn, Naomi; Marton, Klara; Schwartz, Richard G.; Melara, Robert D.; Pirutinsky, Steven

2016-01-01

Purpose: The present study examined whether engaging working memory in a secondary task benefits speech fluency. Effects of dual-task conditions on speech fluency, rate, and errors were examined with respect to predictions derived from three related theoretical accounts of disfluencies. Method: Nineteen adults who stutter and twenty adults who do…

Using an iPad® App to Improve Sight Word Reading Fluency for At-Risk First Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musti-Rao, Shobana; Lo, Ya-yu; Plati, Erin

2015-01-01

We used a multiple baseline across word lists design nested within a multiple baseline across participants design to examine the effects of instruction delivered using an iPad® app on sight word fluency and oral reading fluency of six first graders identified as at risk for reading failure. In Study 1, three students participated in…

Repeated Reading for Developing Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: The Case of EFL Learners in Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorsuch, Greta; Taguchi, Etsuo

2008-01-01

Reading in a foreign or second language is often a laborious process, often caused by underdeveloped word recognition skills, among other things, of second and foreign language readers. Developing fluency in L2/FL reading has become an important pedagogical issue in L2 settings and one major component of reading fluency is fast and accurate word…

Investigation of the Psychometric Attributes of the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R. Steve; Kirk, Emily R.; Fuller, Emily J.; McCane-Bowling, Sara

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric integrity of the "Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency" (TOSCRF) by D. D. Hammill, J. L. Wiederholt, and E. A. Allen (2006). The TOSCRF is a recently published assessment of reading fluency for ages 7 years 0 months to 18 years 11 months that can be administered individually or in a…

The effect of filtered speech feedback on the frequency of stuttering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rami, Manish Krishnakant

2000-10-01

This study investigated the effects of filtered components of speech and whispered speech on the frequency of stuttering. It is known that choral speech, shadowing, and altered auditory feedback are the only conditions which induce fluency without any additional effort than normally required to speak on the part of people who stutter. All these conditions use speech as a second signal. This experiment examined the role of components of speech signal as delineated by the source- filter theory of speech production. Three filtered speech signals, a whispered speech signal, and a choral speech signal formed the stimuli. It was postulated that if the speech signal in whole was necessary for producing fluency in people who stutter, then all other conditions except choral speech should fail to produce fluency enhancement. If the glottal source alone was adequate in restoring fluency, then only the conditions of NAF and whispered speech should fail in promoting fluency. In the event that full filter characteristics are necessary for the fluency creating effects, then all conditions except the choral speech and whispered speech should fail to produce fluency. If any part of the filter characteristics is sufficient in yielding fluency, then only the NAF and the approximate glottal source should fail to demonstrate an increase in the amount of fluency. Twelve adults who stuttered read passages under the six conditions while receiving auditory feedback consisting of one of the six experimental conditions: (a)NAF; (b)approximate glottal source; (c)glottal source and first formant; (d)glottal source and first two formants; and (e)whispered speech. Frequencies of stuttering were obtained for each condition and submitted to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Statistically significant differences in means were found within the choral feedback conditions. Specifically, the choral speech, the source and first formant, source and the first two formants, and the whispered speech conditions all decreased the frequency of stuttering while the approximate glottal source did not. It is suggested that articulatory events, chiefly the encoded speech output of the vocal tract origin, afford effective cues and induces fluent speech in people who stutter.

Mathematical performance and behavior of children with hyperactivity with and without coexisting aggression.

PubMed

Zentall, S S; Smith, Y N

1993-09-01

An analysis was made of a basic skill deficit and collateral behavior that could differentiate youth with hyperactivity from children with both hyperactivity and aggression. A total of 92 boys (with hyperactivity, with hyperactivity and aggression, and without disorders) were assessed for their timed performance and accuracy of computer-generated math operations. Response time differences documented between disordered and nondisordered groups, and between the diagnostic groups, were not explained by the group differences that were also observed in behavior or motor response speed (typing). Conclusions derived from these findings, and from prior work, indicated that speed of addition may be a marker of academic and social dysfunction. The overall importance of this assessment is related to the potential sensitivity of math fluency data for assessment and treatment monitoring.

Fluent, fast, and frugal? A formal model evaluation of the interplay between memory, fluency, and comparative judgments.

PubMed

Hilbig, Benjamin E; Erdfelder, Edgar; Pohl, Rüdiger F

2011-07-01

A new process model of the interplay between memory and judgment processes was recently suggested, assuming that retrieval fluency-that is, the speed with which objects are recognized-will determine inferences concerning such objects in a single-cue fashion. This aspect of the fluency heuristic, an extension of the recognition heuristic, has remained largely untested due to methodological difficulties. To overcome the latter, we propose a measurement model from the class of multinomial processing tree models that can estimate true single-cue reliance on recognition and retrieval fluency. We applied this model to aggregate and individual data from a probabilistic inference experiment and considered both goodness of fit and model complexity to evaluate different hypotheses. The results were relatively clear-cut, revealing that the fluency heuristic is an unlikely candidate for describing comparative judgments concerning recognized objects. These findings are discussed in light of a broader theoretical view on the interplay of memory and judgment processes.

Is semantic fluency differentially impaired in schizophrenic patients with delusions?

PubMed

Rossell, S L; Rabe-Hesketh, S S; Shapleske, J S; David, A S

1999-10-01

The study of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia has recently focused upon semantics: the study of meaning. Delusions are a plausible manifestation of abnormal semantics because by definition they involve changes in personal meaning and belief. A symptom-based approach was used to investigate semantic and phonological fluency in a group of schizophrenic patients subdivided into those with delusions and those with no current delusions. The results demonstrated that deluded patients only were differentially impaired on a test of semantic fluency in comparison to phonological fluency. All subjects showed the same decline in performance over the time course of both tests indicating that retrieval speed in schizophrenia is no different from that of normal controls. Further analysis of word associations in two semantic categories (animals and body parts), revealed that deluded subjects have a more idiosyncratic organisation for animals. The findings of reduced semantic fluency production and poor logical word associations may represent a disorganised storage of semantic information in deluded patients, which in turn affects efficient access.

The Reading Performance of English Learners in Grades 1-3: The Role of Initial Status and Growth on Reading Fluency in Spanish and English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Doris Luft; Park, Yonghan; Baker, Scott K.

2012-01-01

The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the developmental patterns in pseudoword reading and oral reading fluency in Spanish and English for Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in grades 1-3, and (b) investigate whether initial status and growth rates in reading fluency in Spanish and English, significantly predicted reading…

Test Review: Reynolds, C. R., Voress, J. V., Kamphaus, R. W. (2015), "Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests (MFaCTs) review." PRO-ED

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marbach, Joshua

2017-01-01

The Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests (MFaCTs) are a series of measures designed to assess for arithmetic calculation skills and calculation fluency in children ages 6 through 18. There are five main purposes of the MFaCTs: (1) identifying students who are behind in basic math fact automaticity; (2) evaluating possible delays in arithmetic…

The Effect of Repeated Reading with Pairs of Students in a Large-Group Setting on Fluency and Comprehension for Students at Risk for Reading Failure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frame, John N.

2011-01-01

Problem: Some students are failing to develop acceptable reading skills; however, instructional time allocated to reading fluency can increase reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to compare students who received repeated reading with pairs of students in a large-group setting with those who did not in terms of reading fluency,…

Cognitive Processes that Account for Mental Addition Fluency Differences between Children Typically Achieving in Arithmetic and Children At-Risk for Failure in Arithmetic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Derek H.; Hutchinson, Nancy L.

2010-01-01

This study investigated whether processing speed, short-term memory, and working memory accounted for the differential mental addition fluency between children typically achieving in arithmetic (TA) and children at-risk for failure in arithmetic (AR). Further, we drew attention to fluency differences in simple (e.g., 5 + 3) and complex (e.g., 16 +…

Criteria for Appraising Computer-Based Simulations for Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-04-01

activity abroad that most contributed to their increase in fluency was ‘hanging out’ with Russian friends, defined as visiting, eating, and watching...approach is testing that learning has indeed occurred, in that a teacher must evaluate not only linguistic accuracy but also fluency in the proper...written responses, with student input analyzed using voice processing technology. Cultural Proficiency in Arabic Fluency in a foreign language

The Effects of Reading Fluency Interventions on the Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Performance of Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities: A Synthesis of the Research from 2001 to 2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevens, Elizabeth A.; Walker, Melodee A.; Vaughn, Sharon

2017-01-01

Fluent word reading is hypothesized to facilitate reading comprehension by improving automatic word reading, thus releasing a reader's cognitive resources to focus on meaning. Many students with learning disabilities (LD) struggle to develop reading fluency, which affects reading comprehension. This synthesis extends Chard, Vaughn, and Tyler's…

Text (Oral) Reading Fluency as a Construct in Reading Development: An Investigation of Its Mediating Role for Children from Grades 1 to 4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Wagner, Richard K.

2015-01-01

In the present study we investigated a developmentally changing role of text reading fluency in mediating the relations of word reading fluency and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. We addressed this question by using longitudinal data from Grades 1 to 4 and employing structural equation models. Results showed that the role of text…

The Role of Word Recognition, Oral Reading Fluency and Listening Comprehension in the Simple View of Reading: A Study in an Intermediate Depth Orthography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cadime, Irene; Rodrigues, Bruna; Santos, Sandra; Viana, Fernanda Leopoldina; Chaves-Sousa, Séli; do Céu Cosme, Maria; Ribeiro, Iolanda

2017-01-01

Empirical research has provided evidence for the simple view of reading across a variety of orthographies, but the role of oral reading fluency in the model is unclear. Moreover, the relative weight of listening comprehension, oral reading fluency and word recognition in reading comprehension seems to vary across orthographies and schooling years.…

Effect of an 8-week practice of externally triggered speech on basal ganglia activity of stuttering and fluent speakers.

PubMed

Toyomura, Akira; Fujii, Tetsunoshin; Kuriki, Shinya

2015-04-01

The neural mechanisms underlying stuttering are not well understood. It is known that stuttering appears when persons who stutter speak in a self-paced manner, but speech fluency is temporarily increased when they speak in unison with external trigger such as a metronome. This phenomenon is very similar to the behavioral improvement by external pacing in patients with Parkinson's disease. Recent imaging studies have also suggested that the basal ganglia are involved in the etiology of stuttering. In addition, previous studies have shown that the basal ganglia are involved in self-paced movement. Then, the present study focused on the basal ganglia and explored whether long-term speech-practice using external triggers can induce modification of the basal ganglia activity of stuttering speakers. Our study of functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that stuttering speakers possessed significantly lower activity in the basal ganglia than fluent speakers before practice, especially when their speech was self-paced. After an 8-week speech practice of externally triggered speech using a metronome, the significant difference in activity between the two groups disappeared. The cerebellar vermis of stuttering speakers showed significantly decreased activity during the self-paced speech in the second compared to the first experiment. The speech fluency and naturalness of the stuttering speakers were also improved. These results suggest that stuttering is associated with defective motor control during self-paced speech, and that the basal ganglia and the cerebellum are involved in an improvement of speech fluency of stuttering by the use of external trigger. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The architecture of intuition: Fluency and affect determine intuitive judgments of semantic and visual coherence and judgments of grammaticality in artificial grammar learning.

PubMed

Topolinski, Sascha; Strack, Fritz

2009-02-01

People can intuitively detect whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent) or does not have one (incoherent) before and independently of actually retrieving the common associate. The authors argue that semantic coherence increases the processing fluency for coherent triads and that this increased fluency triggers a brief and subtle positive affect, which is the experiential basis of these intuitions. In a series of 11 experiments with 3 different fluency manipulations (figure-ground contrast, repeated exposure, and subliminal visual priming) and 3 different affect inductions (short-timed facial feedback, subliminal facial priming, and affect-laden word triads), high fluency and positive affect independently and additively increased the probability that triads would be judged as coherent, irrespective of actual coherence. The authors could equalize and even reverse coherence judgments (i.e., incoherent triads were judged to be coherent more frequently than were coherent triads). When explicitly instructed, participants were unable to correct their judgments for the influence of affect, although they were aware of the manipulation. The impact of fluency and affect was also generalized to intuitions of visual coherence and intuitions of grammaticality in an artificial grammar learning paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Shall we use non-verbal fluency in schizophrenia? A pilot study.

PubMed

Rinaldi, Romina; Trappeniers, Julie; Lefebvre, Laurent

2014-05-30

Over the last few years, numerous studies have attempted to explain fluency impairments in people with schizophrenia, leading to heterogeneous results. This could notably be due to the fact that fluency is often used in its verbal form where semantic dimensions are implied. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of fluency deficits, a non-verbal fluency task - the Five-Point Test (5PT) - was proposed to 24 patients with schizophrenia and to 24 healthy subjects categorized in terms of age, gender and schooling. The 5PT involves producing as many abstract figures as possible within 1min by connecting points with straight lines. All subjects also completed the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) while those with schizophrenia were further assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results show that the 5PT evaluation differentiates patients from healthy subjects with regard to the number of figures produced. Patients׳ results also suggest that the number of figures produced is linked to the "overall executive functioning" and to some inhibition components. Although this study is a first step in the non-verbal efficiency research field, we believe that experimental psychopathology could benefit from the investigations on non-verbal fluency. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is semantic verbal fluency impairment explained by executive function deficits in schizophrenia?

PubMed

Berberian, Arthur A; Moraes, Giovanna V; Gadelha, Ary; Brietzke, Elisa; Fonseca, Ana O; Scarpato, Bruno S; Vicente, Marcella O; Seabra, Alessandra G; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Lacerda, Acioly L

2016-04-19

To investigate if verbal fluency impairment in schizophrenia reflects executive function deficits or results from degraded semantic store or inefficient search and retrieval strategies. Two groups were compared: 141 individuals with schizophrenia and 119 healthy age and education-matched controls. Both groups performed semantic and phonetic verbal fluency tasks. Performance was evaluated using three scores, based on 1) number of words generated; 2) number of clustered/related words; and 3) switching score. A fourth performance score based on the number of clusters was also measured. SZ individuals produced fewer words than controls. After controlling for the total number of words produced, a difference was observed between the groups in the number of cluster-related words generated in the semantic task. In both groups, the number of words generated in the semantic task was higher than that generated in the phonemic task, although a significant group vs. fluency type interaction showed that subjects with schizophrenia had disproportionate semantic fluency impairment. Working memory was positively associated with increased production of words within clusters and inversely correlated with switching. Semantic fluency impairment may be attributed to an inability (resulting from reduced cognitive control) to distinguish target signal from competing noise and to maintain cues for production of memory probes.

The Genetic Architecture of Oral Language, Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study From 7 to 16 Years

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

This study examines the genetic and environmental etiology underlying the development of oral language and reading skills, and the relationship between them, over a long period of developmental time spanning middle childhood and adolescence. It focuses particularly on the differential relationship between language and two different aspects of reading: reading fluency and reading comprehension. Structural equation models were applied to language and reading data at 7, 12, and 16 years from the large-scale TEDS twin study. A series of multivariate twin models show a clear patterning of oral language with reading comprehension, as distinct from reading fluency: significant but moderate genetic overlap between oral language and reading fluency (genetic correlation rg = .46–.58 at 7, 12, and 16) contrasts with very substantial genetic overlap between oral language and reading comprehension (rg = .81–.87, at 12 and 16). This pattern is even clearer in a latent factors model, fit to the data aggregated across ages, in which a single factor representing oral language and reading comprehension is correlated with—but distinct from—a second factor representing reading fluency. A distinction between oral language and reading fluency is also apparent in different developmental trajectories: While the heritability of oral language increases over the period from 7 to 12 to 16 years (from h2 = .27 to .47 to .55), the heritability of reading fluency is high and largely stable over the same period of time (h2 = .73 to .71 to .64). PMID:28541066

The genetic architecture of oral language, reading fluency, and reading comprehension: A twin study from 7 to 16 years.

PubMed

Tosto, Maria G; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E; Harlaar, Nicole; Prom-Wormley, Elizabeth; Dale, Philip S; Plomin, Robert

2017-06-01

This study examines the genetic and environmental etiology underlying the development of oral language and reading skills, and the relationship between them, over a long period of developmental time spanning middle childhood and adolescence. It focuses particularly on the differential relationship between language and two different aspects of reading: reading fluency and reading comprehension. Structural equation models were applied to language and reading data at 7, 12, and 16 years from the large-scale TEDS twin study. A series of multivariate twin models show a clear patterning of oral language with reading comprehension, as distinct from reading fluency: significant but moderate genetic overlap between oral language and reading fluency (genetic correlation r g = .46-.58 at 7, 12, and 16) contrasts with very substantial genetic overlap between oral language and reading comprehension (r g = .81-.87, at 12 and 16). This pattern is even clearer in a latent factors model, fit to the data aggregated across ages, in which a single factor representing oral language and reading comprehension is correlated with-but distinct from-a second factor representing reading fluency. A distinction between oral language and reading fluency is also apparent in different developmental trajectories: While the heritability of oral language increases over the period from 7 to 12 to 16 years (from h² = .27 to .47 to .55), the heritability of reading fluency is high and largely stable over the same period of time (h² = .73 to .71 to .64). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Language Fluency and Other Socioeconomic Factors Influence the Use of PubMed and MedlinePlus?

PubMed Central

Sheets, L.; Gavino, A.; Callaghan, F.; Fontelo, P.

2013-01-01

Background Increased usage of MedlinePlus by Spanish-speakers was observed after introduction of MedlinePlus in Spanish. This probably reflects increased usage of MEDLINE and PubMed by those with greater fluency in the language in which it is presented; but this has never been demonstrated in English speakers. Evidence that lack of English fluency deters international healthcare personnel from using PubMed could support the use of multi-language search tools like Babel-MeSH. Objectives This study aims to measure the effects of language fluency and other socioeconomic factors on PubMed MEDLINE and MedlinePlus access by international users. Methods We retrospectively reviewed server pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus from various periods of time, and analyzed them against country statistics on language fluency, GDP, literacy rate, Internet usage, medical schools, and physicians per capita, to determine whether they were associated. Results We found fluency in English to be positively associated with pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus in countries with high literacy rates. Spanish was generally found to be positively associated with pageviews of MedlinePlus en Español. The other parameters also showed varying degrees of association with pageviews. Conclusions After adjusting for the other factors investigated in this study, language fluency was a consistently significant predictor of the use of PubMed, MedlinePlus English and MedlinePlus en Español. This study may support the need for multi-language search tools and may increase access of health information resources from non-English speaking countries. PMID:23874356

Do language fluency and other socioeconomic factors influence the use of PubMed and MedlinePlus?

PubMed

Sheets, L; Gavino, A; Callaghan, F; Fontelo, P

2013-01-01

Increased usage of MedlinePlus by Spanish-speakers was observed after introduction of MedlinePlus in Spanish. This probably reflects increased usage of MEDLINE and PubMed by those with greater fluency in the language in which it is presented; but this has never been demonstrated in English speakers. Evidence that lack of English fluency deters international healthcare personnel from using PubMed could support the use of multi-language search tools like Babel-MeSH. This study aims to measure the effects of language fluency and other socioeconomic factors on PubMed MEDLINE and MedlinePlus access by international users. We retrospectively reviewed server pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus from various periods of time, and analyzed them against country statistics on language fluency, GDP, literacy rate, Internet usage, medical schools, and physicians per capita, to determine whether they were associated. We found fluency in English to be positively associated with pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus in countries with high literacy rates. Spanish was generally found to be positively associated with pageviews of MedlinePlus en Español. The other parameters also showed varying degrees of association with pageviews. After adjusting for the other factors investigated in this study, language fluency was a consistently significant predictor of the use of PubMed, MedlinePlus English and MedlinePlus en Español. This study may support the need for multi-language search tools and may increase access of health information resources from non-English speaking countries.

A review of protocols for 308 nm excimer laser phototherapy in psoriasis.

PubMed

Mudigonda, Tejaswi; Dabade, Tushar S; Feldman, Steven R

2012-01-01

308 nm excimer laser phototherapy is efficacious in the treatment of localized psoriasis. Different approaches regarding dose fluency, number of treatments, and maintenance have been utilized, and there is yet to be a consensus on standard protocol. To characterize treatment parameters for 308 nm excimer laser phototherapy. We performed a PubMed search for studies describing excimer laser treatment protocol with particular attention to dosage determination, dose adjustment, dose fluency, number of treatments, and maintenance. Seven prospective studies were found describing the excimer efficacy for psoriasis. All studies determined the initial treatment dose using either the minimal erythema dose (MED) or induration. Fluency ranged from 0.5 MED (low) to 16 MED (high); one study demonstrated that medium to high fluencies yielded better improvement in fewer number of treatments. Fluency adjustments during the course of treatment were important to minimize phototherapy-associated side effects. The use of higher fluencies was reported to result in higher occurrences of blistering. One study implemented a maintenance tapering of dose-frequency phase to better manage psoriasis flare-ups. The 308 nm excimer laser is an effective therapy for psoriasis regardless of the method used to determine initial dosage, dose fluency, or number of treatments. As its usage as a targeted monotherapy increases, future trials should consider evaluating and modifying these parameters to determine the most optimal management of localized psoriasis. Based on our reviewed studies, there is no consensus for a single excimer laser therapy protocol and as a result, patient preferences should continue to be an important consideration for phototherapy regimen planning.

Fluency-dependent cortical activation associated with speech production and comprehension in second language learners.

PubMed

Shimada, K; Hirotani, M; Yokokawa, H; Yoshida, H; Makita, K; Yamazaki-Murase, M; Tanabe, H C; Sadato, N

2015-08-06

This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the brain regions underlying language task performance in adult second language (L2) learners. Specifically, we identified brain regions where the level of activation was associated with L2 fluency levels. Thirty Japanese-speaking adults participated in the study. All participants were L2 learners of English and had achieved varying levels of fluency, as determined by a standardized L2 English proficiency test, the Versant English Test (Pearson Education Inc., 2011). When participants performed the oral sentence building task from the production tasks administered, the dorsal part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) showed activation patterns that differed depending on the L2 fluency levels: The more fluent the participants were, the more dIFG activation decreased. This decreased activation of the dIFG might reflect the increased automaticity of a syntactic building process. In contrast, when participants performed an oral story comprehension task, the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) showed increased activation with higher fluency levels. This suggests that the learners with higher L2 fluency were actively engaged in post-syntactic integration processing supported by the left pSTG. These data imply that L2 fluency predicts neural resource allocation during language comprehension tasks as well as in production tasks. This study sheds light on the neural underpinnings of L2 learning by identifying the brain regions recruited during different language tasks across different modalities (production vs. comprehension). Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Creativity and positive symptoms in schizophrenia revisited: Structural connectivity analysis with diffusion tensor imaging.

PubMed

Son, Shuraku; Kubota, Manabu; Miyata, Jun; Fukuyama, Hidenao; Aso, Toshihiko; Urayama, Shin-ichi; Murai, Toshiya; Takahashi, Hidehiko

2015-05-01

Both creativity and schizotypy are suggested to be manifestations of the hyperactivation of unusual or remote concepts/words. However, the results of studies on creativity in schizophrenia are diverse, possibly due to the multifaceted aspects of creativity and difficulties of differentiating adaptive creativity from pathological schizotypy/positive symptoms. To date, there have been no detailed studies comprehensively investigating creativity, positive symptoms including delusions, and their neural bases in schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated 43 schizophrenia and 36 healthy participants using diffusion tensor imaging. We used idea, design, and verbal (semantic and phonological) fluency tests as creativity scores and Peters Delusions Inventory as delusion scores. Subsequently, we investigated group differences in every psychological score, correlations between fluency and delusions, and relationships between these scores and white matter integrity using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). In schizophrenia, idea and verbal fluency were significantly lower in general, and delusion score was higher than in healthy controls, whereas there were no group differences in design fluency. We also found positive correlation between phonological fluency and delusions in schizophrenia. By correlation analyses using TBSS, we found that the anterior part of corpus callosum was the substantially overlapped area, negatively correlated with both phonological fluency and delusion severity. Our results suggest that the anterior interhemispheric dysconnectivity might be associated with executive dysfunction, and disinhibited automatic spreading activation in the semantic network was manifested as uncontrollable phonological fluency or delusions. This dysconnectivity could be one possible neural basis that differentiates pathological positive symptoms from adaptive creativity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Right hemisphere structures predict poststroke speech fluency

PubMed Central

Pani, Ethan; Zheng, Xin; Wang, Jasmine; Norton, Andrea

2016-01-01

Objective: We sought to determine via a cross-sectional study the contribution of (1) the right hemisphere's speech-relevant white matter regions and (2) interhemispheric connectivity to speech fluency in the chronic phase of left hemisphere stroke with aphasia. Methods: Fractional anisotropy (FA) of white matter regions underlying the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), precentral gyrus (PreCG), pars opercularis (IFGop) and triangularis (IFGtri) of the inferior frontal gyrus, and the corpus callosum (CC) was correlated with speech fluency measures. A region within the superior parietal lobule (SPL) was examined as a control. FA values of regions that significantly predicted speech measures were compared with FA values from healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Results: FA values for the right MTG, PreCG, and IFGop significantly predicted speech fluency, but FA values of the IFGtri and SPL did not. A multiple regression showed that combining FA of the significant right hemisphere regions with the lesion load of the left arcuate fasciculus—a previously identified biomarker of poststroke speech fluency—provided the best model for predicting speech fluency. FA of CC fibers connecting left and right supplementary motor areas (SMA) was also correlated with speech fluency. FA of the right IFGop and PreCG was significantly higher in patients than controls, while FA of a whole CC region of interest (ROI) and the CC-SMA ROI was significantly lower in patients. Conclusions: Right hemisphere white matter integrity is related to speech fluency measures in patients with chronic aphasia. This may indicate premorbid anatomical variability beneficial for recovery or be the result of poststroke remodeling. PMID:27029627

Decision Making and Cognitive Behavioral Flexibility in a OCD Sample: a Study in a Virtual Environment.

PubMed

la Paglia, Filippo; la Cascia, Caterina; Rizzo, Rosalinda; Riva, Giuseppe; la Barbera, Daniele

2015-01-01

Neuropsychological disorders are common in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients. Executive functions, verbal fluency and verbal memory, shifting attention from one aspect of stimuli to others, mental flexibility, engaging in executive planning and decision making, are the most involved cognitive domains. We focus on two aspects of neuropsychological function: decision making and cognitive behavioral flexibility, assessed through a virtual version of the Multiple Errand Test (V-MET), developed using the NeuroVR software. Thirty OCD patients were compared with thirty matched control subjects. The results showed the presence of difficulties in OCD patients with tasks where the goal is not clear, the information is incomplete or the parameters are ill-defined.

Changes in cognitive functions of students in the transitional period from elementary school to junior high school.

PubMed

Mizuno, Kei; Tanaka, Masaaki; Fukuda, Sanae; Sasabe, Tetsuya; Imai-Matsumura, Kyoko; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2011-05-01

When students proceed to junior high school from elementary school, rapid changes in the environment occur, which may cause various behavioral and emotional problems. However, the changes in cognitive functions during this transitional period have rarely been studied. In 158 elementary school students from 4th- to 6th-grades and 159 junior high school students from 7th- to 9th-grades, we assessed various cognitive functions, including motor processing, spatial construction ability, semantic fluency, immediate memory, delayed memory, spatial and non-spatial working memory, and selective, alternative, and divided attention. Our findings showed that performance on spatial and non-spatial working memory, alternative attention, divided attention, and semantic fluency tasks improved from elementary to junior high school. In particular, performance on alternative and divided attention tasks improved during the transitional period from elementary to junior high school. Our finding suggests that development of alternative and divided attention is of crucial importance in the transitional period from elementary to junior high school. Copyright © 2010 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Anxiety and inattention as predictors of achievement in early elementary school children.

PubMed

Grills-Taquechel, Amie E; Fletcher, Jack M; Vaughn, Sharon R; Denton, Carolyn A; Taylor, Pat

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine the relations among anxiety, inattention, and math/reading achievement, as well as the mediating/moderating role of inattention in the anxiety-achievement association both concurrently and longitudinally. Participants included 161 ethnically diverse children (aged 6-8) and their teachers. At the middle and end of first grade (approximately 5 months apart), students completed measures of anxiety and achievement while their teachers completed a measure of inattention. For the concurrent analyses, greater harm avoidance anxiety was associated with better attention, which was in turn related to better achievement. For the longitudinal analyses, mid-year inattention interacted with harm avoidance and separation anxiety to predict end of year reading fluency. For those rated as more attentive, greater separation anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased fluency performance while greater harm avoidance symptoms were associated with increased performance. Findings were discussed in terms of the importance of considering socioemotional variables in the study of children's academic achievement and the potential utility of early anxiety prevention/intervention programs, especially for children experiencing academic difficulties who also show internalizing behaviors.

Evaluation of the language profile in children with rolandic epilepsy and developmental dysphasia: Evidence for distinct strengths and weaknesses.

PubMed

Verly, M; Gerrits, R; Lagae, L; Sunaert, S; Rommel, N; Zink, I

2017-07-01

Although benign, rolandic epilepsy (RE) or benign childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes is often associated with language impairment. Recently, fronto-rolandic EEG abnormalities have been described in children with developmental dysphasia (DD), suggesting an interaction between language impairment and interictal epileptiform discharges. To investigate if a behavioral-linguistic continuum between RE and DD exists, a clinical prospective study was carried out to evaluate the language profile of 15 children with RE and 22 children with DD. Language skills were assessed using an extensive, standardized test battery. Language was found to be impaired in both study groups, however RE and DD were associated with distinct language impairment profiles. Children with RE had difficulties with sentence comprehension, semantic verbal fluency and auditory short-term memory, which are unrelated to age of epilepsy onset and laterality of epileptic focus. In children with DD, sentence comprehension and verbal fluency were among their relative strengths, whereas sentence and lexical production constituted relative weaknesses. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anxiety and Inattention as Predictors of Achievement in Early Elementary School Children

PubMed Central

Fletcher, Jack M.; Vaughn, Sharon R.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Taylor, Pat

2012-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine the relations among anxiety, inattention, and math/reading achievement, as well as the mediating/moderating role of inattention in the anxiety-achievement association both concurrently and longitudinally. Participants included 161 ethnically diverse children (aged 6–8) and their teachers. At the middle and end of first-grade (approximately 5 months apart), students completed measures of anxiety and achievement while their teachers completed a measure of inattention. For the concurrent analyses, greater harm avoidance anxiety was associated with better attention, which was in turn related to better achievement. For the longitudinal analyses, mid-year inattention interacted with harm avoidance and separation anxiety to predict end of year reading fluency. For those rated as more attentive, greater separation anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased fluency performance while greater harm avoidance symptoms were associated with increased performance. Findings were discussed in terms of the importance of considering socioemotional variables in the study of children’s academic achievement and the potential utility of early anxiety prevention/intervention programs, especially for children experiencing academic difficulties who also show internalizing behaviors. PMID:22764776

Inferring Master Painters' Esthetic Biases from the Statistics of Portraits

PubMed Central

Aleem, Hassan; Correa-Herran, Ivan; Grzywacz, Norberto M.

2017-01-01

The Processing Fluency Theory posits that the ease of sensory information processing in the brain facilitates esthetic pleasure. Accordingly, the theory would predict that master painters should display biases toward visual properties such as symmetry, balance, and moderate complexity. Have these biases been occurring and if so, have painters been optimizing these properties (fluency variables)? Here, we address these questions with statistics of portrait paintings from the Early Renaissance period. To do this, we first developed different computational measures for each of the aforementioned fluency variables. Then, we measured their statistics in 153 portraits from 26 master painters, in 27 photographs of people in three controlled poses, and in 38 quickly snapped photographs of individual persons. A statistical comparison between Early Renaissance portraits and quickly snapped photographs revealed that painters showed a bias toward balance, symmetry, and moderate complexity. However, a comparison between portraits and controlled-pose photographs showed that painters did not optimize each of these properties. Instead, different painters presented biases toward different, narrow ranges of fluency variables. Further analysis suggested that the painters' individuality stemmed in part from having to resolve the tension between complexity vs. symmetry and balance. We additionally found that constraints on the use of different painting materials by distinct painters modulated these fluency variables systematically. In conclusion, the Processing Fluency Theory of Esthetic Pleasure would need expansion if we were to apply it to the history of visual art since it cannot explain the lack of optimization of each fluency variables. To expand the theory, we propose the existence of a Neuroesthetic Space, which encompasses the possible values that each of the fluency variables can reach in any given art period. We discuss the neural mechanisms of this Space and propose that it has a distributed representation in the human brain. We further propose that different artists reside in different, small sub-regions of the Space. This Neuroesthetic-Space hypothesis raises the question of how painters and their paintings evolve across art periods. PMID:28337133

Modulating phonemic fluency performance in healthy subjects with transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left or right lateral frontal cortex.

PubMed

Smirni, Daniela; Turriziani, Patrizia; Mangano, Giuseppa Renata; Bracco, Martina; Oliveri, Massimiliano; Cipolotti, Lisa

2017-07-28

A growing body of evidence have suggested that non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), can improve the performance of aphasic patients in language tasks. For example, application of inhibitory rTMS or tDCs over the right frontal lobe of dysphasic patients resulted in improved naming abilities. Several studies have also reported that in healthy controls (HC) tDCS application over the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) improve performance in naming and semantic fluency tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate in HC, for the first time, the effects of inhibitory repetitive TMS (rTMS) over left and right lateral frontal cortex (BA 47) on two phonemic fluency tasks (FAS or FPL). 44 right-handed HCs were administered rTMS or sham over the left or right lateral frontal cortex in two separate testing sessions, with a 24h interval, followed by the two phonemic fluency tasks. To account for possible practice effects, an additional 22 HCs were tested on only the phonemic fluency task across two sessions with no stimulation. We found that rTMS-inhibition over the left lateral frontal cortex significantly worsened phonemic fluency performance when compared to sham. In contrast, rTMS-inhibition over the right lateral frontal cortex significantly improved phonemic fluency performance when compared to sham. These results were not accounted for practice effects. We speculated that rTMS over the right lateral frontal cortex may induce plastic neural changes to the left lateral frontal cortex by suppressing interhemispheric inhibitory interactions. This resulted in an increased excitability (disinhibition) of the contralateral unstimulated left lateral frontal cortex, consequently enhancing phonemic fluency performance. Conversely, application of rTMS over the left lateral frontal cortex may induce a temporary, virtual lesion, with effects similar to those reported in left frontal patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Writing fluency in patients with low‐grade glioma before and after surgery

PubMed Central

Hartelius, Lena; Henriksson, Ingrid; Longoni, Francesca; Wengelin, Åsa

2018-01-01

Abstract Background Low‐grade glioma (LGG) is a type of brain tumour often situated in or near areas involved in language, sensory or motor functions. Depending on localization and tumour characteristics, language or cognitive impairments due to tumour growth and/or surgical resection are obvious risks. One task that may be at risk is writing, both because it requires intact language and memory function and because it is a very complex and cognitively demanding task. The most commonly reported language deficit in LGG patients is oral lexical‐retrieval difficulties, and poor lexical retrieval would be expected to affect writing fluency. Aims To explore whether writing fluency is affected in LGG patients before and after surgery and whether it is related to performance on tasks of oral lexical retrieval. Methods & Procedures Twenty consecutive patients with presumed LGG wrote a narrative and performed a copy task before undergoing surgery and at 3‐month follow‐up using keystroke‐logging software. The same tasks were performed by a reference group (N = 31). The patients were also tested using the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and word‐fluency tests before and after surgery. Writing fluency was compared between the patients and the reference group, and between the patients before and after surgery. Relationships between performance on tests of oral lexical retrieval and writing fluency were investigated both before and after surgery. Outcome & Results Different aspects of writing fluency were affected in the LGG patients both before and after surgery. However, when controlling for the effect of typing speed, the LGG group differed significantly from the reference group only in the proportion of pauses within words. After surgery, a significant decline was seen in production rate and typing speed in the narrative task, and a significant increase was seen in pauses before words. Strong positive relationships were found between oral lexical retrieval and writing fluency both before and after surgery. Conclusions & Implications Although aspects of writing fluency were affected both before and after surgery, the results indicate that typing speed is an important factor behind the pre‐surgery differences. However, the decline in overall productivity and the increase in pauses before words after surgery could be related to a lexical deficit. This is supported by the finding that oral lexical‐retrieval scores were strongly correlated with writing fluency. However, further exploration is needed to identify the language and cognitive abilities affecting writing processes in LGG patients. PMID:29411466

Writing fluency in patients with low-grade glioma before and after surgery.

PubMed

Antonsson, Malin; Johansson, Charlotte; Hartelius, Lena; Henriksson, Ingrid; Longoni, Francesca; Wengelin, Åsa

2018-05-01

Low-grade glioma (LGG) is a type of brain tumour often situated in or near areas involved in language, sensory or motor functions. Depending on localization and tumour characteristics, language or cognitive impairments due to tumour growth and/or surgical resection are obvious risks. One task that may be at risk is writing, both because it requires intact language and memory function and because it is a very complex and cognitively demanding task. The most commonly reported language deficit in LGG patients is oral lexical-retrieval difficulties, and poor lexical retrieval would be expected to affect writing fluency. To explore whether writing fluency is affected in LGG patients before and after surgery and whether it is related to performance on tasks of oral lexical retrieval. Twenty consecutive patients with presumed LGG wrote a narrative and performed a copy task before undergoing surgery and at 3-month follow-up using keystroke-logging software. The same tasks were performed by a reference group (N = 31). The patients were also tested using the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and word-fluency tests before and after surgery. Writing fluency was compared between the patients and the reference group, and between the patients before and after surgery. Relationships between performance on tests of oral lexical retrieval and writing fluency were investigated both before and after surgery. Different aspects of writing fluency were affected in the LGG patients both before and after surgery. However, when controlling for the effect of typing speed, the LGG group differed significantly from the reference group only in the proportion of pauses within words. After surgery, a significant decline was seen in production rate and typing speed in the narrative task, and a significant increase was seen in pauses before words. Strong positive relationships were found between oral lexical retrieval and writing fluency both before and after surgery. Although aspects of writing fluency were affected both before and after surgery, the results indicate that typing speed is an important factor behind the pre-surgery differences. However, the decline in overall productivity and the increase in pauses before words after surgery could be related to a lexical deficit. This is supported by the finding that oral lexical-retrieval scores were strongly correlated with writing fluency. However, further exploration is needed to identify the language and cognitive abilities affecting writing processes in LGG patients. © 2018 The Authors International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

More Delusions May Be Observed in Low-Proficient Multilingual Alzheimer's Disease Patients.

PubMed

Liu, Yi-Chien; Liu, Yen-Ying; Yip, Ping-Keung; Akanuma, Kyoko; Meguro, Kenichi

2015-01-01

Language impairment and behavioral symptoms are both common phenomena in dementia patients. In this study, we investigated the behavioral symptoms in dementia patients with different language backgrounds. Through this, we aimed to propose a possible connection between language and delusion. We recruited 21 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to the DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria, from the memory clinic of the Cardinal Tien Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. They were classified into two groups: 11 multilinguals who could speak Japanese, Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese, and 10 bilinguals who only spoke Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese. There were no differences between age, education, disease duration, disease severity, environment and medical care between these two groups. Comprehensive neuropsychological examinations, including Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI), Verbal fluency, Chinese version of the Boston naming test (BNT) and the Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease Rating Scale (BEHAVE-AD), were administered. The multilingual group showed worse results on the Boston naming test. Other neuropsychological tests, including the MMSE, CASI and Verbal fluency, were not significantly different. More delusions were noted in the multilingual group. Three pairs of subjects were identified for further examination of their differences. These three cases presented the typical scenario of how language misunderstanding may cause delusions in multilingual dementia patients. Consequently, more emotion and distorted ideas may be induced in the multilinguals compared with the MMSE-matched controls. Inappropriate mixing of language or conflict between cognition and emotion may cause more delusions in these multilingual patients. This reminds us that delusion is not a pure biological outcome of brain degeneration. Although the cognitive performance was not significantly different between our groups, language may still affect their delusion.

More Delusions May Be Observed in Low-Proficient Multilingual Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

PubMed Central

Liu, Yi-Chien; Liu, Yen-Ying; Yip, Ping-Keung; Akanuma, Kyoko; Meguro, Kenichi

2015-01-01

Background Language impairment and behavioral symptoms are both common phenomena in dementia patients. In this study, we investigated the behavioral symptoms in dementia patients with different language backgrounds. Through this, we aimed to propose a possible connection between language and delusion. Methods We recruited 21 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to the DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria, from the memory clinic of the Cardinal Tien Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. They were classified into two groups: 11 multilinguals who could speak Japanese, Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese, and 10 bilinguals who only spoke Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese. There were no differences between age, education, disease duration, disease severity, environment and medical care between these two groups. Comprehensive neuropsychological examinations, including Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI), Verbal fluency, Chinese version of the Boston naming test (BNT) and the Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (BEHAVE-AD), were administered. Results The multilingual group showed worse results on the Boston naming test. Other neuropsychological tests, including the MMSE, CASI and Verbal fluency, were not significantly different. More delusions were noted in the multilingual group. Three pairs of subjects were identified for further examination of their differences. These three cases presented the typical scenario of how language misunderstanding may cause delusions in multilingual dementia patients. Consequently, more emotion and distorted ideas may be induced in the multilinguals compared with the MMSE-matched controls. Conclusion Inappropriate mixing of language or conflict between cognition and emotion may cause more delusions in these multilingual patients. This reminds us that delusion is not a pure biological outcome of brain degeneration. Although the cognitive performance was not significantly different between our groups, language may still affect their delusion. PMID:26554588

A randomized crossover trial to study the effect of personalized, one-to-one interaction using Montessori-based activities on agitation, affect, and engagement in nursing home residents with Dementia.

PubMed

van der Ploeg, Eva S; Eppingstall, Barbara; Camp, Cameron J; Runci, Susannah J; Taffe, John; O'Connor, Daniel W

2013-04-01

Increasingly more attention has been paid to non-pharmacological interventions as treatment of agitated behaviors that accompany dementia. The aim of the current study is to test if personalized one-to-one interaction activities based on Montessori principles will improve agitation, affect, and engagement more than a relevant control condition. We conducted a randomized crossover trial in nine residential facilities in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia (n = 44). Personalized one-to-one activities that were delivered using Montessori principles were compared with a non-personalized activity to control for the non-specific benefits of one-to-one interaction. Participants were observed 30 minutes before, during, and after the sessions. The presence or absence of a selected physically non-aggressive behavior was noted in every minute, together with the predominant type of affect and engagement. Behavior counts fell considerably during both the Montessori and control sessions relative to beforehand. During Montessori activities, the amount of time spend actively engaged was double compared to during the control condition and participants displayed more positive affect and interest as well. Participants with no fluency in English (all from non-English speaking backgrounds) showed a significantly larger reduction in agitation during the Montessori than control sessions. Our results show that even non-personalized social contact can assist in settling agitated residents. Tailoring activities to residents' needs and capabilities elicit more positive interactions and are especially suitable for people who have lost fluency in the language spoken predominantly in their residential facility. Future studies could explore implementation by family members and volunteers to avoid demands on facilities' resources. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry - ACTRN12609000564257.

The Relations among Oral and Silent Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Middle School: Implications for Identification and Instruction of Students with Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denton, Carolyn A.; Barth, Amy E.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Wexler, Jade; Vaughn, Sharon; Cirino, Paul T.; Romain, Melissa; Francis, David J.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among oral and silent reading fluency and reading comprehension for students in Grades 6 to 8 (n = 1,421) and the use of fluency scores to identify middle school students who are at risk for failure on a high-stakes reading test. Results indicated moderate positive relations between…

Using video self- and peer modeling to facilitate reading fluency in children with learning disabilities.

PubMed

Decker, Martha M; Buggey, Tom

2014-01-01

The authors compared the effects of video self-modeling and video peer modeling on oral reading fluency of elementary students with learning disabilities. A control group was also included to gauge general improvement due to reading instruction and familiarity with researchers. The results indicated that both interventions resulted in improved fluency. Students in both experimental groups improved their reading fluency. Two students in the self-modeling group made substantial and immediate gains beyond any of the other students. Discussion is included that focuses on the importance that positive imagery can have on student performance and the possible applications of both forms of video modeling with students who have had negative experiences in reading.

Some Implications of a Behavioral Analysis of Verbal Behavior for Logic and Mathematics

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The evident power and utility of the formal models of logic and mathematics pose a puzzle: Although such models are instances of verbal behavior, they are also essentialistic. But behavioral terms, and indeed all products of selection contingencies, are intrinsically variable and in this respect appear to be incommensurate with essentialism. A distinctive feature of verbal contingencies resolves this puzzle: The control of behavior by the nonverbal environment is often mediated by the verbal behavior of others, and behavior under control of verbal stimuli is blind to the intrinsic variability of the stimulating environment. Thus, words and sentences serve as filters of variability and thereby facilitate essentialistic model building and the formal structures of logic, mathematics, and science. Autoclitic frames, verbal chains interrupted by interchangeable variable terms, are ubiquitous in verbal behavior. Variable terms can be substituted in such frames almost without limit, a feature fundamental to formal models. Consequently, our fluency with autoclitic frames fosters generalization to formal models, which in turn permit deduction and other kinds of logical and mathematical inference. PMID:28018038

In search of methods enhancing fluency in reading: An examination of the relations between time constraints and processes of reading in readers of German.

PubMed

Bar-Kochva, Irit; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2015-12-01

The attainment of fluency in reading is a major difficulty for reading-disabled people. Manipulations applied on the presentation of texts, leading to "on-line" effects on reading (i.e., while texts are manipulated), are one direction of examinations in search of methods affecting reading. The imposing of time constraints, by deleting one letter after the other from texts presented on a computer screen, has been established as such a method. In an attempt to further understand its nature, we tested the relations between time constraints and processes of reading: phonological decoding of small orthogrpahic units and the addressing of orthographic representations from the mental lexicon. We also examined whether the type of orthogrpahic unit deleted (lexical, sublexical, or nonlexical unit) has any additional effect. Participants were German fifth graders with (n = 29) or without (n = 34) reading disability. Time constraints enhanced fluency in reading in both groups, and to a similar extent, across conditions. Comprehension was unimpaired. These results place the very principle of time constraints, regardless of the orthographic unit manipulated, as a critical factor affecting fluency in reading. However, phonological decoding explained a significant amount of variance in fluency in reading across all conditions in reading-disabled children, whereas the addressing of orthographic representations was the consistent predictor of fluency in reading in regular readers. These results indicate a qualitative difference in the processes explaining the variance in fluency in reading in regular and reading-disabled readers and suggest that time constraints might not have an effect on the relations between these processes and reading performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Functional abnormalities in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during a semantic fluency task, and their association with thought disorder in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Marumo, Kohei; Takizawa, Ryu; Kinou, Masaru; Kawasaki, Shingo; Kawakubo, Yuki; Fukuda, Masato; Kasai, Kiyoto

2014-01-15

Thought disorder is one of the primary symptoms in schizophrenia, yet the neural correlates and related semantic processing abnormalities remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between functional prefrontal abnormalities and thought disorder in schizophrenia using 2 types of verbal fluency tasks: the letter fluency task (LFT) and the category fluency task (CFT). Fifty-six adult patients with schizophrenia and 56 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and IQ participated in the study. During completion of the 2 types of verbal fluency tasks, we measured oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentration ([oxy-Hb] and [deoxy-Hb]) signal changes over a wide area of the bilateral prefrontal cortex, using a 52-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system. Thought disorder scores were evaluated using the positive and negative syndrome scale. CFT performance was significantly higher than LFT performance in both groups, while there was no significant difference in any prefrontal NIRS signal changes between the 2 tasks in either group. In both versions of verbal fluency task, healthy controls exhibited a significantly greater NIRS signal change than did patients with schizophrenia. On the CFT only, left ventrolateral prefrontal NIRS [deoxy-Hb] signals were significantly associated with thought disorder scores in patients with schizophrenia. Our results suggest that left ventrolateral prefrontal abnormalities in category fluency might be related to thought disorder in schizophrenia. This could lead to an improved understanding of the neural mechanisms within the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex involved in mediating semantic processing, as well as the relationship between semantic processing abnormalities and thought disorder in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rhetorical features facilitate prosodic processing while handicapping ease of semantic comprehension.

PubMed

Menninghaus, Winfried; Bohrn, Isabel C; Knoop, Christine A; Kotz, Sonja A; Schlotz, Wolff; Jacobs, Arthur M

2015-10-01

Studies on rhetorical features of language have reported both enhancing and adverse effects on ease of processing. We hypothesized that two explanations may account for these inconclusive findings. First, the respective gains and losses in ease of processing may apply to different dimensions of language processing (specifically, prosodic and semantic processing) and different types of fluency (perceptual vs. conceptual) and may well allow for an integration into a more comprehensive framework. Second, the effects of rhetorical features may be sensitive to interactions with other rhetorical features; employing a feature separately or in combination with others may then predict starkly different effects. We designed a series of experiments in which we expected the same rhetorical features of the very same sentences to exert adverse effects on semantic (conceptual) fluency and enhancing effects on prosodic (perceptual) fluency. We focused on proverbs that each employ three rhetorical features: rhyme, meter, and brevitas (i.e., artful shortness). The presence of these target features decreased ease of conceptual fluency (semantic comprehension) while enhancing perceptual fluency as reflected in beauty and succinctness ratings that were mainly driven by prosodic features. The rhetorical features also predicted choices for persuasive purposes, yet only for the sentence versions featuring all three rhetorical features; the presence of only one or two rhetorical features had an adverse effect on the choices made. We suggest that the facilitating effects of a combination of rhyme, meter, and rhetorical brevitas on perceptual (prosodic) fluency overcompensated for their adverse effects on conceptual (semantic) fluency, thus resulting in a total net gain both in processing ease and in choices for persuasive purposes. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Working Memory Influences Processing Speed and Reading Fluency in ADHD

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Lisa A.; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B.; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Denckla, Martha B.; Mahone, E. Mark

2012-01-01

Processing speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This “slowing” in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the “processing” speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency, and reduced processing speed—driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed “processing” speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory, but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intra-subject variability. Further, “processing” speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally-mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally-mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus. PMID:21287422

Working memory influences processing speed and reading fluency in ADHD.

PubMed

Jacobson, Lisa A; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Denckla, Martha B; Mahone, E Mark

2011-01-01

Processing-speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This "slowing" in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the "processing" speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14 years, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency and reduced processing speed-driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed "processing" speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intrasubject variability. Further, "processing" speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus.

Increased subcortical neural activity among HIV+ individuals during a lexical retrieval task.

PubMed

Thames, April D; Sayegh, Philip; Terashima, Kevin; Foley, Jessica M; Cho, Andrew; Arentoft, Alyssa; Hinkin, Charles H; Bookheimer, Susan Y

2016-08-01

Deficits in lexical retrieval, present in approximately 40% of HIV+ patients, are thought to reflect disruptions to frontal-striatal functions and may worsen with immunosuppression. Coupling frontal-striatal tasks such as lexical retrieval with functional neuroimaging may help delineate the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying HIV-associated neurological dysfunction. We examined whether HIV infection confers brain functional changes during lexical access and retrieval. It was expected that HIV+ individuals would demonstrate greater brain activity in frontal-subcortical regions despite minimal differences between groups on neuropsychological testing. Within the HIV+ sample, we examined associations between indices of immunosuppression (recent and nadir CD4+ count) and task-related signal change in frontostriatal structures. Method16 HIV+ participants and 12 HIV- controls underwent fMRI while engaged in phonemic/letter and semantic fluency tasks. Participants also completed standardized measures of verbal fluency HIV status groups performed similarly on phonemic and semantic fluency tasks prior to being scanned. fMRI results demonstrated activation differences during the phonemic fluency task as a function of HIV status, with HIV+ individuals demonstrating significantly greater activation in BG structures than HIV- individuals. There were no significant differences in frontal brain activation between HIV status groups during the phonemic fluency task, nor were there significant brain activation differences during the semantic fluency task. Within the HIV+ group, current CD4+ count, though not nadir, was positively correlated with increased activity in the inferior frontal gyrus and basal ganglia. During phonemic fluency performance, HIV+ patients recruit subcortical structures to a greater degree than HIV- controls despite similar task performances suggesting that fMRI may be sensitive to neurocompromise before overt cognitive declines can be detected. Among HIV+ individuals, reduced activity in the frontal-subcortical structures was associated with lower CD4+ count. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Numerical Capacities as Domain-Specific Predictors beyond Early Mathematics Learning: A Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Reigosa-Crespo, Vivian; González-Alemañy, Eduardo; León, Teresa; Torres, Rosario; Mosquera, Raysil; Valdés-Sosa, Mitchell

2013-01-01

The first aim of the present study was to investigate whether numerical effects (Numerical Distance Effect, Counting Effect and Subitizing Effect) are domain-specific predictors of mathematics development at the end of elementary school by exploring whether they explain additional variance of later mathematics fluency after controlling for the effects of general cognitive skills, focused on nonnumerical aspects. The second aim was to address the same issues but applied to achievement in mathematics curriculum that requires solutions to fluency in calculation. These analyses assess whether the relationship found for fluency are generalized to mathematics content beyond fluency in calculation. As a third aim, the domain specificity of the numerical effects was examined by analyzing whether they contribute to the development of reading skills, such as decoding fluency and reading comprehension, after controlling for general cognitive skills and phonological processing. Basic numerical capacities were evaluated in children of 3rd and 4th grades (n=49). Mathematics and reading achievements were assessed in these children one year later. Results showed that the size of the Subitizing Effect was a significant domain-specific predictor of fluency in calculation and also in curricular mathematics achievement, but not in reading skills, assessed at the end of elementary school. Furthermore, the size of the Counting Effect also predicted fluency in calculation, although this association only approached significance. These findings contrast with proposals that the core numerical competencies measured by enumeration will bear little relationship to mathematics achievement. We conclude that basic numerical capacities constitute domain-specific predictors and that they are not exclusively “start-up” tools for the acquisition of Mathematics; but they continue modulating this learning at the end of elementary school. PMID:24255710

Numerical capacities as domain-specific predictors beyond early mathematics learning: a longitudinal study.

PubMed

Reigosa-Crespo, Vivian; González-Alemañy, Eduardo; León, Teresa; Torres, Rosario; Mosquera, Raysil; Valdés-Sosa, Mitchell

2013-01-01

The first aim of the present study was to investigate whether numerical effects (Numerical Distance Effect, Counting Effect and Subitizing Effect) are domain-specific predictors of mathematics development at the end of elementary school by exploring whether they explain additional variance of later mathematics fluency after controlling for the effects of general cognitive skills, focused on nonnumerical aspects. The second aim was to address the same issues but applied to achievement in mathematics curriculum that requires solutions to fluency in calculation. These analyses assess whether the relationship found for fluency are generalized to mathematics content beyond fluency in calculation. As a third aim, the domain specificity of the numerical effects was examined by analyzing whether they contribute to the development of reading skills, such as decoding fluency and reading comprehension, after controlling for general cognitive skills and phonological processing. Basic numerical capacities were evaluated in children of 3(rd) and 4(th) grades (n=49). Mathematics and reading achievements were assessed in these children one year later. Results showed that the size of the Subitizing Effect was a significant domain-specific predictor of fluency in calculation and also in curricular mathematics achievement, but not in reading skills, assessed at the end of elementary school. Furthermore, the size of the Counting Effect also predicted fluency in calculation, although this association only approached significance. These findings contrast with proposals that the core numerical competencies measured by enumeration will bear little relationship to mathematics achievement. We conclude that basic numerical capacities constitute domain-specific predictors and that they are not exclusively "start-up" tools for the acquisition of Mathematics; but they continue modulating this learning at the end of elementary school.

Examining the Latent Structure of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System.

PubMed

Karr, Justin E; Hofer, Scott M; Iverson, Grant L; Garcia-Barrera, Mauricio A

2018-05-04

The current study aimed to determine whether the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) taps into three executive function factors (inhibition, shifting, fluency) and to assess the relationship between these factors and tests of executive-related constructs less often measured in latent variable research: reasoning, abstraction, and problem solving. Participants included 425 adults from the D-KEFS standardization sample (20-49 years old; 50.1% female; 70.1% White). Eight alternative measurement models were compared based on model fit, with test scores assigned a priori to three factors: inhibition (Color-Word Interference, Tower), shifting (Trail Making, Sorting, Design Fluency), and fluency (Verbal/Design Fluency). The Twenty Questions, Word Context, and Proverb Tests were predicted in separate structural models. The three-factor model fit the data well (CFI = 0.938; RMSEA = 0.047), although a two-factor model, with shifting and fluency merged, fit similarly well (CFI = 0.929; RMSEA = 0.048). A bifactor model fit best (CFI = 0.977; RMSEA = 0.032) and explained the most variance in shifting indicators, but rarely converged among 5,000 bootstrapped samples. When the three first-order factors simultaneously predicted the criterion variables, only shifting was uniquely predictive (p < .05; R2 = 0.246-0.408). The bifactor significantly predicted all three criterion variables (p < .001; R2 = 0.141-242). Results supported a three-factor D-KEFS model (i.e., inhibition, shifting, and fluency), although shifting and fluency were highly related (r = 0.696). The bifactor showed superior fit, but converged less often than other models. Shifting best predicted tests of reasoning, abstraction, and problem solving. These findings support the validity of D-KEFS scores for measuring executive-related constructs and provide a framework through which clinicians can interpret D-KEFS results.

The Effects of Pre-Task, On-Line, and Both Pre-Task and On-Line Planning on Fluency, Complexity, and Accuracy--The Case of Iranian EFL Learners' Written Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piri, Faramarz; Barati, Hossein; Ketabi, Saeed

2012-01-01

Previous studies on the effect of planning on language production have revealed that planning does have a positive effect on language performance in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy. The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of pre-task, on-line, and both pre-task and on-line planning on fluency, accuracy, and…

The Relations among L1 (Spanish) Literacy Skills, L2 (English) Language, L2 Text Reading Fluency, and L2 Reading Comprehension for Spanish-Speaking ELL First Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk

2012-01-01

We investigated the relations of L2 (i.e., English) oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, word reading automaticity, oral language skills, and L1 literacy skills (i.e., Spanish) to L2 reading comprehension for Spanish-speaking English language learners in the first grade (N = 150). An analysis was conducted for the entire sample as well as…

The influence of the parents' educational level on the development of executive functions.

PubMed

Ardila, Alfredo; Rosselli, Monica; Matute, Esmeralda; Guajardo, Soledad

2005-01-01

Information about the influence of educational variables on the development of executive functions is limited. The aim of this study was to analyze the relation of the parents' educational level and the type of school the child attended (private or public school) to children's executive functioning test performance. Six hundred twenty-two participants, ages 5 to 14 years (276 boys, 346 girls) were selected from Colombia and Mexico and grouped according to three variables: age (5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, and 13-14 years), gender (boys and girls), and school type (private and public). Eight executive functioning tests taken from the Evaluacion Neuropsicologica Infantil; Matute, Rosselli, Ardila, & Ostrosky, (in press) were individually administered: Semantic Verbal Fluency, Phonemic Verbal Fluency, Semantic Graphic Fluency, Nonsemantic Graphic Fluency, Matrices, Similarities, Card Sorting, and the Mexican Pyramid. There was a significant effect of age on all the test scores and a significant effect of type of school attended on all but Semantic Verbal Fluency and Nonsemantic Graphic Fluency tests. Most children's test scores, particularly verbal test scores, significantly correlated with parents' educational level. Our results suggest that the differences in test scores between the public and private school children depended on some conditions existing outside the school, such as the parents' level of education. Implications of these findings for the understanding of the influence of environmental factors on the development of executive functions are presented.

A 'curse of knowledge' in the absence of knowledge? People misattribute fluency when judging how common knowledge is among their peers.

PubMed

Birch, Susan A J; Brosseau-Liard, Patricia E; Haddock, Taeh; Ghrear, Siba E

2017-09-01

Knowledge can be a curse: Once we have acquired a particular item of knowledge it tends to bias, or contaminate, our ability to reason about a less informed perspective (referred to as the 'curse of knowledge' or 'hindsight bias'). The mechanisms underlying the curse of knowledge bias are a matter of great import and debate. We highlight two mechanisms that have been proposed to underlie this bias-inhibition and fluency misattribution. Explanations that involve inhibition argue that people have difficulty fully inhibiting or suppressing the content of their knowledge when trying to reason about a less informed perspective. Explanations that involve fluency misattribution focus on the feelings of fluency with which the information comes to mind and the tendency to misattribute the subjective feelings of fluency associated with familiar items to the objective ease or foreseeability of that information. Three experiments with a total of 359 undergraduate students provide the first evidence that fluency misattribution processes are sufficient to induce the curse of knowledge bias. These results add to the literature on the many manifestations of the curse of knowledge bias and the many types of source misattributions, by revealing their role in people's judgements of how common, or widespread, one's knowledge is. The implications of these results for cognitive science and social cognition are discussed. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Two mechanisms of constructive recollection: Perceptual recombination and conceptual fluency.

PubMed

Doss, Manoj K; Bluestone, Maximilian R; Gallo, David A

2016-11-01

Recollection is constructive and prone to distortion, but the mechanisms through which recollections can become embellished with rich yet illusory details are still debated. According to the conceptual fluency hypothesis, abstract semantic or conceptual activation increases the familiarity of a nonstudied event, causing one to falsely attribute imagined features to actual perception. In contrast, according to the perceptual recombination hypothesis, details from actually perceived events are partially recollected and become erroneously bound to a nonstudied event, again causing a detailed yet false recollection. Here, we report the first experiments aimed at disentangling these 2 mechanisms. Participants imagined pictures of common objects, and then they saw an actual picture of some of the imagined objects. We next presented misinformation associated with these studied items, designed to increase conceptual fluency (i.e., semantically related words) or perceptual recombination (i.e., perceptually similar picture fragments). Finally, we tested recollection for the originally seen pictures using verbal labels as retrieval cues. Consistent with conceptual fluency, processing-related words increased false recollection of pictures that were never seen, and consistent with perceptual recombination, processing picture fragments further increased false recollection. We also found that conceptual fluency was more short-lived than perceptual recombination, further dissociating these 2 mechanisms. These experiments provide strong evidence that conceptual fluency and perceptual recombination independently contribute to the constructive aspects of recollection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional verbal fluency: a new task on emotion and executive function interaction.

PubMed

Sass, Katharina; Fetz, Karolina; Oetken, Sarah; Habel, Ute; Heim, Stefan

2013-09-01

The present study introduces "Emotional Verbal Fluency" as a novel (partially computerized) task, which is aimed to investigate the interaction between emotionally loaded words and executive functions. Verbal fluency tasks are thought to measure executive functions but the interaction with emotional aspects is hardly investigated. In the current study, a group of healthy subjects (n = 21, mean age 25 years, 76% females) were asked to generate items that are either part of a semantic category (e.g., plants, toys, vehicles; standard semantic verbal fluency) or can trigger the emotions joy, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. The results of the task revealed no differences between performance on semantic and emotional categories, suggesting a comparable task difficulty for healthy subjects. Hence, these first results on the comparison between semantic and emotional verbal fluency seem to highlight that both might be suitable for examining executive functioning. However, an interaction was found between the category type and repetition (first vs. second sequence of the same category) with larger performance decrease for semantic in comparison to emotional categories. Best performance overall was found for the emotional category "joy" suggesting a positivity bias in healthy subjects. To conclude, emotional verbal fluency is a promising approach to investigate emotional components in an executive task, which may stimulate further research, especially in psychiatric patients who suffer from emotional as well as cognitive deficits.

The Relationship Between a Silent Reading Fluency Instructional Protocol on Students’ Reading Comprehension and Achievement in an Urban School Setting

PubMed Central

Rasinski, Timothy; Samuels, S. Jay; Hiebert, Elfrieda; Petscher, Yaacov; Feller, Karen

2015-01-01

Reading fluency has been identified as a key component in effective literacy instruction (National Reading Panel, 2000). Instruction in reading fluency has been shown to lead to improvements in reading achievement. Reading fluency instruction is most commonly associated with guided repeated oral reading instruction. In the present retrospective study we examine the effects of a computer-based silent reading fluency instructional system called Reading Plus (Taylor Associates, Winooski, Vermont, USA) on the reading comprehension and overall reading achievement of a large corpus of students in an urban school setting. Findings indicate that the program resulted in positive, substantial, and significant improvements in reading comprehension and overall reading achievement on a criterion referenced reading test for Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 and on a norm-referenced test of reading achievement for Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10. Moreover, mean gains made by students in the Reading Plus intervention were greater than mean gains for all students at the state and district level. The findings were generally positive for all subpopulations studied, including special education and regular education students. Qualitative reports from teachers who participated in the study were also supportive of the program. Implications for the study are explored for particular subgroups of students and for the role of fluency instruction with struggling adolescent readers. PMID:26347186

Using TAGteach to improve the proficiency of dance movements.

PubMed

Quinn, Mallory J; Miltenberger, Raymond G; Fogel, Victoria A

2015-01-01

Behavioral research to enhance sports performance has been conducted in numerous sports domains and often involves feedback from the coach to the student. One promising form of feedback is the use of an acoustical stimulus such as a clicker to provide more immediate feedback. Similar to clicker training with animals, acoustical stimuli are used with humans to reinforce desired behavior in a procedure called TAGteach, which involves using a clicker as a conditioned reinforcer in training. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of TAGteach, implemented by dance teachers, to increase the fluency of 3 dance movements in a multiple baseline design across behaviors with 4 students of dance. Target behaviors included a turn, kick, and leap. The targeted dance movements remained at relatively low levels of performance during baseline and improved for each participant after the introduction of the TAGteach intervention. Implications for future research are discussed. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Affect intensity and processing fluency of deterrents.

PubMed

Holman, Andrei

2013-01-01

The theory of emotional intensity (Brehm, 1999) suggests that the intensity of affective states depends on the magnitude of their current deterrents. Our study investigated the role that fluency--the subjective experience of ease of information processing--plays in the emotional intensity modulations as reactions to deterrents. Following an induction phase of good mood, we manipulated both the magnitude of deterrents (using sets of photographs with pre-tested potential to instigate an emotion incompatible with the pre-existent affective state--pity) and their processing fluency (normal vs. enhanced through subliminal priming). Current affective state and perception of deterrents were then measured. In the normal processing conditions, the results revealed the cubic effect predicted by the emotional intensity theory, with the initial affective state being replaced by the one appropriate to the deterrent only in participants exposed to the high magnitude deterrence. In the enhanced fluency conditions the emotional intensity pattern was drastically altered; also, the replacement of the initial affective state occurred at a lower level of deterrence magnitude (moderate instead of high), suggesting the strengthening of deterrence emotional impact by enhanced fluency.

False fame prevented: avoiding fluency effects without judgmental correction.

PubMed

Topolinski, Sascha; Strack, Fritz

2010-05-01

Three studies show a way to prevent fluency effects independently of judgmental correction strategies by identifying and procedurally blocking the sources of fluency variations, which are assumed to be embodied in nature. For verbal stimuli, covert pronunciations are assumed to be the crucial source of fluency gains. As a consequence, blocking such pronunciation simulations through a secondary oral motor task decreased the false-fame effect for repeatedly presented names of actors (Experiment 1) as well as prevented increases in trust due to repetition for brand names and names of shares in the stock market (Experiment 2). Extending this evidence beyond repeated exposure, we demonstrated that blocking oral motor simulations also prevented fluency effects of word pronunciation on judgments of hazardousness (Experiment 3). Concerning the realm of judgment correction, this procedural blocking of (biasing) associative processes is a decontamination method not considered before in the literature, because it is independent of exposure control, mood, motivation, and post hoc correction strategies. The present results also have implications for applied issues, such as advertising and investment decisions. 2010 APA, all rights reserved

The limited use of the fluency heuristic: Converging evidence across different procedures.

PubMed

Pohl, Rüdiger F; Erdfelder, Edgar; Michalkiewicz, Martha; Castela, Marta; Hilbig, Benjamin E

2016-10-01

In paired comparisons based on which of two objects has the larger criterion value, decision makers could use the subjectively experienced difference in retrieval fluency of the objects as a cue. According to the fluency heuristic (FH) theory, decision makers use fluency-as indexed by recognition speed-as the only cue for pairs of recognized objects, and infer that the object retrieved more speedily has the larger criterion value (ignoring all other cues and information). Model-based analyses, however, have previously revealed that only a small portion of such inferences are indeed based on fluency alone. In the majority of cases, other information enters the decision process. However, due to the specific experimental procedures, the estimates of FH use are potentially biased: Some procedures may have led to an overestimated and others to an underestimated, or even to actually reduced, FH use. In the present article, we discuss and test the impacts of such procedural variations by reanalyzing 21 data sets. The results show noteworthy consistency across the procedural variations revealing low FH use. We discuss potential explanations and implications of this finding.

Evaluating the Impact of Feedback on Elementary Aged Students’ Fluency Growth in Written Expression: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Truckenmiller, Adrea J.; Eckert, Tanya L.; Codding, Robin S.; Petscher, Yaacov

2016-01-01

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to evaluate elementary-aged students’ writing fluency growth in response to (a) instructional practices, (b) sex differences, and (c) student’s initial level of writing fluency. Third-grade students (n=133) in three urban elementary schools were randomly assigned to either an individualized performance feedback condition (n=46), a practice-only condition (i.e., weekly writing practice; n = 39), or an instructional control condition (n = 48) for 8 weeks. Findings included support for use of performance feedback as an instructional component in general education classrooms (Hedges’ g = 0.66), whereas simple practice with curriculum-based measurement in written expression did not produce growth significantly greater than standard instructional practices. The hypothesis that girls write significantly more than boys was supported. However, girls and boys did not differ in their rate of growth. Finally, students’ initial risk status in writing fluency did not differentially predict growth in writing fluency over the course of the study. Implications for incorporating feedback as a basic component of intervention in writing are discussed. PMID:25432270

The ABCs of Math: A Genetic Analysis of Mathematics and Its Links With Reading Ability and General Cognitive Ability

PubMed Central

Hart, Sara A.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Thompson, Lee A.; Plomin, Robert

2009-01-01

The goal of this first major report from the Western Reserve Reading Project Math component is to explore the etiology of the relationship among tester-administered measures of mathematics ability, reading ability, and general cognitive ability. Data are available on 314 pairs of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins analyzed across 5 waves of assessment. Univariate analyses provide a range of estimates of genetic (h2 = .00 –.63) and shared (c2 = .15–.52) environmental influences across math calculation, fluency, and problem solving measures. Multivariate analyses indicate genetic overlap between math problem solving with general cognitive ability and reading decoding, whereas math fluency shares significant genetic overlap with reading fluency and general cognitive ability. Further, math fluency has unique genetic influences. In general, math ability has shared environmental overlap with general cognitive ability and decoding. These results indicate that aspects of math that include problem solving have different genetic and environmental influences than math calculation. Moreover, math fluency, a timed measure of calculation, is the only measured math ability with unique genetic influences. PMID:20157630

Verbal fluency, naming and verbal comprehension: three aspects of language as predictors of cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Maseda, Ana; Lodeiro-Fernández, Leire; Lorenzo-López, Laura; Núñez-Naveira, Laura; Balo, Aránzazu; Millán-Calenti, Jose C

2014-01-01

To establish the possible relationship among three components of language (verbal fluency, naming and comprehension) and cognitive impairment as well as to determine the usefulness of language assessment tests to predict or monitor the development of cognitive impairment. A comparative, descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed on 82 subjects ≥ 65 years of age who were cognitively assessed with the Mini Mental State Examination and were divided into two groups: Group A comprised of subjects classified as levels 1, 2 and 3 on the Reisberg's Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) and group B comprised of subjects at levels 4 and 5 of the GDS. Language skills were assessed by the Verbal Fluency Test, Boston Naming Test and Token Test. An inverse relationship between performance on language tests and cognitive impairment level was observed with a more pronounced effect observed on fluency and comprehension tests. Language assessments, especially fluency and comprehension, were good indicators of cognitive impairment. The use of these assessments as predictors of the degree of cognitive impairment is discussed in-depth.

Typography and color: effects of salience and fluency on conscious recollective experience.

PubMed

Wehr, Thomas; Wippich, Werner

2004-12-01

Within one experiment the central assumptions of the distinctiveness/fluency account of recollective experience were tested and contrasted with predictions of processing theory. To manipulate perceptual salience, the typography of words was varied. Effects of conceptual salience were induced by a variation of word color. In the study phase participants generated different word or object images according to presented words. To manipulate perceptual and conceptual fluency one test group underwent a priming procedure in the test phase, consisting of a recognition test, whereby some primes were identical to the target words typographically or by color and others were not. Additionally, all participants were asked to make judgments of recollective experience (remember, know, guess) after the old/new decisions. The results of the data analyses confirm the distinctiveness/fluency account. Words written in an unusual typography or color were judged significantly more often as "remembered" than normal words. The priming procedure uncovered some effects of fluency on reaction times: old/new decisions took less time if prime and target words were perceptually or conceptually identical.

Off the top of my head: Malleability and stability in natural categories.

PubMed

Palma, Tomás A; Santos, Ana Sofia; Garcia-Marques, Leonel

2018-04-01

Previous research has found that category representations are highly malleable knowledge structures, varying widely across different contexts and individuals. However, it has also been found that such malleability does not apply equally to all types of category information. The present research further investigates the representational malleability versus stability of natural taxonomic categories. Using perceptual fluency as means to induce malleability, we explored whether malleability is moderated by the degree of typicality of category information. In the first experiment, we found that fluency-based malleability only occurs for non-typical category information. In follow-up experiments, we investigated the boundary conditions under which such fluency-based malleability occurs. Namely, in Experiment 2, we showed that the effect of fluency on non-typical features disappeared when there is a sensory modality mismatch between study and test phases. Finally, in Experiment 3, we demonstrated that this effect reappears in the modality mismatch condition when participants are given a response deadline. The implications of these findings to current theories of category representation and the perceptual fluency literature are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Unveiling the truth: warnings reduce the repetition-based truth effect.

PubMed

Nadarevic, Lena; Aßfalg, André

2017-07-01

Typically, people are more likely to consider a previously seen or heard statement as true compared to a novel statement. This repetition-based "truth effect" is thought to rely on fluency-truth attributions as the underlying cognitive mechanism. In two experiments, we tested the nature of the fluency-attribution mechanism by means of warning instructions, which informed participants about the truth effect and asked them to prevent it. In Experiment 1, we instructed warned participants to consider whether a statement had already been presented in the experiment to avoid the truth effect. However, warnings did not significantly reduce the truth effect. In Experiment 2, we introduced control questions and reminders to ensure that participants understood the warning instruction. This time, warning reduced, but did not eliminate the truth effect. Assuming that the truth effect relies on fluency-truth attributions, this finding suggests that warned participants could control their attributions but did not disregard fluency altogether when making truth judgments. Further, we found no evidence that participants overdiscount the influence of fluency on their truth judgments.

The medium helps the message: Early sensitivity to auditory fluency in children’s endorsement of statements

PubMed Central

Bernard, Stéphane; Proust, Joëlle; Clément, Fabrice

2014-01-01

Recently, a growing number of studies have investigated the cues used by children to selectively accept testimony. In parallel, several studies with adults have shown that the fluency with which information is provided influences message evaluation: adults evaluate fluent information as more credible than dysfluent information. It is therefore plausible that the fluency of a message could also influence children’s endorsement of statements. Three experiments were designed to test this hypothesis with 3- to 5-year-olds where the auditory fluency of a message was manipulated by adding different levels of noise to recorded statements. The results show that 4 and 5-year-old children, but not 3-year-olds, are more likely to endorse a fluent statement than a dysfluent one. The present study constitutes a first attempt to show that fluency, i.e., ease of processing, is recruited as a cue to guide epistemic decision in children. An interpretation of the age difference based on the way cues are processed by younger children is suggested. PMID:25538662

Counterfactual Thinking Deficit in Huntington’s Disease

PubMed Central

Solca, Federica; Poletti, Barbara; Zago, Stefano; Crespi, Chiara; Sassone, Francesca; Lafronza, Annalisa; Maraschi, Anna Maria; Sassone, Jenny; Silani, Vincenzo; Ciammola, Andrea

2015-01-01

Background and Objective Counterfactual thinking (CFT) refers to the generation of mental simulations of alternatives to past events, actions and outcomes. CFT is a pervasive cognitive feature in every-day life and is closely related to decision-making, planning and problem-solving – all of which are cognitive processes linked to unimpaired frontal lobe functioning. Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor, behavioral and cognitive dysfunctions. Because an impairment in frontal and executive functions has been described in HD, we hypothesised that HD patients may have a CFT impairment. Methods Tests of spontaneous counterfactual thoughts and counterfactual-derived inferences were administered to 24 symptomatic HD patients and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Results Our results show a significant impairment in the spontaneous generation of CFT and low performance on the Counterfactual Inference Test (CIT) in HD patients. Low performance on the spontaneous CFT test significantly correlates with impaired attention abilities, verbal fluency and frontal lobe efficiency, as measured by Trail Making Test – Part A, Phonemic Verbal Fluency Test and FAB. Conclusions Spontaneous CFT and the use of this type of reasoning are impaired in HD patients. This deficit may be related to frontal lobe dysfunction, which is a hallmark of HD. Because CFT has a pervasive role in patients’ daily lives regarding their planning, decision making and problem solving skills, cognitive rehabilitation may improve HD patients’ ability to analyse current behaviors and future actions. PMID:26070155

[Trajectories of aging in a sample of elderly people: a longitudinal study].

PubMed

Navarro-González, Elena; Calero, María Dolores; Becerra-Reina, Dolores

2015-01-01

The present study analyzes variables associated with different trajectories of aging, and the level of cognitive functioning in a sample of older adults. Although this work is part of a broader investigation where initially 141 people were assessed, this paper only discusses the cognitive functioning and cognitive development of 64 older people who have been followed up four years after the initial assessment, with a mean age of 83.84 years (age range 65 to 99 years). In the initial assessment all the participants were assessed with a psychological battery that included the MEC, the verbal fluency task FVS, a sustained attention task, a working memory test, a Quality of Life Questionnaire, a scale of dependency, and the AVLT-Learning Potential test. In the follow up assessment, participants have been assessed with the MEC, the verbal fluency task FVS, and the verbal memory test AVLT-PA. the results show relatively stable trajectories of aging and that the variables that better predict cognitive evolution of the elderly are working memory and post-test score in the AVLT-LP. Despite the time lapse between the two assessments and the age of the participants, older adults have remained relatively stable in their cognitive functioning, which in part contradicts the idea that--especially after 80 years--a general decline of cognitive functioning occurs in old age. Copyright © 2014 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

123s and ABCs: developmental shifts in logarithmic-to-linear responding reflect fluency with sequence values.

PubMed

Hurst, Michelle; Monahan, K Leigh; Heller, Elizabeth; Cordes, Sara

2014-11-01

When placing numbers along a number line with endpoints 0 and 1000, children generally space numbers logarithmically until around the age of 7, when they shift to a predominantly linear pattern of responding. This developmental shift of responding on the number placement task has been argued to be indicative of a shift in the format of the underlying representation of number (Siegler & Opfer, ). In the current study, we provide evidence from both child and adult participants to suggest that performance on the number placement task may not reflect the structure of the mental number line, but instead is a function of the fluency (i.e. ease) with which the individual can work with the values in the sequence. In Experiment 1, adult participants respond logarithmically when placing numbers on a line with less familiar anchors (1639 to 2897), despite linear responding on control tasks with standard anchors involving a similar range (0 to 1287) and a similar numerical magnitude (2000 to 3000). In Experiment 2, we show a similar developmental shift in childhood from logarithmic to linear responding for a non-numerical sequence with no inherent magnitude (the alphabet). In conclusion, we argue that the developmental trend towards linear behavior on the number line task is a product of successful strategy use and mental fluency with the values of the sequence, resulting from familiarity with endpoints and increased knowledge about general ordering principles of the sequence.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg5Q2LIFk3M. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Transcranial low-level laser therapy improves brain mitochondrial function and cognitive impairment in D-galactose-induced aging mice.

PubMed

Salehpour, Farzad; Ahmadian, Nahid; Rasta, Seyed Hossein; Farhoudi, Mehdi; Karimi, Pouran; Sadigh-Eteghad, Saeed

2017-10-01

Mitochondrial function plays a key role in the aging-related cognitive impairment, and photoneuromodulation of mitochondria by transcranial low-level laser therapy (LLLT) may contribute to its improvement. This study focused on the transcranial LLLT effects on the D-galactose (DG)-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, and cognitive impairment in mice. For this purpose, red and near-infrared (NIR) laser wavelengths (660 and 810 nm) at 2 different fluencies (4 and 8 J/cm 2 ) at 10-Hz pulsed wave mode were administrated transcranially 3 d/wk in DG-received (500 mg/kg/subcutaneous) mice model of aging for 6 weeks. Spatial and episodic-like memories were assessed by the Barnes maze and What-Where-Which (WWWhich) tasks. Brain tissues were analyzed for mitochondrial function including active mitochondria, adenosine triphosphate, and reactive oxygen species levels, as well as membrane potential and cytochrome c oxidase activity. Apoptosis-related biomarkers, namely, Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3 were evaluated by Western blotting method. Laser treatments at wavelengths of 660 and 810 nm at 8 J/cm 2 attenuated DG-impaired spatial and episodic-like memories. Also, results showed an obvious improvement in the mitochondrial function aspects and modulatory effects on apoptotic markers in aged mice. However, same wavelengths at the fluency of 4 J/cm 2 had poor effect on the behavioral and molecular indexes in aging model. This data indicates that transcranial LLLT at both of red and NIR wavelengths at the fluency of 8 J/cm 2 has a potential to ameliorate aging-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, and cognitive impairment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural processing of overt word generation in healthy individuals: the effect of age and word knowledge.

PubMed

Nagels, Arne; Kircher, Tilo; Dietsche, Bruno; Backes, Heidelore; Marquetand, Justus; Krug, Axel

2012-07-16

Verbal fluency is a classical and widely used neuropsychological instrument to assess cognitive abilities. Results of previous studies indicate an influence on verbal fluency performance of both, age and word knowledge. So far, no imaging study has investigated the neural mechanisms underlying an age and word knowledge related decline on the quantitative verbal output in a highly demanding overt and continuous semantic fluency task. Fifty healthy volunteers (age 22-56 years, verbal IQ 95-143) overtly and continuously articulated words in response to ten visually presented semantic categories while BOLD signal was measured with fMRI. Verbal responses were recorded with an MRI compatible microphone and transcribed after the scanning session. The number of produced words as well as age, word knowledge and level of education was implemented in the design matrix enabling a separate analysis of these factors on both, neural responses and behavioral differences. There was a significant correlation of level of education and number of generated words, but no significant correlations of generated words and age or word knowledge were observed. On the neural level, a widespread network was found for the word production task as contrasted with the resting condition, encompassing the bilateral superior temporal gyri, the cerebellum and the SMA. An age related positive correlation was found in the bilateral inferior and middle frontal gyri, the anterior cingulate gyrus, the left precentral gyrus and the right insula. A lower word knowledge resulted in enhanced BOLD responses in the right superior temporal gyrus and the left superior frontal gyrus. Results are interpreted in terms of compensation mechanisms countervailing potential age and word knowledge related effects. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intervention Provided to Linguistically Diverse Middle School Students with Severe Reading Difficulties

PubMed Central

Denton, Carolyn A.; Wexler, Jade; Vaughn, Sharon; Bryan, Deanna

2012-01-01

This study investigated the effectiveness of a multicomponent reading intervention implemented with middle school students with severe reading difficulties, all of whom had received remedial and/or special education for several years with minimal response to intervention. Participants were 38 students in grades 6–8 who had severe deficits in word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Most were Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) with identified disabilities. Nearly all demonstrated severely limited oral vocabularies in English and, for ELLs, in both English and Spanish. Students were randomly assigned to receive the research intervention (n = 20) or typical instruction provided in their school’s remedial reading or special education classes (n = 18). Students in the treatment group received daily explicit and systematic small-group intervention for 40 minutes over 13 weeks, consisting of a modified version of a phonics-based remedial program augmented with English as a Second Language practices and instruction in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension strategies. Results indicated that treatment students did not demonstrate significantly higher outcomes in word recognition, comprehension, or fluency than students who received the school’s typical instruction and that neither group demonstrated significant growth over the course of the study. Significant correlations were found between scores on teachers’ ratings of students’ social skills and problem behaviors and posttest decoding and spelling scores, and between English oral vocabulary scores and scores in word identification and comprehension. The researchers hypothesize that middle school students with the most severe reading difficulties, particularly those who are ELLs and those with limited oral vocabularies, may require intervention of considerably greater intensity than that provided in this study. Further research directly addressing features of effective remediation for these students is needed. PMID:22736893

Retrieval, automaticity, vocabulary elaboration, orthography (RAVE-O): a comprehensive, fluency-based reading intervention program.

PubMed

Wolf, M; Miller, L; Donnelly, K

2000-01-01

The most important implication of the double-deficit hypothesis (Wolf & Bowers, in this issue) concerns a new emphasis on fluency and automaticity in intervention for children with developmental reading disabilities. The RAVE-O (Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary Elaboration, Orthography) program is an experimental, fluency-based approach to reading intervention that is designed to accompany a phonological analysis program. In an effort to address multiple possible sources of dysfluency in readers with disabilities, the program involves comprehensive emphases both on fluency in word attack, word identification, and comprehension and on automaticity in underlying componential processes (e.g., phonological, orthographic, semantic, and lexical retrieval skills). The goals, theoretical principles, and applied activities of the RAVE-O curriculum are described with particular stress on facilitating the development of rapid orthographic pattern recognition and on changing children's attitudes toward language.

Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities.

PubMed

Meisinger, Elizabeth B; Bloom, Juliana S; Hynd, George W

2010-06-01

The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. Participants were 50 children referred to a university-based clinic because of suspected reading problems and/or a prior diagnosis of dyslexia, where children completed a battery of standardized intellectual, reading achievement, and processing measures. Within this clinical sample, a group of children were identified that exhibited specific deficits in their reading fluency skills with concurrent deficits in rapid naming speed and reading comprehension. This group of children would not have been identified as having a reading disability according to assessment of single word reading skills alone, suggesting that it is essential to assess reading fluency in addition to word reading because failure to do so may result in the under-identification of children with reading disabilities.

The influence of inattention and rapid automatized naming on reading performance.

PubMed

Pham, Andy V; Fine, Jodene Goldenring; Semrud-Clikeman, Margaret

2011-04-01

The current study examined the relation between attention, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and reading fluency among typically developing children. A total of 104 third- and fourth-grade children (8-11 years of age) completed RAN measures consisting of four stimuli (letter, digit, color, and object) and an oral reading fluency measure from the Gray Oral Reading Test-Fourth Edition. Correlational and hierarchical regression analyses revealed that all four RAN stimuli, particularly letter RAN, were significant predictors of reading fluency. Additionally, parent and teacher ratings of inattention from the Swanson, Nolan and Pelham-Version Four rating scale predicted RAN after controlling for gender, working memory, and estimated IQ. Further analyses indicated that RAN performance mediated the relation between inattention and reading fluency. Results support the need to consider attentional variables when assessing reading performance, even among typically developing children.

Fluency and reading comprehension in students with reading difficulties.

PubMed

Nascimento, Tânia Augusto; Carvalho, Carolina Alves Ferreira de; Kida, Adriana de Souza Batista; Avila, Clara Regina Brandão de

2011-12-01

To characterize the performance of students with reading difficulties in decoding and reading comprehension tasks as well as to investigate the possible correlations between them. Sixty students (29 girls) from 3rd to 5th grades of public Elementary Schools were evaluated. Thirty students (Research Group - RG), ten from each grade, were nominated by their teachers as presenting evidences of learning disabilities. The other thirty students were indicated as good readers, and were matched by gender, age and grade to the RG, composing the Comparison Group (CG). All subjects were assessed regarding the parameters of reading fluency (rate and accuracy in words, pseudowords and text reading) and reading comprehension (reading level, number and type of ideas identified, and correct responses on multiple choice questions). The RG presented significantly lower scores than the CG in fluency and reading comprehension. Different patterns of positive and negative correlations, from weak to excellent, among the decoding and comprehension parameters were found in both groups. In the RG, low values of reading rate and accuracy were observed, which were correlated to low scores in comprehension and improvement in decoding, but not in comprehension, with grade increase. In CG, correlation was found between different fluency parameters, but none of them was correlated to the reading comprehension variables. Students with reading and writing difficulties show lower values of reading fluency and comprehension than good readers. Fluency and comprehension are correlated in the group with difficulties, showing that deficits in decoding influence reading comprehension, which does not improve with age increase.

Fluoxetine for persistent developmental stuttering.

PubMed

Kumar, Amardeep; Balan, Sabish

2007-01-01

Stuttering is a disturbance in the normal fluency and time patterning of speech. Developmental stuttering (DS), with or without associated psychiatric illness, is the most common form and includes all cases with gradual onset in childhood that are not the result of acquired brain damage. Persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) is DS that has not undergone spontaneous or speech therapy-induced remission. Adults in speech therapy behavioral programs will often show regression and even total relapse if they stop practicing. This case report deals with a patient of PDS who responded significantly to treatment with fluoxetine.

Working memory training and semantic structuring improves remembering future events, not past events.

PubMed

Richter, Kim Merle; Mödden, Claudia; Eling, Paul; Hildebrandt, Helmut

2015-01-01

Objectives. Memory training in combination with practice in semantic structuring and word fluency has been shown to improve memory performance. This study investigated the efficacy of a working memory training combined with exercises in semantic structuring and word fluency and examined whether training effects generalize to other cognitive tasks. Methods. In this double-blind randomized control study, 36 patients with memory impairments following brain damage were allocated to either the experimental or the active control condition, with both groups receiving 9 hours of therapy. The experimental group received a computer-based working memory training and exercises in word fluency and semantic structuring. The control group received the standard memory therapy provided in the rehabilitation center. Patients were tested on a neuropsychological test battery before and after therapy, resulting in composite scores for working memory; immediate, delayed, and prospective memory; word fluency; and attention. Results. The experimental group improved significantly in working memory and word fluency. The training effects also generalized to prospective memory tasks. No specific effect on episodic memory could be demonstrated. Conclusion. Combined treatment of working memory training with exercises in semantic structuring is an effective method for cognitive rehabilitation of organic memory impairment. © The Author(s) 2014.

A prospective study of cognitive fluency and originality in children exposed in utero to carbamazepine, lamotrigine, or valproate monotherapy.

PubMed

McVearry, Kelly M; Gaillard, William D; VanMeter, John; Meador, Kimford J

2009-12-01

To investigate the differential effects of fetal exposure to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on cognitive fluency and flexibility in a prospective sample of children. This substudy of the Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs investigation enrolled pregnant women with epilepsy on AED monotherapy (carbamazepine, lamotrigine, and valproate). Blinded to drug exposure, 54 children were tested for ability to generate ideas in terms of quantity (fluency/flexibility) and quality (originality). Forty-two children met inclusion criteria (mean age=4.2 years, SD=0.5) for statistical analyses of drug exposure group differences. Fluency was lower in the valproate group (mean=76.3, SD=7.53) versus the lamotrigine (mean=93.76, SD=13.5, ANOVA P<0.0015) and carbamazepine (mean=95.5, SD=18.1, ANOVA P<0.003) groups. Originality was lower in the valproate group (mean=84.2, SD=3.23) versus the lamotrigine (mean=103.1, SD=14.8, ANOVA P<0.002) and carbamazepine (mean=99.4, SD=17.1, ANOVA P<0.01) groups. These results were not explained by factors other than AED exposure. Children prenatally exposed to valproate demonstrate impaired fluency and originality compared with children exposed to lamotrigine and carbamazepine.

Executive functioning performance predicts subjective and physiological acute stress reactivity: preliminary results.

PubMed

Hendrawan, Donny; Yamakawa, Kaori; Kimura, Motohiro; Murakami, Hiroki; Ohira, Hideki

2012-06-01

Individual differences in baseline executive functioning (EF) capacities have been shown to predict state anxiety during acute stressor exposure. However, no previous studies have clearly demonstrated the relationship between EF and physiological measures of stress. The present study investigated the efficacy of several well-known EF tests (letter fluency, Stroop test, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) in predicting both subjective and physiological stress reactivity during acute psychosocial stress exposure. Our results show that letter fluency served as the best predictor for both types of reactivity. Specifically, the higher the letter fluency score, the lower the acute stress reactivity after controlling for the baseline stress response, as indicated by lower levels of state anxiety, negative mood, salivary cortisol, and skin conductance. Moreover, the predictive power of the letter fluency test remained significant for state anxiety and cortisol indices even after further adjustments for covariates by adding the body mass index (BMI) as a covariate. Thus, good EF performance, as reflected by high letter fluency scores, may dampen acute stress responses, which suggests that EF processes are directly associated with aspects of stress regulation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The relationship of global form and motion detection to reading fluency.

PubMed

Englund, Julia A; Palomares, Melanie

2012-08-15

Visual motion processing in typical and atypical readers has suggested aspects of reading and motion processing share a common cortical network rooted in dorsal visual areas. Few studies have examined the relationship between reading performance and visual form processing, which is mediated by ventral cortical areas. We investigated whether reading fluency correlates with coherent motion detection thresholds in typically developing children using random dot kinematograms. As a comparison, we also evaluated the correlation between reading fluency and static form detection thresholds. Results show that both dorsal and ventral visual functions correlated with components of reading fluency, but that they have different developmental characteristics. Motion coherence thresholds correlated with reading rate and accuracy, which both improved with chronological age. Interestingly, when controlling for non-verbal abilities and age, reading accuracy significantly correlated with thresholds for coherent form detection but not coherent motion detection in typically developing children. Dorsal visual functions that mediate motion coherence seem to be related maturation of broad cognitive functions including non-verbal abilities and reading fluency. However, ventral visual functions that mediate form coherence seem to be specifically related to accurate reading in typically developing children. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of Fluency and Speech in Two Families With High Incidences of Stuttering.

PubMed

Stager, Sheila V; Freeman, Frances J; Braun, Allen

2015-10-01

This study presents data from 2 families with high incidence of stuttering, comparing methods of phenotype assignment and exploring the presence of other fluency disorders and corresponding speech characteristics. Three methods for assigning phenotype of stuttering were used: self-identification, family identification, and expert identification. Agreement on which individuals were assigned by each of these methods was studied. Multiple measures of fluency and speech production were obtained. Self-reports and descriptions of blocking rather than self-identification as a person who stutters demonstrated the best agreement with expert identification of stuttering. Family identification showed poor agreement with both expert and self-identification of stuttering. Using binary categories of fluent or stuttering, 90% of individuals in 1 family were classified by expert consensus. Only 70% of the other family could be similarly categorized. Experts required 2 other categories, cluttering and other fluency disorders, to fully characterize dysfluency within this family. These 2 families also demonstrated differences in speech production. Some families with high incidence of stuttering may also have high incidence of other fluency disorders and other speech-production difficulties. This finding may have ramifications for genetic studies, including criteria for defining phenotype and collapsing data across multiple families.

A normative study of lexical verbal fluency in an educationally-diverse elderly population.

PubMed

Kim, Bong Jo; Lee, Cheol Soon; Oh, Byoung Hoon; Hong, Chang Hyung; Lee, Kang Soo; Son, Sang Joon; Han, Changsu; Park, Moon Ho; Jeong, Hyun-Ghang; Kim, Tae Hui; Park, Joon Hyuk; Kim, Ki Woong

2013-12-01

Lexical fluency tests are frequently used to assess language and executive function in clinical practice. We investigated the influences of age, gender, and education on lexical verbal fluency in an educationally-diverse, elderly Korean population and provided its' normative information. We administered the lexical verbal fluency test (LVFT) to 1676 community-dwelling, cognitively normal subjects aged 60 years or over. In a stepwise linear regression analysis, education (B=0.40, SE=0.02, standardized B=0.506) and age (B=-0.10, SE=0.01, standardized B=-0.15) had significant effects on LVFT scores (p<0.001), but gender did not (B=0.40, SE=0.02, standardized B=0.506, p>0.05). Education explained 28.5% of the total variance in LVFT scores, which was much larger than the variance explained by age (5.42%). Accordingly, we presented normative data of the LVFT stratified by age (60-69, 70-74, 75-79, and ≥80 years) and education (0-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, and ≥13 years). The LVFT norms should provide clinically useful data for evaluating elderly people and help improve the interpretation of verbal fluency tasks and allow for greater diagnostic accuracy.

Stuttering

MedlinePlus

... to use over a long period of time. Electronic devices Some people who stutter use electronic devices to help control fluency. For example, one ... in unison with another person. In some people, electronic devices may help improve fluency in a relatively ...

Semantic Pattern Analysis for Verbal Fluency Based Assessment of Neurological Disorders

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sukumar, Sreenivas R; Ainsworth, Keela C; Brown, Tyler C

In this paper, we present preliminary results of semantic pattern analysis of verbal fluency tests used for assessing cognitive psychological and neuropsychological disorders. We posit that recent advances in semantic reasoning and artificial intelligence can be combined to create a standardized computer-aided diagnosis tool to automatically evaluate and interpret verbal fluency tests. Towards that goal, we derive novel semantic similarity (phonetic, phonemic and conceptual) metrics and present the predictive capability of these metrics on a de-identified dataset of participants with and without neurological disorders.

Selective attention and the "Asynchrony Theory" in native Hebrew-speaking adult dyslexics: Behavioral and ERPs measures.

PubMed

Menashe, Shay

2017-01-01

The main aim of the present study was to determine whether adult dyslexic readers demonstrate the "Asynchrony Theory" (Breznitz [Reading Fluency: Synchronization of Processes, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Mahwah, NJ, USA, 2006]) when selective attention is studied. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral parameters were collected from nonimpaired readers group and dyslexic readers group performing alphabetic and nonalphabetic tasks. The dyslexic readers group was found to demonstrate asynchrony between the auditory and the visual modalities when it came to processing alphabetic stimuli. These findings were found both for behavioral and ERPs parameters. Unlike the dyslexic readers, the nonimpaired readers showed synchronized speed of processing in the auditory and the visual modalities while processing alphabetic stimuli. The current study suggests that established reading is dependent on a synchronization between the auditory and the visual modalities even when it comes to selective attention.

Perseveration and other repetitive verbal behaviors: functional dissociations.

PubMed

Christman, Sarah S; Boutsen, Frank R; Buckingham, Hugh W

2004-11-01

This article will review types of perseveration from a neurolinguistic perspective. During the course of the article, continuous, stuck-in-set, and recurrent perseveration will be placed in contradistinction to several other types of repetitive behaviors commonly associated with neurogenic communication disorders. These include echolalia in mixed transcortical aphasia; conduite d'approche and conduite d'ecart in fluent aphasias; lexical and nonlexical automatisms in nonfluent aphasias; palilalia in neuromotor disorders, such as Parkinson's disease (PD); and sound, syllable, word, and phrase repetitions in neurogenic stuttering. When differentiating these phenomena from perseveration, it is helpful to consider the salient factors that condition observed behaviors in individual patients, such as overall speech fluency, inventory of available utterances, nature of eliciting tasks, and propositionality of responses. Information such as communication disorder diagnosis, underlying etiology, and known sites of lesion from each patient's total clinical profile may also assist with differentiation.

Aesthetic Pleasure versus Aesthetic Interest: The Two Routes to Aesthetic Liking

PubMed Central

Graf, Laura K. M.; Landwehr, Jan R.

2017-01-01

Although existing research has established that aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic interest are two distinct positive aesthetic responses, empirical research on aesthetic preferences usually considers only aesthetic liking to capture participants’ aesthetic response. This causes some fundamental contradictions in the literature; some studies find a positive relationship between easy-to-process stimulus characteristics and aesthetic liking, while others suggest a negative relationship. The present research addresses these empirical contradictions by investigating the dual character of aesthetic liking as manifested in both the pleasure and interest components. Based on the Pleasure-Interest Model of Aesthetic Liking (PIA Model; Graf and Landwehr, 2015), two studies investigated the formation of pleasure and interest and their relationship with aesthetic liking responses. Using abstract art as the stimuli, Study 1 employed a 3 (stimulus fluency: low, medium, high) × 2 (processing style: automatic, controlled) × 2 (aesthetic response: pleasure, interest) experimental design to examine the processing dynamics responsible for experiencing aesthetic pleasure versus aesthetic interest. We find that the effect of stimulus fluency on pleasure is mediated by a gut-level fluency experience. Stimulus fluency and interest, by contrast, are related through a process of disfluency reduction, such that disfluent stimuli that grow more fluent due to processing efforts become interesting. The second study employed product designs (bikes, chairs, and lamps) as stimuli and a 2 (fluency: low, high) × 2 (processing style: automatic, controlled) × 3 (product type: bike, chair, lamp) experimental design to examine pleasure and interest as mediators of the relationship between stimulus fluency and design attractiveness. With respect to lamps and chairs, the results suggest that the effect of stimulus fluency on attractiveness is fully mediated by aesthetic pleasure, especially in the automatic processing style. Conversely, disfluent product designs can enhance design attractiveness judgments due to interest when a controlled processing style is adopted. PMID:28194119

The role of temporal speech cues in facilitating the fluency of adults who stutter.

PubMed

Park, Jin; Logan, Kenneth J

2015-12-01

Adults who stutter speak more fluently during choral speech contexts than they do during solo speech contexts. The underlying mechanisms for this effect remain unclear, however. In this study, we examined the extent to which the choral speech effect depended on presentation of intact temporal speech cues. We also examined whether speakers who stutter followed choral signals more closely than typical speakers did. 8 adults who stuttered and 8 adults who did not stutter read 60 sentences aloud during a solo speaking condition and three choral speaking conditions (240 total sentences), two of which featured either temporally altered or indeterminate word duration patterns. Effects of these manipulations on speech fluency, rate, and temporal entrainment with the choral speech signal were assessed. Adults who stutter spoke more fluently in all choral speaking conditions than they did when speaking solo. They also spoke slower and exhibited closer temporal entrainment with the choral signal during the mid- to late-stages of sentence production than the adults who did not stutter. Both groups entrained more closely with unaltered choral signals than they did with altered choral signals. Findings suggest that adults who stutter make greater use of speech-related information in choral signals when talking than adults with typical fluency do. The presence of fluency facilitation during temporally altered choral speech and conversation babble, however, suggests that temporal/gestural cueing alone cannot account for fluency facilitation in speakers who stutter. Other potential fluency enhancing mechanisms are discussed. The reader will be able to (a) summarize competing views on stuttering as a speech timing disorder, (b) describe the extent to which adults who stutter depend on an accurate rendering of temporal information in order to benefit from choral speech, and (c) discuss possible explanations for fluency facilitation in the presence of inaccurate or indeterminate temporal cues. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Developmental dissociation in the neural responses to simple multiplication and subtraction problems

PubMed Central

Prado, Jérôme; Mutreja, Rachna; Booth, James R.

2014-01-01

Mastering single-digit arithmetic during school years is commonly thought to depend upon an increasing reliance on verbally memorized facts. An alternative model, however, posits that fluency in single-digit arithmetic might also be achieved via the increasing use of efficient calculation procedures. To test between these hypotheses, we used a cross-sectional design to measure the neural activity associated with single-digit subtraction and multiplication in 34 children from 2nd to 7th grade. The neural correlates of language and numerical processing were also identified in each child via localizer scans. Although multiplication and subtraction were undistinguishable in terms of behavior, we found a striking developmental dissociation in their neural correlates. First, we observed grade-related increases of activity for multiplication, but not for subtraction, in a language-related region of the left temporal cortex. Second, we found grade-related increases of activity for subtraction, but not for multiplication, in a region of the right parietal cortex involved in the procedural manipulation of numerical quantities. The present results suggest that fluency in simple arithmetic in children may be achieved by both increasing reliance on verbal retrieval and by greater use of efficient quantity-based procedures, depending on the operation. PMID:25089323

Long working hours and cognitive function: the Whitehall II Study.

PubMed

Virtanen, Marianna; Singh-Manoux, Archana; Ferrie, Jane E; Gimeno, David; Marmot, Michael G; Elovainio, Marko; Jokela, Markus; Vahtera, Jussi; Kivimäki, Mika

2009-03-01

This study examined the association between long working hours and cognitive function in middle age. Data were collected in 1997-1999 (baseline) and 2002-2004 (follow-up) from a prospective study of 2,214 British civil servants who were in full-time employment at baseline and had data on cognitive tests and covariates. A battery of cognitive tests (short-term memory, Alice Heim 4-I, Mill Hill vocabulary, phonemic fluency, and semantic fluency) were measured at baseline and at follow-up. Compared with working 40 hours per week at most, working more than 55 hours per week was associated with lower scores in the vocabulary test at both baseline and follow-up. Long working hours also predicted decline in performance on the reasoning test (Alice Heim 4-I). Similar results were obtained by using working hours as a continuous variable; the associations between working hours and cognitive function were robust to adjustments for several potential confounding factors including age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income, physical diseases, psychosocial factors, sleep disturbances, and health risk behaviors. This study shows that long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age.

Long Working Hours and Cognitive Function

PubMed Central

Singh-Manoux, Archana; Ferrie, Jane E.; Gimeno, David; Marmot, Michael G.; Elovainio, Marko; Jokela, Markus; Vahtera, Jussi; Kivimäki, Mika

2009-01-01

This study examined the association between long working hours and cognitive function in middle age. Data were collected in 1997–1999 (baseline) and 2002–2004 (follow-up) from a prospective study of 2,214 British civil servants who were in full-time employment at baseline and had data on cognitive tests and covariates. A battery of cognitive tests (short-term memory, Alice Heim 4-I, Mill Hill vocabulary, phonemic fluency, and semantic fluency) were measured at baseline and at follow-up. Compared with working 40 hours per week at most, working more than 55 hours per week was associated with lower scores in the vocabulary test at both baseline and follow-up. Long working hours also predicted decline in performance on the reasoning test (Alice Heim 4-I). Similar results were obtained by using working hours as a continuous variable; the associations between working hours and cognitive function were robust to adjustments for several potential confounding factors including age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income, physical diseases, psychosocial factors, sleep disturbances, and health risk behaviors. This study shows that long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age. PMID:19126590

Role of sleep continuity and total sleep time in executive function across the adult lifespan.

PubMed

Wilckens, Kristine A; Woo, Sarah G; Kirk, Afton R; Erickson, Kirk I; Wheeler, Mark E

2014-09-01

The importance of sleep for cognition in young adults is well established, but the role of habitual sleep behavior in cognition across the adult life span remains unknown. We examined the relationship between sleep continuity and total sleep time as assessed with a sleep-detection device, and cognitive performance using a battery of tasks in young (n = 59, mean age = 23.05) and older (n = 53, mean age = 62.68) adults. Across age groups, higher sleep continuity was associated with better cognitive performance. In the younger group, higher sleep continuity was associated with better working memory and inhibitory control. In the older group, higher sleep continuity was associated with better inhibitory control, memory recall, and verbal fluency. Very short and very long total sleep time was associated with poorer working memory and verbal fluency, specifically in the younger group. Total sleep time was not associated with cognitive performance in any domains for the older group. These findings reveal that sleep continuity is important for executive function in both young and older adults, but total sleep time may be more important for cognition in young adults. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Modeling the development of written language

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Foorman, Barbara; Foster, Elizabeth; Wilson, Laura Gehron; Tschinkel, Erika; Kantor, Patricia Thatcher

2011-01-01

Alternative models of the structure of individual and developmental differences of written composition and handwriting fluency were tested using confirmatory factor analysis of writing samples provided by first- and fourth-grade students. For both groups, a five-factor model provided the best fit to the data. Four of the factors represented aspects of written composition: macro-organization (use of top sentence and number and ordering of ideas), productivity (number and diversity of words used), complexity (mean length of T-unit and syntactic density), and spelling and punctuation. The fifth factor represented handwriting fluency. Handwriting fluency was correlated with written composition factors at both grades. The magnitude of developmental differences between first grade and fourth grade expressed as effect sizes varied for variables representing the five constructs: large effect sizes were found for productivity and handwriting fluency variables; moderate effect sizes were found for complexity and macro-organization variables; and minimal effect sizes were found for spelling and punctuation variables. PMID:22228924

Verbal fluency in bilingual Spanish/English Alzheimer's disease patients.

PubMed

Salvatierra, Judy; Rosselli, Monica; Acevedo, Amarilis; Duara, Ranjan

2007-01-01

Studies have demonstrated that in verbal fluency tests, monolinguals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show greater difficulties retrieving words based on semantic rather than phonemic rules. The present study aimed to determine whether this difficulty was reproduced in both languages of Spanish/English bilinguals with mild to moderate AD whose primary language was Spanish. Performance on semantic and phonemic verbal fluency of 11 bilingual AD patients was compared to the performance of 11 cognitively normal, elderly bilingual individuals matched for gender, age, level of education, and degree of bilingualism. Cognitively normal subjects retrieved significantly more items under the semantic condition compared to the phonemic, whereas the performance of AD patients was similar under both conditions, suggesting greater decline in semantic verbal fluency tests. This pattern was produced in both languages, implying a related semantic decline in both languages. Results from this study should be considered preliminary because of the small sample size.

Parent and Child Fluency in a Common Language: Implications for the Parent–Child Relationship and Later Academic Success in Mexican American Families

PubMed Central

Schofield, Thomas; Beaumont, Kelly; Widaman, Keith; Jochem, Rachel; Robins, Richard; Conger, Rand

2013-01-01

The current study tested elements of the theoretical model of Portes and Rumbaut (1996), which proposes that parent–child differences in English fluency in immigrant families affect various family processes that, in turn, relate to changes in academic success. The current study of 674 Mexican- origin families provided support for the model in that parent–child fluency in a common language was associated with several dimensions of the parent–child relationship, including communication, role reversal, and conflict. In turn, these family processes predicted child academic performance, school problems, and academic aspirations and expectations. The current findings extend the Portes and Rumbaut (1996) model, however, inasmuch as joint fluency in either English or Spanish was associated with better parent–child relationships. The findings have implications for educational and human service issues involving Mexican Americans and other immigrant groups. PMID:23244454

Writing fluency and quality in kindergarten and first grade: The role of attention, reading, transcription, and oral language

PubMed Central

Kent, Shawn; Wanzek, Jeanne; Petscher, Yaacov; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Kim, Young-Suk

2013-01-01

In the present study, we examined the influence of kindergarten component skills on writing outcomes, both concurrently and longitudinally to first grade. Using data from 265 students, we investigated a model of writing development including attention regulation along with students’ reading, spelling, handwriting fluency, and oral language component skills. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that a model including attention was better fitting than a model with only language and literacy factors. Attention, a higher-order literacy factor related to reading and spelling proficiency, and automaticity in letter-writing were uniquely and positively related to compositional fluency in kindergarten. Attention and higher-order literacy factor were predictive of both composition quality and fluency in first grade, while oral language showed unique relations with first grade writing quality. Implications for writing development and instruction are discussed. PMID:25132722

Cognitive, Emotional, Temperament, and Personality Trait Correlates of Suicidal Behavior.

PubMed

Giner, Lucas; Blasco-Fontecilla, Hilario; De La Vega, Diego; Courtet, Philippe

2016-11-01

Suicide is one of the leading causes of violent death in many countries and its prevention is included in worldwide health objectives. Currently, the DSM-5 considers suicidal behavior as an entity that requires further study. Among the three validators required for considering a psychiatric disorder, there is one based on psychological correlates, biological markers, and patterns of comorbidity. This review includes the most important and recent studies on psychological factors: cognitive, emotional, temperament, and personality correlates (unrelated to diagnostic criteria). We included classic factors related to suicidal behavior such as cognitive, inflexibility, problem-solving, coping, rumination, thought suppression, decision-making, autobiographical memory, working memory, language fluency, burdensomeness, belongingness, fearless, pain insensitivity, impulsiveness, aggressiveness, and hopelessness. The personality correlates reported are mainly based on the personality theories of Cloninger, Costa and McCrae, and Eysenck. Moreover, it explores conceptual links to other new pathways in psychological factors, emptiness, and psychological pain as a possible origin and common end path for a portion of suicidal behaviors.

Electrophysiological signals associated with fluency of different levels of processing reveal multiple contributions to recognition memory.

PubMed

Li, Bingbing; Taylor, Jason R; Wang, Wei; Gao, Chuanji; Guo, Chunyan

2017-08-01

Processing fluency appears to influence recognition memory judgements, and the manipulation of fluency, if misattributed to an effect of prior exposure, can result in illusory memory. Although it is well established that fluency induced by masked repetition priming leads to increased familiarity, manipulations of conceptual fluency have produced conflicting results, variously affecting familiarity or recollection. Some recent studies have found that masked conceptual priming increases correct recollection (Taylor & Henson, 2012), and the magnitude of this behavioural effect correlates with analogous fMRI BOLD priming effects in brain regions associated with recollection (Taylor, Buratto, & Henson, 2013). However, the neural correlates and time-courses of masked repetition and conceptual priming were not compared directly in previous studies. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify and compare the electrophysiological correlates of masked repetition and conceptual priming and investigate how they contribute to recognition memory. Behavioural results were consistent with previous studies: Repetition primes increased familiarity, whereas conceptual primes increased correct recollection. Masked repetition and conceptual priming also decreased the latency of late parietal component (LPC). Masked repetition priming was associated with an early P200 effect and a later parietal maximum N400 effect, whereas masked conceptual priming was only associated with a central-parietal maximum N400 effect. In addition, the topographic distributions of the N400 repetition priming and conceptual priming effects were different. These results suggest that fluency at different levels of processing is associated with different ERP components, and contributes differentially to subjective recognition memory experiences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prefrontal involvement related to cognitive impairment in progressive muscular atrophy.

PubMed

Raaphorst, Joost; van Tol, Marie-José; Groot, Paul F C; Altena, Ellemarije; van der Werf, Ysbrand D; Majoie, Charles B; van der Kooi, Anneke J; van den Berg, Leonard H; Schmand, Ben; de Visser, Marianne; Veltman, Dick J

2014-08-26

To examine brain activation patterns during verbal fluency performance in patients with progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). fMRI was used to examine the blood oxygen level-dependent response during letter and category fluency performance in 18 patients with PMA, 21 patients with ALS, and 17 healthy control subjects, matched for age and education. fMRI results are reported at p<0.05, family-wise error (FWE)-corrected for multiple comparisons. We analyzed effects of performance, age-related white matter changes (ARWMC), and regional brain volumes; all participants underwent neuropsychological investigation. Disease duration of patients with PMA (mean 26.0 months, SD 13.6) and ALS (22.2 months, SD 11.4) was comparable. Patients with PMA and ALS had mild to moderate disease severity and showed impaired letter fluency compared with controls. Between-group analysis showed a main effect of group in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, Brodmann area 45) during letter fluency, which was unaffected by performance, ARWMC, and IFG volume: patients with PMA showed lower activation than controls but higher than that of patients with ALS (ALS

Cross-age comparisons reveal multiple strategies for lexical ambiguity resolution during natural reading

PubMed Central

Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.

2013-01-01

Eye-tracking was used to investigate how younger and older (60+) adults use syntactic and semantic information to disambiguate noun/verb (NV) homographs (e.g. park). In event-related potential work using the same materials, Lee and Federmeier (2009, 2011) found that young adults elicited a sustained frontal negativity to NV-homographs when only syntactic cues were available (i.e., in syntactic prose); this effect was eliminated by semantic constraints. The negativity was only present in older adults with high verbal fluency. The current study shows parallel findings: young adults exhibit inflated first fixation durations to NV-homographs in syntactic prose, but not semantically congruent sentences. This effect is absent in older adults as a group. Verbal fluency modulates the effect in both age groups: high fluency is associated with larger first fixation effects in syntactic prose. Older, but not younger, adults also show significantly increased rereading of the NV-homographs in syntactic prose. Verbal fluency modulates this effect as well: high fluency is associated with a reduced tendency to reread, regardless of age. This relationship suggests a tradeoff between initial and downstream processing costs for ambiguity during natural reading. Together, the eye-tracking and ERP data suggest that effortful meaning selection recruits mechanisms important for suppressing contextually inappropriate meanings, which also slow eye movements. Efficacy of fronto-temporal circuitry, as captured by verbal fluency, predicts the success of engaging these mechanisms in both young and older adults. Failure to recruit these processes requires compensatory rereading or leads to comprehension failures (Lee & Federmeier, 2012). PMID:23687920

Party Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuentes, Sarah Quebec; Quebec, Rachael

2016-01-01

"Ensuring Mathematical Success for All" (NCTM 2010) outlines eight teaching practices for effective teaching and learning of mathematics. One of the teaching practices, building procedural fluency from conceptual understanding, states the following: Effective teaching of mathematics builds fluency with procedures on a foundation of…

Song evolution, speciation, and vocal learning in passerine birds.

PubMed

Mason, Nicholas A; Burns, Kevin J; Tobias, Joseph A; Claramunt, Santiago; Seddon, Nathalie; Derryberry, Elizabeth P

2017-03-01

Phenotypic divergence can promote reproductive isolation and speciation, suggesting a possible link between rates of phenotypic evolution and the tempo of speciation at multiple evolutionary scales. To date, most macroevolutionary studies of diversification have focused on morphological traits, whereas behavioral traits─including vocal signals─are rarely considered. Thus, although behavioral traits often mediate mate choice and gene flow, we have a limited understanding of how behavioral evolution contributes to diversification. Furthermore, the developmental mode by which behavioral traits are acquired may affect rates of behavioral evolution, although this hypothesis is seldom tested in a phylogenetic framework. Here, we examine evidence for rate shifts in vocal evolution and speciation across two major radiations of codistributed passerines: one oscine clade with learned songs (Thraupidae) and one suboscine clade with innate songs (Furnariidae). We find that evolutionary bursts in rates of speciation and song evolution are coincident in both thraupids and furnariids. Further, overall rates of vocal evolution are higher among taxa with learned rather than innate songs. Taken together, these findings suggest an association between macroevolutionary bursts in speciation and vocal evolution, and that the tempo of behavioral evolution can be influenced by variation in developmental modes among lineages. © 2016 The Author(s). Evolution © 2016 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

The role of cognitive training in the neurorehabilitation of a patient who survived a lightning strike. A case study.

PubMed

Tánczos, Tímea; Zádori, Dénes; Jakab, Katalin; Hnyilicza, Zsuzsanna; Klivényi, Péter; Keresztes, László; Engelhardt, József; Németh, Dezső; Vécsei, László

2014-01-01

Lightning-related injuries most often involve impairment of the functions of the central and peripheral nervous systems, usually including cognitive dysfunctions. We evaluated the cognitive deficit of a patient who had survived a lightning strike and measured the improvement after her cognitive training. This therapeutic method appears to be a powerful tool in the neurorehabilitation treatment. The aim of this case study was to prove the beneficial effects of cognitive training as part of the neurorehabilitation after a lightning strike. Six neuropsychological functions were examined in order to test the cognitive status of the patient before and after the 2-month cognitive training: phonological short-term memory (digit span test and word repetitions test), visuo-spatial short-term memory (Corsi Block Tapping Test), working memory (backward digit span test and listening span test), executive functions (letter and semantic fluencies), language functions (non-word repetition test, Pléh-Palotás-Lörik (PPL) test and sentence repetition test) and episodic memory (Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test and Mini Mental State Examination). We also utilized these tests in aged-matched healthy individuals so as to be able to characterize the domains of the observed improvements more precisely. The patient exhibited a considerable improvement in the backward digit span, semantic fluency, non-word repetition, PPL, sentence repetition and Rivermead Behavioral Memory tests. The cognitive training played an important role in the neurorehabilitation treatment of this lightning injury patient. It considerably improved her quality of life through the functional recovery.

Episodic Memory, Semantic Memory, and Fluency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaefer, Carl F.

1980-01-01

Suggests that creating a second-language semantic network can be conceived as developing a plan for retrieving second-language word forms. Characteristics of linguistic performance which will promote fluency are discussed in light of the distinction between episodic and semantic memory. (AMH)

PhET Interactive Simulations: Transformative Tools for Teaching Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Emily B.; Chamberlain, Julia M.; Parson, Robert; Perkins, Katherine K.

2014-01-01

Developing fluency across symbolic-, macroscopic-, and particulate-level representations is central to learning chemistry. Within the chemistry education community, animations and simulations that support multi-representational fluency are considered critical. With advances in the accessibility and sophistication of technology,…

Componential skills of beginning writing: An exploratory study

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Puranik, Cynthia; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Greulich, Luana; Wagner, Richard K.

2011-01-01

The present study examined the components of end of kindergarten writing, using data from 242 kindergartners. Specifically of interest was the importance of spelling, letter writing fluency, reading, and word- and syntax-level oral language skills in writing. The results from structural equation modeling revealed that oral language, spelling, and letter writing fluency were positively and uniquely related to writing skill after accounting for reading skills. Reading skill was not uniquely related to writing once oral language, spelling, and letter writing fluency were taken into account. These findings are discussed from a developmental perspective. PMID:22267897

The Effects of Student and Text Characteristics on the Oral Reading Fluency of Middle-Grade Students

PubMed Central

Barth, Amy E.; Tolar, Tammy D.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Francis, David

2014-01-01

We evaluated the effects of student characteristics (sight word reading efficiency, phonological decoding, verbal knowledge, level of reading ability, grade, gender) and text features (passage difficulty, length, genre, and language and discourse attributes) on the oral reading fluency of a sample of middle-school students in Grades 6–8 (N = 1,794). Students who were struggling (n = 704) and typically developing readers (n = 1,028) were randomly assigned to read five 1-min passages from each of 5 Lexile bands (within student range of 550 Lexiles). A series of multilevel analyses showed that student and text characteristics contributed uniquely to oral reading fluency rates. Student characteristics involving sight word reading efficiency and level of decoding ability accounted for more variability than reader type and verbal knowledge, with small, but statistically significant effects of grade and gender. The most significant text feature was passage difficulty level. Interactions involving student text characteristics, especially attributes involving overall ability level and difficulty of the text, were also apparent. These results support views of the development of oral reading fluency that involve interactions of student and text characteristics and highlight the importance of scaling for passage difficulty level in assessing individual differences in oral reading fluency. PMID:24567659

Writing Quality in Chinese Children: Speed and Fluency Matter

PubMed Central

Yan, Cathy Ming Wai; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Wagner, Richard K.; Zhang, Juan; Wong, Anita M. Y.; Shu, Hua

2015-01-01

There were two goals of the present study. The first was to create a scoring scheme by which 9-year-old Chinese children’s writing compositions could be rated to form a total score for writing quality. The second was to examine cognitive correlates of writing quality at age 9 from measures administered at ages 6–9. Age 9 writing compositions were scored using a 7-element rubric; following confirmatory factor analyses, 5 of these elements were retained to represent overall writing quality for subsequent analyses. Measures of vocabulary knowledge, Chinese word dictation, phonological awareness, speed of processing, speeded naming, and handwriting fluency at ages 6–9 were all significantly associated with the obtained overall writing quality measure even when the statistical effect of age was removed. With vocabulary knowledge, dictation skill, age, gender, and phonological awareness included in a regression equation, 35% of the variance in age 9 writing quality was explained. With the variables of speed of processing, speeded naming, and handwriting fluency additionally included as a block, 12% additional variance in the equation was explained. In addition to gender, overall unique correlates of writing quality were dictation, speed of processing, and handwriting fluency, underscoring the importance of both general automaticity and specific writing fluency for writing quality development in children. PMID:25750486

Neural correlates of rhyming vs. lexical and semantic fluency.

PubMed

Kircher, Tilo; Nagels, Arne; Kirner-Veselinovic, André; Krach, Sören

2011-05-19

Rhyming words, as in songs or poems, is a universal feature of human language across all ages. In the present fMRI study a novel overt rhyming task was applied to determine the neural correlates of rhyme production. Fifteen right-handed healthy male volunteers participated in this verbal fluency study. Participants were instructed to overtly articulate as many words as possible either to a given initial letter (LVF) or to a semantic category (SVF). During the rhyming verbal fluency task (RVF), participants had to generate words that rhymed with pseudoword stimuli. On-line overt verbal responses were audiotaped in order to correct the imaging results for the number of generated words. Fewer words were generated in the rhyming compared to both the lexical and the semantic condition. On a neural level, all language tasks activated a language network encompassing the left inferior frontal gyrus, the middle and superior temporal gyri as well as the contralateral right cerebellum. Rhyming verbal fluency compared to both lexical and semantic verbal fluency demonstrated significantly stronger activation of left inferior parietal region. Generating novel rhyme words seems to be mainly mediated by the left inferior parietal lobe, a region previously found to be associated with meta-phonological as well as sub-lexical linguistic processes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conceptual fluency at test shifts recognition response bias in Alzheimer’s disease: Implications for increased false recognition

PubMed Central

Gold, Carl A.; Marchant, Natalie L.; Koutstaal, Wilma; Schacter, Daniel L.; Budson, Andrew E.

2012-01-01

The presence or absence of conceptual information in pictorial stimuli may explain the mixed findings of previous studies of false recognition in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To test this hypothesis, 48 patients with AD were compared to 48 healthy older adults on a recognition task first described by Koutstaal et al. (2003). Participants studied and were tested on their memory for categorized ambiguous pictures of common objects. The presence of conceptual information at study and/or test was manipulated by providing or withholding disambiguating semantic labels. Analyses focused on testing two competing theories. The semantic encoding hypothesis, which posits that the inter-item perceptual details are not encoded by AD patients when conceptual information is present in the stimuli, was not supported by the findings. In contrast, the conceptual fluency hypothesis was supported. Enhanced conceptual fluency at test dramatically shifted AD patients to a more liberal response bias, raising their false recognition. These results suggest that patients with AD rely on the fluency of test items in making recognition memory decisions. We speculate that AD patients’ over reliance upon fluency may be attributable to (1) dysfunction of the hippocampus, disrupting recollection, and/or (2) dysfunction of prefrontal cortex, disrupting post-retrieval processes. PMID:17573074

Transcranial direct current stimulation over Broca's region improves phonemic and semantic fluency in healthy individuals.

PubMed

Cattaneo, Z; Pisoni, A; Papagno, C

2011-06-02

Previous studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be proficiently used to modulate attentional and cognitive functions. For instance, in the language domain there is evidence that tDCS can fasten picture naming in both healthy individuals and aphasic patients, or improve grammar learning. In this study, we investigated whether tDCS can be used to increase healthy subjects' performance in phonemic and semantic fluency tasks, that are typically used in clinical assessment of language. Ten healthy individuals performed a semantic and a phonemic fluency task following anodal tDCS applied over Broca's region. Each participant underwent a real and a sham tDCS session. Participants were found to produce more words following real anodal tDCS both in the phonemic and in the semantic fluency. Control experiments ascertained that this finding did not depend upon unspecific effects of tDCS over levels of general arousal or attention or upon participants' expectations. These data confirm the efficacy of tDCS in transiently improving language functions by showing that anodal stimulation of Broca's region can enhance verbal fluency. Implications of these results for the treatment of language functions in aphasia are considered. Copyright © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relation between Approximate Number System Acuity and Mathematical Achievement: The Influence of Fluency

PubMed Central

Wang, Li; Sun, Yuhua; Zhou, Xinlin

2016-01-01

Previous studies have observed inconsistent relations between the acuity of the Approximate Number System (ANS) and mathematical achievement. In this paper, we hypothesize that the relation between ANS acuity and mathematical achievement is influenced by fluency; that is, the mathematical achievement test covering a greater expanse of mathematical fluency may better reflect the relation between ANS acuity and mathematics skills. We explored three types of mathematical achievement tests utilized in this study: Subtraction, graded, and semester-final examination. The subtraction test was designed to measure the mathematical fluency. The graded test was more fluency-based than the semester-final examination, but both involved the same mathematical knowledge from the class curriculum. A total of 219 fifth graders from primary schools were asked to perform all three tests, then given a numerosity comparison task, a visual form perception task (figure matching), and a series of other tasks to assess general cognitive processes (mental rotation, non-verbal matrix reasoning, and choice reaction time). The findings were consistent with our expectations. The relation between ANS acuity and mathematical achievement was particularly clearly reflected in the participants’ performance on the visual form perception task, which supports the domain-general explanations for the underlying mechanisms of the relation between ANS acuity and math achievement. PMID:28066291

Embedded measures of performance validity using verbal fluency tests in a clinical sample.

PubMed

Sugarman, Michael A; Axelrod, Bradley N

2015-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine to what extent verbal fluency measures can be used as performance validity indicators during neuropsychological evaluation. Participants were clinically referred for neuropsychological evaluation in an urban-based Veteran's Affairs hospital. Participants were placed into 2 groups based on their objectively evaluated effort on performance validity tests (PVTs). Individuals who exhibited credible performance (n = 431) failed 0 PVTs, and those with poor effort (n = 192) failed 2 or more PVTs. All participants completed the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) and Animals verbal fluency measures. We evaluated how well verbal fluency scores could discriminate between the 2 groups. Raw scores and T scores for Animals discriminated between the credible performance and poor-effort groups with 90% specificity and greater than 40% sensitivity. COWAT scores had lower sensitivity for detecting poor effort. A combination of FAS and Animals scores into logistic regression models yielded acceptable group classification, with 90% specificity and greater than 44% sensitivity. Verbal fluency measures can yield adequate detection of poor effort during neuropsychological evaluation. We provide suggested cut points and logistic regression models for predicting the probability of poor effort in our clinical setting and offer suggested cutoff scores to optimize sensitivity and specificity.

Characteristics of Fluency and Speech in Two Families With High Incidences of Stuttering

PubMed Central

Freeman, Frances J.; Braun, Allen

2015-01-01

Purpose This study presents data from 2 families with high incidence of stuttering, comparing methods of phenotype assignment and exploring the presence of other fluency disorders and corresponding speech characteristics. Method Three methods for assigning phenotype of stuttering were used: self-identification, family identification, and expert identification. Agreement on which individuals were assigned by each of these methods was studied. Multiple measures of fluency and speech production were obtained. Results Self-reports and descriptions of blocking rather than self-identification as a person who stutters demonstrated the best agreement with expert identification of stuttering. Family identification showed poor agreement with both expert and self-identification of stuttering. Using binary categories of fluent or stuttering, 90% of individuals in 1 family were classified by expert consensus. Only 70% of the other family could be similarly categorized. Experts required 2 other categories, cluttering and other fluency disorders, to fully characterize dysfluency within this family. These 2 families also demonstrated differences in speech production. Conclusion Some families with high incidence of stuttering may also have high incidence of other fluency disorders and other speech-production difficulties. This finding may have ramifications for genetic studies, including criteria for defining phenotype and collapsing data across multiple families. PMID:26126023

Distinguishing familiarity from fluency for the compound word pair effect in associative recognition.

PubMed

Ahmad, Fahad N; Hockley, William E

2017-09-01

We examined whether processing fluency contributes to associative recognition of unitized pre-experimental associations. In Experiments 1A and 1B, we minimized perceptual fluency by presenting each word of pairs on separate screens at both study and test, yet the compound word (CW) effect (i.e., hit and false-alarm rates greater for CW pairs with no difference in discrimination) did not reduce. In Experiments 2A and 2B, conceptual fluency was examined by comparing transparent (e.g., hand bag) and opaque (e.g., rag time) CW pairs in lexical decision and associative recognition tasks. Lexical decision was faster for transparent CWs (Experiment 2A) but in associative recognition, the CW effect did not differ by CW pair type (Experiment 2B). In Experiments 3A and 3B, we examined whether priming that increases processing fluency would influence the CW effect. In Experiment 3A, CW and non-compound word pairs were preceded with matched and mismatched primes at test in an associative recognition task. In Experiment 3B, only transparent and opaque CW pairs were presented. Results showed that presenting matched versus mismatched primes at test did not influence the CW effect. The CW effect in yes-no associative recognition is due to reliance on enhanced familiarity of unitized CW pairs.

Promoting Decimal Number Sense and Representational Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suh, Jennifer M.; Johnston, Chris; Jamieson, Spencer; Mills, Michelle

2008-01-01

The abstract nature of mathematics requires the communication of mathematical ideas through multiple representations, such as words, symbols, pictures, objects, or actions. Building representational fluency involves using mathematical representations flexibly and being able to interpret and translate among these different models and mathematical…

Reading Intervention and Special Education Referrals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polcyn, Dawn M.; Levine-Donnerstein, Deborah; Perfect, Michelle M.; Obrzut, John E.

2014-01-01

This study examined whether consistently implementing reading fluency interventions prior to referring students for a special education evaluation led to fewer overall special education referrals, as well as more accurate special education referrals. Results indicated that the implementation of a peer-mediated reading fluency intervention…

Primary Teachers' Representational Practices: From Competency to Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nichols, Kim; Stevenson, Michael; Hedberg, John; Gillies, Robyn Margaret

2016-01-01

Eighteen primary teachers across three conditions (Representational Fluency, Representational Agency, Comparison) received two days of training around an inquiry unit on plate tectonics replete with representations. The Representational Agency group also received training around the semiotic and material affordances of representations while the…

Selection by consequences, behavioral evolution, and the price equation.

PubMed

Baum, William M

2017-05-01

Price's equation describes evolution across time in simple mathematical terms. Although it is not a theory, but a derived identity, it is useful as an analytical tool. It affords lucid descriptions of genetic evolution, cultural evolution, and behavioral evolution (often called "selection by consequences") at different levels (e.g., individual vs. group) and at different time scales (local and extended). The importance of the Price equation for behavior analysis lies in its ability to precisely restate selection by consequences, thereby restating, or even replacing, the law of effect. Beyond this, the equation may be useful whenever one regards ontogenetic behavioral change as evolutionary change, because it describes evolutionary change in abstract, general terms. As an analytical tool, the behavioral Price equation is an excellent aid in understanding how behavior changes within organisms' lifetimes. For example, it illuminates evolution of response rate, analyses of choice in concurrent schedules, negative contingencies, and dilemmas of self-control. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Lexicon before and after epilepsy surgery in adolescents.

PubMed

Meekes, Joost; Chanturidze, Mari; Braams, Olga B; Braun, Kees P J; van Rijen, Peter C; Hendriks, Marc P H; Jennekens-Schinkel, Aag; van Nieuwenhuizen, Onno

2016-05-01

Poor performance on confrontation naming tasks by children and adolescents with pharmacologically intractable epilepsy has been interpreted as indicating impairments of lexicon, that is, the store of words in long-term memory. However, confrontation naming performance crucially depends not only on word knowledge but also on other functions such as fluency. We applied an alternative method to assess lexicon with the aim of tracing deficits in lexicon before and after surgery in adolescents with pharmacologically intractable epilepsy. Sixteen patients and 32 age- and sex-matched controls completed the Dutch version of the controlled oral word production task. Responses were used to calculate indices of lexical fluency (retrieval efficiency), lexical breadth (vocabulary size), and lexical depth (knowledge of word properties), as well as use of search strategies. Adolescents with pharmacologically intractable epilepsy had lower lexical fluency scores than healthy peers, but did not differ from them on the dimensions of lexical breadth and lexical depth. Patients demonstrated reduced use of search strategies. In fact, the difference in lexical fluency between patients and controls disappeared after controlling for Full Scale IQ (obtained using the Dutch version of the 3rd edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IIINL; Kort et al., 2005; Wechsler, 2002) or-for older children-the Dutch version of the first edition of the Kaufman Adult and Adolescent Intelligence Test (KAIT; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1993; Mulder, Dekker, & Dekker, 2004) and use of search strategies. In patients, changes in the use of the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine were associated with lexical fluency. Adolescents with pharmacologically intractable epilepsy differ from their healthy peers mainly in lexical fluency, rather than word knowledge per se. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Efficiency of generation of optical centers in KS-4V and KU-1 quartz glasses at neutron and gamma irradiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Islamov, A. Kh.; Salikhbaev, U. S.; Ibragimova, E. M.; Nuritdinov, I.; Fayzullaev, B. S.; Vukolov, K. Yu.; Orlovskiy, I.

2013-11-01

Pure quartz glasses of KS-4V and KU-1 types are candidates for optical plasma diagnostic system in ITER. The purpose of experiment was to study the efficiency of defect production in these glasses under irradiation with 60Со γ-quanta (5.7 Gy/s) dose range of 102-107 Gy and the fission reactor neutrons in the fluency range of 1020-1023 n/m2 and gammas simulating the plasma influence. In KU-1 (1000 ppm OH) the accumulation kinetics of E‧-(5.75 eV) and NBO-(1.9 eV) centers at γ-doses⩾5×105 Gy and neutron fluencies <1021 n/m2 is faster, than that in KS-4V glasses (<0.1 ppm OH) that is caused by rupture of hydrogen bonds. At fluencies >1021 n/m2 the NBO accumulation kinetics is slower in KU-1 than in KS-4B, because highly mobile hydrogen atoms access to the generated NBO centers. In KS-4V irradiated to γ-doses102-5 × 103 Gy a new unstable absorption band at 1.8 eV was found, which is caused by the glass synthesis conditions and alkali metal impurities. The transparency at 3.5-6.2 eV at fluencies 1020-5 × 1021 n/m2 is higher in KS-4V than KU-1. However at fluencies >1021 n/m2 in KS-4V the photoluminescence band at 2.7 eV is more intensive and distorts a diagnosed signal. The transparency in 3.5-1.2 eV at fluencies >1021 n/m2 is higher in KU-1 than KS-4V.

Biomarker validation of a decline in semantic processing in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Papp, Kathryn V; Mormino, Elizabeth C; Amariglio, Rebecca E; Munro, Catherine; Dagley, Alex; Schultz, Aaron P; Johnson, Keith A; Sperling, Reisa A; Rentz, Dorene M

2016-07-01

Differentially worse performance on category versus letter fluency suggests greater semantic versus retrieval difficulties. This discrepancy, combined with reduced episodic memory, has widespread clinical utility in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our objective was to investigate whether changes in semantic processing, as measured by the discrepancy between category and letter fluency, was detectable in preclinical AD: in clinically normal older adults with abnormal β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition on positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging. Clinically normal older adults (mean Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) score = 29) were classified as Aβ+ (n = 70) or Aβ- (n = 205) using Pittsburgh Compound B-(PET) imaging. Participants completed letter fluency (FAS; word generation to letters F-A-S) and category fluency (CAT; word generation to animals, vegetables, fruits) annually (mean follow-up = 2.42 years). The effect of Aβ status on fluency over time was examined using linear mixed models controlling for age, sex, and education. To dissociate effects related to semantic (CAT) versus retrieval processes (CAT and FAS), we repeated models predicting CAT over time, controlling for FAS and likewise for CAT controlling for FAS. At baseline, the Aβ+ group performed better on FAS compared with the Aβ- group but comparably on CAT. Longitudinally, the Aβ+ group demonstrated greater decline on CAT compared with the Aβ- group (p = .0011). This finding remained significant even when covarying for FAS (p = .0107). Aβ+ participants similarly declined compared with Aβ- participants on FAS (p = .0112), but this effect became insignificant when covarying for CAT (p = .1607). These findings provide biomarker validation for the greater specificity of declines in category versus letter fluency to underlying AD pathology. Our results also suggest that changes in semantic processing occur earlier in the AD trajectory than previously hypothesized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Cross-age comparisons reveal multiple strategies for lexical ambiguity resolution during natural reading.

PubMed

Stites, Mallory C; Federmeier, Kara D; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A L

2013-11-01

Eye tracking was used to investigate how younger and older (60 or more years) adults use syntactic and semantic information to disambiguate noun/verb (NV) homographs (e.g., park). In event-related potential (ERP) work using the same materials, Lee and Federmeier (2009, 2011) found that young adults elicited a sustained frontal negativity to NV homographs when only syntactic cues were available (i.e., in syntactic prose); this effect was eliminated by semantic constraints. The negativity was only present in older adults with high verbal fluency. The current study shows parallel findings: Young adults exhibit inflated first fixation durations to NV homographs in syntactic prose, but not semantically congruent sentences. This effect is absent in older adults as a group. Verbal fluency modulates the effect in both age groups: High fluency is associated with larger first fixation effects in syntactic prose. Older, but not younger, adults also show significantly increased rereading of the NV homographs in syntactic prose. Verbal fluency modulates this effect as well: High fluency is associated with a reduced tendency to reread, regardless of age. This relationship suggests a trade-off between initial and downstream processing costs for ambiguity during natural reading. Together the eye-tracking and ERP data suggest that effortful meaning selection recruits mechanisms important for suppressing contextually inappropriate meanings, which also slow eye movements. Efficacy of frontotemporal circuitry, as captured by verbal fluency, predicts the success of engaging these mechanisms in both young and older adults. Failure to recruit these processes requires compensatory rereading or leads to comprehension failures (Lee & Federmeier, 2012). PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

A Computational Linguistic Measure of Clustering Behavior on Semantic Verbal Fluency Task Predicts Risk of Future Dementia in the Nun Study

PubMed Central

Pakhomov, Serguei V.S.; Hemmy, Laura S.

2014-01-01

Generative semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tests show early and disproportionate decline relative to other abilities in individuals developing Alzheimer’s disease. Optimal performance on SVF tests depends on the efficiency of using clustered organization of semantically related items and the ability to switch between clusters. Traditional approaches to clustering and switching have relied on manual determination of clusters. We evaluated a novel automated computational linguistic approach for quantifying clustering behavior. Our approach is based on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) for computing strength of semantic relatedness between pairs of words produced in response to SVF test. The mean size of semantic clusters (MCS) and semantic chains (MChS) are calculated based on pairwise relatedness values between words. We evaluated the predictive validity of these measures on a set of 239 participants in the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging. All were cognitively intact at baseline assessment, measured with the CERAD battery, and were followed in 18 month waves for up to 20 years. The onset of either dementia or memory impairment were used as outcomes in Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age and education and censored at follow up waves 5 (6.3 years) and 13 (16.96 years). Higher MCS was associated with 38% reduction in dementia risk at wave 5 and 26% reduction at wave 13, but not with the onset of memory impairment. Higher (+1 SD) MChS was associated with 39% dementia risk reduction at wave 5 but not wave 13, and association with memory impairment was not significant. Higher traditional SVF scores were associated with 22–29% memory impairment and 35–40% dementia risk reduction. SVF scores were not correlated with either MCS or MChS. Our study suggests that an automated approach to measuring clustering behavior can be used to estimate dementia risk in cognitively normal individuals. PMID:23845236

A computational linguistic measure of clustering behavior on semantic verbal fluency task predicts risk of future dementia in the nun study.

PubMed

Pakhomov, Serguei V S; Hemmy, Laura S

2014-06-01

Generative semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tests show early and disproportionate decline relative to other abilities in individuals developing Alzheimer's disease. Optimal performance on SVF tests depends on the efficiency of using clustered organization of semantically related items and the ability to switch between clusters. Traditional approaches to clustering and switching have relied on manual determination of clusters. We evaluated a novel automated computational linguistic approach for quantifying clustering behavior. Our approach is based on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) for computing strength of semantic relatedness between pairs of words produced in response to SVF test. The mean size of semantic clusters (MCS) and semantic chains (MChS) are calculated based on pairwise relatedness values between words. We evaluated the predictive validity of these measures on a set of 239 participants in the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging. All were cognitively intact at baseline assessment, measured with the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) battery, and were followed in 18-month waves for up to 20 years. The onset of either dementia or memory impairment were used as outcomes in Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age and education and censored at follow-up waves 5 (6.3 years) and 13 (16.96 years). Higher MCS was associated with 38% reduction in dementia risk at wave 5 and 26% reduction at wave 13, but not with the onset of memory impairment. Higher [+1 standard deviation (SD)] MChS was associated with 39% dementia risk reduction at wave 5 but not wave 13, and association with memory impairment was not significant. Higher traditional SVF scores were associated with 22-29% memory impairment and 35-40% dementia risk reduction. SVF scores were not correlated with either MCS or MChS. Our study suggests that an automated approach to measuring clustering behavior can be used to estimate dementia risk in cognitively normal individuals. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role of route previewing strategies on climbing fluency and exploratory movements.

PubMed

Seifert, Ludovic; Cordier, Romain; Orth, Dominic; Courtine, Yoan; Croft, James L

2017-01-01

This study examined the role of route previewing strategies on climbing fluency and on exploratory movements of the limbs, in order to understand whether previewing helps people to perceive and to realize affordances. Eight inexperienced and ten experienced climbers previewed a 10 m high route of 5b difficulty on French scale, then climbed it with a top-rope as fluently as possible. Gaze behavior was collected from an eye tracking system during the preview and allowed us to determine the number of times they scanned the route, and which of four route previewing strategies (fragmentary, ascending, zigzagging, and sequence-of-blocks) they used. Five inertial measurement units (IMU) (3D accelerometer, 3D gyroscope, 3D magnetometer) were attached to the hip, both feet, and forearms to analyze the vertical acceleration and direction of each limb and hip during the ascent. We were able to detect movement and immobility phases of each IMU using segmentation and classification processes. Depending on whether the limbs and/or hip were moving, five states of behavior were detected: immobility, postural regulation, hold exploration, hold change, and hold traction. Using cluster analysis we identified four clusters of gaze behavior during route previewing depending on route preview duration, number of scan paths, fixations duration, ascending, zigzagging, and sequence-of-blocks strategies. The number of scan paths was positively correlated with relative duration of exploration and negatively correlated with relative duration of hold changes during the ascent. Additionally, a high relative duration of sequence-of-blocks strategy and zigzagging strategy were associated with a high relative duration of immobility during the ascent. Route previewing might help to pick up functional information about reachable, graspable, and usable holds, in order to chain movements together and to find the route. In other words, route previewing might contribute to perceiving and realizing nested affordances.

Achieving Fluency: Special Education and Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fennell, Francis

2011-01-01

"Achieving Fluency" presents the understandings that all teachers need to play a role in the education of students who struggle: those with disabilities and those who simply lack essential foundational knowledge. This book serves teachers and supervisors by sharing increasingly intensive instructional interventions for struggling students on…

Effectiveness of a co-taught handwriting program for first grade students.

PubMed

Case-Smith, Jane; Holland, Terri; White, Susan

2014-02-01

Our study examined the effects of Write Start, a classroom-embedded handwriting/writing program on handwriting and writing fluency for first grade students, co-taught by occupational therapists and teachers. Two first grade classrooms received the Write Start and two received standard handwriting instruction. This co-taught program included specific feedback during handwriting practice, small group activities, student self-evaluation, and peer supports. The students were evaluated on handwriting legibility, fluency, and written expression at baseline, immediately after the program, and 6 months later. When performance was compared between the two groups, the students in the Write Start program improved significantly more in legibility (d = .57) and fluency (d = .75) than students who received standard instruction. Gains in handwriting speed (d = .18), average legibility (d = .26), and written expression (d = .25) did not differ significantly between the two groups. A co-taught, inclusive handwriting/writing program can promote first grade students' achievement of lower case legibility and writing fluency.

Math Error Types and Correlates in Adolescents with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

Capodieci, Agnese; Martinussen, Rhonda

2017-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the types of errors made by youth with and without a parent-reported diagnosis of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on a math fluency task and investigate the association between error types and youths’ performance on measures of processing speed and working memory. Method: Participants included 30 adolescents with ADHD and 39 typically developing peers between 14 and 17 years old matched in age and IQ. All youth completed standardized measures of math calculation and fluency as well as two tests of working memory and processing speed. Math fluency error patterns were examined. Results: Adolescents with ADHD showed less proficient math fluency despite having similar math calculation scores as their peers. Group differences were also observed in error types with youth with ADHD making more switch errors than their peers. Conclusion: This research has important clinical applications for the assessment and intervention on math ability in students with ADHD. PMID:29075227

Stuttering Intervention in Three Service Delivery Models (Direct, Hybrid, and Telepractice): Two Case Studies

PubMed Central

VALENTINE, DANIEL T.

2015-01-01

This study assessed outcomes in stuttering intervention across three service delivery models: direct, hybrid, and telepractice for two 11-year old children who stutter. The goal of the study was to investigate whether short-term goals were maintained through the telepractice sessions. The Stuttering Severity Instrument, Fourth Edition (SSI-4) was administered to each child before and after each intervention period and weekly fluency samples (percentage of stuttered syllables in a monologue) were obtained in each of the 10-week intervention periods. In addition, the Communication Attitudes Test-Revised was used to assess the children’s attitudes toward speaking. Following the telepractice period, parents and children completed a questionnaire concerning the therapy experience via telepractice. Both children continued to improve fluency as measured by the weekly fluency samples. SSI-4 severity ratings improved for one child and remained consistent for the other. These outcomes appear to demonstrate that telepractice is viable for improving and maintaining fluency. PMID:25945229

Improving Science Student Teachers' Self-perceptions of Fluency with Innovative Technologies and Scientific Inquiry Abilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Çalik, Muammer; Ebenezer, Jazlin; Özsevgeç, Tuncay; Küçük, Zeynel; Artun, Hüseyin

2015-08-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of "Environmental Chemistry" elective course via Technology-Embedded Scientific Inquiry (TESI) model on senior science student teachers' (SSSTs) self-perceptions of fluency with innovative technologies (InT) and scientific inquiry abilities. The study was conducted with 117 SSSTs (68 females and 49 males—aged 21-23 years) enrolled in the "Environmental Chemistry" elective course in spring semester of 2011-2012 academic year in a Turkish University. Within a simple (causal) experimental design, Innovative Technology Fluency Survey and the SSSTs' environmental research papers were employed to collect data. The results indicate that the "Environmental Chemistry" elective course via the TESI model improved the SSSTs' self-perceptions of fluency with InT and the scientific inquiry abilities. In light of the results, it is recommended that an undergraduate course for improving the SSSTs' higher-order scientific inquiry abilities and preparing academically papers should be devised and added into the science teacher-training programmes.

Teaching Children to Become Fluent and Automatic Readers

PubMed Central

Kuhn, Melanie R.; Schwanenflugel, Paula J.; Morris, Robin D.; Morrow, Lesley Mandel; Woo, Deborah Gee; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Sevcik, Rose A.; Bradley, Barbara A.; Stahl, Steven A.

2009-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of two instructional approaches designed to improve the reading fluency of 2nd-grade children. The first approach was based on Stahl and Heubach’s (2005) fluency-oriented reading instruction (FORI) and involved the scaffolded, repeated reading of grade-level texts over the course of each week. The second was a wide-reading approach that also involved scaffolded instruction. hut that incorporated the reading of 3 different grade-level texts each week and provicled significantly less opportunity for repetition. By the end of the school year. FORI and wide-reading approaches showed similar benefits for standardized measures of word reading efficiency and reading comprehension skills compared to control approachcs. although the benefits of the wide-reading approach emerged earlier and included oral text reading fluency skill. Thus, we conclude that fluency instruction that emphasizes extensive oral reading of grade-level text using scaffolded approaches is effective for promoting reading development in young learners. PMID:19946472

Math Error Types and Correlates in Adolescents with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Capodieci, Agnese; Martinussen, Rhonda

2017-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the types of errors made by youth with and without a parent-reported diagnosis of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on a math fluency task and investigate the association between error types and youths' performance on measures of processing speed and working memory. Method: Participants included 30 adolescents with ADHD and 39 typically developing peers between 14 and 17 years old matched in age and IQ. All youth completed standardized measures of math calculation and fluency as well as two tests of working memory and processing speed. Math fluency error patterns were examined. Results: Adolescents with ADHD showed less proficient math fluency despite having similar math calculation scores as their peers. Group differences were also observed in error types with youth with ADHD making more switch errors than their peers. Conclusion: This research has important clinical applications for the assessment and intervention on math ability in students with ADHD.

Impairments of speech fluency in Lewy body spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Ash, Sharon; McMillan, Corey; Gross, Rachel G; Cook, Philip; Gunawardena, Delani; Morgan, Brianna; Boller, Ashley; Siderowf, Andrew; Grossman, Murray

2012-03-01

Few studies have examined connected speech in demented and non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We assessed the speech production of 35 patients with Lewy body spectrum disorder (LBSD), including non-demented PD patients, patients with PD dementia (PDD), and patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), in a semi-structured narrative speech sample in order to characterize impairments of speech fluency and to determine the factors contributing to reduced speech fluency in these patients. Both demented and non-demented PD patients exhibited reduced speech fluency, characterized by reduced overall speech rate and long pauses between sentences. Reduced speech rate in LBSD correlated with measures of between-utterance pauses, executive functioning, and grammatical comprehension. Regression analyses related non-fluent speech, grammatical difficulty, and executive difficulty to atrophy in frontal brain regions. These findings indicate that multiple factors contribute to slowed speech in LBSD, and this is mediated in part by disease in frontal brain regions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Competing Cues: Older Adults Rely on Knowledge in the Face of Fluency

PubMed Central

Brashier, Nadia M.; Umanath, Sharda; Cabeza, Roberto; Marsh, Elizabeth J.

2017-01-01

Consumers regularly encounter repeated false claims in political and marketing campaigns, but very little empirical work addresses their impact among older adults. Repeated statements feel easier to process, and thus more truthful, than new ones (i.e., illusory truth). When judging truth, older adults’ accumulated general knowledge may offset this perception of fluency. In two experiments, participants read statements that contradicted information stored in memory; a post-experimental knowledge check confirmed what individual participants knew. Unlike young adults, older adults exhibited illusory truth only when they lacked knowledge about claims. This interaction between knowledge and fluency extends dual-process theories of aging. PMID:28333505

Fluency with Basic Addition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garza-Kling, Gina

2011-01-01

Traditionally, learning basic facts has focused on rote memorization of isolated facts, typically through the use of flash cards, repeated drilling, and timed testing. However, as many experienced teachers have seen, "drill alone does not develop mastery of single-digit combinations." In contrast, a fluency approach to learning basic addition…

Reading Together: A Successful Reading Fluency Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Chase; Mohr, Kathleen A. J.; Rasinski, Timothy

2015-01-01

The article describes a reading fluency intervention called Reading Together that combines the method of repeated readings (Samuels, 1979) and the Neurological Impress Method (Heckelman, 1969). Sixteen volunteers from various backgrounds were recruited and trained to deliver the Reading Together intervention to struggling readers in third through…

Assessing Fluency: Are the Criteria Fair?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liyanage, Indika; Gardner, Rod

2013-01-01

In formal assessments of second-language speakers' fluency, the criteria used frequently fail to differentiate between real disfluency and interactionally effective practices, while superficially disfluent, that help with communication and are used by first language speakers. In this study, we focused on pausing, silences and self-repairs in the…

Repeated Reading. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

2014-01-01

"Repeated reading" is an academic practice that aims to increase oral reading fluency. "Repeated reading" can be used with students who have developed initial word reading skills but demonstrate inadequate reading fluency for their grade level. During "repeated reading," a student sits in a quiet location with a…

Analysis of Speech Fluency in Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rossi, Natalia Freitas; Sampaio, Adriana; Goncalves, Oscar F.; Giacheti, Celia Maria

2011-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder, often referred as being characterized by dissociation between verbal and non-verbal abilities, although the number of studies disputing this proposal is emerging. Indeed, although they have been traditionally reported as displaying increased speech fluency, this topic has not been…

Do Dispositional Characteristics Influence Reading? Examining the Impact of Personality on Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krach, S. Kathleen; McCreery, Michael P.; Loe, Scott A.; Jones, W. Paul

2016-01-01

Previous research demonstrates specific relationships between personality traits and general academic performance. In addition, research studies have demonstrated relationships among personality and variables related to reading fluency (i.e. speed, accuracy, automaticity, and prosody). However, little investigation has examined specific links…

Semantic Verbal Fluency in Two Contrasting Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pekkala, Seija; Goral, Mira; Hyun, JungMoon; Obler, Loraine K.; Erkinjuntti, Timo; Albert, Martin L.

2009-01-01

This cross-linguistic study investigated Semantic Verbal Fluency (SVF) performance in 30 American English-speaking and 30 Finnish-speaking healthy elderly adults with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Despite the different backgrounds of the participant groups, remarkable similarities were found between the groups in the overall SVF…

Read Naturally. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

"Read Naturally" is designed to improve reading fluency using a combination of books, audiotapes, and computer software. According to the developer's web site, this program has three main strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student…

Readers Theatre plus Comprehension and Word Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Chase; Stokes, Faida; Rasinski, Timothy

2017-01-01

Readers Theatre has been used to introduce critical issues, promote fluency among English learners and non-English learners, teach vocabulary, and integrate content in the classroom. Previous studies of Readers Theatre application have demonstrated an increase in student reading fluency, motivation, and confidence. The focus of this systemic…

Early Mathematics Fluency with CCSSM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matney, Gabriel T.

2014-01-01

To develop second-grade students' confidence and ease, this author presents examples of learning tasks (Number of the Day, Word Problem Solving, and Modeling New Mathematical Ideas) that align with Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and that build mathematical fluency to promote students' creative expression of mathematical…

Slowed articulation rate is a sensitive diagnostic marker for identifying non-fluent primary progressive aphasia

PubMed Central

Cordella, Claire; Dickerson, Bradford C.; Quimby, Megan; Yunusova, Yana; Green, Jordan R.

2016-01-01

Background Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative aphasic syndrome with three distinct clinical variants: non-fluent (nfvPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), and semantic (svPPA). Speech (non-) fluency is a key diagnostic marker used to aid identification of the clinical variants, and researchers have been actively developing diagnostic tools to assess speech fluency. Current approaches reveal coarse differences in fluency between subgroups, but often fail to clearly differentiate nfvPPA from the variably fluent lvPPA. More robust subtype differentiation may be possible with finer-grained measures of fluency. Aims We sought to identify the quantitative measures of speech rate—including articulation rate and pausing measures—that best differentiated PPA subtypes, specifically the non-fluent group (nfvPPA) from the more fluent groups (lvPPA, svPPA). The diagnostic accuracy of the quantitative speech rate variables was compared to that of a speech fluency impairment rating made by clinicians. Methods and Procedures Automatic estimates of pause and speech segment durations and rate measures were derived from connected speech samples of participants with PPA (N=38; 11 nfvPPA, 14 lvPPA, 13 svPPA) and healthy age-matched controls (N=8). Clinician ratings of fluency impairment were made using a previously validated clinician rating scale developed specifically for use in PPA. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses enabled a quantification of diagnostic accuracy. Outcomes and Results Among the quantitative measures, articulation rate was the most effective for differentiating between nfvPPA and the more fluent lvPPA and svPPA groups. The diagnostic accuracy of both speech and articulation rate measures was markedly better than that of the clinician rating scale, and articulation rate was the best classifier overall. Area under the curve (AUC) values for articulation rate were good to excellent for identifying nfvPPA from both svPPA (AUC=.96) and lvPPA (AUC=.86). Cross-validation of accuracy results for articulation rate showed good generalizability outside the training dataset. Conclusions Results provide empirical support for (1) the efficacy of quantitative assessments of speech fluency and (2) a distinct non-fluent PPA subtype characterized, at least in part, by an underlying disturbance in speech motor control. The trend toward improved classifier performance for quantitative rate measures demonstrates the potential for a more accurate and reliable approach to subtyping in the fluency domain, and suggests that articulation rate may be a useful input variable as part of a multi-dimensional clinical subtyping approach. PMID:28757671

Semantic fluency in deaf children who use spoken and signed language in comparison with hearing peers

PubMed Central

Jones, A.; Fastelli, A.; Atkinson, J.; Botting, N.; Morgan, G.

2017-01-01

Abstract Background Deafness has an adverse impact on children's ability to acquire spoken languages. Signed languages offer a more accessible input for deaf children, but because the vast majority are born to hearing parents who do not sign, their early exposure to sign language is limited. Deaf children as a whole are therefore at high risk of language delays. Aims We compared deaf and hearing children's performance on a semantic fluency task. Optimal performance on this task requires a systematic search of the mental lexicon, the retrieval of words within a subcategory and, when that subcategory is exhausted, switching to a new subcategory. We compared retrieval patterns between groups, and also compared the responses of deaf children who used British Sign Language (BSL) with those who used spoken English. We investigated how semantic fluency performance related to children's expressive vocabulary and executive function skills, and also retested semantic fluency in the majority of the children nearly 2 years later, in order to investigate how much progress they had made in that time. Methods & Procedures Participants were deaf children aged 6–11 years (N = 106, comprising 69 users of spoken English, 29 users of BSL and eight users of Sign Supported English—SSE) compared with hearing children (N = 120) of the same age who used spoken English. Semantic fluency was tested for the category ‘animals’. We coded for errors, clusters (e.g., ‘pets’, ‘farm animals’) and switches. Participants also completed the Expressive One‐Word Picture Vocabulary Test and a battery of six non‐verbal executive function tasks. In addition, we collected follow‐up semantic fluency data for 70 deaf and 74 hearing children, nearly 2 years after they were first tested. Outcomes & Results Deaf children, whether using spoken or signed language, produced fewer items in the semantic fluency task than hearing children, but they showed similar patterns of responses for items most commonly produced, clustering of items into subcategories and switching between subcategories. Both vocabulary and executive function scores predicted the number of correct items produced. Follow‐up data from deaf participants showed continuing delays relative to hearing children 2 years later. Conclusions & Implications We conclude that semantic fluency can be used experimentally to investigate lexical organization in deaf children, and that it potentially has clinical utility across the heterogeneous deaf population. We present normative data to aid clinicians who wish to use this task with deaf children. PMID:28691260

Evolution of neurocognitive function in long-term survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with chemotherapy only.

PubMed

Liu, Wei; Cheung, Yin Ting; Conklin, Heather M; Jacola, Lisa M; Srivastava, DeoKumar; Nolan, Vikki G; Zhang, Hongmei; Gurney, James G; Huang, I-Chan; Robison, Leslie L; Pui, Ching-Hon; Hudson, Melissa M; Krull, Kevin R

2018-06-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the evolution of neurocognitive problems from therapy completion to long-term follow-up in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with chemotherapy only. We evaluated whether attention problems observed at therapy completion evolve into long-term executive dysfunction in 158 survivors treated on a single institution protocol. Treatment data (high-dose intravenous methotrexate exposure [serum concentration] and triple intrathecal chemotherapy injections) were collected. Parent report of behavior and direct cognitive testing of survivors was conducted at end of therapy, and survivors completed neurocognitive testing when > 5 years post-diagnosis. At the end of chemotherapy, survivors (52% female; mean age 9.2 years) demonstrated higher frequency of impairment in sustained attention (38%) and parent-reported inattention (20%) compared to population expectations (10%). At long-term follow-up, survivors (mean age 13.7 years; 7.6 years post-diagnosis) demonstrated higher impairment in executive function (flexibility 24%, fluency 21%), sustained attention (15%), and processing speed (15%). Sustained attention improved from end of therapy to long-term follow-up (p < 0.001). Higher methotrexate AUC and greater number of intrathecal injections were associated with attention problems (p = 0.009, p = 0.002, respectively) at the end of chemotherapy and executive function (p < 0.001, p = 0.02, respectively) problems at long-term follow-up. Attention problems at the end of therapy were not associated with executive function problems at long-term follow-up (p's > 0.05). The direct effect of chemotherapy exposure predicted outcomes at both time points. Survivors should be monitored for neurocognitive problems well into long-term survivorship, regardless of whether they show attention problems at the end of therapy. Treatment exposures are the best predictor of long-term complications.

Reaction Time Variability Associated with Reading Skills in Poor Readers with ADHD

PubMed Central

Tamm, Leanne; Epstein, Jeffery N.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Vaughn, Aaron J.; Peugh, James; Willcutt, Erik G.

2014-01-01

Objective Linkages between neuropsychological functioning (i.e., response inhibition, processing speed, reaction time variability) and word reading have been documented among children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and children with Reading Disorders. However, associations between neuropsychological functioning and other aspects of reading (i.e., fluency, comprehension) have not been well-documented among children with comorbid ADHD and Reading Disorder. Method Children with ADHD and poor word reading (i.e., ≤25th percentile) completed a stop signal task (SST) and tests of word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Multivariate multiple regression was conducted predicting the reading skills from SST variables [i.e., mean reaction time (MRT), reaction time standard deviation (SDRT), and stop signal reaction time (SSRT)]. Results SDRT predicted word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. MRT and SSRT were not associated with any reading skill. After including word reading in models predicting reading fluency and reading comprehension, the effects of SDRT were minimized. Discussion Reaction time variability (i.e., SDRT) reflects impairments in information processing and failure to maintain executive control. The pattern of results from this study suggest SDRT exerts its effects on reading fluency and reading comprehension through its effect on word reading (i.e., decoding) and that this relation may be related to observed deficits in higher-level elements of reading. PMID:24528537

Top-Down Computerized Cognitive Remediation in Schizophrenia: A Case Study of an Individual with Impairment in Verbal Fluency

PubMed Central

Masson, Marjolaine; Wykes, Til; Maziade, Michel; Reeder, Clare; Gariépy, Marie-Anne; Roy, Marc-André; Ivers, Hans; Cellard, Caroline

2015-01-01

The objective of this case study was to assess the specific effect of cognitive remediation for schizophrenia on the pattern of cognitive impairments. Case A is a 33-year-old man with a schizophrenia diagnosis and impairments in visual memory, inhibition, problem solving, and verbal fluency. He was provided with a therapist delivered cognitive remediation program involving practice and strategy which was designed to train attention, memory, executive functioning, visual-perceptual processing, and metacognitive skills. Neuropsychological and clinical assessments were administered at baseline and after three months of treatment. At posttest assessment, Case A had improved significantly on targeted (visual memory and problem solving) and nontargeted (verbal fluency) cognitive processes. The results of the current case study suggest that (1) it is possible to improve specific cognitive processes with targeted exercises, as seen by the improvement in visual memory due to training exercises targeting this cognitive domain; (2) cognitive remediation can produce improvements in cognitive processes not targeted during remediation since verbal fluency was improved while there was no training exercise on this specific cognitive process; and (3) including learning strategies in cognitive remediation increases the value of the approach and enhances participant improvement, possibly because strategies using verbalization can lead to improvement in verbal fluency even if it was not practiced. PMID:25949840

Emotional Verbal Fluency: A New Task on Emotion and Executive Function Interaction

PubMed Central

Sass, Katharina; Fetz, Karolina; Oetken, Sarah; Habel, Ute; Heim, Stefan

2013-01-01

The present study introduces “Emotional Verbal Fluency” as a novel (partially computerized) task, which is aimed to investigate the interaction between emotionally loaded words and executive functions. Verbal fluency tasks are thought to measure executive functions but the interaction with emotional aspects is hardly investigated. In the current study, a group of healthy subjects (n = 21, mean age 25 years, 76% females) were asked to generate items that are either part of a semantic category (e.g., plants, toys, vehicles; standard semantic verbal fluency) or can trigger the emotions joy, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. The results of the task revealed no differences between performance on semantic and emotional categories, suggesting a comparable task difficulty for healthy subjects. Hence, these first results on the comparison between semantic and emotional verbal fluency seem to highlight that both might be suitable for examining executive functioning. However, an interaction was found between the category type and repetition (first vs. second sequence of the same category) with larger performance decrease for semantic in comparison to emotional categories. Best performance overall was found for the emotional category “joy” suggesting a positivity bias in healthy subjects. To conclude, emotional verbal fluency is a promising approach to investigate emotional components in an executive task, which may stimulate further research, especially in psychiatric patients who suffer from emotional as well as cognitive deficits. PMID:25379243

Event-related potentials indicate that fluency can be interpreted as familiarity.

PubMed

Bruett, Heather; Leynes, P Andrew

2015-11-01

Recent evidence suggests that fluency may be capable of supporting recognition independently of familiarity. This hypothesis was further tested in the present study. 29 participants encoded name-brand and off-brand products in an incidental task. Participants then judged whether the product was old or new during two tests with products from one category (i.e., only name-brand or only off-brand products) and a mixed test (where both name-brand and off-brand products were shown). The ERP data elicited by off-brand products varied as a function of test format. During the mixed test, off-brand products were correlated with a FN400 effect, whereas a fluency ERP (old ERPs were more negative than new at parietal electrodes 225-400ms) was observed during the other test. Importantly, no FN400 was detected during this test. The ERP results suggest that viewing the off-brand products during the mixed test produced a familiarity experience; however, fluency supported recognition when viewing off-brand products on the other test. The results are strong evidence that top-down processing of visual features during recognition interprets the information relative to the context. This process results in either fluency or, in other contexts, it is interpreted as familiarity as the Discrepancy-Attribution Hypothesis (Whittlesea and Williams, 2001a, 2001b) contends. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Genetic and environmental influences on early literacy skills across school grade contexts.

PubMed

Haughbrook, Rasheda; Hart, Sara A; Schatschneider, Christopher; Taylor, Jeanette

2017-09-01

Recent research suggests that the etiology of reading achievement can differ across environmental contexts. In the US, schools are commonly assigned grades (e.g. 'A', 'B') often interpreted to indicate school quality. This study explored differences in the etiology of early literacy skills for students based on these school grades. Participants included twins drawn from the Florida Twin Project on Reading (n = 1313 pairs) aged 4 to 10 years during the 2006-07 school year. Early literacy skills were assessed with DIBELS subtests: Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Initial Sound Fluency (ISF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF). School grade data were retrieved from the Florida Department of Education. Multi-group analyses were conducted separately for subsamples defined by 'A' or 'non-A' schools, controlling for school-level socioeconomic status. Results indicated significant etiological differences on pre-reading skills (ISF, LNF, and PSF), but not word-level reading skills (ORF and NWF). There was a consistent trend of greater environmental influences on pre-reading skills in non-A schools, arguably representing 'poorer' environmental contexts than the A schools. Importantly, this is the case outside of resources linked with school-level SES, indicating that something about the direct environment on pre-reading skills in the non-A school context is more variable than for A schools. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Musical practice and cognitive aging: two cross-sectional studies point to phonemic fluency as a potential candidate for a use-dependent adaptation.

PubMed

Fauvel, Baptiste; Groussard, Mathilde; Mutlu, Justine; Arenaza-Urquijo, Eider M; Eustache, Francis; Desgranges, Béatrice; Platel, Hervé

2014-01-01

Because of permanent use-dependent brain plasticity, all lifelong individuals' experiences are believed to influence the cognitive aging quality. In older individuals, both former and current musical practices have been associated with better verbal skills, visual memory, processing speed, and planning function. This work sought for an interaction between musical practice and cognitive aging by comparing musician and non-musician individuals for two lifetime periods (middle and late adulthood). Long-term memory, auditory-verbal short-term memory, processing speed, non-verbal reasoning, and verbal fluencies were assessed. In Study 1, measures of processing speed and auditory-verbal short-term memory were significantly better performed by musicians compared with controls, but both groups displayed the same age-related differences. For verbal fluencies, musicians scored higher than controls and displayed different age effects. In Study 2, we found that lifetime period at training onset (childhood vs. adulthood) was associated with phonemic, but not semantic, fluency performances (musicians who had started to practice in adulthood did not perform better on phonemic fluency than non-musicians). Current frequency of training did not account for musicians' scores on either of these two measures. These patterns of results are discussed by setting the hypothesis of a transformative effect of musical practice against a non-causal explanation.

Weaknesses in Lexical-Semantic Knowledge Among College Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: Evidence From a Semantic Fluency Task

PubMed Central

McGregor, Karla K.; Oleson, Jacob

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine whether deficits in executive function and lexical-semantic memory compromise the linguistic performance of young adults with specific learning disabilities (LD) enrolled in postsecondary studies. Method One hundred eighty-five students with LD (n = 53) or normal language development (ND, n = 132) named items in the categories animals and food for 1 minute for each category and completed tests of lexical-semantic knowledge and executive control of memory. Groups were compared on total names, mean cluster size, frequency of embedded clusters, frequency of cluster switches, and change in fluency over time. Secondary analyses of variability within the LD group were also conducted. Results The LD group was less fluent than the ND group. Within the LD group, lexical-semantic knowledge predicted semantic fluency and cluster size; executive control of memory predicted semantic fluency and cluster switches. The LD group produced smaller clusters and fewer embedded clusters than the ND group. Groups did not differ in switching or change over time. Conclusions Deficits in the lexical-semantic system associated with LD may persist into young adulthood, even among those who have managed their disability well enough to attend college. Lexical-semantic deficits are associated with compromised semantic fluency, and the two problems are more likely among students with more severe disabilities. PMID:28267833

Weaknesses in Lexical-Semantic Knowledge Among College Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: Evidence From a Semantic Fluency Task.

PubMed

Hall, Jessica; McGregor, Karla K; Oleson, Jacob

2017-03-01

The purpose of this study is to determine whether deficits in executive function and lexical-semantic memory compromise the linguistic performance of young adults with specific learning disabilities (LD) enrolled in postsecondary studies. One hundred eighty-five students with LD (n = 53) or normal language development (ND, n = 132) named items in the categories animals and food for 1 minute for each category and completed tests of lexical-semantic knowledge and executive control of memory. Groups were compared on total names, mean cluster size, frequency of embedded clusters, frequency of cluster switches, and change in fluency over time. Secondary analyses of variability within the LD group were also conducted. The LD group was less fluent than the ND group. Within the LD group, lexical-semantic knowledge predicted semantic fluency and cluster size; executive control of memory predicted semantic fluency and cluster switches. The LD group produced smaller clusters and fewer embedded clusters than the ND group. Groups did not differ in switching or change over time. Deficits in the lexical-semantic system associated with LD may persist into young adulthood, even among those who have managed their disability well enough to attend college. Lexical-semantic deficits are associated with compromised semantic fluency, and the two problems are more likely among students with more severe disabilities.

Frontal Assessment Battery as a Useful Tool to Differentiate Mild Cognitive Impairment due to Subcortical Ischemic Vascular Disease from Alzheimer Disease.

PubMed

Hsu, Yen-Hsuan; Huang, Ching-Feng; Lo, Chung-Ping; Wang, Tzu-Lan; Yang, Chi-Cheng; Tu, Min-Chien

2016-01-01

Prominent executive dysfunction can differentiate vascular dementia from Alzheimer disease (AD). However, it is unclear whether the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) screening tool can differentiate subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) from AD at the pre-dementia stage. In addition, the neural correlates of FAB performance have yet to be clarified. Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to SIVD (MCI-V), MCI due to AD (MCI-A), and demographically matched controls completed the Mini-Mental State Examination, Taiwanese FAB (TFAB), Category Fluency, and Chinese Version of the Verbal Learning Test, and underwent magnetic resonance imaging. White matter hyperintensities were rated according to the Scheltens scale. TFAB total scale and its Orthographical Fluency subtest were the only measures that could differentiate MCI-V from MCI-A. Discriminative analysis showed that Orthographical Fluency scores successfully identified 73.2% of the cases with MCI-V, with 85.0% sensitivity. Orthographical Fluency scores were specifically associated with lesion load within frontal periventricular, frontal deep white matter, and basal ganglia regions. The TFAB, and especially its 1-min Orthographical Fluency subtest, is a useful screening procedure to differentiate MCI due to SIVD from MCI due to AD. The discriminative ability is probably due to frontosubcortical white matter pathologies disproportionately involved in the two disease entities. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Effect of delayed auditory feedback on stuttering with and without central auditory processing disorders.

PubMed

Picoloto, Luana Altran; Cardoso, Ana Cláudia Vieira; Cerqueira, Amanda Venuti; Oliveira, Cristiane Moço Canhetti de

2017-12-07

To verify the effect of delayed auditory feedback on speech fluency of individuals who stutter with and without central auditory processing disorders. The participants were twenty individuals with stuttering from 7 to 17 years old and were divided into two groups: Stuttering Group with Auditory Processing Disorders (SGAPD): 10 individuals with central auditory processing disorders, and Stuttering Group (SG): 10 individuals without central auditory processing disorders. Procedures were: fluency assessment with non-altered auditory feedback (NAF) and delayed auditory feedback (DAF), assessment of the stuttering severity and central auditory processing (CAP). Phono Tools software was used to cause a delay of 100 milliseconds in the auditory feedback. The "Wilcoxon Signal Post" test was used in the intragroup analysis and "Mann-Whitney" test in the intergroup analysis. The DAF caused a statistically significant reduction in SG: in the frequency score of stuttering-like disfluencies in the analysis of the Stuttering Severity Instrument, in the amount of blocks and repetitions of monosyllabic words, and in the frequency of stuttering-like disfluencies of duration. Delayed auditory feedback did not cause statistically significant effects on SGAPD fluency, individuals with stuttering with auditory processing disorders. The effect of delayed auditory feedback in speech fluency of individuals who stutter was different in individuals of both groups, because there was an improvement in fluency only in individuals without auditory processing disorder.

Modification of feeding circuits in the evolution of social behavior.

PubMed

Fischer, Eva K; O'Connell, Lauren A

2017-01-01

Adaptive trade-offs between foraging and social behavior intuitively explain many aspects of individual decision-making. Given the intimate connection between social behavior and feeding/foraging at the behavioral level, we propose that social behaviors are linked to foraging on a mechanistic level, and that modifications of feeding circuits are crucial in the evolution of complex social behaviors. In this Review, we first highlight the overlap between mechanisms underlying foraging and parental care and then expand this argument to consider the manipulation of feeding-related pathways in the evolution of other complex social behaviors. We include examples from diverse taxa to highlight that the independent evolution of complex social behaviors is a variation on the theme of feeding circuit modification. © 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

A behavioral perspective on fishing-induced evolution.

PubMed

Uusi-Heikkilä, Silva; Wolter, Christian; Klefoth, Thomas; Arlinghaus, Robert

2008-08-01

The potential for excessive and/or selective fishing to act as an evolutionary force has been emphasized recently. However, most studies have focused on evolution of life-history traits in response to size-selective harvesting. Here we draw attention to fishing-induced evolution of behavioral and underlying physiological traits. We contend that fishing-induced selection directly acting on behavioral rather than on life-history traits per se can be expected in all fisheries that operate with passive gears such as trapping, angling and gill-netting. Recent artificial selection experiments in the nest-guarding largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides suggest that fishing-induced evolution of behavioral traits that reduce exposure to fishing gear might be maladaptive, potentially reducing natural recruitment. To improve understanding and management of fisheries-induced evolution, we encourage greater application of methods from behavioral ecology, physiological ecology and behavioral genetics.

Oral Reading Fluency with iPods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arens, Karla; Gove, Mary K.; Abate, Ron

2018-01-01

Research suggests that oral reading fluency frees up working memory so readers can focus on the meaning of a text, but traditional instruction in oral reading can be problematic in classrooms with students at different reading levels. Differentiating instruction, providing motivation to practice, as well as timely corrective feedback are practical…