The effect of EBV on WIF1, NLK, and APC gene methylation and expression in gastric carcinoma and nasopharyngeal cancer.

PubMed

Zhao, Zhenzhen; Liu, Wen; Liu, Jincheng; Wang, Jiayi; Luo, Bing

2017-10-01

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an important DNA tumor virus that is associated with approximately 10% of gastric carcinomas and 99% of nasopharyngeal cancers (NPC). DNA methylation and microRNAs (miRNAs) are the most studied epigenetic mechanisms that can prompt disease susceptibility. This study aimed to detect the effect of EBV on Wnt inhibitory factor 1 (WIF1), Nemo-like kinase (NLK), and adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene methylation, and expression in gastric carcinoma and NPC. The WIF1, NLK, and APC gene mRNA expression levels were measured by real-time quantitative RT-PCR in four EBV-positive cell lines and four EBV-negative cell lines. Bisulfite genomic sequencing or methylation-specific PCR was used to detect the methylation status of the WIF1, NLK, and APC promoters. All cell lines were treated with 5-azacytidine (5-aza-dC), miR-BART19-3p mimics or an inhibitor, and analyzed by flow cytometry and MTT cell proliferation assays. The WIF1, NLK, and APC promoters were hypermethylated in all eight cell lines. 5-Aza-dC displayed a growth inhibitory effect on cells . After transfection with miR-BART19-3p mimics, the expression of WIF1, and APC decreased, and the cellular proliferation rate increased. After transfection with the miR-BART19-3p inhibitor, the expression levels were higher, and the cell growth was inhibited. In the NPC and GC cell lines, the promoters of WIF1, NLK, and APC are highly methylated, and the expression of these three genes is regulated by miR-BART19-3p. The activity of the Wnt pathway in EBV-associated tumors may be enhanced by miR-BART19-3p. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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.

WIF1 re-expression in glioblastoma inhibits migration through attenuation of non-canonical WNT signaling by downregulating the lncRNA MALAT1.

PubMed

Vassallo, I; Zinn, P; Lai, M; Rajakannu, P; Hamou, M-F; Hegi, M E

2016-01-07

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor in adults and due to the invasive nature cannot be completely removed. The WNT inhibitory factor 1 (WIF1), a secreted inhibitor of WNTs, is systematically downregulated in glioblastoma and acts as strong tumor suppressor. The aim of this study was the dissection of WIF1-associated tumor-suppressing effects mediated by canonical and non-canonical WNT signaling. We found that WIF1 besides inhibiting the canonical WNT pathway selectively downregulates the WNT/calcium pathway associated with significant reduction of p38-MAPK (p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase) phosphorylation. Knockdown of WNT5A, the only WNT ligand overexpressed in glioblastoma, phenocopied this inhibitory effect. WIF1 expression inhibited cell migration in vitro and in an orthotopic brain tumor model, in accordance with the known regulatory function of the WNT/Ca(2+) pathway on migration and invasion. In search of a mediator for this function differential gene expression profiles of WIF1-expressing cells were performed. Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), a long non-coding RNA and key positive regulator of invasion, emerged as the top downregulated gene. Indeed, knockdown of MALAT1 reduced migration in glioblastoma cells, without effect on proliferation. Hence, loss of WIF1 enhances the migratory potential of glioblastoma through WNT5A that activates the WNT/Ca(2+) pathway and MALAT1. These data suggest the involvement of canonical and non-canonical WNT pathways in glioblastoma promoting key features associated with this deadly disease, proliferation on one hand and invasion on the other. Successful targeting will require a dual strategy affecting both canonical and non-canonical WNT pathways.

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

MODIS and SeaWIFS on-orbit lunar calibration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sun, Jielun; Eplee, R.E.; Xiong, X.; Stone, T.; Meister, G.; McClain, C.R.

2008-01-01

The Moon plays an important role in the radiometric stability monitoring of the NASA Earth Observing System's (EOS) remote sensors. The MODIS and SeaWIFS are two of the key instruments for NASA's EOS missions. The MODIS Protoflight Model (PFM) on-board the Terra spacecraft and the MODIS Flight Model 1 (FM1) on-board the Aqua spacecraft were launched on December 18, 1999 and May 4, 2002, respectively. They view the Moon through the Space View (SV) port approximately once a month to monitor the long-term radiometric stability of their Reflective Solar Bands (RSB). SeaWIFS was launched on-board the OrbView-2 spacecraft on August 1, 1997. The SeaWiFS lunar calibrations are obtained once a month at a nominal phase angle of 7??. The lunar irradiance observed by these instruments depends on the viewing geometry. The USGS photometric model of the Moon (the ROLO model) has been developed to provide the geometric corrections for the lunar observations. For MODIS, the lunar view responses with corrections for the viewing geometry are used to track the gain change for its reflective solar bands (RSB). They trend the system response degradation at the Angle Of Incidence (AOI) of sensor's SV port. With both the lunar observation and the on-board Solar Diffuser (SD) calibration, it is shown that the MODIS system response degradation is wavelength, mirror side, and AOI dependent. Time-dependent Response Versus Scan angle (RVS) Look-Up Tables (LUT) are applied in MODIS RSB calibration and lunar observations play a key role in RVS derivation. The corrections provided by the RVS in the Terra and Aqua MODIS data from the 412 nm band are as large as 16% and 13%, respectively. For SeaWIFS lunar calibrations, the spacecraft is pitched across the Moon so that the instrument views the Moon near nadir through the same optical path as it views the Earth. The SeaWiFS system gain changes for its eight bands are calibrated using the geometrically-corrected lunar observations. The radiometric

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…

Examining the Predictive Validity of a Dynamic Assessment of Decoding to Forecast Response Tier 2 to Intervention

PubMed Central

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Doug; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Bouton, Bobette

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding in predicting responsiveness to Tier 2 small group tutoring in a response-to-intervention model. First-grade students (n=134) who did not show adequate progress in Tier 1 based on 6 weeks of progress monitoring received Tier 2 small-group tutoring in reading for 14 weeks. Student responsiveness to Tier 2 was assessed weekly with word identification fluency (WIF). A series of conditional individual growth curve analyses were completed that modeled the correlates of WIF growth (final level of performance and growth). Its purpose was to examine the predictive validity of DA in the presence of 3 sets of variables: static decoding measures, Tier 1 responsiveness indicators, and pre-reading variables (phonemic awareness, rapid letter naming, oral vocabulary, and IQ). DA was a significant predictor of final level and growth, uniquely explaining 3% – 13% of the variance in Tier 2 responsiveness depending on the competing predictors in the model and WIF outcome (final level of performance or growth). Although the additional variances explained uniquely by DA were relatively small, results indicate the potential of DA in identifying Tier 2 nonresponders. PMID:23213050

Examining the predictive validity of a dynamic assessment of decoding to forecast response to tier 2 intervention.

PubMed

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L; Fuchs, Douglas; Fuchs, Lynn S; Bouton, Bobette

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding in predicting responsiveness to Tier 2 small-group tutoring in a response-to-intervention model. First grade students (n = 134) who did not show adequate progress in Tier 1 based on 6 weeks of progress monitoring received Tier 2 small-group tutoring in reading for 14 weeks. Student responsiveness to Tier 2 was assessed weekly with word identification fluency (WIF). A series of conditional individual growth curve analyses were completed that modeled the correlates of WIF growth (final level of performance and growth). Its purpose was to examine the predictive validity of DA in the presence of three sets of variables: static decoding measures, Tier 1 responsiveness indicators, and prereading variables (phonemic awareness, rapid letter naming, oral vocabulary, and IQ). DA was a significant predictor of final level and growth, uniquely explaining 3% to 13% of the variance in Tier 2 responsiveness depending on the competing predictors in the model and WIF outcome (final level of performance or growth). Although the additional variances explained uniquely by DA were relatively small, results indicate the potential of DA in identifying Tier 2 nonresponders. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Characteristics of Fluency and Speech in Two Families with High Incidences of Stuttering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stager, Sheila V.; 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…

Predictive ability of the Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system following infrapopliteal endovascular interventions for critical limb ischemia.

PubMed

Darling, Jeremy D; McCallum, John C; Soden, Peter A; Meng, Yifan; Wyers, Mark C; Hamdan, Allen D; Verhagen, Hence J; Schermerhorn, Marc L

2016-09-01

The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Lower Extremity Guidelines Committee has composed a new threatened lower extremity classification system that reflects the three major factors that impact amputation risk and clinical management: Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI). Our goal was to evaluate the predictive ability of this scale following any infrapopliteal endovascular intervention for critical limb ischemia (CLI). From 2004 to 2014, a single institution, retrospective chart review was performed at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for all patients undergoing an infrapopliteal angioplasty for CLI. Throughout these years, 673 limbs underwent an infrapopliteal endovascular intervention for tissue loss (77%), rest pain (13%), stenosis of a previously treated vessel (5%), acute limb ischemia (3%), or claudication (2%). Limbs missing a grade in any WIfI component were excluded. Limbs were stratified into clinical stages 1 to 4 based on the SVS WIfI classification for 1-year amputation risk, as well as a novel WIfI composite score from 0 to 9. Outcomes included patient functional capacity, living status, wound healing, major amputation, major adverse limb events, reintervention, major amputation, or stenosis (RAS) events (> ×3.5 step-up by duplex), amputation-free survival, and mortality. Predictors were identified using Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and Cox regression models. Of the 596 limbs with CLI, 551 were classified in all three WIfI domains on a scale of 0 (least severe) to 3 (most severe). Of these 551, 84% were treated for tissue loss and 16% for rest pain. A Cox regression model illustrated that an increase in clinical stage increases the rate of major amputation (hazard ratio [HR], 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.3). Separate regression models showed that a one-unit increase in the WIfI composite score is associated with a decrease in wound healing (HR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4) and an increase in the rate of RAS events (HR, 1

Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, foot Infection (WIfI) score correlates with the intensity of multimodal limb treatment and patient-centered outcomes in patients with threatened limbs managed in a limb preservation center.

PubMed

Robinson, William P; Loretz, Lorraine; Hanesian, Colleen; Flahive, Julie; Bostrom, John; Lunig, Nicholas; Schanzer, Andres; Messina, Louis

2017-08-01

The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, foot Infection (WIfI) system aims to stratify threatened limbs according to their anticipated natural history and estimate the likelihood of benefit from revascularization, but whether it accurately stratifies outcomes in limbs undergoing aggressive treatment for limb salvage is unknown. We investigated whether the WIfI stage correlated with the intensity of limb treatment required and patient-centered outcomes. We stratified limbs from a prospectively maintained database of consecutive patients referred to a limb preservation center according to WIfI stage (October 2013-May 2015). Comorbidities, multimodal limb treatment, including foot operations and revascularization, and patient-centered outcomes (wound healing, limb salvage, amputation-free survival, maintenance of ambulatory and independent living status, and mortality) were compared among WIfI stages. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors of wound healing and limb salvage. We identified 280 threatened limbs encompassing all WIfI stages in 257 consecutive patients: stage 1, 48 (17%); stage 2, 67 (24%); stage 3, 64 (23%); stage 4, 83 (30%); and stage 5 (unsalvageable), 18 (6%). Operative foot débridement, minor amputation, and use of revascularization increased with increasing WIfI stage (P ≤ .04). Revascularization was performed in 106 limbs (39%), with equal use of open and endovascular procedures. Over a median follow-up of 209 days (interquartile range, 95, 340) days, 1-year Kaplan-Meier wound healing cumulative incidence was 71%, and the proportion with complete wound healing decreased with increasing WIfI stage. Major amputation was required in 26 stage 1 to 4 limbs (10%). Increasing WIfI stage was associated with decreased 1-year Kaplan-Meier limb salvage (stage 1: 96%, stage 2: 84%, stage 3: 90%, and stage 4: 78%; P = .003) and amputation-free survival (P = .006). Stage 4 WIfI independently predicted amputation (hazard ratio

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system correlates with cost of care for diabetic foot ulcers treated in a multidisciplinary setting.

PubMed

Hicks, Caitlin W; Canner, Joseph K; Karagozlu, Hikmet; Mathioudakis, Nestoras; Sherman, Ronald L; Black, James H; Abularrage, Christopher J

2018-05-01

We have previously demonstrated that the Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification correlates with wound healing time in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) treated in a multidisciplinary setting. Our aim was to assess whether the charges and costs associated with DFU care increase with higher WIfI stages. All patients presenting to our multidisciplinary diabetic limb preservation service from June 2012 to June 2016 were enrolled in a prospective database. Inpatient and outpatient charges, costs, and total revenue from initial visit until complete wound healing were compared for wounds stratified by WIfI classification. A total of 319 wound episodes in 248 patients were captured, including 31% WIfI stage 1, 16% stage 2, 30% stage 3, and 24% stage 4 wounds. Limb salvage at 1 year was 95% ± 2%, and wound healing was achieved in 85% ± 2%. The mean number of overall inpatient admissions (stage 1, 2.07 ± 0.48 vs stage 4, 3.40 ± 0.27; P < .001), procedure-related admissions (stage 1, 1.86 ± 0.45 vs stage 4, 2.28 ± 0.24; P < .001), and inpatient vascular interventions (stage 1, 0.14 ± 0.10 vs stage 4, 0.80 ± 0.12; P < .001) increased significantly with increasing WIfI stage. There were no significant differences in mean number of inpatient podiatric interventions or outpatient procedures between groups (P ≥ .10). The total cost of care per wound episode increased progressively from stage 1 ($3995 ± $1047) to stage 4 ($50,546 ± $4887) wounds (P < .001). Inpatient costs were significantly higher for advanced stage wounds (stage 1, $21,296 ± $4445 vs stage 4, $54,513 ± $5001; P < .001), whereas outpatient procedure costs were not significantly different between groups (P = .72). Overall, hospital total revenue increased with increasing WIfI stage (stage 1, $4182 ± $1185 vs stage 4, $55,790 ± $5540; P < .002). Increasing WIfI stage is associated with a prolonged wound healing time, a

Outcomes of Critical Limb Ischemia in Hemodialysis Patients After Distal Bypass Surgery　- Poor Limb Prognosis With Stage 4 Wound, Ischemia, and Foot Infection (WIfI).

PubMed

Hoshina, Katsuyuki; Yamamoto, Kota; Miyata, Tetsuro; Watanabe, Toshiaki

2016-10-25

Distal bypass is the first-line treatment for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI). In Japanese high-volume centers, approximately half of these patients are on hemodialysis (HD). We have treated such patients first with bypass using a multidisciplinary perioperative strategy. We reveal the recent characteristics of patients who underwent distal bypass and the surgical outcomes in Japan, especially focusing on the foot conditions by using the wound, ischemia, and foot infection (WIfI) classification.Methods and Results:The 152 patients underwent distal bypass in a tertiary center hospital, and we compared patients on HD (HD group) to those not on HD (non-HD group). There were significant differences between the 2 groups in the overall survival, major adverse cardiac event-free survival and amputation-free survival (AFS) rates (P<0.0001). The procedural outcomes were analyzed via primary and secondary patency, and there was no difference. In the subanalysis of limb status using WIfI stage, the AFS rate of the HD group was significantly worse than that of the non-HD group for WIfI stage 4 patients. The life and limb prognoses of patients with CLI and HD were worse than those of non-HD patients. There was no difference in surgical outcomes suggested by the graft patency rates between the 2 groups. AFS in WIfI stage 4 was significantly worse in the HD group, which indicated the importance of preoperative limb status. (Circ J 2016; 80: 2382-2387).

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…

The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system predicts wound healing but not major amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulcers treated in a multidisciplinary setting.

PubMed

Mathioudakis, Nestoras; Hicks, Caitlin W; Canner, Joseph K; Sherman, Ronald L; Hines, Kathryn F; Lum, Ying W; Perler, Bruce A; Abularrage, Christopher J

2017-06-01

The Society for Vascular Surgery Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) threatened limb classification has been shown to correlate well with risk of major amputation and time to wound healing in heterogeneous diabetic and nondiabetic populations. Major amputation continues to plague the most severe stage 4 WIfI patients, with 1-year amputation rates of 20% to 64%. Our aim was to determine the association between WIfI stage and wound healing and major amputation among patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) treated in a multidisciplinary setting. All patients presenting to our multidisciplinary DFU clinic from July 2012 to December 2015 were enrolled in a prospective database. Wound healing and major amputation were compared for patients stratified by WIfI classification. There were 217 DFU patients with 439 wounds (mean age, 58.3 ± 0.8 years; 58% male, 63% black) enrolled, including 28% WIfI stage 1, 11% stage 2, 33% stage 3, and 28% stage 4. Peripheral arterial disease and dialysis were more common in patients with advanced (stage 3 or 4) wounds (P ≤ .05). Demographics of the patients, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities were otherwise similar between groups. There was a significant increase in the number of active wounds per limb at presentation with increasing WIfI stage (stage 1, 1.1 ± 0.1; stage 4, 1.4 ± 0.1; P = .03). Mean wound area (stage 1, 2.6 ± 0.6 cm 2 ; stage 4, 15.3 ± 2.8 cm 2 ) and depth (stage 1, 0.2 ± 0.0 cm; stage 4, 0.8 ± 0.1 cm) also increased progressively with increasing wound stage (P < .001). Minor amputations (stage 1, 18%; stage 4, 56%) and revascularizations (stage 1, 6%; stage 4, 55%) were more common with increasing WIfI stage (P < .001). On Kaplan-Meier analysis, WIfI classification was predictive of wound healing (P < .001) but not of major amputation (P = .99). For stage 4 wounds, the mean wound healing time was 190 ± 17 days, and risk of major amputation at 1 year was 5.7% ± 3.2%. Among

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.

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.

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 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…

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.

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…

A Single-System Account of the Relationship between Priming, Recognition, and Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Christopher J.; Shanks, David R.; Henson, Richard N. A.

2008-01-01

A single-system computational model of priming and recognition was applied to studies that have looked at the relationship between priming, recognition, and fluency in continuous identification paradigms. The model was applied to 3 findings that have been interpreted as evidence for a multiple-systems account: (a) priming can occur for items not…

The Relationship Between Reading Fluency and Vocabulary in Fifth Grade Turkish Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kasim; Rasinski, Timothy; Ates, Seyit; Fitzgerald, Shawn; Zimmerman, Belinda; Yildiz, Mustafa

2014-01-01

Reading fluency has traditionally been recognized as a competency associated with word recognition and comprehension. As readers become more automatic in word identification they are able to devote less attention and cognitive resources to word decoding and more to text comprehension. The act of reading itself has been associated with growth in…

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.

Specialty Board on Fluency Disorders

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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…

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.

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

The Society for Vascular Surgery lower extremity threatened limb classification system based on Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) correlates with risk of major amputation and time to wound healing.

PubMed

Zhan, Luke X; Branco, Bernardino C; Armstrong, David G; Mills, Joseph L

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the new Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system correlates with important clinical outcomes for limb salvage and wound healing. A total of 201 consecutive patients with threatened limbs treated from 2010 to 2011 in an academic medical center were analyzed. These patients were stratified into clinical stages 1 to 4 on the basis of the SVS WIfI classification. The SVS objective performance goals of major amputation, 1-year amputation-free survival (AFS) rate, and wound healing time (WHT) according to WIfI clinical stages were compared. The mean age was 58 years (79% male, 93% with diabetes). Forty-two patients required major amputation (21%); 159 (78%) had limb salvage. The amputation group had a significantly higher prevalence of advanced stage 4 patients (P < .001), whereas the limb salvage group presented predominantly as stages 1 to 3. Patients in clinical stages 3 and 4 had a significantly higher incidence of amputation (P < .001), decreased AFS (P < .001), and delayed WHT (P < .002) compared with those in stages 1 and 2. Among patients presenting with stage 3, primarily as a result of wound and ischemia grades, revascularization resulted in accelerated WHT (P = .008). These data support the underlying concept of the SVS WIfI, that an appropriate classification system correlates with important clinical outcomes for limb salvage and wound healing. As the clinical stage progresses, the risk of major amputation increases, 1-year AFS declines, and WHT is prolonged. We further demonstrated benefit of revascularization to improve WHT in selected patients, especially those in stage 3. Future efforts are warranted to incorporate the SVS WIfI classification into clinical decision-making algorithms in conjunction with a comorbidity index and anatomic classification. Copyright © 2015 Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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…

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…

Conceptual fluency increases recollection: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

PubMed Central

Wang, Wei; Li, Bingbing; Gao, Chuanji; Xu, Huifang; Guo, Chunyan

2015-01-01

It is widely established that fluency can contribute to recognition memory. Previous studies have found that enhanced fluency increases familiarity, but not recollection. The present study was motivated by a previous finding that conceptual priming affected recollection. We used event-related potentials to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of these effects with conceptually related two-character Chinese words. We found that previous conceptual priming effects on conceptual fluency only increased the incidence of recollection responses. We also found that enhanced conceptual fluency was associated with N400 attenuation, which was also correlated with the behavioral indicator of recollection. These results suggest that the N400 effect might be related to the impact of conceptual fluency on recollection recognition. These study findings provide further evidence for the relationship between fluency and recollection. PMID:26175678

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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

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…

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,…

Stroop interference associated with efficient reading fluency and prelexical orthographic processing.

PubMed

Mano, Quintino R; Williamson, Brady J; Pae, Hye K; Osmon, David C

2016-01-01

The Stroop Color-Word Test involves a dynamic interplay between reading and executive functioning that elicits intuitions of word reading automaticity. One such intuition is that strong reading skills (i.e., more automatized word reading) play a disruptive role within the test, contributing to Stroop interference. However, evidence has accumulated that challenges this intuition. The present study examined associations among Stroop interference, reading skills (i.e., isolated word identification, grapheme-to-phoneme mapping, phonemic awareness, reading fluency) measured on standardized tests, and orthographic skills measured on experimental computerized tasks. Among university students (N = 152), correlational analyses showed greater Stroop interference to be associated with (a) relatively low scores on all standardized reading tests, and (b) longer response latencies on orthographic tasks. Hierarchical regression demonstrated that reading fluency and prelexical orthographic processing predicted unique and significant variance in Stroop interference beyond baseline rapid naming. Results suggest that strong reading skills, including orthographic processing, play a supportive role in resolving Stroop interference.

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…

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.

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.

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

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,…

[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.

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…

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 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

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.

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…

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…

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

[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.

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

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…

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.

Perceptual fluency and judgments of vocal aesthetics and stereotypicality.

PubMed

Babel, Molly; McGuire, Grant

2015-05-01

Research has shown that processing dynamics on the perceiver's end determine aesthetic pleasure. Specifically, typical objects, which are processed more fluently, are perceived as more attractive. We extend this notion of perceptual fluency to judgments of vocal aesthetics. Vocal attractiveness has traditionally been examined with respect to sexual dimorphism and the apparent size of a talker, as reconstructed from the acoustic signal, despite evidence that gender-specific speech patterns are learned social behaviors. In this study, we report on a series of three experiments using 60 voices (30 females) to compare the relationship between judgments of vocal attractiveness, stereotypicality, and gender categorization fluency. Our results indicate that attractiveness and stereotypicality are highly correlated for female and male voices. Stereotypicality and categorization fluency were also correlated for male voices, but not female voices. Crucially, stereotypicality and categorization fluency interacted to predict attractiveness, suggesting the role of perceptual fluency is present, but nuanced, in judgments of human voices. © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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…

Validation of the Wound, Ischemia, foot Infection (WIfI) classification system in nondiabetic patients treated by endovascular means for critical limb ischemia.

PubMed

Beropoulis, Efthymios; Stavroulakis, Konstantinos; Schwindt, Arne; Stachmann, Arne; Torsello, Giovanni; Bisdas, Theodosios

2016-07-01

The Society for Vascular Surgery Lower Extremity Guidelines Committee developed the Wound, Ischemia, foot Infection (WIfI) a classification system to predict the amputation risk in patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI). A number of published studies have already evaluated its prognostic value. However, most of the included patients were diabetic, and the validation was done independent of the revascularization procedure. This single-center study evaluated the prognostic value of WIfI stages in nondiabetic patients treated by endovascular means. A retrospective analysis was performed of prospectively collected data of nondiabetic patients treated by endovascular means between January 2013 and September 2014. All patients were classified according to their wound status, ischemia index, and extent of foot infection to four classes: very low risk, low risk, moderate risk, and high risk. Comorbidities and vascular lesions for each group were analyzed. The prognostic value of WIfI was analyzed based on the amputation-free survival, overall survival rate, and freedom from amputation at 12 months. Data from 302 CLI patients treated in the study period were reviewed. A total of 219 patients (73%) underwent an endovascular intervention, and among them, 126 nondiabetic patients (58%) were enrolled in this study. Most patients were classified as low risk (33%), and the prevalence of very low-risk, moderate-risk, and very high-risk patients was 23%, 23%, and 21%, respectively. The modified Edifoligide for the Prevention of Infrainguinal Vein Graft Failure (PREVENT III) score was statistically significantly higher in the high-risk group (5.2 ± 2.4) than in the very low-risk, low-risk, and moderate-risk groups (4.3 ± 2.5, 3.5 ± 2.3, 4.5 ± 2.2, respectively; P = .048). One major amputation (1%) was performed during the hospital stay in a high-risk patient. Mean follow-up was 14 ± 8 months. The amputation-free survival at 12 months was 87%, 81%, 81%, and 62%, in

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…

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,…

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.

Fluency variation in adolescents.

PubMed

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

2007-10-01

The Speech Fluency Profile of fluent adolescent speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, were examined with respect to gender and neurolinguistic variations. Speech samples of 130 male and female adolescents, aged between 12;0 and 17;11 years were gathered. They were analysed according to type of speech disruption; speech rate; and frequency of speech disruptions. Statistical analysis did not find significant differences between genders for the variables studied. However, regarding the phases of adolescence (early: 12;0-14;11 years; late: 15;0-17;11 years), statistical differences were observed for all of the variables. As for neurolinguistic maturation, a decrease in the number of speech disruptions and an increase in speech rate occurred during the final phase of adolescence, indicating that the maturation of the motor and linguistic processes exerted an influence over the fluency profile of speech.

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…

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…

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.)

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

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;…

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,…

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

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…

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.

Carry-over fluency induced by extreme prolongations: A new behavioral paradigm.

PubMed

Briley, P M; Barnes, M P; Kalinowski, J S

2016-04-01

Extreme prolongations, which can be generated via extreme delayed auditory feedback (DAF) (e.g., 250-500 ms) or mediated cognitively with timing applications (e.g., analog stopwatch) at 2 s per syllable, have long been behavioral techniques used to inhibit stuttering. Some therapies have used this rate solely to establish initial fluency, while others use extremely slowed speech to establish fluency and add other strategic techniques such as easy onsets and diaphragmatic breathing. Extreme prolongations generate effective, efficient, and immediate forward flowing fluent speech, removing the signature behaviors of discrete stuttering (i.e., syllable repetitions and audible and inaudible postural fixations). Prolonged use of extreme prolongations establishes carry-over fluency, which is spontaneous, effortless speech absent of most, if not all, overt and covert manifestations of stuttering. The creation of this immediate fluency and the immense potential of extreme prolongations to generate long periods of carry-over fluency have been overlooked by researchers and clinicians alike. Clinicians depart from these longer prolongation durations as they attempt to achieve the same fluent results at a near normal rate of speech. Clinicians assume they are re-teaching fluency and slow rates will give rise to more normal rates with less control, but without carry-over fluency, controls and cognitive mediation are always needed for the inherently unstable speech systems of persons who stutter to experience fluent speech. The assumption being that the speech system is untenable without some level of cognitive and motoric monitoring that is always necessary. The goal is omnipresent "near normal rate sounding fluency" with continuous mediation via cognitive and motoric processes. This pursuit of "normal sounding fluency" continues despite ever-present relapse. Relapse has become so common that acceptance of stuttering is the new therapy modality because relapse has come to be

Designing persuasive health materials using processing fluency: a literature review.

PubMed

Okuhara, Tsuyoshi; Ishikawa, Hirono; Okada, Masahumi; Kato, Mio; Kiuchi, Takahiro

2017-06-08

Health materials to promote health behaviors should be readable and generate favorable evaluations of the message. Processing fluency (the subjective experience of ease with which people process information) has been increasingly studied over the past decade. In this review, we explore effects and instantiations of processing fluency and discuss the implications for designing effective health materials. We searched seven online databases using "processing fluency" as the key word. In addition, we gathered relevant publications using reference snowballing. We included published records that were written in English and applicable to the design of health materials. We found 40 articles that were appropriate for inclusion. Various instantiations of fluency have a uniform effect on human judgment: fluently processed stimuli generate positive judgments (e.g., liking, confidence). Processing fluency is used to predict the effort needed for a given task; accordingly, it has an impact on willingness to undertake the task. Physical perceptual, lexical, syntactic, phonological, retrieval, and imagery fluency were found to be particularly relevant to the design of health materials. Health-care professionals should consider the use of a perceptually fluent design, plain language, numeracy with an appropriate degree of precision, a limited number of key points, and concrete descriptions that make recipients imagine healthy behavior. Such fluently processed materials that are easy to read and understand have enhanced perspicuity and persuasiveness.

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…

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…

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

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.

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.

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…

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 &…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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.

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

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…

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.

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,…

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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…

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

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.

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…

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,…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

A Brief Report of the Diagnostic Accuracy of Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Inventory Levels for Reading Failure Risk among Second- and Third-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, David C.; Zaslofsky, Anne F.; Burns, Matthew K.; Kanive, Rebecca; Hodgson, Jennifer; Scholin, Sarah E.; Klingbeil, David A.

2015-01-01

The availability of psychometrically sound and usable universal screeners is a key component to successful early identification within a response-to-intervention model. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of oral reading fluency (ORF) and an informal reading inventory for identifying students considered at risk for…

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…

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…

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)…

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 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…

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

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

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.

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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.

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).

VBOT: Motivating computational and complex systems fluencies with constructionist virtual/physical robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berland, Matthew W.

As scientists use the tools of computational and complex systems theory to broaden science perspectives (e.g., Bar-Yam, 1997; Holland, 1995; Wolfram, 2002), so can middle-school students broaden their perspectives using appropriate tools. The goals of this dissertation project are to build, study, evaluate, and compare activities designed to foster both computational and complex systems fluencies through collaborative constructionist virtual and physical robotics. In these activities, each student builds an agent (e.g., a robot-bird) that must interact with fellow students' agents to generate a complex aggregate (e.g., a flock of robot-birds) in a participatory simulation environment (Wilensky & Stroup, 1999a). In a participatory simulation, students collaborate by acting in a common space, teaching each other, and discussing content with one another. As a result, the students improve both their computational fluency and their complex systems fluency, where fluency is defined as the ability to both consume and produce relevant content (DiSessa, 2000). To date, several systems have been designed to foster computational and complex systems fluencies through computer programming and collaborative play (e.g., Hancock, 2003; Wilensky & Stroup, 1999b); this study suggests that, by supporting the relevant fluencies through collaborative play, they become mutually reinforcing. In this work, I will present both the design of the VBOT virtual/physical constructionist robotics learning environment and a comparative study of student interaction with the virtual and physical environments across four middle-school classrooms, focusing on the contrast in systems perspectives differently afforded by the two environments. In particular, I found that while performance gains were similar overall, the physical environment supported agent perspectives on aggregate behavior, and the virtual environment supported aggregate perspectives on agent behavior. The primary research questions

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…

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…

On Known Unknowns: Fluency and the Neural Mechanisms of Illusory Truth

PubMed Central

Wang, Wei-Chun; Brashier, Nadia M.; Wing, Erik A.; Marsh, Elizabeth J.; Cabeza, Roberto

2016-01-01

The “illusory truth” effect refers to the phenomenon whereby repetition of a statement increases its likelihood of being judged true. This phenomenon has important implications for how we come to believe oft-repeated information that may be misleading or unknown. Behavioral evidence indicates that fluency or the subjective ease experienced while processing a statement underlies this effect. This suggests that illusory truth should be mediated by brain regions previously linked to fluency, such as the perirhinal cortex (PRC). To investigate this possibility, we scanned participants with fMRI while they rated the truth of unknown statements, half of which were presented earlier (i.e., repeated). The only brain region that showed an interaction between repetition and ratings of perceived truth was PRC, where activity increased with truth ratings for repeated, but not for new, statements. This finding supports the hypothesis that illusory truth is mediated by a fluency mechanism and further strengthens the link between PRC and fluency. PMID:26765947

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.

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…

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;…

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…

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…

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.

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.

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

Number Strings: Daily Computational Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lambert, Rachel; Imm, Kara; Williams, Dina A.

2017-01-01

In this article, the authors illustrate how the practice of number strings--used regularly in a classroom community--can simultaneously support computational fluency and building conceptual understanding. Specifically, the authors will demonstrate how a lesson about multi-digit addition (CCSSM 2NBT.B.5) can simultaneously serve as an invitation to…

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…

Frontal and temporal lobe involvement on verbal fluency measures in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Lepow, Lauren; Van Sweringen, James; Strutt, Adriana M; Jawaid, Ali; MacAdam, Claire; Harati, Yadollah; Schulz, Paul E; York, Michele K

2010-11-01

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been associated with changes in frontal and temporal lobe-mediated cognitive and behavioral functions. Verbal fluency, a sensitive measure to these changes, was utilized to investigate phonemic and semantic abilities in 49 ALS patients and 25 healthy controls (HCs). A subset of the ALS patients was classified as ALS-intact, ALS with mild cognitive impairments (ALS-mild), and ALS with fronto-temporal dementia (ALS-FTD) based on a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Clustering and switching, the underlying component processes of verbal fluency, were analyzed using Troyer's (Troyer, Moscovitch, & Winocur, 1997) and Abwender's (Abwender, Swan, Bowerman, & Connolly, 2001) scoring systems. ALS patients exhibited decreased fluency versus HCs. For phonemic fluency, the intact ALS sample generated fewer clusters and more switches than the ALS-mild and ALS-FTD patients using both scoring systems. This suggests temporal involvement in ALS patients, with increasing frontal lobe involvement in patients with greater cognitive dysfunction. For semantic fluency, similar results were obtained with a greater emphasis on declines in clustering or increased temporal lobe dysfunction. These results suggest that verbal fluency measures identify frontal and temporal lobe involvement in the cognitive decline associated with ALS, particularly when the component processes are evaluated. The clinical utility of these scoring systems with ALS patients is also discussed.

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…

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…

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.

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

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.

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…

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…

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…

Increasing Reading Fluency Performance of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanway Kalis, Tara M.

2012-01-01

Reading fluency has been identified as one of the essential skills students must develop in order to learn to read. Fluency is also a critical factor in reading comprehension (National Reading Panel [NRP], 2000). Many students, however, lack the ability to read age-appropriate materials fluently, including students with emotional and behavioral…

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.

Word Fluency: A Task Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laine, Matti

It is suggested that models of human problem solving are useful in the analysis of word fluency (WF) test performance. In problem-solving terms, WF tasks would require the subject to define and clarify the conditions of the task (task acquisition), select and employ appropriate strategies, and monitor one's performance. In modern neuropsychology,…

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

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…

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…

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)

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.

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

Information fluency: Where to start

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viele, Pat

2012-09-01

There are many different definitions of information literacy, but perhaps the best succinct and comprehensive definition is: Information literacy (or fluency) is a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." This skill set will be invaluable throughout life in making informed decisions.

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.

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

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

Using an Intelligent Tutor and Math Fluency Training to Improve Math Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arroyo, Ivon; Royer, James M.; Woolf, Beverly P.

2011-01-01

This article integrates research in intelligent tutors with psychology studies of memory and math fluency (the speed to retrieve or calculate answers to basic math operations). It describes the impact of computer software designed to improve either strategic behavior or math fluency. Both competencies are key to improved performance and both…

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…

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.

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.

Evaluating the Impact of Dyslexia Laws on the Identification of Specific Learning Disability and Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, B. Anne Barber; Odegard, Timothy N.

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that impacts word reading accuracy and/or reading fluency. Over half of the states in the USA have passed legislation intended to promote better identification of individuals with dyslexia. To date, no study has been conducted to investigate the potential impact of state laws on the identification of…

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…

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…

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.

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.

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…

Using Songs to Strengthen Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patel, Pooja; Laud, Leslie E.

2007-01-01

This study evaluated the use of songs with lyrics to increase the reading fluency rates of three middle school students. In the first condition, students heard fluent reading modeled, read regular passages repeatedly and then received feedback on accuracy, phrasing and expression. After that, students received the same intervention, except that…

Reading Fluency Interventions for Middle School Students with Academic and Behavioral Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilsmer, Amanda Strong; Wehby, Joseph H.; Falk, Katherine B.

2016-01-01

The research base on how to effectively intervene to improve the reading fluency of students with academic and behavioral disabilities at the middle school level does not provide a strong support for evidence- based practices with this age group. The purpose of this study was to extend the body of research on reading fluency interventions to…

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.

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.

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

Speech fluency profile in Williams-Beuren syndrome: a preliminary study.

PubMed

Rossi, Natalia Freitas; Souza, Deise Helena de; Moretti-Ferreira, Danilo; Giacheti, Célia Maria

2009-01-01

the speech fluency pattern attributed to individuals with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is supported by the effectiveness of the phonological loop. Some studies have reported the occurrence of speech disruptions caused by lexical and semantic deficits. However, the type and frequency of such speech disruptions has not been well elucidated. to determine the speech fluency profile of individuals with WBS and to compare the speech performance of these individuals to a control group matched by gender and mental age. Twelve subjects with Williams-Beuren syndrome, chronologically aged between 6.6 and 23.6 years and mental age ranging from 4.8 to 14.3 years, were evaluated. They were compared with another group consisting of 12 subjects with similar mental age and with no speech or learning difficulties. Speech fluency parameters were assessed according to the ABFW Language Test: type and frequency of speech disruptions and speech rate. The obtained results were compared between the groups. In comparison with individuals of similar mental age and typical speech and language development, the group with Williams-Beuren syndrome showed a greater percentage of speech discontinuity, and an increased frequency of common hesitations and word repetition. The speech fluency profile presented by individuals with WBS in this study suggests that the presence of disfluencies can be caused by deficits in the lexical, semantic, and syntactic processing of verbal information. The authors stress that further systematic investigations on the subject are warranted.

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).

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…

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…

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

Image Ambiguity and Fluency

PubMed Central

Jakesch, Martina; Leder, Helmut; Forster, Michael

2013-01-01

Ambiguity is often associated with negative affective responses, and enjoying ambiguity seems restricted to only a few situations, such as experiencing art. Nevertheless, theories of judgment formation, especially the “processing fluency account”, suggest that easy-to-process (non-ambiguous) stimuli are processed faster and are therefore preferred to (ambiguous) stimuli, which are hard to process. In a series of six experiments, we investigated these contrasting approaches by manipulating fluency (presentation duration: 10ms, 50ms, 100ms, 500ms, 1000ms) and testing effects of ambiguity (ambiguous versus non-ambiguous pictures of paintings) on classification performance (Part A; speed and accuracy) and aesthetic appreciation (Part B; liking and interest). As indicated by signal detection analyses, classification accuracy increased with presentation duration (Exp. 1a), but we found no effects of ambiguity on classification speed (Exp. 1b). Fifty percent of the participants were able to successfully classify ambiguous content at a presentation duration of 100 ms, and at 500ms even 75% performed above chance level. Ambiguous artworks were found more interesting (in conditions 50ms to 1000ms) and were preferred over non-ambiguous stimuli at 500ms and 1000ms (Exp. 2a - 2c, 3). Importantly, ambiguous images were nonetheless rated significantly harder to process as non-ambiguous images. These results suggest that ambiguity is an essential ingredient in art appreciation even though or maybe because it is harder to process. PMID:24040172

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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.

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…

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.

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…

Measuring autobiographical fluency in the self-memory system.

PubMed

Rathbone, Clare J; Moulin, Chris J A

2014-01-01

Autobiographical memory is widely considered to be fundamentally related to concepts of self and identity. However, few studies have sought to test models of self and memory directly using experimental designs. Using a novel autobiographical fluency paradigm, the present study investigated memory accessibility for different levels of self-related knowledge. Forty participants generated 20 "I am" statements about themselves, from which the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th were used as cues in a two-minute autobiographical fluency task. The most salient aspects of the self, measured by both serial position and ratings of personal significance, were associated with more accessible sets of autobiographical memories. This finding supports theories that view the self as a powerful organizational structure in memory. Results are discussed with reference to models of self and memory.

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, 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.

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…

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,…

Effects of a Mathematics Fluency Program on Mathematics Performance of Students with Challenging Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitney, Todd; Hirn, Regina G.; Lingo, Amy S.

2016-01-01

In the present study, we examined the effects of a fluency-building mathematics program called Great Leaps Math on fluency of basic addition mathematics facts zero to nine and word problem solving using a multiple probe design across participants. Three elementary students with challenging behaviors and mathematics difficulty participated in the…

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…

Effects of literacy on semantic verbal fluency in an immigrant population.

PubMed

Nielsen, T Rune; Waldemar, Gunhild

2016-09-01

A significant impact of limited schooling and illiteracy has been found on numerous neuropsychological tests, which may partly be due to the ecological relevance of the tests in the context of illiteracy. The aims of this study were to compare the performance of illiterate and literate immigrants on two semantic criteria for the verbal fluency test, and examine the influence of acculturation on test performances. Performances of 20 cognitively unimpaired illiterate and 21 literate Turkish immigrants aged ≥50 years were compared on an animal and supermarket criterion for the semantic verbal fluency test. Also, the influence of acculturation on test performances was examined. Significantly poorer performance of the illiterate compared to the literate group was found for the animal criterion, whereas no differences were found for the supermarket criterion that was considered more ecologically relevant for illiterate individuals. A significant interaction effect was found between the semantic criteria and literacy group, which was mainly related to a large effect of semantic criteria within the illiterate group. Adjusting for years of residence in Denmark and acculturation score did not affect this interaction effect. Overall, our results are in line with previous studies comparing semantic fluency in illiterate and literate individuals. The results lend further support to the strong associations between literacy, semantic verbal fluency performance and ecological relevance of the semantic criterion and extend previous findings to immigrants with different cultural experiences related to the acculturation process.

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).

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…

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…

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

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

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…

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

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…

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

Speech fluency profile on different tasks for individuals with Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Juste, Fabiola Staróbole; Andrade, Claudia Regina Furquim de

2017-07-20

To characterize the speech fluency profile of patients with Parkinson's disease. Study participants were 40 individuals of both genders aged 40 to 80 years divided into 2 groups: Research Group - RG (20 individuals with diagnosis of Parkinson's disease) and Control Group - CG (20 individuals with no communication or neurological disorders). For all of the participants, three speech samples involving different tasks were collected: monologue, individual reading, and automatic speech. The RG presented a significant larger number of speech disruptions, both stuttering-like and typical dysfluencies, and higher percentage of speech discontinuity in the monologue and individual reading tasks compared with the CG. Both groups presented reduced number of speech disruptions (stuttering-like and typical dysfluencies) in the automatic speech task; the groups presented similar performance in this task. Regarding speech rate, individuals in the RG presented lower number of words and syllables per minute compared with those in the CG in all speech tasks. Participants of the RG presented altered parameters of speech fluency compared with those of the CG; however, this change in fluency cannot be considered a stuttering disorder.

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…

Implicit recognition based on lateralized perceptual fluency.

PubMed

Vargas, Iliana M; Voss, Joel L; Paller, Ken A

2012-02-06

In some circumstances, accurate recognition of repeated images in an explicit memory test is driven by implicit memory. We propose that this "implicit recognition" results from perceptual fluency that influences responding without awareness of memory retrieval. Here we examined whether recognition would vary if images appeared in the same or different visual hemifield during learning and testing. Kaleidoscope images were briefly presented left or right of fixation during divided-attention encoding. Presentation in the same visual hemifield at test produced higher recognition accuracy than presentation in the opposite visual hemifield, but only for guess responses. These correct guesses likely reflect a contribution from implicit recognition, given that when the stimulated visual hemifield was the same at study and test, recognition accuracy was higher for guess responses than for responses with any level of confidence. The dramatic difference in guessing accuracy as a function of lateralized perceptual overlap between study and test suggests that implicit recognition arises from memory storage in visual cortical networks that mediate repetition-induced fluency increments.

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

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 hormonal contraceptives on mental rotation and verbal fluency.

PubMed

Griksiene, Ramune; Ruksenas, Osvaldas

2011-09-01

Cognitive abilities, such as verbal fluency and mental rotation, are most sensitive to changes in sex steroids but poorly studied in the context of hormonal contraceptive usage. Therefore, we investigated the performance of mental rotation and verbal fluency in young (21.5±1.8 years) healthy oral contraceptive (OC) users (23 women) and non-users (20 women) during the follicular, ovulatory and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Salivary 17β-estradiol, progesterone and testosterone levels were assayed to evaluate hormonal differences between groups and the phases of the menstrual cycle. To assess the effects of progestins having androgenic/anti-androgenic properties, OC users were subdivided into the third and new generation OC users. In addition, positive and negative affects as factors possibly affecting cognitive performance were evaluated. Salivary 17β-estradiol and progesterone levels were significantly lower in hormonal contraception users. Level of salivary testosterone was slightly lower in the OC users group with significant difference only during ovulatory phase. Naturally cycling women performed better on verbal fluency task as compared to OC users. Subjects who used the third generation (androgenic) OCs generated significantly fewer words as compared to new generation (anti-androgenic) OC users and non-users. The third generation OC users demonstrated significantly longer RT in MRT task as compared to non-users. The MRT, verbal fluency and mood parameters did not depend on the phase of menstrual cycle. The parameters of the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) scales did not differ between OC users and non-users. Our findings show that hormonal contraception has an impact on verbal and spatial abilities. Different performances between users of oral contraceptives with androgenic and anti-androgenic properties suggest an essential role for the progestins contained in OCs on cognitive performance. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

Repeated readings and science: Fluency with expository passages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kostewicz, Douglas E.

The current study investigated the effects of repeated readings to a fluency criterion (RRFC) for seven students with disabilities using science text. The study employed a single subject design, specifically, two multiple probe multiple baselines across subjects, to evaluate the effects of the RRFC intervention. Results indicated that students met criterion (200 or more correct words per minute with 2 or fewer errors) on four consecutive passages. A majority of students displayed accelerations to correct words per minute and decelerations to incorrect words per minute on successive initial, intervention readings suggesting reading transfer. Students' reading scores during posttest and maintenance out performed pre-test and baseline readings provided additional measures of reading transfer. For a relationship to comprehension, students scored higher on oral retell measures after meeting criterion as compared to initial readings. Overall, the research findings suggested that the RRFC intervention improves science reading fluency for students with disabilities, and may also indirectly benefit comprehension.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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.

Building Fluency through the Repeated Reading Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Joshua

2011-01-01

For the last two years the author has used Repeated Reading (RR) to teach reading fluency in English as a Foreign Language classrooms in colleges and universities in Japan. RR is a method where the student reads and rereads a text silently or aloud from two to four times to reach a predetermined level of speed, accuracy, and comprehension. RR…

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,…

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…

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.

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.

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.

The Relationship between Reading Fluency and Lexile Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purvis, Joshua Steve

2017-01-01

With increasing emphasis being placed on teachers to show an improvement in student achievement, schools are relying on indicators such as reading fluency and reading comprehension to gauge student progress throughout the year. Since the growth on these assessments are used in calculating teachers and administrators' yearly job evaluations, the…

Evaluation of Secondary School Students' Writing Fluency Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atasoy, Arzu; Temizkan, Mehmet

2016-01-01

Developed to evaluate secondary school students' writing fluency skills, this study is descriptive in nature and uses a mixed method approach. During the research, the researcher attempted to identify students' abilities to write in terms of quantity and complexity, on the one hand, and also attempted to identify findings on accuracy, the…

Are Fluency Measures Accurate Predictors of Reading Achievement?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schilling, Stephen G.; Carlisle, Joanne F.; Scott, Sarah E.; Zeng, Ji

2007-01-01

This study focused on the predictive validity of fluency measures that comprise Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Data were gathered from first through third graders attending 44 schools in 9 districts or local educational agencies that made up the first Reading First cohort in Michigan. Students were administered DIBELS…

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 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…

The Use of Profanity During Letter Fluency Tasks in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Ringman, John M.; Kwon, Eunice; Flores, Deborah L.; Rotko, Carol; Mendez, Mario F.; Lu, Po

2012-01-01

Objective To assess whether the production of profanity during letter fluency testing distinguishes frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Background Alterations in language and social behavior typify FTD spectrum disorders. Nonetheless, in can be difficult to distinguish pathologically-defined frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) from AD clinically. Assessing verbal fluency by having patients generate as many words as they can beginning with specific letters in a given period of time can yield diverse information of diagnostic utility. Method Words produced during FAS letter fluency testing were reviewed and instances of the use of "f*ck", "*ss", and "sh*t" and other words felt to be inappropriate were sought. The frequency of these words was compared between clinically diagnosed FTD and AD patients using chi-square tests. Results We found that 6/32 (18.8%) patients with FTD generated the word "f*ck" during the "F" trial as opposed to none of 38 patients with AD (p = 0.007). Patients who said "f*ck" had diagnoses of either behavioral variant FTD (3/15), progressive non-fluent aphasia (2/8), or semantic dementia (1/3). Conclusions Though the specific neuropathology in these cases is uncertain, generation of "f*ck" during letter fluency testing appears to have utility in differentiating FTD from AD. PMID:20829665

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…

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…

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…

Pair Counting to Improve Grammar and Spoken Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanson, Stephanie

2017-01-01

English language learners are often more grammatically accurate in writing than in speaking. As students focus on meaning while speaking, their spoken fluency comes at a cost: their grammatical accuracy decreases. The author wanted to find a way to help her students improve their oral grammar; that is, she wanted them to focus on grammar while…

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

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,…

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.

Improving English Speaking Fluency: The Role of Six Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shahini, Gholamhossein; Shahamirian, Fatemeh

2017-01-01

This qualitative study, using an open interview, set out to investigate the roles six factors, including age, university education, teachers of English Language institutes, teaching English, dictionary, and note-taking, played in improving English speaking fluency of seventeen fluent Iranian EFL speakers. The participants were chosen purposefully…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

Connected Text Reading and Differences in Text Reading Fluency in Adult Readers

PubMed Central

Wallot, Sebastian; Hollis, Geoff; van Rooij, Marieke

2013-01-01

The process of connected text reading has received very little attention in contemporary cognitive psychology. This lack of attention is in parts due to a research tradition that emphasizes the role of basic lexical constituents, which can be studied in isolated words or sentences. However, this lack of attention is in parts also due to the lack of statistical analysis techniques, which accommodate interdependent time series. In this study, we investigate text reading performance with traditional and nonlinear analysis techniques and show how outcomes from multiple analyses can used to create a more detailed picture of the process of text reading. Specifically, we investigate reading performance of groups of literate adult readers that differ in reading fluency during a self-paced text reading task. Our results indicate that classical metrics of reading (such as word frequency) do not capture text reading very well, and that classical measures of reading fluency (such as average reading time) distinguish relatively poorly between participant groups. Nonlinear analyses of distribution tails and reading time fluctuations provide more fine-grained information about the reading process and reading fluency. PMID:23977177

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

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

Teacher's Representational Fluency in a Context of Technology Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rocha, Helena

2016-01-01

This study focuses on teacher's Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics with Technology (KTMT), paying a special attention to teacher's representational fluency. It intends to characterize how the teacher uses and integrates the different representations provided by the graphing calculator on the process of teaching and learning functions at the high…

Reading Fluency: The Whole Is More than the Parts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katzir, Tami; Kim, Youngsuk; Wolf, Maryanne; O'Brien, Beth; Kennedy, Becky; Lovett, Maureen; Morris, Robin

2006-01-01

This study examined the relative contributions of phonological awareness, orthographic pattern recognition, and rapid letter naming to fluent word and connected-text reading within a dyslexic sample of 123 children in second and third grades. Participants were assessed on a variety of fluency measures and reading subskills. Correlations and…

Learning Ecologies for Technological Fluency: Gender and Experience Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barron, Brigid

2004-01-01

The concern with a "digital divide" has been transformed from one defined by technological access to technological prowess--employing technologies for more empowered and generative uses such as learning and innovation. Participation in technological fluency-building activities among high school students in a community heavily involved in the…

The Role of Reading Fluency in Children's Text Comprehension.

PubMed

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

2015-01-01

Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however, they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade). Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances), pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency.

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…

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.

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…

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,…

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.

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…

Random local temporal structure of category fluency responses.

PubMed

Meyer, David J; Messer, Jason; Singh, Tanya; Thomas, Peter J; Woyczynski, Wojbor A; Kaye, Jeffrey; Lerner, Alan J

2012-04-01

The Category Fluency Test (CFT) provides a sensitive measurement of cognitive capabilities in humans related to retrieval from semantic memory. In particular, it is widely used to assess progress of cognitive impairment in patients with dementia. Previous research shows that, in the first approximation, the intensity of tested individuals' responses within a standard 60-s test period decays exponentially with time, with faster decay rates for more cognitively impaired patients. Such decay rate can then be viewed as a global (macro) diagnostic parameter of each test. In the present paper we focus on the statistical properties of the properly de-trended time intervals between consecutive responses (inter-call times) in the Category Fluency Test. In a sense, those properties reflect the local (micro) structure of the response generation process. We find that a good approximation for the distribution of the de-trended inter-call times is provided by the Weibull Distribution, a probability distribution that appears naturally in this context as a distribution of a minimum of independent random quantities and is the standard tool in industrial reliability theory. This insight leads us to a new interpretation of the concept of "navigating a semantic space" via patient responses.

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

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

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.

Measurement of Phonated Intervals during Four Fluency-Inducing Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidow, Jason H.; Bothe, Anne K.; Andreatta, Richard D.; Ye, Jun

2009-01-01

Purpose: Previous investigations of persons who stutter have demonstrated changes in vocalization variables during fluency-inducing conditions (FICs). A series of studies has also shown that a reduction in short intervals of phonation, those from 30 to 200 ms, is associated with decreased stuttering. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to…

Influences of Early English Language Teaching on Oral Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Wolf, Stephana; Smit, Nienke; Lowie, Wander

2017-01-01

Elementary-level foreign language education is currently receiving a lot of attention in the literature on second language learning, and has emerged as an important educational policy issue. The present study aims to contribute to this discussion by focusing on the fluency benefits gained from early foreign language teaching. The participants were…

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

Competing cues: Older adults rely on knowledge in the face of fluency.

PubMed

Brashier, Nadia M; Umanath, Sharda; Cabeza, Roberto; Marsh, Elizabeth J

2017-06-01

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Faces in-between: evaluations reflect the interplay of facial features and task-dependent fluency.

PubMed

Winkielman, Piotr; Olszanowski, Michal; Gola, Mateusz

2015-04-01

Facial features influence social evaluations. For example, faces are rated as more attractive and trustworthy when they have more smiling features and also more female features. However, the influence of facial features on evaluations should be qualified by the affective consequences of fluency (cognitive ease) with which such features are processed. Further, fluency (along with its affective consequences) should depend on whether the current task highlights conflict between specific features. Four experiments are presented. In 3 experiments, participants saw faces varying in expressions ranging from pure anger, through mixed expression, to pure happiness. Perceivers first categorized faces either on a control dimension, or an emotional dimension (angry/happy). Thus, the emotional categorization task made "pure" expressions fluent and "mixed" expressions disfluent. Next, participants made social evaluations. Results show that after emotional categorization, but not control categorization, targets with mixed expressions are relatively devalued. Further, this effect is mediated by categorization disfluency. Additional data from facial electromyography reveal that on a basic physiological level, affective devaluation of mixed expressions is driven by their objective ambiguity. The fourth experiment shows that the relative devaluation of mixed faces that vary in gender ambiguity requires a gender categorization task. Overall, these studies highlight that the impact of facial features on evaluation is qualified by their fluency, and that the fluency of features is a function of the current task. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for research on emotional reactions to ambiguity. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The concreteness effect on judgments of learning: Evaluating the contributions of fluency and beliefs.

PubMed

Witherby, Amber E; Tauber, Sarah K

2017-05-01

Researchers have often determined how cues influence judgments of learning (JOLs; e.g., concrete words are assigned higher JOLs than are abstract words), and recently there has been an emphasis in understanding why cues influence JOLs (i.e., the mechanisms that underlie cue effects on JOLs). The analytic-processing (AP) theory posits that JOLs are constructed in accordance with participants' beliefs of how a cue will influence memory. Even so, some evidence suggests that fluency is also important to cue effects on JOLs. In the present experiments, we investigated the contributions of participants' beliefs and processing fluency to the concreteness effect on JOLs. To evaluate beliefs, participants estimated memory performance in a hypothetical experiment (Experiment 1), and studied concrete and abstract words and made a pre-study JOL for each (Experiments 2 and 3). Participants' predictions demonstrated the belief that concrete words are more likely to be remembered than are abstract words, consistent with the AP theory. To evaluate fluency, response latencies were measured during lexical decision (Experiment 4), self-paced study (Experiment 5), and mental imagery (Experiment 7). Number of trials to acquisition was also evaluated (Experiment 6). Fluency did not differ between concrete and abstract words in Experiments 5 and 6, and it did not mediate the concreteness effect on JOLs in Experiments 4 and 7. Taken together, these results demonstrate that beliefs are a primary mechanism driving the concreteness effect on JOLs.

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

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…

Reading Fluency from Grade 2-6: A Longitudinal Examination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipka, Orly

2017-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine oral word reading fluency from a developmental perspective in a longitudinal study of students from second grade to sixth grade. The sample consisted of native English speaking students that took part in a large longitudinal study. Participants were assessed on cognitive and literacy measures such as working…

"Small Talk": Developing Fluency, Accuracy, and Complexity in Speaking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, James

2012-01-01

A major issue that continues to challenge language teachers is how to ensure that learners develop accuracy and complexity in their speaking, as well as fluency. Teachers know that too much corrective feedback (CF) can make learners reluctant to speak, while not enough may allow their errors to become entrenched. Furthermore, there is controversy…

Verbal memory and verbal fluency tasks used for language localization and lateralization during magnetoencephalography.

PubMed

Pirmoradi, Mona; Jemel, Boutheina; Gallagher, Anne; Tremblay, Julie; D'Hondt, Fabien; Nguyen, Dang Khoa; Béland, Renée; Lassonde, Maryse

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to develop a presurgical magnetoencephalography (MEG) protocol to localize and lateralize expressive and receptive language function as well as verbal memory in patients with epilepsy. Two simple language tasks and a different analytical procedure were developed. Ten healthy participants and 13 epileptic patients completed two language tasks during MEG recording: a verbal memory task and a verbal fluency task. As a first step, principal component analyses (PCA) were performed on source data from the group of healthy participants to identify spatiotemporal factors that were relevant to these paradigms. Averaged source data were used to localize areas activated during each task and a laterality index (LI) was computed on an individual basis for both groups, healthy participants and patients, using sensor data. PCA revealed activation in the left temporal lobe (300 ms) during the verbal memory task, and from the frontal lobe (210 ms) to the temporal lobe (500 ms) during the verbal fluency task in healthy participants. Averaged source data showed activity in the left hemisphere (250-750 ms), in Wernicke's area, for all participants. Left hemisphere dominance was demonstrated better using the verbal memory task than the verbal fluency task (F1,19=4.41, p=0.049). Cohen's kappa statistic revealed 93% agreement (k=0.67, p=0.002) between LIs obtained from MEG sensor data and fMRI, the IAT, electrical cortical stimulation or handedness with the verbal memory task for all participants. At 74%, agreement results for the verbal fluency task did not reach statistical significance. Analysis procedures yielded interesting findings with both tasks and localized language-related activation. However, based on source localization and laterality indices, the verbal memory task yielded better results in the context of the presurgical evaluation of epileptic patients. The verbal fluency task did not add any further information to the verbal memory task as

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 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…

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).

There Is More to Fluency than Speed and Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedrick, Wanda, Ed.

2007-01-01

Fluency is another concept whose many definitions lead to widely differing practices. It is easy to understand that reading words on a page does not make a person fluent if they don't take away meaning from that reading. Hedrick asks that teachers and administrators examine policies that let speed and accuracy in reading substitute for meaning…

Two Mechanisms of Constructive Recollection: Perceptual Recombination and Conceptual Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doss, Manoj K.; Bluestone, Maximilian R.; Gallo, David A.

2016-01-01

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…

Investigating Patterns of Errors for Specific Comprehension and Fluency Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koriakin, Taylor A.; Kaufman, Alan S.

2017-01-01

Although word reading has traditionally been viewed as a foundational skill for development of reading fluency and comprehension, some children demonstrate "specific" reading comprehension problems, in the context of intact word reading. The purpose of this study was to identify specific patterns of errors associated with reading…

The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency.

PubMed

Kempler, D; Teng, E L; Dick, M; Taussig, I M; Davis, D S

1998-11-01

A group of 317 healthy participants between 54 and 99 years of age performed a verbal fluency task. The participants included Chinese, Hispanic, and Vietnamese immigrants, as well as White and African American English speakers. They were given 1 min to name as many animals as possible in their native language. The results showed that more animal names were produced by younger people and those with more education. Language background was also an important factor: The Vietnamese produced the most animal names and the Spanish speakers produced the fewest. The exaggerated difference between these two groups is attributed to the fact that Vietnamese animal names are short (predominantly 1 syllable) while the Spanish animal names are longer than any other language in this study (2 and 3 syllables per word). Finally, although the ethnic groups named different animals, and appeared to vary in the variety of animal names they used, these factors did not affect overall verbal fluency performance.

The Relationship Between Educational Years and Phonemic Verbal Fluency (PVF) and Semantic Verbal Fluency (SVF) Tasks in Spanish Patients Diagnosed With Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Psychotic Bipolar Disorder

PubMed Central

García-Laredo, Eduardo; Maestú, Fernando; Castellanos, Miguel Ángel; Molina, Juan D.; Peréz-Moreno, Elisa

2015-01-01

Abstract Semantic and verbal fluency tasks are widely used as a measure of frontal capacities. It has been well described in literature that patients affected by schizophrenic and bipolar disorders present a worse execution in these tasks. Some authors have also noted the importance of educational years. Our objective is to analyze whether the effect of cognitive malfunction caused by apathology is superior to the expected effect of years of education in phonemic verbal fluency (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task execution. A total of 62 individuals took part in this study, out of which 23 were patients with schizophrenic paranoid disorder, 11 suffered from bipolar disorder with psychotic symptomatology, 13 suffered from bipolar disorder without psychotic symptomatology, and 15 participants were nonpathological individuals. All participants were evaluated with the PVF and SVF tests (animals and tools). The performance/execution results were analyzed with a mixed-model ANCOVA, with educational years as a covariable. The effect of education seems to be more determined by PVF FAS tests than by SVF. With PVF FAS tasks, the expected effect of pathology disappears when the covariable EDUCATION is introduced. With SVF tasks, the effect continues to be significant, even though the EDUACTION covariable dims such effect. These results suggest that SVF tests (animals category) are better evaluation tools as they are less dependent on the patients’ education than PVF FAS tests. PMID:26426640

The Relationship Between Educational Years and Phonemic Verbal Fluency (PVF) and Semantic Verbal Fluency (SVF) Tasks in Spanish Patients Diagnosed With Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Psychotic Bipolar Disorder.

PubMed

García-Laredo, Eduardo; Maestú, Fernando; Castellanos, Miguel Ángel; Molina, Juan D; Peréz-Moreno, Elisa

2015-09-01

Semantic and verbal fluency tasks are widely used as a measure of frontal capacities. It has been well described in literature that patients affected by schizophrenic and bipolar disorders present a worse execution in these tasks. Some authors have also noted the importance of educational years. Our objective is to analyze whether the effect of cognitive malfunction caused by apathology is superior to the expected effect of years of education in phonemic verbal fluency (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task execution. A total of 62 individuals took part in this study, out of which 23 were patients with schizophrenic paranoid disorder, 11 suffered from bipolar disorder with psychotic symptomatology, 13 suffered from bipolar disorder without psychotic symptomatology, and 15 participants were nonpathological individuals. All participants were evaluated with the PVF and SVF tests (animals and tools). The performance/execution results were analyzed with a mixed-model ANCOVA, with educational years as a covariable. The effect of education seems to be more determined by PVF FAS tests than by SVF. With PVF FAS tasks, the expected effect of pathology disappears when the covariable EDUCATION is introduced. With SVF tasks, the effect continues to be significant, even though the EDUACTION covariable dims such effect. These results suggest that SVF tests (animals category) are better evaluation tools as they are less dependent on the patients' education than PVF FAS tests.

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

Imitated Prosodic Fluency Predicts Reading Comprehension Ability in Good and Poor High School Readers

PubMed Central

Breen, Mara; Kaswer, Lianne; Van Dyke, Julie A.; Krivokapić, Jelena; Landi, Nicole

2016-01-01

Researchers have established a relationship between beginning readers' silent comprehension ability and their prosodic fluency, such that readers who read aloud with appropriate prosody tend to have higher scores on silent reading comprehension assessments. The current study was designed to investigate this relationship in two groups of high school readers: Specifically Poor Comprehenders (SPCs), who have adequate word level and phonological skills but poor reading comprehension ability, and a group of age- and decoding skill-matched controls. We compared the prosodic fluency of the two groups by determining how effectively they produced prosodic cues to syntactic and semantic structure in imitations of a model speaker's production of syntactically and semantically varied sentences. Analyses of pitch and duration patterns revealed that speakers in both groups produced the expected prosodic patterns; however, controls provided stronger durational cues to syntactic structure. These results demonstrate that the relationship between prosodic fluency and reading comprehension continues past the stage of early reading instruction. Moreover, they suggest that prosodically fluent speakers may also generate more fluent implicit prosodic representations during silent reading, leading to more effective comprehension. PMID:27486409

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.

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.

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

PubMed Central

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

2012-01-01

This study used a large state-wide 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 with an emotional disturbance, and 10,339 students with a learning disability. Student status and growth trends were examined in a piecewise model at each grade level for the full sample as well as for a subsample with reading difficulties. Data suggested students with disabilities performed significantly below students without disabilities in initial status and growth. Gender was also examined as a moderator of outcomes for each of the study groups. PMID:24532848

Perceiving nonverbal behavior: neural correlates of processing movement fluency and contingency in dyadic interactions.

PubMed

Georgescu, Alexandra L; Kuzmanovic, Bojana; Santos, Natacha S; Tepest, Ralf; Bente, Gary; Tittgemeyer, Marc; Vogeley, Kai

2014-04-01

Despite the fact that nonverbal dyadic social interactions are abundant in the environment, the neural mechanisms underlying their processing are not yet fully understood. Research in the field of social neuroscience has suggested that two neural networks appear to be involved in social understanding: (1) the action observation network (AON) and (2) the social neural network (SNN). The aim of this study was to determine the differential contributions of the AON and the SNN to the processing of nonverbal behavior as observed in dyadic social interactions. To this end, we used short computer animation sequences displaying dyadic social interactions between two virtual characters and systematically manipulated two key features of movement activity, which are known to influence the perception of meaning in nonverbal stimuli: (1) movement fluency and (2) contingency of movement patterns. A group of 21 male participants rated the "naturalness" of the observed scenes on a four-point scale while undergoing fMRI. Behavioral results showed that both fluency and contingency significantly influenced the "naturalness" experience of the presented animations. Neurally, the AON was preferentially engaged when processing contingent movement patterns, but did not discriminate between different degrees of movement fluency. In contrast, regions of the SNN were engaged more strongly when observing dyads with disturbed movement fluency. In conclusion, while the AON is involved in the general processing of contingent social actions, irrespective of their kinematic properties, the SNN is preferentially recruited when atypical kinematic properties prompt inferences about the agents' intentions. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Scrutinizing the Factors Affecting Fluency of English among Arab Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Ghazali, Fawzi

2017-01-01

This research study investigates the cognitive, psychological and personal factors affecting the accuracy and fluency of English language usage among Arab learners. Early research led by Chomsky (1965) and Krashen (1981) suggested that an individual's Language Acquisition Device once triggered at the appropriate time and supported with adequate…

Counting and RAN: Predictors of Arithmetic Calculation and Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koponen, Tuire; Salmi, Paula; Eklund, Kenneth; Aro, Tuija

2013-01-01

This study examined whether counting and rapid automatized naming (RAN) could operate as significant predictors of both later arithmetic calculation and reading fluency. The authors also took an important step to clarify the cognitive mechanisms underlying these predictive relationships by controlling for the effect of phonological awareness and…

Passage Equivalency and Predictive Validity of Oral Reading Fluency Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Checca, Christopher Jason

2012-01-01

The use of oral reading fluency (ORF) passages within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework is examined. Significant limitations within the current ORF research are discussed. The passage equivalency and readability scores for DIBELS Next, AIMSweb, and a school district's curriculum's ORF passages are evaluated using Generalizability Theory…

Automated Assessment of Speech Fluency for L2 English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Su-Youn

2009-01-01

This dissertation provides an automated scoring method of speech fluency for second language learners of English (L2 learners) based that uses speech recognition technology. Non-standard pronunciation, frequent disfluencies, faulty grammar, and inappropriate lexical choices are crucial characteristics of L2 learners' speech. Due to the ease of…

Commentary on New Metrics, Measures, and Uses for Fluency Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christ, Theodore J.; Ardoin, Scott P.

2015-01-01

Fluency and rate-based assessments, such as curriculum-based measurement, are frequently used to screen and evaluate student progress. The application of such measures are especially prevalent within special education and response to intervention models of prevention and early intervention. Although there is an extensive research and professional…

Teachers Engaging Parents as Tutors to Improve Oral Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kupzyk, Sara S.

2012-01-01

This dissertation examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Measures used to determine the impact of parent tutoring included treatment integrity, student reading outcomes, attitudes towards involvement and reading, and social validity. Six teachers…

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

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

The Role of Reading Fluency in Children’s Text Comprehension

PubMed Central

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

2015-01-01

Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however, they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade). Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances), pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency. PMID:26640452

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.…

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.

Incorporating Movement with Fluency Instruction: A Motivation for Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peebles, Jodi L.

2007-01-01

This article discusses two activities--Readers Theatre and Rhythm Walks--that encourage students to "get moving" with fluency instruction. Movement can be a motivating factor for struggling students, as well as a kinesthetic tool for conceptualizing the rhythm and flow of fluent reading while triggering brain function for optimal learning. Also…

Oral Reading Fluency Testing: Pitfalls for Children with Speech Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howland, Karole; Scaler Scott, Kathleen

2016-01-01

As school districts nationwide have moved toward data driven intervention, oral reading fluency measures have become a prevalent means to monitor progress by assessing the degree to which a child is becoming a fast (and therefore fluent) reader. This article reviews results of a survey of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with children…

The Influence of a Morphology Intervention on Fluency in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seils, Traci Fellers

2010-01-01

Fluent reading enables readers to focus on gaining meaning from what is read. This crucial facet of reading is often neglected instruction in elementary and is nearly non-existent in middle and high school instruction (Allington, 1983; Rasinski, Padak, McKeon, Wilfong, Friedauer, & Heim, 2005). At the elementary level, fluency instruction focuses…

Increasing Reading Comprehension of Elementary Students through Fluency-Based Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neumann, Veda S.; Ross, Dorothy K.; Slaboch, Anita F.

2008-01-01

The authors of this action research project report implemented oral reading fluency-based interventions for the purpose of improving students' reading comprehension. Six students in grade three, six students in grade five and six students in grade six participated in the study from Monday, August 27 through Friday, December 7, 2007. Researchers…

Reading Fluency Instruction for Students at Risk for Reading Failure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ring, Jeremiah J.; Barefoot, Lexie C.; Avrit, Karen J.; Brown, Sasha A.; Black, Jeffrey L.

2013-01-01

The important role of reading fluency in the comprehension and motivation of readers is well documented. Two reading rate intervention programs were compared in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of students who were considered at-risk for reading failure. One program focused instruction at the word level; the second program focused instruction…

A Longitudinal Study of ESL Learners' Fluency and Comprehensibility Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2008-01-01

This longitudinal mixed-methods study compared the oral fluency of well-educated adult immigrants from Mandarin and Slavic language backgrounds (16 per group) enrolled in introductory English as a second language (ESL) classes. Speech samples were collected over a 2-year period, together with estimates of weekly English use. We also conducted…

Improv and Ink: Increasing Individual Writing Fluency with Collaborative Improv

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeMichele, Mary

2015-01-01

This article explores how short form/comedic improvisational theater impacts the development of writing fluency. Students in all disciplines need to be able to purposefully write, however by the time students reach high school many have already given up trying to express even their own thoughts in free writing. Two quasi-experimental action…

Age and Vascular Burden Determinants of Cortical Hemodynamics Underlying Verbal Fluency.

PubMed

Heinzel, Sebastian; Metzger, Florian G; Ehlis, Ann-Christine; Korell, Robert; Alboji, Ahmed; Haeussinger, Florian B; Wurster, Isabel; Brockmann, Kathrin; Suenkel, Ulrike; Eschweiler, Gerhard W; Maetzler, Walter; Berg, Daniela; Fallgatter, Andreas J

2015-01-01

Aging processes and several vascular burden factors have been shown to increase the risk of dementia including Alzheimer's disease. While pathological alterations in dementia precede diagnosis by many years, reorganization of brain processing might temporarily delay cognitive decline. We hypothesized that in healthy elderly individuals both age-related neural and vascular factors known to be related to the development of dementia impact functional cortical hemodynamics during increased cognitive demands. Vascular burden factors and cortical functional hemodynamics during verbal fluency were assessed in 1052 non-demented elderly individuals (51 to 83 years; cross-sectional data of the longitudinal TREND study) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The prediction of functional hemodynamic responses by age in multiple regressions and the impact of single and cumulative vascular burden factors including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, smoking and atherosclerosis were investigated. Replicating and extending previous findings we could show that increasing age predicted functional hemodynamics to be increased in right prefrontal and bilateral parietal cortex, and decreased in bilateral inferior frontal junction during phonological fluency. Cumulative vascular burden factors, with hypertension in particular, decreased left inferior frontal junction hemodynamic responses during phonological fluency. However, age and vascular burden factors showed no statistical interaction on functional hemodynamics. Based on these findings, one might hypothesize that increased fronto-parietal processing may represent age-related compensatory reorganization during increased cognitive demands. Vascular burden factors, such as hypertension, may contribute to regional cerebral hypoperfusion. These neural and vascular hemodynamic determinants should be investigated longitudinally and combined with other markers to advance the prediction of future cognitive decline and dementia.

Genome-wide scan reveals LEMD3 and WIF1 on SSC5 as the candidates for porcine ear size.

PubMed

Zhang, Longchao; Liang, Jing; Luo, Weizhen; Liu, Xin; Yan, Hua; Zhao, Kebin; Shi, Huibi; Zhang, Yuebo; Wang, Ligang; Wang, Lixian

2014-01-01

The quantitative trait loci (QTL) for porcine ear size was previously reported to mainly focus on SSC5 and SSC7. Recently, a missense mutation, G32E, in PPARD in the QTL interval on SSC7 was identified as the causative mutation for ear size. However, on account of the large interval of QTL, the responsible gene on SSC5 has not been identified. In this study, an intercross population was constructed from the large-eared Minzhu, an indigenous Chinese pig breed, and the Western commercial Large White pig to examine the genetic basis of ear size diversity. A GWAS was performed to detect SNPs significantly associated with ear size. Thirty-five significant SNPs defined a 10.78-Mb (30.14-40.92 Mb) region on SSC5. Further, combining linkage disequilibrium and haplotype sharing analysis, a reduced region of 3.07-Mb was obtained. Finally, by using a selective sweep analysis, a critical region of about 450-kb interval containing two annotated genes LEMD3 and WIF1 was refined in this work. Functional analysis indicated that both represent biological candidates for porcine ear size, with potential application in breeding programs. The two genes could also be used as novel references for further study of the mechanism underlying human microtia.

Sea WiFS Postlaunch Technical Report Series. Volume 8; The SeaBOARR-99 Field Campaign

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hooker, Stanford B. (Editor); Firestone, Elaine R. (Editor); Lazin, Gordana (Editor)

2000-01-01

This report documents the scientific activities during the second Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (Sea- WIFS) Bio-Optical Algorithm Round-Robin (SeaBOARR-99) field campaign, which took place from 2 May to 7 June 1999 on board the Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross during the eighth Atlantic Meridional Transect cruise (AMT-8). The ultimate objective of the SeaBOARR activity is to evaluate the effect of different measurement protocols on bio-optical algorithms using data from a variety of field campaigns. The SeaBOARR-99 field campaign was concerned with collecting a high quality data set of simultaneous in-water and above-water radiometric measurements. The deployment goals documented in this report were to: a) use four different surface glint correction methods to compute water-leaving radiances, Lw(lambda), from above-water data; b) use two different in-water profiling systems and three different methods to compute Lw(lambda) from in-water data; c) use instruments with a common calibration history to minimize intercalibration uncertainties; d) monitor the calibration stability of the instruments in the field with the original SeaWiFS Quality Monitor (SQM) and a commercial, second-generation device called the SQM-II, thereby allowing a distinction between differences in methods from changes in instrument performance; and e) compare the Lw(lambda) values estimated from the above- water and in- water measurements. In addition to describing the instruments deployed and the data collected, a preliminary analysis of part of the SeaBOARR-99 data set is presented (using only the data collected during clear sky, calm sea, and Case-I waters).

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

A dual-process perspective on fluency-based aesthetics: the pleasure-interest model of aesthetic liking.

PubMed

Graf, Laura K M; Landwehr, Jan R

2015-11-01

In this article, we develop an account of how aesthetic preferences can be formed as a result of two hierarchical, fluency-based processes. Our model suggests that processing performed immediately upon encountering an aesthetic object is stimulus driven, and aesthetic preferences that accrue from this processing reflect aesthetic evaluations of pleasure or displeasure. When sufficient processing motivation is provided by a perceiver's need for cognitive enrichment and/or the stimulus' processing affordance, elaborate perceiver-driven processing can emerge, which gives rise to fluency-based aesthetic evaluations of interest, boredom, or confusion. Because the positive outcomes in our model are pleasure and interest, we call it the Pleasure-Interest Model of Aesthetic Liking (PIA Model). Theoretically, this model integrates a dual-process perspective and ideas from lay epistemology into processing fluency theory, and it provides a parsimonious framework to embed and unite a wealth of aesthetic phenomena, including contradictory preference patterns for easy versus difficult-to-process aesthetic stimuli. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Boosting Reading Fluency: An Intervention Case Study at Subword Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kairaluoma, Leila; Ahonen, Timo; Aro, Mikko; Holopainen, Leena

2007-01-01

This study is an intervention case study of fluency in Finnish-speaking children with dyslexia. Two 7-year-old children, a girl and a boy, were selected from the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. The intervention emphasised syllables as reading units, and proceeded from reading syllables to reading words and text. Letter knowledge, reading…

Specificity and Overlap in Skills Underpinning Reading and Arithmetical Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Daal, Victor; van der Leij, Aryan; Ader, Herman

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine unique and common causes of problems in reading and arithmetic fluency. 13- to 14-year-old students were placed into one of five groups: reading disabled (RD, n = 16), arithmetic disabled (AD, n = 34), reading and arithmetic disabled (RAD, n = 17), reading, arithmetic, and listening comprehension disabled…

A Comparison of Two Sight Word Reading Fluency Drill Formats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Maureen; Konrad, Moira; Joseph, Laurice M.; Luu, Ken C. T.

2013-01-01

The authors compared the effects of two sight word fluency drills (i.e., reading racetrack and list drills). They used a repeated acquisition design across 8 second-grade students identified as at risk for reading difficulties. More participants performed better when they read words on the reading racetrack than on the list; however, results were…

Picture Naming and Verbal Fluency in Children with Cochlear Implants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wechsler-Kashi, Deena; Schwartz, Richard G.; Cleary, Miranda

2014-01-01

Purpose: In the present study, the authors examined lexical naming in children with cochlear implants (CIs). The goal was to determine whether children with CIs have deficits in lexical access and organization as revealed through reaction time in picture-naming and verbal fluency (VF) experiments. Method: Children with CIs (n = 20, ages 7-10) were…

Rethinking Communicative Language Teaching: A Focus on Access to Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gatbonton, Elizabeth; Segalowitz, Norman

2005-01-01

Although most teachers claim to practise communicative language teaching (CLT), many do not genuinely do so. In this paper, we examine some of the reasons for teachers' resistance to CLT use. We provide a theoretical analysis that focuses on one of the greatest challenges facing CLT methodology-how to promote automatic fluency within this…

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…

The visual attention span deficit in Chinese children with reading fluency difficulty.

PubMed

Zhao, Jing; Liu, Menglian; Liu, Hanlong; Huang, Chen

2018-02-01

With reading development, some children fail to learn to read fluently. However, reading fluency difficulty (RFD) has not been fully investigated. The present study explored the underlying mechanism of RFD from the aspect of visual attention span. Fourteen Chinese children with RFD and fourteen age-matched normal readers participated. The visual 1-back task was adopted to examine visual attention span. Reaction time and accuracy were recorded, and relevant d-prime (d') scores were computed. Results showed that children with RFD exhibited lower accuracy and lower d' values than the controls did in the visual 1-back task, revealing a visual attention span deficit. Further analyses on d' values revealed that the attention distribution seemed to exhibit an inverted U-shaped pattern without lateralization for normal readers, but a W-shaped pattern with a rightward bias for children with RFD, which was discussed based on between-group variation in reading strategies. Results of the correlation analyses showed that visual attention span was associated with reading fluency at the sentence level for normal readers, but was related to reading fluency at the single-character level for children with RFD. The different patterns in correlations between groups revealed that visual attention span might be affected by the variation in reading strategies. The current findings extend previous data from alphabetic languages to Chinese, a logographic language with a particularly deep orthography, and have implications for reading-dysfluency remediation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissociative semantic breakdown in Alzheimer's disease: evidence from multiple category fluency test.

PubMed

Ting, Simon Kang Seng; Hameed, Shahul; Earnest, Arul; Tan, Eng-King

2013-07-01

Category-specific semantic dissociation particularly in terms of biological and non-biological dichotomy has been described in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We re-examine above finding by performing multiple superordinate category verbal fluency test in AD patients. We analyze the baseline neuropsychological assessment performance of food and animal fluency test of AD patients from a tertiary hospital that collected prospectively over 5 years period and correlation was calculated by Kappa test. The analysis is stratified according to literacy level (primary: 0-6 years education and secondary: >6 years education) and disease severity (MMSE score: mild 19-24, moderate 13-18 and severe <13). A total of 296 AD patients were analyzed and only fair to moderate agreement between food and animal category fluency test was found especially in the mild AD cases (primary: kappa 0.42; secondary: kappa 0.40). Kappa agreement level increases when disease progress especially in the secondary education group. Food category, which is a more relevant semantic knowledge to Singapore population, is generally more affected. Higher educated subjects appeared to have less semantic dissociation effect when disease progress. Despite less primed in daily life, biological category of semantic knowledge appears to be affected less during AD process in highly urbanized Singapore society. Brain appears to have special protective mechanism towards living things. However, education level seems have a modulation effect towards the biological protective mechanism. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Teaching Formulaic Sequences in the Classroom: Effects on Spoken Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuire, Michael; Larson-Hall, Jenifer

2017-01-01

Formulaic sequences (FS) are frequently used by native speakers and have been found to help non-native speakers sound more fluent as well. We hypothesized that explicitly teaching FS to classroom ESL learners would increase the use of such language, which could further result in increased second language (L2) fluency. We report on a 5-week study…

Is Earlier Better? Mastery of Reading Fluency in Early Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Yonghan; Chaparro, Erin A.; Preciado, Jorge; Cummings, Kelli D.

2015-01-01

Research Findings: The goal of the present study was to provide empirical evidence for the importance of mastering reading fluency in early schooling. Study participants were 1,322 students in 3rd grade in 42 schools in a northwestern state. These students were assessed using a battery of reading skill tests as well as comprehensive tests of more…

Through Literacy to Fluency: Reading in the Religious Studies Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medine, Carolyn M. Jones

2016-01-01

This paper addresses a perennial question of the religious studies and, indeed, of most liberal arts classrooms: How do I get my students to read texts thoroughly and with understanding? After briefly reviewing the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) data, I argue that what teachers desire is not just basic literacy, but fluency, which is…

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…

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

Conceptual fluency at test shifts recognition response bias in Alzheimer's disease: implications for increased false recognition.

PubMed

Gold, Carl A; Marchant, Natalie L; Koutstaal, Wilma; Schacter, Daniel L; Budson, Andrew E

2007-09-20

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. [Koutstaal, W., Reddy, C., Jackson, E. M., Prince, S., Cendan, D. L., & Schacter D. L. (2003). False recognition of abstract versus common objects in older and younger adults: Testing the semantic categorization account. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29, 499-510]. 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.

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

Modern English Drama and the Students' Fluency and Accuracy of Speaking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pishkar, Kian; Moinzadeh, Ahmad; Dabaghi, Azizallah

2017-01-01

Speaking a language involves more than simply knowing the linguistic components of the message, and developing language skills requires more than grammatical comprehension and vocabulary memorization. In teaching-learning processes, drama method may have some positive effects on ELL students' speaking fluency and accuracy. This study attempts to…

School profiles of at-risk student concentration: Differential growth in oral reading fluency

PubMed Central

Logan, Jessica A.R.; Petscher, Yaacov

2010-01-01

The present study provides a data-driven approach to identifying groups of schools based on the concentration of at-risk students the school serves. The percentage of English language learners, minority students, and students eligible for free or reduced priced lunch were used as indicators in a latent profile analysis of 569 schools. The goal of the present study was to determine whether school-level average student reading performance varied as a function of the groups identified in the latent profile analysis. To do so, groups extracted by the latent profile analysis were used as school-level predictors of growth in oral reading fluency, which was modeled at the within-student level of a three-level hierarchical growth curve model. Oral reading fluency was measured at four points during the year in a large cross-sectional sample of first-, second-, and third-grade students. Results indicated that schools were able to be classified into four distinct groups based on their concentrations and types of at-risk students. Further, in all three grades, there were significant differences between the four identified groups observed in average reading fluency scores at the beginning of the year, the end of the year, and growth during the year indicating that groups based on school-concentration of at-risk students were significantly related to average student achievement in reading ability. PMID:20159224

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

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.

The Measurement of the Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency of Written Arabic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raish, Michael

2017-01-01

This study investigates the multicomponential nature of L2 Arabic writing by adapting a number of direct measures of linguistic "complexity," "accuracy," and "fluency" (CAF) to the measurement of written Arabic texts produced by L2 Arabic learners and Arabic Native Speakers (NSs). Previous studies of L2 writing have…

Meta-Analysis of Mathematic Basic-Fact Fluency Interventions: A Component Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Codding, Robin S.; Burns, Matthew K.; Lukito, Gracia

2011-01-01

Mathematics fluency is a critical component of mathematics learning yet few attempts have been made to synthesize this research base. Seventeen single-case design studies with 55 participants were reviewed using meta-analytic procedures. A component analysis of practice elements was conducted and treatment intensity and feasibility were examined.…

Corrective Feedback, Spoken Accuracy and Fluency, and the Trade-Off Hypothesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chehr Azad, Mohammad Hassan; Farrokhi, Farahman; Zohrabi, Mohammad

2018-01-01

The current study was an attempt to investigate the effects of different corrective feedback (CF) conditions on Iranian EFL learners' spoken accuracy and fluency (AF) and the trade-off between them. Consequently, four pre-intermediate intact classes were randomly selected as the control, delayed explicit metalinguistic CF, extensive recast, and…

The Relationship between Good Readers' Attention, Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildiz, Mustafa; Çetinkaya, Ezgi

2017-01-01

This study aimed to examine the relationship between fourth-graders' reading fluency, reading comprehension and attention. It was conducted using the relational screening model and included 132 fourth-graders with grade level adequate reading skills. The study results showed that good readers' attention had significant effects on reading speed,…

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.

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

Investigating the Prospective Sense of Agency: Effects of Processing Fluency, Stimulus Ambiguity, and Response Conflict.

PubMed

Sidarus, Nura; Vuorre, Matti; Metcalfe, Janet; Haggard, Patrick

2017-01-01

How do we know how much control we have over our environment? The sense of agency refers to the feeling that we are in control of our actions, and that, through them, we can control our external environment. Thus, agency clearly involves matching intentions, actions, and outcomes. The present studies investigated the possibility that processes of action selection, i.e., choosing what action to make, contribute to the sense of agency. Since selection of action necessarily precedes execution of action, such effects must be prospective. In contrast, most literature on sense of agency has focussed on the retrospective computation whether an outcome fits the action performed or intended. This hypothesis was tested in an ecologically rich, dynamic task based on a computer game. Across three experiments, we manipulated three different aspects of action selection processing: visual processing fluency, categorization ambiguity, and response conflict. Additionally, we measured the relative contributions of prospective, action selection-based cues, and retrospective, outcome-based cues to the sense of agency. Manipulations of action selection were orthogonally combined with discrepancy of visual feedback of action. Fluency of action selection had a small but reliable effect on the sense of agency. Additionally, as expected, sense of agency was strongly reduced when visual feedback was discrepant with the action performed. The effects of discrepant feedback were larger than the effects of action selection fluency, and sometimes suppressed them. The sense of agency is highly sensitive to disruptions of action-outcome relations. However, when motor control is successful, and action-outcome relations are as predicted, fluency or dysfluency of action selection provides an important prospective cue to the sense of agency.

Investigating the Prospective Sense of Agency: Effects of Processing Fluency, Stimulus Ambiguity, and Response Conflict

PubMed Central

Sidarus, Nura; Vuorre, Matti; Metcalfe, Janet; Haggard, Patrick

2017-01-01

How do we know how much control we have over our environment? The sense of agency refers to the feeling that we are in control of our actions, and that, through them, we can control our external environment. Thus, agency clearly involves matching intentions, actions, and outcomes. The present studies investigated the possibility that processes of action selection, i.e., choosing what action to make, contribute to the sense of agency. Since selection of action necessarily precedes execution of action, such effects must be prospective. In contrast, most literature on sense of agency has focussed on the retrospective computation whether an outcome fits the action performed or intended. This hypothesis was tested in an ecologically rich, dynamic task based on a computer game. Across three experiments, we manipulated three different aspects of action selection processing: visual processing fluency, categorization ambiguity, and response conflict. Additionally, we measured the relative contributions of prospective, action selection-based cues, and retrospective, outcome-based cues to the sense of agency. Manipulations of action selection were orthogonally combined with discrepancy of visual feedback of action. Fluency of action selection had a small but reliable effect on the sense of agency. Additionally, as expected, sense of agency was strongly reduced when visual feedback was discrepant with the action performed. The effects of discrepant feedback were larger than the effects of action selection fluency, and sometimes suppressed them. The sense of agency is highly sensitive to disruptions of action-outcome relations. However, when motor control is successful, and action-outcome relations are as predicted, fluency or dysfluency of action selection provides an important prospective cue to the sense of agency. PMID:28450839

[Profile, competencies and digital fluency of nurses in the Professional Improvement Program].

PubMed

Tanabe, Lyvia Pini; Kobayashi, Rika Miyahara

2013-08-01

A descriptive exploratory study conducted in the city of São Paulo, which aimed to identify the profile, competencies and digital fluency of nurses in the Professional Improvement Program in handling technology at work. The population, composed by 60 nurses in the program, answered a questionnaire with data about profile, digital fluency and professional competencies. The participants were found to be: 95.0% female, 61.7% between 23 and 25 years old, 75.0% from public schools, 58.3% enrolled in cardiovascular nursing, 98.3% had contact with computing resources during graduation, 100.0% had a computer at home, 86.7% accessed the internet daily, 96.7% used Messenger and 58.3% had an intermediate level of knowledge and skill in computing. Professional competencies required for technology management referred to knowing how to be innovative, creative, and updated to identify and manage software and to use technological resources.

The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek

PubMed Central

Manolitsis, George; Grigorakis, Ioannis; Georgiou, George K.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the role of three morphological awareness (MA) skills (inflection, derivation, and compounding) in word reading fluency and reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography (Greek). Two hundred and fifteen (104 girls; Mage = 67.40 months, at kindergarten) Greek children were followed from kindergarten (K) to grade 2 (G2). In K and grade 1 (G1), they were tested on measures of MA (two inflectional, two derivational, and three compounding), letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and general cognitive ability (vocabulary and non-verbal IQ). At the end of G1 and G2, they were also tested on word reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the inflectional and derivational aspects of MA in K as well as all aspects of MA in G1 accounted for 2–5% of unique variance in reading comprehension. None of the MA skills predicted word reading fluency, after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and RAN. These findings suggest that the MA skills, even when assessed as early as in kindergarten, play a significant role in reading comprehension development. PMID:29081759

The Influence of Student Characteristics on Early Elementary Oral Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Dijk, Wilhelmina

2018-01-01

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) is a widely-used index of reading ability in early elementary grades; however, little information exists on predictive value of student characteristics on ORF scores (Wang, Algozzine, Ma, & Porfeli, 2011). A three-step sequential model was used to analyze the influence of student characteristics on scores (N = 2649)…

Predictive Validity and Accuracy of Oral Reading Fluency for English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vanderwood, Michael L.; Tung, Catherine Y.; Checca, C. Jason

2014-01-01

The predictive validity and accuracy of an oral reading fluency (ORF) measure for a statewide assessment in English language arts was examined for second-grade native English speakers (NESs) and English learners (ELs) with varying levels of English proficiency. In addition to comparing ELs with native English speakers, the impact of English…

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.

Deriving semantic structure from category fluency: clustering techniques and their pitfalls

PubMed Central

Voorspoels, Wouter; Storms, Gert; Longenecker, Julia; Verheyen, Steven; Weinberger, Daniel R.; Elvevåg, Brita

2013-01-01

Assessing verbal output in category fluency tasks provides a sensitive indicator of cortical dysfunction. The most common metrics are the overall number of words produced and the number of errors. Two main observations have been made about the structure of the output, first that there is a temporal component to it with words being generated in spurts, and second that the clustering pattern may reflect a search for meanings such that the ‘clustering’ is attributable to the activation of a specific semantic field in memory. A number of sophisticated approaches to examining the structure of this clustering have been developed, and a core theme is that the similarity relations between category members will reveal the mental semantic structure of the category underlying an individual’s responses, which can then be visualized by a number of algorithms, such as MDS, hierarchical clustering, ADDTREE, ADCLUS or SVD. Such approaches have been applied to a variety of neurological and psychiatric populations, and the general conclusion has been that the clinical condition systematically distorts the semantic structure in the patients, as compared to the healthy controls. In the present paper we explore this approach to understanding semantic structure using category fluency data. On the basis of a large pool of patients with schizophrenia (n=204) and healthy control participants (n=204), we find that the methods are problematic and unreliable to the extent that it is not possible to conclude that any putative difference reflects a systematic difference between the semantic representations in patients and controls. Moreover, taking into account the unreliability of the methods, we find that the most probable conclusion to be made is that no difference in underlying semantic representation exists. The consequences of these findings to understanding semantic structure, and the use of category fluency data, in cortical dysfunction are discussed. PMID:24275165

Media and Creativity: Effects of Pictures on Ideational Fluency in Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dirlam, David K.; Millar, James A.

The effects of slide photos on ideational fluency in 240 children in grades IV, VII and IX were studied. Children listed uses of tires and knives and similarities between potatoes and carrots, and cats and mice. It was reasoned that stimula which attract attention too closely to physical characteristics of objects directly under consideration…

The Isolated and Combined Effects of Intervention Components on Mathematic Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hastings, Kimberly A.

2010-01-01

Scope and Method of Study: The scope of the study was to compare empirically supported math fluency interventions to a control group as well as each other. The intervention components were isolated to investigate their initial strength as well as adding them together to investigate if the combined intervention was actually stronger or more…

Effects of Fluency Instruction on Selection-Based and Topography-Based Comprehension Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Clarissa S.; Rehfeldt, Ruth Anne

2013-01-01

A multiple probe across participants design was used to assess the effects of an intervention package on reading fluency and section-based and topography-based comprehension tasks. Participants were three adolescents diagnosed with high functioning pervasive developmental disorders. The intervention package consisted of listen passage preview,…

Recent Progress on Deep Blue Aerosol Algorithm as Applied TO MODIS, SEA WIFS, and VIIRS, and Their Intercomparisons with Ground Based and Other Satellite Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hsu, N. Christina; Bettenhausen, Corey; Sawyer, Andrew; Tsay, Si-Chee

2012-01-01

The impact of natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols has gained increasing attention from scientific communities in recent years. Indeed, tropospheric aerosols not only perturb radiative energy balance by interacting with solar and terrestrial radiation, but also by changing cloud properties and lifetime. Furthermore, these anthropogenic and natural air particles, once generated over the source regions, can be transported out of the boundary layer into the free troposphere and can travel thousands of kilometers across oceans and continents resulting in important biogeochemical impacts on the ecosystem. With the launch of SeaWiFS in 1997, Terra/MODIS in 1999, and Aqua/MODIS in 2002, high quality comprehensive aerosol climatology is becoming feasible for the first time. As a result of these unprecedented data records, studies of the radiative and biogeochemical effects due to tropospheric aerosols are now possible. In this talk, we will demonstrate how this newly available SeaWiFS/MODIS aerosol climatology can provide an important piece of puzzles in reducing the uncertainty of estimated climatic forcing due to aerosols. We will start with the global distribution of aerosol loading and their variabilities over both land and ocean on short- and long-term temporal scales observed over the last decade. The recent progress made in Deep Blue aerosol algorithm on improving accuracy of these Sea WiFS / MODIS aerosol products in particular over land will be discussed. The impacts on quantifying physical and optical processes of aerosols over source regions of adding the Deep Blue products of aerosol properties over bright-reflecting surfaces into Sea WiFS / MODIS as well as VIIRS data suite will also be addressed. We will also show the intercomparison results of SeaWiFS/MODIS retrieved aerosol optical thickness with data from ground based AERONET sunphotometers over land and ocean as well as with other satellite measurements. The trends observed in global aerosol

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

Latent information in fluency lists predicts functional decline in persons at risk for Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Clark, D G; Kapur, P; Geldmacher, D S; Brockington, J C; Harrell, L; DeRamus, T P; Blanton, P D; Lokken, K; Nicholas, A P; Marson, D C

2014-06-01

We constructed random forest classifiers employing either the traditional method of scoring semantic fluency word lists or new methods. These classifiers were then compared in terms of their ability to diagnose Alzheimer disease (AD) or to prognosticate among individuals along the continuum from cognitively normal (CN) through mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD. Semantic fluency lists from 44 cognitively normal elderly individuals, 80 MCI patients, and 41 AD patients were transcribed into electronic text files and scored by four methods: traditional raw scores, clustering and switching scores, "generalized" versions of clustering and switching, and a method based on independent components analysis (ICA). Random forest classifiers based on raw scores were compared to "augmented" classifiers that incorporated newer scoring methods. Outcome variables included AD diagnosis at baseline, MCI conversion, increase in Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SOB) score, or decrease in Financial Capacity Instrument (FCI) score. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed for each classifier and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. We compared AUC between raw and augmented classifiers using Delong's test and assessed validity and reliability of the augmented classifier. Augmented classifiers outperformed classifiers based on raw scores for the outcome measures AD diagnosis (AUC .97 vs. .95), MCI conversion (AUC .91 vs. .77), CDR-SOB increase (AUC .90 vs. .79), and FCI decrease (AUC .89 vs. .72). Measures of validity and stability over time support the use of the method. Latent information in semantic fluency word lists is useful for predicting cognitive and functional decline among elderly individuals at increased risk for developing AD. Modern machine learning methods may incorporate latent information to enhance the diagnostic value of semantic fluency raw scores. These methods could yield information valuable for patient care and clinical

Second language as a compensatory resource for maintaining verbal fluency in bilingual immigrants with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Smirnova, D; Walters, J; Fine, J; Muchnik-Rozanov, Y; Paz, M; Lerner, V; Belmaker, R H; Bersudsky, Y

2015-08-01

Due to the large migrations over the past three decades, large numbers of individuals with schizophrenia are learning a second language and being seen in clinics in that second language. We conducted within-subject comparisons to clarify the contribution of clinical, linguistic and bilingual features in the first and second languages of bilinguals with schizophrenia. Ten bilingual Russian(L1) and Hebrew(L2) proficient patients, who developed clinical schizophrenia after achieving proficiency in both languages, were selected from 60 candidates referred for the study; they were resident in Israel 7-32 years with 3-10 years from immigration to diagnosis. Clinical, linguistic and fluency markers were coded in transcripts of clinical interviews. There was a trend toward more verbal productivity in the first language (L1) than the second language (L2). Clinical speech markers associated with thought disorder and cognitive impairment (blocking and topic shift) were similar in both languages. Among linguistic markers of schizophrenia, Incomplete syntax and Speech role reference were significantly more frequent in L2 than L1; Lexical repetition and Unclear reference demonstrated a trend in the same direction. For fluency phenomena, Discourse markers were more prevalent in L1 than L2, and Codeswitching was similar across languages, showing that the patients were attuned to the socio-pragmatics of language use. More frequent linguistic markers of schizophrenia in L2 show more impairment in the syntactic/semantic components of language, reflecting greater thought and cognitive dysfunction. Patients are well able to acquire a second language. Nevertheless, schizophrenia finds expression in that language. Finally, more frequent fluency markers in L1 suggests motivation to maintain fluency, evidenced in particular by codeswitched L2 lexical items, a compensatory resource. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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…

Direct and Indirect Effects of Print Exposure on Silent Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mano, Quintino R.; Guerin, Julia M.

2018-01-01

Print exposure is an important causal factor in reading development. Little is known, however, of the mechanisms through which print exposure exerts an effect onto reading. To address this gap, we examined the direct and indirect effects of print exposure on silent reading fluency among college students (n = 52). More specifically, we focused on…

Assisting a Struggling Turkish Student with a Repeated Reading Fluency Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kasim; Ritz, Elizabeth; Akyol, Hayati; Rasinski, Timothy

2015-01-01

One of the most important aims of teaching reading is to help students acquire fluent reading skills. With this aim in mind, this study attempted to support a student with difficulty to become a fluent reader by improving his reading skills using a fluency instruction method called repeated reading. This study was performed with an elementary…

Workforce Readiness: A Study of University Students' Fluency with Information Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaminski, Karen; Switzer, Jamie; Gloeckner, Gene

2009-01-01

This study with data collected from a large sample of freshmen in 2001 and a random stratified sample of seniors in 2005 examined students perceived FITness (fluency with Information Technology). In the fall of 2001 freshmen at a medium sized research-one institution completed a survey and in spring 2005 a random sample of graduating seniors…

Assisted Reading: A Flexible Approach to L2 Reading Fluency Building

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taguchi, Etsuo; Melhem, Linley; Kawaguchi, Toshiko

2016-01-01

Reading fluency is a critical component of reading proficiency in both the L1 and L2. It lays a foundation on which readers build their reading skills to become strategic and versatile in using a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies of reading. In this paper we propose Assisted Reading as a flexible method for developing reading…

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…

The Effect of Lexical Bundles on Iranian EFL Learners Linguistic Production Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ranjbar, Nosrat; Pazhakh, Abdolreza; Gorjian, Bahman

2012-01-01

The present study attempted to investigate the effects of lexical bundles on Iranian EFL learners' paragraph writing production fluency. To achieve this purpose, an English language proficiency test was administered to 120 language learners studying TEFL at Islamic Azad University of Dehloran. Ultimately, 90 language learners were selected and…

Literacy Coaches' Perceptions of a Formative Fluency Assessment in Urban Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellison, Marclette

2013-01-01

In "Reading First" schools throughout the United States, literacy coaches administer the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) as the sole measure of fluency and then offer instructional recommendations for students with reading difficulties based on those results. However, critics of DIBELS question its accuracy for…

Endurance of Multiplication Fact Fluency for Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Kelly K.; Kubina, Richard M., Jr.

2010-01-01

This study examines the relationship between a critical learning outcome of behavioral fluency and endurance, by comparing the effects of two practice procedures on multiplication facts two through nine. The first procedure, called whole time practice trial, consisted of an uninterrupted 1 minute practice time. The second procedure, endurance…

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).

Fluency and Anxiety in Self-Access Speaking Tasks: The Influence of Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessler, Greg

2010-01-01

This study compares characteristics of fluency in student audio journals recorded in a laboratory setting with those recorded using mobile audio devices. Forty graduate students enrolled in four oral communication courses at an American university recorded weekly audio journals for a 10-week term. Students chose the environment in which they…

Oral Reading Fluency and Prosody: A Preliminary Analysis of the Greek Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarris, Menelaos; Dimakos, Ioannis C.

2015-01-01

This article presents results from an initial investigation of Greek oral reading fluency and prosody. Although currently held perspectives consider reading the product of reading decoding and reading comprehension, there is enough evidence (both Greek and foreign) to suggest that other variables may affect reading, as well. Such variables include…

Linguistic Familiarity in Short-Term Memory: A Role for (Co-)Articulatory Fluency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodward, Amelia J.; Macken, William J.; Jones, Dylan M.

2008-01-01

Enhanced serial recall for linguistically familiar material is usually attributed to a process of item redintegration. The possibility tested here is that familiarity influences memory at the sequence level by enhancing the fluency with which items may be assembled into sequences. Experiment 1 showed that with practice, serial recall of nonwords…

Differential Prefrontal and Frontotemporal Oxygenation Patterns during Phonemic and Semantic Verbal Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tupak, Sara V.; Badewien, Meike; Dresler, Thomas; Hahn, Tim; Ernst, Lena H.; Herrmann, Martin J.; Fallgatter, Andreas J.; Ehlis, Ann-Christine

2012-01-01

Movement artifacts are still considered a problematic issue for imaging research on overt language production. This motion-sensitivity can be overcome by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In the present study, 50 healthy subjects performed a combined phonemic and semantic overt verbal fluency task while frontal and temporal cortex…

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.

Handwriting training in Parkinson's disease: A trade-off between size, speed and fluency.

PubMed

Nackaerts, Evelien; Broeder, Sanne; Pereira, Marcelo P; Swinnen, Stephan P; Vandenberghe, Wim; Nieuwboer, Alice; Heremans, Elke

2017-01-01

In previous work, we found that intensive amplitude training successfully improved micrographia in Parkinson's disease (PD). Handwriting abnormalities in PD also express themselves in stroke duration and writing fluency. It is currently unknown whether training changes these dysgraphic features. To determine the differential effects of amplitude training on various hallmarks of handwriting abnormalities in PD. We randomized 38 right-handed subjects in early to mid-stage of PD into an experimental group (n = 18), receiving training focused at improving writing size during 30 minutes/day, five days/week for six weeks, and a placebo group (n = 20), receiving stretch and relaxation exercises at equal intensity. Writing skills were assessed using a touch-sensitive tablet pre- and post-training, and after a six-week retention period. Tests encompassed a transfer task, evaluating trained and untrained sequences, and an automatization task, comparing single- and dual-task handwriting. Outcome parameters were stroke duration (s), writing velocity (cm/s) and normalized jerk (i.e. fluency). In contrast to the reported positive effects of training on writing size, the current results showed increases in stroke duration and normalized jerk after amplitude training, which were absent in the placebo group. These increases remained after the six-week retention period. In contrast, velocity remained unchanged throughout the study. While intensive amplitude training is beneficial to improve writing size in PD, it comes at a cost as fluency and stroke duration deteriorated after training. The findings imply that PD patients can redistribute movement priorities after training within a compromised motor system.

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…

Akt2-Dependent Phosphorylation of Radixin in Regulation of Mrp-2 Trafficking in WIF-B Cells.

PubMed

Suda, Jo; Rockey, Don C; Karvar, Serhan

2016-02-01

The dominant ezrin/radixin/moesin protein in hepatocytes is radixin, which plays an important role in mediating the binding of F-actin to the plasma membrane after a conformational activation by phosphorylation at Thr564. Here we have investigated the importance of Akt-mediated radixin Thr564 phosphorylation on Mrp-2 distribution and function in WIF-B cells. Mrp-2 is an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette transporter that plays an important role in detoxification and chemoprotection by transporting a wide range of compounds, especially conjugates of lipophilic substances with glutathione, organic anions, and drug metabolites such as glucuronides. Akt1 and Akt2 expression were manipulated using dominant active and negative constructs as well as Akt1 and Akt2 siRNA. Cellular distribution of radixin and Mrp-2 was visualized by fluorescence microscopy. A 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate, which is a substrate of the Mrp-2 and is actively transported in canalicular lumina, was used to measure Mrp-2 function. Radixin phosphorylation was significantly increased in wild-type and dominant active Akt2 transfected cells. Furthermore, radixin and Mrp-2 were localized at the canalicular membrane, similar to control cells. In contrast, overexpression of dominant negative Akt2, siRNA knockdown of Akt2 and a specific Akt inhibitor prevented radixin phosphorylation and led to alteration of normal radixin and Mrp-2 localization; inhibition of Akt2, but not Akt1 function led to radixin localization to the cytoplasmic space. In addition, dominant negative and Akt2 knockdown led to a dramatically impaired hepatocyte secretory response, while wild-type and dominant active Akt2 transfected cells exhibited increased 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate excretion. In contrast to Akt2, Akt1 was not associated with radixin phosphorylation. These studies, therefore, identify Akt2 as a critical kinase that regulates radixin phosphorylation and leads to Mrp-2 translocation and

An Examination of Stimulus Control in Fluency-Based Strategies: SAFMEDS and Generalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meindl, James N.; Ivy, Jonathan W.; Miller, Neal; Neef, Nancy A.; Williamson, Robert L.

2013-01-01

Fluency-based strategies such as Say All Fast a Minute Each Day Shuffled (SAFMEDS) effectively promote fluent responding (i.e., high rate and accuracy). It is possible, however, that the stimulus control developed through these activities inhibits stimulus generalization. We investigated this concern in a two-part study with college students.…

The Impact of Text-Based CMC on Improving L2 Oral Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razagifard, P.

2013-01-01

This paper reports on a study investigating the potential effect of synchronous and asynchronous text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) on oral fluency development of second-language (L2) learners. Sixty-three intermediate learners of English were randomly assigned to one of three groups (two experimental groups and one control group),…

Effects of Word Prediction on Writing Fluency for Students with Physical Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mezei, Peter J.; Heller, Kathryn Wolff

2012-01-01

Many students with physical disabilities have difficulty with writing fluency due to motor limitations. One type of assistive technology that has been developed to improve writing speed and accuracy is word prediction software, although there is a paucity of research supporting its use for individuals with physical disabilities. This study used an…

ADHD and Adolescent EFL Learners' Speaking Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marashi, Hamid; Dolatdoost, Mohammad

2016-01-01

This study was an attempt to investigate the relationships among Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) among Iranian EFL learners. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the teachers and parents of 593 male students were given the Farsi version of the CSI-4 ADHD diagnostic…

Prosody as a Tool for Assessing Reading Fluency of Adult ESL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinambela, Seftirina Evina

2017-01-01

The prosodic features in reading aloud assignment has been associated with the students' decoding skill. The goal of the present study is to determine the reliability of prosody for assessing reading fluency of adult ESL students in Indonesia context. The participants were all Indonesian natives, undergraduate students, adult females and males who…

Peer-Mediated vs. Individual Writing: Measuring Fluency, Complexity, and Accuracy in Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soleimani, Maryam; Modirkhamene, Sima; Sadeghi, Karim

2017-01-01

Drawing upon Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory (SCT), this study aimed at investigating the effect of two writing modes, namely, peer-mediated/collaborative vs. individual writing on measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity of female EFL learners' writing. Based on an in-house placement test and the First Certificate in English writing paper, a…

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.

The impact of language co-activation on L1 and L2 speech fluency.

PubMed

Bergmann, Christopher; Sprenger, Simone A; Schmid, Monika S

2015-10-01

Fluent speech depends on the availability of well-established linguistic knowledge and routines for speech planning and articulation. A lack of speech fluency in late second-language (L2) learners may point to a deficiency of these representations, due to incomplete acquisition. Experiments on bilingual language processing have shown, however, that there are strong reasons to believe that multilingual speakers experience co-activation of the languages they speak. We have studied to what degree language co-activation affects fluency in the speech of bilinguals, comparing a monolingual German control group with two bilingual groups: 1) first-language (L1) attriters, who have fully acquired German before emigrating to an L2 English environment, and 2) immersed L2 learners of German (L1: English). We have analysed the temporal fluency and the incidence of disfluency markers (pauses, repetitions and self-corrections) in spontaneous film retellings. Our findings show that learners to speak more slowly than controls and attriters. Also, on each count, the speech of at least one of the bilingual groups contains more disfluency markers than the retellings of the control group. Generally speaking, both bilingual groups-learners and attriters-are equally (dis)fluent and significantly more disfluent than the monolingual speakers. Given that the L1 attriters are unaffected by incomplete acquisition, we interpret these findings as evidence for language competition during speech production. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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…

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…

Effects of Specifically Designed Literacy Stations on the Reading Fluency of Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

English, Christine E.

2013-01-01

Reading fluency is critical in all aspects of school curriculum. Struggling readers fall further behind each year due to the increasing demands of the curriculum. To address this problem, the current study implemented literacy stations for struggling readers in a school in rural Washington State. The purpose of this study was to examine (a)…

Biological Dialogues: How to Teach Your Students to Learn Fluency in Biology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

May, S. Randolph; Cook, David L.; May, Marilyn K.

2013-01-01

Biology courses have thousands of words to learn in order to intelligently discuss the subject and take tests over the material. Biological fluency is an important goal for students, and practical methods based on constructivist pedagogies can be employed to promote it. We present a method in which pairs of students write dialogues from…

Evaluating the generalization of math fact fluency gains across paper and computer performance modalities.

PubMed

Duhon, Gary J; House, Sara H; Stinnett, Terry A

2012-06-01

Computer-based interventions are being used more in the classroom. Student responses to these interventions often contribute to decisions making regarding important outcomes. It is important to understand the effect of these interventions within the context of the intervention as well as across related context. The current study examined the generalization of math fact fluency gains resulting from a computer-based intervention to paper-and-pencil performance. A total of 31 second grade students completed fluency drills on the computer or with paper and pencil. Pretest-posttest performance on both computer and paper and pencil for all students was evaluated using a doubly multivariate repeated measure ANOVA. Results indicated that gains achieved on the computer did not generalize to paper-and-pencil performance. Copyright © 2012 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Peer-Mediated Repeated Readings as a Fluency-Building Activity for Urban Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yurick, Amanda L.; Robinson, Porsha D.; Cartledge, Gwendolyn; Lo, Ya-yu; Evans, Trisha L.

2006-01-01

We conducted three experiments examining the effects of peer-mediated repeated readings on students' oral reading fluency and comprehension. Each repeated reading session consisted of students reading in pairs, alternating paragraphs, for 10 minutes. Students used a scripted correction procedure when errors occurred. Students then participated in…

Long-Term Effect of Prefrontal Lobotomy on Verbal Fluency in Patients with Schizophrenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stip, Emmanuel; Bigras, Marie-Josee.; Mancini-Marie, Adham; Cosset, Marie-Eve.; Black, Deborah; Lecours, Andre-Roch

2004-01-01

Objective: This study investigated the long-term effects of bilateral prefrontal leukotomy on lexical abilities in schizophrenia subjects. Method: We compared performances of leukotomized (LSP), non-leukotomized schizophrenia patients (NLSP) and normal controls, using a test of verbal fluency. Multiple case and triple comparison design were…

Sex Differences and Autism: Brain Function during Verbal Fluency and Mental Rotation

PubMed Central

Minati, Ludovico; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Lombardo, Michael V.; Lai, Meng-Chuan; Walker, Anne; Howard, Dawn; Gray, Marcus A.; Harrison, Neil A.; Critchley, Hugo D.

2012-01-01

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females. This suggests that the neurobiology of autism: 1) may overlap with mechanisms underlying typical sex-differentiation or 2) alternately reflect sex-specificity in how autism is expressed in males and females. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test these alternate hypotheses. Fifteen men and fourteen women with Asperger syndrome (AS), and sixteen typically developing men and sixteen typically developing women underwent fMRI during performance of mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. All groups performed the tasks equally well. On the verbal fluency task, despite equivalent task-performance, both males and females with AS showed enhanced activation of left occipitoparietal and inferior prefrontal activity compared to controls. During mental rotation, there was a significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction across occipital, temporal, parietal, middle frontal regions, with greater activation in AS males and typical females compared to AS females and typical males. These findings suggest a complex relationship between autism and sex that is differentially expressed in verbal and visuospatial domains. PMID:22701630

Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance

PubMed Central

Materek, April; Cole, Carolyn A. S.; Levine, Terry M.; Mahone, E. Mark

2009-01-01

Reading disability (RD) typically consists of deficits in word reading accuracy and/or reading comprehension. While it is well known that word reading accuracy deficits lead to comprehension deficits (general reading disability, GRD), less is understood about neuropsychological profiles of children who exhibit adequate word reading accuracy but nevertheless develop specific reading comprehension deficits (S-RCD). Establishing the underlying neuropsychological processes associated with different RD types is essential for ultimately understanding core neurobiological bases of reading comprehension. To this end, the present study investigated isolated and contextual word fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance in 56 9- to 14-year-old children [21 typically developing (TD), 18 GRD, and 17 S-RCD]. Results indicated that TD and S-RCD participants read isolated words at a faster rate than participants with GRD; however, both RD groups had contextual word fluency and oral language weaknesses. Additionally, S-RCD participants showed prominent weaknesses in executive function. Implications for understanding the neuropsychological bases for reading comprehension are discussed. PMID:19396550

Sex differences and autism: brain function during verbal fluency and mental rotation.

PubMed

Beacher, Felix D C C; Radulescu, Eugenia; Minati, Ludovico; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Lombardo, Michael V; Lai, Meng-Chuan; Walker, Anne; Howard, Dawn; Gray, Marcus A; Harrison, Neil A; Critchley, Hugo D

2012-01-01

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females. This suggests that the neurobiology of autism: 1) may overlap with mechanisms underlying typical sex-differentiation or 2) alternately reflect sex-specificity in how autism is expressed in males and females. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test these alternate hypotheses. Fifteen men and fourteen women with Asperger syndrome (AS), and sixteen typically developing men and sixteen typically developing women underwent fMRI during performance of mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. All groups performed the tasks equally well. On the verbal fluency task, despite equivalent task-performance, both males and females with AS showed enhanced activation of left occipitoparietal and inferior prefrontal activity compared to controls. During mental rotation, there was a significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction across occipital, temporal, parietal, middle frontal regions, with greater activation in AS males and typical females compared to AS females and typical males. These findings suggest a complex relationship between autism and sex that is differentially expressed in verbal and visuospatial domains.

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…

Functional connectivity during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency test: a multi-channel near infrared spectroscopy study (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Chun-Jung; Sun, Chia-Wei; Chou, Po-Han; Chuang, Ching-Cheng

2016-03-01

Verbal fluency tests (VFT) are widely used neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe and have been frequently used in various functional brain mapping studies. There are two versions of VFT based on the type of cue: the letter fluency task (LFT) and the category fluency task (CFT). However, the fundamental aspect of the brain connectivity across spatial regions of the fronto-temporal regions during the VFTs has not been elucidated to date. In this study we hypothesized that different cortical functional connectivity over bilateral fronto-temporal regions can be observed by means of multi-channel fNIRS in the LFT and the CFT respectively. Our results from fNIRS (ETG-4000) showed different patterns of brain functional connectivity consistent with these different cognitive requirements. We demonstrate more brain functional connectivity over frontal and temporal regions during LFT than CFT, and this was in line with previous brain activity studies using fNIRS demonstrating increased frontal and temporal region activation during LFT and CFT and more pronounced frontal activation by the LFT.

The effects of a single night of sleep deprivation on fluency and prefrontal cortex function during divergent thinking

PubMed Central

Vartanian, Oshin; Bouak, Fethi; Caldwell, J. L.; Cheung, Bob; Cupchik, Gerald; Jobidon, Marie-Eve; Lam, Quan; Nakashima, Ann; Paul, Michel; Peng, Henry; Silvia, Paul J.; Smith, Ingrid

2014-01-01

The dorsal and ventral aspects of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are the two regions most consistently recruited in divergent thinking tasks. Given that frontal tasks have been shown to be vulnerable to sleep loss, we explored the impact of a single night of sleep deprivation on fluency (i.e., number of generated responses) and PFC function during divergent thinking. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning twice while engaged in the Alternate Uses Task (AUT) – once following a single night of sleep deprivation and once following a night of normal sleep. They also wore wrist activity monitors, which enabled us to quantify daily sleep and model cognitive effectiveness. The intervention was effective, producing greater levels of fatigue and sleepiness. Modeled cognitive effectiveness and fluency were impaired following sleep deprivation, and sleep deprivation was associated with greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during AUT. The results suggest that an intervention known to temporarily compromise frontal function can impair fluency, and that this effect is instantiated in the form of an increased hemodynamic response in the left IFG. PMID:24795594

Information fluency for undergraduate biology majors: applications of inquiry-based learning in a developmental biology course.

PubMed

Gehring, Kathleen M; Eastman, Deborah A

2008-01-01

Many initiatives for the improvement of undergraduate science education call for inquiry-based learning that emphasizes investigative projects and reading of the primary literature. These approaches give students an understanding of science as a process and help them integrate content presented in courses. At the same time, general initiatives to promote information fluency are being promoted on many college and university campuses. Information fluency refers to discipline-specific processing of information, and it involves integration of gathered information with specific ideas to form logical conclusions. We have implemented the use of inquiry-based learning to enhance and study discipline-specific information fluency skills in an upper-level undergraduate Developmental Biology course. In this study, an information literacy tutorial and a set of linked assignments using primary literature analysis were integrated with two inquiry-based laboratory research projects. Quantitative analysis of student responses suggests that the abilities of students to identify and apply valid sources of information were enhanced. Qualitative assessment revealed a set of patterns by which students gather and apply information. Self-assessment responses indicated that students recognized the impact of the assignments on their abilities to gather and apply information and that they were more confident about these abilities for future biology courses and beyond.

Information Fluency for Undergraduate Biology Majors: Applications of Inquiry-based Learning in a Developmental Biology Course

PubMed Central

Gehring, Kathleen M.

2008-01-01

Many initiatives for the improvement of undergraduate science education call for inquiry-based learning that emphasizes investigative projects and reading of the primary literature. These approaches give students an understanding of science as a process and help them integrate content presented in courses. At the same time, general initiatives to promote information fluency are being promoted on many college and university campuses. Information fluency refers to discipline-specific processing of information, and it involves integration of gathered information with specific ideas to form logical conclusions. We have implemented the use of inquiry-based learning to enhance and study discipline-specific information fluency skills in an upper-level undergraduate Developmental Biology course. In this study, an information literacy tutorial and a set of linked assignments using primary literature analysis were integrated with two inquiry-based laboratory research projects. Quantitaitve analysis of student responses suggests that the abilities of students to identify and apply valid sources of information were enhanced. Qualitative assessment revealed a set of patterns by which students gather and apply information. Self-assessment responses indicated that students recognized the impact of the assignments on their abilities to gather and apply information and that they were more confident about these abilities for future biology courses and beyond. PMID:18316808

The Word Writing CAFE: Assessing Student Writing for Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leal, Dorothy J.

2005-01-01

The Word Writing CAFE is a new assessment tool designed for teachers to evaluate objectively students' word-writing ability for fluency, accuracy, and complexity. It is designed to be given to the whole class at one time. This article describes the development of the CAFE and provides directions for administering and scoring it. The author also…

Verbal Fluency in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Clustering and Switching Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Begeer, Sander; Wierda, Marlies; Scheeren, Anke M.; Teunisse, Jan-Pieter; Koot, Hans M.; Geurts, Hilde M.

2014-01-01

This study highlights differences in cognitive strategies in children and adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders (n = 52) on a verbal fluency task (naming as many words as possible (e.g. animals) within 60 s). The ability to form clusters of words (e.g. farm animals like "cow-horse-goat") or to switch between unrelated…

Technology Integration and the Effect on Mathematics Fact Fluency in the Middle East

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Letwinsky, Karim Medico; Berry, Michael David

2017-01-01

This quantitative, quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of the Mathletics.com technology on basic multiplication fact fluency in fourth grade students in the Middle East. The treatment group received three weeks of scheduled time using Mathletics.com, while the control group practiced multiplication facts using only traditional…

Impact of Handwriting Training on Fluency, Spelling and Text Quality among Third Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurschler Lichtsteiner, Sibylle; Wicki, Werner; Falmann, Péter

2018-01-01

As recent studies and theoretical assumptions suggest that the quality of texts composed by children and adolescents is affected by their transcription skills, this experimental field trial aims at investigating the impact of combined handwriting/spelling training on fluency, spelling and text quality among normally developing 3rd graders…

The Relationship between Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension in Fifth-Grade Turkish Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildiz, Mustafa; Yildirim, Kasim; Ates, Seyit; Rasinski, Timothy; Fitzgerald, Shawn; Zimmerman, Belinda

2014-01-01

This research study focused on the relationships among the various components of reading fluency components (word recognition accuracy, automaticity, and prosody), as well as their relationships with reading comprehension among fifth-grade students in Turkey. A total of 119 fifth-grade elementary school students participated in the study. The…

Examining Learning Rates in the Evaluation of Academic Interventions That Target Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solomon, Benjamin G.; Poncy, Brian C.; Caravello, Devin J.; Schweiger, Emily M.

2018-01-01

The purpose of the current study is to determine whether single-case intervention studies targeting reading fluency, ranked by traditional outcome metrics (i.e., effect sizes derived from phase differences), were discrepant with rankings based on instructional efficiency, including growth per session and minutes of instruction. Converging with…

Category and Letter Fluency in Semantic Dementia, Primary Progressive Aphasia, and Alzheimer's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marczinski, Cecile A.; Kertesz, Andrew

2006-01-01

This study examined the impact of various degenerative dementias on access to semantic knowledge and the status of semantic representations. Patients with semantic dementia, primary progressive aphasia, and Alzheimer's disease were compared with elderly controls on tasks of category and letter fluency, with number of words generated, mean lexical…

Improving Students' Reading Fluency through the Use of Phonics and Word Recognition Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballard, Christine; Jacocks, Kathleen

This study describes a program designed to improve student reading fluency. The targeted population consisted of first and third grade students in a growing urban community in the Midwest. Evidence for the existence of the problem included standardized test scores and independent computer reports that measured academic achievement, phonic…

Poetry and Writing: Improving Fluency and Motivation for Students with Developmental Dyslexic Traits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruster, Benita

2015-01-01

Struggling readers often lack fluency and motivation and many exhibit dyslexic characteristics. Often these children sit undiagnosed in regular education classroom with interventions that are limited in scope and fail to have the motivational element which will encourage these struggling readers to actively engage in reading and writing. Students…

Oral Reading Fluency Growth: A Sample of Methodology and Findings. Research Brief 6

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tindal, Gerald; Nese, Joseph F. T.

2013-01-01

For the past 20 years, the growth of students' oral reading fluency has been investigated by a number of researchers using curriculum-based measurement. These researchers have used varied methods (student samples, measurement procedures, and analytical techniques) and yet have converged on a relatively consistent finding: General education…

Characterization of Unexplored Deadwood Mycobiome in Highly Diverse Subtropical Forests Using Culture-independent Molecular Technique

PubMed Central

Purahong, Witoon; Pietsch, Katherina A.; Lentendu, Guillaume; Schöps, Ricardo; Bruelheide, Helge; Wirth, Christian; Buscot, François; Wubet, Tesfaye

2017-01-01

The deadwood mycobiome, also known as wood-inhabiting fungi (WIF), are among the key players in wood decomposition, having a large impact on nutrient cycling in forest soils. However, our knowledge of WIF richness and distribution patterns in different forest biomes is limited. Here, we used pyrotag sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) region to characterize the deadwood mycobiome of two tree species with greatly different wood characteristics (Schima superba and Pinus massoniana) in a Chinese subtropical forest ecosystem. Specifically, we tested (i) the effects of tree species and wood quality properties on WIF OTU richness and community composition; (ii) the role of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the WIF communities; and (iii) the relationship between WIF OTU richness, community composition and decomposition rates. Due to different wood chemical properties, we hypothesized that the WIF communities derived from the two tree species would be correlated differently with biotic and abiotic factors. Our results show that deadwood in subtropical forests harbors diverse fungal communities comprising six ecological functional groups. We found interesting colonization patterns for this subtropical biome, where Resinicium spp. were highly detected in both broadleaved and coniferous deadwood. In addition, the members of Xylariales were frequently found in Schima. The two deadwood species differed significantly in WIF OTU richness (Pinus > Schima) and community composition (P < 0.001). Variations in WIF community composition of both tree species were significantly explained by wood pH and ecological factors (biotic: deadwood species, basal area and abiotic: soil pH), but the WIF communities derived from each tree species correlated differently with abiotic factors. Interestingly, we found that deadwood decomposition rate significantly correlated with WIF communities and negatively correlated with WIF OTU richness. We conclude that the pattern of

Characterization of Unexplored Deadwood Mycobiome in Highly Diverse Subtropical Forests Using Culture-independent Molecular Technique.

PubMed

Purahong, Witoon; Pietsch, Katherina A; Lentendu, Guillaume; Schöps, Ricardo; Bruelheide, Helge; Wirth, Christian; Buscot, François; Wubet, Tesfaye

2017-01-01

The deadwood mycobiome, also known as wood-inhabiting fungi (WIF), are among the key players in wood decomposition, having a large impact on nutrient cycling in forest soils. However, our knowledge of WIF richness and distribution patterns in different forest biomes is limited. Here, we used pyrotag sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) region to characterize the deadwood mycobiome of two tree species with greatly different wood characteristics ( Schima superba and Pinus massoniana ) in a Chinese subtropical forest ecosystem. Specifically, we tested (i) the effects of tree species and wood quality properties on WIF OTU richness and community composition; (ii) the role of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the WIF communities; and (iii) the relationship between WIF OTU richness, community composition and decomposition rates. Due to different wood chemical properties, we hypothesized that the WIF communities derived from the two tree species would be correlated differently with biotic and abiotic factors. Our results show that deadwood in subtropical forests harbors diverse fungal communities comprising six ecological functional groups. We found interesting colonization patterns for this subtropical biome, where Resinicium spp. were highly detected in both broadleaved and coniferous deadwood. In addition, the members of Xylariales were frequently found in Schima . The two deadwood species differed significantly in WIF OTU richness ( Pinus > Schima ) and community composition ( P < 0.001). Variations in WIF community composition of both tree species were significantly explained by wood pH and ecological factors (biotic: deadwood species, basal area and abiotic: soil pH), but the WIF communities derived from each tree species correlated differently with abiotic factors. Interestingly, we found that deadwood decomposition rate significantly correlated with WIF communities and negatively correlated with WIF OTU richness. We conclude that the

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 +…

Bringing the frame into focus: the influence of regulatory fit on processing fluency and persuasion.

PubMed

Lee, Angela Y; Aaker, Jennifer L

2004-02-01

This research demonstrates that people's goals associated with regulatory focus moderate the effect of message framing on persuasion. The results of 6 experiments show that appeals presented in gain frames are more persuasive when the message is promotion focused, whereas loss-framed appeals are more persuasive when the message is prevention focused. These regulatory focus effects suggesting heightened vigilance against negative outcomes and heightened eagerness toward positive outcomes are replicated when perceived risk is manipulated. Enhanced processing fluency leading to more favorable evaluations in conditions of compatibility appears to underlie these effects. The findings underscore the regulatory fit principle that accounts for the persuasiveness of message framing effects and highlight how processing fluency may contribute to the "feeling right" experience when the strategy of goal pursuit matches one's goal.

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.

Naive Theories of Intelligence and the Role of Processing Fluency in Perceived Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miele, David B.; Molden, Daniel C.

2010-01-01

Previous research overwhelmingly suggests that feelings of ease people experience while processing information lead them to infer that their comprehension is high, whereas feelings of difficulty lead them to infer that their comprehension is low. However, the inferences people draw from their experiences of processing fluency should also vary in…

The Effectiveness of a Tablet Computer-Aided Intervention Program for Improving Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özbek, Ahmet Bilal; Girli, Alev

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a tablet computer-aided intervention program for improving reading fluency. It also investigates the opinions of students and parents about this intervention by using skill- and performance-based techniques, which have been investigated qualitatively. Three students with a learning…

Investigating the Representational Fluency of Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers in a Modelling Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delice, Ali; Kertil, Mahmut

2015-01-01

This article reports the results of a study that investigated pre-service mathematics teachers' modelling processes in terms of representational fluency in a modelling activity related to a cassette player. A qualitative approach was used in the data collection process. Students' individual and group written responses to the mathematical modelling…

Handwriting training in Parkinson’s disease: A trade-off between size, speed and fluency

PubMed Central

Broeder, Sanne; Pereira, Marcelo P.; Swinnen, Stephan P.; Vandenberghe, Wim; Nieuwboer, Alice; Heremans, Elke

2017-01-01

Background In previous work, we found that intensive amplitude training successfully improved micrographia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Handwriting abnormalities in PD also express themselves in stroke duration and writing fluency. It is currently unknown whether training changes these dysgraphic features. Objective To determine the differential effects of amplitude training on various hallmarks of handwriting abnormalities in PD. Methods We randomized 38 right-handed subjects in early to mid-stage of PD into an experimental group (n = 18), receiving training focused at improving writing size during 30 minutes/day, five days/week for six weeks, and a placebo group (n = 20), receiving stretch and relaxation exercises at equal intensity. Writing skills were assessed using a touch-sensitive tablet pre- and post-training, and after a six-week retention period. Tests encompassed a transfer task, evaluating trained and untrained sequences, and an automatization task, comparing single- and dual-task handwriting. Outcome parameters were stroke duration (s), writing velocity (cm/s) and normalized jerk (i.e. fluency). Results In contrast to the reported positive effects of training on writing size, the current results showed increases in stroke duration and normalized jerk after amplitude training, which were absent in the placebo group. These increases remained after the six-week retention period. In contrast, velocity remained unchanged throughout the study. Conclusion While intensive amplitude training is beneficial to improve writing size in PD, it comes at a cost as fluency and stroke duration deteriorated after training. The findings imply that PD patients can redistribute movement priorities after training within a compromised motor system. PMID:29272301

Visual perception can account for the close relation between numerosity processing and computational fluency.

PubMed

Zhou, Xinlin; Wei, Wei; Zhang, Yiyun; Cui, Jiaxin; Chen, Chuansheng

2015-01-01

Studies have shown that numerosity processing (e.g., comparison of numbers of dots in two dot arrays) is significantly correlated with arithmetic performance. Researchers have attributed this association to the fact that both tasks share magnitude processing. The current investigation tested an alternative hypothesis, which states that visual perceptual ability (as measured by a figure-matching task) can account for the close relation between numerosity processing and arithmetic performance (computational fluency). Four hundred and twenty four third- to fifth-grade children (220 boys and 204 girls, 8.0-11.0 years old; 120 third graders, 146 fourth graders, and 158 fifth graders) were recruited from two schools (one urban and one suburban) in Beijing, China. Six classes were randomly selected from each school, and all students in each selected class participated in the study. All children were given a series of cognitive and mathematical tests, including numerosity comparison, figure matching, forward verbal working memory, visual tracing, non-verbal matrices reasoning, mental rotation, choice reaction time, arithmetic tests and curriculum-based mathematical achievement test. Results showed that figure-matching ability had higher correlations with numerosity processing and computational fluency than did other cognitive factors (e.g., forward verbal working memory, visual tracing, non-verbal matrix reasoning, mental rotation, and choice reaction time). More important, hierarchical multiple regression showed that figure matching ability accounted for the well-established association between numerosity processing and computational fluency. In support of the visual perception hypothesis, the results suggest that visual perceptual ability, rather than magnitude processing, may be the shared component of numerosity processing and arithmetic performance.

Racial-Ethnic Differences in Word Fluency and Auditory Comprehension Among Persons With Poststroke Aphasia.

PubMed

Ellis, Charles; Peach, Richard K

2017-04-01

To examine aphasia outcomes and to determine whether the observed language profiles vary by race-ethnicity. Retrospective cross-sectional study using a convenience sample of persons of with aphasia (PWA) obtained from AphasiaBank, a database designed for the study of aphasia outcomes. Aphasia research laboratories. PWA (N=381; 339 white and 42 black individuals). Not applicable. Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) total scale score (Aphasia Quotient) and subtest scores were analyzed for racial-ethnic differences. The WAB-R is a comprehensive assessment of communication function designed to evaluate PWA in the areas of spontaneous speech, auditory comprehension, repetition, and naming in addition to reading, writing, apraxia, and constructional, visuospatial, and calculation skills. In univariate comparisons, black PWA exhibited lower word fluency (5.7 vs 7.6; P=.004), auditory word comprehension (49.0 vs 53.0; P=.021), and comprehension of sequential commands (44.2 vs 52.2; P=.012) when compared with white PWA. In multivariate comparisons, adjusted for age and years of education, black PWA exhibited lower word fluency (5.5 vs 7.6; P=.015), auditory word recognition (49.3 vs 53.3; P=.02), and comprehension of sequential commands (43.7 vs 53.2; P=.017) when compared with white PWA. This study identified racial-ethnic differences in word fluency and auditory comprehension ability among PWA. Both skills are critical to effective communication, and racial-ethnic differences in outcomes must be considered in treatment approaches designed to improve overall communication ability. Copyright © 2016 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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…

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.…

Teaching the Brain to Read: Strategies for Improving Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willis, Judy

2008-01-01

Neurologist and middle school teacher Judy Willis connects what you do in the classroom to what happens in the brain when students learn how to read, including: (1) Why a classroom has to be safe and supportive in order to overcome barriers to reading fluency; (2) How to jumpstart students who are not well prepared for reading with activities that…

Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading Fluency (CBM-R): An Objective Orientated Evaluation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grima-Farrell, Christine

2014-01-01

The knowledge and practices associated with improved outcomes for readers have yielded converging evidence about practices associated with improved reading outcomes for primary students. This considerable intervention knowledge can be beneficial for English teachers working with struggling secondary readers. Fluency is one critical element that…

The Use of a Sequenced Questioning Paradigm to Facilitate Associative Fluency in Preschoolers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pellegrini, A. D.; Greene, Helen

The extent to which free play versus sequenced questioning conditions facilitates preschoolers' associative fluency was investigated in this study. Twenty-four children (12 boys and 12 girls, with a mean age of 50.7 months) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: free play, sequenced questioning, and control. In the sequenced…

The Development of L2 Fluency during Study Abroad: A Cross-Language Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Di Silvio, Francesca; Diao, Wenhao; Donovan, Anne

2016-01-01

Examining speech samples from 75 American university students learning 1 of 3 languages (Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish), this article reports on a study of second language (L2) learners' oral fluency development and its relationship with their gains in holistic proficiency ratings during a semester abroad. In study abroad research, there is a…

Using a Multimedia-Based Program for Developing Student Teachers' EFL Speaking Fluency Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diyyab, Eman Aly; Abdel-Haq, Eman Muhamad; Aly, Mahsoub Abdel-Sadeq

2013-01-01

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of using a multimedia-based program for developing EFL speaking fluency skills among second year, English section student teachers. The sample of the present study consisted of thirty students at Sadat Faculty of Education, Minufiya University, Egypt. The study sample was…