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Phonological and orthographic coding in deaf skilled readers
Noemi Fariña1, Jon Andoni Duñabeitia1, Manuel Carreiras2
1BCBL. Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia, Spain.
Deaf readers do not use phonological mediation when reading Spanish, a transparent orthography. They show similar orthographic sensitivity to hearing readers, suggesting phonological coding isn't essential for lexicon access.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Linguistics
- Deaf Studies
Background:
- Deaf individuals often face reading challenges, particularly in languages with opaque orthography.
- Previous research focused on reading difficulties in opaque orthographic systems like English.
- Spanish, a transparent orthography, is claimed to necessitate phonological mediation for word recognition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate visual word recognition in deaf adult skilled readers using Spanish.
- To determine if deaf readers utilize phonological mediation in a transparent orthographic system.
- To compare orthographic sensitivity between deaf and hearing skilled readers.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Assessed pseudohomophone effects in hearing and deaf readers.
- Experiment 2: Measured transposed-letter effect to gauge orthographic sensitivity.
- Participants: Deaf and hearing adult skilled readers.
Main Results:
- Hearing readers showed a pseudohomophone inhibitory effect; deaf readers did not.
- Both deaf and hearing readers exhibited similar levels of orthographic sensitivity.
- Deaf skilled readers did not rely on phonological mediation for Spanish word recognition.
Conclusions:
- Deaf skilled readers bypass phonological mediation when reading transparent orthographies like Spanish.
- Phonological coding is not a mandatory pathway for lexicon and meaning access in transparent languages.
- Findings highlight the adaptability of visual word recognition in deaf readers.
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