Reading fluency depends on rapid integration of print and speech, yet the spatiotemporal mechanisms supporting this integration in school aged children remain poorly understood. This study combined fMRI and EEG to examine AV integration (i.e., additive enhancement and congruency effects) during single- and multi-letter detection tasks in 7–10-year-old children (N = 56). Multiple neural indices were examined to capture complementary spatial and temporal aspects of AV integration. fMRI results revealed additive enhancement in bilateral STG and Heschl’s gyrus, congruency effects in the left IFG and left STG and increased functional connectivity between left IFG and STG during incongruent trials. EEG showed convergent temporal dynamics, with AV-related enhancement in P200 amplitude (190–230 ms) and theta-band (4–7Hz) power over left frontotemporal electrodes. Individual differences analyses showed that additive enhancement in left STG was associated with higher spelling (β = 0.28, p = 0.034). Congruency effects in left STG (β = 0.31, p = 0.018) and left IFG (β = 0.38, p = 0.004), as well as IFG–STG connectivity (β = 0.34, p = 0.011), were linked to higher reading efficiency. Larger P200 amplitude (β = 0.32, p = 0.015) and greater theta power (β = 0.31, p = 0.021; β = 0.28, p =0.034) were associated with higher spelling and fluency, respectively. Findings delineate complementary sensory-convergence and conflict-monitoring pathways for print–speech integration and show that integrating spatial and temporal neural indices improves explanation of reading skills in school-aged children.

Standardized measures of achievement and teacher-assigned grades (henceforth grades) are both supposed to be measures of achievement. However, there might be concerns that grades are more subjective than standardized tests. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between standardized tests and grades in primary students. We collected data from 218 Grade 1 students and 124 were re-tested in Grade 2. Students completed subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (henceforth test scores) and grades were collected. Separate factor analyses were conducted on the test scores and grades, both yielding a 3-factor model with separate language, reading, and mathematics domains. We then examined the relationship between test scores and grades across domains, grade-level, genders, and schools. Structural equation models found that test scores explained half of the variance in grades across domains, except Grade 2 language. Bayesian paired t-test found that minimal discrepancies between test scores and grades existed across genders and schools. When a difference did exist, grades tended to be higher than test scores; discrepancies typically occurred in verbal subjects but attenuated by Grade 2; there was a female advantage for grades and male advantage for test scores; and, school differences depended on grade and domain. Understanding the degree of alignment between measures could bolster the use of teacher assessment as a valid index of performance in young children.

Robust behavioral evidence suggests an association between reading and math performance. Moreover, previous neuroimaging evidence suggests that arithmetic fact retrieval is supported by similar areas along the perisylvian language network as those typically involved in phonological processing. However, the neural correlates of these abilities have been mostly studied in isolation, and therefore remains unclear whether these abilities recruit functionally overlapping brain areas. We addressed this question by using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity during an arithmetic and a word rhyming task. We then used both a test of univariate overlap and a rigorous pattern similarity analysis to provide a more nuanced assessment of brain-level associations across both domains. We identified clusters of significant overlap along the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left inferior temporal gyrus, and the right posterior cerebellum in adults; as well as multiple clusters along the left frontal gyrus in children. Moreover, we found significant similarity between the patterns corresponding to both abilities along the clusters of overlap. However, contrary to our expectations, we observed higher similarity between phonological processing and large problems than small problems, which grants the need for further research about the role of arithmetic strategies in this relationship. Our findings represent a contribution to the literature examining the potential links between the brain regions supporting arithmetic and word reading by providing direct, within-participant statistical evidence of the long-hypothesized overlap between these processes at the neural level.

The human brain has inherent limitations in consciously processing visual information. When individuals monitor a rapid sequence of images for detecting two targets, they often miss the second target (T2) if it appears within a short time frame of 200-500ms after the first target (T1), a phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB). The neural mechanism behind AB remains unclear, largely due to the use of simplistic visual items such as letters and digits in conventional AB experiments, which differ significantly from naturalistic vision. This study employed advanced multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of human EEG data to explore the neural representations associated with target processing within a naturalistic paradigm under conditions where AB does or does not occur. Our MVPA analysis successfully decoded the identity of target images from EEG data. Moreover, in the AB condition, characterized by a limited time between targets, T1 processing coincided with T2 processing, resulting in the suppression of late representational markers of both T1 and T2. Conversely, in the condition with longer inter-target interval, neural representations endured for a longer duration. These findings suggest that the attentional blink can be attributed to the suppression of neural representations in the later stages of target processing. Significance Statement Within a naturalistic paradigm, we investigated the phenomenon known as attentional blink, where individuals struggle to identify a second target in a rapid sequence when the first target precedes it too closely. Attentional blink is purported to reflect an apparent bottleneck in the attention system’s ability to rapidly redirect attentional resources; however, the mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains hotly debated. Our findings reveal that during a rapid presentation of natural images, a short temporal gap between targets results in reduced neural representations of targets and the occurrence of attentional blink. Conversely, when a greater temporal gap exists between targets, neural representations are preserved. This study provides valuable insights into how the human brain perceives the ever-changing visual world around us.

Statistical learning (SL), the ability to extract regularities from sensory input, is hypothesized to play a major role in many aspects of higher-level cognition. While earlier investigations centered on group-level effects, a growing body of research now focuses on individual differences in this ability. This consensus paper presents the collective insights of 27 researchers worldwide who are active in the field of individual differences in SL, with the goal of reflecting on the field’s progress so far while outlining key challenges going forward. Our discussion covers possible theoretical and operational definitions of SL, the trade-offs between controlled laboratory tasks and ecologically valid paradigms, considerations in interpreting correlations between SL performance and other cognitive abilities, issues of measurement reliability and statistical power, and rationales for adopting individual-differences versus group-level approaches. Based on these discussions, we outline nine actionable recommendations for the field to move forward, which are meant to lead to a new body of evidence that is more theoretically informed and more methodologically robust.

Children's ability to extract statistical regularities from speech is considered fundamental to lexical, syntactic, and grammatical development. However, the neural oscillatory mechanisms supporting this process in childhood remains poorly understood. While beta-band oscillations have been linked to statistical learning in visual and motor domains, it is unclear whether similar dynamics support auditory statistical learning in children. In this study, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) from children aged 8-12 years as they listened to a continuous stream of trisyllabic nonwords (e.g., dapiku), where syllable order within each nonword was fixed (high predictability), but transitions between nonwords were variable (low predictability). Beta power was significantly lower for the more predictable second and third syllables relative to the less predictable first syllable. This effect emerged only after repeated exposure and was localised to left prefrontal electrodes. Beta power also correlated with post-exposure recognition accuracy. Additional learning-related modulations were observed in the theta-alpha and delta-theta bands, suggesting broader oscillatory engagement. These findings indicate that auditory statistical learning in middle childhood engages frequency-specific neural dynamics, with beta power modulations showing parallel effects to those observed in other modalities.

Recently, cross-domain research has shown that some early cognitive precursors of language, reading, and mathematics overlap and predict one another. This study investigated how early cognitive predictors across domains could predict future academic skills across domains using data from 563 students in kindergarten to second grade (ages 5 to 8; 288 males; largely monolingual English). The roles of verbal, symbolic, and magnitude comparison skills as predictors of later academic grades for various language and math subjects were examined. Results found that Grade 1 marks were predicted by kindergarten verbal and symbolic skills, while Grade 2 marks were predicted by verbal skills and Grade 1 as well as indirectly by symbolic skills via Grade 1. Results are discussed in light of the overlapping relationships between language, reading, and mathematics.

Word age of acquisition (AoA) influences many aspects of language processing, including reading. However, reading studies of word AoA effects have almost exclusively focused on monolingual young adults, leaving their influence in other age and language groups little understood. Here, we investigated how age (childhood, young adulthood) and language background (monolingual, bilingual) influence word AoA effects during first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading. Using eye-tracking, we observed larger L1 word AoA effects in children versus adults (across both language backgrounds). Moreover, we observed larger L2 versus L1 word AoA effects in bilinguals (across both ages), with some evidence of heightened effects in bilingual adults (for late-stage reading only). Taken together, our findings suggest that word AoA exerts a stronger influence on reading during conditions of reduced lexical entrenchment, offering critical insights into how both developing and bilingual readers acquire and maintain word representations across their known languages.

Measuring progress in students is an important consideration when making decisions in education, clinical practice, and research. However, change due to learning over time at the group level cannot be applied to interpret individual change. Therefore, the current study compared four methods for measuring individual change: reliable change index controlling for practice effects (RCI), standardized individual difference (SID), estimated standardized regression-based (SRB) change, and a normalization approach. Participants included 157 children (4 years initially and 5 years at follow-up) who completed measures of language, reading, and mathematics and were tested 1 year apart. We measured individual differences in children as they developed academic-relevant competencies. The RCI and SID indices yielded the same results. While group-based statistics did not find a change overall, the RCI/SID and SRB methods identified 7.64% and 8.28% of students as having changed, respectively. Further, in a subgroup of 54 low scorers, the RCI/SID and SRB methods indicated that 14.81% and 16.67% of students changed, respectively, whereas the normalization method identified a higher rate at 24.07%. The RCI, SID, and SRB methods showed similar results, whereas the normalization method differed from the others. Finally, a practical tool (Excel-based Growth Calculator) is provided to assist practitioners in evaluating individual change. Overall, these methods provide starting points for measuring change in individuals.

Aims and objectives: Attentional control is an important cognitive ability, and it includes the abilities of attention and inhibitory control. It remains unclear whether a bilingual advantage in attentional control exists and whether different bilingual experiences exert distinct effects on this ability. This study aimed to address these questions. Research Questions: (1) Does bilingual experience enhance attentional control? (2) Do different bilingual experiences differentially influence attentional control? Methodology: Chinese-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals were recruited for the study. The participants underwent assessments of their English learning experiences, English proficiency, and attentional control abilities. Data and Analysis: Data analysis was performed by using SPSS 23. The group differences in the English learning experiences, English proficiency, Attentional Network Task (ANT) indicators for Chinese-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The correlations between ANT and English learning experiences, and English proficiency for three groups were analyzed using Pearson correlation. Conclusion: Compared with English monolinguals, both Chinese-English bilinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals did not show better attentional control ability. Further, we found that compared with Spanish-English bilinguals, Chinese-English bilinguals showed better inhibitory control, indicating that different bilingual experiences have different impacts on inhibitory control ability. However, no significant difference was found between Chinese-English bilinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals after controlling for age or AOA (age of acquisition), indicating age or AOA influenced the effect of different bilingual experiences on inhibitory control ability. The correlation results indicated the older the age, the better the attention ability for Chinese-English bilinguals; the older the age and AOA, the better the attention ability for Spanish-English bilinguals; the older the AOA, the poorer the inhibitory control ability for Spanish-English bilinguals. This study fills the gap in the effect of different bilingual experiences on attentional control ability.

Our brain excels at recognizing objects, even when they flash by in a rapid sequence. However, the neural processes determining whether a target image in a rapid sequence can be recognized or not remains elusive. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the temporal dynamics of brain processes that shape perceptual outcomes in these challenging viewing conditions. Using naturalistic images and advanced multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) techniques, we probed the brain dynamics governing conscious object recognition. Our results show that although initially similar, the processes for when an object can or cannot be recognized diverge around 180 ms post-appearance, coinciding with feedback neural processes. Decoding analyses indicate that gist perception (partial conscious perception) can occur at ∼120 ms through feedforward mechanisms. In contrast, object identification (full conscious perception of the image) is resolved at ∼190 ms after target onset, suggesting involvement of recurrent processing. These findings underscore the importance of recurrent neural connections in object recognition and awareness in rapid visual presentations.

Continuing Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology's ongoing commitment to Open Science, we invited Oshiro et al. (2024) to submit a peer-reviewed tutorial of the typical format and to offer key pieces of advice when preparing Registered Reports. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The thalamus is increasingly considered a key component of the brain's reading network, although its precise role is less well understood. Here, we apply a network neuroscience approach to understanding how the thalamus is embedded into the reading network by examining how its wiring pattern is associated with different component aspects of reading skills in children. Using a connectome framework, we show that a local efficiency metric of the left thalamus is negatively correlated with rapid automatized naming, while its transmission cost measure is positively correlated with phonemic decoding. Connections between temporal areas of cortex and two thalamic nuclei, the pulvinar and mediodorsal thalamic nucleus, were also negatively correlated with phonemic decoding. Our result thus provides clearer specificity about how the thalamus supports reading by coordinating communications across reading network areas.

Neuroimaging studies have identified functional and structural brain circuits that support reading. However, much less is known about how reading-related functional dynamics are constrained by white matter structure. Network control theory proposes that cortical brain dynamics are linearly determined by the white matter connectome, using control energy to evaluate the difficulty of the transition from one cognitive state to another. Here we apply this approach to linking brain dynamics with reading ability and disability in school-age children. A total of 51 children ages 8.25 -14.6 years performed an in-scanner rhyming task in visual and auditory modalities, with orthographic (spelling) and phonological (rhyming) similarity manipulated across trials. White matter structure and fMRI activation were used conjointly to compute the control energy of the reading network in each condition relative to a null fixation state. We then tested differences in control energy across trial types, finding higher control energy during non-word trials than word trials, and during incongruent trials than congruent trials. ROI analyses further showed a dissociation between control energy of the left fusiform and superior temporal gyrus depending on stimulus modality, with higher control energy for visual modalities in fusiform and higher control energy for auditory modalities in STG. Together, this study highlights that control theory can explain variations on cognitive demands in higher-level abilities such as reading, beyond what can be inferred from either functional or structural MRI measures alone.

How does language background influence the neural correlates of visual word recognition in children? To address this question, we used an ERP lexical decision task to examine first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) visual word processing in monolingual and bilingual school-aged children and young adults (n = 123). In particular, we focused on the effects of word frequency (an index of lexical accessibility) on RTs and the N400 ERP component. Behaviorally, we found larger L1 versus L2 word frequency effects among bilingual children, driven by faster and more accurate responses to higher-frequency words (no other language or age group differences were observed). Neurophysiologically, we found larger L1 word frequency effects in bilinguals versus monolinguals (across both age groups), reflected in more negative ERP amplitudes to lower-frequency words. However, the bilingual groups processed L1 and L2 words similarly, despite lower levels of subjective and objective L2 proficiency. Taken together, our findings suggest that divided L1 experience (but not L2 experience) influences the neural correlates of visual word recognition across childhood and adulthood.

BackgroundThe current study sought to examine whether psycholinguistic assessments could discriminate children and adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) from those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; combined or inattentive subtype) and comorbid DLD + ADHD.MethodsThe Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Screening Test (CELFST; Wiig et al., 2013), the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (nonword repetition subtest; Wagner et al., 2013), and the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (sight word and phonemic decoding subtests; Torgesen et al., 2012) were examined in 441 children and adolescents between 6 and 16 years of age.ResultsThe presence of a language disorder (with or without ADHD) predicted poor performance across tasks. Children and adolescents with ADHD (combined vs. inattentive) only significantly differed in sight word reading, in favor of those with combined type. Measures of reading efficiency could distinguish between the two types of ADHD, but not between other groups. Interestingly, scores on the standard language screener were no worse for children with ADHD + DLD than children with DLD only.ConclusionsThe combination of comorbid ADHD + DLD did not appear to be associated with lower language abilities, sight word reading, or phonemic decoding relative to DLD alone. Reading efficiency was effective in discriminating between ADHD subtypes. These findings offer valuable insights into differential diagnosis and the identification of comorbidity.

Using univariate analysis, a previous study by Wang et al. (2020) found a scaffolding effect of earlier phonological representation in superior temporal gyrus (STG) on later reading skill but failed to observe a sculpting effect of earlier reading on later phonological representation. The current study applied multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to examine if both scaffolding and sculpting effects were present in young children. We found that better initial reading skill predicted higher decoding coefficient of brain activity patterns for phonological representations in STG. This sculpting effect was present only for decoding small grain sizes (phonemes) and in younger children (6- to 7.5-year-olds), as we did not find any effects for large grain sizes (rhymes) or older children (7.5- to 9.5-year-olds). Although a scaffolding effect was not observed, the current study provides the first neural evidence of how earlier reading sculpts later phonological awareness in beginning readers.

Early irritability, a transdiagnostic vulnerability for psychopathology, is associated with alterations in neural reactivity to emotional stimuli and reward; however, associations between childhood irritability and neural markers of risk may be mitigated by the quality of caregiving youth receive. We examined longitudinal relationships between irritability in childhood and young adolescents' neural activity of regions typically associated with emotion regulation and reward processing during processing of maternal feedback and tested whether these associations were moderated by youth's perceptions of the parent-child relationship quality. Eighty-one adolescents (Mage = 11.1 years) listened to maternal critical and praising feedback while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Age 3 irritability, assessed observationally, was negatively associated with age 11 neural reactivity to maternal criticism in a cluster in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), particularly for youths who reported more positive maternal parenting. Given the role of the dlPFC activation in the effortful processing of emotional stimuli, decreased activation may reflect disengagement from negatively valenced interpersonal feedback in the context of a positive caregiving environment, thereby mitigating psychopathology risk associated with irritability.

PURPOSE:It is often assumed that phonological awareness only reflects children's phonological skill. However, orthographic representations have been found to be automatically involved during phonological awareness tasks, which we refer to as automatic orthographic activation. Although previous longitudinal neural studies have addressed how phonological processing during phonological awareness tasks is bidirectionally related to reading skill in developing children, we do not know how automatic orthographic activation plays a role in reading skill. METHOD:To address this gap, we measured 40 children's reading skill and brain activity during an auditory phonological task at two time points using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Children were 5.5 to 6.5 years old at the first time point and were followed up approximately 1.5 years later when they were 7 to 8 years old. RESULTS:We found that earlier reading skill predicted children's later functional connectivity during onset processing between the left superior temporal gyrus, a phonological region, and the left posterior ventral occipitotemporal cortex, an orthographic region representing letters. CONCLUSION:This finding, together with previous studies, suggests that learning to read influences phonological awareness not only by refining phonological representations but also via strengthening the automatic mapping between phonemes and letters during spoken language processing.