Using Serial and Discrete Digit Naming to Unravel Word Reading Processes

Abstract

During reading acquisition, word recognition is assumed to undergo a developmental shift from slow serial/sublexical processing of letter strings to fast parallel processing of whole word forms. This shift has been proposed to be detected by examining the size of the relationship between serial- and discrete-trial versions of word reading and rapid naming tasks. Specifically, a strong association between serial naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed serially, whereas a strong association between discrete naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed in parallel as wholes. In this study, 429 Grade 1, 3, and 5 English-speaking Canadian children were tested on serial and discrete digit naming and word reading. Across grades, single word reading was more strongly associated with discrete naming than with serial naming of digits, indicating that short high-frequency words are processed as whole units early in the development of reading ability in English. In contrast, serial naming was not a unique predictor of single word reading across grades, suggesting that within-word sequential processing was not required for the successful recognition for this set of words. Factor mixture analysis revealed that our participants could be clustered into two classes, namely beginning and more advanced readers. Serial naming uniquely predicted single word reading only among the first class of readers, indicating that novice readers rely on a serial strategy to decode words. Yet, a considerable proportion of Grade 1 students were assigned to the second class, evidently being able to process short high-frequency words as unitized symbols. We consider these findings together with those from previous studies to challenge the hypothesis of a binary distinction between serial/sublexical and parallel/lexical processing in word reading. We argue instead that sequential processing in word reading operates on a continuum, depending on the level of reading proficiency, the degree of orthographic transparency, and word-specific characteristics.

Tracking the serial advantage in the naming rate of multiple over isolated stimulus displays

“…This also implies that the processing stages of each stimulus within a sequence of a serial naming task are not executed in a strictly serial manner but can overlap in time for successive stimuli, so that the processing of the next stimulus can begin before the processing and production of the previous one is completed. In accordance with the logic illustrated in Figure 1, this overlap corresponds to the serial advantage observed with word stimuli, that is, to the faster performance in reading word lists compared to reading the same words in isolation (for nonbeginner readers; Protopapas et al, 2018;Zoccolotti et al, 2013Zoccolotti et al, , 2015. Thus, from this perspective, the study of the serial advantage, its origins and correlates, in comparison between word reading and symbol naming tasks, aims to help us understand the development of reading fluency over and above isolated word reading efficiency (cf.…”

“…For example, naming multiple word displays and naming isolated words are strongly associated among beginning readers, but only moderately so among advanced readers (Protopapas et al, 2013). In fact, the association between serial and discrete naming of either words or digits has been reported to decrease with increasing skill (Altani, Protopapas, & Georgiou, 2018). These findings suggest that when a certain proficiency level is achieved, individual differences in serial naming are in part independent from individual differences in discrete naming of the same material (see also Bowey, McGuigan, & Ruschena, 2005).…”

“…This format-specific association seems to apply across various naming tasks. That is, among older children or skilled readers, naming tasks of different content, but same presentation format, correlate more strongly with each other (i.e., serial with serial and discrete with discrete) than naming tasks of the same content, but of different presentation format (Protopapas et al, 2013(Protopapas et al, , 2018.…”

“…It has also been claimed that not only the standard RAN tasks, but also word list reading (and presumably text reading) can be viewed as a serial rapid naming task, in the sense that both word recognition of individually-presented words and processing of sequences of multiple items need to become efficient for the successful reading of word lists or text (which is how reading fluency is typically assessed; see Altani, Protopapas, Katopodi, & Georgiou, 2019;Protopapas et al, 2018;Zoccolotti, De Luca, Marinelli, & Spinelli, 2014). 1 This view originates from the idea that individuals need to be able to process multiple stimulus displays (words or other symbols) efficiently performing both parallel and sequential processes.…”

“…The theoretical connection between the observed serial advantage and the aforementioned format-specific associations in naming tasks is far from straightforward. The fact that performance is correlated across serial naming tasks, regardless of content, and that serial naming is faster than discrete naming can be thought to originate in cascaded (i.e., temporally overlapped) processing of successive stimuli (see Gordon & Hoedemaker, 2016;Protopapas et al, 2018; see also Henry, van Dyke, & Kuperman, 2018;Kuperman, Van Dyke, & Henry, 2016).…”