title: Individual differences in reading aloud: a mega-study, item effects, and some models.
abstract: Normal individual differences are rarely considered in the modelling of visual word recognition--with item response time effects and neuropsychological disorders being given more emphasis--but such individual differences can inform and test accounts of the processes of reading. We thus had 100 participants read aloud words selected to assess theoretically important item response time effects on an individual basis. Using two major models of reading aloud--DRC and CDP+--we estimated numerical parameters to best model each individual's response times to see if this would allow the models to capture the effects, individual differences in them and the correlations among these individual differences. It did not. We therefore created an alternative model, the DRC-FC, which successfully captured more of the correlations among individual differences, by modifying the locus of the frequency effect. Overall, our analyses indicate that (i) even after accounting for individual differences in general speed, several other individual difference in reading remain significant; and (ii) these individual differences provide critical tests of models of reading aloud. The database thus offers a set of important constraints for future modelling of visual word recognition, and is a step towards integrating such models with other knowledge about individual differences in reading.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. Electronic address: j.s.adelman@warwick.ac.uk.
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Adelman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Maura G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Sabatos-DeVito
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
authors.forename: Suzanne J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Marquis
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, Bocconi University, Via Roentgen 1, 20136 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Zachary
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Estes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007802:Language; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Computational modelling; Individual differences; Reading aloud; Visual word recognition; Word naming