Connectionist Model of Reading Comprehension

How did you learn to read?

The connectionist model may explain the task that readers face: when given a spelling pattern (word) the reader may employ 3 learning principles which can be adjusted based on familiarity with the word. So does a reader rely on the sounds, the possibly meaning - given the position in the sentence or known information as to the correct spelling?

Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sounds

belonging to a language -

consider the different sounds the Chinese,

Spanish and Italian language have compared to English

Orthography - the study of spelling, which relies on Rules and exceptions

Rules and exceptions have a reliance on memory - for example how do we remember that 'gave' sounds the same as 'cave', however does not sound the same as 'have'.

Generalisation also relies on rules and memory to decode and encode unfamiliar words or non words 'mave'

"I before E, except after C or when sounded as A, as in neighbour or weigh

Also included are rules of punctuation!

Semantics - the study of meaning which relies on the

reader's prior knowledge

*Symbol and referent

*Conceptions of meaning

*Words and lexemes

*Denotation, connotation, implication

*Pragmatics

*Ambiguity

*Metaphor, simile and symbol

*Semantic fields

*Synonym and antonym

*Semantic change and etymology

*Homophones and homographs

*Colour

As a lexical unit or lexeme may contain more than one word, This is usually a single word, but may be a phrase in which the meaning belongs to the whole rather than its parts, as in verb phrases tune in, turn on, drop out or A noun phrase includes a noun—a person, place, or thing—and the modifiers which distinguish it 'that dog' 'her dog'

Pragmatist

Pragmatics can be illustrated by jokes or irony which rely on the contrast between expected and subsequently revealed meaning

Semantic Field -

if you play word association you are demonstrating

the semantic field.

Homophones - where the pronunciation is the same (or close, allowing for such phonological variation as comes from accent) but standard spelling differs, as in flew (from fly), flu (“influenza”) and flue (of a chimney).

Homographs - where the standard spelling is the same, but the pronunciation differs, as in wind (air movement or bend) or refuse (“rubbish” or “disallow”, stress falls on first and second syllable, respectively).

Colour - we use colour in the English language in many ways - it is a powerful indicator of expression, for example 'blood red' and 'sky blue'. However these expressions are subjective and rely on the reader's understanding and visualisation. Not much use if you are sight impaired including colour blindness.

so, which do you use?

Further Reading:

Seidenberg, M.S. (2005) Connectionist Models of Word Reading, American Psychological Society, Vol 14, No.5 pp 238-242 [online] https://virtualtour.wlu.ca/documents/39510/Seidenberg.pdf

Walker, S.F. (1992) A brief history of connectionism and its psychological implications. In Clark, A. and Lutz, R. (eds) Connectionism in Context. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 123-144 [online] http://s-f-walker.org.uk/pubs/histconnectforweb.pdf

Orthography

Semantics

or all of them?