Cognitive Neuroscience: Literacy and Numeracy PDF

PSYC 3380 – Cognitive Neuroscience Literacy and Numeracy Lecturer: Ezgi Palaz, MSc Literacy Literacy The ability to read and write, enables communication without face- to-face contact. Is an expert system derived from a core set of other skills such as visual recognition, manipulat...

PSYC 3380 – Cognitive Neuroscience Literacy and Numeracy Lecturer: Ezgi Palaz, MSc Literacy Literacy The ability to read and write, enables communication without face- to-face contact. Is an expert system derived from a core set of other skills such as visual recognition, manipulation of sounds, learning, and memory. A recent invention that is developed on an individual level. Visual Word Recognition We process letter strings as whole, not one by one. Therefore visual word recognition takes similar time for long and short words. Visual lexicon: We have a storage for how words are written. Word superiority effect: It is easier to detect a letter (e.g., R) if the letter in presented in the context of a word (e.g., CARPET) or a nonsense letter string that follows the combinatorial rules of the language (e.g., HARPOT) than in a random letter string (e.g., CTRPAE) or even a single letter in isolateon (e.g., R). Visual Word Form Area Thought to be a dedicated cognitive mechanisms for visual lexicon. Located in the left mid fusiform gyrus. Also responds to visual objects and Braille reading. Might be a computational hub that links together different brain regions (e.g., vision and speech) Acquired Reading Deficiencies Central dyslexia: Disruption of reading arising after computation of a visual word form ◦ Surface dyslexia: read nonwords and regularly spelled words better than irregularly spelled words (Church or brane better than chaos) ◦ Phonological dyslexia: read real words better than nonwords (read churse as nurse) ◦ Deep dyslexia: real word reading is prone to semantic error (reading cat as dog) Acquired Reading Deficiencies Peripheral dyslexia: Disruption of reading arising up to the level of computation of a visual word form ◦ Pure alexia: An acquired difficulty in reading words that leads to letter- by-letter reading, in which reading time increases proportionately to the length of the word (c-a-t: cat) fMRI studies Show that there are multiple areas involved in literacy, predominantly left-lateralized ◦ Inferior frontal lobe (Broca’s area) ◦ Inferior parietal lobe (Wernicke’s and angular gyrus – verbal working memory) ◦ Anterior and mid-temporal lobes (semantic memory) Reading uses similar brain regions across different languages, albeit to varying degrees Spelling and Writing Dysgraphia: difficulties in spelling. Similar deficiencies as central dyslexia ◦ Deep dysgraphia: real word spelling is prone to semantic error (spelling cat as d-o-g) Dysgraphia is generally multimodal, patients tend to produce the same kinds of errors in writing, typing, or oral spelling – but not always Some evidence show separate written versus oral letter name output codes in spelling – indicating involvement of motor codes in writing Numeracy Universal Numeracy Numeracy is not limited to maths Humans and other species have numerical abilities that enable them to estimate quantity and perform basic calculations. ◦ Infants ◦ Unschooled ◦ Cavemen ◦ Non-human animals Fundamental sense of numeracy is universal – except for dyscalculia Numbers Non-symbolic number processing is universal. ◦ Ability to perform task is harder with increasing sets, even if ratio is same. ◦ We can subitize (enumerate an exact quantity of objects without counting them) 4 items and less ◦ Numbers above 4 can only be processed approximately rather than exactly in the absence of language When we write in Arabic digits (i.e., 1-9, 0) we symbolize numbers. Processing Symbolic Numbers Distance effect: it is faster to decide which number is larger when the distance between two numbers is large (e.g., 2 or 9) relative to small (e.g., 8 or 9) Size effect: it is easier to judge which of two numbers is larger when the numbers are small (e.g., 3 or 5) compared with when they are large (e.g., 7 or 9), even when the distance between them is equal Neural Subtrates Number Meaning Not only countable quantities but also continous and uncountable quantities are processed by the number system (e.g., length, area, brightness, etc.) Restle’s MNL: Mental number line Walsh’s ATOM: A theory of magnitude Numbers & Space SNARC effect: Spatial-Numberical Association of Response Codes (Dehaene et al., 1993) Cultural SNARC: Ito & Hatta (2004), Shaki et al. (2009), Bulut et al. (2023) SNARC-like effects: Wühr & Seegelke (2008), Sellaro et al. (2014), Prpic et al. (2016), Fischer et al. (2003), Rugani et al. (2015), de Hevia et al. (2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgP8hYuTJgA Triple Code Model 1. Abstract (semantic) magnitude 2. Verbal store of numbers and operations 3. Visual representation for numerals (digits) & workbench for certain calculations