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The Interaction of Central and Peripheral Processes in Typing and Handwriting: A Direct Comparison
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the interaction between linguistic and peripheral-motor processes in written production. Past research has focused on this topic by analyzing how handwriting and, more recently, typing execution were influenced by lexical and sublexical variables. We took a step further in this study by directly comparing handwriting and typing, examining if different motor executions allow for different flows of linguistic processing. Participants typed and handwrote a set of Italian stimuli in which we manipulated lexicality (words vs. pseudowords), orthographic complexity (stimuli with vs. without multiletter graphemes), and length (short vs. long stimuli). We measured and analyzed latency (response times [RTs]), the difference between RTs and the acoustic duration (AD) of the stimuli (RT–AD), mean length of interletter intervals (ILIs), and whole response duration (WRD). We further explored the effects of the position of the orthographic complexity on RTs, RT–AD, ILIs, and WRD. Results suggested a cascaded, continuous processing flow for handwriting and a mixed mechanism involving both serial and parallel modes of processing for typing. The differences in linguistic processing during handwriting and typing suggest different mechanisms in segmenting, maintaining, and retrieving the orthographic representation during motor executio
Cognitive-educational constraints for socially-relevant MALL technologies
No full textMobile technologies may play a pivotal role in language learning in situations where multilingualism may be a key factor in personal and societal development. We review some Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) studies and show that when such technologies take into account cognitive constraints and rely on a coherent pedagogy model they foster the learning process and allow to frame it in the socio-cultural environment of the learner. © 2012 IEEE
Spelling processing during handwriting and typing and the role of reading and visual-motor skills when typing is less practiced than handwriting
Full text linkThe automatization of handwriting and typing is sustained by both sensorimotor and linguistic abilities that support the integration of central-linguistic processes with modality-specific peripheral-motor programs. How this integration evolves when handwriting and, especially, typing is not fully automatized has not been well-understood yet. In the present work, we had two main aims: (1) to understand how spelling processing affects handwriting and typing word production in a sample of 9th-grade Italian students who have extensive handwriting practice but less experience with typing, and (2) to unveil if reading and visual-motor integration skills of the writer/typists have a role in integrating spelling processing and motor execution. Thirty-six 9th-grade participants handwrote and typed to dictation words and pseudowords of different lengths and orthographic complexity. To test spelling processing during handwriting and typing, we collected measures of latency (RTs)—i.e. the interval between spoken stimulus availability and starting to write—, of interletter interval mean—i.e., the mean of the intervals between consecutive letters—, and whole response duration—i.e. the execution time of the entire stimulus. We further assessed participants’ reading and visual-motor integration skills to analyze their impact on the chronometric measures as a function of the linguistic proprieties of the stimuli. Our findings show a different pattern of processing for handwriting, the automatized process for our participants, and for typing, for which stronger lexical and sublexical effects emerged. Furthermore, reading and visual-motor skills interacted differently with the two transcription modalities unveiling a modality-specific role of individual skills according to the automatization of handwriting and typing
Field of Study and Gender Moderation of the Association of Personality and Math Anxiety with Numeracy
No full textMath anxiety and personality influence numeracy, although the nature of their contribution has been overlooked. In the present study, we investigated whether their association with numeracy depended on field of study and gender in higher education. Participants were Italian undergraduates in either the humanities (N = 201) or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM; N = 209) fields of study. These participants remotely completed standardized tests assessing numeracy, math anxiety, personality, intelligence, and basic numerical skills. We tested whether math anxiety and personality interacted with field of study and gender in predicting numeracy. Results showed that math anxiety was negatively associated with numeracy independently of field of study and gender, while the effect of personality, especially neuroticism, on numeracy interacted with field of study over and above intelligence and basic numerical skills. Specifically, humanities undergraduates with higher neuroticism levels scored lower in numeracy than STEM undergraduates. These findings underscore the importance of emotional experience for a good performance in mathematics, beyond math anxiety and the other personality traits, in the students that are less familiar with mathematics. Finally, no robust gender moderation emerged, suggesting that its role may be overridden by differences associated with career choice
The efficacy of grapheme-phoneme correspondence instruction in reducing the effect of orthographic forms on second language phonology
No full textThe orthographic forms (spellings) of second language (L2) words and sounds affect the pronunciation and awareness of L2 sounds, even after lengthy naturalistic exposure. This study investigated whether instruction could reduce the effects of English orthographic forms on Italian native speakers' pronunciation and awareness of L2 English sounds. Italians perceive, produce, and judge the same sound as a short sound if it is spelled with one letter and as a long sound if it is spelled with a digraph, due to L1 Italian grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) rules whereby double consonant letters represent long consonants. Totally, 100 Italian learners of English were allocated to two conditions (final n = 88). The participants in the explicit GPC (EGPC) condition discovered English GPC rules relating to sound length through reflection, explicit teaching, and practice; the participants in the passive exposure condition practiced the same words as the EGPC participants, but with no mention of GPCs. Pre- and postintervention production (delayed word repetition) and phonological awareness (rhyme judgment) tasks revealed no positive effects of the instruction. GPC instruction appears to be ineffective in reducing orthographic effects on L2 phonology. Orthographic effects may be impervious to change, whether by naturalistic exposure or by instruction
Numeracy Gender Gap in STEM Higher Education: The Role of Neuroticism and Math Anxiety
Full text linkThe under-representation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is ubiquitous and understanding the roots of this phenomenon is mandatory to guarantee social equality and economic growth. In the present study, we investigated the contribution of non-cognitive factors that usually show higher levels in females, such as math anxiety (MA) and neuroticism personality trait, to numeracy competence, a core component in STEM studies. A sample of STEM undergraduate students, balanced for gender (NF = NM = 70) and Intelligent Quotient (IQ), completed online self-report questionnaires and a numeracy cognitive assessment test. Results show that females scored lower in the numeracy test, and higher in the non-cognitive measures. Moreover, compared to males’, females’ numeracy scores were more strongly influenced by MA and neuroticism. We also tested whether MA association to numeracy is mediated by neuroticism, and whether this mediation is characterized by gender differences. While we failed to detect a significant mediation of neuroticism in the association between MA and numeracy overall, when gender was added as a moderator in this association, neuroticism turned out to be significant for females only. Our findings revealed that non-cognitive factors differently supported numeracy in females and males in STEM programs
Cognitive and non-cognitive factors influencing the numeracy gender gap in higher education
No full textIn recent years, an important debate has developed on the role that digital technologies are playing and can play in the transformation of education and its institutions. Digital platforms, distance learning, blended learning, online training technologies are part of a significant restructuring and reculturing of the educational worlds. Digital technologies have restructured learning practices, educational content and the forms of educational governance which are immersed in public spaces and global markets. On the one hand, the digital governance of education contributes to changing and reconfiguring educational practices and the management of education on a local, national, international and transnational scale. On theother hand, technologies make possible the interconnection of multiple modes and shapes of formal, informal and non-formal education and training, producing forms of re-spatialization of education, locating the classroom within a digital learning ecosystem and favouring the emergence of different models of blended or hybrid learning
Two thumbs and one index: A comparison of manual coordination in touch-typing and mobile-typing
No full textIt has been extensively demonstrated that in touch-typing, manual alternation is performed faster than manual repetition (see i.e. Rumelhart & Norman, 1982), due to parallel activation of successive keystrokes. In this experiment, we tested whether the manual coordination patterns typical of touch-typing can be observed in mobile-typing.We recruited skilled touch-typists and divided them into two groups depending on their typing habits on the mobile device. The "one-hand" group typed with one index finger on the mobile, and therefore produced words exclusively through manual repetition. The "two-hands" group used two thumbs, and therefore produced words through a combination of mobile-typing repetitions and alternations. The two groups were tested in a typing to dictation task with both a standard keyboard and a mobile keyboard. Results showed that manual alternation and manual repetition patterns are similar in touch-typing and in mobile-typing. For the "two-hands" group, the mean interkeystroke intervals (IKIs) for touch-typing decreased as manual alterations in words increased in both touch- and mobile-typing. The "one-hand" group showed an opposite pattern in mobile-typing. Bigram frequency was correlated with IKIs per bigrams in both tasks and groups, but the correlation for the "one-hand" group in mobile-typing was different. Our results suggest that manual coordination processes are the same in touch-typing and in mobile-typing despite different effectors, provided that both hands are used to type
Effects of Orthographic Forms on the Acquisition of Novel Spoken Words in a Second Language
Full text linkThe orthographic forms of words (spellings) can affect word production in speakers of second languages. This study tested whether presenting orthographic forms during L2 word learning can lead speakers to learn non-nativelike phonological forms of L2 words, as reflected in production and metalinguistic awareness. Italian(L1) learners of English as a Second Language (English(L2)) were exposed to English(L2) novel spoken words (pseudowords) and real words in association with pictures either from auditory input only (Phonology group), or from both auditory and orthographic input (Phonology & Orthography group, both groups n = 24). Pseudowords and words were designed to obtain 30 semi-minimal pairs, each consisting of a word and a pseudoword that contained the same target consonant, spelled with one letter or with double letters. In Italian double consonant letters represent a long consonant, whereas the English language does not contrast short and long consonants. After the learning phase, participants performed a production task (picture naming), a metalinguistic awareness task (rhyme judgment) and a spelling task. Results showed that the Phonology & Orthography group produced the same consonant as longer in double-letter than in single-letter lexical items, while this was not the case for the Phonology group. The former group also rejected spoken rhymes that contained the same consonant spelled with a single letter in one word and double letters in the other, because they considered these as two different phonological categories. Finally, the Phonology & Orthography group learned more novel words than the Phonology group, showing that orthographic input results in more word learning, in line with previous findings from native speakers
Corrigendum to “Two thumbs and one index: A comparison of manual coordination in touch-typing and mobile-typing” [Acta Psychologica 167 (2016) 16–23](S0001691816300518)(10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.03.007)
No full textWe provide here a corrected version of Table 4. The changes made to the previous version are the following: First, we changed the correlation coefficient nomenclature “r” for “rs”, as it is considered a more appropriate nomenclature of the Spearman's correlation. Furthermore, a column was missing in the original table. Seven coefficients were reported instead of the eight coefficients mentioned in the body of the text. The missing data is the correlation coefficient between bigram frequency and IKIs for the “two-hands” group in the mobile-typing task, for the No transition IKIs. The missing value is rs = -.50***. In addition, we corrected two coefficients, one in the fourth column (rs =-.39** instead of -.41*) and one in the sixth column (rs =-.45*** instead of -.54**). Finally, we corrected the asterisks that indicate significant p values: in fact, the p-values are lower than previously indicated. The changes in the new version of Table 4 do not alter the results of the analysis and their discussion. As we wrote in the Section 3.1.2, results indicated a strong negative correlation between bigram frequency and IKIs in all the analyzed samples, except for the “one-hand” group in the mobile-typing task (for transition bigrams), where no correlation was found
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