Cognitive Psychology: Teaching Adults New Words - Coursework Example

SENIORS INTRODUCTION: Cognitive abilities remain steady relatively in adult phase of human life. By the age of 50 yrs a decline in this capability begins to creep in. Physiologically, the death of brain cells is ascribed to this decline. Older people find it difficult to distinguish between words that differ by single consonants especially high frequency consonants, such as kill and pill. (Stephen M. Kosslyn and Robin S. Rosenberg, 2001).The ultimate goal in reading is comprehension: people read to learn and understand. Readers must interact with a text for comprehension to occur, combining its ideas and information with what they already know. They understand more when they are familiar with the basic vocabulary or concepts presented, or when they can develop their understanding of new words as they read. When a reader does not have adequate prior knowledge and cannot figure out key concepts, comprehension suffers. Each major component of reading (alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) develops through specific practices. But just as all the components must function together for reading to be effective, they must be taught together to maximize instructional effectiveness. (Mary E.Curtis and John R.Kruidenier, 2005). The current study of us deals with dyslexia, a reading disorder in relation to cognitive capabilities. Reading is built on two key processes namely decoding and comprehension. Phonology, semantics, syntax and discourse are the component parts of any language system. Phonology is the ability to construct and untangle a word based on its elemental parts. A sudden setback in phonology prevents dyslexic readers from decoding words effectively. Automated word retrieval, vocabulary, and memory are also considered important factors in the development of reading fluency. However the contribution of each of these factors to the etiology of developmental dyslexia is still under research. We have thus picked article related to dyslexia from Journals of Cognitive Neuroscience. Of them, the following is found apt to be analyzed: ‘Unlocking the Nature of the Phonological – Deep dyslexia Continuum: the keys to Reading aloud Are in Phonology and Semantics’ by Jenni Crisp & Mathew A. Lambon Ralph in 2006. When this paper is read in conjunction with another paper on ‘Using Parellel Distributed Processing Models to Simulate Phonological Dyslexia: the Key Role of Plasticity-related Recovery’ by Stephen R. Welbourne & Mathew a. Lambon Ralph in 2007, the role of contemporary researchers on dyslexia is able to be understood and in what aspects they are yet to continue their research. Researchers in these two researches have investigated the phonological and semantic systems. A base had been well laid by James Smith et al in 2003 in whose experiments the results of the visuospatial tasks indicated no between-group differences in static spatial memory while in almost all conditions the same trend continued in dynamic spatial memory too. It is well known that static spatial memory requires the short term storage of simultaneously presented information and the dynamic spatial memory demands the recall of both location and order of stimuli presented sequentially. Their finding that significant impairment occurred on the dynamic task under high memory uploading on which dyslexic adults showed non-phonological working memory deficits is the base for these researchers furtherance. (James Smith-Spark, et al, 2003) As the investigators focused chiefly on phonological disorder it is assumed that they were testing Cognitive Flexible Theory (Spiro. R.J, et al 1988). The theory is largely concerned with transfer of knowledge and skills beyond initial learning situation. For this reason, emphasis is placed upon the presentation of information from multiple perspectives and use of many case studies that present diverse examples. The theory also asserts that effective learning is context-dependent, so instruction needs to be very specific. In addition, the theory stresses the importance of constructed knowledge; learners must be given an opportunity to develop their own representations of information in order to properly learn. The dependent variable elicited in the researches is mainly individual’s reading impairment. While Jenni et al were underpinning the primary systems of phonology and semantic to the individual reading performance, Stephene viewed that plasticity-related changes in individuals were the significant factors in chronic behavioral dissociations. Independent variables like word and non word reading accuracy were coming across the research conducted by Jenni team. Due to the symptoms overlap across the cohort, the team could not precisely draw a line of separation among the participants into distinct groups. A case series assessment battery was given to patients to test the characteristics of phonological and deep dyslexia. Throughout the research the team found a decision to land on accurate reading was found missing in the participants. This decision lapse they consider as the chief symptom of dyslexia. Because, decisions are not fixed in advance, and there are no architectural barriers to the kinds of knowledge that can be brought to bear on the decisions. If there are conflicts in the retrieved knowledge, an impasse arises and the decision process records the type of the impasse simultaneously setting a sub-goal of resolving that impasse. Such recording is usually done in the working memory. (Richard L.Lewis, 1999). Incapability to face or meet such impasse leads to errors in primary systems of functioning. The team had asserted that the reading performance of adults is purely context-dependant. The results of the studies conducted by both the teams tell us that a particular hypothesis—context-dependence-- of the theory is neared, while the others like multiple perspective are untouched. The tests are focusing on particular aspects of phonology and semantics in which the team has come to a crucial stage where the primary functional disorders of reading impairment are almost identified and fixed. The aspects of multiple perspectives should have given them several more score of information to be gleaned and a further source of treatment must have been neared. A special finding of Mary E.Curtis 2005 also can be pointed out at this juncture. That is: ‘An area that has received very little attention in many researches is motivation’. Most educators maintain that effective reading and reading instruction cannot occur without sufficient motivation on the part of the learner. Motivation would seem to be especially important in adult literacy because, in addition to an initial desire to learn to read, adults must address many barriers to participation, set aside the time necessary to receive effective instruction, and overcome any embarrassment resulting from the stigma associated with seeking help for poor reading skills. When researchers have looked at motivation, results suggest that dealing with adults’ literacy beliefs and goals for learning may increase their reading comprehension achievement When dyslexics and their potential are clearly understood in an apt manner the creativity associated with the dyslexics may become an increasing asset in the changing world. (Ellen Morgan and Cynthia Klein, 2000) Everyday experiences, especially those of nurses have widely been studied in which it was found that dyslexia had a negative impact on working practices and career progression. Still the defect is poorly understood and is often hidden. Documentation was most frequently described as an area of concern for nurses with reading affected by word blindness, handwriting and spelling being the most prominent descriptions. Fear of ridicule when making mistakes was also a factor in some nurses. Lack of confidence in the ability to undertake career-enhancing academic studies were found a major impact in many of the nurses. (David Morris and Patricia Turnbull, 2007). Poor understanding of this defect can be established by the fact that the researches and treatment options fail to focus on the IQ factor, which was found to have no impact on dyslexia. Stefen Gus and Stefan Samuelsson (1999) found that there was no clear casual relationship between intelligence level and word decoding skills. (Stefan Gus and Stefan Samuelsson, 1999). Had this factor been associated in the research cited previously—David Morris-- lack of confidence should have been addressed with a positive diagnostic approach. Dyslexic difficulties, more usefully known as specific learning difficulties, encompass a variety of impairments in cognitive, perceptual and motor functioning - for example, in phonological skills, short-term memory, sequencing skills and fine hand-eye co-ordination. These impairments result most noticeably in poor literacy skills, but they also affect information processing generally. For example, a dyslexic person may have difficulty in following a discussion or a debate, in remembering spoken instructions, or in formulating his own ideas when conversing or giving a talk. Many dyslexics are highly intelligent and, consequently, the wide range of difficulties they experience when trying to impart or absorb information causes them great frustration - and in many cases shame and embarrassment. Many adult dyslexics are not in fact aware of the nature of their problems. Dyslexia is often assumed to be essentially a reading problem, and, since many adult dyslexics have acquired some reading competence over the years, it may not occur to them that their difficulties are dyslexic in nature. (Sylvia Moody, 2000) Assisting dyslexic adults in their workplaces comprises several aspects like changing work environment and working procedures adaptable to the dyslexic employees. The employer needs to be aware of what dyslexia means and how the changes can be adopted for those. In the process of learning the dyslexic workers the employer has to face the misjudgment by the worker especially the dyslexic worker about the learning as a step towards their dismissal and consequently fear over the employers’ actions of helping. (Diana Barlette and Sylvia Moody, 2000). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Reference list – David Morris and Patricia Turnbull, 2007, “A survey-based exploration of the impact of dyslexia on career progression of UK registered nurses”, Journal of Nursing Management, Vol. 15:97-106 Diana Barlette and Sylvia Moody, 2000, “Dyslexia in the work place”, Whurr Publishers, London Ellen Morgan and Cynthia Klein, 2000, “The Dyslexic Adult in a Non-dyslexic World”, Whurr Publishers, London James Smith-Spark, John Fisk, Angela Fawcett & Roderick Nicholson, 2003, “Investigating the central executive in adult dyslexics: Evidence from Phonological and Visuospatial working memory performance”, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 15. No.4: 567-587 Jenni Crisp and Mathew A.Lambon Ralph, 2006, “Unlocking the Nature of the Phonological- Deep Dyslexia Continum: the Keys to Reading aloud are in Phonology and semantics”, journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 18. No. 3: 348-362 Mary E.Curtis and John R.Kruidenier, 2005, “Teaching adults to Read: A Summary of scientifically Based Research Principles, a Publication issued by National Institute of Literacy in contract with RMC Corporation. Richard L.Lewis, 1999, “Cognitive Theory, SOAR”, a Draft at Department of Computer & Information Science, Ohio state University Spiro. R.J, Coulson R.L, Feltovich P.J, and Anderson D, 1988, “Cognitive Flexibility Theory:Advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. In V.Patel(ed), proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Hilsdale NJ: Erlbaum Stefan Gus and Stefan Samuelsson, 1999, “Intelligence and dyslexia: Implications for diagnosis and intervention, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Vol.40. No.2:127-134 Stephen M. Kosslyn and Robin S. Rosenberg, 2001, “Psychology: the Brain, the Person, the World”, pp 418-419, Allyn and Bacon, Boston Stephen R. Welbourne and Mathew A. Lambon Ralph, 2007, “Using Parellel Distributed Processing Models to Simulate Phonological Dyslexia: The Key Role of Plasticity-Related Recovery”, Cognitive Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 19. No. 7:1125-1139 Sylvia Moody, 2000, “Dyslexia: a psycotherapist’s guide”, The Dyslexia Online Journal retrieved from www.dyslexia-adults.com/journal.html on 05.11.2007 Read More