The Literate Brain
History of Reading
"And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration;
"And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled."
–Moses 6:4-6
https://www.lds.org/
6th Millenium BC
Jiahu symbols
(China)
Dispilio Tablet
(Greece)
Tărtăria tablets
(Romania)
3600 BC
Why is this important?
- Reading (as far as the historical record can demonstrate) is only about 8,000 years old.
- Far too new to have an evolutionary basis like hearing and sight.
Psychology of Reading
What is reading?
- A complex skill requiring the use of oculomotor, visual and language systems to sense, interpret and extract information from visual stimuli.
- The external behavior has two components:
- Saccades
- Fixations
Cognition (internal processes)
- Words are recognized or decoded to access meaning.
- Phonologically mediated access (Hooked on Phonics)
- Orthographic access (sight reading)
Models of Reading
Dual route model of skilled reading
Neurobiology of Reading
Oculomotor control
Saccade Execution Network
Word decoding
- Dorsal phonological system
- Ventral orthographic system
- Distributed semantic network
Dorsal and ventral systems
Dorsal and ventral systems
