LE3 .A278 2015

2015

Newman, Randy Lynn

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

Event-related potential (ERP) measures were used to examine the maturation of rhyme knowledge in pre-readers (4 yrs) who have received no formal reading instruction, emergent readers (5-6 yrs) who have just begun to receive such instruction, and early fluent readers (7-8 yrs) for whom reading has become automatic. Past research has shown that an ERP response, the N400, is reduced to rhyming word pairs compared to non-rhyming pairs (i.e., N400 rhyme effect) in participants aged seven and older. In the present study children were presented with a picture followed by a spoken word that matched (e.g., CONE; cone) or mismatched the picture in one of two ways: rhyme mismatch (e.g., CONE; bone) or unrelated mismatch (e.g., CONE; fox). Results showed that the N400 occurred in all three groups with the rhyme effect trending in the early fluent readers only. Overall, the N400 appears to be influenced by reading level; however, additional participants are needed to confirm these trends. Keywords: Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERP), N400, segmental, suprasegmental, children, rhyme effect

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1191