BSU 12 th Annual Reading Conference
Auditory and Reading
Comprehension:
A Brain-Based Perspective
Ahmed M. Abdelal, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Bridgewater State University
Bridgewater, MA aabdelal@bridgew.edu

What They Have in Common
• Both involve language
• Both depend on:
– Emotional involvement
– Executive functioning skills
– Attention
– Working memory
– Long-term memory
– They share many brain mechanisms

Some Major Differences
Auditory Comprehension
• Involves auditory channels
• Not directly taught
• Less demanding
Reading Comprehension
• Involves visual or tactile channels
• Must be taught
• Can be negatively
Influenced by fluency level

Overview of Language Anatomy
• Language Implementation System
• Conceptual System
• Mediational System

Kandel et al, 2000

Language Implementation System
 Analyzes auditory signals in order to activate conceptual knowledge
 Ensures phonemic and grammatical construction and articulatory control

Conceptual System
• A collection of regions throughout the remainder higher-order association cortices
• Supports conceptual knowledge

Neurocognitive Requirements for Comprehension
• Emotional involvement
• Executive Functions
• Attention skills
• Working Memory
• Long-term memory skills

Why Emotions Are Important for Learning
• Emotional system:
• primary function is self preservation
– Guides our judgment & actions
– Enables us to construct goals
– Enable us to transfer school learning to real-life decision making
– We use past emotional knowledge to guide our reasoning process
• Social regulation
• Moral reasoning
(Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007)

Why Emotions Are Important for Learning
• While making decisions we analyze events in their emotional context.
• We consider our past experiences
– Rewards & punishments
– Successes and failures
– Praise and disapproval

• Is a state of being, not an anatomical entity
• Has many components of attention
• Works in coordination with EF & WM
• Neurobiological research views motivation as the engine that activates and maintains attention

Working Memory
• Each of the 5 primary senses has a working memory that serves it
• Visual Working Memory sustains:
– Images and shapes of objects
– Dimensions & spatial properties
– 1-2 seconds

Working Memory
• Verbal Working Memory
• For verbal and written information
• Major components:
– Phonological loop
– Phonemic buffer
• 0.5 to 3 seconds
• Enables us to forget and encode

Interaction Between Attention & W. Memory
• During acquisition of new skills
• Role of attention resource allocation system
• What happens when reading fluency is decreased?
• Analysis & synthesis are a product of the interaction between attention & WM

Executive Functions
• A number of “complex cognitive processes that serve ongoing, goal-directed behaviors”
(Meltzer 2007)
• Include:
– Goal setting & planning
– Flexibility
– Self-regulatory functions

Executive Functions
• Self-regulation
– Organization of behavior:
• Initiating, sustaining, shifting, inhibiting
– Self-monitoring
– Managing time resources
– Backtracking
– Identifying errors
– Monitoring progress towards goal
– Shifting mindset

Mechanics of Auditory Processing
• From sound waves to neural energy
• Analysis of frequency & loudness
• On the level of the auditory nerve & auditory pathways

Mechanics of Auditory Processing
• In the temporal cortex:
– Sounds identified & paired with neural representations
– Sounds are assembled into words
– Words are paired with their meanings
– Meaningful word sent to frontal lobe centers

Mechanics of Auditory Processing
• In the frontal lobe:
– Broca’s area verifies meaning & grammatical properties
– Numerous decisions are made about word categories, semantic connotations, etc
– The processed word is sent back to temporal cortex

Reading Comprehension
“Reading is an interaction among the reader, the situation, the task, and the text that results in the construction of meaning”
(Meltzer 2007, 194)

Reading Comprehension
To comprehend meaning of the text, the reader relies on
EFs to monitor and take charge of the construction of meaning
(Meltzer 2007)

Role of EFs in Reading Comprehension
•
• The good reader is engaged in:
– Active, conscious effort
– Thinking & problem-solving
– Ongoing expansion and refinement of vocabulary
– Progress monitoring
(Kintsch 2004; Joyce, Weil & Calhoun, 2004)

Role of Executive Control in
Reading Comprehension
• The good reader starts with a comprehension goal & a plan for monitoring progress toward that goal
– Prioritizing is part of the plan

Role of Executive Control in
Reading Comprehension
• The good reader…..
• Identifies and coordinates strategies
• Organizes incoming information
• Monitoring progress toward goal
• Can demonstrate understanding of the text

Executive Control of Reading
Comprehension
• Gaskins, Satlow & Pressley (2007) have identified 7 EC principles that govern the relationship between EFs
& reading comprehension.
(in Meltzer 2007, 194-215)

The 7 Executive Control Principles
• Reading must make sense
• Understanding results from planning to understand
– Survey, predict, set purpose
• Prioritizing maximizes time & effort

The 7 Executive Control Principles
• Accessing background information helps organize new information
• Ongoing self-checking enhances goal achievement

The 7 Executive Control Principles
• Cognitive flexibility provides opportunities for increased understanding
• Ongoing self-assessment improves understanding
(Meltzer 2007, 194-215)

Maximizing Emotional Involvement
• Establish a friendly atmosphere in class
– Negative affect narrows creativity
(D. Rose)
• Clearly highlight value of the info to life experiences
• Understand the learner
– Background knowledge & thinking
– Take learner variability in perspective
– Judge a person by the questions s/he asks

Maximizing Emotional Involvement
• Ask questions
– Questions you ask enables student to hone on the target information
– Sharpen focus on the learning goals

Maximizing Emotional Involvement
• Emphasize salient goals and objectives
• Frequently remind student of goals
• Collaboration & group work
• Vary response methods
– Will engage multiple networks
• Monitor motivation

Facilitate Integration by:
• Putting new information in its context
• Activating background knowledge &
• Emphasizing connections among things

Placing Things in Context
• The brain is always trying to predict things in the environment
– Looks for patterns
– Encodes & recalls info. in context
– When we recall events we recall our experiences with them
– There is a special network that allows us to focus on specific things within their context
• A major goal of educators should be: highlighting the patterns of things

Placing Things in Context
• Role play & acting
• Enable people live the experience
• Provide a meaningful context

The Reading Material
• Value of realistic stories/examples from life:
– Induce physical feelings in us
– Elevate our emotional response to learning
– Enable us to live the experience
– Increase our motivation

Role of Sleep
•
• Required for all types of cognitive functions
• Necessary for emotional intelligence
• Improves mood & empathy
• Elevates internal motivation
• Improves attention

Sleep & Emotional Regulation
Mood:
• Sleep plays a major role in emotional regulation
(Walker 2009; Walker & Van Der Helm, 2009)
• Sleep leads to:
– More efficient rationalization and resolution of interpersonal conflicts, moral reasoning, decision making, emotional expression, and processing of emotional faces.
(Pace-Schott et al 2011)

Sleep Improves:
self-regard
-assertiveness
-independence
-self-actualization

• The material for auditory and reading comprehension is language
• For the most part the two types of processing utilize the same mechanisms
• Both types of processing can be effectively enhanced through improving executive functions

• The role of emotions in learning is just beginning to be understood
• Sleep regulation is crucial for information processing and all types of neurocognitive functions
• Physical exercises improve WM & attention, which will significantly improve information processing