The contents of six neuropsychology journals (98 volumes, 368 issues) were screened to identify visual half-field (VHF) experiments. Of the 516 experiments identified, 42% provided information about sex differences. Sixty-eight experiments yielded a total of 92 sex differences, 23 of which met stringent criteria for sex differences in laterality. Of the 20 sex differences satisfying stringent criteria and lending themselves to interpretation in terms of the differential lateralization hypothesis, 17 supported the hypothesis of greater hemispheric specialization in males than in females. The 17 confirmatory outcomes represent 7.8% of the informative experiments. When less stringent criteria were invoked, 27 outcomes (12.3% of the informative experiments) were found to be consistent with the differential lateralization hypothesis. Six findings were contrary to the hypothesis. The results, which closely resemble results for auditory laterality studies, are compatible with a population-level sex difference that accounts for 1 to 2% of the variance in laterality.

The present study explored the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) in a sample of 146 college students with and without reading disabilities (RD). The results indicated that although both phonological awareness (PA) and visual naming speed (VNS) contributed to performance on measures of decoding and comprehension, their relative contribution was influenced both by the nature of the stimulus (word vs. nonword vs. text) and by the conditions of the task (timed vs. untimed). Similar results were obtained using an individual differences approach, or when between-group comparisons were made of individuals with deficits in PA or VNS. The relative representation of DDH subgroups in groups of adults with RD varied based on the classification criteria used to define RD. These results support the DDH, extend its applicability to adults, and have implications for diagnostic decision making.

A dearth of research has investigated the language preference of bilingual childhood populations and its subsequent relationship to reading skills. The current study evaluated how a sequential bilingual student's choice of language, in a particular environmental context, predicted reading ability in English and Spanish. The participants were Latino children ranging in age from 7 years, 5 months, to 11 years, 6 months, with 43% born in the United States. Results showed a relationship between a child's higher English language preference for media and for communication with others outside the family and better reading skills in English. Language preference differences predicted reading abilities better for English than for Spanish. Results suggested that sequential bilingual children's language preference may be a useful marker of English language (second language [L2]) facility and use that is related to their reading proficiency or influences the development of English reading skills in such bilingual children in the United States. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The number of students who speak other languages than English is vastly increasing in today's U.S. schools. Although much is known about what influences monolingual English children's ability to read, much less is known about what factors influence bilingual children's early reading development, particularly when a major portion of the reading instruction is in English. Because the largest bilingual school age population in the United States are those children who speak Spanish and are being schooled in English, understanding predictors of English reading development in this population is of growing importance.Spanish is considered to have transparent or shallow orthography (i.e., written language) that has a consistent mapping between its phonemes and graphemes. There is only one pronunciation for consonants and one grapheme-phoneme association for vowels in the Spanish language (Gottardo, 2002). In addition, differences exist within types of orthographies. Goswami, Gombert, and Fraca de Barrera (1998) noted that the most efficient strategy for children learning to read a very transparent orthography is initially to rely on letter-by-letter decoding. Although reading in this manner means that longer words are read at a slower pace, the consistency of the relationship between the graphemes and phonemes makes this initial method accurate on a regular basis and leads to fluent approaches.When the transparency of the language is more opaque, such as in French and English, children are confronted with variable or multiple orthographic-phonological relationships and are consequently less accurate at reading pseudowords or new words when they are unfamiliar. Goswami and associates (1998) noted that children who speak both English and French thus seem to cope with the ambiguity of the spelling-sound relationships by coding orthographic-phonological relations in terms of large spelling patterns, such as rimes.Researchers have also noted that phonological awareness ...

To examine the profile of scores on a measure of orientation in a sample of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) during acute rehabilitation as a means of (a) assessing the extent of neural compromise, (b) assessing recovery of functioning, and (c) determining the relative difficulty of different indicators of orientation. Design: Repeated measures. Setting: Acute rehabilitation hospital. Participants: Forty-three patients with severe TBI interviewed daily throughout rehabilitation. Measures: The Orientation Log (O-Log) is a 10-item measure of orientation to place, time, and situation. Items are scored 0-3 on the basis of whether they are recalled spontaneously (3), with cueing (2), via recognition (1), or not at all (0). Results: O-Log score was correlated with severity of TBI. Return of orientation followed a consistent trajectory, with initial gains preceding a plateau effect. Patients had relatively more difficulty orienting to hospital name and date than to year, month, and city. Conclusions: The O-Log is sensitive to the severity of TBI. Progress in orientation, on average, occurs at a similar rate across patients, including those who present as severely disoriented, although those with severe disorientation may not achieve orientation by rehabilitation discharge.A period of disorientation, confusion, and amnesia for ongoing events is characteristic of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Measures of orientation to place, time, and person have traditionally been used to chart the course of acute

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