A normative study of acronyms and acronym naming

Izura, Christina; Playfoot, David

doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0175-8

Cited by 18 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 125 publications

(157 reference statements)

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“…AGE is a high-frequency word. These words are more easily recognized, produced and recalled faster and with greater accuracy than lowfrequency words or than a more complex newly generated acronym (Izura and Playfoot, 2012).…”

Section: Anticipated Gamete Exhaustion (Age)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Oocyte banking for anticipated gamete exhaustion (AGE) is a preventive intervention, neither social nor nonmedical

Stoop¹,

Veen

Deneyer³

et al. 2014

Reproductive BioMedicine Online

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The scope of female fertility preservation through cryopreservation of oocytes or ovarian cortex has widened from mainly oncological indications to a variety of fertility-threatening conditions. So far, no specific universally accepted denomination name has been given to cryopreservation of oocytes or ovarian cortex for the prevention of age-related fertility decline. We argue that the commonly used phrases 'social' and 'nonmedical freezing' to denote the indication for cryopreservation are not entirely correct. We suggest 'AGE banking', as this has not only the advantage of being catchy but also depicts the exact indication for the strategy, anticipated gamete exhaustion.

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Section: Anticipated Gamete Exhaustion (Age)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Oocyte banking for anticipated gamete exhaustion (AGE) is a preventive intervention, neither social nor nonmedical

Stoop¹,

Veen

Deneyer³

et al. 2014

Reproductive BioMedicine Online

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“…However, while there is considerable evidence to suggest that familiar acronyms do have phonological representations in the lexicon much as words do (Brysbaert et al, 2009;Slattery et al, 2006) our recent work has indicated that these representations do not necessarily need to be accessed for a correct pronunciation to be reached (Izura & Playfoot, 2012;Playfoot, Izura & Tree, 2013). Instead, we have argued that acronym naming can be achieved through the application of a single sub-lexical rule.…”

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confidence: 78%

“…BBC or DVD). We have previously referred to this type of acronym as unambiguous (Izura & Playfoot, 2012) because it is immediately clear from the orthography of these items that naming each letter in turn is the only sensible way of generating a pronunciation. There are also acronyms that contain both vowels and consonants (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…HIV or NASA) in combinations that are plausible in the English language. As such these are ambiguous in that it is not immediately obvious whether they should be pronounced letter by letter or otherwise (Izura & Playfoot, 2012). This ambiguity is reflected in the fact that in some cases such vowel bearing acronyms are pronounced letter by letter (an acronym typical pronunciation); in others the pronunciation is "word-like" and acronym atypical.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, we have argued that acronym naming can be achieved through the application of a single sub-lexical rule. Izura and Playfoot (2012) asked undergraduate participants to read aloud a list of ambiguous and unambiguous acronyms. The overall accuracy rate was high (98%).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Naming acronyms: The influence of reading context in skilled reading and surface dyslexia

2014

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Background: Within dual route models of reading, words with regular spelling to sound correspondences can be read successfully using lexical or non-lexical reading processes. Research has indicated that which of these pathways is used is influenced by the other items that form the presentation context. We extend these findings using acronym stimuli as targets, presenting them in contexts designed to cue reading through grapheme phoneme conversion or letter naming. Method: In experiment 1, undergraduate participants (n = 30) read aloud stimuli presented onscreen. Response times and accuracy for target acronyms ambiguous in their print to pronunciation conversion (e.g. HIV versus NASA) were compared between two contexts. In one condition the majority of items were unambiguous acronyms (e.g. BBC). In the second condition, the non-target items were regular words (e.g. CAT). Experiment 2 administered the same reading task to a single case of semantic dementia. Results: A significant interaction between presentation context and acronym pronunciation was observed, such that responses were faster and more accurate to items that were pronounced in the same way as the majority of other stimuli in the list. Similar, though more dramatic, context effects were observed in a case of semantic dementia. Conclusions: We argue that context effects are pervasive in reading research and that presentation context should be considered when interpreting future findings, particularly in cases of aphasia and dyslexia.

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Are acronyms really irregular? Preserved acronym reading in a case of semantic dementia

2013

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This paper describes the progressive performance of JD, a patient with semantic dementia, on acronym categorisation, recognition and reading aloud over a period of 18 months. Most acronyms have orthographic and phonological configurations that are different from English words (BBC, DVD, HIV). While some acronyms, the majority, are regularly pronounced letter by letter, others are pronounced in a more holistic, and irregular, way (NASA, AWOL). Semantic dementia at its moderate stage shows deficits in irregular word reading while reading accuracy for regular words and novel words is preserved. Nothing is known about acronym comprehension and reading ability in semantic dementia. Thus, in this study we explore for the first time the impact that semantic decline has on acronym recognition and reading processes. The decline in JD's semantic system led to increasingly impaired semantic categorisation and lexical decision for acronyms relative to healthy controls. However, her accuracy for reading aloud regular acronyms (i.e. those pronounced letter by letter such as BBC) remained near ceiling while reading irregular acronyms (i.e. those pronounced as mainstream words such as NASA) demonstrated impairment. It is therefore argued that consequences of semantic impairment vary across acronym types, a finding that informs our understanding of any reading account of this growing class of words.Dear Editor-in-Chief, Please find enclosed our revised manuscript, "Are acronyms really irregular? Preserved acronym reading in a case of semantic dementia" by David Playfoot, Cristina Izura and Jeremy Tree, which we would like to resubmit for publication in Neuropsychologia.We appreciate the time that the reviewers have spent considering our work, and have addressed the issues that they had raised in our resubmission. We thank them for their helpful comments and believe that the paper is stronger for their input. Below we detail our response to each individual comment. The material that we have added is indicated in bold in the manuscript to make it easier for the reviewers to see what we have done. All authors have approved the revised manuscript and agree with its submission to Neuropsychologia. Please address all correspondence to: Dr David Playfoot, Department of Psychology, Southampton Solent University, Above Bar Street, Southampton, SO14 7NN.We look forward to hearing from you at the earliest possible convenience. For instance, an interesting finding of the authors is that as soon as the orthographic rules are violated in a number of words, the patient seems to rely on the letter-by-letter rule, even for words that could be read differently. Indeed, the case could be made that this is the easiest way of pronouncing letter sequences. There is some evidence that acronyms are stored phonologically as sequences of letter names (Brysbaert, Slattery). Response:As recommended by Reviewer 1, Marc Brysbaert, a more precise view and therefore definition of regular/ irregular acronyms is provided in the last paragraph of page 5...

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A normative study of acronyms and acronym naming

Cited by 18 publications

References 125 publications

Oocyte banking for anticipated gamete exhaustion (AGE) is a preventive intervention, neither social nor nonmedical

Oocyte banking for anticipated gamete exhaustion (AGE) is a preventive intervention, neither social nor nonmedical

Naming acronyms: The influence of reading context in skilled reading and surface dyslexia

Are acronyms really irregular? Preserved acronym reading in a case of semantic dementia

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