Naming Speed and Reading: The Contribution of the Cognitive Neurosciences

THIS TWO-PART ESSAY discusses how research in the developmental cognitive neurosciences can contribute to an understanding of the complex relations between various aspects of naming and reading processes. The first section reviews findings from both neuropsychological and reading research on letter-naming and general naming speed, and analyzes the methodological differences between discrete-trial and continuous naming formats. The findings taken together suggest that the relations between subprocesses change both with development and as the cognitive requirements for naming and reading tasks become more differentiated. Findings from a number of studies also suggest the existence of a naming-rate deficit that differentiates dyslexic from average and garden-variety poor readers; this deficit appears to persist well into middle childhood. The second section speculates more broadly about whether the relations between naming and reading deficits are causal or associative, and also about associations between deficits in naming speed and deficits in motoric speed. These associations could be explained by the existence of a connector variable common to some processes in both language and motoric domains, such as a hypothesized precise timing mechanism that may inhibit the ability of some dyslexic readers to achieve rapid processing.