Title of Course: Reading in the Brain
CE Credit: 7 Hours (0.7 CEUs)
Learning Level: Intermediate
Authors: Stanislas Dehaene, PhD
This is a test only course (book not included). The book (or e-book) can be purchased from Amazon.
Course Abstract:
This book provides a clear and readable summary of current research on the neural basis of reading, with
direct applications to instruction and treatment planning. By pinpointing the brain processes used to identify
words, it clarifies both the normative course of literacy development as well as the defining features of
dyslexia. This perspective is also used to identify the ingredients of reading intervention that can "rewire" the
brain, and to help the clinician sort through continuing controversies about effective instruction. Surprising
findings such as the way neurons have been “recycled” to allow our brains to read, and why mirror writing is
the norm in early development, are also included.
Learning Outcomes: As a result of taking this course, participant will be able to:
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Identify the basic visual and cognitive processes involved in extracting sounds and meaning from print
Identify the brain regions and neural mechanisms used in word identification
Describe the “neuronal recycling hypothesis” that explains the brain’s unexpected capacity for reading
Identify how written language has evolved to exploit the brain’s natural propensity for shape recognition
Explain how the neural basis of reading can refine theories of literacy development
Describe the brain mechanisms underlying dyslexia, and the ingredients of effective interventions
Explain how mirror errors reflect a natural ability that must be unlearned in order to read and write
Summarize the relationship between brain function and cultural development
Please Note:
You will no longer be able to download this course pdf once you pass the online posttest. If you would like to
save this document, please do so prior to taking your test online.
© 2011 Professional Development Resources | www.pdresources.org | #70-14 Reading in the Brain | Page 1 of 7
5 Steps for Completing this Course
Print This Document: The posttest questions on the following pages are presented in the same order
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you read the course book.
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© 2011 Professional Development Resources | www.pdresources.org | #70-14 Reading in the Brain | Page 2 of 7
Reading in the Brain – Posttest
1. When scanning text, our eyes:
a. use smooth, continuous movements
b. move in small steps, called saccades
c. make use of the external areas of the retina
d. identify roughly 20 letters at a time
2. The visual system is capable of rapidly breaking words into morphemes, which are:
a. the smallest units of a word that carry meaning
b. the smallest sound units of a word
c. pairs of letters that represent a single sound
d. another word for syllables
3. Which statement about the phonological route for reading is true?
a. Only beginning readers make use of the phonological route.
b. The phonological route is only used for familiar words, or words with irregular spellings.
c. Even proficient readers use the phonological route, although often non-consciously.
d. The phonological route is activated only during oral reading.
4. The best explanation for the irregularity of English spelling is:
a. there are too many letters to map onto the sounds of the language.
b. the English spelling system is purely phonetic.
c. the European Union’s spelling reform has added confusion to the spelling system.
d. English spelling gives preference to word roots, at the expense of sound-based regularity.
5. Which is the best description of how the two reading routes function?
a. Fluent reading depends on the close coordination between the two reading routes.
b. Eventually, fluent readers rely solely on the meaning-based (lexical) route.
c. Eventually, fluent readers rely solely on the phonological route.
d. The meaning of every word must be understood through use of both routes.
6. The French neurologist Dejerine identified a “verbal blindness” syndrome in which reading ability was lost, but spoken
language and writing remained intact. This is now called:
a. agraphia without alexia
b. alexia without agraphia
c. pure agraphia
d. partial alexia
7. There are several terms that refer to the area of the brain responsible for fast identification of letter strings. All of the
following are among them EXCEPT:
a. the visual word form area
b. the left occipito-temporal area
c. the angular gyrus
d. the brain’s letterbox
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8. Brain activation during word reading is best described as:
a. serial, linear, and unidirectional
b. simultaneous, tandem, and bidirectional
c. similar to a reflex arc
d. a simple chain of cerebral images
9. Which finding provides the best evidence that cultural training affects brain function?
a. When we learn to read, a subset of our visual neurons adapts to the letters and languages we are taught.
b. Different languages are processed on different sides of the brain.
c. There is an area of our visual system specialized for facial recognition.
d. When we learn to read, our visual neurons respond similarly to letters of all languages.
10. Approximately 250 milliseconds after seeing a word, the brain areas that are activated ___________________.
a. stay very close to the letterbox
b. show no overlap with spoken language networks
c. could be activated equally well by a spoken word
d. continue to be restricted to vision
11. Research suggests that the __________ is ideally equipped to learn the correspondence between letters and sounds.
a. letterbox
b. occipital pole
c. planum temporale
d. corpus callosum
12. The brain network that analyzes word meaning:
a. is composed only of structures that process the written word
b. only activates when we say a word aloud
c. is quite distinct from the network that converts letters into sounds
d. is a very small, restricted region of the brain
13. The occipito-temporal region associated with reading in humans:
a. is a new and uniquely human brain region
b. contains neurons that respond only to letters
c. plays a more general role in object and face recognition in all primates
d. was first identified by Charles Darwin
14. Surprisingly, many of the basic shapes that inferior temporal neurons prefer:
a. closely resemble our letters, symbols, or elementary Chinese characters
b. are very different from the shapes of the Western alphabet
c. seldom occur in the natural environment
d. are characteristic of human vision, but not of other primates
15. The author coined the term “neuronal recycling” to describe:
a. how the human brain is a blank slate capable of absorbing any cultural invention
b. the rebirth of neurons in the cortex that are capable of forming new synapses
c. the transformation of an ancient evolutionary function into a novel function
d. the unlimited plasticity of the human cortex
© 2011 Professional Development Resources | www.pdresources.org | #70-14 Reading in the Brain | Page 4 of 7
16. The author proposes that the most useful letter combination to which neurons should respond is:
a. a closed bigram
b. an open bigram
c. a syllabic bigram
d. a lexical bigram
17. Which of the following is NOT a feature shared by existing writing systems?
a. All provide the fovea with a high-density concentration of contrasting black-on-white marks.
b. All rely on a small inventory of basic shapes that are combined to generate sounds, syllables, or words.
c. All assume that the location and size of characters is irrelevant.
d. All tend to represent either sound or meaning.
18. What is the best description of the relationship between writing systems and the brain?
a. Letter shape is an arbitrary cultural choice that appears unrelated to brain architecture.
b. All cultures select signs whose learning requires minimal cortical change.
c. All writing systems choose characters that challenge the visual cortex’s capacities.
d. There is no limit to the range of letter shapes preferred by the brain.
19. A factor that drew writing away from pictography was:
a. the decline of artistic ability in ancient civilizations.
b. the increasing use of writing implements to convey messages.
c. the problem of drawing pictures of abstract ideas.
d. the growth of cross-cultural communication via business and trade.
20. The first language to invent a notation that could transcribe the smallest units of spoken language, phonemes, with a
notation that could transcribe them all was _____________.
a. Sumerian
b. Phoenician
c. Semitic
d. Greek
21. Which is a feature of Frith’s logographic stage of reading?
a. Familiar words are recognized in both upper case and lower case letters.
b. Children are just beginning to decode the internal structure of words.
c. Children selectively attend to letter shape but not orientation or curvature.
d. Children have not yet grasped the logic of writing and rely solely on visual features.
22. Which is the best description of the relationship between grapheme and phoneme development?
a. sequential, from grapheme to phoneme
b. sequential, from phoneme to grapheme
c. reciprocal interaction or “spiral causality”
d. simultaneous at all stages of reading development
23. Neuroscience research strongly indicates that the goal of reading instruction is:
a. to teach children to recognize letters and graphemes, and easily turn them into speech sounds.
b. to encourage the early development of reading via the direct route.
c. to persuade children that reading is pleasurable.
d. to immerse children in print so they will spontaneously learn to read.
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24. The McCandliss experiment involving a new artificial alphabet revealed that:
a. the whole language approach provides no ground for generalization to new words.
b. mere exposure to written words facilitates the discovery of spelling regularities.
c. the whole language approach yields slow and steady improvements in decoding.
d. letter-sound correspondence does not help in reading an artificial alphabetic script.
25. Which teaching strategy is not supported by research on the neural basis of reading?
a. Encourage young children to play with words and sounds
b. Allow children to trace letter shapes with a fingertip on sandpaper
c. Introduce the simplest and most frequent graphemes first
d. Present infrequent graphemes first, followed by those that are most frequent
26. According to Finnish research, which early difficulty was a predictor of dyslexia in at-risk infants?
a. Deviations in right hemisphere brain potentials
b. Low birth weight
c. Disadvantaged socioeconomic status
d. An auditory discrimination test
27. Research by Ramus affirms that, whatever its ultimate biological cause, the core deficit in dyslexia involves:
a. phonological processing.
b. global processing speed.
c. visual-motor skills.
d. oral language comprehension.
28. Essentially all brain imaging studies of dyslexia find ________ in the left temporal lobe, compared to normal readers.
a. normal functioning
b. overactivation
c. premature activation
d. a reduction of activity
29. Broca’s area is often hyperactive when dyslexics attempt to read. This finding can be interpreted as:
a. a failure to recognize invariant letter strings.
b. a compensatory strategy of engaging in speech production.
c. a compensatory strategy of treating letters like visual images.
d. evidence of a co-existing articulation disorder .
30. Based on our knowledge of brain plasticity, which ingredients are most likely to lead to successful intervention?
a. Short daily training sessions over a period of weeks
b. Long daily training sessions over a period of weeks
c. Avoidance of computer-based intervention, in favor of written tasks
d. Encouraging a serious, emotion-free attitude during learning
31. Mirror writing errors:
a. typically appear for a brief time, then promptly vanish.
b. only occur in young readers of the Western alphabet.
c. are an early indicator of dyslexia before age eight.
d. persist in many normal readers past ages eight to ten.
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32. From an evolutionary perspective, which type of visual discrimination is not essential to survival?
a. Front versus back
b. Far versus close
c. Left versus right
d. Vertical versus horizontal
33. The need to train both the dorsal and ventral pathways for reading may explain the remarkable success of teaching
methods that emphasize ________________________.
a. rhyme awareness
b. motor gestures
c. morpheme identification
d. early decoding
34. Which statement best reflects the relationship between evolution and reading?
a. The human brain has evolved to adapt to reading.
b. Reading evolved toward a form adapted to our brain circuits.
c. The human brain and writing systems co-evolved.
d. Brain evolution is culture-specific for writing systems.
35. According to the authors neuronal recycling hypothesis, our cerebral processors:
a. exhibit unlimited plasticity.
b. contain an element of plasticity.
c. are actually quite rigid.
d. resist changes to their function.
36. According to the author, which of the following abilities is a component of human culture that is not shared by
monkeys or great apes?
a. The ability to produce dots, lines, and curves
b. The use of hand clapping to attract attention
c. The capacity to create drawings with symbolic meaning
d. The intrinsic motivation to draw
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