Explore the vast range of titles available.

Availability of orthography during word learning has been found to facilitate learning the word’s spelling and pronunciation and has been proposed to facilitate learning its meaning. This has not been studied in second language (L2) learning yet, in which word learning often corresponds to translation learning. Therefore, an L2 word learning experiment was carried out. Grade 6 Dutch students (n = 92) were taught English words, with orthography available or absent. Words were divided into those that are spelled entirely like they sound (consistent, e.g., lilt) and those that are not (inconsistent, e.g., budgie). Students learned the words using forward translation (Dutch to English) or backward translation (English to Dutch). At post-test spelling, reading and forward as well as backward translation were measured. Results indicate that availability of orthography mainly facilitated word spelling and reading. There was a trend for orthography to affect learning the translation. Learning consistent words benefited most from orthography, especially when the post-test demanded forward translation. As forward translation requires retrieval of the word’s pronunciation, it is likely that students used orthographic mapping to better remember the pronunciations of the English words. Forward translation was easier if words were learned in the same direction, but backward translation was not affected by learning direction. Together, these results imply that orthography supports translation learning, although this is likely caused by learning the word’s pronunciation and not by establishing a direct link between orthography and word meaning.

We assessed the relationship between word-to-text-integration (WTI) and reading comprehension in 7th grade students (n = 441) learning English as a second language (L2). The students performed a self-paced WTI reading task in Fall (T1) and Spring (T2), consisting of three text manipulation types (anaphora resolution, argument overlap, anomaly detection), divided in simple and complex passages. The passages contained proximate versus distant anaphora, explicit repetitions versus implicit inferences, and no anomalies versus anomalies. We first examined how WTI complexity was related to reading times on target, target plus one, and target plus two, controlling for word frequency, decoding fluency, gender, and age. Mixed-effects models showed shorter reading times on T2 than on T1 and for simple compared to complex passages, indicating improvement of L2 reading speed. Complexity affected WTI for our L2 learners, as was reflected by longer reading times on complex compared to simple argument overlap and anomaly detection passages. We then assessed whether reading comprehension could be predicted by WTI. Longer reading times on complex compared to simple argument overlap and anomaly detection passages predicted offline reading comprehension. These WTI-measures of complexity are thus indicators of WTI proficiency for novice L2 learners.

Few studies focused on the relationship between psychological measures, major depressive disorder (MDD) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) response. This study investigated several psychological measures as potential predictors for rTMS treatment response. Additionally, this study employed two approaches to evaluate the robustness of our findings by implementing immediate replication and full-sample exploration with strict p-thresholding. This study is an open-label, multi-site study with a total of 196 MDD patients. The sample was subdivided in a Discovery (60% of total sample, n = 119) and Replication sample (40% of total sample, n = 77). Patients were treated with right low frequency (1 Hz) or left high frequency (10 Hz) rTMS at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Clinical variables [Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Five-Factor Inventory, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and BDI subscales] were obtained at baseline, post-treatment, and at follow-up. Predictors were analyzed in terms of statistical association, robustness (independent replication), as well as for their clinical relevance [positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV)]. Univariate analyses revealed that non-responders had higher baseline anhedonia scores. Anhedonia scores at baseline correlated negatively with total BDI percentage change over time. This finding was replicated. However, anhedonia scores showed to be marginally predictive of rTMS response, and neither PPV nor NPV reached the levels of clinical relevance. This study suggests that non-responders to rTMS treatment have higher baseline anhedonia scores. However, anhedonia was only marginally predictive of rTMS response. Since all other psychological measures did not show predictive value, it is concluded that psychological measures cannot be used as clinically relevant predictors to rTMS response in MDD.