Reading Brains Lab
Dartmouth College Department of Education

Publications

 

Articles

Gullick, M.M., Mitra, P., & Coch, D. (in press). Imagining the truth and the moon: an electrophysiological study of abstract and concrete word processing. Psychophysiology. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12033
We investigated the effects of word concreteness (abstract, concrete) and task demands (visualization, surface) on the N400 and N700 in a single word processing paradigm. The N400 was larger to concrete words than to abstract words and larger in the visualization than the surface task condition; there were no interactions between these effects. In contrast, a marked anterior N700 was elicited only by concrete words in the visualization task condition, suggesting processing specific to imagery. Consistent with a revised or extended dual coding theory, concrete words may benefit from greater activation in both verbal and imagistic systems.
Article in Psychophysiology
Abstract and early on-line pdf at Wiley Online Library

Coch, D., Bares, J., & Landers, A. (in press). ERPs and morphological processing: the N400 and semantic composition. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. doi: 10.3758/s13415-012-0145-3
We recorded ERPs to words and nonwords made up of bound morphemes (e.g., discern, predict; disject, percern) or free morphemes (e.g., cobweb, earring; cobline, bobweb) and monomorphemic control words and nonwords (e.g., garlic, minnow; gartus, buzlic). For each of the three morphological types, the N400 ERP component was larger to nonwords than words, indicating that the N400 is more sensitive to the lexicality of the whole stimulus than to the meaningfulness of the constituent parts of the stimulus.
Article in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
Abstract and early on-line pdf at SpringerLink

Coch, D., Mitra, P., & George, E. (2012). Behavioral and ERP evidence of word and pseudoword superiority effects in 7- and 11-year-olds. Brain Research, 1486, 68-81. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2012.09.041
The findings from this study suggest that the processes underlying orthographic fluency, as reflected in behavioral superiority effects, may be lexical in younger children (7-year-olds) but both lexical and sub-lexical in older (11-year-old) children.
Article in Brain Research
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Jasinski, E.C., & Coch, D. (2012). ERPs across arithmetic operations in a delayed answer verification task. Psychophysiology, 49(7), 943-958. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01378.x
We recorded ERPs to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problem (e.g., 2 + 5 =) and solution (e.g., 7) presentations in a delayed answer verification task (participants were asked to press buttons to indicate whether the presented solution was correct or incorrect). The amplitudes of the N270, P300, and LPC elicited by solutions were sensitive to the correctness of the presented solution for each operation, but differed across operations for incorrect solutions. The amplitude of the N300 elicited by problems also differed across operations. Thus, ERPs can reveal differences in processing across arithmetic operations in this type of task both in terms of processing during problem presentation (indexing production and retrieval) and during incorrect solution presentation (indexing comparison of incorrect presented solutions with expected solutions).
Article in Psychophysiology
Abstract and pdf at Wiley Online Library

George, E.M., & Coch, D. (2011). Music training and working memory: an ERP study. Neuropsychologia, 49(5), 1083-1094. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.001
We compared working memory processing in musicians and non-musicians using ERPs and standardized behavioral tests. Musicians both outperformed non-musicians on behavioral tests of visual, phonological, and executive memory and showed faster memory updating in both visual and auditory oddball paradigms. These findings suggest that long-term music training is related to improvements in working memory.
Article in Neuropsychologia
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Coch, D., Mitra, P., George, E., & Berger, N. (2011). Letters rhyme: electrophysiological evidence from children and adults. Developmental Neuropsychology, 36(3), 302-318. doi: 10.1080/87565641.2010.549985
A typical ERP rhyming effect was evident in both beginning readers and fluently reading adults for pairs of letters with rhyming (e.g., A-J) and nonrhyming (e.g., A-B) names: There was a larger N450 to the second member of a pair when it did not rhyme with the first member of a pair (A-B) than when it did (A-J). That single letters elicit a similar ERP rhyming effect in young children and adults suggests that the neurocognitive systems used in a visual rhyme task are established relatively early in reading development.
Article in Developmental Neuropsychology
Abstract and pdf at informaworld

Berger, N.I., & Coch, D. (2010). Do u txt? Event-related potentials to semantic anomalies in standard and texted English. Brain and Language, 113, 135-148. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2010.02.002
We compared semantic processing of texted and standard English sentences using ERPs. The pattern of results replicated previous findings regarding differences in the ERP N400 effect in native and non-native language processing, but for the first time extended the bilingual ERP literature to include the technological phenomenon of texted English.
Article in Brain and Language
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct
Media report in The Dartmouth newspaper

Coch, D., & Mitra, P. (2010). Word and pseudoword superiority effects reflected in the ERP waveform. Brain Research, 1329, 159-174. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.02.084
The results of this study suggest that orthographic fluency is reflected in both lower-level, sublexical, perceptual processing and higher-level, lexical processing in fluently reading adults.
Article in Brain Research
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Mitra, P., & Coch, D. (2009). A masked priming ERP study of letter processing using single letters and false fonts. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 9(2), 216-228. doi: 10.3758/CABN.9.2.216
The results of this study showed that false font stimuli (made up letter-like characters) and single letters elicited similar P260 ERP responses in a masked priming paradigm. This pattern of results suggests that the P260 may not be specific to letter processing.
Article in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
Abstract and pdf at SpringerLink

Coch, D., Michlovitz, S.A., Ansari, D., & Baird, A. (2009). Building mind, brain, and education connections: the view from the Upper Valley. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3(1), 27-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-228X.2008.01050.x
This article describes our efforts to build a model for making connections across mind, brain, and education in the local area of the Upper Valley.
Article in Mind, Brain, and Education
Abstract and pdf at Wiley InterScience

Coch, D., George, E., & Berger, N. (2008). The case of letter rhyming: an ERP study. Psychophysiology, 45(6), 949-956. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00701.x
The results of this study with college students showed that a similar ERP rhyming effect, in terms of amplitude and latency, is elicted by lowercase letter pairs and uppercase letter pairs. This pattern of results suggests that the electrophysiological rhyming effect is not sensitive to physical (case) orthography, but likely primarily indexes phonological processing related to the rhyme task.
Article in Psychophysiology
Abstract and pdf at Wiley InterScience

Stevens, C., Fanning, J., Coch, D., Sanders, L.D., & Neville, H. (2008). Neural mechanisms of selective attention are enhanced by computerized training: electrophysiological evidence from language-impaired and typically developing children. Brain Research, 1205, 55-69. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2007.10.108
The results of this study with 6- to 8-year-old children with specific language impairment (SL I) and controls showed that intensive training with a computer program was associated with changes in both an ERP auditory attention effect recorded in a complex dichotic listening paradigm and in behavioral measures of receptive language in the children with SLI.
Article in Brain Research
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Coch, D., Hart, T., & Mitra, P. (2008). Three kinds of rhymes: an ERP study. Brain and Language, 104(3), 230-243. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2007.06.003
The results of this study with college students showed that a similar visual ERP rhyming effect can be elicited by words, nonwords, and single letters. One of the first reports of an ERP letter rhyming effect, this finding could be important developmentally because single letter stimuli can be used to index rhyming skills with populations who are not yet reading or are struggling to learn how to read.
Article in Brain and Language
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Coch, D. (2007). Neuroimaging research with children: ethical issues and case scenarios. Journal of Moral Education, 36(1), 1-18. doi: 10.1080/03057240601185430
This article is a brief and selective review of ethical issues that can arise in neuroimaging research with children, discussed in the context of the new field of neuroethics and followed by two case study examples to be used to generate discussion.
Article in the Journal of Moral Education
Abstract and pdf at informaworld

Sanders, L.D., Stevens, C., Coch, D., & Neville, H.J. (2006). Selective auditory attention in 3- to 5-year-old children: an event-related potential study. Neuropsychologia, 44(11), 2126-2138. Special issue on Developmental Neuroscience. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.10.007
The results of this ERP study with typically developing children and adults indicated that even children as young as age 3 can selectively attend to one auditory stream while ignoring another under certain conditions and that the neural mechanisms by which this process of selective auditory attention occurs in the paradigm used appear remarkably adult-like by age 3.
Article in Neuropsychologia
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Ansari, D., & Coch, D. (2006). Bridges over troubled waters: education and cognitive neuroscience. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(4), 146-151. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2006.02.007
This is an opinion piece about how teacher and researcher training can provide bridges between the fields of education and cognitive neuroscience.
Article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Coch, D., Skendzel, W., & Neville, H. (2005). Auditory and visual refractory period effects in children and adults: an ERP study. Clinical Neurophysiology, 116(9), 2184-2203. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2005.06.005
The results of this ERP study indicated that basic auditory and visual processing systems in typically developing 6- to 8-year-old children and adults have similar refractory (recovery cycle) characteristics and that the latencies of certain ERP components elicited in the refractory period paradigms are correlated with traditional behavioral measures of accuracy and reaction time.
Article in Clinical Neurophysiology
Abstract and pdf at Science Direct

Coch, D., Skendzel, W., Grossi, G., & Neville, H. (2005). Motion and color processing in school-age children and adults: an ERP study. Developmental Science, 8(4), 372-386. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00425.x
The results of this ERP study with typically developing 6- to 8-year-old children and adults indicated that both the visual motion and color processing systems indexed by the paradigm develop from middle childhood to adulthood, but were consistent with the hypothesis that the motion processing system has a relatively protracted developmental time course.
Article in Developmental Science
Abstract and pdf at Wiley InterScience

Grossi, G., & Coch, D. (2005). Automatic word form processing in masked priming: an ERP study. Psychophysiology, 42(3), 343-355. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00286.x
The results of this study with adults indicated that early ERPs (150-250 ms) can be sensitive to the word-likeness (word form) of a stimulus and suggested that word form processing as indexed by ERPs in the paradigm used is automatic and graded (maximal to word-like stimuli and relatively reduced with alphabet-like stimuli).
Article in Psychophysiology
Abstract and pdf at Wiley InterScience

Coch, D., Sanders, L.D., & Neville, H. (2005). An ERP study of selective auditory attention in children and adults. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(4), 605-622. doi: 10.1162/0898929053467631
The results of this ERP study with typically developing 6- to 8-year-old children and adults indicated that both children and adults showed auditory attention effects in a complex dichotic listening paradigm, but only adults showed specifically lateralized and distributed effects, suggesting that the attentional networks indexed by the paradigm used continue to develop beyond 8 years of age.
Article in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Abstract and pdf at MIT Press Journals

Coch, D., Grossi, G., Skendzel, W., & Neville, H. (2005). ERP nonword rhyming effects in children and adults. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(1), 168-182. doi: 10.1162/0898929052880020
The results of this ERP study with typically developing 6- to 8-year-old children and adults indicated that a similar ERP rhyming effect to auditory nonwords (e.g., nin-rin, ked-voo) was elicited at all ages studied, and that the onset of the ERP rhyming effect in children was later in those who scored lower on standardized measures of phonological awareness.
Article in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Abstract and pdf at MIT Press Journals

Coch, D. & Holcomb, P.J. (2003). The N400 in beginning readers. Developmental Psychobiology, 43(2), 146-166. doi: 10.1002/dev.10129
The results of this ERP study with girls in first grade suggested that the N400 component of the ERP waveform might serve as an oblique index of the automaticity of processes that contribute to reading; all girls were at or above grade level in reading, but only the highest-ability readers showed a marked and widespread N400 in response to word stimuli.
Article in Developmental Psychobiology
Abstract and pdf at Wiley InterScience

Coch, D., Maron, L., Wolf, M., & Holcomb, P.J. (2002). Word- and picture-processing in children: an event-related potential study. Developmental Neuropsychology, 22(1), 373-406. doi: 10.1207/S15326942dn2201_3
The results of this ERP study with typically developing 10- and 11-year-old children indicated that real words (e.g., grapes), pseudowords (e.g., chour), letter strings (e.g., bnra), and false fonts (strings of letter-like forms) all elicited an anteriorly-distributed N400 component in the ERP waveform, suggesting that young readers may process many different types of strings as possible words to some extent.
Article in Developmental Neuropsychology
Abstract and pdf at informaworld

Coch, D., Grossi, G., Coffey-Corina, S., Holcomb, P.J., & Neville, H.J. (2002). A developmental investigation of ERP auditory rhyming effects. Developmental Science, 5(4), 467-489. doi: 10.1111/1467-7687.00241
The results of this ERP study spanning age 7 to adulthood indicated that auditory ERP rhyming effects were quite similar in size, distribution, and latency across all age groups, suggesting that the neurocognitive networks involved in processing auditory rhyme information, as indexed by the paradigm used, have an adult-like organization at least by the age of 7.
Article in Developmental Science
Abstract and pdf at Wiley Interscience

Grossi, G., Coch, D., Coffey-Corina, S., Holcomb, P.J., & Neville, H.J. (2001). Phonological processing in visual rhyming: a developmental ERP study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13(5), 610-625. doi: 10.1162/089892901750363190
The results of this ERP study spanning age 7 to adulthood indicated that the posterior visual ERP rhyming effect was quite similar in onset and distribution across all age groups, but an anterior effect showed greater hemispheric asymmetry with increasing age (and was correlated with reading and spelling scores); these results suggested that different aspects of phonological processing tapped by a visual rhyming task rely on different neurocognitive systems and have different developmental time courses.
Article in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Abstract and pdf at MIT Press Journals