The HED Task Catalog is under development. IDs are not stable until formal release. Comments are welcome at github.com/hed-standard/hed-task/issues.

Phonological Awareness Task

HED task ID: hedtsk_phonological_awareness

Family: Language comprehension and production tasks

Also known as: Rhyme Judgment, Phoneme Deletion

Rhyme judgment, phoneme deletion, or phoneme blending tasks index sensitivity to the sound structure of language.

Description

Participants view or hear pairs of words and judge whether they rhyme. The task requires analysis of the sound structure of words, comparison of phonological representations, and a binary decision. Control conditions involve matching for orthographic similarity or judging word identity. fMRI reveals activation in left inferior frontal regions (pars opercularis), left temporoparietal areas, and left superior temporal cortex. The task is widely used in reading research and dyslexia studies, as phonological awareness is a strong predictor of reading ability.

Inclusion test

An experiment is an instance of this task when its procedure matches, it manipulates at least one of the listed variables, and it records at least one of the listed measures.

Procedure

Participants make explicit judgments about the sound structure of spoken words: rhyme detection, phoneme deletion, phoneme segmentation, or blending.

Manipulation

Task type (rhyme, onset, phoneme deletion, blending); word complexity; real word vs. nonword targets.

Measurement

Accuracy; RT; correlation with reading ability in developmental populations.

Variations

Named versions that change what the participant experiences or does. The identifier of a variation is hedvar_<task>__<variation>.

Variation

Description

Justification

Rhyme Detection

hedvar_phonological_awareness__rhyme_detection

“Do CAT and HAT rhyme?” Binary judgment.

Participant judges whether words rhyme; canonical phonological awareness task

Rhyme Oddity

hedvar_phonological_awareness__rhyme_oddity

“Which doesn’t rhyme? CAT, HAT, BOOK.” Select the non-rhyming item.

Identify non-rhyming word in set; different task structure from detection

Rhyme Production

hedvar_phonological_awareness__rhyme_production

Generate words that rhyme with a target.

Generate rhyming words; different output requirement

Onset Detection

hedvar_phonological_awareness__onset_detection

Identify initial sound of words.

Judge initial consonant; different phonological unit (onset)

Phoneme Deletion

hedvar_phonological_awareness__phoneme_deletion

“Say BOAT without the /b/.” Tests phoneme manipulation.

Delete specified phoneme and report result; manipulation task

Phoneme Substitution

hedvar_phonological_awareness__phoneme_substitution

Replace one phoneme with another.

Replace phoneme in word; different manipulation operation

Phoneme Segmentation

hedvar_phonological_awareness__phoneme_segmentation

Count or list individual phonemes in a word.

Segment word into constituent phonemes; decomposition task

Blending

hedvar_phonological_awareness__blending

Combine individually presented phonemes into a word.

Combine phonemes to form word; synthesis operation

Spoonerisms

hedvar_phonological_awareness__spoonerisms

Swap initial sounds of two words; high-level phonological manipulation.

Transpose onset phonemes of two words; complex transposition manipulation

Alliteration Detection

hedvar_phonological_awareness__alliteration_detection

Identify words sharing initial consonant.

Detect shared onset consonant; different phonological judgment

Syllable Awareness Tasks

hedvar_phonological_awareness__syllable_awareness_tasks

Count, delete, or manipulate syllables within words.

Syllable-level operations instead of phoneme-level; different linguistic unit

Cognitive processes

This task is designed to engage the following processes:

Key references

  • Shaywitz, S. E., Shaywitz, B. A., Pugh, K. R., et al. (1998). Functional disruption in the organization of the brain for reading in dyslexia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95(5), 2636-2641. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Booth, J. R., Burman, D. D., Meyer, J. R., et al. (2004). Development of brain mechanisms for processing orthographic and phonological representations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(7), 1234-1249. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Pugh, K. R., Mencl, W. E., Jenner, A. R., et al. (2001). Neurobiological studies of reading and reading disability. Journal of Communication Disorders, 34(6), 479-492. (DOI, PubMed)

Further references

  • Melby-Lervåg, M., Lyster, S. A. H., & Hulme, C. (2012). Phonological skills and their role in learning to read: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 138(2), 322–352. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Anthony, J. L., & Francis, D. J. (2005). Development of phonological awareness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 255–259. (DOI)

  • Boets, B., Op de Beeck, H. P., Vandermosten, M., et al. (2013). Intact but less accessible phonetic representations in adults with dyslexia. Science, 342(6163), 1251–1254. (DOI, PubMed)