# The Development of Real Time Spoken and Written Word Recognition: Cognitive Bases of Language and Educational Outcomes

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2021 · $1,119,373

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Language and reading impairments affect 16%-20% of US children, and are stable, persisting through
adolescence and adulthood. Deficits in even low level skills like phonological processing and spoken word
recognition persist through adulthood, and half of middle-school struggling readers show deficits in decoding
and written word recognition. This proposal examines the development of spoken and written word recognition
during late childhood. While words are a low-level language skill at these ages, they are central to language,
linking phonology, orthography, and meaning. At a cognitive level, word recognition is seen as a competition
process. As the input (e.g., wizard) is heard (or read) people consider multiple partially matching words
(whistle, lizard) which compete over time. Prior work assessed this in children using a paradigm in which
listeners match words to pictures while eye-movements are monitored. As listeners begin to hear a word their
eyes move between candidates. These fixations reveal momentary consideration of alternative words and
trace the dynamics of competition over milliseconds. We applied this to children, showing that competition is
resolved more automatically between 9 and 16 years. Adolescents with language impairment showed a
different pattern: they were similarly automatic, but did not fully resolve competition by the end of processing.
 This research documents that real-time processing develops, but it is unclear how. In older children, it is
likely due to multiple causes such as vocabulary growth, the organization of phonological systems, the onset of
reading instruction, and changes in executive function. This project examines the development and disorders
in the automaticity and degree of competition resolution during lexical processing. It examines both spoken
and written word processing to unpack the relationship between language and reading, and identify outcomes
(good and poor) linked to differences in real-time processing. The first aim is to determine the cognitive and
developmental factors that shape real-time word recognition, and the consequences of this for language and
reading outcomes. We conduct an accelerated longitudinal study of 400 children (normal and impaired)
between 7 and 12 combining eye-tracking measures of word recognition with tests of phonological processing,
reading, vocabulary, and executive function. The second aim uses cross-sectional laboratory studies to
examine the consequences of differences in real-time processing for learning and for related processes like
semantic processing (meaning) or orthographic decoding (mapping sound to print). The third aim uses
laboratory training procedures to understand plasticity in real-time lexical processing; this may pave the way for
potential interventions targeting lexical processing. Finally, the fourth aim develops computational models of
normal and disordered lexical processing to attain a deeper understanding of what mechan...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10070098
- **Project number:** 5R01DC008089-11
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Bob McMurray
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,119,373
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2007-01-08 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10070098

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10070098, The Development of Real Time Spoken and Written Word Recognition: Cognitive Bases of Language and Educational Outcomes (5R01DC008089-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10070098. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*