Sunday, May 24, 2020
A Heartbreaking Discovery Of Being A Homeless Dog - 997 Words
A Heartbreaking Discovery There are things in life that we all take for granted. But, the truth is many of us have quite a bit to be thankful for. Take our bed, for example. Every night, we snuggle up under the covers without even thinking twice about those who don t have a bed to enjoy. Oftentimes, our pets also share our bed with us. But, what happens when we experience a bed for the very first time? What if your pet had never been on a bed before? What do you think would happen? After 7 years of being a homeless dog, Millie is rescued and finally gets to experience a bed for the first time. Check out her amazing reaction in this video. Strong as a Rock One thing we know about Dwayne Johnson is that he is a tough guy. I mean, the guy s nickname is The Rock, after all. We know him best for all his fabulous action movies that keep us on the edge of our seats. From these movies, it s easy to assume that he has always had this strong mentality, but this is not the case. Johnson actually grew up in very poor circumstances. His parents lived paycheck to paycheck and the family had very little going for them. When in this type of situation, it s easy to become discouraged and many have the tendency to give up. Unfortunately, this is exactly what his mother did when she attempted suicide. But, on this terrible day in his life, Johnson learned just how precious life really was, and it changed him forever. The Lord s Prayer The Lord s Prayer is a common prayer for peopleShow MoreRelatedFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words à |à 1056 Pagesyou might not currently be in a position to evaluate another individualââ¬â¢s work performance, if you are working, youââ¬â¢re more than likely to have your performance appraised. For that matter, each time you take an exam in a class, your performance is being evaluated. Consequently, itââ¬â¢s important for you to have an understanding of how it should work, and the potential problems that may exist. We begin Part 1 of this book with an emphasis on providing you with an overview of the ever-changing world of
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
William Blake writes his poems in ââ¬Å"Songs of Innocence and of Experienceâ⬠in a manner of retrospective self-analysis. Blake writes, attempting to understand the differences and paradoxes that he has observed. In his poem ââ¬Å"The Tygerâ⬠, Blakeââ¬â¢s artful questioning of the paradoxes in creation is exemplified. Blake poses questions that he does not answer, however his purpose is almost certainly to come to terms with creationââ¬â¢s idiosyncrasies, and to come to a better understanding of existence. Although it is impossible for the selected stanzas to convey the entire meaning of the poem when isolated, they are emblematic of Blakeââ¬â¢s use of literary devices. The poem makes strong use of imagery, literary allusion, and rhetorical questioning to explore the topic. By coordinating these literary devices, Blake is able to approach creation and the paradox of good and evil with unparalleled finesse and brevity. Imagery, although central to just about any work of literature, is used to truly remarkable effect in ââ¬Å"The Tygerâ⬠. Through the use of language that evokes images of industry, Hell, and Heaven, Blake is able to make comparisons and create a dialogue that conveys profound meaning. Within the selected stanzas imagery is used in a fashion that is absolutely synecdochic. When Blake asks ââ¬Å"What the hammer? What the chain?â⬠he paints a very different image of creation, opposite to the more ââ¬Å"romanticâ⬠image that many might have had in mind. This portrayal of creation as being moreShow MoreRelatedWilliam Blake Songs of Innocence Experience1256 Words à |à 6 PagesSweeperâ⬠Songs of Innocence amp; Experience analysis with, William Blake In 1794 William Blakeââ¬â¢s work was known and published as a collection of poems that were put together as one book called Songs of innocence amp; Songs of Experience. In the collection Blake titles a poem, ââ¬Å"The Chimney Sweeperâ⬠, and this one is viewed in two ways: Innocence and experience. In the book of innocence Blake shows how poor innocent children are being abused and mistreated during this time era. In Songs of innocenceRead MoreWilliam Blake in Contrast of Songs of Innocence and of Experience1452 Words à |à 6 PagesEN 222-Intro to British Lit. II April 21, 2012 William Blake in contrast of Songs of Innocence and of Experience William Blake, an engraver, exemplified his passion for children through his many poems. Blake lived in London most of his life and many fellow literati viewed him as eccentric. He claimed to have interactions with angels and prophets, which had a great influence on his outlook of life. Blake believed all prominent entities, those being church, state, and government had become sick withRead MoreWilliam Blake s Songs Of Innocence And Experience1268 Words à |à 6 PagesWilliam Blakeââ¬â¢s Songs of Innocence and Experience, printed in 1794, ââ¬Å"represents the world as it is envisioned by what he calls ââ¬Ëtwo contrary states of the human soulââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬ (Greenblatt, 1452). This collection of poetry is accompanied by pictures, which create a mutually reliant relationship that allows for complete understanding of Blakeââ¬â¢s works. ââ¬Å"To read a Blake poem without the pictures is to miss something important: that relationship is an aspect of the poemââ¬â¢s argumen tâ⬠(1452). Overall, Blakeââ¬â¢s worksRead MoreSongs Of Innocence And Of Experience By William Blake Analysis868 Words à |à 4 PagesSongs of Innocence and of Experience is the foundation of the work of one of the greatest. English poets and artists. The two sets of poems reveal what William Blake calls ââ¬Å"the two contrary states of the human soul.â⬠In both series, he offers clues to deeper meanings and suggests ways out of the apparent trap of selfhood, so that each reading provides greater insight and understanding, not only to the poems but also to human life. Throughout this poem, the logic of this poem favors experience ratherRead MoreAnalysis Of The Songs Of Innocence And Experience By William Blake1208 Words à |à 5 Pagespoet William Blake. It was a city with no hope for poor people, and the government and church did little to help this. Among the poor were children working in slave-like conditions to feed their families and going to charity schools. Bl ake puts these children at the center of his piece to show the hypocritical nature of the church and how innocent people are suffering from it. He takes on two angles from the same topic: the event of Holy Thursday. By examining it from the lens of innocence, thenRead MoreThe Songs Of Innocence And Experience William Blake Analysis1751 Words à |à 8 Pagesreligions have different gods, traditions, and ceremonies, but they all have one thing in common; people take different viewpoints of a religion to fit into their mindset. William Blake uses this idea to express how he believes people see Christianity and God. In his series named ââ¬Å"The Songs of Innocence and Experience,â⬠Blake creates the image of opposing views of similar situations. The poems show the views of the innocent and the experienced. The innocent takes on the roles to show how naivetyRead MoreSongs of Innocence and Songs of Experience by William Blake Essay example1126 Words à |à 5 PagesUpon reading Wil liam Blakeââ¬â¢s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, a certain parallel is easily discerned between them and Lewis Carrollââ¬â¢s Aliceââ¬â¢s Adventures in Wonderland. Blake, considered a radical thinker in his time, is today thought to be an important and seminal figure in the literature of the Romantic period. Being such a figure he has no doubt helped to influence many great thinkers throughout history, one of whom I believe is Carroll. There are many instances throughout Carrollââ¬â¢sRead MoreSongs of Good and Evil1545 Words à |à 7 Pagesall describe William Blakeââ¬â¢s life (Greenblatt, Abrams, Lynch, Stillinger). Blake was born November 28, 1757 in London, England and his artistic ability became evident in his early years. Blake had a very simple upbringing and had little education. His formal education was in art and at the age of fourteen he entered an apprenticeship with a well-known engraver who taught Blake his skills in engraving. In Blakeââ¬â ¢s free time, he began reading writing poetry. At the age of twenty-one, Blake completed hisRead MoreWilliam Blake s The Tyger1132 Words à |à 5 PagesWilliam Blakeââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"The Tygerâ⬠and Tragedies William Blake wrote a set of poems in his collection Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Some of the poems in each collection were meant to be read together to show the difference between innocence and experience. Many people question why Blake wrote a two part series to his poems and what they could actually mean. Two specific poems, ââ¬Å"The Lambâ⬠and ââ¬Å"The Tyger,â⬠were meant to be read together. ââ¬Å"The Lambâ⬠is a part of Blakeââ¬â¢s Songs of Innocence andRead MoreEssay on Biography of William Blake1631 Words à |à 7 Pagesinspire your work and success. William Blake was a famous artist, engraver and poet. However, it was not until 1863 that he became famous when Alexander Gilchrist published his biography(Blake, William, and Geoffrey Keynes).Blake and his poetry have been compared to Shakespeare (Kathleen Raine). As an artist Blake was equated to Michelangelo. Being born during the time of both the American and French Revolution, Willia m Blake was against both the Church and the State. Blake was a Dualist, believing the
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Womens rights Free Essays
History of womenââ¬â¢s rights See also: Legal rights of women in history and Timeline of womenââ¬â¢s rights (other than voting) China The status of women In China was low, largely due to the custom of foot binding. About 45% of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper classes, it was almost 100%. We will write a custom essay sample on Womens rights or any similar topic only for you Order Now In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of foot-binding. Foot-binding Involved alteration of the bone structure so that the feet were only about 4 inches long. The bound feet caused difficulty of movement, thus greatly limiting the activities of women. Due to the social custom that men and omen should not be near to one another, the women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors of Western Medicine. This resulted in a tremendous need for female doctors of Western Medicine in China. Thus, female medical missionary Dr. Mary H. Fulton (1854-1927)[3] was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to found the first medical college for women in China. Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women this College was located In Guangzhou, China, and was enabled by a large donation from Mr. Edward A. K. Hackett (1851-1916) of Indiana, USA. The College was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese womenââ¬â¢s social Greece The status of women in ancient Greece varied form city state to city state. Records exist of women in ancient Delphi, Gortyn, Thessaly, Megara and Sparta owning land, the most prestigious form of private property at the tlme. [8] In ancient Athens. omen had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of the oikos headed by the male kyrios. Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their father or other male relative. once married the husband became a womanââ¬â¢s kyrlos. As omen were barred from conducting legal proceedings, the kyrios would do so on their behalf. [9] Athenian women had limited right to property and therefore were not considered full c itizens, as citizenship and the entitlement to civil and political rights was defined in relation to property and the means to life. 10] However, women could acquire rights over property through gifts, dowry and inheritance, though her kyrios had the right to dispose of a womanââ¬â¢s property[11] Athenian women could enter into a contract worth less than the value of a ââ¬Å"medimnos of barleyââ¬â¢ (a measure of grain), allowing women to engage in petty trading. 9] Slaves, like women, were not eligible for full citizenship In ancient Athens, though In rare circumstances they could become citizens if freed. The only permanent barrier to citizenship, and hence full political and civil rights, in ancient Athens was gender. No women ever acquired citizenship In ancient Athens, and therefore women were excluded In principle and practice from ancient Athenian democracy. [12] By contrast, Spartan women enjoyed a status, power, and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. Although Spartan women were formally excluded from military and political life they njoyed considerable status as mothers of Spartan warriors. As men engaged in military activity, women took responsibility for running estates. Following protracted and 40% of all Spartan land and By the Hellenistic Period, some of the wealthiest Spartans were women. The unique thing about Patria Potestas was that it ad no age limits, according to Gaius a man could be consul, have a wife and children of his own and future prominence but as long as his father was alive was still under his potestas (power) and so could own nothing. Patria Potestas only ended with either the death of the father, or emancipation by him. Early in the Republic Manus Marriage ended the potestas for women, but during the middle and later Republic that form of marriage became rare, eventually disappearing completely. Marriage Under Law Rome had only two forms of marriage, and both had exactly the opposite view of legal effects. Manus Marriage was the earlier form of marriage and placed the woman under her husbandââ¬â¢s manus legally standing in the position of a daughter. Under this type of marriage women could own nothing, and had little if any legal protections. On the other hand a woman assumed the position of her husbandââ¬â¢s daughter in Manus Marriage making her agnatically instead of cognatically related to Manus, and was the opposite of Manus. Women married Sine Manu experienced no legal changes, so if her father was alive at time of marriage she continued to be his dependent and before the reign of Marcus Aurelius he could even force an end to he marriage. The lack of any legal change of status for the women meant that (provided their father had either died or emancipated them) they could own property, conduct most forms of business, and divorce her husband (without any reason needed). Legally speaking the only lack of independence a woman in Rome experienced in a marriage without Manus was from her father. The only legal issue related to marriage was dowry. A dowry was not required by law, but was usually provided by a father or if a father was nonexistent it would be whatever the bride wished to come out of her own estate. It was administered by the husband, but in the vent of a divorce he was required to provide either the dowry or the equivalent of it back to his wife. In the case of adultery, husbands got to keep portions of the dowry. Politics Legally speaking women were banned from politics. As with freedmen and slaves of the Imperial Family women of the imperial family gained some benefits from the fall of the Republic, but because the nature of the Principate was to hide dictatorship such power had to be subtle and kept out of the public eye when possible. The ban on women and politics was they could not vote or run for office (sine suffragio) enlist n the army, or represent somebody else in court, women speaking their minds was not considered politics and so some women like Hortensia managed to make appearances in politics without violating the law. Inheritance Rights Everyone under the potestas of another had equal rights of inheritance under Roman Law, and wills that did otherwise ran risks of being challenged and invalidated as negligent. Stoic Influence Stoic philosophies had a strong effect on the development of law in ancient Rome. The Roman stoic thinkers Seneca and Musonius Rufus developed theories of Just elationships (not to be confused with equality in society, or even equality) arguing that nature gives men and women equal capacity for virtue and equal obligations to act virtuously (a vague concept). Therefore they argued that men and women have an equal need for philosophical education. [20] Stoic theories entered Roman law first through the Roman lawyer and senator Marcus Tullius Cicero and the influence of stoicism and philosophy increased while the status of women improved under the Empire. [21] Religious scriptures Bible See Women in the Bible ââ¬Å"Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (Genesis 3:20) ââ¬Å"Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. â⬠Oudges 4:4) God chose a woman, Deborah, to lead Israel. Qurââ¬â¢an The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. feminism, and Sex segregation and Islam The Qurââ¬â¢an, revealed to Muhammad over the course of 23 years, provide guidance to the Islamic community and modified existing customs in Arab society. From 610 and 661, known as the early reforms under Islam, the Qurââ¬â¢an introduced fundamental reforms to customary law and ntroduced rights for women in marriage, divorce and inheritance. By providing that the wife, not her family, would receive a dowry from the husband, which she could administer as her personal property, the Qurââ¬â¢an made women a legal party to the marriage contract. [citation needed] While in customary law inheritance was limited to male descendents, the Qurââ¬â¢an introduced rules on inheritance with certain fixed shares being distributed to designated heirs, first to the nearest female relatives and then the nearest male relatives. 22] According to Annemarie Schimmel ââ¬Å"compared to he pre-lslamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work. ââ¬Å"[23] The general improvement of the status of Arab women included prohibition of female infanticide and recognizing womenââ¬â¢s full personhood. [24] Women were generally given greater rights than women in pre-l slamic Arabia[25][26] and medieval Europe. [27] Women were not accorded with such legal status in other cultures until centuries later. 28] According to Professor William Montgomery Watt, when seen in uch historical context, Muhammad ââ¬Å"can be seen as a fgure who testified on behalf of womenââ¬â¢s rights. ââ¬Å"[29] The Middle Ages According to English Common Law, which developed from the 12th century onward, all property which a wife held at the time of a marriage became a possession of her husband. Eventually English courts forbade a husbandââ¬â¢s transferring property without the consent of his wife, but he still retained the right to manage it and to receive the money which it produced. French married women suffered from restrictions on their legal capacity which were removed only in 1965. [30] In the 16th entury, the Reformation in Europe allowed more women to add their voices, including the English writers Jane Anger, Aemilia Lanyer, and the prophetess Anna Trapnell. English and American Quakers believed that men and women were equal. Many Quaker women were preachers. [31] Despite relatively greater freedom for Anglo-Saxon women, until the mid-19th century, writers largely assumed that a patriarchal order was a natural order that had always existed. 32] This perception was not seriously challenged until the 18th century when Jesuit missionaries found matrilineality in native North American peoples. [33] 18th and 19th century Europe The Debutante (1807) by Henry Fuseli; The woman, victim of male social conventions, is tied to the wall, made to sew and guarded by governesses. The picture reflects Mary Wollstonecraftââ¬â¢s views in A Vindication of the Rights of W oman, published in 1792. [34] Starting in the late 18th century, and throughout the 19th century, rights, as a concept and claim, gained increasing political, social and philosophical importance in Europe. Movements emerged which demanded freedom of religion, the abolition of slavery, rights for women, rights for those who did not own property and universal to political debates in both France and Britain. At the time some of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment, who defended democratic principles of equality and challenged notions that a privileged few should rule over the vast majority of the population, believed that these principles should be applied only to their own gender and their own race. The philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau for example thought that it was the order of nature for woman to obey men. He wrote ââ¬Å"Women do wrong to complain of the inequality of man-made lawsâ⬠and claimed that ââ¬Å"when she tries to usurp our rights, she is our First page of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen In 1791 he French playwright and political activist Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen,[37] modelled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789. The Declaration is ironic in formulation and exposes the failure of the French Revolution, which had been devoted to equality. It states that: ââ¬Å"This revolution will only take effect when all women become fully aware of their deplorable condition, and of the rights they have lost in societyââ¬â¢. The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen ollows the seventeen articles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen point for point and has been described by Camille Naish as ââ¬Å"almost a parodyâ⬠¦ f the original documentâ⬠. The first article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaims that ââ¬Å"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility. â⬠The first article of Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen replied: ââ¬Å"Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions may only be based on common utilityà ¢â¬â¢. De Gouges expands the sixth article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which declared the rights of citizens to take part in the formation of law, to: Australian womenââ¬â¢s rights were lampooned in this 1887 Melbourne Punch cartoon: A hypothetical female member foists her babyââ¬â¢s care on the House Speaker ââ¬Å"All citizens including women are equally admissible to all public dignities, offices and employments, according to their capacity, and with no other distinction than that of their virtues and talentsâ⬠. De Gouges also draws attention to the fact that under French law women were fully punishable, yet denied equal rights. 8] Mary Wollstonecraft, a British writer and philosopher, published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, arguing that it was the education and upbringing of women that created limited expectations. How to cite Womens rights, Papers
Monday, May 4, 2020
The Effects of Missing Letters to the Reading Comprehension free essay sample
She has two siblings, Glen Mark and Gladys Suansing. She graduated her elementary at Tagaytay Elementary School. She was a consistent character awardee. She finished her secondary education at Tagaytay City Science National High School. She is currently studying at Cavite State University taking up Bachelor of Science in Psychology. After graduating college she is planning to pursue Industrial Pschology. She wants to become a Human Resource Practitioner.This experimental research will not be complete without encouragement,assistance,support and inspiration proved by several people. The authors wish to express their sincerest appreciation and gratitude to the following persons who helped in the realization of this piece of work; To Ms. Alodia Mercado, our adviser for her sound academic guidance and moral support which enabled her to pursue this study; To Ms. Alma Fatima Reyes, for her useful comments and suggestions that improved the study; To Ms. Ivy Valerie Garcia for letting the researchers use her laptop; To To the family of the researchers,for their love and support they gave me throughout the study; My greatest praise and honor to our Lord Almighty who guided me through my most difficult moments and problems. The Effects of Missing Letter to the Reading Comprehension of 2nd year IT Students of Cavite State University. â⬠Experimental Research. Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Cavite State University. March 2012, under the supervision of Ms. Alma Fatima Reyes. As reading plays an important role in our lives, reading comprehension is important for human progress. This experimental research proposes to investigate the effects of missing letters to the reading comprehension of students. The research is conducted at Cavite State University, Indang, Cavite. Fifteen respondents were needed for the Pre-test and the Post-test. Same person will be taking the Pre-test and Post-test. All fifteen respondents are 2nd year BS IT students of Cavite State University. The general objective of the study was to determine the Reading Comprehension of Students with missing letters. Specifically, the study aimed to determine if there was a difference between the scores obtained in the Pre-test and the scores obtained in the Post- Test. Data and information were gathered through the help of the respondents by answering the questionnaires regarding to their Reading Comprehension Skills provided by the researchers. It is a means of communicating and sharing of information. We do it automatically. It requires development, practice and understanding. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols such as letters and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us. Many people read books, newspapers, magazines, comic books, etc. It is considered as a daily routine of other people who loved to read. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema. Reading helps a lot in our vocabulary. It widens our knowledge about words. Sometimes when we encountered unfamiliar words we canââ¬â¢t understand it, but when we encountered the same word we already knew what its meaning because weââ¬â¢ve read it already read it in the past. Reading also helps us in communicating in many way for example say, your job or any job for that matter, and you need to read a contract for business purposes or even if you work at a supermarket, donââ¬â¢t you need to know how to read in order to send the food that a person get to the right address. This study will benefit the following beneficiaries: Respondents This study will help the respondents to be familiarized in this type of reading. The respondents will also enhance their vocabulary. Community This study will be a great help for the community in order for the people to be aware in this style of reading. School This study will benefit the school by teaching this style of reading not only for students but also for the teachers. Future Researchers This study will be a guide for the future researchers in order for them to have a background regarding to this study. This will also serve as their related literature. Scope and Limitation This study is about on how the students read and understand the meaning of a word if there is a missing letter on the word. This study will also test the vocabulary of the students. This study only involves 2nd year IT students of Cavite State University. It is composed of 15 respondents from IT students. The study also limits the short period time given to conduct this research. Definition of Terms These are some terms used in the study: Cognitive Psychology ââ¬â it is the study of internal and external processes of the brain Word Superiority Effect ââ¬â refers to the increase in efficiency of letter identification within words Reading Comprehension ââ¬â level of understanding when reading Pattern Recognition ââ¬â organization of stimuli Pre-Test ââ¬â test given before the Post-test Post-Test ââ¬â test given after the Pre- test Schema ââ¬â past experiences Treatment levels of the independent variable Theoretical Framework This study justified the Parallel Letter Recognition. It is the model that most psychologists currently accept as most accurate is the parallel letter recognition model. This model says that the letters within a word are recognized simultaneously, and the letter information is used to recognize the words. This is a very active area of research and there are many specific models that fit into this general category. The figure below is one popular formulation of this model. [pic] Figure 1: Parallel Letter Recognition Figure 1 shows a generic activation based parallel letter recognition model. In this example, the reader is seeing the wordà work. Each of the stimulus letters are processed simultaneously. The first step of processing is recognizing the features of the individual letters, such as horizontal lines, diagonal lines, and curves. The details of this level are not critical for our purposes. These features are then sent to the letter detector level, where each of the letters in the stimulus word are recognized simultaneously. The letter level then sends activation to the word detector level. Theà Wà in the first letter detector position sends activation to all the words that have aà Wà in the first position (WORDà andà WORK). Theà Oà in the second letter detector position sends activation to all the words that have anà Oà in the second position (FORK,à WORD, andà WORK). Whileà FORKà andà WORDà have activation from three of the four letters,à WORKà has the most activation because it has all four letters activated, and is thus the recognized word. Conceptual Framework Fig. 2 This study aimed to know the difference between the Pre-test and Post-test scores of the students in their reading comprehension. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter presents the related topics and studies regarding this study. It also presents the synthesis of all the topics. Pattern Recognition Our ability to recognize familiar types of things is a spectacular human characteristic. This attribute allows us to recognize an old friend in a sea of faces, to identify an entire musical theme from a few notes, to read words, to enjoy the taste of a vintage wine, or to appreciate the smell of a rose. It is a cognitive endowment that we mostly perform seamlessly, rapidly, and without much effort. In our everyday life, we use pattern recognition all the time, yet the cognitive structures which support pattern recognition are only recently understood. Cognitive Psychology, 6th edition, Robert Solso, p. 109) Researchers have discovered that top-down processing can influence our ability to recognize a variety of objects. It also influences our ability to recognize letters during reading. Most of the research on this topic examines how context helps us recognize letters of the alphabet. Psychologists who study reading have realized for decades that a theory of recogn ition would be inadequate if it were based only as the information in the stimulus. (Cognition, 5th edition, Margaret Mathin, p. 42) Immediacy of Interpretation One of the important principles to emerge in studied of language processing is called the principle of immediacy of interpretation. Basically this principle says that people try to extract as much meaning out of each word as it arrives, and they do not wait until the end of sentences or even the ends of phrases to decide or how to interpret a word. For instance, Just and Carpenter (1980) studied the eye movements of subjects as they read a sentence. While reading a sentence, subjects will typically fixate or almost every word. Just and Carpenter find that the time subjects spend fixating or word is basically proportional to the amount of information provided by a word. Thus, if a sentence contain or relatively unfamiliar or a surprising word, they pause in that word. (Cognitive Psychology Its Interpretation,John R. Anderson) Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension is a complex undertaking that involves many levels of processing. One of the most fundamental aspects of comprehensi on is the ability to deal with unfamiliar words encountered in text. Readers who struggle with word-level tasks use up valuable cognitive space that could be allotted to deeper levels of text analysis. It is not enough to rely on context cues to predict the meaning of new words, since this strategy often results in erroneous or superficial understandings of key terms, especially in content-area reading (Paynter, Bodrova, Doty, 2005). Mature readers need to possess a basic knowledge of ââ¬Å"how words workâ⬠and a set of strategies for approaching new words encountered throughout the day. (http://www. edu. gov. on. ca/eng/research/mcquirter. pdf) How word knowledge affects reading comprehension Vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors of reading achievement (Richek, 2005). Bromley (2004), in a comprehensive review of research on vocabulary development, concludes that vocabulary knowledge promotes reading fluency, boosts reading comprehension, improves academic achievement, and enhances thinking and communication. Spelling is also an important consideration in reading comprehension. The concepts about sound patterns that children learn in the early years through invented spelling and direct spelling instruction help them to decode new words in their reading. As they mature and begin to spell longer and more complex words, children apply the concepts of base words, prefixes, and suffixes to their spelling. This knowledge of morphology, in turn, helps them to deconstruct longer words encountered in their reading. Templeton (2004) argues that spelling knowledge provides the basis for explicit awareness and understanding of morphology, which, in turn, may guide the systematic growth of vocabulary knowledge. Considering the strength of vocabulary knowledge in predicting reading achievement, the complex interrelationships among these areas are significant. (http://www. edu. gov. on. ca/eng/research/mcquirter. pdf) Missing letter effect In cognitive psychology, the missing letter effect refers to the finding that, when people are asked to consciously detect target letters while reading text, they miss more letters in frequent, function words (e. g. the letter t in the) than in less frequent, content words. The missing letter effect has also been referred to as the reverse word superiority effect, since it describes a phenomenon where letters in more frequent words fail to be identified, instead of letter identification benefitting from increased word frequency. The effect is usually measured using a paper-and-pencil procedure, where readers are asked to circle a target letter every time they come across it while reading a short passage. The missing letter effect is more likely to appear when reading words that are part of a normal sequence, than when words are embedded in a mixed-up sequence (e. g. readers asked to read backwards). The missing-letter effect for common function words It has been proposed that function words such as for and on conceal their letters because their higher familiarity allows fast access to their unitized representations. However, this study shows that letter detection in function words varies with their linguistic role in text. When such words were embedded in a phrase where they were forced into a content role by the surrounding context (e. g. , for or against or on switch ), letter detection improved markedly and did not differ from that of matched content words. The result was replicated when the context preceding the function word and the overall sentential meaning were equated for both function and content usages.
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