Letters From Our Readers.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ganzer N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8382005 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Reading, an essential life skill in modern society, is typically learned during childhood. Adults who can read show white matter differences compared to adults who never learned to read. Studies have not established whether children who can read show similar white matter differences compared to children who cannot read. We compared 6-year old children who could decode written English words and pseudowords (n = 31; Readers) and 6-year old children who could not decode pseudowords and had a standard score <100 on a task for reading single words (n = 11; Pre-readers). We employed diffusion MRI and tractography to extract fractional anisotropy (FA) along the trajectory of six bilateral intra-hemispheric tracts and two posterior subdivisions of the corpus callosum. Readers demonstrated significantly increased FA within the left anterior segment of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (aSLF-L) and the right uncinate fasciculus (UF-R) compared to Pre-readers. FA in the aSLF-L was significantly correlated with phonological awareness; FA in the UF-R was significantly correlated with language. Correlations in the UF-R but not the aSLF-L remained significant after controlling for reading ability, revealing that UF-R group differences were related to both children's language and reading abilities. Taken together, these findings demonstrate new evidence showing that individual differences in white matter structure relate to whether children have begun to read.
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Project description:Reading serves many ends. Some readers report that works of fiction provide an imaginative escape from the rigors of life, others report reading in order to be intellectually challenged. While various characterizations of readers' engagement with prose fiction have been proposed, few have been checked using representative samples of readers. Our research reports on reader self-descriptions observed in a representative sample of 501 adults in the Netherlands. Reader self-descriptions exhibit regularities, with certain self-descriptions predicting others. Contrary to existing theories which posit two types of readers characterized by non-overlapping concerns (identifying readers and distanced readers), we find that while some readers attend to plot structure or read in order to be intellectually challenged, reader self-descriptions overlap more than received theories predict. We hypothesize that some readers have cultivated more reading techniques than others, with educated or experienced readers tending to report deriving additional experiences from reading.
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Project description:Background?Letters of recommendation (LORs) are an important part of applications for residency and fellowship programs. Despite anecdotal use of a "code" in LORs, research on program director (PD) perceptions of the value of these documents is sparse.Objective?We analyzed PD interpretations of LOR components and discriminated between perceived levels of applicant recommendations.Methods?We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive study of pediatrics residency and fellowship PDs. We developed a survey asking PDs to rate 3 aspects of LORs: 13 letter features, 10 applicant abilities, and 11 commonly used phrases, using a 5-point Likert scale. The 11 phrases were grouped using principal component analysis. Mean scores of components were analyzed with repeated-measures analysis of variance. Median Likert score differences between groups were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U tests.Results?Our survey had a 43% response rate (468 of 1079). "I give my highest recommendation" was rated the most positive phrase, while "showed improvement" was rated the most negative. Principal component analysis generated 3 groups of phrases with moderate to strong correlation with each other. The mean Likert score for each group from the PD rating was calculated. Positive phrases had a mean (SD) of 4.4 (0.4), neutral phrases 3.4 (0.5), and negative phrases 2.6 (0.6). There was a significant difference among all 3 pairs of mean scores (all P < .001).Conclusions?Commonly used phrases in LORs were interpreted consistently by PDs and influenced their impressions of candidates. Key elements of LORs include distinct phrases depicting different degrees of endorsement.
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