Comprehension problems?

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Odin
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13 Jan 2008, 6:49 pm

Sophist wrote:

2ukenkerl wrote:

Sophist wrote:

I think at least for myself, there is a poorer connection between my visual areas and language areas, and I ABSOLUTELY NEED a visual image to be able to understand language. But with this poorer connection, it takes longer, or takes more effort and concentration, to be able to translate all of it over into imagery.

I don't know HOW blind people so easily learn some abstract concepts. Learning things like LATER would seem, one would think, to be almost as hard as BLUE!

Anyway, if I imagine something while learning a word, I can remember it better.

I'd hope for their sakes if they're congenitally blind or go blind very young that their brains just aren't as dependent on visual stuff for understanding. Don't use it, you lose it.

That seems like such a strange world... to be so auditory... I really can't imagine it. My brain is soooooo hard-wired for vision and not sound. There's times I feel like I just ignore what's coming in my ears.

IIRC if the visual cortex at the back of the brain never gets any visual signals from the eyes because of congenital blindness it becomes wired in infancy to be involved in hearing instead. Just the opposite occurs in infants that are born deaf, the auditory cortex becomes involved in vision.

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Sophist
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13 Jan 2008, 7:10 pm

anbuend wrote:

Spokane_Girl wrote:

Do any hyperlexics read late? I never read at an early age.

After reading more about hyperlexia, I've thought that maybe some hyperlexics did read late, but had the same exact pattern as most hyperlexics do otherwise (easier to decode words than to understand them).

I have always had trouble understanding both print and speech.

I wonder what makes the difference. Since hyperlexia tends to be defined by the early reading (the ability) and not the more common underlying issue (that comprehension disconnect). And then also, are there indeed hyperlexics who have average or even above average comprehension along with early reading skills?

For me, I avoided reading like the plague because it took so much energy. And of course in school I never found anything really interesting to read, so there was little incentive. Now, what with my neuroscience passion, I make the extra effort. But right now I've been reading through Synpatic Self for several weeks and am still only on the 4th chapter, heh. (It's got a lot of info in there so it takes awhile to actually picture EVERYTHING.)

I'm going to write something up on a possible hyperlexic spectrum on my blog tonight... This comprehension thing has been interesting me for awhile now (it's rather interesting you posted something on it too). I have a good article somewhere on autism and reading. I'll see if I can find it. I think it was free fulltext iirc.

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13 Jan 2008, 7:13 pm

Ah, here it is, fulltext:
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/con ... 129/9/2484

And the abstract:

Quote:

Comprehending high-imagery sentences like The number eight when rotated 90 degrees looks like a pair of eyeglasses involves the participation and integration of several cortical regions. The linguistic content must be processed to determine what is to be mentally imaged, and then the mental image must be evaluated and related to the sentence. A theory of cortical underconnectivity in autism predicts that the interregional collaboration required between linguistic and imaginal processing in this task would be underserved in autism. This functional MRI study examined brain activation in 12 participants with autism and 13 age- and IQ-matched control participants while they processed sentences with either high- or low-imagery content. The analysis of functional connectivity among cortical regions showed that the language and spatial centres in the participants with autism were not as well synchronized as in controls. In addition to the functional connectivity differences, there was also a group difference in activation. In the processing of low-imagery sentences (e.g. Addition, subtraction and multiplication are all math skills[), the use of imagery is not essential to comprehension. Nevertheless, the autism group activated parietal and occipital brain regions associated with imagery for comprehending both the low and high-imagery sentences, suggesting that they were using mental imagery in both conditions. In contrast, the control group showed imagery-related activation primarily in the high-imagery condition. The findings provide further evidence of underintegration of language and imagery in autism (and hence expand the understanding of underconnectivity) but also show that people with autism are more reliant on visualization to support language comprehension.

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Nikky91
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13 Jan 2008, 8:31 pm

I have problems with that too if it's very difficult reading. I'm taking an AP history class and some of the reading is almost impossible for me to comprehend no matter how much I re-read it. I have to have somebody else tell me what's going on for me to understand. But if it's average reading material, as long as it's something I'm interested in, then I have no problems understanding.

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13 Jan 2008, 8:43 pm

Nikky91 wrote:

I took 3 AP History classes in high school. Trust me; it's not just you.

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2ukenkerl
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13 Jan 2008, 9:08 pm

lastcrazyhorn wrote:

Nikky91 wrote:

I took 3 AP History classes in high school. Trust me; it's not just you.

Are you sure the authors aren't just IDIOTS!?!?!? I have seen a LOT of writing that is convoluted at best and just plain WRONG at worst.

Heck, I got an exam cram book for VB once(This is the clearest example, and one I CLEARLY remember, but I have seen it DOZENS of times) and I was reading on a relatively complex subject that, HAPPILY, I already understood.

They got it WRONG and then, on the next page, contradicted themselves. It is a good thing I already knew the subject. I got about 98.6% right on the test. I have seen WHOLE BOOKS written on something that could be explained in one SENTENCE!

HECK, ever see any of L.Ron. Hubbard's books? He was paid BY THE WORD! He would use an odd, or made up word, and then explain it. That practice is used TO THIS VERY DAY in the church of scientology. They don't talk about teaching, for example, but hatting! You actually have to learn like another language to understand them!

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13 Jan 2008, 9:43 pm

I don't have problems with Harry Potter books but I have trouble with verbose sentences in literature. It might be because of lack of interest or it might be because I want to understand precisely what I am reading. When a sentence becomes too long and the concepts aren't clearly defined in the first place anyways, it builds up and after a while I get totally lost. When I read, I will dissect every part as I go and put it together at the end of the sentence so long sentences requires me to put more details together. But maybe I just have a poor ability of relating a word and phrases to their meaning.

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13 Jan 2008, 9:46 pm

2ukenkerl wrote:

Are you sure the authors aren't just IDIOTS!?!?!? I have seen a LOT of writing that is convoluted at best and just plain WRONG at worst.

I agree and this happens way too much in philosophy texts. It seems they make it so ambiguous so you can't argue with them.

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13 Jan 2008, 9:48 pm

I have always been terrible at reading comprehension.
All throughout my school years, I used to fail tests, homework and class assignments that included comprehension work.
Actually...I take that back. I didn't fail homework because my mother used to do my book reports for me :roll: .

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13 Jan 2008, 9:51 pm

Sophist wrote:

And the abstract:

Quote:

That took me a while to read.

Does anyone think this makes the verbal section of the SATs unfair to aspies?

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13 Jan 2008, 10:01 pm

I also find it hard to learn conceptual English words with many syllables. The definition is never very clear and I have to relate it to a long new word. However, if I were to learn a conceptual word in Chinese, it would be easier since the word is more like a picture and has very few syllables.

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13 Jan 2008, 10:15 pm

sort30030 wrote:

2ukenkerl wrote:

Are you sure the authors aren't just IDIOTS!?!?!? I have seen a LOT of writing that is convoluted at best and just plain WRONG at worst.

I agree and this happens way too much in philosophy texts. It seems they make it so ambiguous so you can't argue with them.

Heh, I was about to propose the same thing. I'm never taking another philosophy class again. :shock:

Quote:

Does anyone think this makes the verbal section of the SATs unfair to aspies?

OMFG, yeah! Somehow I lucked out on not having to take the SATs or ACTs (don't ask, it's confusing). But I did take the PSATs twice and my comprehension section was absolute CRAP. Great scores on everything else. But bombed comprehension.

Btw, I finished my blog entry on this topic.

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pakled
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13 Jan 2008, 10:25 pm

I must have been lucky; I didn't have a comprehension problem. In fact, I learned to read so late (1st grade) that I remember learning to read. I was incredibly frustrated (with Dick and Jane; I go back that far..., and then suddenly it 'clicked', and I was reading. Go figure...

I have trouble reding convoluted things that aren't interesting. If I'm being bugged, or people are making a lot of noise, I have some trouble reading, but otherwise, I can do it, if I have my space.

2ukenkerl
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13 Jan 2008, 11:34 pm

sort30030 wrote:

ACTUALLY, Chinese pictographs can be pretty abstract, and it can be hard to discern tonal differences. Some LONG words in English can be pretty concise and clear and some SHORT words in English can be confusing without context, etc...

And that is if the person speaks PROPERLY! Some foreigners use the wrong prepositions, and change the entire meaning of the sentence.

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13 Jan 2008, 11:39 pm

pakled wrote:

, and then suddenly it 'clicked', and I was reading. Go figure...

I have trouble reding convoluted things that aren't interesting. If I'm being bugged, or people are making a lot of noise, I have some trouble reading, but otherwise, I can do it, if I have my space.

I remember lening to read also, even though I was reading well(An example of a small word that can be confusing. I use it here ALONE as "to do a good job". This should not be confused with "well before" meaning "quite a bit before".), before 5, and apparently well before 4. I ALSO remember how I felt being the ONLY one that could read SENTENCES in first grade. Everyone else was obviously reading in a labored maner, and I sounded like I was speaking extemporaneously.(BTW extemporaneously is a good example of a big word that has a simple and concise meaning!)

BTW when I was a kid, first grade was when you were SUPPOSED to read apparently. Even today, a LOT of people think 5 or earlier is EARLY. The average age of first graders is 6.

Last edited by 2ukenkerl on 13 Jan 2008, 11:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

2ukenkerl
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13 Jan 2008, 11:44 pm

sort30030 wrote:

Sophist wrote:

And the abstract:

Quote:

That took me a while to read.

Does anyone think this makes the verbal section of the SATs unfair to aspies?

For the record, I can read and comprehend that fine and in one pass. I don't think THIS is unfair to aspies, though it COULD have paragraphs!

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