Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and Reading Fluency

Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and  Reading Fluency: Implications for Understanding and Treatment of Reading Disabilities.  Elizabeth S. Norton and Maryanne Wolf

Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2012.63:427-452.

What is a RAN task?  This task involves timed naming of a limited (usually five) number of stimuli such as numbers, letters, familiar objects or color patches.  The stimuli, usually about fifty of them, are presented repeatedly in random order, in left to-right serial fashion.  The RAS is structured analogously to the RAN, with items belonging to two or three different categories repeated alternately, reflecting the demands of shifting attention and processing between sets of different stimuli.

RAN tasks are one of the  best  predictors of reading fluency across all known orthographies.  RAN predicts reading fluency in all ages, beginning in kindergarten.  Second-grade RAN scores significantly predict  eighth grade reading and spelling scores, and the predictive value of RAN is much stronger in poor readers than in typical readers.

RAN tasks and reading seem to require many of the same processes, from eye saccades to working memory to the connecting of orthographic and phonological representations.    The ability to automate both the individual linguistic and perceptual components and the connections among them in visually presented serial tasks is the major reason why RAN consistently predicts later reading.

 Which processes are involved in rapid naming? (a) attentional processes to the stimulus; (b) bihemispheric visual processes responsible for initial feature detection, visual discrimination, and pattern identification; (c) integration of visual features and pattern information with stored orthographic representations; (d) integration of visual and orthographic information with stored phonological representations; (e) access and retrieval of phonological labels; (f) activation and integration of semantic and conceptual information with all other input; and (g) motoric activation leading to articulation.  

One can consider the amount of time taken to articulate each item’s name versus the amount of time taken for processing between items (often called pause time). Several studies have found that articulation time itself is not strongly associated with reading in the same manner as are overall RAN scores.  Instead, it seems that the interitem processing or pause time may reflect the components of RAN that drive their close association with reading.  Pause time, especially on the RAN letters task, predicted both single-word reading and reading comprehension in first- and second graders.  Pause times at the end of kindergarten were significantly correlated with reading accuracy and fluency in first grade.

Although general processing speed affects both RAN and reading, RAN makes a significant contribution to reading after processing speed is controlled for.   The slow naming speed observed in many individuals with dyslexia might occur at a level higher than simple processing speed; for example, it may occur in the connections between visual and speech circuits in the brain.

How can reading  fluency be improved?  One technique that has been widely used to improve fluency is repeated reading. In this technique, a student reads a passage multiple times, with increasing speed. After repeated reading, students show some  generalizable  increases in speed and accuracy of decoding.

Norton and   Wolf examine reading fluency in the sense of   “fluent comprehension”: a manner of reading in which all sublexical units, words, and connected text and all the perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive processes involved in each level are processed accurately and automatically so that sufficient time and resources can be allocated to comprehension and deeper thought.

The  repeated reading approach yields changes in speed

that may not be related to improvements in  fluent comprehension.

Fluent comprehension depends on accuracy and automaticity at every

level of language.  In order to improve fluent comprehension it's important to explicitly address  the multiple levels of language and multiple cognitive processes involved in reading.