Charles A. Perfetti

PhD, University of Michigan

Distinguished University Professor of Psychology

Senior Scientist and Director, Learning Research & Development Center

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone: (412) 624-7071

Email: perfetti@pitt.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Research Program:

My central research interest is in the cognitive science of language and reading processes, including lower and higher level processes and the nature of reading ability. My approach involves research in a cognitive (behavioral) lab, ERPs, and collaborative research in neuroimaging (fMRI), and, recently, MEG. The general goal is to achieve a richer view of language processes by the combination of methods. Current projects include the following:

1. The identification of universal and writing-system specific components of reading. Comparisons of Chinese and English word identification processes are the heart of this empirical program, and recent papers develop a theoretical model of Chinese word identification. These studies include neuroimaging (fMRI) and ERP studies. Currently, more active work concerns learning across writing systems.
2. The Lexical Quality Hypothesis. This work represents my long-standing interest in understanding the components of reading ability. Our experiments suggest the importance of lexical representations as a major source of individual differences in simple comprehension tasks, consistent with our earlier theories of individual differences in comprehension (Perfetti, 1985, 1992).
3. Learning new words. Connected to the lexical quality work is research on learning the meanings (and forms) of new words. Both children and adults, and both behavioral and ERP studies.
4. Text comprehension: Word-based and inference processes. ERPS provide word by word records of comprehension allowing tests of word-to-text integration processes and processes that the reader uses to fill the implicit information in a text.
5. Learning a second language as an adult. Emphasis on reading in L2, but also learning the language itself. Studies of English learners of Chinese and learners of English as a second language. This work is carried out through the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. http://www.learnlab.org/

Recent Publications:

2009

Frishkoff, G. A., Perfetti, C. A., & Westbury, C. (2009). ERP measures of partial semantic knowledge: Left temporal indices of skill differences and lexical quality. Biological Psychology, 80, 130-147.

2008

Bolger, D. J., Balass, M., Landen, E. & Perfetti, C. A. (2008). Contextual variation and definitions in learning the meaning of words. Discourse Processes, 45(2), 122-159.

Frishkoff, G. A., Collins-Thompson, K., Perfetti, C. A., & Callan, J. (2008). Measuring incremental changes in word knowledge: Experimental validation and implications for learning assessment. Behavioral Research Methods 40(4), 907-925.

Hart, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (2008). Learning words in Zekkish: Implications for understanding lexical representation. In E. L. Grigorenko & A. J. Naples (Eds.), Single word reading: Behavioral and biological perspectives (pp. 107-128). New York: Taylor & Francis.

Perfetti, C. A., & Dunlap, S. (2008). Learning to read: General principles and writing system variations. In K. Koda & A. Zehler (Eds.). Learning to read across languages (pp. 13-38). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Perfetti, C., & Frishkoff, G. A. (2008).The neural bases of text and discourse processing. In B. Stemmer & H. A. Whitaker (Eds.), Handbook of the neurosciencce of language (pp. 165-174). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier.

Perfetti, C. A., Yang, C-L., & Schmalhofer, F. (2008). Comprehension skill and word-to-text processes. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22(3), 303-318.

Siok, W. T., Niu, Z. Jin, Z., Perfetti, C. A. & Tan, L. H. (2008). A structural-functional basis for dyslexia in the cortex of Chinese readers. PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), 105(14), 5561-5566.

Verhoeven, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (2008). Introduction. Advances in text comprehension: Model, process and development. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22(3), 293-301.

2007

Chen, B. G., Zhou, H. X., Dunlap, S., & Perfetti, C. A. (2007). Age of acquisition effects in reading Chinese: Evidence in favor of the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis. British Journal of Psychology, 98(3), 499-506.

Landi, N., & Perfetti, C. A. (2007). An electrophysiological investigation of semantic and phonological processing in skilled and less-skilled comprehenders. Brain and Language, 102, 30-45.

Liu, Y., Dunlap, S., Fiez, J., & Perfetti, C.A. (2007). Evidence for neural accommodation to a writing system following learning. Human Brain Mapping,28, 1223-1234.

Liu, Y., Wang, M., & Perfetti, C. A. (2007). Threshold-style processing of Chinese characters for adult second-language learners. Memory and Cognition, 35(3), 471-480.

Perfetti, C. A. (2007). Reading ability: Lexical quality to comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading,11(4), 357-383.

Perfetti, C. A., Liu, Y., Fiez, J. Nelson, J., Bolger, D. J., & Tan, L-H. (2007). Reading in two writing systems: Accommodation and Assimilation in the brain’s reading network. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10(2), 131-146. Special issue on “Neurocognitive approaches to bilingualism: Asian languages”, P. Li (Ed.).

Schmalhofer, F., & Perfetti, C. A. (2007). Neural and behavioral indicators of integration processes across sentence boundaries. In F. Schmalhofer & C. Perfetti (Eds.), Higher level language processes in the brain: Inference and comprehension processes (pp. 161-188). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Yang, C-L., Perfetti, C. A., & Schmalhofer, F. (2007). Event-related potential indicators of text integration across sentence boundaries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33(1), 55-89.

2006

Goldberg, R.F., Perfetti, C.A., Schneider, W. (2006). Distinct and common cortical activations for multimodal semantic categories. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 6(3), 214-222.

Landi, N., Perfetti, C. A., Bolger, D. J., Dunlap, S., & Foorman, B. R. (2006). The role of discourse context in developing word form representations: A paradoxical relationship between reading and learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94(2), 114-133.

Liu, Y., Perfetti, C. A., & Wang, M. (2006). Visual analysis and lexical access of Chinese characters by Chinese as second language readers. Linguistics and Language, 7(3), 637-657.

Massaro, D. W., Liu, Y., Chen, T. H., & Perfetti, C. A. (2006). A multilingual embodied conversational agent for tutoring speech and language learning. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (Interspeech 2006 - ICSLP, September, Pittsburgh, PA) (pp. 825-828). Universität Bonn, Germany.

Perfetti, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2006). Reading Chinese characters: Orthography, phonology, meaning, and the Lexical Constituency Model. In P. Li, L. H. Tan, E. Bates, & O. J. L. Tzeng (Eds.), Handbook of East Asian psycholinguistics (pp. 225-236). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Perfetti, C. A., Tan, L. H., & Siok, W. T. (2006). Brain-behavior relations in reading and dyslexia: Implications of Chinese results. Brain and Language, 98, 344-346.

2005

Bolger, D. J., Perfetti, C. A., & Schneider, W. (2005). A cross-cultural effect on the brain revisited: Universal structures plus writing system variation. Journal of Human Brain Mapping, 25(1), 83-91.

Nelson, J. R., Balass, M., & Perfetti, C. A. (2005). Differences between written and spoken input in learning new words.  Written Language & Literacy, 8(2), 25-44.

Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M. J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227-247). Oxford: Blackwell.

Perfetti, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2005). Orthography to phonology and meaning: Comparisons across and within writing systems. Reading and Writing, 18(3), 193-210.

Perfetti, C. A., Liu, Y., & Tan, L. H. (2005). The Lexical Constituency Model: Some implications of research on Chinese for general theories of reading. Psychological Review, 12(11), 43-59.

Perfetti, C. A., Wlotko, E. W., & Hart, L. A. (2005).  Word learning and individual differences in word learning reflected in Event-Related Potentials.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 31(6), 1281-1292.

Tan, L. H., Spinks, J. A., Eden, G., Perfetti, C. A., & Siok, W. T. (2005). Reading depends on writing, in Chinese.  PNAS, 102, 8781-8785.

Tokowicz, N., & Perfetti, C. A. (2005). Introduction to section II: Comprehension. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 173-177). New York: Oxford University Press.

Wang, M., Perfetti, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2005). Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition: Cross-language and writing system transfer. Cognition, 97, 67-88.

Yang, C. L., Perfetti, C. A., & Schmalhofer, F. (2005). Less skilled comprehenders’ ERPs show sluggish word-to-text integration process. Written Language & Literacy, 8(2), 233-257.

2004

Perfetti, C. A., & Bolger, D. J. (2004). The brain might read that way. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8(3), 293-304.

Siok, W. T., Perfetti, C. A., Jin, Z., & Tan, L. H. (2004). Biological abnormality of impaired reading constrained by culture: Evidence from Chinese. Nature, September 1, 71-76.

Wang, M., Liu, Y., & Perfetti, C. A. (2004). The implicit and explicit learning of orthographic structure and function of a new writing system. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8(4), 357-379.

2003

Liu, Y., & Perfetti, C. A. (2003). The time course of brain activity in reading English and Chinese: An ERP study of Chinese bilinguals. Journal of Human Brain Mapping, 18(3), 167-175.

Liu, Y., Perfetti, C. A., & Hart, L. (2003). ERP evidence for the time course of graphic, phonological, and semantic information in Chinese meaning and pronunciation decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29(6), 1231-1247.

McCandliss, B., Beck, I. L., Sandak, R., & Perfetti, C. (2003). Focusing attention on decoding for children with poor reading skills: Design and preliminary tests of the Word Building intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(1), 75-104.

Perfetti, C.A. (2003). The universal grammar of reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(1), 3-24.

Reichle, E. D., & Perfetti, C. A. (2003). Morphology in word identification: A word-experience model that accounts for morpheme frequency effects. Scientific Studies of Reading. 7(1), 219-238.

Verhoeven, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (2003). Introduction to This Special Issue: The role of morphology in learning to read. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(3), 209-218.

Wang, M., Koda, K., &, Perfetti, C. A. (2003). Alphabetic and nonalphabetic L1 effects in English word identification: A comparison of Korean and Chinese English L2 learners. Cognition, 87, 129-149.

Wang, M., Perfetti, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2003). Alphabetic readers quickly acquire orthographic structure in learning to read Chinese. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(2), 183-208.

2002

Perfetti, C.A., & Hart, L. (2002). The lexical quality hypothesis. In L. Vehoeven. C. Elbro, & P. Reitsma (Eds.), Precursors of functional literacy (pp. 189-213). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Perfetti, C. A., Liu, Y., & Tan, L.H. (2002). How the mind can meet the brain in reading: A comparative writing systems approach. In H. S. R. Kao, C-K. Leong, & D-G. Gao (Eds.), Cognitive neuroscience studies of the Chinese language (pp. 36-60). Hong Kong University Press.

Yoon, H-K., Bolger, D. J., Kwon, O-S., & Perfetti, C. A. (2002). Subsyllabic units in reading: A difference between Korean and English. In L. Verhoeven. C. Elbro, & P. Reitsma (Eds.), Precursors of functional literacy (pp. 139-163). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2001

Perfetti, C. A. (2001). Reading skills. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.). International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (pp. 12800-12805). Oxford: Pergamon.

Perfetti, C.A, & Hart, L. (2001). The lexical bases of comprehension skill. In D. Gorfien (Ed.), On the consequences of meaning selection (pp. 67-86). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Perfetti, C.A. & Sandak, R. (2001) Literacy education. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.) International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 8975-8981). Oxford: Pergamon.

Perfetti, C.A., Van Dyke, J.A., & Hart, L. (2001). The psycholinguistics of basic literacy. In M. McGroarty (Ed.), Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 21, 127-149.

Rayner, K., Foorman, B.R., Perfetti, C.A., Pesetsky, D. & Seidenberg, M.S. (2001). How psychological science informs the teaching of reading. Psychological science in the public interest, 2(2), 31-74. A supplement to Psychological Science.

Tan, L.H., Liu, H.L., Perfetti, C.A., Spinks, J.A., Fox, P.T., & Gao, J.H. (2001). The neural system underlying Chinese logograph reading. NeuroImage, 13, 836-846.

2000

Booth, J., Perfetti, C., MacWhinney, B., & Hunt, S. (2000). The association of rapid temporal perception with orthographic and phonological processing in children and adults with reading impairment. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4 (2), 101-132.

Britt, M. A., Perfetti, C. A., Van Dyke, J. & Gabrys, G. (2000) The Sourcer’s Apprentice: A tool for document-supported history instruction. In P. Stearns, P. Seixas, & S. Weinberg (Eds.), Knowing, teaching and learning history: National and international perspectives (pp. 437-470). New York University Press.

Perfetti, C.A., & Sandak, R. (2000). Reading optimally builds on spoken language. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5(1), 32-50.

Spinks J.A., Liu, Y., Perfetti, C.A., & Tan, L.H. (2000). Reading Chinese characters for meaning: the role of phonological information, Cognition 76(1), B1-B11.

Tan L. H., Spinks J. A., Gao, J. H., Liu, H.L., Perfetti, C. A., Xiong, J., Stofer, K. A., Pu, Y., Liu, Y., & Fox, P. T. (2000). Brain activation in the processing of Chinese characters and words: A functional MRI study. Human Brain Mapping, 10(1), 16-27

1999

Booth, J. R., Perfetti, C. A., & MacWhinney, B. (1999). Quick, automatic, and general activation of orthographic and phonological representations in young readers. Developmental Psychology, 35, 3-19.

Britt, M. A., Rouet, J.-F., & Perfetti, C. A. (1999). Content integration and source separation in learning from multiple texts. In S. R. Goldman, A. C. Graesser, & P. van den Broek (Eds.), Narrative comprehension, causality, and coherence: Essays in honor of Tom Trabasso. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Perfetti, C. A. (1999). Comprehending written language: A blueprint of the reader. In C. Brown & P. Hagoort (Eds.), The neurocognition of language (pp. 167-208). Oxford University Press.

Perfetti, C.A., Rouet, J.-F., & Britt, M.A. (1999). Toward a theory of documents representation. In H. van Oostendorp & S. Goldman (Eds.), The construction of mental representations during reading (pp. 99-122). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Tan, L. H., & Perfetti, C. A. (1999). Phonological activation in visual identification of Chinese two-character words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25, 382-393.

Tan, L.H., & Perfetti, C.A. (1999). Phonological and associative inhibition in the early stages of English word identification: Evidence from backward masking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 25, 382-393.

Xu, B. And Perfetti, C.A. (1999) Nonstrategic subjective threshold effects in phonemic masking. Memory and cognition, 27(1), 26-36.

Zhang, S., Perfetti, C.A., & Yang, Hui (1999). Whole-word, frequency-general phonology in semantic processing of Chinese characters. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25 (4), 858-875.

1998

Perfetti, C. A. (1998). The limits of co-occurrence: Tools and theories in language research. Discourse Processes, 25, 363-377.

Perfetti, C.A., & Marron, M. A. (1998). Learning to read: Literacy acquisition by children and adults. In D.A. Wagner (Ed.). Advances in adult literacy research and development. Hampton Press.

Perfetti, C.A., & Tan, L.H. (1998). The time course of graphic, phonological, and semantic activation in Chinese character identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 101-118.

Tan, L.H., & Perfetti, C.A. (1998). Phonological codes as early sources of constraint in Chinese word identification: A review of current discoveries and theoretical accounts. In "Cognitive processing of Chinese and Japanese" special issue. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 10, 165-200. Reprinted in C.K. Leong and K. Tamaoka (Eds), Cognitive Processes of the Chinese and the Japanese languages. Series in Neuropsychology and Cognition, R. Joshi, Series Editor. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998.