Charles Perfetti

Charles A. Perfetti

PhD, University of Michigan

University Professor of Psychology

Senior Scientist and Associate 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:

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.
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).
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.
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.
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:

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

Perfetti, C., & Frishkoff, G. A. (in press).The neural bases of text and discourse processing. In B. Stemmer & H. A. Whitaker (Eds.), Handbook of the neurosciencce of language. Oxford: Elsevier.

Perfetti, C. A. (in press). Reading. In P. C. Hogan (Ed.), Cambridge encyclopedia of the language sciences. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut.

Perfetti, C. A., Liu, Y., Fiez, J. Nelson, J., Bolger, D. J. (in press). Reading in two writing systems: Accommodation and Assimilation in the brains’ reading network. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Special issue on “Neurocognitive approaches to bilingualism: Asian languages”, P. Li (Ed.).

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.

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

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.).

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.

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., Wang, M., & Perfetti, C. A. (in press). Threshold-style processing of Chinese characters for adult second language learners. Memory and Cognition.

Perfetti, C. A., Liu, Y., Fiez, J., & Tan, L-H. (in press). The neural bases of reading: The accommodation of the brain's reading network to writing systems. In P. Cornelissen, M. Kringelbach, & P. Hansen (Eds.), The neural basis of reading. Oxford University Press.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.