Sylviane Valdois|Jean-Luc Roulin|Marie Line Bosse
Visual attention modulates reading acquisition
Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition|Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition|Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition
processing letters within strings challenging beginning readers letter identification affected visual similarity loss information eccentricity interference nearby letters contrast visual attention enhances letter identification explored whether visual attention resources multielement processing measured tasks visual attention span prior literacy instruction predicted reading fluency performance one year later one hundred twentyfour mainstream children assessed kindergarten visual attention span abilities phonological awareness lettername knowledge early literacy knowledge verbal shortterm memory nonverbal iq participants reading performance measured end grade 1 using tasks irregular word pseudoword text reading results regression analyses showed kindergarteners va span predicted reading fluency text irregular words pseudowords one year later controlling age nonverbal iq phonological skills letter name knowledge early literacy skills path analyses carried estimate differential contribution va span different reading skills revealed stronger contribution pseudoword reading irregular word text reading end grade 1 results suggest prereading visual attention resources contribute later reading fluency whatever reading subskills whatever reading context words isolation sentences higher involvement pseudoword reading propose new conceptual model role visual attention reading acquisition argue many aspects models already supported available findings