Symbol-string sensitivity and children's reading

Kristen Pammer; Ruth Lavis; Peter Hansen; Piers L Cornelissen

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2004.01.009

Symbol-string sensitivity and children's reading

Brain Lang. 2004 Jun;89(3):601-10. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2004.01.009.

Authors

Kristen Pammer¹, Ruth Lavis, Peter Hansen, Piers L Cornelissen

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK.

PMID: 15120551
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2004.01.009

Abstract

In this study of primary school children, a novel 'symbol-string' task is used to assess sensitivity to the position of briefly presented non-alphabetic but letter-like symbols. The results demonstrate that sensitivity in the symbol-string task explains a unique proportion of the variability in children's contextual reading accuracy. Moreover, developmental dyslexic readers show reduced sensitivity in this task, compared to chronological age controls. The results suggest that limitations set by visuo-spatial processes and/or attentional iconic memory resources may constrain children's reading accuracy.

Publication types

Clinical Trial
Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Attention
Child
Discrimination, Psychological*
Dyslexia*
Humans
Language*
Memory
Multivariate Analysis
Psycholinguistics
Reading*
Recognition, Psychology*
Regression Analysis
United Kingdom