Visuoperceptual-orthographic reading abilities: a confirmatory factor analysis study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The visuoperceptual-orthographic (VPO) construct is hypothesized to play a role in reading.
• Understanding the psychometric properties of VPO is essential for its application in reading research and practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the psychometric properties of the visuoperceptual-orthographic (VPO) reading construct.
• To assess the tenability of a multifaceted, unitary VPO construct using confirmatory factor analysis.

Main Methods:

• Administered a battery of standardized and experimental VPO measures to 152 nonimpaired college students.
• Utilized confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL 8.54 to evaluate the VPO construct's structure.
• Included measures such as Letter-Word Identification, Visual-Naming Speed, and various decision tasks.

Main Results:

• Confirmatory factor analysis supported a hierarchical VPO construct with one 2nd-order factor and three 1st-order factors.
• The identified first-order factors were perceptual processing speed, prelexical accuracy, and lexicosemantic accuracy.
• Alternative models did not yield satisfactory goodness-of-fit statistics.

Conclusions:

• The findings align with previous cognitive and neuroscientific research on reading.
• Visuoperceptual-orthographic (VPO) abilities should be considered a distinct factor in the assessment and remediation of developmental dyslexia.
• This study provides empirical support for the VPO construct's relevance in understanding reading.