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Orthographic, phonologic, and semantic processing in reading disabled and nondisabled subjects
1Counseling and Psychological Services Department, State University of New York-Oswego, New York 13126.
Perceptual and Motor Skills
|August 1, 1994
Summary
This study found that both good and poor readers showed orthographic confusability when processing visual stimuli. Poor readers performed comparably to good readers on visual tasks, indicating no disadvantage.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- The confusability paradigm assesses how readers process and distinguish between similar stimuli.
- Previous research primarily used auditory presentation, limiting the investigation of orthographic processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To modify the confusability paradigm for visual presentation, incorporating an orthographic condition.
- To investigate phonologic, orthographic, and semantic confusability in good and poor readers using visual stimuli.
Main Methods:
- A modified confusability paradigm with visual stimuli was employed.
- Tasks included pseudoword and word recognition, varying available coding information (phonologic, orthographic, semantic).
- Participants were 20 poor and 20 good readers (ages 13-18).
Main Results:
- Phonologic confusability was not observed in either group.
- Orthographic confusability was present in both good and poor readers across both tasks.
- Semantic confusability occurred for both groups on the word recognition task.
Conclusions:
- Visual presentation of confusability tasks revealed significant orthographic processing in both reader groups.
- Poor readers performed comparably to good readers on visual tasks, suggesting visual orthographic and semantic processing are not areas of disadvantage.