Development of gestalt-reading processes in children: assessment using the Boder test

According to Boder, there are two processes involved in reading: visual-gestalt and analytic-phonetic. The gestalt process is activated for known words, forming part of the child's "sight vocabulary", and it enables him/her to recognize words even when they are exposed for a very short time. The analytic-phonetic process involves the auditory channel when the words are not part of the "sight vocabulary" and require a spelling process. At first, neither the English version nor the Italian adaptation of the Boder test included a control of word exposition time (ET) and reading time (RT). Both parameters are necessary for a check of the gestalt and phonetic processes. The aim of this paper was the assessment of minimum ET for the words belonging to the "sight vocabulary" and of RT for a word read through a gestalt process. Seventy-five primary schoolchildren from the first to the fifth class were presented with 100 meaningful words (MF) and 100 meaningless (ML) words, using ETs ranging from 150 to 650 ms. The results showed that, at the age of 7 years, the gestalt process was completely developed. Of MF words, 95% were correctly read and it did not change significantly with longer ETs. The RT for MF words did not change with different ETs and remained stable after the age of 7 years. Finally, the RT for ML words was always longer than the RT for MF words, and the difference was significant in 8-, 9- and 10-year-old children.