Information processing correlates of reading

Abstract

Individual differences in reading correlate with individual differences in perception, in memory, and in other simple processes. This study measured these relationships using information processing tasks such as visual search, visual matching, and span of apprehension; and using linguistic processing tasks such as word-nonword judgment, picture-sentence verification, and semantic categorization. These tasks were performed by a large sample of college students chosen to represent the full range of college-level reading ability. Three salient findings emerged: (a) Reading correlates with the information processing measures when they involve words, but it does not correlate with otherwise identical measures involving letters. (b) Reading speed and comprehension have different correlations with the information processing measures, although they have similar correlations with the linguistic processing measures. (c) Reading speed is only moderately correlated with listening comprehension, but reading comprehension ability is indistinguishable from listening comprehension ability. These results indicate that reading speed and comprehension depend on abilities that are at least partly distinct. Specifically, reading speed varies with visual word processing, while reading comprehension varies with nonvisual linguistic processing.