The Role if Visual Processing in Good and Poor Readers′ Utilization of Orthographic Information in Letter Strings.

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of visual processing in good and poor readers' utilization of orthographic information (OI) in letter strings. The chapter presents the results of the multiple regression analysis. The results show that for the younger, less experienced reader in Grade 2, both verbal and visual processing factors made significant contributions to OI variance. The larger contribution of verbal memory to the Grade 2 performance may be associated with letter-by-letter (rather than holistic) processing of letter-strings of increasing length while visual memory abilities facilitate the retention of letters as visual forms. These findings relating to Grade 2 performance were inconsistent with the expectation that younger more novice readers rely heavily on phonemic processes. Instead, beginning readers may be very dependent on an analysis of the individual letters and interletter information in words (OI) to facilitate their word recognition in the early stages of reading acquisition. For the Grade 4 students who had more experience with the orthographic patterns of language through their reading and spelling experience, individual differences in visual processing and memory were the most powerful factors accounting for the differences between children in the accuracy of their OI usage.