Toward an Ecologically Valid Analysis of Visual Processes in Dyslexic Readers

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an analysis of visual processes in dyslexic readers. There is a great deal of evidence to show that normal and disabled readers differ in their visual processing abilities, in a variety of contexts involving abstract patterns and textual information. Studies of basic visual processes, involving psychophysical methods, have provided evidence for a possible explanation for differences in visual processes, based upon a transient system deficit in disabled readers. Research looking at the speed of visual information processes, using backward masking techniques has shown that disabled readers' visual systems operate at a less efficient rate than that of normal readers. Several studies have taken a more ecologically valid perspective, seeking to examine how differences in visual processes between normal and disabled readers might be observed under conditions that approximate natural reading. Visual processing differences under these circumstances were found in tasks that involved recognition, comprehension, and visual form discrimination. Contrary to previous assumptions, visual processes may play a role in reading disability. However, the manner in which those processes are related to reading difficulties needs to be investigated further.