Poor and Normal Readers Achievement on Visual Tasks Involving High Frequency,Low Discriminability Words

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that poor and normal readers do not differ significantly on various perceptual tasks involving visual stimuli. However, the stimulus employed has generally been a novel or low frequency word. Thus, visual attention to a stimulus may have increased as a function of novelty. This study presented subjects with high frequency, low discriminability words in four conditions. It was hypothesized that poor and normal readers would differ in the ability to read these words presented tachistoscopically in isolation, but would not differ in their abilities to match the words to form, graphically reproduce the words following a tachistoscopic presentation, or select the appropriate word from a group of distractor words after a tachistoscopic presentation. The hypotheses were supported. It was concluded that a visual perceptual deficit is unlikely to be a major factor in reading disability.

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