Visual spatial skill: a consequence of learning to read?
Does learning to read influence one's visual skill? In Study 1, kindergartners from Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, and Spain were tested on word reading and a task of visual spatial skill. Chinese and Korean kindergartners significantly outperformed Israeli and Spanish readers on the visual task. Moreover, in all cultures except Korea, good readers scored significantly higher on the visual task than did less good readers. In Study 2, we followed 215 Hong Kong Chinese kindergartners across 1year, with word reading and visual skills tested twice. In this study, word reading at Time 1 by itself predicted 13% of unique variance in visual skill at Time 2. Together, these results underscore the potential importance of the process of learning to read for shaping one's visual spatial skill development.
Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China. cmcbride@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
Catherine
C
McBride-Chang
Yanling
Y
Zhou
Jeung-Ryeul
JR
Cho
Dorit
D
Aram
Iris
I
Levin
Liliana
L
Tolchinsky
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007723:Korea; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013030:Spain; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis