title: The development and discussion of computerized visual perception assessment tool for Chinese characters structures - Concurrent estimation of the overall ability and the domain ability in item response theory approach.
abstract: Visual perception is the fundamental skill required for a child to recognize words, and to read and write. There was no visual perception assessment tool developed for preschool children based on Chinese characters in Taiwan. The purposes were to develop the computerized visual perception assessment tool for Chinese Characters Structures and to explore the psychometrical characteristic of assessment tool. This study adopted purposive sampling. The study evaluated 551 kindergarten-age children (293 boys, 258 girls) ranging from 46 to 81 months of age. The test instrument used in this study consisted of three subtests and 58 items, including tests of basic strokes, single-component characters, and compound characters. Based on the results of model fit analysis, the higher-order item response theory was used to estimate the performance in visual perception, basic strokes, single-component characters, and compound characters simultaneously. Analyses of variance were used to detect significant difference in age groups and gender groups. The difficulty of identifying items in a visual perception test ranged from -2 to 1. The visual perception ability of 4- to 6-year-old children ranged from -1.66 to 2.19. Gender did not have significant effects on performance. However, there were significant differences among the different age groups. The performance of 6-year-olds was better than that of 5-year-olds, which was better than that of 4-year-olds. This study obtained detailed diagnostic scores by using a higher-order item response theory model to understand the visual perception of basic strokes, single-component characters, and compound characters. Further statistical analysis showed that, for basic strokes and compound characters, girls performed better than did boys; there also were differences within each age group. For single-component characters, there was no difference in performance between boys and girls. However, again the performance of 6-year-olds was better than that of 4-year-olds, but there were no statistical differences between the performance of 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. Results of tests with basic strokes, single-component characters and compound characters tests had good reliability and validity. Therefore, it can be apply to diagnose the problem of visual perception at preschool.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Testing and Assessment, National Academy for Educational Research, New Taipei, Taiwan, No. 2, Sanshu Rd., Sanshia Dist., New Taipei City 23703, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: whm@mail.naer.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Huey-Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Program of Early Intervention, Department of Early Childhood Education, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, Taiwan; National Taichung University of Education, 140 Min-Shen Road, Taichung 40306, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: linchinkai97@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chin-Kai
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: National Taichung University of Education, 140 Min-Shen Road, Taichung 40306, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Language and Literacy, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, Taiwan. Electronic address: yum@mail.ntcu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yu-Mao
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: National Taichung University of Education, 140 Min-Shen Road, Taichung 40306, Taiwan, ROC; Graduate Institute of Educational Information and Measurement, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, Taiwan. Electronic address: kbc@mail.ntcu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Bor-Chen
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Kuo
keywords: Chinese character; Computerized test; Item response theory; Visual perception