Cognitive styles and reading disability

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of information-gap tasks on field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) EFL learners' reading comprehension. For this purpose, 61 learners out of a total number of 120 existing intermediate learners studying at a language school in Tehran were chosen through their performance on a piloted sample Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET) and subsequently on the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT). Overall, there were 33 FD and 28 FI learners undergoing the information-gap task treatment. Furthermore, an independent samples t-test was run on the mean scores of the two groups on the reading section of the sample PET, thereby proving that they were homogeneous at the outset in terms of their reading. Another sample PET reading section was administered as the posttest of the study after each group was exposed to 15 treatment sessions. At the end of the instruction, another independent samples t-test was run on the mean scores of

Behaviour problems and their relationship to reading difficulty

“…Kagan explains that the difficulties impulsive children have in learning to read depend upon the child's 'reflection-impulsivity' in which the motoractive, impulsive child has short reaction times, makes many errors and responds immediately and uncritically to his perceptual field. The restless, uncontrolled backward readers in this study also appear similar to those children with reading problems described by Santostefano, Rutledge and Randall (1965). They displayed poor attention, reflecting an inability to ignore distracting and contradictory cues and focus upon relevant perceptual stimuli.…”

Early attentional difficulties were associated with later academic failure and arrests

“…[1][2][3][4] This view has been neglected,although inefficient information processing as the neurophysiological basis of reading disorders has been suggested more recently. 5 The findings raise the issue in a practical, clinical context.…”

Styles of Categorization and Reading Disability

“…Studies have been conducted on the relationship to reading of intelligence (Edwards & Kirby, 1964;Harootunian, 1965;Belmont & Birch, 1966), perception (Walton, 1957;Diack, 1960;Gibson, Bishop, Schiff, & Smith, 1964), personality adjustment (Raygor, 1964;Frost, 1965;Peck, Zwerling, Rabban & Mendelsohn, 1966), and anxiety (Huber, 1965;Gifford & Marston, 1966). Lately, there have been some attempts (Kagan, Moss, & Sigel, 1963;Santostefano, Rutledge, & Randall, 1965) to investigate the relationship of the recently formulated concept of cognitive styles to reading disability.…”

“…Furthermore, preference for a relational-contextual approach which involves a passive acceptance of the entire stimulus as a figure without background elements and a tendency to establish associations based on global impressions or idiosyncratic experience are likely to mislead the child as he endeavors to make sense out of the maze of symbols on the printed page. It has been suggested by Santostefano, Rutledge, and Randall (1965) that reading be conceptualized as an active perceptual-cognitive activity whereby the reader selects, organizes, assimilates and processes shapes and forms ultimately learned as symbols representing sounds and objects. Their three experiments to explore whether the cognitive functioning of children with reading disability could be differ-entiated in terms of particular cognitive principles showed that the Constricted-Flexible cognitive style which is concerned with processing information in the context of distractions and with an individual's ability to withhold attention selectively from irrelevant and intrusive information is crucial for reading.…”