Developmental changes in reading do not alter the development of visual processing skills: an application of explanatory item response models in grades K-2

Abstract

Visual processing has been widely studied in regard to its impact on a students’ ability to read. A less researched area is the role of reading in the development of visual processing skills. A cohort-sequential, accelerated-longitudinal design was utilized with 932 kindergarten, first, and second grade students to examine the impact of reading acquisition on the processing of various types of visual discrimination and visual motor test items. Students were assessed four times per year on a variety of reading measures and reading precursors and two popular measures of visual processing over a 3-year period. Explanatory item response models were used to examine the roles of person and item characteristics on changes in visual processing abilities and changes in item difficulties over time. Results showed different developmental patterns for five types of visual processing test items, but most importantly failed to show consistent effects of learning to read on changes in item difficulty. Thus, the present study failed to find support for the hypothesis that learning to read alters performance on measures of visual processing. Rather, visual processing and reading ability improved together over time with no evidence to suggest cross-domain influences from reading to visual processing. Results are discussed in the context of developmental theories of visual processing and brain-based research on the role of visual skills in learning to read.

Editorial: The impact of learning to read on visual processing

“…Taken together, these articles represent an update overview and demonstrate the diversity of approaches in this research topic: miscellaneous scientific backgrounds (e.g., neuroscience, in Nakamura et al, 2014 ; neuropsychology, in Qian and Bi, 2014 ; developmental psychology, in Santi et al, 2015 ; experimental psychology; in Kolinsky and Fernandes, 2014 ), several techniques (e.g., TMS, Nakamura et al, 2014 ; behavioral tests, Lachmann et al, 2014 ; item response models, Santi et al, 2015 ), various written scripts considered (i.e., studies with alphabetic and non-alphabetic scripts; e.g., Lachmann et al, 2014 ; Nakamura et al, 2014 , respectively), different populations examined (typical vs. dyslexic readers, in Qian and Bi, 2014 ; adults of varying schooling and literacy levels, in Kolinsky and Fernandes, 2014 ). These articles are Dejerine's legacy as pieces of the (still incomplete) puzzle on the impact of literacy on visual processing, which will hopefully contribute to understand the reasons behind this impact.…”

“…Indeed, according to the neuronal recycling hypothesis (Dehaene, 2009 ) the ventral occipitotemporal regions, originally devoted to object recognition, are partially recycled to accommodate literacy, with spillover effects on the former function. In a large-scale developmental study, Santi et al ( 2015 ) show that the impact of learning to read on visual skills is not observed at a macro behavioral level assessed with general educational/neuropsychological tests. Note, however, that studies that reported an impact of literacy on general spatial skills have examined children learning to read scripts differing on visual complexity (e.g., Zhou et al, 2014 , in this research topic), but this was not the case in Santi et al: all children were learning the alphabetic English orthography.…”