Visual attention span performance in German-speaking children with differential reading and spelling profiles: No evidence of group differences

An impairment in the visual attention span (VAS) has been suggested to hamper reading performance of individuals with dyslexia. It is not clear, however, if the very nature of the deficit is visual or verbal and, importantly, if it affects spelling skills as well. The current study investigated VAS by means of forced choice tasks with letters and symbols in a sample of third and fourth graders with age-adequate reading and spelling skills (n = 43), a typical dyslexia profile with combined reading and spelling deficits (n = 26) and isolated spelling deficits (n = 32). The task was devised to contain low phonological short-term memory load and to overcome the limitations of oral reports. Notably, eye-movements were monitored to control that children fixated the center of the display when stimuli were presented. Results yielded no main effect of group as well as no group-related interactions, thus showing that children with dyslexia and isolated spelling deficits did not manifest a VAS deficit for letters or symbols once certain methodological aspects were controlled for. The present results could not replicate previous evidence for the involvement of VAS in reading and dyslexia.

视觉注意广度（Visual Attention Span，VAS）损伤被认为会阻碍阅读障碍患者的阅读表现。然而目前尚不明确，该缺陷的本质究竟是视觉层面还是语言层面，且尤为关键的是，该缺陷是否同样会影响拼写能力。本研究通过针对字母与符号的迫选任务，对三组样本的VAS进行了探究：分别为阅读与拼写能力符合年龄发展水平的三、四年级学生（n=43）、表现出典型阅读障碍表型且伴随读写联合缺陷的儿童（n=26），以及仅存在孤立性拼写缺陷的儿童（n=32）。该任务设计旨在降低语音短时记忆负荷，并克服口头报告法的局限性。值得注意的是，本研究对眼动进行了监测，以确保儿童在刺激呈现时注视屏幕中心。研究结果未发现组别主效应，亦未发现与组别相关的交互效应，这表明，在控制部分方法学变量后，阅读障碍儿童与仅存在拼写缺陷的儿童并未在字母或符号任务中表现出VAS损伤。本研究结果未能复现此前关于VAS参与阅读与阅读障碍进程的相关证据。