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Deficits of visual search in Chinese children with dyslexia
Author(s) -
Liu Sisi,
Wang LiChih,
Liu Duo
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of research in reading
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.077
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9817
pISSN - 0141-0423
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9817.12277
Subject(s) - dyslexia , psychology , visual search , cognitive psychology , biological theories of dyslexia , reading (process) , phonological awareness , nonverbal communication , visual perception , developmental psychology , developmental dyslexia , linguistics , perception , literacy , neuroscience , pedagogy , philosophy
Background There is emerging evidence that individuals with developmental dyslexia show deficits in visual–spatial attention. This study focused on visual searches and examined whether visual search deficits would be found in Chinese children with dyslexia. More importantly, we examined the associations between dyslexia and distinct types of visual searches, to determine whether deficits are specific to some visual searches but not others. Methods The dyslexic children and their age‐matched typical peers completed both the inefficient and relatively efficient search tasks. Results The dyslexic children were generally impaired in visual searches, although the deficit in inefficient searches was more severe than in efficient searches. After phonological awareness, working memory and nonverbal IQ were considered; inefficient searches were found to be selectively impaired. Conclusions These findings suggest that visual search deficits in dyslexia are universal across alphabetic and logographic writing systems. They highlight the importance of further study on the role of top‐down attention on reading.