Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Growing research evidence has shown that individuals with developmental dyslexia have deficits of visuo-spatial attention.It has been suggested that deficits in the visual magnocellular system cause problems in reading and visuo-spatial attention.The purpose of the present study was to replicate the work of Facoetti and co-authors (2006), concerning the relationship between visuo-spatial attention and nonword reading in dyslexia.They found that children with nonword reading impairment have a right attentional inhibition deficit, which means larger focus in the right visual field.Therefore in the present study, the issue under investigation was whether Finnish adolescents with dyslexia (n = 14) show asymmetrical orienting of visuo-spatial attention compared to their normally reading peers (n = 18).As in the study of Facoetti and co-authors (2006), dyslexia was defined as a deficit of phonological decoding.The orienting of visuo-spatial attention was measured using a spatial cueing task; participants responded with a button press to spatially cued targets presented to the left or to the right of the fixation point.The results of this study revealed that adolescents with dyslexia did not show asymmetrical orienting of visuo-spatial attention.Furthermore, nonword reading impairment was not associated with right attentional inhibition deficit.It was concluded that based on the results of this study, reading difficulties cannot be explained in terms of deficits in the visuo-spatial attention.Moreover, the results are not compatible with the Magnocellular theory of dyslexia.One possible explanation for the results is that deficits of visuo-spatial attention exist only in childhood.In future research, the continuity of visuo-spatial attention deficits should be taken into a consideration by means of longitudinal studies.
Author: Nina Haapalainen
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2260220356