"Visual Form Perception is Fundamental for both Reading Comprehension and Arithmetic Computation"

Ph.D. student Sirui Wan has published with colleagues in Cognition: "Visual Form Perception is Fundamental for both Reading Comprehension and Arithmetic Computation." Jiaxin Cui is lead author; co-authors are Yiyun Zhang, Chaunsheng Chen, Jieying Zeng, and Xinlin Zhou. 

Abstract

Visual perception has been found to be a critical factor for reading comprehension and arithmetic computation in separate lines of research with different measures of visual form perception. The current study of 1099 Chinese elementary school students investigated whether the same visual form perception (assessed by a geometric figure matching task) underlies both reading comprehension and arithmetic computation. The results showed that visual form perception had close relations with both reading comprehension and arithmetic computation, even after controlling for age, gender, and cognitive factors such as processing speed, attention, working memory, visuospatial processing, and general intelligence. Results also showed that numerosity comparison's relations with reading comprehension and arithmetic computation were fully accounted for by visual form perception. These results suggest that reading comprehension and arithmetic computation might share a similar visual form processing mechanism.

Wan is a third year PhD in Education student specializing in Learning, Teaching, Cognition, and Development. His research interests include academic motivation and achievement, educational intervention, individual and gender differences in STEM fields, mathematical and spatial cognition, and career development. He is advised by Associate Professor Drew Bailey and Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles.