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. 2018 Jun 18;13(6):e0198903.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198903. eCollection 2018.

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

Chiara Banfi  1 , Ferenc Kemény  1 , Melanie Gangl  1 , Gerd Schulte-Körne  2 , Kristina Moll  2 , Karin Landerl  1   3
Affiliations

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

Chiara Banfi et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Stimuli used in the symbol task.
Fig 2
Fig 2. A trial from the VAS task with letters.
Fig 3
Fig 3. d’ as a function of position for the letter and symbol tasks.
Bars represent standard errors.
Fig 4
Fig 4. The d’ of the letter task is shown as a function of position for the three groups.
Bars represent standard errors.
Fig 5
Fig 5. The d’ of the symbol task is shown as a function of position for the three groups.
Bars represent standard errors.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Scatterplot representing the relationship between VAS letters (x axis) and PA (y axis) in the three groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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