Investigating the role of visual attention span in reading fluency : the relationship between visual attention span, visual complexity and reading fluency in Chinese-English bilinguals

Abstract

Previous studies have found that visual attention span is a significant predictor of reading fluency. However, fewer studies have considered the visual attention span of Chinese-English bilinguals. Along with the increasing research interest in the visual attention span in reading, the construct validity of visual attention span measures is under discussion. The present research focus on Chinese-English bilinguals and comprised of three studies to examine the construct validity of visual attention span measures, the role of the visual attention span in Chinese and English reading fluency, and the mediating effect of rapid automatized naming on the correlation between the visual attention span and reading fluency. Study 1 involved 100 university Chinese-English bilinguals and examined the construct validity of visual attention span measures and the relationship between the visual attention span and Chinese reading fluency. The participants were assessed using verbal and non-verbal measures of visual attention span, reading fluency, and rapid automatized naming. The results demonstrated that the verbal and non-verbal measures of the visual attention span regress on the same latent construct, which significantly predict Chinese reading fluency. Rapid automatized naming fully mediates the correlation between the visual attention span and reading fluency. Study 2 involved the 100 Chinese-English bilinguals from Study 1 and 46 university native English readers to examine the influence of the orthographic transparency of writing systems on the visual attention span and the cross-language prediction of reading fluency from the visual attention span. The results demonstrated that the English visual attention span in English-reading adults was larger than that in Chinese-English bilinguals. The Chinese visual attention span was shorter than the English visual attention span among Chinese-English bilinguals. The English visual attention span was a significant predictor of English reading fluency among Chinese-English bilinguals but not among English readers. Study 3 involved 47 university traditional Chinese readers and 42 university simplified Chinese readers to examine the effect of the visual complexity of Chinese characters on the size of the visual attention span. Their visual attention span was measured using three groups of Chinese characters with different visual complexities. The results demonstrated that simplified Chinese readers performed better in less visually complex conditions, but traditional Chinese readers performed better in more visually complex conditions. Moreover, the size of the visual attention span was not significantly different between the two groups of Chinese readers. The results confirm the construct validity of visual attention span measures and demonstrate that the visual attention span is a significant predictor of Chinese and English reading fluency. The English visual attention span was shorter than Chinese visual attention span suggesting that writing system might affect the size of visual attention span. Visual complexity and visual processing play a significant role in the visual attention span among Chinese readers. Simplified Chinese readers adopt analytic visual processing for Chinese character recognition, such that they might have better visual discrimination skills and result in a larger size of visual attention span. Rapid automatized naming mediates the correlation between the visual attention span and reading fluency.