Abstract
This study investigated the direct and indirect roles of verbal and visuospatial memory in Chinese reading comprehension. One hundred twenty-eight Cantonese-speaking children participated in the study at the end of their 3rd year of kindergarten in Hong Kong. Both verbal and visuospatial memory were found to be significantly associated with Chinese reading comprehension. Path analysis showed that visuospatial memory was significantly associated with reading comprehension through word reading. Verbal memory was associated with reading comprehension indirectly through listening comprehension. Additionally, the direct path from visuospatial memory to reading comprehension was significant when word reading and listening comprehension were considered simultaneously. The findings of the direct and unique role of visuospatial memory in reading comprehension in Chinese elaborated and extended our understanding of the simple view of reading in young children in a non-alphabetic language.
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Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (18602119) to Dan Lin.
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Appendix
Appendix
Sample items of visual matrix
Sample items of reading comprehension
Sample items of listening comprehension
Sample items of word reading
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Pan, J., Lin, D. Visuospatial memory uniquely predicts Chinese reading comprehension in Hong Kong typically developing kindergarteners. Read Writ 33, 2205–2221 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10033-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10033-5