A substantial percentage of the population suffers from the effects of reading difficulties. These reading difficulties are caused by a wide array of proximate factors, some cognitive in nature, others emotional. This thesis examines whether some proximate factors, which contribute to reading difficulties, may be caused by underlying attributes which coincidentally also may provide strength in other areas of endeavor. One such proximate factor is interchanging letters, reading the word saw when was is indicated. Another such factor, symbol or letter reversing such as reading a b when a d is indicated, is most pronounced before the age of four and substantially decreases, but not entirely, over the next few years. Reversing letters presents a weakness when reading, but it may result from an underlying attribute which, coincidentally, also could underlie strength in spatial relations. This thesis examined the relationship between each factor and one type of spatial ability (mental rotation). It was hypothesized that spatial ability would be positively correlated with (a) frequency of reversals, as well as with, (b) frequency of interchanges. Experimentation was performed to test these hypotheses. The correlations found were not statistically significant. A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between frequency of symbol-letter reversals and frequency of letter interchanges. Furthermore, the frequency of these reversals and interchanges were each found to be substantially higher than had been anticipated. These results were especially interesting because they relate to a college population that might have been assumed, for the most part, to be free of such errors. Collectively, further study with a larger sample is needed in order to more fully test the hypotheses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-05142003-132645 |
| Date | 15 May 2003 |
| Creators | Schick, Thomas |
| Contributors | Dr. James W. Kalat, Dr. Samuel Snyder, Dr. Lynne Baker-Ward |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05142003-132645/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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