中文閱讀弱讀者的認知功能缺陷：視覺處理或是聲韻覺識？

The Cognitive Deficit in Chinese Dyslexia: Visual Processing or Phonological Awareness?

為了要探討視覺處理或是聲韻覺識影響中文識字發展，本研究以去音首、注音符號拼音、字形區辨、符號再認等認知變項進行研究。在實驗設計上，以年齡配對及閱讀能力配對的方式，探討認知變項與識字量發展的因果關係。研究結果發現：在控制智力後，除了非國字音注音符號拼音出現同閱組的表現依然優於弱讀組，其它的變項，都沒有發現同閱組高於弱讀組的表現。根據這樣的結果，研究者認為注音符號拼音所代表的聲韻處理機制可能是影響識字發展的原因，而不是結果，文中對此有深入討論。視覺處理的變項，如字形區辨、符號再認等，都不是影響識字發展的原因。

This study addresses the issue as to whether visual or phonological processing is the main cognitive component in reading acquisition for Chinese native speakers. We employed cognitive tasks that focused on phoneme deletion, phoneme blending, a visual discrimination task, and visual memory. By using a design that employing both reading-age and physical-age as controls, we tried to understand which kinds of task discriminate between good and poor readers, and further, which task might be primarily a cause rather than an effect of reading acquisition. We found that, after statistically controlling for IQ, phoneme blending in pseudo characters was significantly greater in the reading-age control group than in the poor reader group. However, other tasks, including those concerned with phoneme deletion, visual discrimination and visual memory, did not show this pattern. We concluded that visual processing is not an effective cognitive component in Chinese reading acquisition, and that phoneme blending seems to be a causal factor.