What Is Specific and What Is Shared Between Numbers and Words?

Reading and spelling performance have a significant correlation with number transcoding, which is the ability to establish a relationship between the verbal and Arabic representations of numbers, when a conversion of numerical symbols from one notation to the other is necessary. The aim of the prese...

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Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 7; p. 22
Main Authors Lopes-Silva, Júlia B, Moura, Ricardo, Júlio-Costa, Annelise, Wood, Guilherme, Salles, Jerusa F, Haase, Vitor G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 02.02.2016
Subjects
Intelligence
Number transcoding
phonemic awareness
Psychology
reading
spelling
reading
phonemic awareness
spelling
number transcoding
intelligence
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Summary:Reading and spelling performance have a significant correlation with number transcoding, which is the ability to establish a relationship between the verbal and Arabic representations of numbers, when a conversion of numerical symbols from one notation to the other is necessary. The aim of the present study is to reveal shared and non-shared mechanisms involved in reading and writing of words and Arabic numerals in Brazilian school-aged children. One hundred and seventy-two children from second to fourth grades were evaluated. All of them had normal intelligence. We conducted a series of hierarchical regression models using scores on word spelling and reading single words and Arabic numerals, as dependent variables. As predictor variables we investigated intelligence, the phonological and visuospatial components of working memory (WM) and phonemic awareness. All of the writing and reading tasks (single word spelling and reading as well as number reading and number writing) were significantly correlated to each other. In the regression models, phonological WM was specifically associated to word reading. Phonemic awareness was the only cognitive variable that systematically predicted all of the school skills investigated, both numerical and word tasks. This suggests that phonemic awareness is a modular cognitive ability shared by several school tasks and might be an important factor associated to the comorbidity between dyslexia and dyscalculia.
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This article was submitted to Educational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Reviewed by: Jie Zhang, The College at Brockport State University of New York, USA; Sherri Horner, Bowling Green State University, USA
Edited by: Giseli Donadon Germano, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00022