Cognitive consequences of early phase of literacy

• Published in: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society Vol. 9; no. 5; pp. 771 - 782
• Main Authors: DELLATOLAS, GEORGES, BRAGA, LUCIA WILLADINO, SOUZA, LIGIA DO NASCIMENTO, FILHO, GILBERTO NUNES, QUEIROZ, ELIZABETH, DELOCHE, GÉRARD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.07.2003; Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Child; Cognition; Cognition - physiology; Discrimination (Psychology); Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology; Educational Status; Female; Humans; Language; Life Sciences; Literacy; Male; Memory; Memory - physiology; Mental Recall; Mental Recall - physiology; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Phonological awareness; Phonological memory; Reading; Santé publique et épidémiologie; Space Perception; Space Perception - physiology; Speech Perception; Speech Perception - physiology; Verbal Behavior; Verbal Learning; Verbal Learning - physiology; Visual memory; Visual Perception - physiology; Phonological awareness; Visual memory; Literacy; Phonological memory
• ISSN: 1355-6177; 1469-7661
• DOI: 10.1017/S1355617703950107

The effect of the degree of illiteracy (complete or incomplete) on phonological skills, verbal and visual memory and visuospatial skills is examined in 97 normal Brazilian adults who considered themselves illiterate, and 41 Brazilian school children aged 7 to 8 years, either nonreaders or beginning readers. Similar literacy effects were observed in children and in adults. Tasks involving phonological awareness and visual recognition memory of nonsense figures distinguish the best nonreaders and beginning readers. Children performed better than adults at oral repetition of short items and figure recall, and adults better than children at semantic verbal fluency, digit span, and word list recall. A principal component analysis of the correlations between tasks showed that phonological awareness/ reading, phonological memory/oral repetition, and semantic verbal memory/fluency tasks, generated different components. The respective role of culturally based preschool activities and literacy on the cognitive functions that are explored in this study is discussed. (JINS, 2003, 9, 771–782.)