The Role of Visual Processing in Learning to Read Chinese Characters

This study investigated the development of two types of visual processing, visual processing of geometric figures (geometric-figure processing) and visual processing of character configurations (character-configuration processing), and their respective contributions to Chinese reading. Participants were 116 Chinese children from junior kindergarten to Grade 2. The development of geometric-figure processing was not related to literacy experience, as there was little improvement from senior kindergarten to Grade 1. In contrast, children in Grade 1 outperformed those in senior kindergarten on character-configuration processing. With respect to the relationship with character reading, geometric-figure processing predicted reading only in kindergarten, whereas character-configuration processing explained unique variance in reading in both kindergarten and primary grades. The results suggest that the two types of visual processing skills may have different underlying mechanisms. Character-configuration processing is more closely related to character reading than geometric-figure processing.