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Cognitive consequences of early phase of literacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2003

GEORGES DELLATOLAS
Affiliation:
INSERM, U.472, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, IFR 69, Villejuif, France
LUCIA WILLADINO BRAGA
Affiliation:
SARAH network, Brasilia, Brazil
LIGIA DO NASCIMENTO SOUZA
Affiliation:
SARAH network, Brasilia, Brazil
GILBERTO NUNES FILHO
Affiliation:
SARAH network, Brasilia, Brazil
ELIZABETH QUEIROZ
Affiliation:
SARAH network, Brasilia, Brazil
GÉRARD DELOCHE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Reims, France and INSERM U.472

Abstract

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.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2003 The International Neuropsychological Society

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