ABSTRACT

Environmental prints (e.g., the name “Mcdonald’s” on advertising boards) provide a visual environment rich in written words at the early stage of learning to read. Children’s attention to words is closely related to the process of learning to read. However, what remains unclear is how children’s attention to words in environmental prints develops and is related to their reading ability before conventional reading training begins. Using the eye-tracking technique, the present study examined the early development of attention to words in environmental prints. Four-, five-, and six-year-old preschool children were tested. We transformed the original format of each environmental print into three versions with gradually minimized contextual cues (i.e., colour, logo, and font type). The results showed that attentional bias towards words increases with age even before conventional reading training. Moreover, it appears that a rapid increase occurs between the ages of four and five. The logo cue (rather than colour cue or font type cue) has a salient effect on the attentional bias towards words. Attentional bias towards words is increased with children’s reading ability.

摘要

环境印刷品（例如，广告牌上的“麦当劳”名称）在学习阅读的早期阶段提供了丰富的书面文字的视觉环境。儿童对单词的注意力与学习阅读的过程密切相关。然而，在传统阅读训练开始之前，儿童对环境印刷品中单词的注意力是如何发展的，并且与他们的阅读能力有关，目前尚不清楚。本研究使用眼动追踪技术，检查了对环境印刷品中文字的关注的早期发展。对四岁、五岁和六岁的学龄前儿童进行了测试。我们将每个环境印刷品的原始格式转换为三个版本，逐渐减少上下文线索（即颜色、徽标和字体类型）。结果表明，即使在常规阅读训练之前，对单词的注意力偏见也会随着年龄的增长而增加。此外，似乎在 4 到 5 岁之间出现了快速增长。标志提示（而不是颜色提示或字体类型提示）对单词的注意力偏差有显着影响。随着儿童阅读能力的提高，对单词的注意力偏向会增加。