Impact of Learning to Read on Directionality in Perception: a Further Cross-Cultural Analysis

Abstract

This study is a further cross-cultural test of the processes underlying developmental changes in the directionality of perceptual exploration associated with the learning of reading and writing in school. 20 right-handed children in all grades of a Jewish and an Arab city elementary school were individually tested in exploration tasks. As expected the right-left tendency in the Arab children was much stronger, lasting into the upper grades. It was possible to trace the impact of the introduction of English into the curriculum into systematic changes in the perceptual exploration task. These findings were related to proposed differences in the acquisition of reading in Hebrew and Arabic.