UNDERSTANDING LITERACY AND COGNITION - TRENDS IN PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ANDNEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

An overview of interdisciplinary efforts from a variety of research fi elds in the area of literacy is provided. Particular attention is give n to research in the etiology of developmental reading disorder (dysle xia). Medical, psycholinguistic, cognitive, and neuropsychological mod els of differential reading behavior of normal and dyslexic individual s have united in recent years. Theories of laterality in human cerebra l hemisphere development and visual, phonological, and motor processin g were once researched almost in isolation of one another. Recent conn ections made among these and other seemingly disparate theories have r esulted in testable and integrative hypotheses, which are researched w ith behavioral and neurophysiological methods. This new research appea rs to be bringing us closer to an understanding of the most proximal n eurological functions attached to cognitive linguistic processing, whi ch explain the consistently observed behaviors common to developmental reading disorders.