Attentional bias toward reading in reluctant readers

• Published in: Contemporary educational psychology 2016-07, Vol.46, p.263-271
• Main Authors: Nielen, Thijs M.J., Mol, Suzanne E., Sikkema-de Jong, Maria T., Bus, Adriana G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied psychology; Attentional bias; Check Lists; Checklists; Clinical psychology; Educational psychology; Grade 4; Grade 7; Health psychology; Learning; Meta-analysis; Negative Attitudes; Primary Education; Reading as a source of threat; Reading Difficulties; Reading instruction; Reluctant readers; Resistance; Resistance (Psychology); Secondary education; Stimuli; Students in grades 4–8; Threatening; Visual dot probe task
• ISSN: 0361-476X; 1090-2384
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2015.11.004

•With a print exposure list we identified reading reluctant students in Grades 4–8.•Using the visual dot probe task we measured attentional bias.•Reluctant readers show an attentional bias toward reading stimuli.•This indicates that reluctant readers perceive reading as a source of threat.•To promote reading we need to make reading less threatening for these students. Is reading subconsciously experienced as a source of threat by reading reluctant (RR) students which may explain their persistent resistance to reading? In four separate studies (N = 1205), we used a print exposure checklist to identify RR students in primary education (Grades 4 and 5) and secondary education (Grades 7 and 8) in the Netherlands. The visual dot probe task, commonly used to assess feelings of threat in clinical and health psychology, was applied to reading to test whether RR students indeed selectively attended to reading-related stimuli. Using a meta-analytical approach, we found that RR students scoring zero or below on a print exposure checklist were not only less proficient readers with a more negative attitude toward reading as compared to more enthusiastic readers, but also showed an attentional bias toward reading. The findings corroborate the theory that about 60% of reluctant readers avoid reading because reading is a source of threat to them. As part of promoting reading we need to find ways to make reading a less threatening activity for those students.