A Study of Braille Reading: 1. Reading Speed as a Function of Hand Usage and Context

Abstract

Evidence regarding the respective functions of the hands in braille reading was sought by considering how reading speed is affected by hand usage and degree of contexual constraint. Twenty-four blind readers read aloud prose, statistical approximations and scrambled words with either hand alone or with the two hands. No overall superiority of one hand was observed in one-handed reading, but there were large and reliable individual differences in pattern of hand superiority, which were not related to general performance level. All subjects read faster with the two hands than with the faster hand alone. The relative gain from two-handed reading was negatively correlated with absolute size of speed difference between the hands in one-handed reading, which suggests that both hands participate in the collection of text information. On the other hand, in each reading condition, reading speed increased with degree of contextual constraint, from scrambled words to prose. The fact that the effect is comparable to the one obtained for visual reading in other studies is inconsistent with the “compensatory processing hypothesis”, according to which readers would depend more on context when the access to textual information is slower. Also inconsistent with the notion are the facts that context effects are not systematically stronger in slow than in fast readers nor for slower than faster hand combinations.