Many researches have shown that individual differences in cognitive processes (e.g., memory, attention and control processes) or knowledge bases (e.g., vocabulary richness) predict academic achievement, in particular literacy (reading-writing). Yet the reverse possibility that literacy acquisition itself modulates cognition has seldom been investigated.

This project will study people with poor literacy abilities: adolescents attending vocational education as well as functional illiterate adults. Researchers will train them and follow their progress through behavioral measures, including eye-movement recording. By comparing the effects of oral and of written training, they will test the hypothesis of reciprocal interaction between literacy, cognitive control, and reasoning, including critical thinking and skepticism. The implications of such interactions for citizenship will be a central aspect of the project

Spokesperson

Régine Kolinsky
Research Unit in Cognitive Neurosciences (Unescog)
Faculty of Psychology and Education

Partner

Olivier Klein
Center for social and cultural psychology (CeSCuP)
Faculty of Psychology and Education

Dates
Created on September 11, 2018