Spatial perspective taking and reading comprehension ability of fourth grade students.

Abstract

Reading is a communication medium for the expression and reception of meaning between an author and a reader. According to Piagetian cognitive developmental theory, verbal communication is dependent upon the speaker's ability to put himself in the place of the listener and construct a message the listener will be likely to understand. Piagetian theory has been applied to reading to explain the acquisition of reading skills, particularly work attack skills, and below grade level readers have been found to score significantly lower on tasks of conservation than did children reading at or above grade level. However, a review of the literature revealed no study of reading comprehension in terms of the reader's ability to take another person's point of view.

The basic purpose of this study was to determine whether nine year olds capable of taking another's literal spatial perspective performed better on a test of reading comprehension than did nine year olds who could not successfully "decenter" from their own points of view. Two hundred fifty fourth graders, 126 males and 124 females, age 9.0 to 9.6 were administered the Coordination of perspectives test, a variation of Piaget and Inhelder's three-mountain task, and the STEP Series II Reading test, a group test of reading comprehension.

A two-way analysis of variance of mean reading comprehension raw scores and stage of perspective taking revealed no statistically significant differences. A subsidiary phase of the study involved analysis of each group's performance on different item types of the reading comprehension test. Results were interpreted as evidence of a trend toward increased comprehension of items which required understanding the author's point of view with increase in stage of spatial perspective taking.