Visual search and reading comprehension in Chinese children: examining mediation through word reading fluency and listening comprehension

The present study explored the intermediary role of word reading fluency and listening comprehension in the relationship between visual-spatial attention and reading comprehension in Chinese. A total of 206 grade 4 Mandarin-speaking children (56.8% boys, M_age = 10.16 years, SD = 0.37) were followed for 10 months. Visual-spatial attention was assessed using visual search tasks. Structural equation modeling revealed significant direct and indirect effects of visual search skills on later reading comprehension through word reading fluency and listening comprehension, even with phonological and morphological skills controlled for. However, when reading comprehension at Time 1 was further controlled, only the mediation of listening comprehension remained significant. Further multiple regression analyses showed that inefficient search skills were linked to word reading fluency, whereas efficient search skills contributed to listening comprehension and later reading comprehension. These findings highlight the possible mediating role of listening comprehension in understanding the relationship between visual-spatial attention and reading comprehension. More importantly, the results underscore the distinct visual-spatial attentional mechanisms across concurrent and longitudinal reading abilities and point to the shared bottom-up visual attributes that support text-level reading across different modalities.