MIRRORING THE VISUAL PROCESSING OF GRAPHIC STIMULI AND THEIR POSSIBLE ASSOCIATION WITH LINGUISTIC AND COGNITIVE VARIABLES

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This research contributes to the description of aspects related to the initial development of reading and writing. Specifically, this study aims to describe the phenomenon known as mirroring, because according to Dehaene (2002) "our brain has not evolved to (dis) symmetrization of the distinctive features", so it is necessary for the brain to learn to recognize the direction of the distinctive features that give sound value for letters, numbers and symbols. The absence of studies that explore the theme of mirroring in our country, makes this research important in the perspective of helping teachers, parents and students to understand that we all go through the mirroring stage, without necessarily meaning that their presence is an indication of some learning disorder. The data are evaluated in the light of the Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems. In the field of Linguistics, especially in the process of typical and atypical language acquisition, this perspective has shown itself to be very promising, effective and current, since its theoretical and methodological assumptions enable data evaluation in line with the findings of the neuroscientific scope. This study, therefore, evaluated the process of (dis) symmetrization in the initial development of reading and writing, in students of the last year of early childhood education and classes in the literacy cycle, seeking, among other aspects, to identify the high presence of evidence of mirroring in these series, both at the level of written production and of recognition in reading, to evaluate possible associations of mirroring with variables of the linguistic scope: writing and reading and of the cognitive scope: intelligence. Our working hypothesis considers that, because writing is a cultural element of our times, individuals are not born naturally prepared to relate sound value and a given direction of linguistic elements. To achieve the objective of this study, variables were listed: laterality, manual preference, symbol production, punctuation marks, letters, numbers, phrases, words and writing of the name itself, as well as letter recognition, not letters, was also evaluated. , symbols from other writing systems, letters in other directions and mirrored letters, reading and writing skills and intelligence. The tasks of producing (writing) and recognizing (reading) letters and symbols inverted or mirrored as if they had a sound value were evaluated by a set of adapted tasks and, due to the absence of an instrument that could handle the mirroring assessment, a set of of tasks specifically to assess the phenomenon with elements and technique that can be applied by the teacher and parents, the aforementioned instrument is undergoing adjustments and adjustments for later publication. 129 students participated in the research, aged between 4 and 12 years, of both sexes, in a public daycare center with students from the last year of early childhood education; a public school with students from all levels of literacy; a private school with pupils in the last year of early childhood education and the entire literacy cycle in a city in the interior of Bahia. The data, non-experimental and transversal, were tabulated and treated qualitatively and quantitatively, through descriptive and correlational analysis. The correlation coefficients between evidence of mirrored production and recognition of mirrored production in this study ranged from weak to moderate significant. In our assessment, these results are due, in part, to the lack of subjects that do not mirror either at the level of production or at the level of recognition, that is, students who even knowing how to write continue to mirror at the level of recognition. Furthermore, we observed that schoolchildren who are already able to decode sign letters, numbers in the correct direction and with sound value have less evidence of mirrored production and, on the other hand, participants who are not readers yet have significant evidence of mirroring both in the production of mirrored letters and the recognition of mirrored letters. Another finding from this study showed that mirroring occurs in the visual processing of any graphic symbols; and it doesn't just happen with elements of our writing system. When comparing students with few and many signs of mirroring, we observed that signs of recognition still remain even in students who can already read. As for production tasks, the higher the level of schooling, there is a reduction in mirroring evidence, although some still show mirroring in the writing of the name and a significant percentage of writing mirrored numbers. In the comparison between linguistic segments, signs of mirroring in letters and words were observed, but there were no signs of mirroring phrases. Although methodologically we did not guarantee subjects with a proficient reader profile and without any evidence of mirroring, our data suggest the performance in a complex bundle of variables to explain both subjects with little evidence of mirroring and those with enough evidence. In the relationship between linguistic and cognitive variables, as some variables develop, there is compatible development of other variables. This study contributes to new findings in the understanding of writing development since mirroring can happen as a natural process, however when there is an advance in the student's maturational development and he continues to mirror other aspects such as dyslexia should be investigated. This study contributes to the description of aspects related to the initial development.