Early cognitive neuropsychological profiles and development of reading skills

The present thesis sought to investigate the precise relationship between the cognitive and psychophysiological profiles of developing readers, of established readers and of failed readers. Phonological processing tasks and visuospatial tasks were used to assess relevant auditory and visual cognitive skills; handedness and EEG measures were used to provide indices of cortical organisation and activation. A 21/2 year longitudinal investigation of some 150 pre-readers provided evidence of mutually facilitative relationships between and within specific types of phonological skill and phonological memory. Early significance of visual skills was subsequently superseded by the importance of these phonological skills. The acquisition of early reading skills was associated with a shift towards increased dextrality as measured by hand skill and hand preference; this relationship was not evident in subsequent stages. Cross-sectional studies comparing dyslexic children with chronological- and reading-age matched controls extended these findings. The dyslexic readers displayed impaired phonological processing and phonological memory skills relative to chronological-age matched competent readers; similarities were observed between dyslexics and reading-age matched controls. Visual perceptual skills failed to differentiate between the chronological-age matched competent and impaired readers, although both out-performed younger control readers. ERP measures consistently demonstrated diffuse patterns of bilateral activation in dyslexic readers as opposed to asymmetric activity lateralised to the left hemisphere in control readers. Between group comparisons of inter-hemispheric activity revealed greater levels of right-hemisphere involvement in the dyslexic samples; between group comparisons of intra-hemispheric activity revealed evidence of greater involvement of fronto-central regions in the dyslexic samples. It is proposed that these data provide supportive evidence for the central involvement of phonological processing skills in the development of reading, underpinned by the normal development of asymmetric patterns of cortical lateralisation. Children where this development is delayed or deficient will display the reading difficulties characteristic of developmental dyslexia

Scratching the Surface: Learning Styles, Training and the Acquisition of High-level Representational Drawing Ability

Accurate representational drawing is a complex skill which underpins performance in many branches of the visual arts. Research suggests that expertise typically is acquired as a result of deliberate practice and a flexible approach to learning strategies. The current study investigated how, in art students, differences in the acquisition of observational drawing skill could be characterised using domain-general expertise accounts. A cohort of undergraduate and postgraduate art students (n=682) completed questionnaires about self-perceived artistic abilities, personality and approaches to learning. A subset completed tasks of actual drawing ability (n=301), the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) test and a performance IQ test. Actual drawing ability related to time spent drawing and drawing techniques, with additional independent predictive effects of both the copying and delayed ROCF test. Effects of personality were mainly mediated via learning styles, with surface learners spending more time drawing, learning fewer techniques and acquiring a lower level of actual skill. Deep learners learned more drawing techniques, and strategic (achieving) learners acquired a higher level of drawing skill overall. The resulting model of drawing ability development has the potential to be generalised over a range of creative and non-creative domain

Art students who cannot draw: exploring the relations between drawing ability, visual memory, accuracy of copying and dyslexia

This article in the journal of the American Psychology Association is the culmination of research resulting from collaborative inquiry into the question: is there a relationship between art students’ drawing ability and factors such as dyslexia, mathematical ability or personality traits, and could these relationships inform strategies for the teaching of drawing to art students of mixed abilities? A cross-disciplinary team was formed, including two psychologists (McManus, UCL and Brunswick, Middlesex Univ.), two PhD students (Chamberlain and Loo, UCL), Rankin, coordinator for dyslexic students at the RCA , and Riley. The objective is to design pedagogical strategies for the teaching of drawing to art students who would otherwise be excluded from developing best practice through traditional teaching techniques which do not take into consideration the wide range of psychological and cognitive conditions exhibited by art school student cohorts. An early research output explored the relationship between drawing ability and dyslexia: Riley and Rankin, ‘Exploring the Link between Drawing and Dyslexia’ in BODDINGTON, A. and CLEWS, D. (eds.) 2007 Teachers’ Academy Papers: European League of Institutes of Art. Brighton: University of Brighton. pp100-104. ISBN 978-1-905593-07-1. A presentation ‘Widening Participation in the Practice of Drawing’ at the 2nd Annual Conference of the National Arts Learning Network, London, February 2008 proposed an eight-step teaching strategy based upon research addressing problems faced by dyslexics in the structuring of visual information, and this was developed in ‘Inclusive Practice: Researching the Relationships between Dyslexia, Personality and Art Students’ Drawing Ability’. Proceedings of the Include 2009 Conference. London: RCA. ISBN 978-1-905000-80-7 Available at: http://include09.kinetixevents.co.uk/4dcgi/prog. More recent research has identified a correlation between drawing ability and mathematical ability: ‘Inclusive Practice: Researching the Relationship between Maths Ability and Drawing Ability in Art Students’. In Proceedings of the Include 2011 Conference. London:RCA. ISBN 978-1-907342-29-5. Available at: http://include11.kinetixevents.co.uk/4dcgi/prog

Drawing on the right side of the brain: a voxel-based morphometry analysis of observational drawing

Structural brain differences in relation to expertise have been demonstrated in a number of domains including visual perception, spatial navigation, complex motor skills and musical ability. However no studies have assessed the structural differences associated with representational skills in visual art. As training artists are inclined to be a heterogeneous group in terms of their subject matter and chosen media, it was of interest to investigate whether there would be any consistent changes in neural structure in response to increasing representational drawing skill. In the current study a cohort of 44 graduate and post-graduate art students and non-art students completed drawing tasks. Scores on these tasks were then correlated with the regional grey and white matter volume in cortical and subcortical structures. An increase in grey matter density in the left anterior cerebellum and the right medial frontal gyrus was observed in relation to observational drawing ability, whereas artistic training (art students vs. non-art students) was correlated with increased grey matter density in the right precuneus. This suggests that observational drawing ability relates to changes in structures pertaining to fine motor control and procedural memory, and that artistic training in addition is associated with enhancement of structures pertaining to visual imagery. The findings corroborate the findings of small-scale fMRI studies and provide insights into the properties of the developing artistic brain

Talking the line: inclusive strategies for the teaching of drawing

The article reports on a series of drawing workshops held at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, which tested an original pedagogical strategy designed to help dyslexic and/or dyspraxic art and design students who had reported difficulties with their abilities to make accurate representational drawings. A group of non-dyslexic/dyspraxic RCA students volunteered as control group, and both cohorts completed three days of workshops in the Drawing Studio of the RCA. Results of recorded interviews eliciting student observations as they drew, and a questionnaire in the form of a Likert scale, administered before and after the workshop, indicate positive shifts in both cohorts’ attitudes towards specific aspects of the stages involved in the production of accurate representational drawings of still-life set-ups, the human skeleton and the clothed life-model. Assessment of the drawings produced indicates positive shifts in the two cohorts in geometric accuracy and other qualitative criteria embedded in the teaching strategy such as control of scale, proportion and illusions of depth. Both cohorts displayed similar positive attitude shifts and both sets of drawings indicated similar positive shifts in visual qualities. An interim conclusion posits that the pedagogical strategy appears to enhance the abilities of both dyslexic/dyspraxic students and non-dyslexic/dyspraxic students to make accurate representational drawings. This result correlates closely with the findings of an earlier, prototype workshop held at the RCA in July 2012. It is suggested that similar pedagogically inclusive strategies might produce positive results in the context of secondary schools as part of a more inclusive curriculum