The Connection Between Reaction Time and Variation in Reading Ability: Unravelling Covariance Relationships With Cognitive Ability and Phonological Sensitivity

Abstract

Eighty-one adult participants varying in reading ability completed two choice reaction time (RT) tasks (one auditory and one visual) in conjunction with measures of phonological awareness, general cognitive ability, and word recognition ability. Replicating previous work, a significant correlation between RT and reading ability was obtained. However, several different methods of examining overlapping variance (hierarchical regression, path analysis, commonality analysis) indicated that the zero-order correlation between RT and word recognition ability was largely due to variance shared with phonological awareness and general cognitive ability. RT explained little variance in reading ability after phonological sensitivity had been partialed out and almost no unique variance after phonological sensitivity and general cognitive ability had been partialed out. In addition, the overlap in the variance of RT and phonological processing was almost entirely due to variance shared with intelligence.