The Superiority of Distributed Practice in Drill in Arithmetic

Abstract

Forty-three second and third grade non-readers who were diagnosed as having visual perceptual deficiencies were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received training in visual analysis, which included visual short-term memory, visual discrimination of letters and words, and remedial instruction. The control group received only remedial instruction. After seven months, there was no significant difference between the groups in visual perception or achievement of reading skills. However, there was a significant mean difference between pretest and posttest scores for both groups on all measures tested. Experimental subjects gained 8.9 months in reading achievement versus 9.2 months for controls, indicating that visual discrimination and visual memory of word training influenced the achievement of reading skills for this group to the same degree as did a remedial program without visual training.