Date of Award
12-1986
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Education
First Advisor
Robert Beebe
Second Advisor
Ronald Partridge
Third Advisor
Lucinda Leigh
Relational Format
Dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This study was designed to determine relationships between cognitive asymmetry, gender, and reading achievement of black students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The sample consisted of black students from Central High School, a school of 1300 students located in an economically deprived area in eastern Arkansas. The sample was administered tests to determine right/left cognitive asymmetry and level of reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to determine relationships between cognitive asymmetry and reading comprehension for males, females, and the total population of black, low socioeconomic students. The study also investigated differences in cognitive asymmetry between the male and female population as well as their differences in reading comprehension. Three null hypotheses were tested using Pearson product-moment correlation:
Hypothesis 1. There is no statistically significant correlation between reading comprehension and cognitive asymmetry for the total population.
Hypothesis 2. There is no statistically significant correlation between reading comprehension and cognitive asymmetry for the males in the black population.
Hypothesis 3* There is no statistically significant correlation between reading comprehension and cognitive asymmetry for the females in the black population. Two additional hypotheses were tested using the t test for the difference between means.
Hypothesis 4. There is no statistically significant difference between the cognitive asymmetry of males and females in the black population.
Hypothesis 5. There is no statistically significant difference between the reading comprehension of males and females in the black population. Using an alpha level of .05, hypotheses 1,2, 3, and 5 were retained. Hypothesis 4 was rejected. Conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were offered for research, practice, and further theoretical work in this area.
Recommended Citation
Wesson, Linda Hampton, "Hemisphericity and Reading Comprehension: A Study of Black Students from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds" (1986). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1951.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1951