Attention and Reading Comprehension in University Students

Abstract

The reading processes are performed from a series of neurocognitive components among which the visual functionality is necessary for the intervention it has through accommodation skills, convergence and saccadic movements, the latter being the characteristic movements of the eyes to focus on words, make regressions or jumps from one space to another that allows you to direct your gaze to assimilate visual information correctly. Visual dysfunction, especially saccades, is a problem in the university student because it hinders their reading comprehension skills as a result of infrequent ocular motility. In the present investigation, the relationship between saccades and reading comprehension of university students was analyzed, with a type of descriptive- correlational study; the sample consisted of 36 students of the clinical psychology career and 35 students of psycho-pedagogy of the first semester in the Technical University of Machala (UTMACH). Participants were given the K-D test to assess the saccades and the Cloze test to evaluate the comprehensive reading. The main result was that there is a statistically significant relationship between saccades and comprehensive reading of first level students.