The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1448817
This article is part of the Research Topic Neuropsychological Testing: From Psychometrics to Clinical Neuropsychology View all 11 articles
Short Italian Wilkins Rate of Reading Test for repeated-measures designs in optometry and neuropsychology
Provisionally accepted- 1 IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
- 2 Department of Education, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
- 3 Department of Materials Science, School of Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
- 4 Research Centre in Optics and Optometry, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- 5 Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Background: The recently published New Italian version of the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test (standard Italian WRRT) was designed to measure reading speed in repeated-measures designs in research and/or clinical examinations. The test features 15 equivalent 10-line passages made up of unrelated words, adhering to the principles established by the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test in English (original WRRT). Aim: To develop a short Italian version of the WRRT (SI-WRRT), and to determine the equivalence across the new, shorter passages of text. The introduction of 5-line passages, instead of the original 10-line ones, aims to enhance the tool's suitability for the elderly or neuropsychological patients by reducing administration time.The same fifteen high-frequency Italian words from the standard Italian WRRT were used to generate 15 5-line passages for the SI-WRRT. Comprehensive eye examination and vision assessment, including the Radner Reading Charts, were performed before the administration of the SI-WRRT. Forty healthy Italian-speaking higher education students read the SI-WRRT passages aloud in random order. Reading speed and accuracy were measured offline from digital recordings of the readings. Equivalence across passages and the effects of practice and fatigue were assessed for reading speed and accuracy, along with test-retest reliability.Results: No significant difference in reading speed was found across 14 out of the 15 passages.In addition, no differences were observed in accuracy, and the error rate was very low. Practice and fatigue effects were minimal for reading speed, whereas they were absent for accuracy.Reading speed, the reference metric for the WRRT, showed moderate-to-good test-retest reliability.Equivalence was confirmed across fourteen passages of the SI-WRRT. Therefore, the test may be suitable for examining the elderly or neuropsychological patients, as reading time of the 5-line passages is halved with respect to the standard Italian WRRT. However, the 5-line passages still allow the assessment of prolonged reading. Since one passage was not equivalent, we recommend avoiding the use of random rearrangements of words without formally checking their validity.
Keywords: DN: Methodology, Validation, Writingoriginal draft, Writing -review & editing, GCR: Data curation, Investigation, Writing -review & editing, RD: Resources, Writing -review & editing, ST: Resources, Supervision, Writing -review & editing, FZ: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing -original draft, Writing -review & editing
Received: 13 Jun 2024; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 De Luca, Nardo, Rizzo, Daini, Tavazzi and Zeri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Giulia C. Rizzo, Department of Materials Science, School of Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.