Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 400-407.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.03.10

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The Effect of Visual-audio Modalities on Text Comprehension in Chinese Children

JIANG Mengwen, LENG Qiuyi, LI Hong   

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children's Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Published:2026-05-15

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Abstract: This study aimed to explore the effect of modalities on text comprehension in Chinese children across different grades. In Experiment 1, participants were 298 elementary children in Grades 2, 4 and 6. We compared their text comprehension under two modalities (listening only, reading only). In Experiment 2, participants were 466 elementary children in Grades 1 through 5. We added dual-modality text comprehension and compared their text comprehension under three modalities (listening only, reading only, and dual-modality). The character recognition efficiency test assessed children’s decoding ability to explore its role in the modality effect model on text comprehension. The results indicated that: (1) Reading comprehension equals listening comprehension by Grade 2; (2) Dual-modality text comprehension is more beneficial; (3) Strong decoding skills accelerate parity between listening and reading comprehension in early grades. This study reveals the impact of modalities on Chinese children’s text comprehension, offering significant implications for future educational practices.

Key words: text comprehension, modality, decoding, primary stage

CLC Number: 

  • G442
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