Dr. James Hinshelwood believed word blindness was related to which part of the brain?

Dr. James Hinshelwood's research on word blindness, which is now more commonly recognized as a form of dyslexia, linked this condition directly to the visual memory system. Specifically, he proposed that difficulties in recognizing words were associated with impairments in processing visual information crucial for reading. This understanding implies that individuals experiencing word blindness struggle to connect visual stimuli (the letters and words) with their corresponding meanings, largely due to dysfunction in the brain’s visual processing areas.

The other options relate to different cognitive functions that do not directly address the visual aspect of reading. Auditory processing pertains to how the brain interprets sounds and spoken language rather than visual inputs. Language comprehension involves understanding spoken or written language but does not specifically correlate with the visual difficulties observed in word blindness. Spatial awareness involves the perception of space and the positioning of objects, which, while crucial for reading to some extent, does not precisely connect to the visual processing challenges of word recognition that Hinshelwood focused on. Thus, the connection to the visual memory system is vital in comprehending the specific nature of word blindness as proposed by Hinshelwood.