Which disciplines underpin the science of reading?

• A. Cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and education
• B. Astronomy, chemistry
• C. Geography, history
• D. Music, art

Answer: (A)

Reading science draws on these four fields: how people think and learn (cognitive psychology), how language works (linguistics), what happens in the brain when we read (neuroscience), and how research translates into classroom practice and policy (education). Cognitive psychology helps explain the mental processes involved in reading, such as decoding, word recognition, memory, attention, and comprehension. Linguistics provides the knowledge about how sounds map to letters, how words are built, and how sentence structure and meaning support understanding. Neuroscience shows which brain circuits are active during reading and how those networks develop and can be supported or strengthened with instruction. Education grounds all of this in real-world teaching—how to design explicit, evidence-based instruction, assess progress, and implement strategies that help diverse learners become proficient readers.

The other disciplines—astronomy and chemistry; geography and history; music and art—do not directly address the fundamental cognitive, linguistic, neural, and instructional processes that underlie how reading is learned and how reading skills are developed.