Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 19;13(2):172.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci13020172.

The Nature of Paired Associate Learning Deficits in Chinese Children with Developmental Dyslexia

Ting Yang  1   2 , Yan Cai  1   2 , Hong Liu  1   2 , Xiangping Liu  1   2
Affiliations

The Nature of Paired Associate Learning Deficits in Chinese Children with Developmental Dyslexia

Ting Yang et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Previous studies have found that individuals with dyslexia perform poorly in paired associate learning (PAL) tasks, which were explained by a deficit in cross-modal association or verbal demand in alphabetic language. However, the nature of PAL deficits in non-alphabetic languages remains unclear. In this study, we conducted PAL and priming tasks in visual-visual, visual-verbal, verbal-visual, and verbal-verbal conditions to dissociate the cross-modal and verbal demands in Chinese children with dyslexia. In Experiment 1, children with dyslexia performed worse in verbal-involved PAL (visual-verbal, verbal-visual, and verbal-verbal) than the control children. Experiment 2 revealed that children with dyslexia performed better than the control children in the verbal-visual condition. Our results suggest that children with dyslexia have an intact ability to form cross-modal associations, which also implies that phonological deficits might be the key to PAL deficits in Chinese children with dyslexia.

Keywords: cross-modal; dyslexia; paired associate learning; priming task; verbal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of visual and verbal stimuli in the paired associate learning task.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Final learning effect in four PAL conditions between dyslexic and control groups; * p < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The early learning effect in four PAL conditions between dyslexic and control groups; * p < 0.05; formula image 0.05 < p < 0.10.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The late learning effect in four PAL conditions between dyslexic and control groups; * p < 0.05.
Figure 5
Figure 5
A trial in the priming task.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Accuracy in priming task in four PAL conditions between dyslexic and control groups; * p < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Lyon G.R., Shaywitz S.E., Shaywitz B.A. A definition of dyslexia. Ann. Dyslexia. 2003;53:1–14. doi: 10.1007/s11881-003-0001-9. - DOI
    1. Aravena S., Snellings P., Tijms J., van der Molen M.W. A lab-controlled simulation of a letter-speech sound binding deficit in dyslexia. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 2013;115:691–707. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.03.009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vellutino F.R., Fletcher J.M., Snowling M.J., Scanlon D.M. Specific reading disability (dyslexia): What have we learned in the past four decades? J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry. 2004;45:2–40. doi: 10.1046/j.0021-9630.2003.00305.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Perfetti C.A., Beck I., Bell L.C., Hughes C. Phonemic knowledge and learning to read are reciprocal: A longitudinal study of first grade children. Merrill-Palmer Q. 1987;33:283–319.
    1. Albano D., Garcia R.B., Cornoldi C. Deficits in working memory visual-phonological binding in children with dyslexia. Psychol. Neurosci. 2016;9:411–419. doi: 10.1037/pne0000066. - DOI

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources