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. 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.

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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

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