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. 2024;39(3):330-340.
doi: 10.1080/23273798.2023.2288319. Epub 2023 Dec 7.

Dyslexics Exhibit an Orthographic, Not a Phonological Deficit in Lexical Decision

Steven G Luke  1 , Toni Brown  1 , Cole Smith  1 , Adriana Gutierrez  1 , Celeste Tolley  1 , Olivia Ford  1
Affiliations

Dyslexics Exhibit an Orthographic, Not a Phonological Deficit in Lexical Decision

Steven G Luke et al. Lang Cogn Neurosci. 2024.

Abstract

Dyslexia is theorized to be caused by phonological deficits, visuo-attentional deficits, or some combination of the two. The present study contrasted phonological and visuo-attentional theories of dyslexia using a lexical decision task administered to adult participants with and without dyslexia. Homophone and pseudo-homophone stimuli were included to explore whether the two groups differed in their reliance on phonological encoding. Transposed-letter stimuli, including both TL neighbors and TL non-words, measured potential orthographic impairment predicted by visuo-attentional deficit theories. The findings revealed no significant difference in response time or accuracy between the groups for the homophone and pseudo-homophone stimuli. However, dyslexics were significantly slower and less accurate in their responses to the TL stimuli than controls. Thus, dyslexics presented deficits consistent with visuo-attentional theories, but not with the phonological deficit theory.

Keywords: Dyslexia; Homophone; Lexical Decision; Orthographic; Phonological; Transposed-Letter.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Accuracy for the TL Neighbor stimuli by Group and Condition
Figure 2
Figure 2
Response Times (panel A) and Accuracy (panel B) for the TL Non-Word stimuli by Group and Condition
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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