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The cognitive profile of adult dyslexics and its relation to their reading abilities

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Abstract

The question of which cognitive impairments are primarily associated with dyslexia has been a source of continuous debate. This study examined the cognitive profile of Hebrew-speaking compensated adult dyslexics and investigated whether their cognitive abilities accounted for a unique variance in their reading performance. Sixty-nine young adults with and without dyslexia were administered a battery of tests measuring their reading skills and a number of cognitive abilities. The dyslexics were found to exhibit a generally poor cognitive profile, including their attention, visual working memory, naming, visual perception and speed of processing abilities, with the exception of high executive functions skills. Furthermore, naming speed, visual working memory and attention were significantly associated with decoding and fluency measures and predicted group difference after controlling for phonological skills. The findings point to the contribution of cognitive factors to decoding rate and possibly to the ability of utilizing rapid orthographic processes, thus effecting dyslexics’ reading performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Hanin Beidas, Asaid Khateb & Zvia Breznitz

  2. Department of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel

    Hanin Beidas, Asaid Khateb & Zvia Breznitz

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  1. Hanin Beidas
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  2. Asaid Khateb
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Correspondence to Zvia Breznitz.

Appendix

Appendix

A description of the N-CPC baseline cognitive tasks and the cognitive abilities they measure.

Task 1. Object on a square: In this task, the participant is required to track the movement of an object (on a square) while keeping the mouse cursor exactly in the center of the object. This task measured sustained attention, spatial perception and hand-eye coordination.

Tasks 2, 3 and 4. Circle, Colors, Circle and Colors: In the first task, the participant is required to track a ball in circle with the mouse cursor. This task measures spatial perception, sustained attention, and hand eye-coordination. The second task is a STROOP like task in which the participant is presented with a colored word and is required to press the space-bar if the word matched the color. This task measures inhibition. The third task is a combination of Tasks 2 & 3; to track a ball with the mouse using one hand and simultaneously perform the STROOP like-task by pressing the space bar with the other hand. This task measures divided attention.

Task 5. Pictures and cards: A combination of three objects is presented on the screen. The participant is required to click on the card that contains the combination of the three objects exactly as they appeared previously. Exposure time and the distance between the objects change from trial to trial. This task measures visual working memory and response time.

Task 6. Solid Circle: In this task, the participant is required to click on a ball appearing at different locations on the screen. A distracting yellow hoop will also appear on the screen, however, the participant is required to ignore the hoop and continue clicking on the ball. This task measures, visual scanning, sustained attention and avoiding distractors.

Task 7. Flowers & Number: This task has four parts. In the first part a number of scattered flowers are presented on the screen. Some of the flowers will light up sequentially one after the other. The participant is required to click on the flowers and repeat the exact sequence in order. The second part is similar to part one, however, a second lightening pattern is presented after the required sequence, which the participant is required to ignore. In the third part, a number sequence is presented (one number after the other), and the participant is required to repeat the exact sequence. In the fourth part, numbers are presented one after the other, and the participant has to repeat them in reverse order. This task measures visual working memory, avoiding distractors and visual perception.

Task 8. Blue Square: In this task, the participant is required to move the cursor to the middle of a square presented on the screen, and to click 6 times as quickly as possible on this location. This task measures eye-hand coordination.

Task 9. Blue bulb: In this task, a bulb is presented on the screen and lights up several times. The participant is required to press on the bulb every time it lights as fast as possible. This task measures response time.

Task 10. Higher numbers-Bigger squares: This task contains two parts. In the first part two squares are presented on the screen; each of them contains a number. The size of the squares and the numbers vary. The participant is required to click on the bigger square, as quickly as possible. In the second part, the participant is required to click on the square that contains the higher number, as quickly as possible. This task measures shifting attention.

Task 11. The Numbers: In this task, the participant is required to click on ten consecutive numbers in clockwise direction as quickly as possible. This task measures reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and spatial perception.

Task 12. Pictures and words: In this task, pictures of objects are displayed on the screen, one after the other, followed by visually or auditory presented words. The participant is required to decide whether or not the word is actually the name of the object in the picture by pressing on one of two different keys. This task measures naming, verbal auditory working memory and visual working memory.

Task 13. The Ball: In this task, the participant is required to track a ball moving in different directions with the cursor. This task measures sustained attention and spatial perception.

Task 14. The Mazes: In this task, the participant is required to move the ball from the upper right corner to the lower left corner of three mazes finding the shortest path possible. The level of complexity increases with each subsequent maze. The software measures the number of errors made per maze. This task measures planning.

Task 15. The Television: In this task, the participant is required to listen to two sounds or to look at two pictures and estimate which picture (or sound) was presented for a longer duration. This task measures visual working memory, auditory (non-linguistic) working memory and time estimation.

Task 16. The Letters: In this task, pictures or objects are presented on the screen for a short period of time. After the picture disappears, four different letters are displayed. The participant is required to choose the first letter of the name of the object and to click on it as quickly as possible. This task measures naming and response time.

Task 17. Objects seen or heard before: A series of objects are presented on the screen. The participant is required to decide whether or not the object was presented in earlier tasks. The participant should also state whether it was a visual or an auditory presentation. This task measures awareness.

General memory was computed by the software as an average from several memory constructs such as recalling names, verbal working memory and visual perception (visual spatial working memory).

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Beidas, H., Khateb, A. & Breznitz, Z. The cognitive profile of adult dyslexics and its relation to their reading abilities. Read Writ 26, 1487–1515 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9428-5

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