Processing of derived forms in high-functioning dyslexics.
We report on an experiment designed to evaluate processing of derived forms in high-functioning dyslexics, defined as university students with a history of reading difficulties who have age-appropriate reading comprehension skills. We compared high-functioning dyslexics with a group of normal adult readers in their performance on a lexical decision task with derived items (such as cloudy and ably) and pseudo-derived items (such as belly and gravy). Some items contained an orthographic change (such as able-ably and gravy) and others did not (such as cloud - cloudy). The results indicated that although control participants' response times varied systematically as a function of morphological complexity, those of high-functioning dyslexics did not. Further, there was some evidence of a relationship between derivational processing and reading. It seems that high-functioning dyslexics have persistent difficulties in processing one particular aspect of morphology; that of derived forms.
Deacon
S Hélène
SH
Department of Psychology, LSC, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, B3H 4J1, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, sdeacon@dal.ca
Parrila
Rauno
R
Kirby
John R
JR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D003657:Decision Making; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014956:Writing