Temporal processing in dyslexia

The temporal processing capabilities of 15 children with dyslexia versus 15 age-matched and 15 reading-matched controls in a word identification task were ex-amined. The hypothesis underlying the present experiment was that word recogni-tion would be inferior in children with dyslexia, relative to controls, when the task demanded the temporal integration (sequencing) of two-syllable words. Such a hypothesis must predict that one-syllable word recognition does not distinguish be-tween these two populations and that these effects cannot be accounted for in terms of eye movement differences. To test this hypothesis, one- and two-syllable words displayed for 100, 300, and 3,000 msec were required to be identified. The results yielded evidence of decreased accuracy of word identification by the children with dyslexia in the two-syllable, 300-msec condition, as predicted. A second experiment was unable to uncover any differences in eye movement behaviors that could ac-count for the effects observed in the first experiment. The results are discussed in terms of potential sequential processing deficits in individuals with dyslexia. Approaches to the study of dyslexia have converged from a diverse va