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Visual and Auditory Interference Control of Attention in Developmental Dyslexia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2019

Yafit Gabay Open the ORCID record for Yafit Gabay [Opens in a new window] ,
Shai Gabay ,
Rachel Schiff  and
Avishai Henik
Yafit Gabay*
Affiliation:
Department of Special Education and the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa31905, Israel
Shai Gabay
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and the Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Haifa31905, Israel
Rachel Schiff
Affiliation:
School of Education and Haddad Center for Research in Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan5290002, Israel
Avishai Henik
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 653, Israel
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Yafit Gabay, Department of Special Education, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel. E-mail: ygabay@edu.haifa.ac.il
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Abstract

An accumulating body of evidence highlights the contribution of general cognitive processes, such as attention, to language-related skills.

Objective:

The purpose of the present study was to explore how interference control (a subcomponent of selective attention) is affected in developmental dyslexia (DD) by means of control over simple stimulus-response mappings. Furthermore, we aimed to examine interference control in adults with DD across sensory modalities.

Methods:

The performance of 14 dyslexic adults and 14 matched controls was compared on visual/auditory Simon tasks, in which conflict was presented in terms of an incongruent mapping between the location of a visual/auditory stimulus and the appropriate motor response.

Results:

In the auditory task, dyslexic participants exhibited larger Simon effect costs; namely, they showed disproportionately larger reaction times (RTs)/errors costs when the auditory stimulus and response were incongruent relative to RT/errors costs of non-impaired readers. In the visual Simon task, both groups presented Simon effect costs to the same extent.

Conclusion:

These results indicate that the ability to control auditory selective attention is carried out less effectively in those with DD compared with visually controlled processing. The implications of this impaired process for the language-related skills of individuals with DD are discussed.

Keywords

AdultsDevelopmental dyslexiaInhibitionInterference controlSelective attentionSensory modalitySimon task

Information

Type
Regular Research
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , April 2020 , pp. 407 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © INS. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019

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