ERIC Number: ED535726
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Feb
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2159-5542
EISSN: N/A
Auditory Temporal Processing as a Specific Deficit among Dyslexic Readers
Fostick, Leah; Bar-El, Sharona; Ram-Tsur, Ronit
Online Submission, Psychology Research v2 n2 p77-88 Feb 2012
The present study focuses on examining the hypothesis that auditory temporal perception deficit is a basic cause for reading disabilities among dyslexics. This hypothesis maintains that reading impairment is caused by a fundamental perceptual deficit in processing rapid auditory or visual stimuli. Since the auditory perception involves a number of mechanisms and temporal processing is only one of them, in the current paper, we tested, in addition to auditory temporal processing, also auditory intensity and spectral processing among dyslexic and normal readers. In addition, we examined whether poor performance of dyslexic readers in auditory temporal processing tasks results from a difficulty in working memory, by testing differences in auditory processing, controlling for working memory. Thirty-seven adult dyslexic readers and 40 adult normal readers performed a battery of tests measuring auditory temporal processing (gap detection and dichotic temporal order judgment), auditory intensity processing (absolute threshold and intensity discrimination), auditory spectral processing (spectral temporal order judgment) and working memory (backward digit span). Performance on auditory spectral and temporal processing task was poorer among dyslexic readers, as compared to normal readers, even after controlling for working memory, but no difference was found in intensity processing tasks. These results suggest that dyslexic readers exhibit a specific deficit in auditory temporal processing, which cannot be attributed either to general perceptual deficit in auditory processing, or to working memory. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures, and 1 footnote.)
Descriptors: Dyslexia, Visual Stimuli, Reading Difficulties, Auditory Perception, Short Term Memory, Adults, Auditory Stimuli, Comparative Analysis, Language Processing, Phonology, Correlation, Feedback (Response), Auditory Discrimination, Perceptual Impairments, Cognitive Processes, Foreign Countries
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Israel
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A