Previous research has revealed conflicting results with regard to the role of the magnocellular visual system in reading and dyslexia. In order to investigate this further, the present study examined the relationship between performance on two magnocellular tasks (temporal gap detection and coherent motion), reading rate (oral and silent), and…

A controversial question in reading research is whether dyslexia is associated with impairments in the magnocellular system and, if so, how these low-level visual impairments might affect reading acquisition. This study used a novel chromatic flicker perception task to specifically explore "temporal" aspects of magnocellular functioning…

Linkage studies of complex phenotypes such as reading ability/disability (developmental dyslexia or reading disorder) and related componential processes, where the effects attributable to individual genes appear to be modest, are critically dependent on the nature and composition of the samples and the phenotypes analyzed. Thus, it might be…

Considers how people read and why some people fail to read well. Discusses the definitions of developmental dyslexia and temporal processing. Illustrates construals of what a temporal processing deficit might entail. Suggests that discovery of an association between a neuroanatomical and/or neurophysiological measure and reading ability is not…

This study examined the role of motivational or attitudinal factors, such as achievement beliefs and behaviours, in learning to read before receiving formal instruction. A total of 200 Finnish children were examined at ages 5 and 6 and 1/2. Half of them (n = 107) had a familial risk for dyslexia. The results showed that those children who were…

Forty dyslexic children were given a version of the Stroop test which requires subjects to respond to attributes of a set of stimuli while ignoring the conflicting information that derives from another attribute. A negative linear relationship emerged indicating that greater reading proficiency was associated with less interference. (MKM)

Argues that use of intelligence as an aptitude benchmark in the definition of dyslexia conceals illogical assumptions about the concept of potential. Concludes that the validity of a severe discrepancy between aptitude and achievement as the defining feature of dyslexia has yet to be established sufficiently to justify differential educational…

Examines the etiology of high reading ability in twin pairs. Suggests that reading ability and its cognitive correlates are on a continuous distribution, with both extremes of the distribution being similarly heritable. Supports the hypothesis that the same cognitive processes that are associated with dyslexia are important for the development of…

Examines the performance on verbal short-term memory tasks of specifically reading disabled children relative to reading-age matched and chronological-age matched control groups. Examines memory span for words, highly wordlike nonwords and less wordlike nonwords, speech rates for these items, and nonword repetition. Suggests that there is a…

This article provides a brief overview of the various areas of research that have served to clarify the condition of dyslexia. Using topics and content appearing in A. L. Benton and D. Pearl's (1978) text, Dyslexia: An Appraisal of Current Knowledge, as the point of departure, evolution of the definitions of dyslexia is traced to the current and…

Reviews attempts to adequately define dyslexia with a focus on recent efforts at developing a nosology of dyslexia and discusses the neurological basis of reading and severe reading failure with an emphasis on validating evidence provided through brain-mapping procedures and postmortem studies. (HOD)

Evaluates the hypothesis that dyslexic children have a specific deficit in phonological reading processes to elucidate the characteristics of developmental dyslexics' reading skills. Finds no evidence for distinct subtypes of dyslexia, although recent conceptualizations of reading development provide a better framework in which to investigate…

The information in this volume documents the author's extensive series of investigations concerning the syntactic abilities of good readers compared to dyslexics with reading comprehension difficulties. Findings corroborate the importance of syntactic ability in the reading process and confirm Goodman's psycholinguistic model of reading. Chapters…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether primary dyslexic children are impaired equally in the areas of language and cognition and to assess the value of verbal cues in raising the dyslexic group's performance on word-retrieval tasks. Two groups of male children were used in the investigation. The experimental group consisted of primary…

There is strong converging evidence suggesting that developmental dyslexia stems from a phonological processing deficit. However, this hypothesis has been challenged by the widely admitted heterogeneity of the dyslexic population, and by several reports of dyslexic individuals with no apparent phonological deficit. In this paper, we discuss the…