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Do dyslexics misread a ROWS for a ROSE?

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Abstract

Insufficient knowledge of the subtle relations between words’ spellings and their phonology is widely held to be the primary limitation in developmental dyslexia. In the present study the influence of phonology on a semantic-based reading task was compared for groups of readers with and without dyslexia. As many studies have shown, skilled readers make phonology-based false-positive errors to homophones and pseudohomophones in the semantic categorization task. The basic finding was extended to children, teens, and adults with dyslexia from familial and clinically-referred samples. Dyslexics showed the same overall pattern of phonology errors and the results were consistent across dyslexia samples, across age groups, and across experimental conditions using word and nonword homophone foils. The dyslexic groups differed from chronological-age matched controls by having elevated false-positive homophone error rates overall, and weaker effects of baseword frequency. Children with dyslexia also made more false-positive errors to spelling control foils. These findings suggest that individuals with dyslexia make use of phonology when making semantic decisions both to word homophone and non-word pseudohomophone foils and that dyslexics lack adequate knowledge of actual word spellings, compared to chronological-age and reading-level matched control participants.

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Acknowledgments

Data collection was supported by an award of research funds from The Developmental Psychobiology Endowment Fund, University of Colorado School of Medicine, to Guy Van Orden; preparation of this article was supported by an NSF grant (BCS #0843133), also to Guy Van Orden.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Developmental and Learning Sciences Research Center, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210105, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0105, USA

    Beth A. O’Brien

  2. CAP Center for Cognition, Action and Perception, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Guy C. Van Orden

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Bruce F. Pennington

Authors
  1. Beth A. O’Brien
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  2. Guy C. Van Orden
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  3. Bruce F. Pennington
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Correspondence to Beth A. O’Brien.

Appendices

Appendix 1

 

Category

Homophone foil

Spelling control

Words

 A part of a building

Seller

Teller

 A part of a building

Stare

Start

 A non-alcoholic beverage

Tee

Ten

 A carpenter’s tool

Plain

Place

 A metal

Steal

Steep

 A part of a lion’s body

Tale

Talk

 A four-footed animal

Dear

Dyer

 A body of water

See

Set

 A vegetable

Beats

Belts

 A flower

Rows

Robs

Nonwords

 A vegetable

Karret

Sarret

 A four-footed animal

Sheap

Shelp

 A tree

Oke

Onk

 A part of the human body

Brane

Brafe

 An article of clothing

Shurt

Shart

 A place of confinement

Jale

Jalk

 A vehicle

Jeap

Jelp

 Things in a woman’s purse

Kee

Ket

 A weather phenomenon

Sleat

Slert

 A kitchen utensil

Bole

Bolf

Appendix 2

 

Category

Homophone foil

Spelling control

Low frequency

 A place to shop

Maul

Mull

 A four-footed animal

Dear

Dyer

 Part of a ship

Sale

Soil

 A part of a bike

Break

Brave

 An insect

Flee

Fled

 A vegetable

Beats

Belts

 A part of a horse’s body

Main

Many

 A wild animal

Bore

Born

 A part of a dress

Seem

Slam

 A small stream

Creak

Cheek

High frequency

 Part of a house

Haul

Hail

 Part of the human body

Feat

Felt

 A color

Blew

Bled

 A carpenter’s tool

Plain

Place

 A four-footed animal

Bare

Beer

 A metal

Steal

Steep

 A servant

Made

Mail

 A part of the human body

Hare

Harp

 Type of food

Meet

Melt

 A feature of an ocean shore

Beech

Belch

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O’Brien, B.A., Van Orden, G.C. & Pennington, B.F. Do dyslexics misread a ROWS for a ROSE?. Read Writ 26, 381–402 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-012-9373-8

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