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Processing of derived forms in high-functioning dyslexics

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Abstract

We report on an experiment designed to evaluate processing of derived forms in high-functioning dyslexics, defined as university students with a history of reading difficulties who have age-appropriate reading comprehension skills. We compared high-functioning dyslexics with a group of normal adult readers in their performance on a lexical decision task with derived items (such as cloudy and ably) and pseudo-derived items (such as belly and gravy). Some items contained an orthographic change (such as able-ably and gravy) and others did not (such as cloud - cloudy). The results indicated that although control participants’ response times varied systematically as a function of morphological complexity, those of high-functioning dyslexics did not. Further, there was some evidence of a relationship between derivational processing and reading. It seems that high-functioning dyslexics have persistent difficulties in processing one particular aspect of morphology; that of derived forms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, LSC, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, B3H 4J1, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    S. Hélène Deacon

  2. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Rauno Parrila

  3. Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    John R. Kirby

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  1. S. Hélène Deacon
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  2. Rauno Parrila
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Correspondence to S. Hélène Deacon.

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Deacon, S.H., Parrila, R. & Kirby, J.R. Processing of derived forms in high-functioning dyslexics. Ann. of Dyslexia 56, 103–128 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-006-0005-3

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