This article reports on 2 studies that attempted to replicate the findings of a study by Szmalec, Loncke, Page, and Duyck (2011) on Hebb repetition learning in dyslexic individuals, from which these authors concluded that dyslexics suffer from a deficit in long-term learning of serial order information. In 2 experiments, 1 on adolescents (N = 59) and 1 on children (N = 57), no empirical evidence was obtained for impaired Hebb learning in dyslexics, whether the same data-analytical procedure as Szmalec et al. was used or whether some methodological improvements were applied (e.g., using a more sensitive index of Hebb learning, and equating groups on filler performance with state trace analysis). In an additional state trace analysis, aggregating data over participants, it was shown that performance on the repeated Hebb sequences was almost perfectly predictable from performance on the nonrepeated sequences (fillers). The implications of these findings are outlined for the current discussion on the mechanisms for encoding immediate serial recall and long-term sequence learning and for computational models attempting to simulate these mechanisms.

The concept of overexcitability, derived from Dabrowski's theory of personality development, offers a promising approach for the study of the developmental dynamics of giftedness. The present study aimed at (a) examining the factorial structure of the Overexcitabilities Questionnaire-II scores (OEQ-II) and (b) testing measurement invariance of these scores across intelligence and gender. A sample of 641 Dutch-speaking adolescents from 11 to 15 years old, 363 girls and 278 boys, participated in this study. Results showed that a model without cross-loadings did not fit the data well (using confirmatory factor analysis), whereas a factor model in which all cross-loadings were included yielded fit statistics that were in support of the factorial structure of the OEQ-II scores (using exploratory structural equation modeling). Furthermore, our findings supported the assumption of (partial) strict measurement invariance of the OEQ-II scores across intelligence levels and across gender. Such levels of measurement invariance allow valid comparisons between factor means and factor relationships across groups. In particular, the gifted group scored significantly higher on intellectual and sensual overexcitability (OE) than the nongifted group, girls scored higher on emotional and sensual OE than boys, and boys scored higher on intellectual and psychomotor OE than girls.

This article reports two studies that investigate short-term memory (STM) deficits in dyslexic children and explores the relationship between STM and reading acquisition. In the first experiment, 36 dyslexic children and 61 control children performed an item STM task and a serial order STM task. The results of this experiment show that dyslexic children do not suffer from a specific serial order STM deficit. In addition, the results demonstrate that phonological processing skills are as closely related to both item STM and serial order STM. However, non-verbal intelligence was more strongly involved in serial order STM than in item STM. In the second experiment, the same two STM tasks were administered and reading acquisition was assessed by measuring orthographic learning in a group of 188 children. The results of this study show that orthographic learning is exclusively related to item STM and not to order STM. It is concluded that serial order STM is not the right place to look for a causal explanation of reading disability, nor for differences in word reading acquisition.

Dyslexic children do not suffer from a specific implicit sequence learning deficit. The slower RTs of the dyslexic children throughout the entire implicit sequence learning process are caused by their comorbid attention problems and overall slowness. A key finding of the present study is that, in contrast to what was assumed for a long time, implicit learning relies on attentional resources, perhaps even more than explicit learning does. (PsycINFO Database Record