Speed and accuracy of dyslexic versus typical word recognition: an eye-movement investigation

Abstract

Developmental dyslexia is often characterized by a dual deficit in both word recognition accuracy and general processing speed. While previous research into dyslexic word recognition may have suffered from speed-accuracy trade-off, the present study employed a novel eye-tracking task that is less prone to such confounds. Participants (10 dyslexics and 12 controls) were asked to look at real word stimuli, and to ignore simultaneously presented non-word stimuli, while their eye-movements were recorded. Improvements in word recognition accuracy over time were modeled in terms of a continuous non-linear function. The words' rhyme consistency and the non-words' lexicality (unpronounceable, pronounceable, pseudohomophone) were manipulated within-subjects. Speed-related measures derived from the model fits confirmed generally slower processing in dyslexics, and showed a rhyme consistency effect in both dyslexics and controls. In terms of overall error rate, dyslexics (but not controls) performed less accurately on rhyme-inconsistent words, suggesting a representational deficit for such words in dyslexics. Interestingly, neither group showed a pseudohomophone effect in speed or accuracy, which might call the task-independent pervasiveness of this effect into question. The present results illustrate the importance of distinguishing between speed- vs. accuracy-related effects for our understanding of dyslexic word recognition.

Screening for Dyslexia in French-Speaking University Students: An Evaluation of the Detection Accuracy of the Alouette Test

“…However, although the determination of two types of deficits is crucial in dyslexia research (Vellutino, Fletcher, Snowling, & Scanlon, 2004), it is relatively difficult to determine which of them is present with use of an isolated word reading task (e.g., the lexical decision task) because dyslexic readers can trade off speed for accuracy. Here, with the Alouette reading test, this dissociation in cognitive processing is therefore worthy of interest because DYS can trade off speed for accuracy or vice versa while reading words in context (for a review of findings on speed and accuracy in dyslexic word recognition, see Kunert & Scheepers, 2014). We therefore plotted the relationship between speed and accuracy for each participant to find out whether the distribution clearly distinguished the two groups (dyslexic readers and nondyslexic readers) and to highlight potential differences in the speed-accuracy trade-off.…”

Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) Test Norms for Mandarin Chinese-Speaking Chinese Children

“…Eye movements, including saccades, fixations and regressions, are the most important skills in reading [ 4 , 5 ]. Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) exhibit abnormal eye movements, including an increased number of saccades, a long fixation or regression, and irregular regression distances [ 6 ]. The relationship between eye movement quality and reading difficulty has been well documented [ 7 – 10 ].…”

Phonemic—Morphemic dissociation in university students with dyslexia: an index of reading compensation?

“…Table 3 In the same way, Table 4 shows that 12 dyslexics exhibited a significant dissociation in response time between the phonological and morphological tasks. Moreover, the point Subject 17 who showed a significant dissociation for accuracy did not show a dissociation for response time, and this was also true for Subjects 5, 10, 12 and 13 suggesting a speedaccuracy tradeoff strategy (for a review, see Bogacz, Wagenmakers, Forstmann, and Nieuwenhuis, 2010; and see Kunert and Scheepers, 2014, for a recent study on the speed and accuracy of adult dyslexic word recognition).…”