The incidence of Stroop interference in dyslexia

Abstract

An experiment is reported in which dyslexics (on average ten-and-a-half years old) showed marked Stroop interference of a colour word on the naming of a colour. This interference was larger than that shown by control subjects matched for chronological age, but not larger than that experienced by a group of control subjects matched for reading age (about eight years old). Dyslexics show interference consistent with their reading age. It is hypothesized that the resources available to dyslexics for controlling automatic word reading are less than those for non-dyslexics of a similar chronological age.

Inhibitory Control During Sentence Reading in Dyslexic Children

“…There is a growing body of evidence that specific patterns of executive deficits exist in (subtypes of) dyslexic children. These deficits were reflected by poor response inhibition (Purvis & Tannock, 2000), poor flexibility of responding (Helland & Asbjornsen, 2000), poor inhibition of distractors and sequencing of events (Brosnan et al, 2002), increased Stroop interference (Evarett, Warner, Miles, & Thomsen, 1997), planning and organizational problems (Condor, Anderson, & Saling, 1995;Levin, 1990) and difficulties in selective and sustained attention (Kelly, Best, & Kirk, 1989). To explore the possibility that the impulsive reading style of guessers is linked to deficits in more basic executive processes responsible for the regulation of behavior, Van der Schoot et al (2000) compared children with the guessing type of dyslexia with children with the spelling type of dyslexia on three aspects of executive functioning (EF): response inhibition, interference control, and planning.…”

Executive functions in adults with developmental dyslexia

“…Whilst the mean RT to the non-habituated stimulus did not differ between the two groups, the group with dyslexia was significantly less accurate than the control group in inhibiting the pre-potent response and responding correctly to the appearance of the non-habituated stimulus. These results reveal dyslexia-related problems with inhibition and to add to the range of tasks on which such impairments have previously been reported (e.g., Brosnan et al, 2002;Everatt et al, 1997;Kapoula et al, 2010;Reiter et al, 2005).…”

Increased Stroop interference with better second-language reading skill

“…This is followed by a gradual decline of Stroop interference into adulthood, up to the age of 60, after which interference increases again (Comalli, Wapner, & Werner, 1962;Roelofs & Hagoort, 2002). Secondly, comparisons between groups with reading disorders and controls have consistently shown less Stroop interference in the control group, despite their greater reading skills (Everatt, Warner, Miles, & Thomson, 1997;Faccioli, Peru, Rubini, & Tassinari, 2008;Hicks & Jackson, 2005;Kapoula et al, 2010;Protopapas, Archonti, & Skaloumbakas, 2007). Thirdly, negative relationships between Stroop interference and several indices of reading proficiency have also been reported in the general population, in the absence of reading disorders (Protopapas et al, 2007).…”