Categorical phoneme labeling in poor readers does not depend on stimulus duration

Abstract

It is established that individuals with dyslexia are less consistent at auditory phoneme categorization than typical readers. One hypothesis attributes differences in phoneme labeling to differences in auditory cue integration over time, suggesting that dyslexics’ performance would improve with longer exposure to informative phonetic cues. Here, the relationship between phoneme labeling and reading ability was investigated while manipulating the duration of steady-state auditory information available in a consonant-vowel syllable. Dyslexics obtained no more benefit from longer cues than did typical readers, suggesting that poor task performance is not explained by deficits temporal integration or temporal sampling.