Paired associate learning deficits in poor readers: The contribution of phonological input and output processes

Abstract

It is well-established that poor readers exhibit deficits in paired associate learning (PAL), and there is increasing evidence for a phonological locus of these deficits. However, it remains unclear whether poor performance stems from difficulties specific to the phonological output system or difficulties that affect both phonological input and output processes. Understanding these deficits is important not only in the context of PAL but also for informing broader theories of typical and atypical reading development. We developed a novel paradigm that allowed us to assess PAL in the presence and absence of phonological output demands. In total, 14 poor readers and 14 age-matched controls were first trained to criterion in verbal-visual PAL before being tested in the visual-verbal direction. The results showed that poor readers learned at the same rate as controls in verbal-visual PAL, even when the nonword stimuli were phonologically confusable. Yet, despite having reached the same criterion as controls in verbal-visual PAL, poor readers exhibited robust impairments for those same paired associates in visual-verbal PAL. The overall pattern of results is most consistent with the conclusion that PAL deficits reflect impairments to the phonological output system; however, results that may challenge this interpretation are also discussed.

Is that a pibu or a pibo? Children with reading and language deficits show difficulties in learning and overnight consolidation of phonologically similar pseudowords

“…Although we cannot adjudicate amongst these possible explanations based on the data we collected, the current study nonetheless adds to a growing literature documenting word learning deficits in children with RD and/or DLD compared to TD children (Alt et al., 2017, 2019; James et al., 2019; Kan & Windsor, 2010; Kimppa et al., 2018; Landi et al., 2018; Litt et al., 2019). Furthermore, the current findings help clarify the contexts in which potential word learning deficits are apparent.…”

“…(2017), who observed that children with RD were comparable to TD children on the PAL aspects of a word learning task, but struggled when asked to assess the phonology of a newly learned word. Furthermore, Litt, Wang, Sailah, Badcock, and Castles (2019) found that children with RD were impaired on visual‐to‐verbal learning (requiring input and output phonology) but not verbal‐to‐visual learning (requiring only input phonology); see also Litt and Nation (2014) for similar findings. This pattern of findings suggests that children with RD may only be impaired in PAL for tasks that have a phonological output demand.…”

“…In this study, we assessed how RD and comorbid DLD impact how children learn and remember words with different phonological relationships. This was motivated by work documenting associations between word learning and reading and language skills (Alt et al., 2017, 2019; James et al., 2019; Kan & Windsor, 2010; Kimppa et al., 2018; Landi et al., 2018; Litt et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2018), as well as by studies suggesting that the stability of phonological representations may be compromised in RD and DLD (Desroches et al., 2006, 2013; Kornilov et al., 2015; Malins et al., 2013; McMurray, Klein‐Packard, & Tomblin, 2019; McMurray et al., 2010). To address this aim, we measured learning as well as offline consolidation of an artificial lexicon of spoken pseudowords.…”

What Do Artificial Orthography Learning Tasks Actually Measure? Correlations Within and Across Tasks

“…It is also theoretically relevant whether PAL training performance is correlated with reading ability, given that previous studies have studied PAL in relation to developmental dyslexia ( Hulme, Goetz, Gooch, Adams, & Snowling, 2007 ; Litt, de Jong, van Bergen, & Nation, 2013 ; Litt & Nation, 2014 ; Litt, Wang, Sailah, Badcock, & Castles, 2018 ). This appears to be the case from the subset data in Table 1 , but not from the analyses including all participants who passed the PAL training task.…”

Effects of Intensity-Specific Acute Exercise on Paired-Associative Memory and Memory Interference

“…In research settings, memory interference is often measured using a paired-associative task-tasks that include pairs of objects (e.g., pictures, words), which are to be memorized and subsequently recalled [59][60][61]. For this experiment, the AB-DE AC-FG paired-associative paradigm was utilized.…”