Multisensory temporal processing and short-term memory in developmental dyslexia

Marja Laasonen, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland

Abstract
Developmental dyslexia is a difficulty in learning to read that is often accompanied by difficulties of acquiring proficiency in writing and spelling. Impaired phonological processing is the most commonly accepted predictor of reading difficulties but difficulties in temporal processing and short-term/working memory have been suggested to co-exist. These possible temporal/memory difficulties could either cause the dyslexic impairments directly or via affecting phonological processing or all the difficulties could reflect a common underlying impairment. Yet another explanation states that it is not temporal processing which is impaired but memory functions which affect (among other things) performance in tasks used in this area of research. In a series of finished and ongoing studies with adult dyslexic and fluent readers, we investigated unimodal (visual, auditory, tactile) and multisensory (audiotactile, visuotactile, audiovisual) temporal processing and short-term memory. Our results suggest that developmentally dyslexic readers suffer from both unimodal and multisensory temporal processing difficulties that aggravate with increasing adult age. These temporal difficulties are related to their phonological processing impairments. Dyslexic readers suffer also from both unimodal and multisensory short-term memory impairments. However, short-term memory in a specific modality/combination does not explain temporal processing impairment of the same modality/combination.

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