Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects

Heida Maria Sigurdardottir; Liv Elisabet Fridriksdottir; Sigridur Gudjonsdottir; Árni Kristjánsson

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.017

Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects

Heida Maria Sigurdardottir
, Liv Elisabet Fridriksdottir
, Sigridur Gudjonsdottir
, Árni Kristjánsson

Faculty of Psychology

University of Iceland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	157-168
Number of pages	12
Journal	Cognition
Volume	175
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.017
Publication status	Published - Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant (Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. Árni Kristjánsson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), the Research Fund at the University of Iceland and the European Research Council (ERC). This research has partly been presented at conferences. We want to thank Dr. Michael J. Tarr for allowing the use of YUFO stimuli in non-profit projects involving scientific research or education (http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Novel_Objects). Funding Information: This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant ( Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland ) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. Árni Kristjánsson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF) , the Research Fund at the University of Iceland and the European Research Council (ERC) . This research has partly been presented at conferences. We want to thank Dr. Michael J. Tarr for allowing the use of YUFO stimuli in non-profit projects involving scientific research or education ( http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Novel_Objects ). Appendix A Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

Other keywords

Dyslexia
Face perception
Object perception
Reading
Visual expertise

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10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.017

Cite this

@article{d2ef351560fd4f96bf55bb967c2ed7ec,

title = "Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects",

abstract = "Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience.",

keywords = "Dyslexia, Face perception, Object perception, Reading, Visual expertise",

author = "Sigurdardottir, \{Heida Maria\} and Fridriksdottir, \{Liv Elisabet\} and Sigridur Gudjonsdottir and {\'A}rni Kristj{\'a}nsson",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant (Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. {\'A}rni Kristj{\'a}nsson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), the Research Fund at the University of Iceland and the European Research Council (ERC). This research has partly been presented at conferences. We want to thank Dr. Michael J. Tarr for allowing the use of YUFO stimuli in non-profit projects involving scientific research or education (http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Novel\_Objects). Funding Information: This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant ( Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland ) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. {\'A}rni Kristj{\'a}nsson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF) , the Research Fund at the University of Iceland and the European Research Council (ERC) . This research has partly been presented at conferences. We want to thank Dr. Michael J. Tarr for allowing the use of YUFO stimuli in non-profit projects involving scientific research or education ( http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Novel\_Objects ). Appendix A Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2018",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.017",

language = "English",

volume = "175",

pages = "157--168",

journal = "Cognition",

issn = "0010-0277",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

}

Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects. / Sigurdardottir, Heida Maria; Fridriksdottir, Liv Elisabet; Gudjonsdottir, Sigridur et al.
In: Cognition, Vol. 175, 06.2018, p. 157-168.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

TY - JOUR

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AU - Sigurdardottir, Heida Maria

AU - Fridriksdottir, Liv Elisabet

AU - Gudjonsdottir, Sigridur

AU - Kristjánsson, Árni

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant (Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. Árni Kristjánsson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), the Research Fund at the University of Iceland and the European Research Council (ERC). This research has partly been presented at conferences. We want to thank Dr. Michael J. Tarr for allowing the use of YUFO stimuli in non-profit projects involving scientific research or education (http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Novel_Objects). Funding Information: This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant ( Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland ) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. Árni Kristjánsson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF) , the Research Fund at the University of Iceland and the European Research Council (ERC) . This research has partly been presented at conferences. We want to thank Dr. Michael J. Tarr for allowing the use of YUFO stimuli in non-profit projects involving scientific research or education ( http://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Novel_Objects ). Appendix A Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2018/6

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N2 - Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience.

AB - Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience.

KW - Dyslexia

KW - Face perception

KW - Object perception

KW - Reading

KW - Visual expertise

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85043458206

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DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.017

M3 - Article

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SN - 0010-0277

VL - 175

SP - 157

EP - 168

JO - Cognition

JF - Cognition

ER -

Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects

Abstract

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