What phonological deficit?

Abstract

We review a series of experiments aimed at understanding the nature of the phonological deficit in developmental dyslexia. These experiments investigate input and output phonological representations, phonological grammar, foreign speech perception and production, and unconscious speech processing and lexical access. Our results converge on the observation that the phonological representations of people with dyslexia may be intact, and that the phonological deficit surfaces only as a function of certain task requirements, notably short-term memory, conscious awareness, and time constraints. In an attempt to reformulate those task requirements more economically, we propose that individuals with dyslexia have a deficit in access to phonological representations. We discuss the explanatory power of this concept and we speculate that a similar notion might also adequately describe the nature of other associated cognitive deficits when present.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the students and collaborators involved in some of the experiments described: Liaan Darma, Emilie Gaillard, Eva Soroli, Emmanuel Dupoux, and Sid Kouider, as well as members of LSCP for much discussion and feedback. We also thank Maggie Snowling and Peter de Jong for their critical feedback on this paper. This work was supported by grants from the Fyssen Foundation and Ville de Paris.