Delayed P300 during Sternberg and color discrimination tasks in poor readers

The P300 ERP component was studied in poor and normal readers, using Sternberg and color discrimination (Spaceships) tasks. During the first one, subjects must decide if a probe item belongs or not to a set of digits previously presented. In the second one, the participants must shoot violet spaceships with one key and other than violet spaceships with another key. There were no significant differences between groups with respect to reaction times, but a larger proportion of errors was observed in poor readers. Longer P300 latencies were recorded for poor readers than controls in both tasks. P300 amplitudes showed topographical differences between the two groups: Poor readers' P300 is larger frontally during the Sternberg task, but smaller at posterior sites during the Spaceships task. These results suggest that poor readers may have deficiencies during the early processing stage, such as visual stimulus evaluation. Poor readers also appear to have deficits for classifying and memorizing visual stimuli.