Controlled but independent: effects of mental rotation and developmental dyslexia in dual-task settings

In two experiments, we compared the performance of normal-reading (n = 26) and dyslexic children (n = 22) in discriminating letters from their mirrored images. In experiment 1, they were always presented in the upright orientation; in experiment 2, they were presented in different angular orientations (0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees). In order to determine whether task and dyslexia affect reaction times in early or late stages of processing, a dual-task paradigm was adopted in which the primary task was tone discrimination. Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between first and second task was systematically varied (50 ms versus 400 ms). In both experiments dyslexics were slower overall than controls. No effects of mirror-image letters were found. In experiment 2, mental-rotation effects were additive with SOA. In accordance with earlier findings we concluded that the mental-rotation effect involves central processing capacity. Mental-rotation effects were the same for normal-reading and dyslexic children; mental rotation is not impaired in dyslexia. Remarkably, SOA effects were larger in normal readers than in dyslexics. This result was explained by observing that dyslexics experience decision difficulties already on the first task. As a result, they do not benefit optimally from increased latencies between first and second tasks.