Search for letter identity and location by disabled readers

Reading-disabled boys, reading- and age-matched controls, and adults searched letter arrays for the identity or location of a probe letter. Response time (RT) and accuracy were examined as a function of the temporal relation between probe and array letters (probe first, simultaneous, array first), and array size (1-5 letters). Although disabled readers closely resembled age controls in RT, their accuracy differed significantly when large letter arrays were tested. In the letter identification task, this was only evident when the array letters preceded the probe; in the letter location task, it occurred in all three probe conditions. Correlational analyses showed that all subjects were influenced by the visual, but not the phonological, similarity between letters. Thus, a reading-related impairment is evident in both letter identification and letter location processes, even when the phonological coding of letters has been minimized.