Eckert Linda, Hartwigsen Gesa, Turker Sabrina
Research Group Cognition and Plasticity, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Wilhelm Wundt Institute for Psychology, Leipzig University, 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Apr 13;15(4):522. doi: 10.3390/bs15040522.
Past research has extensively explored reading in English-speaking children with dyslexia who acquire a highly irregular and opaque orthography. Far less is known about the manifestation of dyslexia in shallow, highly consistent orthographies like German, especially in adults. To shed further light on the heterogenous manifestation of dyslexia in German-speaking adults, we assessed reading and reading-related abilities, spelling, cognitive abilities, and language learning experience in 33 healthy German-speaking adults (17 females) and 33 adults with dyslexia (20 females). The four main aims were to (1) elucidate the intricate relationship between cognitive and literacy abilities, (2) investigate persisting weaknesses, (3) determine the strongest predictors of dyslexia, and (4) investigate deficit profiles. Group comparisons revealed persistent deficits in almost all measures of reading and spelling, slight deficits in verbal working memory, but no visuospatial impairments in adults with dyslexia. Moreover, adults with dyslexia had considerably lower English skills and lower educational attainment. Overall, we found fewer and weaker links between literacy and cognitive measures in adults with dyslexia, indicating a dissociation between these skills. Spelling, word reading, and phonological awareness were the best predictors of dyslexia, but the most widespread deficit was rapid automatized naming. Our findings suggest a heterogeneous manifestation of dyslexia in German-speaking adults, with even low-level deficits persisting into adulthood despite the shallow nature of the German orthographic system.
过去的研究广泛探讨了患有阅读障碍的英语母语儿童的阅读情况，这些儿童所学习的正字法高度不规则且晦涩难懂。对于像德语这样拼写简单、高度一致的正字法中阅读障碍的表现，尤其是在成年人中的表现，我们了解得要少得多。为了进一步阐明德语母语成年人中阅读障碍的异质性表现，我们评估了33名健康的德语母语成年人（17名女性）和33名患有阅读障碍的成年人（20名女性）的阅读及与阅读相关的能力、拼写、认知能力和语言学习经历。四个主要目标是：（1）阐明认知能力与读写能力之间的复杂关系；（2）调查持续存在的弱点；（3）确定阅读障碍的最强预测因素；（4）调查缺陷概况。组间比较显示，患有阅读障碍的成年人在几乎所有阅读和拼写测量中都存在持续缺陷，在言语工作记忆方面存在轻微缺陷，但没有视觉空间障碍。此外，患有阅读障碍的成年人英语技能和教育程度明显较低。总体而言，我们发现患有阅读障碍的成年人在读写能力和认知测量之间的联系较少且较弱，表明这些技能之间存在分离。拼写、单词阅读和语音意识是阅读障碍的最佳预测因素，但最普遍的缺陷是快速自动命名。我们的研究结果表明，德语母语成年人中阅读障碍表现存在异质性，尽管德语正字法系统简单，但即使是低水平的缺陷也会持续到成年期。
