Eye movements of children with and without developmental dyslexia in an alphabetic script during alphabetic and logographic tasks

Abstract

Eye movements (EM) during naming alphabetic versus logographic stimuli in children with and without developmental dyslexia (DD) were examined for each stimulus separately to identify conspicuous characteristics that influence naming performance. 40 children (group DD = 18; control group C = 22) were taught Chinese characters. EM were recorded during naming alphabetic words, pictures and Chinese characters. Main variables were articulation latencies, numbers and durations of fixations, secondary variables were fixation locations and error rates. Group DD showed significantly longer latencies and more fixations while reading words, but only insignificantly more fixations while naming pictures and Chinese characters. However, their error rate was significantly higher during naming Chinese characters but correlated neither with severity of phonological deficit nor with visual complexity. Their first fixation was significantly more often on the center of characters, in group C on the left. In both groups, EM variables were influenced by conspicuous features of characters, such as visual complexity, composition and structure. EM variables and scanning behavior while naming Chinese characters indicate holistic processing in the visuo-spatial pathway and were affected by conspicuous features of characters. The higher error rate in group DD could be determined by several factors, without a major role of the phonological deficit.