Il word superiority effect in bambini italiani con dislessia evolutiva

[Autom. eng. transl.] The few studies that have examined the effect of word superiority (WSE) or pseudo-word (PSE) in dyslexic children report conflicting results and are conducted on opaque spellings. 23 normolectors and 18 dyslexics were subjected to the Reicher and Wheleer paradigm, with words (FACE), not words (VESI) and strings (VRSN), for a total of 190 stimuli. The experiment was administered with both mixed and blocked lists. Furthermore the same stimuli were administered in a visual research task, in which the target letter appeared first and then the stimulus in which the subject had to recognize the presence of the letter. In Reicher-Wheeler's task, dyslexics are less accurate than normolectors, and both (but especially dyslexics) are more accurate with words than with non-words and especially with strings. In the mixed list condition both groups have a WSE with respect to strings and a PSE, but the effect is greater in dyslexics; while WSE compared to non-words is present only in dyslexics. In the blocked list experiment the effects are instead comparable in the two groups: both have a WSE with respect to the strings and a PSE, but do not show a WSE with respect to the non-words. In visual research dyslexics and normolectors are less accurate and have comparable performances with all types of stimuli: both have an inverted WSE (both with strings and with non-words), so it is more difficult to perform the visual search in the word. The same does not happen in the case of PSE: identifying stimuli placed in a pronounceable string (non-word) does not compromise performance compared to non-pronounceable strings.