Urrutia, M. , Domínguez, A. , Hernández-Cabrera, J. A. , León, I. & De Vega, M.
University of La Laguna
Many studies establish the cause of reading disabilities at a phonological level. The goal of this research was to use ERPs to investigate this hypothesis at a lexical and prelexical level. Three groups of participants, differing at their lexical and discourse abilities, completed a lexical decision experiment. The groups were the following: 1) high lexical and discourse performance (HL-HD) 2) high lexical performance but a low discourse competence (HL-LD) and 3) low lexical decoders but high discourse competent participants (LL-HD). Lexicality, syllable frequency and imaginability were manipulated variables. The results show that syllable frequency allows discriminating between groups of readers more clearly than the other variables. At the P200 component the words composed of high frequency syllables produce more positive amplitudes than those of low syllable frequency at frontal sites. At the N400 component the inverse pattern was found for high syllable frequency. In this case, a significant effect was found only for the participants of group 1. The lexiccality interacts with syllabe frequency in groups 1 and 2. However, any significant effect was found in the imaginability between groups. In conclusion, phonological processes are more sensitive to individual differences in visual word recognition.