Kimel, E. , Lieder, I. , Daikhin, L. , Jakoby, H. , Hai Weiss, A. & Ahissar, M.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Participants achieve higher spans for frequents syllables than for infrequent syllables. Will the benefit from sequence repetition also be enhanced when frequent syllables are used? To answer that, we used span tasks in which we manipulated syllable frequency, and sequence repetition. Five populations took part in the study: native Hebrew speaking adults with and without dyslexia, English speaking adults, and musicians with and without dyslexia. Benefit from item frequency was found to be reduced among individuals with dyslexia, and enhanced among musicians. Yet, the benefit from repeated serial order did not significantly differ between the groups. For very chunkable (consonant-vowel) syllables, which are highly frequent in Hebrew but less frequent in English, native English speakers' spans were lower than native Hebrew speakers', but the benefit from sequence repetition did not significantly differ between the groups. Together, these results imply that sensitivity to frequency is separate from sensitivity to repeated serial order, and that the latter relies on exposure-independent factors, such as the ease of chunking.