Impaired verbal short-term memory for serial order information in dyslexic adults

This study used the distinction of item and order information in verbal short-term memory (STM) to further our understanding of verbal STM impairments in dyslexia. Item STM has been shown to depend on the quality of underlying phonological representations and hence should be impaired in dyslexic participants given their poor phonological processing abilities. On the other hand, order STM represents a specific STM capacity predicting learning capacity for new phonological and orthographic sequences (Majerus et al., 2006; Nithart et al, 2010). If STM impairments contribute to dyslexia, then especially order STM should be impaired, in addition to item STM.