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The role of word knowledge in error detection: a challenge to the broken error monitor account of dyslexia

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Abstract

Dyslexic children often fail to correct errors while reading aloud, and dyslexic adolescents and adults exhibit lower amplitudes of the error-related negativity (ERN)—the neural response to errors—than typical readers during silent reading. Past researchers therefore suggested that dyslexia may arise from a faulty error detection mechanism that interferes with orthographic learning and text comprehension. An alternative possibility is that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is primarily a downstream effect of low-quality lexical representations—that is, poor word knowledge. On this view, the attenuated ERN in dyslexics is a byproduct, rather than a source, of underdeveloped orthographic knowledge. Because the second view implies a direct association of the error response with comprehension skill in populations of all ability levels, the present study evaluates these alternatives through a reanalysis of behavioral and neural data from 31 typical adult readers. If it is true that faulty error processing can manifest as dyslexia, a model in which error monitoring contributes directly to comprehension should outperform a model in which it does not. ERNs recorded during spelling judgments were used as a measure of error detection aptitude in path analyses of reading comprehension. The data were better fit by a model in which error detection aptitude was a consequence of word knowledge than a model in which it contributed directly to comprehension. The findings challenge the notion that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is attributable to error processing deficits and are consistent with the hypothesis that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is partially attributable to low-quality word knowledge.

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Notes

  1. An ERN on correct trials is sometimes termed a correct-related negativity, or CRN, but we refer to all response-locked negative deflections in the EEG as ERNs for simplicity.

  2. One study that uses a linguistic task to elicit the ERN is difficult to situate in this review of the literature. Balass, Halderman, Benau, and Perfetti (2016) recorded ERNs during semantic categorization rather than word reading per se. Moreover, although they discovered some associations of the ERN with reading-related individual differences, these were not consistent across the board.

  3. Deflection begins prior to the moment the response is recorded because uncertainty can arise as soon as a motor sequence is initiated. In addition, use of a keyboard rather than a serial response box delays recording of the response by approximately 25 ms.

  4. The models with all variables included are not presented as they fit the data worse than the other eight models.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R01HD05856 to Charles A. Perfetti and a Great Journeys Assistantship from the Northern Illinois University Graduate School to Lindsay N. Harris.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations, Northern Illinois University, 1425 W. Lincoln Hwy, DeKalb, IL, 60115, USA

    Lindsay N. Harris & Benjamin Creed

  2. Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy, Northern Illinois University, 1425 W. Lincoln Hwy, DeKalb, IL, 60115, USA

    Lindsay N. Harris & Benjamin Creed

  3. Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

    Charles A. Perfetti

  4. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodologies, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

    Benjamin B. Rickles

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  1. Lindsay N. Harris
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Correspondence to Lindsay N. Harris.

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Harris, L.N., Creed, B., Perfetti, C.A. et al. The role of word knowledge in error detection: a challenge to the broken error monitor account of dyslexia. Ann. of Dyslexia 72, 384–402 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00248-8

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