Memory Impairments in Adults with Dyslexia

The aim of our study was to analyze the functioning of various aspects of memory in adults with developmental dys lexia, as compared to adults without developmental dyslexia. Our research involved a total of 180 adults, mostly students and university graduates from the Tri-City metropolitan region in north central Poland. The criterion group consisted of 93 adults with developmental dyslexia, while the control group consisted of 87 adults without developmental dyslexia. The results obtained confirm the assumption of a lower level of functioning of individuals with dyslexia in relation to phonemic analysis and phonemic awareness, phonological awareness and verbal working memory, visual working memory and perception in a task requiring the analysis and synthesis of details of a complex pattern, recalling data from the mental lexicon. The two groups did not differ in terms of working visuospatial memory (spatial span). These results are consistent with a majority of scientific reports on memory function ing in adults with developmental dyslexia. Our findings confirm the phonological deficit hypothesis, as the most profound disturbances were observed in phonological processing and verbal working memory. Moreover, our studies do not provide support for the compensation model of dyslexia, as diverse memory deficits persist into adulthood. However, adults with dyslexia were aware of their cognitive limitations in terms of memory.