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Avoiding pitfalls in psychophysical threshold studies

Caroline Witton

Dyslexia Research Group, Neurosciences Research Institute, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. c.witton@aston.ac.uk

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the incidence and aetiology of sensory processing deficits in dyslexia and other developmental disabilities. This has resulted in a proliferation of studies measuring sensory thresholds in various populations of readers. However few researchers have specifically investigated the potential influence that certain psychophysical routines may have on their subjects’ measured performance. Such an approach is particularly important in dyslexia research for several reasons. Research with adult subjects suggests that performance on some auditory tasks correlates significantly with working memory in dyslexia. Auditory psychophysical tasks often require participants to remember and judge sequences of stimuli, and dyslexics often have poor working memory, so this confounds our interpretation of psychophysical thresholds. Another potential source of confound is attentional lapses, because developmental dyslexia is strongly associated with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Many psychophysical routines are not robust to the effects of attention- or memory-lapses during testing, and it is often difficult to quantify the extent to which lapses affect threshold. Accurate measures of sensory sensitivity are fundamental to any investigation of the aetiology of sensory processing deficits in dyslexia. This presentation will explore potential methods of avoiding psychophysical pitfalls in dyslexia research.

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