How do (or don’t) we learn letters-sound associations? Neurocognitive processes underlying the learning of Grapheme-Phoneme-Correspondences

• Applicant: Dr. Xenia Schmalz
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405007295

Learning to read relies critically on the learning and knowledge of letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) correspondences (GPCs). Impairments in GPC knowledge have been shown to be impaired in dyslexia (Rack, Snowling & Olson, 1992), to have a causal relationship with reading ability (Hulme et al., 2012), and training GPCs as the most effective treatment for beginning readers with dyslexia (Galuschka et al., 2014). However, little is known about cognitive skills which enable children to learn these correspondences, or how this learning is impaired in developmental dyslexia. We aim to conduct one correlational and one experimental study to address these questions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants