Ben Maassen

Print tuning as indicator of reading proficiency: A series of ERP studies in children and adults

The visual N170 is an occipitotemporal electrophysiological ERP-component which provides a measure for print tuning – the cortical specialization to processing of written text. Print tuning emerges in beginning readers during the first two years of reading education, is left-lateralized in advanced readers, and more pronounced in typical readers as compared to individuals with reading disability. In order to further  specify the relation with reading proficiency, two studies were conducted in advanced readers (adolescents and adults) with and without dyslexia. To further investigate the conditions in which print tuning emerges, the ERP-responses of Chinese and Dutch adults presented with Mandarin-Chinese characters, alphabetic Pinyin and non-alphabetic symbols as control, were compared. In order to further explore the emergence of print tuning during the early stage of typical and delayed reading acquisition, firstly, typical and poor readers of Dutch in second grade of mainstream primary education were tested, and secondly the effect of a seven weeks computer-based literacy training was evaluated in first graders.

The current diagnosis of dyslexia is based on performance measures that – being behavioral — inevitably reflect not only the core decoding process, but also other linguistic and task-related functions. In earlier literature and the here presented series of studies, strong indications are found of print tuning being an objective measure of reading proficiency.