TY - JOUR
T1 - Short-term memory capacity and sensitivity to language statistics in dyslexia and among musicians
AU - Kimel, Eva
AU - Weiss, Atalia Hai
AU - Jakoby, Hilla
AU - Daikhin, Luba
AU - Ahissar, Merav
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Poor short-term memory (STM) capacity in individuals with dyslexia (IDDs) and enhanced STM capacity in musicians are well documented, yet their causes are disputed. Previous studies also found poor use of stimuli statistics by IDDs and enhanced use by musicians. We hypothesized that these observations are functionally related, as follows: Enhanced sensitivity to statistics facilitates musicians' benefit from each exposure, and reduced sensitivity to statistics hinders IDDs' benefit. Thus, larger group differences are expected for larger exposure: STM capacity, which is sensitive to item familiarity, will thus be larger among musicians, and smaller among IDDS, particularly for high-frequency items. Testing this hypothesis using syllable span, we found that musicians' advantage and IDDs' difficulty were indeed larger for high-frequency syllables than for low-frequency ones. By contrast, benefits from sequence repetition did not differ between musicians, controls and IDDs, suggesting that online sequence learning is based on a different mechanism. To test this dissociation we recruited, in addition to native Hebrew speakers, native English speakers, matched to the Hebrew-speaking controls. Their spans for high-frequency syllables in Hebrew, which do not have high frequency in English, were small - as expected from reduced exposure to these syllables. Yet, their benefit from sequence repetition was similar to that of the three Hebrew-speaking groups. Taken together, these experiments suggest that different sensitivities to item frequency explain some of the population-related variability in STM tasks. By contrast, benefits from sequence repetition do not depend on item familiarity, and do not differ between groups.
AB - Poor short-term memory (STM) capacity in individuals with dyslexia (IDDs) and enhanced STM capacity in musicians are well documented, yet their causes are disputed. Previous studies also found poor use of stimuli statistics by IDDs and enhanced use by musicians. We hypothesized that these observations are functionally related, as follows: Enhanced sensitivity to statistics facilitates musicians' benefit from each exposure, and reduced sensitivity to statistics hinders IDDs' benefit. Thus, larger group differences are expected for larger exposure: STM capacity, which is sensitive to item familiarity, will thus be larger among musicians, and smaller among IDDS, particularly for high-frequency items. Testing this hypothesis using syllable span, we found that musicians' advantage and IDDs' difficulty were indeed larger for high-frequency syllables than for low-frequency ones. By contrast, benefits from sequence repetition did not differ between musicians, controls and IDDs, suggesting that online sequence learning is based on a different mechanism. To test this dissociation we recruited, in addition to native Hebrew speakers, native English speakers, matched to the Hebrew-speaking controls. Their spans for high-frequency syllables in Hebrew, which do not have high frequency in English, were small - as expected from reduced exposure to these syllables. Yet, their benefit from sequence repetition was similar to that of the three Hebrew-speaking groups. Taken together, these experiments suggest that different sensitivities to item frequency explain some of the population-related variability in STM tasks. By contrast, benefits from sequence repetition do not depend on item familiarity, and do not differ between groups.
KW - Dyslexia
KW - Long-term memory
KW - Memory span
KW - Musicians
KW - Sequence learning
KW - Short-term memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096972217&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107624
DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107624
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C2 - 32920031
AN - SCOPUS:85096972217
SN - 0028-3932
VL - 149
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
M1 - 107624
ER -