Numerous studies indicate that dyslexic and nondyslexic individuals exhibit different patterns of sensitivity to spatial frequency. Dr Geoffrey Patching and Professor Tim Jordan discovered that this effect extends to normal (nondyslexic) adults of good and poor reading abilities.

Using normal adults, they assessed reading ability, spatial frequency sensitivity, and perception of spatially filtered words and nonwords (by means of a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm to avoid artifactual influences of nonperceptual guesswork).

Good and poor readers showed different patterns of spatial frequency sensitivity. However, both groups were able to use a range of spatial frequencies for word perception. Moreover, no differences in accuracy of word and nonword perception were found between good and poor readers, despite their differences in spatial frequency sensitivity.

Indeed, both groups showed the same superior perceptibility for spatially filtered words over nonwords across different spatial frequency bands. Thus, spatial frequency sensitivity may not accurately reflect an individual’s ability to perceive words.

Publications

• Patching GR and Jordan TR. (2005). Assessing the role of different spatial frequencies in word perception by good and poor readers. Memory and Cognition, 33, 961-971.