Impaired memory for syntactical information in poor readers

Syntactical knowledge is vital for the comprehension and production of any language and this knowledge has also been shown to aid short-term memory (Perham, Marsh & Jones, 2009). Given that people with dyslexia are known to have difficulties in processing long-term serial order information which can be argued to underpin the use of syntactical rules, the following study explored a larger population-those who were high or low in reading abilities-and their ability to recall six-item word lists in both syntactically congruent and syntactically incongruent orders. Analyses revealed that the low reading group showed a syntactical congruency effect, but the high reading group did not. Results are discussed in terms of language and short-term memory.