Browsing by Author "Rautavaara, Sallamaria"

Objective: Developmental dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disorder and its prevalence is approximately 3–10 %. The working memory problems associated with dyslexia are well documented. Yet there is no research on subjective memory failures of adults with developmental dyslexia. This study focuses on the relationship between subjective everyday memory failures and cognitive functioning measured by neuropsychological examination. Methods: Neuropsychologically examined 80 Finnish speaking subjects aged 18-35 filled out Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ) as a part of a larger study of neuropsychological rehabilitation for developmental dyslexia. Totally 28 variables that represented all the measures included in the neuropsychological examination were analyzed in this study. EMQ contains totally 36 questions that are divided into five subscales: Speech, Reading and Writing, Actions, Faces and Places and Learning New Things. EMQ subscale scores were transformed into z-scores. Linear regression models were created to predict these z-transformed EMQ subscales and the weighted total score. The Faces and Places subscale was not included in the subscale level analyses because of its low reliability. Results and conclusions: Only one of the 28 analyzed neuropsychological measures significantly predicted the experience of memory problems in everyday life: a nonword spelling task from the Dyslexia screening test for youth and adults. The results show that very few neuropsychological measures predict subjective everyday memory failures of adults with developmental dyslexia even though the study included a wide set of cognitive functions. This result is in line with previous studies on other patient groups, where the self-reported subjective cognitive problems have only few connections with objective cognitive functioning especially in mild cognitive dysfunctions.