The involvement of long-term serial-order memory in reading development: A longitudinal study

• We examined the link between Hebb learning (HL) and reading in a longitudinal study.
• Our results suggest weaker HL in early readers with poor reading.
• We found significant positive relation between the magnitude of HL and reading performance.
• HL predicts individual differences in later (nonword) reading performance.
• HL performance and phonological awareness both explain unique variance in reading.

Recent findings suggest that Hebb repetition learning—a paradigmatic example of long-term serial-order learning—is impaired in adults with dyslexia. The current study further investigated the link between serial-order learning and reading using a longitudinal developmental design. With this aim, verbal and visual Hebb repetition learning performance and reading skills were assessed in 96 Dutch-speaking children who we followed from first through second grade of primary school. We observed a positive association between order learning capacities and reading ability as well as weaker Hebb learning performance in early readers with poor reading skills even at the onset of reading instruction. Hebb learning further predicted individual differences in later (nonword) reading skills. Finally, Hebb learning was shown to explain a significant part of the variance in reading performance above and beyond phonological awareness. These findings highlight the role of serial-order memory in reading ability.