Investigating working memory and sustained attention in dyslexic adults

•Adults with dyslexia did not exhibit a working memory deficit.•Dyslexic adults exhibited typical accuracy rates in a sustained attention test.•They also exhibited typical response times in a sustained attention test.•Dyslexic adults relied on relative visuo-spatial WM to maintain attention to a task.

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the profile of working memory and sustained attention skills in adults with dyslexia. Measures of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory functioning and sustained attention with stimulus presentation times of 1000–2000 ms were used. The findings indicated that the adults with dyslexia performed similarly to the control group in working memory tests. However, a gender difference was found within the dyslexic group: males performed significantly better than females on both working memory tests. With respect to the sustained attention test, there was a switching cost in moving from one block of trials to another. However, both the dyslexic adults and the controls exhibited similar rates of accuracy and response times. This pattern of findings is interpreted in light of an automaticity deficit previously reported in dyslexia.