According to the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis, abnormalities in corticostriatal pathways could account for the language-related deficits observed in developmental dyslexia. The same neural network has also been implicated in the ability to learn contingencies based on trial and error (i.e., reinforcement learning [RL]). On this basis, the present study tested the assumption that dyslexic individuals would be impaired in RL compared with neurotypicals in two different tasks.

In a probabilistic selection task, participants were required to learn reinforcement contingencies based on probabilistic feedback. In an implicit transitive inference task, participants were also required to base their decisions on reinforcement histories, but feedback was deterministic and stimulus pairs were partially overlapping, such that participants were required to learn hierarchical relations.

Across tasks, results revealed that although the ability to learn from positive/negative feedback did not differ between the two groups, the learning of reinforcement contingencies was poorer in the dyslexia group compared with the neurotypicals group. Furthermore, in novel test pairs where previously learned information was presented in new combinations, dyslexic individuals performed similarly to neurotypicals.

Taken together, these results suggest that learning of reinforcement contingencies occurs less robustly in individuals with developmental dyslexia. Inferences for the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of developmental dyslexia are discussed.

根据程序性缺陷假说，皮质纹状体通路的异常可以解释在发育性阅读障碍中观察到的语言相关缺陷。相同的神经网络还涉及基于试错法学习意外事件的能力（即强化学习 [RL]）。在此基础上，本研究测试了与两种不同任务中的神经型患者相比，阅读障碍者在 RL 中会受损的假设。

在概率选择任务中，参与者需要学习基于概率反馈的强化意外事件。在隐式传递推理任务中，参与者还需要根据强化历史做出决定，但反馈是确定性的，刺激对部分重叠，因此参与者需要学习等级关系。

跨任务的结果显示，虽然两组之间从正面/负面反馈中学习的能力没有差异，但与神经型组相比，阅读障碍组对强化意外事件的学习较差。此外，在新的测试对中，先前学习的信息以新的组合形式呈现，阅读障碍个体的表现与神经型个体相似。

综上所述，这些结果表明，在患有发育性阅读障碍的个体中，强化突发事件的学习不太稳健。讨论了对发育性阅读障碍的神经认知机制的推论。