ABSTRACT
Brady reviews a considerable body of evidence bearing on this question and seems to think it very likely that working-memory phonological processes may overlap with at least some of the phonological processes associated with other functions. Consistent with this possibility, she points out, poor readers do less well than good readers in speech perception, speech articulation, and naming. Thus, she says, "a link appears to be justified among the more basic language tasks associated with reading disability." However, she finds that the evidence is more equivocal with respect to the possibility of overlap between the phonological processes required for segmental awareness tasks and those required for tasks that stress other functions. Some studies find correlations; others do not. Moreover, naive adult illiterates and readers of nonalphabetic orthographies are lacking in segmental awareness, although their primary linguistic behavior is normal and their phonological processes presumably operate efficiently. In the end, Brady decides that, given the evidence available, it would be premature to come to any definite architectural conclusions.
