Dealing with text is crucial in modern societies. However, not everyone acquires sufficient literacy skills during school education. This systematic review summarizes and synthesizes research on adults with low literacy skills (ALLS) in alphabetic writing systems, includes results from behavioral and neurobiological studies, and compares these findings with those on developmental dyslexia given that this developmental disorder is one possible explanation for low literacy skills in adulthood. Twenty-seven studies focusing on the cognitive profile of ALLS met the three predefined criteria of reading level, age, and education. Results showed that ALLS performed worse than literate adults in various tasks at skill and information processing level, and exhibited structural and functional differences at the neurobiological level. The cognitive profile of ALLS was closer to that of primary school children than of literate adults. However, relative to children, ALLS’ literacy skills relied less on phonological and more on orthographic strategies. A narrative comparison of results with meta-analyses on developmental dyslexia showed large, though not complete, overlap in the cognitive profiles. The present results helps to better understand the literacy skills and reading-related cognitive functions of ALLS and may support the development of tailored interventions directed to the specific cognitive difficulties ALLS have.

中文翻译：

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字母正字法中识字能力低的成年人的认知概况：系统评价和与发育性阅读障碍的比较


在现代社会中，处理文本至关重要。然而，并不是每个人都在学校教育中获得足够的识字技能。本系统综述总结和综合了对字母书写系统中识字能力低的成年人 （ALLS） 的研究，包括行为和神经生物学研究的结果，并将这些发现与发育性阅读障碍的结果进行比较，因为这种发育障碍是成年期识字能力低的一种可能解释。27 项侧重于 ALLS 认知概况的研究满足了阅读水平、年龄和教育程度这三个预定义的标准。结果显示，ALLS 在技能和信息处理水平的各种任务中表现比识字的成年人差，并且在神经生物学水平上表现出结构和功能差异。ALLS 的认知特征更接近小学生而不是识字的成年人。然而，相对于儿童，ALLS 的识字技能较少依赖于语音，而更多地依赖于正字法策略。将结果与发育性阅读障碍的荟萃分析进行叙述性比较，显示认知概况存在很大但不完全的重叠。目前的结果有助于更好地了解 ALLS 的识字技能和与阅读相关的认知功能，并可能支持针对 ALLS 的特定认知困难开发量身定制的干预措施。