Abstract

Based on the work by Townsend and Ashby (1978) on the inverse efficiency score, we have developed our algorithm for reading efficiency indexes on data from a sample of 1262 students of elementary classes (320 grade II, 320 grade III; 320 grade IV; 302 grade V), who were administered the subtest 2 and 3 of DDE-2 (Sartori, Job e Tressoldi, 2007), which consist of list of words and pseudo-words respectively, following the dual-route cascade model (Coltheart et al., 2001). This new score called IEL, merges the parameters of speed and accuracy of existing tests. The performance of the subject in reading of words and pseudo-words is transformed into a measure of efficiency of grapheme-phoneme conversion route and lexical route. Some clinical examples discussed in this paper show the advantage of a systematic use of these scores in clinical practice (in terms of interpreting the results, definition of the diagnosis and clinical intervention). An application for the automatic calculation of the IEL is accessible at the web address www.giovannidantuono.it.