The purpose of this study was to determine the components of working memory (WM) that underlie less skilled readers' comprehension and word recognition difficulties. Performance of 3 less skilled reading subgroups—children with reading disabilities (RD) in both word recognition and comprehension; children with comprehension deficits only; and children with low verbal IQ, word recognition, and comprehension (poor readers)—was compared to that of skilled readers on WM, short-term memory (STM), processing speed, executive, and phonological processing measures. Ability group comparisons showed that (a) skilled readers outperformed all less skilled readers on measures of WM, updating, and processing speed; (b) children with comprehension deficits only outperformed children with RD on measures of WM, STM, phonological processing, and processing speed; and (c) children with RD outperformed poor readers on WM and phonological processing measures. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that (a) subgroup differences on WM tasks among less skilled readers were moderated by a storage system not specific to phonological skills, and (b) STM and updating contributed significant variance to WM beyond what was contributed by reading group classification. The latter finding suggested that some differences in storage and executive processing emerged between skilled and less skilled readers that were not specific to reading.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Baddeley, A.D. (1986). Working memory. London: Oxford University Press.
2.
Baddeley, A.D. (1996). Exploring the central executive. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A, 5—28.
3.
Baddeley, A.D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417—422.
4.
Baddeley, A.D., & Logie, R.H. (1999). The multiple-component model. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 28—61) Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Bull, R., Johnston, R.S., & Roy, J.A. (1999). Exploring the roles of the visual—spatial sketch pad and central executive in children's arithmetical skills: Views from cognition and developmental neuropsychology. Developmental Neuropsychology, 15, 421—442.
6.
Cantor, J., & Engle, R.W. (1993). Working-memory capacity is long-term memory activation: An individual differences approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, andCognition, 19, 1101— 1114.
7.
Cantor, J., Engle, R.W., & Hamilton, G. (1991). Short-term memory, working memory, and verbal abilities: How do they relate?Intelligence, 15, 229—246.
8.
Chiappe, P., Hasher, L., & Siegel, L.S. (2000). Working memory, inhibitory control, and reading disability. Memory & Cognition, 28, 8—17.
9.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
10.
Cohen, J. (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences . New York: Academic Press.
11.
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P.A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450—466.
12.
Daneman, M., & Merikle, P.M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis . Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 442—453.
13.
De Beni, R., Palladino, P., Pazzaglia, F., & Cornoldi, C. (1998). Increases in intrusion errors and working memory deficit of poor comprehenders. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology, 51, 305—320.
14.
De Jong, P. (1998). Working memory deficits of reading disabled children . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 70, 75—95.
15.
Dempster, F. (1985). Short-term memory development in childhood and adolescence. In C. Brainerd & M. Pressley (Eds.), Basic processes in memory (pp. 209—248). New York: Springer Verlag.
16.
Engle, R.W., Cantor, J., & Carullo, J.J. (1992). Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, andCognition, 18, 972—992.
17.
Engle, R.W., Tuholski, S.W., Laughlin, J.E., & Conway, A.R. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 128, 309—331.
18.
Hulme, C., Maughan, S., & Brown, G.D.A. (1991). Memory for familiar and unfamiliar words: Evidence from a long-term memory contribution to short-term memory span. Journal of Memory andLanguage, 30, 685—701.
19.
Hulme, C., Thomson, N., Muir, C., & Lawrence, A. (1984). Speech rate and the development of short-term memory span. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 47, 72—87.
20.
Johnston, R.S., & Anderson, M. (1998). Memory span, naming speed, and memory strategies in poor and normal readers. Memory (Hove, England), 6, 143—163.
21.
Just, M.A., & Carpenter, P.A. (1992). A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory. Psychological Review , 99, 122—149.
22.
Just, M.A., Carpenter, P.A., & Keller, T.A. (1996). The capacity theory of comprehension: New frontiers of evidence and arguments. Psychological Review, 103, 773—780.
23.
Kail, R. (1993). The role of global mechanisms in developmental change in speed of processing. In M. Howe & R. Pasnak (Eds.), Emerging themes in cognitive development (Vol. 1, pp. 97—116). New York: Springer Verlag.
24.
Kane, M.J., & Engle, R.W. (2003). Working-memory capacity and the control of attention: The contributions of goal neglect, response competion, and task set to Stroop interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General , 132, 47—70.
25.
Klapp, S.T., Marshburn, E.A., & Lester, P.T. (1983). Short-term memory does not involve the “working-memory”of intellectual processing: The demise of a common assumption. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 112, 240—264.
26.
Miyake, A., Friedman, N.P., Emerson, M.J., Witzki, A.H., Howerter, A., & Wagner, T.D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49—100.
27.
Morris, N., & Jones, D.M. (1990). Memory updating in working memory: The role of central executive. The British Journal of Psychology, 91, 111—121.
28.
Nation, K., Adams, J.W., Bowyer-Crane, C.A., & Snowling, M.J. (1999). Working memory deficits in poor comprehenders reflect underlying language impairments. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 73, 139—158.
29.
Oberauer, K. (2002). Access to information in working memory: Exploring the focus of attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29, 411—421.
30.
Oberauer, K., Süb, H., Wilhelm, O., & Wittman, W.W. (2003). The multiple faces of working memory: Storage, processing, supervision, and coordination. Intelligence, 31, 167—193.
31.
Palladino, P., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., & Pazzaglia, F. (2001). Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension. Memory & Cognition, 29, 344— 354.
32.
Passolunghi, M.C., & Siegel, L.S. (2001). Short-term memory, working memory, and inhibitory control in children with difficulties in arithmetic problem solving. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 80, 44—57.
33.
Passolunghi, M.C., Cornoldi, C., & De Liberto, S. (1999). Working memory and intrusions of irrelevant information in a group of specific poor problem solvers. Memory & Cognition, 27, 779—790.
Salthouse, T.A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 103, 403— 428.
36.
Siegel, L.S. (1994). Working memory and reading: A life-span perspective . International Journal of Behavioral Development, 17, 109—124.
37.
Siegel, L.S., & Ryan, E.B. (1989). The development of working memory in normally achieving and subtypes of learning disabled. Child Development , 60, 973—980.
38.
Shankweiler, D., & Crain, S. (1986). Language mechanisms and reading disorder. Cognition, 24, 139—168.
39.
Shankweiler, D., Crain, S., Katz, L., Fowler, A.E., Liberman, A.M., Brady, S.A., et al. (1995). Cognitive profiles of reading disabled children: Comparison of language skills in phonology, morphology, and syntax . Psychological Science, 6, 149—156.
40.
Stanovich, K.E. (1990). Concepts in developmental theories of reading skill: Cognitive resources, automaticity, and modularity. Developmental Review, 10, 72—100.
41.
Stanovich, K., & Siegel, L.S. (1994). Phenotypic performance profile of children with reading disabilities: A regression-based test of the phonological-core difference model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 24—53.
42.
Stevens, J.P. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (4th ed.) Mahwah, NJ : Erlbaum.
43.
Stothard, S., & Hulme, C. (1992). Reading comprehension difficulties in children . Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 4, 245—256.
44.
Swanson, H.L. (1992). Generality and modifiability of working memory among skilled and less skilled readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 473—488.
Swanson, H.L. (1996). Individual and age-related differences in children's working memory. Memory & Cognition, 24, 70—82.
48.
Swanson, H.L. (1999). Reading comprehension and working memory in skilled readers: Is the phonological loop more important than the executive system?Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 72, 1—31.
49.
Swanson, H.L. (2003). Age-related differences in learning disabled and skilled readers' working memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 1—31.
50.
Swanson, H.L., & Alexander, J. (1997). Cognitive processes as predictors of word recognition and reading comprehension in learning disabled and skilled readers: Revisiting the specificity hypothesis. Journal of Educational Psychology , 89, 128—158.
51.
Swanson, H.L., & Ashbaker, M. (2000). Working memory, short-term memory, articulation speed, word recognition, and reading comprehension in learning disabled readers: Executive and/or articulatory system?Intelligence, 28, 1—30.
52.
Swanson, H.L., Ashbaker, M., & Lee, C. (1996). Learning disabled readers' working memory as a function of processing demands. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 61, 242—275.
53.
Swanson, H.L., & Berninger, V. (1995). The role of working memory and STM in skilled and less skilled readers' word recognition and comprehension. Intelligence, 21, 83—108.
54.
Swanson, H.L., & Cochran, K. (1991). Learning disabilities, distinctive encoding, and hemispheric resources. Brain andLanguage, 40, 202—230.
55.
Swanson, H.L., & Sachse-Lee, C. (2001). Mathematical problem solving and working memory in children with learning disabilities: Both executive and phonological processes are important. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 79, 294—321.
56.
Towse, J. (1998). On random generation and the central executive of working memory. The British Journal of Psychology, 89, 77—101.
57.
Towse, J.N., Hitch, G., & Hutton, U. (1998). A reevaluation of working memory capacity in children. Journal of Memory andLanguage, 39, 195—217.
58.
Turner, M.L., & Engle, R.W. (1989). Is working-memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory andLanguage, 28, 127—154.
59.
Wagner, R., & Torgesen, J. (1999). Test of word reading efficiency. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
60.
Wagner, R., Torgesen, J., & Rashotte, C. (2000). Comprehensive test of phonological processing . Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
61.
Wechsler, D. (1991). Wechsler intelligence scale for children (3rd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corp.
62.
Whitney, P., Arnett, P., Driver, A., & Budd, D. (2001). Measuring central executive functioning: What's in a reading span? Brain andCognition, 45, 1—14.
