The relationships among working memory, memory span, and reading skills were studied
in 1266 individuals, aged 6-49. They were administered tests of word recognition,
pseudoword decoding, reading comprehension, a working memory (listening span) task
that required the simultaneous processing of syntax and the recall of linguistic
information, and a short-term memory task that required the recall of rhyming or
nonrhyming letters presented visually. The results indicated that there is a gradual
growth in the development of working memory skills from ages 6 to 19 and a gradual
decline after adolescence. The short-term memory task did not show a decline in
performance among older individuals. On both of these memory tasks and at most of
the age levels, individuals with a reading disability performed at significantly
lower levels than individuals with normal reading skills. An important component of
the development of reading skills appears to be memory for verbal information.
Age-related declines in memory appear to be related to the processing demands of the
task, which may affect the degree to which rehearsal strategies are possible within
the task.
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