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Working memory, comprehension ability and the resolution of text anomaly
1School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
British Journal of Psychology (London, England : 1953)
|August 1, 1989
Summary
Working memory deficits may impact reading comprehension in children. Poor comprehenders struggled more with tasks requiring working memory, suggesting a link between memory skills and understanding text.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Accurate reading does not always equate to strong text comprehension.
- Working memory plays a crucial role in cognitive tasks, including reading.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate potential working memory deficits in children with poor reading comprehension.
- To examine the relationship between working memory capacity and text comprehension abilities.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Non-linguistic working memory task (digit series recall) comparing good and poor comprehenders.
- Experiment 2: Anomaly resolution task with varying proximity and order of anomalous and resolving information.
Main Results:
- Poor comprehenders performed worse on more demanding working memory tasks.
- Children with poor comprehension struggled more with anomaly resolution when information was separated, indicating working memory load impacts integration.
Conclusions:
- Text processing is influenced by working memory demands.
- Children's text comprehension is linked to the efficiency of their non-linguistic working memory system.