Metamemorial knowledge of good and poor readers: a developmental perspective

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Reading disabilities are sometimes associated with passivity in learning and a lack of strategy use.
• This passivity has been hypothesized to stem from a developmental lag in metamemory awareness, similar to younger children.
• Metamemory, or awareness of one's own memory, is crucial for cognitive efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether children with reading disabilities exhibit a developmental lag in metamemory awareness compared to good readers.
• To assess children's knowledge of variables influencing memory performance.

Main Methods:

• Interviews were conducted with good and poor readers across second, third, and fifth grades.
• Children were questioned about their memory abilities.
• Picture-based tasks assessed knowledge of memory variables (number, time, category, strategy) and their combinations.

Main Results:

• The findings did not support the developmental lag hypothesis.
• Poor readers demonstrated knowledge of memory variables comparable to good readers within the same grade level.
• No significant difference was found in metamemory awareness between good and poor readers.

Conclusions:

• Children with reading disabilities do not appear to lag behind their peers in metamemory awareness.
• The hypothesis that reading problems are linked to a developmental deficit in understanding memory strategies is not supported by this research.
• Reading-disabled children's knowledge of memory variables is commensurate with that of average readers.