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Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
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The relationship between working memory updating components and reading comprehension.
Rocío Linares1, Santiago Pelegrina2
1Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Paraje Las Lagunillas S/N, 23071, Jaén, Spain. rlinares@ujaen.es.
Cognitive Processing
|February 11, 2023
Summary
Reading comprehension difficulties in children may stem from problems retrieving information in working memory. Specifically, the ability to access and update information, not substitute it, is crucial for reading skills.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Reading comprehension is vital for academic success.
- Working memory updating is essential for processing text.
- Difficulties in reading comprehension are often linked to working memory deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the distinct roles of retrieval and substitution in working memory updating for reading comprehension.
- To identify specific working memory updating components contributing to reading difficulties in children.
Main Methods:
- Administered numerical subtasks assessing retrieval and substitution in working memory updating to 148 4th-grade children.
- Included measures of reading comprehension and general cognitive abilities.
- Compared performance between skilled and less-skilled comprehenders.
Main Results:
- Less-skilled comprehenders demonstrated lower accuracy on tasks requiring information retrieval.
- The substitution component of working memory updating was not significantly related to reading comprehension.
- Retrieval efficiency during working memory updating emerged as a key factor.
Conclusions:
- Reading comprehension difficulties in children are associated with impaired information retrieval within working memory updating.
- Targeting retrieval processes may be beneficial for improving reading comprehension.
- Substitution processes appear less critical for reading comprehension compared to retrieval.
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