Comparison of normal and learning disabled children on a nonverbal short-term memory serial position task

A serial recall task was used to compare performance of 15 normal and 15 learning disabled elementary school children matched on CA, IQ, and sex with two and three dimensional representations of nonverbal eight-point shapes. Two a priori assumptions were not supported: (a) no differences in recall were found between groups and (b) no differences in recall were found for either group using two or three dimensional stimuli. Three dimensional stimuli did facilitate visual rehearsal at the primacy position for both groups. Learning disabled children's performance was consistent with the mediation deficiency hypothesis found with normal children.