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Memory span, naming speed, and memory strategies in poor and normal readers
1School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.
Memory (Hove, England)
|June 26, 1998
Summary
Severely impaired poor readers did not show a word length effect with pictures but did with sounds. This suggests potential issues with retrieving phonological information during recall, despite adequate verbal encoding.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Poor readers often exhibit deficits in phonological processing, impacting reading acquisition.
- The word length effect, a common finding in memory tasks, is sensitive to phonological encoding.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of presentation modality (pictorial vs. auditory) on the word length effect in severely impaired poor readers.
- To explore the role of verbal encoding and phonological store retrieval in reading impairment.
Main Methods:
- Eleven-year-old poor readers and age-matched controls participated in pictorial and auditory word length effect tasks.
- Naming speed, memory span, and reading ability were assessed.
Main Results:
- Poor readers showed a word length effect with auditory, but not pictorial, presentation.
- Naming speed was impaired in poor readers but did not fully account for memory and reading differences.
- Verbal encoding of pictures was suggested by participant reports and observed lip movements.
Conclusions:
- The absence of a pictorial word length effect in poor readers may stem from difficulties in retrieving information from the phonological store.
- Reading impairment in children is complex, involving not only naming speed but also phonological processing and memory retrieval.