Two experiments investigated the effects of strategy knowledge and strategy training on the working memory (WM) performance in children (ages 10—11) with and without reading disabilities (RD). Experiment 1 examined the relationship between strategy knowledge (stability of strategy choices) and WM performance as a function of initial, gain (cued), and maintenance conditions. WM performance was significantly improved for both groups under cued conditions; however, the performances of children with RD were inferior to those of children without RD across all memory conditions. Measures of WM capacity rather than strategy stability or processing efficiency best predicted reading comprehension performance. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of strategy training on WM performance by randomly assigning children to strategy instruction or control conditions. Significant improvements in WM performance occurred as a function of training conditions, but the residual WM differences between the reading groups remained. Although the results showed that stable strategy choices, cued performance, and strategy instruction significantly bolstered WM performance in children with RD, their overall WM performance, however, was constrained by capacity limitations.
Baddeley, A.D., & Logie, R.H. ( 1999). The multiple-component model. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive Control (pp. 28-61). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Baddeley, A., Sala, S.D., Papagno, C., & Spinnler, H. ( 1997). Dual-task performance in dysexecutive and nondysexecutive patients with a frontal lesion. Neuropsychology, 11, 187-194.
3.
Brown, V.L., Hammill, D., & Wiederholt, J.L. (1995). Test of Reading Comprehension . Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
4.
Chiappe, P., Hasher, L., & Siegel, L.S. ( 2000). Working memory, inhibitory control, and reading disability . Memory and Cognition, 28, 8-17.
5.
Cohen, J. ( 1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). New York: Academic Press.
6.
Cowan, N. ( 1995) Attention and memory: An integrated framework. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
7.
Cowan, N. ( 2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of memory storage capacity. Brain and Behavioral Sciences , 24, 87-185.
8.
Coyle, T.R., Read, L.E., Gaultney, J.F., & Bjorklund, D.F. (1998). Giftedness and variability in strategic processing on a multitrial memory task: Evidence for stability in gifted cognition. Learning and Individual Differences, 10, 273-290.
9.
Daneman, M., & Carpenter P.A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450-466.
10.
De Beni, R., Palladino, P., Pazzaglia, F., & Cornoldi, C. ( 1998). Increases in intrusion errors and working memory deficit of poor comprehenders. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology, 51, 305-320.
11.
De Jong, P.F. ( 1998). Working memory deficits of reading disabled children . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 70, 75-96.
12.
Dunlosky, J., & Kane, M.J. ( 2007). The contribution of strategy use to working memory span: A comparison of strategy assessment methods. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 1227-1245
13.
Engle, R.W., Cantor, J., & Carullo, J.J. ( 1992). Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 18, 972-992.
14.
Engle, R.W., Tuholski, S.W., Laughlin, J.E., & Conway, A.R. ( 1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 309-331.
15.
Friedman, N.P., & Miyake, A. ( 2004). The reading span test and its predictive power for reading comprehension ability. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 136-158.
16.
Gathercole, S.E. ( 1998). The development of memory. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 3-27.
17.
Gathercole, S.E., Alloway, T.P., Willis, C., & Adams, A. ( 2006). Working memory in children with reading disabilities . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 93, 265-281.
18.
Hasher, L., Lustig, C., & Zacks, R. ( 2007). Inhibitory mechanisms and the control of attention. In A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 227-249). New York: Oxford University Press.
19.
Jarrold, C., & Bayliss, D.M. ( 2007).Variation in working memory due to typical and atypical development. In A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 134-162). New York: Oxford University Press.
20.
Justice, E.M. ( 1985). Categorization as a preferred memory strategy: Developmental changes during elementary school. Developmental Psychology , 6, 1105-1110.
21.
Kane, M.J., Conway, A.R., Hambrick, D.Z., & Engle, R.W. ( 2007). Variation in working memory capacity as variation in executive attention and control. In A. Conway , C. Jarrold, M. J. Kanem, A. Miyake, & J. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory. (pp. 21-48). New York: Oxford University Press.
22.
Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P.J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlstrom, K., et al. (2005). Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD-A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44, 177-186.
23.
Klingberg, T., Forssberg, H., & Westerberg, H. (2002). Training of working memory in children with ADHD. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24, 781-791.
24.
Kreutzer, M.A., Leonard, C., & Flavell, J.H. ( 1975). An interview study of children’s knowledge about memory. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 40(1, Serial No. 159), 1-58.
25.
Kyllonen, P.C., & Christal, R.E. (1990). Reasoning ability is (little) or more than working-memory capacity?! Intelligence, 14, 389-433.
26.
Male, D.B. ( 1996). Metamemorial functioning of children with moderate learning difficulties. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 66,145-157.
27.
McNamara, D.S., & Scott, J.L. ( 2001). Working memory capacity and strategy use. Memory and Cognition, 29, 10-17.
28.
O’Shaughnessy, T.E., & Swanson, H.L. ( 1998). Do immediate memory deficits in students with learning disabilities in reading reflect a developmental lag or deficit? A selective meta-analysis of the literature. Learning Disability Quarterly , 21, 123-150.
29.
Passolunghi, M.C., Cornoldi, C., & De Liberto, S. (1999). Working memory and intrusions of irrelevant information in a group of specific poor problem solvers. Memory and Cognition, 27, 779-790.
30.
Raven, J.C. ( 1976). Colored progressive matrices. London : H. K. Lewis.
31.
Schneider, W. ( 1985). The role of conceptual knowledge and metamemory on the development of organizational processes in memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 42, 318-336.
32.
Schneider, W., & Pressley, M. ( 1997). Memory development between two and twenty. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
33.
Siegel, L.S., & Ryan, E.B. ( 1989). The development of working memory in normally achieving and subtypes of learning disabled children. Child Development , 60, 973-980.
34.
Swanson, H.L. ( 1992). Generality and modifiability of working memory among skilled and less skilled readers. Journal of Educational Psychology , 84, 473-488.
Swanson, H.L. ( 1996). Individual and age-related differences in children’s working memory. Memory and Cognition, 24, 70-82.
39.
Swanson, H.L. ( 1999). What develops in working memory? A life span perspective . Developmental Psychology, 35, 986-1000.
40.
Swanson, H.L. ( 2003). Age-related differences in learning disabled and skilled readers’ working memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 1-31.
41.
Swanson, H.L., Ashbaker, M., & Lee, C. ( 1996). Learning disabled readers’ working memory as a function of processing demands. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 61, 242-275.
42.
Swanson, H.L., & Jerman, O. ( 2006). Math disabilities: A selective meta-analysis of the literature . Review of Educational Research, 76, 249-274.
43.
Swanson, H.L., & Siegel, L. ( 2001). Learning disabilities as a working memory deficit. Issues in Education: Contributions From Educational Psychology, 7, 1-48.
44.
Thorell, L.B., Lindqvist, S., Nutley, S.B., Bohlin, G., & Klingberg, T. ( 2009). Training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children. Developmental Science, 12, 106-113.
45.
Towse, G.J., Hitch, G.H., & Hutton, U. ( 2001). What limits children’s working memory span? Theoretical accounts and application for scholastic development. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 184-198.
46.
Turley-Ames, K.J., & Whitfield, M. ( 2003). Strategy training and working memory performance. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 446-468.
47.
Unsworth, N., & Engle, R.W. ( 2007). On the division of short-term memory and working memory: An examination of simple and complex span and their relation to higher order abilities. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1038-1066.
48.
Wilkinson, G.S. ( 1993). The Wide Range Achievement Test. Wilmington, DE: Wide Range.
