Do Immediate Memory Deficits in Students with Learning Disabilities in Reading Reflect a Developmental Lag or Deficit?: A Selective Meta-Analysis of the Literature
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online May, 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
The purpose of the present study was to synthesize research that directly compares children with and without learning disabilities in reading on immediate memory performance. Forty-one studies were included in the synthesis, which involved 161 effect sizes. The overall mean effect size estimate in favor of children without learning disabilities in reading was -.61 (SD=.87). Effect size estimates were submitted to a descriptive and a weighted least-square regression analysis. Results from the full regression model indicated that children with learning disabilities were distinctly disadvantaged compared to average readers when memory manipulations required the naming of visual information and task conditions involved serial recall. Age, IQ, and reading scores were not significant predictors of effect size estimates. Most importantly, nonstrategic (type of task and materials) rather than strategic factors best predicted effect size estimates. The results also indicated that memory difficulties of readers with learning disabilities persisted across age, suggesting that a deficit model best captures the performance of children with learning disabilities. Results are discussed in relation to current developmental models of learning disabilities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AugustG. J.GarfinkelB. D. (1990). Comorbidity of ADHD and reading disability among clinic-referred children. Journal of Abnormal Child psychology, 18(1), 29–45.
2.
BauerR. H. (1979). Memory, acquisition, and category clustering in learning-disabled children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 27, 365–383.
3.
BauerR. H.Peller-PorthV. (1990). The effect of increased incentive on free recall by learning-disabled and nondisabled children. The Journal of General Psychology, 117, 447–462.
4.
BausermanD. N.ObrzutJ. E. (1981). Free recall and rehearsal strategies in average and severely disabled readers. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 52, 539–545.
5.
BjorklundD. F.SchneiderW.CasselW. S.AshleyE. (1994). Training and extension of a memory strategy: Evidence for utilization deficiencies in the acquisition of an organizational strategy in high-and low-IQ children. Child Development, 65, 951–965.
6.
BradleyL.BryantP. (1981). Visual memory and phonological skills in reading and spelling backwardness. Psychological Research, 43, 193–199.
7.
BrainerdC. J.GordenL. (1994). Development of verbatim and gist memory for numbers. Developmental Psychology, 30, 163–177.
8.
BruckM. (1990). Word-recognition skills of adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia. Developmental Psychology, 26(3), 439–454.
9.
CeciS. J. (1984). Developmental study of learning disabilities and memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 38, 352–371.
10.
CohenJ. (1969). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
11.
CohenR. L. (1981). Short-term memory deficits in reading disabled children, in the absence of opportunity for rehearsal strategies. Intelligence, 5, 69–76.
12.
CookR. D.WeisbergS. (1982). Residuals and influence in regression. New York: Chapman & Hall.
13.
DallegoM. L. L.MoelyB. E. (1980). Free recall in boys of normal and poor reading levels as a function of task manipulations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 30, 62–78.
14.
DanemanM.CarpenterP. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450–466.
15.
EaglyA. H.WoodW. (1994). Using research syntheses to plan future research. In CooperH.HedgesL. V. (Eds.), The handbook of research synthesis (pp. 485–500). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
16.
Federal Register. (1977). The rules of a regulatory for implementing P. L. 94–142. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.
17.
FlavellJ. H. (1970). Developmental studies of mediated memory. In ReeseH. W.LipsittL. P. (Eds.), Advances in child development and child behavior, Vol. 5 (pp. 181–211). New York: Academic Press.
18.
FlavellJ. H.BeachD. R.ChinskyJ. M. (1966). Spontaneous verbal rehearsal in a memory task as a function of age. Child Development, 37, 283–299.
19.
FrancisD. J.ShaywitzS. E.StuebingK. K.ShaywitzB. A.FletcherJ. M. (1996). Developmental lag versus deficit models of reading disability: A longitudinal, individual growth curve analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 317.
20.
HainesD. J.TorgesenJ. K. (1979). The effects of incentives on rehearsal and short-term memory in children with reading problems. Learning Disability Quarterly, 2, 48–55.
21.
HallJ. W.WilsonK. P.HumphreysM. S.TinzmannM. B.BowyerP. M. (1983). Phonemic-similarity effects in good vs. poor readers. Memory & Cognition, 11, 520–527.
22.
HansenJ.BoweyJ. A. (1994). Phonological analysis skills, verbal working memory, and reading ability in second-grade children. Child Development, 65(3), 938–950.
23.
HedgesL. V. (1987). How hard is hard science, how soft is soft science? The empirical cumulativeness of research. American Psychologist, 42, 443–455.
24.
HedgesL. V.OlkinI. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis. New York: Academic Press.
25.
HowellM. J.ManisF. R. (1986). Developmental and reading ability differences in semantic processing efficiency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 124–129.
26.
HulmeC. (1981). The effects of manual tracing on memory in normal and retarded readers: Some implications for multi-sensory teaching. Psychological Research, 43, 179–191.
27.
HulmeC.MacKensieS. (1992). Working memory and severe reading difficulties. Howe, U. K.: Erlbaum.
28.
KatzR. B.ShankweilerD.LibermanI. Y. (1981). Memory for item order and phonetic recoding in the beginning reader. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 32, 474–484.
29.
LindgrenS. D.RichmanL. C. (1984). Immediate memory functions of verbally deficient reading-disabled children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 17, 222–225.
30.
LorsbachT. C. (1982). Individual differences in semantic encoding processes. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 15, 476–480.
31.
LorsbachT. C.GrayJ. W. (1986). Item identification speed and memory span performance in learning disabled children. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 11, 68–78.
32.
LorsbachT. C.WormanL. J. (1989). The development of explicit and implicit forms of memory in learning disabled children. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 14, 67–76.
33.
LorsbachT. C.WormanL. J. (1990). Episodic priming in children with learning disabilities. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 15, 93–102.
34.
MannV. A.LibermanI. Y.ShankweilerD. (1980). Children's memory for sentences and word strings in relations to reading ability. Memory & Cognition, 8, 329–335.
35.
MillerP. H. (1990). The development of strategies of selective attention. In BjorklundD. F. (Ed.), Children's strategies: Contemporary views of cognitive development (pp. 157–184). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
36.
MillerP. H.SeierW. L. (1994). Strategy utilization deficiencies in children: When, where, and why. In ReeseH. W. (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior, Vol. 25 (pp. 107–156). New York: Academic Press.
37.
MillerP. H.Woody-RamseyJ.AloiseP. A. (1991). The role of strategy effortfulness in strategy effectiveness. Developmental Psychology, 27, 738–745.
38.
OrmrodJ. E.LewisM. A. (1985). Comparison of memory skills in learning disabled, low-reading, and nondisabled adolescents. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 191–195.
39.
PenningtonB. F.Van OrdenG. C.SmithS. D.GreenP. A.HaithM. M. (1990). Phonological processing skills and deficits in adult dyslexics. Child Development, 61, 1753–1778.
40.
RackJ. P. (1985). Orthographic and phonetic coding in developmental dyslexia. British Journal of Psychology, 76, 325–340.
41.
RichieD. J.AtenJ. L. (1976). Auditory retention of nonverbal and verbal sequential stimuli in children with reading disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 9, 54–60.
42.
SatzP.FletcherJ. M.ClarkeW.MorrisR. (1982). Lag, deficit, delay, and rate constructs in learning disability: A re-examination. In AnsaraA.GeschwindN.GalaburdaA.AlbertM.GartrellN. (Eds.), Sex differences in dyslexia (pp. 129–150). New York: Orton Dyslexia Society.
43.
ScruggsT. E.MastropieriM. A. (1989). Mnemonic instruction of learning disabled students: A field-based investigation. Learning Disability Quarterly, 12, 119–125.
44.
ShankweilerD.LibermanI. Y.MarkS. L.FowlerL. A.FischerF. W. (1979). The speech code and learning to read. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 5, 531–545.
45.
ShepardM. J.GelzheiserL. M.SolarR. A. (1985). How good is the evidence for a production deficiency among learning disabled students?Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 553–561.
46.
SiegelL. S. (1992). An evaluation of the discrepancy definition of dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 25, 618–629.
47.
SiegelL. S. (1993). Phonological processing deficits as the basis of a reading disability. Developmental Review, 13, 246–257.
48.
SiegelL. S. (1994). Working memory and reading: A life-span perspective. International Journal of Behavior Development, 17, 109–124.
49.
SiegelL. S.LinderB. A. (1984). Short-term memory processes in children with reading and arithmetic learning disabilities. Developmental Psychology, 20, 200–207.
50.
SiegelL. S.RyanE. B. (1988). Development of grammatical-sensitivity, phonological, and short-term memory skills in normally achieving and learning disabled children. Developmental Psychology, 24, 28–37.
51.
SiegelL. S.RyanE. B. (1989). The development of working memory in normally achieving and subtypes of learning disabled children. Child Development, 60, 973–980.
52.
StanovichK. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360–407.
53.
StanovichK. E. (1991). Conceptual and empirical problems with discrepancy definitions of reading disability. Learning Disability Quarterly, 14(4), 269–280.
54.
StanovichK. E.SiegelL. S. (1994). Phenotypic performance profile of children with reading disabilities: A regression-based test of the phonological-core variable-difference model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 24–53.
55.
SwansonH. L. (1978). Verbal encoding effects on the visual short-term memory of learning disabled and normal readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 539–544.
56.
SwansonH. L. (1979). Auditory recall of conceptually, phonetically, and linguistically similar words by normal and learning-disabled children. Journal of Special Education, 13, 63–67.
57.
SwansonH. L. (1982). Verbal short-term memory encoding of learning disabled, deaf, and normal readers. Learning Disability Quarterly, 5, 21–28.
58.
SwansonH. L. (1983). Study of nonstrategic linguistic coding on visual recall of learning disabled readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 16, 209–216.
59.
SwansonH. L. (1984a). Semantic and visual memory codes in learning disabled readers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 37, 124–140.
60.
SwansonH. L. (1984b). Effects of cognitive effort and word distinctiveness on learning disabled and nondisabled readers' recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 894–908.
61.
SwansonH. L. (1987a). Verbal-coding deficits in the recall of pictorial information by learning disabled readers: The influence of a lexical system. American Educational Research Journal, 24, 143–170.
62.
SwansonH. L. (1987b). What learning-disabled readers fail to retrieve on verbal dichotic tests: A problem of encoding, retrieval, or storage?Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15(3), 339–360.
63.
SwansonH. L. (1993). Working memory in learning disability subgroups. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56, 87–114.
64.
SwansonH. L. (1994). The role of working memory and dynamic assessment in the classification of children with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 9, 190–202.
65.
SwansonH. L.CochranK. F.EwersC. A. (1989). Working memory in skilled and less skilled readers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 145–156.
66.
SwansonH. L.CooneyJ. B.O'ShaughnessyT. E. (in press). Learning disabilities and memory. In WongB. Y. L. (Ed.), Understanding learning and learning disabilities. San Diego, Academic Press.
67.
SwansonH. L.RamalgiaJ. M. (1992). The relationship between phonological codes on memory and spelling tasks for students with and without learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 25, 396–407.
68.
SwansonH. L.RathgeberA. J. (1986). The effects of organizational dimension on memory for words in learning-disabled and nondisabled readers. Journal of Educational Research, 79, 155–162.
69.
SwansonH. L.ReffelJ.TrahanM. (1991). Naturalistic memory in learning-disabled and skilled readers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 19, 117–147.
TorgesenJ. K. (1977). Memorization processes in reading-disabled children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 571–578.
72.
TorgesenJ. K.HouckD. G. (1980). Processing deficiencies of learning-disabled children who perform poorly on the digit span test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 141–160.
73.
TorgesenJ. K.MurphyH.IveyC. (1979). The influence of an orienting task on the memory performance of children with reading problems. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 12, 43–48.
74.
VellutinoF.ScanlonD. M.SpearingD. (1995). Semantic and phonological coding in poor and normal readers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 59, 76–123.
75.
VellutinoF. R.ScanlonD. M.TanzmanM. S. (1988). Lexical memory in poor and normal readers: Developmental differences in the use of category cues. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 42(2), 216–241.
76.
WertliebE. C. (1990). Automatic and purposive semantic processing in learning disabled individuals. Journal of Special Education, 23, 450–462.
77.
WilhardtL.SandmanC. A. (1988). Performance of nondisabled adults and adults with learning disabilities on a computerized multiphasic cognitive memory battery. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21, 179–185.
78.
WongB. (1978). The effects of directive cues on the organization of memory and recall in good and poor readers. Journal of Educational Research, 72, 32–38.
79.
WongB.WongR.FothD. (1977). Recall and clustering of verbal materials among normal and poor readers. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 10, 375–378.
80.
WoodK.RichmanL.EliasonM. J. (1989). Immediate memory functions in reading disability subtypes. Brain & Language, 36, 181–192.
