This study compared students with (n=20) and without (n=40) learning disabilities (LD) on their recall of academic information and information encountered in their everyday lives. Students with LD performed poorly on both types of recall, suggesting that they may have problems with retrieval and working memory. The availability of cues…

Microanalysis of problem-solving activities of 10 learning-disabled and 10 normally achieving children (ages 10-12) found that, although normally achieving subjects reached more sophisticated levels of strategy use, there was no evidence that the learning-disabled subjects were inactive, passive, or maladaptive in their problem-solving attempts.…

The article reviews literature on the information processing model with learning disabled children. Assumptions concerning the role of automaticity, prior knowledge, and executive functioning are questioned. Also discussed are procedures for identifying common denominations, subgrouping, isolating mental components underlying academic change, and…

The study examined speech production abilities of 14 poor readers and 14 age-matched (second and third graders) nondisabled readers. Subjects were taught to produce four novel, multisyllabic nonsense words. Analysis indicated that encoding limitations rather than speech production limitations were primarily responsible for disabled readers' longer…

This study examined cognitive correlates of social perception in 32 learning-disabled elementary students. Three subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity were used as measures. Subtests for Picture Arrangement and Comprehension seemed to have an inherent relation to social perceptual…

Fourteen Dutch children with dyslexia were compared with controls on automatic processing under a dual task (motor balance task and auditory choice task) model. Results indicated the dyslexic group was more impaired in the dual task condition than in the single task condition, compared with controls. Findings support the automatization deficit…

Comparison of 30 learning disabled (LD) children, ages 7 to 13, and controls on a computerized test of attentional skills indicated LD subjects committed more omission errors and responded at a slower rate but did not differ from the controls on commission errors, suggesting inefficient allocation of processing resources rather than attentional…

Tests of rapid serial naming, reading, spelling, general intelligence, articulation speed, and word fluency were administered to nine children with reading disabilities and rapid serial naming difficulties. Follow up 9 years later showed that difficulties in rapid naming, reading, and spelling persisted. The development of naming speed is…

First grade students (n=221) were tested on measures of verbal fluency, visual attention, phonological awareness, orthographic recognition, rapid automated naming (RAN) of letters and objects, and reading. Findings indicated that word reading was directly and significantly predicted by RAN letter naming and general RAN cognitive processing time of…

The article reports research supporting a view which sees learning disabilities as resulting from the interplay between a poorly elaborated knowledge base (especially in language related domains), the biologically determined efficiencies of such processes as encoding, and the physical and social meaning attached to performance (i.e. the context).…

Eleven tests of reading comprehension, language skills, and cognitive processes were administered to 20 high school readers with learning disabilities and 20 controls. The variance on nonverbal tests was greater for the group with LD than for the controls; some individuals with learning disabilities performed as well as the controls. (Author/DB)

Results of the comparison of metacomponential functioning and knowledge acquisition of adults with either mild mental retardation or learning disabilities found that (1) knowledge base is the best predictor of metacomponential skill, (2) metacomponential orchestration differentiates the two groups, and (3) IQ mediates metacognition, but does not…

This study investigated taxonomic clustering and use of frequency associations as features in the semantic memory of children (n=30 in grades two and six) with learning disabilities (LD). Results suggested that, when individual child-generated word lists (i.e., meaningful) are used, children with LD may not be impaired in their ability to utilize…

Naming speed skills of 45 dyslexic children (mean ages=8, 13, and 17) and slow learning children (mean age=10) were compared with those of normally achieving children. Results indicated that children with dyslexia and slow learners have persistent and severe problems in naming speed for all stimuli, regardless of whether the stimulus requires…

A longitudinal (from kindergarten through grade 2) study with 244 children evaluated 3 hypotheses regarding the causal relationship between phonological processing abilities and reading acquisition. The study found a bidirectional relationship between phonological processing skills and reading skills and stability in individual phonological…