Purpose: This study examined working memory in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The overarching goal of this work was to integrate three primary processing-based hypotheses of DLD, (a) limited verbal working memory, (b) slowed processing speed, and (c) inefficient inhibition of interference, by using the…

The emergence of strategic verbal rehearsal at around 7 years of age is widely considered a major milestone in descriptions of the development of short-term memory across childhood. Likewise, rehearsal is believed by many to be a crucial factor in explaining why memory improves with age. This apparent qualitative shift in mnemonic processes has…

Two experiments, one with congenitally deaf and one with hearing individuals, investigated memory for serial order via Cued Speech (CS). Deaf individuals, but not hearing individuals experienced with CS, appeared to use the phonology of CS to support their recall. The recency effect was greater for hearing individuals provided with sound than for…

To examine developmental aspects of auditory sensory memory, a series of experiments was conducted on the stimulus suffix effect with the primary variables being age of subject (7 and 11 years), rates of presentation, and length of list. Effects were nearly identical across age groups when a fast presentation rate was used. (Author/DB)

Twenty normal children were administered three tests of auditory sequential memory. A Pearson product-moment correlation of .50 and coefficients of determination showed all but one relationship to be nonsignificant and predictability between pairs of scores to be poor. (Author)

Educable mental retardates and normal grade school students were presented seven classes of materials in both visual and auditory modalities for the determination of immediate memory span thresholds. Major conclusions included auditory presentation produces higher thresholds than visual, and retarded children may employ different processing…

Two studies examined serial recall process of first-grade Canadian children from inner-city and suburban backgrounds. In the first study significant differences were found in the serial position curve of recall. Suburban children recalled a greater number of early-presented, primacy items, while inner-city children who had equivalent span…

Used a variance-partitioning procedure to identify age-related and age-invariant components of verbal and spatial memory span in 6- to 12-year olds. Concluded that verbal and spatial short-term memory appear to rely on similar processes when serial recall is required and that development in span is closely tied to increases in processing speed.…

Investigates the effects of acoustic similarity on memory span in 112 children four to 10 years of age. Acoustic similarity had progressively more effect on recall with increasing age. Implications for current theories of short-term memory and its development and for the use of acoustic similarity as an indicator of speech coding are discussed.…

A skilled cognitive theorist might help behaviorists resolve inconsistencies found from their experimentation with imaginal mnemonics in paired-associate and serial learning tasks. Iconic cognition which relegates verbal processes to short-term storage and output systems is inadequate to explain the verbal coding and elaboration processes…