The study examines whether the average performance of the population with dyslexia in a working memory measure can be inferred dimensionally from the characteristics of the typical population. Specifically, we focused on Associative Phonological Working Memory (APWM), an ability that we predicted being impaired in dyslexia due to the relationship…

Written expression is used throughout the education system and is significant to student success, However, many students express difficulty in this area. The problem is what instructional methods are used to address written expression difficulty within a virtual elementary school environment. Instructional methods used to address this problem are…

This article presents a review of the "Process Assessment of the Learner-Second Edition" (PAL-II), an individual or group-administered instrument designed to assess the cognitive processes involved in academic tasks in kindergarten through sixth grade. The instrument allows the examiner to identify reasons for underachievement and…

Two groups of children (ages 8 and 12) with reading disabilities and verbal deficits were given a memory-for-colors task designed to evaluate intra- and intermodal serial memory functioning. Results suggest developmental differences in relative influence of specific modalities in immediate memory functions, but emphasize intramodal verbal factors…

A group of 73 normal children (ages 8 to 10) was compared to 49 age-matched developmentally dyslexic children of average intelligence on the California Verbal Learning Test for Children (CVLT-C), to determine if reading disability was associated with impaired verbal memory. Dyslexics differed significantly from controls on 9 of the 12 CVLT-C…

The effects of reinforcement contingencies on task performance of bisensory missing words were studied with two students (about nine years old): one learning disabled (LD) male with an auditory preference and one LD female with a visual preference. Reinforcement contingencies were found to control both students' performances. (Author/SEW)

To test the hypothesis that the developmental lag in verbal rehearsal which has been documented for the learning disabled is due to a naming speed deficit (i.e., slow retrieval of stimulus names), the serial recall performance of 64 learning disabled children at four grade levels (1, 3, 5, and 7) was compared under three stimulus presentation…

Two groups of twelve dyslexic children and twelve good readers attended a two-week class during the summer following their enrollment in grades 4-6. The topic was the marine environment and focused on the adventures of an orca whale that had lost its family and needed the children's help. The children attended class for three hours each day, 45…

Normal children (N=8) and two groups of 8 learning disabled (LD) elementary grade children, one with and one without a short-term memory deficit, were administered a battery of questions concerning knowledge of how their memories function (metamemory). Metamemory was found to be deficient only in the subgroup of LD children with a short-term…

Directed study, in which all children were required to engage in the same number of repetitive spellings of word lists, had significant effects on spelling performance of learning disabled children without short-term memory deficits, but not Ss with short-term memory problems. Findings suggest that some LD children may need different kinds of…

While 16 learning disabled (LD) students (8-12 years old) with word recognition deficiencies did not differ from control Ss at the encoding stage of word recognition, LD Ss required significantly more processing time for memory search. (Author/CL)

The study involving 24 normal, 24 learning disabled (LD), and 18 deaf elementary-age Ss investigated the hypothesis that nonstrategic verbal encoding abilities are deficient in LD readers. Results were interpreted to indicate a deficient verbal-visual integrative process in disabled children occurring prior to the application of mnemonic…

Comparison of 12 language disordered children (ages 7-13) with 12 normally achieving children on a short-term memory scanning task found the children with language disorders had substantially reduced processing speed as seen in longer memory retrieval time. The decreased memory scanning speed may contribute to linguistic deficits. (Author/DB)

Effects of learning names for random nonsense shapes prior to a probe-type serial-recall task were investigated in disabled readers. No differences among reading groups on recall strength of primary recall were found, suggesting similar verbal skills. (Author)

A sample of school children, ages 7-11, was given a range of short-term memory tests to determine whether recall was optimised by aural or by visual stimuli presentation. Results showed that for both sexes and for each age group aural presentation was consistently superior to visual. (Author)