This 3-year longitudinal study determined whether (a) subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) (children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal IQ readers) and skilled readers varied in working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) growth and (b) whether growth in an executive system and/or a…

This article synthesizes the experimental literature that compares the academic, cognitive, and behavioral performance of adults with reading disabilities to those of average-achieving adult readers. The central question posed by this review is to what extent and in what manner do adults with reading disabilities differ from adults without reading…

This investigation explored the relationship between short-term memory (STM), working memory (WM), and reading proficiency among adolescents (n=30) with learning disabilities. Results suggest that reading models which focus on STM or WM in isolation do not adequately capture the reading performance of the students. Models that coordinate STM and…

A study synthesized findings of 41 studies that compared children with and without learning disabilities in reading on immediate-memory performance. Results indicate children with learning disabilities were distinctly disadvantaged compared to average readers when memory manipulations required the naming of visual information and task conditions…

This study investigated the relationship between components of working memory (WM) and the macrostructure (e.g., planning, writing, and revision) and microstructure (e.g., grammar, punctuation) of writing. A battery of WM and writing measures were administered to 160 high-school students. Overall, hierarchical regression analyses showed that the…

This study explored relationship between working memory (WM) and mathematical problem solving, comparing children with learning disabilities (LD) to chronologically age-matched and younger achievement-matched children on measures of WM, phonological processing, problem-solving, and word problem-solving accuracy. Found support for notion that…

Examined whether writing and working memory (WM) were related to general or process-specific system, whether WM tasks operated independently of phonological short-term memory (STM), and whether WM predicted writing variance beyond that predicted by reading. Found a four-factor model reflecting phonological STM, verbal WM span, executive…

This study determined the degree to which the phonological and executive components of memory reflect language-specific capacities in Spanish and English vocabulary. We tested whether the memory processes in a sample of English language learners found in Grade 1 also emerged in Grade 2. For the total sample (N=90), Grade 1 English STM measures…

Patterns of memory dysfunction were determined in 50 middle school learning disabled readers (LD) through a hierarchical cluster analysis. Results were consistent with memory capacity theories of LD and provided external validation for classification of LD readers on psychometric measures according to patterns of memory performance. (Author/DB)

Results suggested that LD children suffer from a verbal mediational deficiency consistent with J. Flavell's mediation deficiency hypothesis. (Author)

Thirty-five learning-disabled readers (mean age 10) and 43 controls were compared on a sentence span task and on recall of everyday features, consequential events, and misleading information. Results indicated that subjects were deficient on working memory and naturalistic measures, but their naturalistic memory deficits did not appear to relate…

A serial recognition task was used to compare performance of two age groups of learning disabled children (mean chronological ages 8.1 and 10.6) with 2- and 3-dimensional representations of nonlabeled 8-point random shapes. (Author/JMB)

Based on a three-stage model of memory coding, comparisons were made between reading ability groups on their serial recall of pictorial information. Article describes three different experiments. (RB)

This study examines whether residual recall differences between reading ability groups after a memory training task reflect the dimensions of organizational processing. Although age-related effects occurred, no ability group effects emerged, suggesting that learning disabled readers adequately access word features except when organized by…

The study found that using bizarre imagery was not as effective as a cued recall task in improving word recall of 14 college students with learning disabilities. Recall was also poorer during imagery than semantic processing instructions. Long-term memory for both learning disabled and non-disabled subjects was not aided by bizarre imagery.…