The differential relations between verbal, numerical and spatial working memory abilities and children's reading comprehension
Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Working memory predicts children's reading comprehension but it is not clear whether this relation isdue to a modality-specific or general working memory. This study, which investigated the relationsbetween children's reading skills and working memory (WM) abilities in 3 modalities, extends previouswork by including measures of both reading comprehension and reading accuracy. Tests of wordreading accuracy and reading comprehension, and working memory tests in three different modalities(verbal, numerical and spatial), were given to 197 6- to 11-year old children. The results support theview that working memory tasks that require the processing and recall of symbolic information (wordsand numbers) are better predictors of reading comprehension than tasks that require visuo-spatialstorage and processing. The different measures of verbal and numerical working memory were notequally good predictors of reading comprehension, but their predictive power depended on neitherthe word vs. numerical contrast nor the complexity of the processing component. In general,performance on the verbal and numerical working memory tasks predicted reading comprehension,but not reading accuracy, and spatial WM did not predict either. The patterns of relations between themeasures of working memory and reading comprehension ability were relatively constant across theage group tested.
Authors: Jane OAKHILL, Nicola YUILL, Alan GARNHAM
Institution: University of Sussex
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $350
OpenAlex ID: W2133152458