Working memory, reading, and mathematical skills in children with developmental coordination disorder

The aim of the present study was investigate the relationship between working memory and reading and mathematical skills in 55 children diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The findings indicate a pervasive memory deficit in all memory measures. In particular, deficits observed in visuospatial short-term and working memory tasks were significantly worse than in the verbal short-term memory ones. On the basis of these deficits, the sample was divided into high and low visuospatial memory ability groups. The low visuospatial memory group performed significantly worse on the attainment measures compared to the high visuospatial memory group, even when the contribution of IQ was taken into account. When the sample was divided into high and low verbal working memory ability groups, verbal working memory skills made a unique contribution to attainment only when verbal IQ was taken into account, but not when performance IQ was statistically controlled. It is possible that the processing demands of the working memory tasks together with the active motor component reflected in the visuospatial memory tasks and performance IQ subtest both play a crucial role in learning in children with DCD.     

Individual differences in children's memory and reading comprehension: an investigation of semantic and inhibitory deficits

Three experiments compared the verbal memory skills of children with poor reading comprehension with that of same-age good comprehenders. The aims were to determine if semantic and/or inhibitory deficits explained comprehenders' problems on measures of verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory. In Experiment 1 there were no group differences on word- and number-based measures of short-term storage and no evidence that semantic knowledge mediated word recall. In Experiment 2 poor comprehenders were impaired on word- and number-based assessments of working memory, the greatest deficit found on the word-based task. Error analysis of both word-based tasks revealed that poor comprehenders were more likely to recall items that should have been inhibited than were good comprehenders. Experiment 3 extended this finding: Poor comprehenders were less able to inhibit information that was no longer relevant. Together, these findings suggest that individual differences in inhibitory processing influence the ability to regulate the contents of working memory, which may contribute to the differential memory performance of good and poor comprehenders.     

Cumulative risk,teacher-child closeness,executive function and early academic skills in kindergarten children

We tested the role of teacher-child closeness in moderating the associations between early childhood adversity, measured as a cumulative risk index, and child outcomes during the kindergarten year. Using the ECLSK:11, a national dataset of kindergarteners in the 2010–11 academic year, we examined three dimensions of executive function (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, working memory), as well as early reading and math scores, as key skills that facilitate the transition to school. Cumulative risk was negatively associated with all outcomes, and teacher-child closeness was positively associated with all outcomes. Teacher-child closeness moderated the relation between cumulative risk and working memory and cumulative risk and reading scores in a protective manner, but not cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, or math scores. Implications for research in early childhood adversity and education are discussed.     

语境位置对不同认知方式个体歧义句歧义消解的影响

采用意义适合性判断任务,考察了语境位置对不同认知方式个体歧义句理解过程中抑制内部干扰的影响。结果发现：语境位置影响歧义句的歧义消解,对歧义句不适当意义的抑制作用方面,前语境优于后语境;在自然阅读的条件下,在句子加工的初始阶段,场独立个体能够更好的利用前语境信息抑制内部无关信息的干扰,而场依存个体在句子加工的初始阶段对前、后语境的阅读时间上不存在差异,而在句子加工的后期需用更多时间才能完成对内部干扰的抑制。     

Breaking the waves: age differences in electrical brain activity when reading text with distractors

The authors tested whether older adults have greater difficulty than younger adults in ignoring task-irrelevant information during reading as a result of age-related decline in inhibitory processes. Participants were shown target sentences containing distractor words. They were instructed to read aloud each sentence and ignore distractors. The N400 event-related potential (ERP) was used to measure the extent of semantic processing of target and distracting information. It showed that younger adults semantically processed both target and distracting material, whereas online processing of target sentences in older adults was disrupted by the distractors. In older adults, memory for target information related to their susceptibility to distraction and inhibition efficiency. Implications for age-differences in inhibitory control, working memory, and resource capacity are discussed.     

The effects of print exposure on sentence processing and memory in older adults: Evidence for efficiency and reserve

The present study was an examination of how exposure to print affects sentence processing and memory in older readers. A sample of older adults (N = 139; Mean age = 72) completed a battery of cognitive and linguistic tests and read a series of sentences for recall. Word-by-word reading times were recorded and generalized linear mixed effects models were used to estimate components representing attentional allocation to word-level and textbase-level processes. Older adults with higher levels of print exposure showed greater efficiency in word-level processing and in the immediate instantiation of new concepts, but allocated more time to semantic integration at clause boundaries. While lower levels of working memory were associated with smaller wrap-up effects, individuals with higher levels of print exposure showed a reduced effect of working memory on sentence wrap-up. Importantly, print exposure was not only positively associated with sentence memory, but was also found to buffer the effects of working memory on sentence recall. These findings suggest that the increased efficiency of component reading processes that come with life-long habits of literacy buffer the effects of working memory decline on comprehension and contribute to maintaining skilled reading among older adults.     

Orthographic learning in children with isolated and combined reading and spelling deficits

Dissociations between reading and spelling problems are likely to be associated with different underlying cognitive deficits, and with different deficits in orthographic learning. In order to understand these differences, the current study examined orthographic learning using a printed-word learning paradigm. Children (4th grade) with isolated reading, isolated spelling and combined reading and spelling problems were compared to children with age appropriate reading and spelling skills on their performance during learning novel words and symbols (non-verbal control condition), and during immediate and delayed reading and spelling recall tasks. No group differences occurred in the non-verbal control condition. In the verbal condition, initial learning was intact in all groups, but differences occurred during recall tasks. Children with reading fluency deficits showed slower reading times, while children with spelling deficits were less accurate, both in reading and spelling recall. Children with isolated spelling problems showed no difficulties in immediate spelling recall, but had problems in remembering the spellings 2 hours later. The results suggest that different orthographic learning deficits underlie reading fluency and spelling problems: Children with isolated reading fluency deficits have no difficulties in building-up orthographic representations, but access to these representations is slowed down while children with isolated spelling deficits have problems in storing precise orthographic representations in long-term memory.     

The role of interference control in working memory: A study with children at risk of ADHD

The study aimed to test whether the impairment in a working memory task observed in children at risk of ADHD was due to a lack of control of interfering information being processed whilst carrying out the memory task. Two groups of children at risk of ADHD with or without a learning disability (reading impairment) were compared to a control group in a working memory task. Activation of irrelevant items was tested with a lexical decision task presented immediately after the final recall in about half of the trials. Results showed a poor working memory performance in children at risk of ADHD and reading disability associated with a larger activation of irrelevant information than that of control children. Results indicated that the to-be-excluded and interfering items are still highly accessible to working memory in children that fail the working memory task. The examination of working memory and interference control of children at risk of ADHD with a learning disability revealed a counterintuitive picture of children with poor working memory showing better recall/activation of processed information. This picture is consistent with a view of working memory related to an efficient inhibitory control that influences cognitive functioning.     

The role of interference control in working memory: a study with children at risk of ADHD

The study aimed to test whether the impairment in a working memory task observed in children at risk of ADHD was due to a lack of control of interfering information being processed whilst carrying out the memory task. Two groups of children at risk of ADHD with or without a learning disability (reading impairment) were compared to a control group in a working memory task. Activation of irrelevant items was tested with a lexical decision task presented immediately after the final recall in about half of the trials. Results showed a poor working memory performance in children at risk of ADHD and reading disability associated with a larger activation of irrelevant information than that of control children. Results indicated that the to-be-excluded and interfering items are still highly accessible to working memory in children that fail the working memory task. The examination of working memory and interference control of children at risk of ADHD with a learning disability revealed a counterintuitive picture of children with poor working memory showing better recall/activation of processed information. This picture is consistent with a view of working memory related to an efficient inhibitory control that influences cognitive functioning.     

Working and long-term memory deficits in schizophrenia: is there a common prefrontal mechanism?

This study tested the hypothesis that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex deficits contribute to both working memory and long-term memory disturbances in schizophrenia. It also examined whether such deficits were more severe for verbal than nonverbal stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess cortical activation during performance of verbal and nonverbal versions of a working memory task and both encoding and recognition tasks in 38 individuals with schizophrenia and 48 healthy controls. Performance of both working memory and long-term memory tasks revealed disturbed dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation in schizophrenia, although medial temporal deficits were also present. Some evidence was found for more severe cognitive and functional deficits with verbal than nonverbal stimuli, although these results were mixed.     

Working memory in children with reading disabilities

This study investigated associations between working memory (measured by complex memory tasks) and both reading and mathematics abilities, as well as the possible mediating factors of fluid intelligence, verbal abilities, short-term memory (STM), and phonological awareness, in a sample of 46 6- to 11-year-olds with reading disabilities. As a whole, the sample was characterized by deficits in complex memory and visuospatial STM and by low IQ scores; language, phonological STM, and phonological awareness abilities fell in the low average range. Severity of reading difficulties within the sample was significantly associated with complex memory, language, and phonological awareness abilities, whereas poor mathematics abilities were linked with complex memory, phonological STM, and phonological awareness scores. These findings suggest that working memory skills indexed by complex memory tasks represent an important constraint on the acquisition of skill and knowledge in reading and mathematics. Possible mechanisms for the contribution of working memory to learning, and the implications for educational practice, are considered.     

Numerical and arithmetical cognition: patterns of functions and deficits in children at risk for a mathematical disability.

Based on performance on standard achievement tests, first-grade children (mean age = 82 months) with IQ scores in the low-average to high-average range were classified as at risk for a learning disability (LD) in mathematics, reading, or both. These at-risk children (n = 55) and a control group of academically normal peers (n = 35) were administered experimental tasks that assessed number comprehension and production skills, counting knowledge, arithmetic skills, working memory, and ease of retrieving information from long-term memory. Different patterns of intact cognitive functions and deficits were found for children in the different at-risk groups. As a set, performance on the experimental tasks accounted for roughly 50% and 10% of the group differences in mathematics and reading achievement, respectively, above and beyond the influence of IQ. Performance on the experimental tasks thus provides insights into the cognitive deficits underlying different forms of LD, as well as into the sources of individual differences in academic achievement.     

The role of age and inhibitory efficiency in working memory processing and storage components

In this study, we examined the extent to which inhibitory efficiency accounted for age-related decline in the processing and storage components of working memory. Older and younger adults performed a sequential task, which served as an index of deletion-type inhibition (the ability to suppress no-longer-relevant information). The reading span task was used to measure working memory components by examining processing accuracy, processing time, and end-word recall of sentences presented. Reduced inhibitory efficiency, which was poorer in older adults, predicted age-related decline in recall, over and above the effects of processing speed. Similar results were observed for processing accuracy, although the age effect in this component was marginal. These results highlight the important role of deletion-type inhibition in explaining age-related decline in working memory performance, particularly in the storage component, and extend previous research by examining this relationship at a componential level.     

The role of age and inhibitory efficiency in working memory processing and storage components

In this study, we examined the extent to which inhibitory efficiency accounted for age-related decline in the processing and storage components of working memory. Older and younger adults performed a sequential task, which served as an index of deletion-type inhibition (the ability to suppress no-longer-relevant information). The reading span task was used to measure working memory components by examining processing accuracy, processing time, and end-word recall of sentences presented. Reduced inhibitory efficiency, which was poorer in older adults, predicted age-related decline in recall, over and above the effects of processing speed. Similar results were observed for processing accuracy, although the age effect in this component was marginal. These results highlight the important role of deletion-type inhibition in explaining age-related decline in working memory performance, particularly in the storage component, and extend previous research by examining this relationship at a componential level.     

Reading,syntactic, orthographic,and working memory skills of bilingual Arabic-English speaking Canadian children

This study assessed the reading, language, and memory skills of 56 bilingual Arab-Canadian children age's 9-14. English was their main instructional language, and Arabic was the language spoken at home. All children attended a Heritage Language Program in Toronto where they were taught to read and write Arabic. The children were administered word and pseudo-word reading, language, and working memory tests in English and Arabic. The majority of the children showed at least adequate proficiency in both languages. There was a significant relationship between the acquisition of word and pseudo-word reading working memory, and syntactic awareness skills in the two languages. The poor readers in Arabic had lower scores on all linguistic tasks, except the visual task. There were no significant differences between bilingual English Arabic children and monolingual English-speaking children on the reading, language, and memory tasks. However, bilingual English Arabic children who had reading problems in English had higher scores on English pseudo-word reading and spelling tasks than monolingual English-speaking children with reading disabilities, probably because of positive transfer from the regular nature of Arabic orthography. In this case, bilingualism does not appear to have negative consequences for the development of language reading skills in both languages—Arabic and English—despite the different nature of the two orthographies.     

The roles of different executive functioning skills in young children’s mental computation and applied mathematical problem-solving

This study investigated the relationships of four executive functioning skills (including verbal working memory, spatial working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) with young children’s mental computation and applied mathematical problem-solving. Two hundred and twenty-five Chinese kindergarteners were tested with a battery of general cognitive, executive functioning and mathematics skills. Results showed that when children’s age, gender, non-verbal intelligence, and listening comprehension skills were controlled, verbal working memory and cognitive flexibility were significant correlates of mental computation, whereas verbal working memory, spatial working memory, and cognitive flexibility were significant correlates of applied mathematical problem-solving. Inhibitory control was not significantly associated with the two domains of mathematics under investigation. The findings highlight the differential roles of different executive functioning skills in early mathematical skills and offer practical implication for helping young children in learning complex mathematical skills.     

Test anxiety and comprehension efficiency: The role of prior knowledge and working memory deficits

The hypotheses that test anxiety is associated with a deficit in prior knowledge and/or working memory capacity, that anxiety impairs comprehension efficiency, and that deficits in knowledge and capacity underlie the efficiency impairment, were tested. In Study 1, high-anxiety students were characterized by lower scores in several vocabulary measures, compared with low-anxiety students. In Study 2, high-anxiety individuals showed inferior working memory capacity to low-anxiety individuals under evaluative stress conditions, but not under non-stress conditions. In Study 3 high-anxiety subjects exhibited lower efficiency scores than low-anxiety subjects in expository texts without a summary: The former employed a greater amount of reading time than the latter to acquire an equivalent amount of information. In addition, the disadvantage in efficiency associated with anxiety was removed when differences in vocabulary knowledge were partialled out statistically. Instead, that disadvantage was only reduced, but not eliminated, when differences in transitory working memory capacity were partialled out. Therefore, the prior knowledge deficit hypothesis accounts for the impairment in reading efficiency associated with high anxiety better than the transitory working memory reduction hypothesis.     

Memory and memory confidence in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Pathological doubt, often found in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), has been theoretically linked to memory deficits, but empirical evidence for such deficits has been mixed. In contrast, many studies suggest that individuals with OCD have low confidence in their memories. The present study aimed to build upon previous research by measuring memory accuracy and confidence in OCD using ecologically valid, idiographically-selected stimuli. Individuals with OCD (OCs), anxious controls (ACs), and nonanxious controls (NACs) were exposed to a set of objects that the OCs had identified as safe, unsafe, or neutral. Participants were then asked to recall as many objects as possible and to rate their confidence in each memory. This process was repeated 6 times, using the same stimuli for each trial. Contrary to hypothesis, no group differences emerged in memory accuracy. However, OCs' memory confidence for unsafe objects showed a progressive decline over repeated trials. This pattern was not observed among NACs or ACs. Furthermore, OCs with primary checking reported lower confidence in long-term memory than did OCs without primary checking. These results suggest that when OCs are repeatedly exposed to threat-related stimuli (such as repeated checking), their level of confidence in remembering these stimuli paradoxically decreases.     

Reading skills in hyperlexia: a developmental perspective.

Hyperlexia is characterized by advanced word-recognition skills in individuals who otherwise have pronounced cognitive, social, and linguistic handicaps. Language, word recognition, and reading-comprehension skills are reviewed to clarify the nature and core deficits associated with the disorder. It is concluded that hyperlexia should be viewed as part of the normal variation in reading skills, which are themselves associated with individual differences in phonological, orthographic, and semantic processing, short-term memory, and print exposure. A compulsive preoccupation with reading may also be crucial to the development of a hyperlexic reading profile. A theoretical framework, based on recent connectionist models of reading development, is described. This perspective provides a satisfactory account for how individual differences in a number of different skills can lead to a variety of manifestations of reading behavior, including hyperlexia.