| Abstract: | Twelve good readers and 12 poor readers, 10-y4-olds, were given memory span tests, and memory scanning tests, in both auditory and visual modalities. Their concept of a letter pattern was also tested. The major finding was that short-term memory (STM) function deteriorated over time in the poor reading group. When modality was switched the good readers showed a release from proactive inhibition (PI); the poor readers did not. Among good readers, memory scanning in the auditory modality occurred at about the same speed as memory scanning in the visual modality; among the poor readers, auditory speed gradually lagged relative to visual rates. Poor readers were more likely (than good readers) to lack the concept of a letter pattern. Stepwise regressions showed that different patterns of variables were assocated with different types of reading errors. Implicatios for model construction were discussed. |
