Selective attention and rehearsal in the auditory short-term memory task performance of poor and normal readers
- 1 March 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
- Vol. 12 (1), 127-141
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00913465
Abstract
The performance of poor and normal sixth-grade readers was compared on an auditory short-term memory task in two studies. In the first study, the effects of distraction, list length, and speed of stimulus presentation were investigated to test the hypothesis that the performance of the poor readers is affected by deficits in selective attention. Group differences in performance, however, were obtained for both distraction and no-distraction conditions. The second experiment examined the hypothesis that group differences may reflect differences in the use of rehearsal. In the second experiment, half the reading-disabled children and half the controls were provided with rehearsal training prior to completing the same short-term memory task a second time. Rehearsal training resulted in improved performance relative to children who were not trained; however, there was no rehearsal training x reading group interaction. The poor readers continued to show deficits in performance relative to the performance of control children. The results of these two studies suggest that deficits observed for poor readers on short-term memory tasks may reflect processing difficulties in some area that precedes rehearsal and affects performance under both distraction and no-distraction conditions.This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Selective Attention Deficits in Poor Readers? Dichotic Listening, Speeded Classification, and Auditory and Visual Central and Incidental Learning TasksChild Development, 1979
- Memory processes in children with learning disabilities: Evidence for deficient rehearsalJournal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1977
- The Role of Nonspecific Factors in the Task Performance of Learning Disabled ChildrenJournal of Learning Disabilities, 1977
- Verbal rehearsal and selective attention in children with learning disabilities: A developmental lagJournal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1976
- Cognitive Perspectives on the Development of MemoryAdvances in Child Development and Behavior, 1975
- Developmental trends in recall of central and incidental auditory materialJournal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1974
- Auditory Short-Term Memory: Developmental Changes in RehearsalChild Development, 1974
- Toward a theory of automatic information processing in readingCognitive Psychology, 1974
- Encoding speed, rehearsal, and probed recall of dyslexic boys.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1974
- A paradox in the interpretation of group comparisons.Psychological Bulletin, 1967