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Behavioural Science Institute. Reading disabilities, remediation, and the role of memory skills Anna M. T. Bosman Marion IJntema-de Kok Tom Braams Fred Hasselman. SSSR 2005. Reading disabilities, remediation, and the role of memory skills. Role of working memory in dyslexia.
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Behavioural Science Institute Reading disabilities, remediation, andthe role of memory skillsAnna M. T. BosmanMarion IJntema-de KokTom BraamsFred Hasselman
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Role of working memory in dyslexia • Many studies have shown deficits in various subsystems of working memory to be a defining feature of dyslexia (see for instance: Gathercole & Pickering, 2001;McLoughlin, Fitzgibbon & Young, 1994; Smith-Spark, Fisk, Fawcett, & Nicolson, 2003)
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Role of working memory in dyslexia Working memory Visuo- spatial sketchpad Phonological loop Central executive Long term memory Baddeley (1997)
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Role of working memory in dyslexia • Many studies have shown deficits in various subsystems of working memory to be a defining feature of dyslexia (see for instance: Gathercole & Pickering, 2000;McLoughlin, Fitzgibbon & Young, 1994; Smith-Spark, Fisk, Fawcett, & Nicolson, 2003) • Disagreement on which subprocesses are impaired, but agreement on a Central executive / Attentional deficit. • What are the implications of such deficits for remediation? • What about Long term Memory?
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills The Present Study • 142 children from grade one participated in the study. • 76 children were lagging behind in reading development (standard screening) • (Wentink & Verhoeven, 2001) • 66 children without reading problems participated • - Children with reading problems and entered a remediation program • (Gijsel & Bosman, 2005) • Post-test 6 months after pre-test • After the post-test the children were divided into 3 groups: • No remediation, no problems with reading (n=66) • Remediation successful, problems with reading no longer present (n=44) • Remediation unsuccessful, problems with reading pesist (n=32)
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills The Present Study • Phonological loop - Digit Recall (Pickering & Gathercole, 2001) • 839251 Correct Answer: 839251 • Central executive - Backward Digit Recall (Pickering & Gathercole, 2001) • 839251 Correct Answer: 152938 • Visuo-spatial sketchpad - Block Recall (Pickering & Gathercole, 2001) • Recall sequences of blocks tapped • Long Term Memory - 12 Words Test (Kalverboer & Deelman, 1964) • 6 wordpairs are read 5 times, after each time a child is asked to recall the • words. 30 minutes later, the child is again asked to recall the words.
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Results: Working Memory • Phonological loop: No remediation vs. Remediation unsuccessful, sig. diff. (p < .01) • Remediation successful vs. Remediation unsuccessful, sig. diff. (p < .01) • -Central Executive: No remediation vs. Remediation unsuccessful, sig. diff. (p < .01) • No remediation vs. Remediation successful, sig. diff. (p < .01) • -Visuo spatial sketchpad: No significant differences
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Results: Long term Memory • Long term Memory build-up: Significant Linear and Quadratic trends • When comparing M5 to Capacity measurement (30 minutes later) the amount of ‘forgetting’ is the same for all groups • - Long term Memory capacity: No remediation vs. Unsuccessful, sig. diff. (p < .01) • Remediation successful vs. Remediation unsuccessful, sig. diff. (p < .05)
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Conclusions • Working memory plays a role in the ability to benefit from remediation: • Impaired phonological loop is related to unsuccessful remediation • If the central executive is impaired, remediation can still be successful • The visuo- spatial sketchpad plays no role in this study • Long term memory also plays a role in the ability to benefit from remediation: • Differences in build-up and capacity: larger build-up and larger capacity means better chance on successful remediation
SSSR 2005 Reading disabilities, remediation,and the role of memory skills Questions • Poor correlations between pre and post-test measurements (6 month interval) of memory skills: • Digit recall, r = .68 G&P: r = .81 (2 week interval)Backward digit recall, r = .47 G&P: r = .53 (2 week interval) Block recall, r = .20 G&P: r = .63 (2 week interval) • Despite the poor correlations between repeated measures, the effects on remediation are similar for both measurements • In a follow-up study of 342 children, we conducted a factor analysis on the measures of memory skills. Two factors were extracted: The subcomponents of working memory all collapsed onto one factor we dubbed Short term memory, the other factor was Long term memory. Evidence for the General Capacity Model (i.e. Cantor & Engle, 1993)?