Naturalistic Memory in Learning Disabled Children

Abstract

This study investigated the generalizability of LD children's working memory deficits to naturalistic tasks. Tasks included questionnaire items about recall strategies and the recall of everyday features, early school information, consequential events, and misleading information; the working memory measure was Daneman and Carpenter's (1980) sentence span test. Results indicate that LD children are deficient on working memory and naturalistic measures, but their naturalistic memory deficits do not appear to relate to consequential or suggestible recall tasks. Weak intercorrelations were found between the memory measures, suggesting that working and naturalistic memory reflects independent memory systems. It was concluded that disabled children's deficient memory performance in a natural context is somewhat independent of working memory problems, except when the naturalistic measures (i.e., questionnaire items) assess intentional recall. Deficits in naturalistic memory were less apparent for salient and contextually meaningful information

The influences of delay and severity of intellectual disability on event memory in children.

“…There are many possible reasons why intellectual disabilities may compromise children's abilities to provide meaningful and reliable eyewitness testimony (Henry et al, 2011). Slower information processing, poorer comprehension of events, and more specific deficits (particularly in working memory and executive control) may reduce the amount of information that is encoded (Clements, 1998; Henry, 2001; Milne & Bull, 1999; Swanson, 1990; Swanson & Trahan, 1990; Vicari, 2004). Communicative deficits may mean that CWID are less able to report what they do recall (Clements, 1998; Ericson et al, 1994; Moss, 1998).…”

Suggestibility and children with mild learning disabilities: The use of the cognitive interview

“…Children with learning disabilities have particular cognitive and communication difficulties which affect the way in which they recount what has happened to them Á these include a limited vocabulary, difficulty in understanding sentences and poor memory (Milne, 1999). Teacher reports also often indicate that children with learning disabilities have more difficulty in remembering events and situations than children without learning disabilities (Swanson & Trahan, 1990).…”