Working memory, comprehension ability and the resolution of text anomaly

Abstract

This article examines possible working memory deficits in 7-8-year-olds who are accurate readers but relatively poor comprehenders. In Expt 1, poor comprehenders scored below good comprehenders on a non-linguistic test of working memory (reading series of digits and recalling the last digit in each series) on the more taxing items. Experiment 2 examined the relationship between working memory and text comprehension using an anomaly resolution task. Good and poor comprehenders heard stories describing an adult's anomalous emotional response to a child's action, some of which contained information to resolve the anomaly. The load on working memory imposed by the need to integrate the resolution with the anomaly was varied in two ways: the resolution was presented immediately next to, or two sentences distant from, the anomaly, and appeared either before or after the anomaly. Poor comprehenders were worse than good ones at anomaly resolution only when the anomalous and resolving information were separated. The results support the hypothesis that text processing is influenced by working memory demands and suggest that children's comprehension is related to the efficiency of a general non-linguistic working memory system.

Why does placing the question before an arithmetic word problem improve performance? A situation model account

“…While the simple fact that high-skilled children are not those who benefit more from the position of the question before the text is sufficient to rule out the schema interpretation, the fact that the inverse result is obtained supports the mental model theory. Indeed, we know in the domain of text comprehension that low-skilled children are those who experience the highest difficulty in the construction of the mental model of the situation (Cain & Oakhill, 1999;Oakhill, 1996;Oakhill et al, 1998;Singer & Ritchot, 1996;Yuill et al, 1989). It therefore seems natural that they are the same children who benefit most from an aid to the construction of the representation-that is, from having the question before the text.…”

“…It turns out that poor comprehenders are precisely those children who fail to construct an adequate mental model of the situation described in a text (Oakhill, 1996;Oakhill, Cain, & Yuill, 1998;Singer & Ritchot, 1996). More precisely, poor comprehenders have difficulty in integrating new information within the current mental model: They build partial, but not complete, models of text (Cain & Oakhill, 1999;Yuill, Oakhill, & Parkin, 1989). Therefore, lower skilled children in the domain of word problem solving would naturally be those children who benefit more from an aid for the construction of the mental model.…”

A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory.

“…Greater facility in integrating information over distances in a text also characterized young readers (7 and 8 years old) who had larger working memory spans, as assessed by a modified version of the Reading Span task, involving digit repetition and recall (Yuill, Oakhill, & Parkin, 1990). Two groups of children were selected who had similar levels of word decoding skill (accuracy) and vocabulary knowledge, but differed in overall language comprehension measures.…”

Longitudinal effects of verbal ability, memory capacity, and phonological awareness on reading performance

“…A strong connection between memory processes and reading ability has also been established (Daneman & Blennerhassett, 1984;Dixon, LeFevre, & Twilley 1988;Perfetti & Lesgold, 1978;Yuill, Oakhill, & Parkin, 1989). Siegel and Linder (1984), and Siegel & Ryan (1988) have isolated deficits in verbal memory skills believed to be specifically related to reading (e.g.…”