Tidigare forskning har visat att barn med typisk utveckling går från en visuell strategi till en fonologisk. Huruvida denna utveckling sker hos personer med utvecklingsstörning är oklart. De flesta forskare är överens om att dessa personer har en nedsättning i den fonologiska loopen. Om denna nedsättning beror på strukturella avvikelser eller utvecklingsförsening är forskarna inte eniga om. Det är även oklart var en eventuell strukturnedsättning skulle sitta. Studiens syfte var att undersöka om ungdomar med utvecklingsstörning använder sig av en fonologisk strategi, styrd av den fonologiska loopen, vid visuellt presenterat arbetsminnestest. Ordlängdseffekten, spann på bilder, ordproduktionshastighet samt korrelationen mellan de två sistnämnda undersöktes. Resultaten jämfördes mot en mental kontrollgrupp matchad i mental ålder. Ingen av grupperna uppvisade någon ordlängdseffekt på arbetsminnets kapacitetsnivå (spannivå) men den mental åldersmatchade gruppen uppvisade detta på spannivå plus en enhet.  Båda grupperna visade en positiv korrelation mellan spann och ordproduktionshastighet. Det går att diskutera hurvida testning har skett av ordproduktionshastighet eller benämningshastighet. Det är därför svårt att dra slutsatser utifrån resultaten men de skulle kunna tyda på att ungdomarna med utvecklingsstörning använder sig av en annan minnesstrategi än barnen med typisk utveckling. Möjligtvis använder sig ungdomarna med utvecklingsstörning av en fonologisk strategi men spekultioner om eventuell koppling till långtidsminnet eller användning av en visuell strategi tas upp. En förklaring till att de använder sig av en annan strategi skulle kunna vara att de faktiskt har en strukturell nedsättning i någon del av den fonologiska loopen. / Previous research has found that children with typical development begin with a visual memory strategy and then develop a phonological strategy. Whether this development takes place in individuals with intellectual disabilities is unclear. Most researchers agree that they seem to have a deficiency in the phonological loop. Researchers disagree whether the deficiency is caused by a structural deviation or a developmental delay. What is also unclear is where a possible structural deviation would be located. The purpose of this study was to investigate if adolescents with intellectual disabilities use a phonological memory strategy, controlled by the phonological loop, at a visually presented memory span test. Word length effect, span level on pictures, speech rate and the correlation between the latter two was investigated. The results were compared to a control group, matched for mental age. None of the groups showed any word length effect at their working memory capacity level but the control group showed a word length effect at capacity level plus one unit. Both of the groups showed a positive correlation between speech rate and span. It can be discussed whether speech rate or naming speed is tested. Owing to that it is difficult to draw any conclusions from the results. Regardless of what we have tested the results could indicate that the adolescents with intellectual disability use a different memory strategy than the children with typical development. One possible conclusion is that the adolescents with intellectual disability apply a phonological memory strategy but speculations about the use of long-term memory and a visual strategy are also discussed. One explanation could be that adolescents with intellectual disability have a structural deficiency in the phonological loop.

The aim of the study is to investigate the use of linguistic strategies by Swedish high school students in how they use them to identify the meanings of words. The study also aims to discuss a didactic implementation and the potential of discussing words and their meaning. The empirical data consists of two parts: a survey centred around words which encourages the students to show their linguistic strategical solutions, and also a student discussion where they in groups discuss words and their meaning by applying linguistic strategies. The study shows that there exist strategies that are more commonly used, such as a morphological strategy which had different results. There were times during the discussion where the strategy was being used efficiently to solve the meaning of a word, while in other scenarios it would instead misguide the students. In other words: students generally showed a wide linguistic knowledge and could apply different strategies to solve the meaning of words, but the problem was that they in several cases did not know how to use their linguistic knowledge correctly. To have a wide linguistic knowledge and knowing how to use it correctly are two separate things. The result proves that no matter which linguistic knowledge level they master, the students require assistance in order to make use of their knowledge. A discussion about complex words and their meaning could therefore be a useful resource for teachers to identify what each student needs to improve, while also being an effective teaching method where students can discuss and share their knowledge between each other, thus allowing their personal vocabulary to expand. It is however uncertain how efficient the teaching method is practice. Further research and testing is required to prove that students actually learn and improve from it.