Rationale : Investigating the relationship between working memory and reading
comprehension will lead to an improved understanding of the nature of working memory
and will reveal how working memory contributes to reading comprehension failure. A
pattern of working memory deficits will determine if ‘signature’ working memory profiles
exist which will assist in the diagnosis and treatment of children with reading
comprehension difficulties.
Aims : (1) To explore the relationship between working memory and reading
comprehension to determine if there are ‘signature’ working memory profiles that
distinguish subgroups of Grade 5 English language learners with different comprehension
capabilities. (2) To determine if a domain-specific or general working memory system is
implicated in reading comprehension. (3) To explore the particular role played by the
episodic buffer zone in reading comprehension.
Method : Eighty Grade 5 English learners were tested on the GORT-4, AWMA and CELF-
4 Recalling Sentences Subtest. Based on their accuracy/decoding and comprehension
scores on the GORT-4, participants were assigned to one of four reading ability groups:
Skilled Reader Group; Reading Disabled Group; Poor Comprehender Group; or Poor
Fluency Group. Comparison of mean standard scores determined how the four reading
ability groups fared on the five memory components. Correlation and regression methods
investigated the relationships between the five working memory variables and reading
comprehension across the four reading ability groups.
Results : Working memory plays a role in reading comprehension. The Skilled Reader
group displayed intact working memory profiles, whilst the Reading Disabled group
performed in the low average range on four working memory variables and below average
on the fifth viz. sentence recall. The Poor Comprehender group’s working memory
performance resembled that of the Skilled Reader group on two working memory
variables. The Poor Fluency group performed below average on visuo-spatial short-term
memory. These findings gave evidence of the inter-play between domain-specific and
domain-general components of working memory during the complex task of reading
comprehension. In addition, the findings highlighted the predictive role of sentence recall,
as well as that of verbal working memory in reading comprehension. The episodic buffer
was shown to play an important binding function between fluid and crystallised knowledge.
The results suggested that reading comprehension was affected by a learner’s working
memory capacity, however, working memory alone did not account for variations in
performance. Lower-order and higher-order cognitive processes, as well as the interaction
between fluid and crystallised knowledge appear essential to authentic reading. This has
ramifications for prevention and remediation of reading comprehension deficits and
underscores the important role of the speech therapist in literacy promotion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/9827 |
| Date | 19 May 2011 |
| Creators | Irons, Diane |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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