Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension.

ABSTRACT: Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity

SUBMITTER: Van Dyke JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3988267 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature