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Role of working memory in children's understanding spoken narrative: A preliminary investigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

JAMES W. MONTGOMERY ,
ANZHELA POLUNENKO  and
SALLY A. MARINELLIE
JAMES W. MONTGOMERY*
Affiliation:
Ohio University
ANZHELA POLUNENKO
Affiliation:
Hillsborough Public School System, North Carolina
SALLY A. MARINELLIE
Affiliation:
Ohio University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE James W. Montgomery, School of Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences, W231, Grover Center, College of Health & Human Services, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. E-mail: montgoj1@ohio.edu
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Abstract

The role of phonological short-term memory (PSTM), attentional resource capacity/allocation, and processing speed on children's spoken narrative comprehension was investigated. Sixty-seven children (6–11 years) completed a digit span task (PSTM), concurrent verbal processing and storage (CPS) task (resource capacity/allocation), auditory–visual reaction time (AVRT) task (processing speed), and the Test of Narrative Language. Correlation and regression analyses examined the association between the memory variables and comprehension. The main findings were (a) CPS and AVRT correlated with comprehension and (b) after accounting for age, CPS accounted for a significant 7.9% of unique variance and AVRT accounted for another significant 5.2%. The results indicate that resource capacity/allocation and processing speed are important to children's ability to understand spoken narrative.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 485 - 509
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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