The complexities of complex memory span: Storage and processing deficits in specific language impairment

Lisa M. D. Archibald, Susan E. Gathercole

Research output: Contribution to journalLiterature reviewpeer-review

Abstract

This study investigated the verbal and visuospatial processing and storage skills of children with SLI and typically developing children. Fourteen school-age children with SLI, and two groups of typically developing children matched either for age or language abilities, completed measures of processing speed and storage capacity, and a set of complex memory tasks that systematically combined verbal and visuospatial processing and storage. The SLI group was slower at processing verbal and visuospatial information, and was impaired in the ability to remember verbal material, compared with same-age peers. Recall accuracy was reduced in the SLI group on the complex memory tasks that combined verbal storage with either verbal or visuospatial processing, to a greater extent than the younger language control group. This deficit could not be accounted for by impairments in verbal storage alone. These results indicate that deficits in verbal storage, possibly twinned with slower processing, underlie the substantial SLI impairments on complex memory activities. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)177-194
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Memory and Language
Volume57
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2007

Keywords

  • short-term memory
  • working memory
  • complex span
  • processing speed
  • specific language impairment
  • SHORT-TERM-MEMORY
  • PHONOLOGICAL WORKING-MEMORY
  • SCHOOL-AGE-CHILDREN
  • DISORDERED CHILDREN
  • SENTENCE COMPREHENSION
  • INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
  • DEVELOPMENTAL APHASIA
  • NONWORD REPETITION
  • SENSORY MODALITY
  • YOUNG-CHILDREN

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