Interaction Between Working Memory and Long-Term Memory
A Study in Children With and Without Language Impairment
Abstract
Individual differences in working memory have been related to interactions between working memory and long-term memory (LTM). The present study examined this interaction in children with and without language impairment. We used two listening span tasks and two nonword repetition tasks. The results suggest a strong interaction among age, language status, and task complexity. Children with specific language impairment showed consistently poor performance across tasks and indicated a weakness in using long-term knowledge to support working memory performance. The findings show that these children do not benefit from various manipulations designed to enhance working memory performance via LTM support due to a combination of inefficiencies in maintaining and updating items in working memory and retrieving information from LTM, in part because of their poor resistance to interference.
References
2009). Working memory, but not IQ predicts subsequent learning in children with learning difficulties. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 25, 92–98.
(1997). Test of nonverbal intelligence. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
(2005). Computational models of working memory: Putting long-term memory into context. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 535–541.
(2007). Non-word repetition in children with specific language impairment: A deficit in phonological working memory or in long-term verbal knowledge? Cortex, 43, 769–776.
(2008). Uses and interpretations of non‐word repetition tasks in children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 43, 1–40.
(1993). Constituent syllable effects in a nonsense-word repetition task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 36, 1051–1054.
(1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
(2004). The interaction between vocabulary size and phonotactic probability effects on children’s production accuracy and fluency in nonword repetition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 421–436.
(2013). Language and executive functioning: Children’s benefit from induced verbal strategies in different tasks. Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 3, 1–9.
(1995). Is nonword repetition a test of phonological memory or long-term knowledge? It all depends on the nonwords. Memory & Cognition, 23, 83–94.
(1992). Phonological memory and vocabulary development during the early school years: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 28, 887–898.
(1984). Spoken words, effects of situation and social group on oral word usage and frequency. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2003). High-and low-frequency words are recalled equally well in alternating lists: Evidence for associative effects in serial recall. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 500–518.
(2000). Speed of information processing: Developmental change and links to intelligence. Journal of School Psychology, 38, 51–61.
(2009). The development of selective inhibitory control: The influence of verbal labeling. Acta psychologica, 130, 48–57.
(2009). Memory binding in early childhood: Evidence for a retrieval deficit. Child Development, 80, 1321–1328.
(1992). Working memory constraints on the processing of syntactic ambiguity. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 56–98.
(2009). Relation of three mechanisms of working memory to children’s complex span performance. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33, 460–469.
(in press ). Information processing and proactive interference in children with and without language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.2003). Working memory capacity and language processes in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 1138–1153.
(2001). Speed of processing in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44, 416–433.
(2000). Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 293–308.
(2009). Complex sentence comprehension and working memory in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 269–288.
(2007). Examining the language performances of children with and without specific language impairment: Contributions of phonological short-term memory and speed of processing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 778–797.
(2009). Vocabulary learning in primary school children: Working memory and long-term memory components. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 156–178.
(2005). The influence of vocabulary size, phonotactic probability, and wordlikeness on nonword repetitions of children with and without specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1033–1047.
(2005). Binding and inhibition in working memory: Individual and age differences in short-term recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 368–387.
(1994). Effects of word frequency and age of acquisition on short-term memory span. Memory & Cognition, 22, 695–701.
(2009). The development of non-spatial working memory capacity during childhood and adolescence and the role of interference control: An n-back task study. Developmental Neuropsychology, 35, 37–56.
(1995). Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals: CELF-3 Screening Test. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
(2003). Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals (4th ed. (CELF-4)). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
(2010). Investigating mechanisms of suppression in preschool children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 725–738.
(2013). Working memory capacity and retrieval from long-term memory: The role of controlled search. Memory & Cognition, 41, 242–254.
(2007). The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: Active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychological Review, 114, 104–132.
(2007). Reexamining the relationship between working memory and comprehension: The role of available long-term memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 56, 86–102.
(