Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: a test of four hypotheses. Engle, R. W., Cantor, J., & Carullo, J. J. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn, 18(5):972–992, 1992.
abstract   bibtex   
A relationship has consistently been found between measures of working memory and reading comprehension. Four hypotheses for this relationship were tested in 3 experiments. In the first 2 experiments, a moving window procedure was used to present the operation-word and reading span tasks. High- and low-span subjects did not differentially trade off time on the elements of the tasks and the to-be-remembered word. Furthermore, the correlation between span and comprehension was undiminished when the viewing times were partialed out. Experiment 3 compared a traditional experimenter-paced simple word-span and a subject-paced span in their relationship with comprehension. The experimenter-paced word-span correlated with comprehension but the subject-paced span did not. The results of all 3 experiments support a general capacity explanation for the relationship between working memory and comprehension.
@Article{Engle1992,
  author      = {R. W. Engle and J. Cantor and J. J. Carullo},
  journal     = {J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn},
  title       = {Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: a test of four hypotheses.},
  year        = {1992},
  number      = {5},
  pages       = {972--992},
  volume      = {18},
  abstract    = {A relationship has consistently been found between measures of working
	memory and reading comprehension. Four hypotheses for this relationship
	were tested in 3 experiments. In the first 2 experiments, a moving
	window procedure was used to present the operation-word and reading
	span tasks. High- and low-span subjects did not differentially trade
	off time on the elements of the tasks and the to-be-remembered word.
	Furthermore, the correlation between span and comprehension was undiminished
	when the viewing times were partialed out. Experiment 3 compared
	a traditional experimenter-paced simple word-span and a subject-paced
	span in their relationship with comprehension. The experimenter-paced
	word-span correlated with comprehension but the subject-paced span
	did not. The results of all 3 experiments support a general capacity
	explanation for the relationship between working memory and comprehension.},
  institution = {Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208.},
  keywords    = {Adult; Attention; Humans; Individuality; Memory, Short-Term; Mental Recall; Reaction Time; Reading; Retention (Psychology)},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {1402719},
  timestamp   = {2011.02.24},
}

Downloads: 0