Does Working Memory Improve Reading Skills for School-Aged Children?
Angela Ronan
Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation
College: The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major: Doctor of SLP
Faculty Research Mentor: Iyad Ghanim
Abstract:
Working Memory (WM) is defined as a critical cognitive capacity that provides the ability to retain task-relevant information in an accessible state over time (Hambrick et al., 2005). Efficient readers must be able to automatically combine the visual–spatial features of letters and/or the phonological features of words to lexical knowledge in long-term memory. When cognitive resources are overused during the encoding and storage process, fewer resources are available for other important processes involved in reading (i.e., phoneme blending or comprehension). Since reading requires the ability to decode as well as comprehend and process information concurrently, impairments in WM are often implicated in students who are poor decoders (Katzir et al., 2006). Olesen et al. (2004) and Buschkuehl et al. (2014) found that WM training can lead to actual neurological changes in the brain (Wiest et al., 2020). Wiest and colleagues (2022) found a positive impact of computer-based WM training in the school setting. Specifically, the use of n-back tasks have been shown to decrease WM deficits over time (Wiest et al., 2022). The goal of n-back training is to enhance a person’s ability to hold and manipulate information in WM (Lilienthal et al., 2013). The purpose of this study was to determine if n-back WM training can improve reading skills of elementary school students. Results for pre and post test data from CELF-5 and WISC-V subtests showed mean growth in WM for both experimental and control groups. However, a one-way ANOVA did not show a significant difference in mean growth based on n-back WM training results. Additionally, regression results indicated that the n-back WM training provided to the experimental group did not significantly impact the participants’ HMH reading scores. Future studies can increase the amount of participants and amount of sessions given in order to determine a pattern in the data that suggests increasing WM can increase reading scores.Keywords: Working memory, n-back training