Working-memory capacity and reading comprehension in young and older adults

✍ Scribed by Marie-France Ehrlich; Janie Brébion; Hubert Tardieu

• Publisher: Guilford Publishing Inc
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 819 KB
• Volume: 56
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-0727
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00419718

✦ Synopsis

This study investigates the role of workingmemory capacity in reading comprehension in young and older subjects. A task yielding separate measures for processing and storage components was used to assess working-memory capacity. A French version of the Nelson-Denny test was administered as a measure of abilities that underlie reading comprehension. In the working-memory task, recall performances were lower in older subjects. Nevertheless, the intercorrelations suggested that the agerelated impairment was probably linked to the processing component. Mean scores on the reading-comprehension test did not differ between groups. However, scores were correlated with processing time on the working-memory task in younger subjects, but with storage capacity in older subjects.