Haskins Publications

Number	307
Year	1980
Drawer	6
Entry Date	06/10/1999
Authors	Mann, V. A., Liberman, I. Y., & Shankweiler, D.
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Publication	Memory & Cognition, 8, 329-335.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0307.pdf
Abstract	Good beginning readers typically surpass poor beginning readers in memory for linguistic material such as syllables, words, and sentences. The present study investigated the hypothesis that this interaction between reading ability and memory performance does not extend to memory for nonlinguistic material like faces and nonsense designs. Using an adaptation of the continuous recognition memory paradigm of D. Kimura (see PA, Vol 38:1241), the present author assessed the ability of 18 good and 18 poor readers in the 2nd grade to remember three types of material: photographs of unfamilar faces, nonsense designs, and printed nonsense syllables. For both faces and designs, the performance of the 2 reading groups was comparable; only when remembering the nonsense syllables did the good readers perform at a significantly superior level. Results support other evidence that distinctions between good and poor beginning readers do not turn on memory itself but rather on memory for linguistic material. Results extend the previous finding that poor readers encounter specific difficulty with the use of linguistic coding in short-term memory.
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