Abstract
This chapter provides a selective review of research about the problem-solving and working memory of people with intellectual disabilities. This scholarship is viewed through the lens of Norman Ellis’s empirical and theoretical studies of the determinants of intelligence-related differences in memory performance. The chapter begins by describing a theory of problem-solving that accounts for constraints on working memory. It then proceeds to review Ellis’s (Handbook of mental deficiency, New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 134–158, 1963; International review of research in mental retardation, New York: Academic Press, pp. 1–32, 1970) research on structural and strategic aspects of intelligence-related differences in memory performance. The latter work spawned decades of research about the influence of strategic and self-management processes on the problem-solving and memory of people with intellectual disabilities. The chapter concludes by briefly reviewing current scholarship about the self-determination of people with intellectual disabilities. As the reader will see, the interest in self-determination reflects the zeitgeist of self-advocacy as well as the historical interest in self-management and problem-solving.
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Notes
- 1.
Short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) have been used interchangeably to refer to a cognitive system responsible for the temporary storage of information. A theoretical distinction between STM and WM is based on whether the system is simply responsible for maintaining information (STM) or maintaining and manipulating information (WM). However, the concepts have not been consistently distinguished in behavioral data (Aben, Stapret, & Blokland 2012). In this paper, these terms will be cited as they were used by the scholars cited in this manuscript.
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Ferretti, R.P. (2019). Problem-Solving and Working Memory in People with Intellectual Disabilities: An Historical Perspective. In: Matson, J.L. (eds) Handbook of Intellectual Disabilities. Autism and Child Psychopathology Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20843-1_4
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