Abstract
To investigate the development of mediational deficiencies in verbal and non-verbal visual short-term memory of learning disabled children, the recall task of Atkinson, Hansen, and Bernback was administered to learning disabled children in two experimental conditions. In Experiment 1 no significant diferences on nonverbal short-term memory recall between normal and learning-disabled children were found. Similar recall responses (e.g., middle response bias, primacy effects, and recency effects) were found for both groups. Non-verbal recall was comparable for disabled and normal children as suggested by stimulus content and association scores/. Experiment 2 found that while the effects of overt rehearsal on pretrained labels on learning disabled children's recall was negligible, labels provided superior recall for normal children. Results suggested that learning disabled children suffer from a verbal mediational deficiency consistent with Flavell's (1970) mediation deficiency hypothesis.
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Reference note
National Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children. Special Education for Handicapped Children. First Annual Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, January 31, 1968.
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The research herein was supported by a faculty research grant at the University of Northern Colorado. Appreciation is due to the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Public School System and the Richland 1 School District, Columbia, South Carolina.
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Swanson, H.L. Developmental recall lag in learning-disabled children: Perceptual deficit or verbal mediation deficiency?. J Abnorm Child Psychol 7, 199–210 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00918900
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00918900