Long-term memory, working memory, and metacomprehension strategy use among adolescents with learning disabilities
By: by Marlene Janet Susan Desjardins.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 114
ISBN-13: 9780494218761
Subjects: Learning disabled teenagers.; Memory.; Metacognition.; Comprehension.; Reading comprehension.
Description: The present study explored the possible roles of metacomprehension strategy knowledge and use, verbal long-term memory (LTM), and verbal working memory (WM) in actual text comprehension, as well as the inter-relationships among these variables, in a sample of 30 adolescents with LDs. Previous controlled research has documented the efficacy of teaching metacomprehension strategies to students with LDs as a means of increasing their reading comprehension performance, but has not yet considered the possible role of LTM in knowing strategies. The research literature on verbal memory processes in reading has demonstrated the respective roles of LTM and WM in text comprehension, but has not examined metacomprehension strategy knowledge or use. In the present study, half of the sample had participated in a remedial reading intervention, the Taylor Adolescent Program (TAP group, n = 15), in which they received direct teaching and guided practice in the use of metacomprehension strategies. The other half had been on the waiting list for the program (WL group, n = 15). Data were collected on general intellectual functioning, language comprehension, sight-word vocabulary, and cloze-passage comprehension (all screening measures on which the two groups were equal), and on verbal LTM, verbal WM, and metacomprehension strategy knowledge. In addition, participants read two easier and two harder expository texts, and reported on the metacomprehension strategies they used to understand the texts. Actual comprehension of the four texts was measured using multiple-choice questions. Comparisons of the TAP and WL groups indicated no significant differences on measures of metacomprehension strategy knowledge or metacomprehension strategy use. A correlational analysis of all the data for the entire sample revealed significant relationships between actual text comprehension and the general intellectual measures, language comprehension, sight-word vocabulary, cloze-passage comprehension, verbal LTM, and verbal WM. An exploratory factor analysis of all the data yielded two factors: a hardware factor and a pattern-recognition factor. The pattern-recognition factor included measures of metacomprehension strategy knowledge and use, and is consistent with Wong's (1994) notion of "mediated mindfulness". The lack of group differences in metacomprehension in this study raises the possibility that results from highly controlled intervention studies may not apply to field-based (i.e., clinic/school) applications.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-01, Section: A, page: 0126.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99).

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