Verbal Short-Term Memory Encoding of Learning Disabled, Deaf, and Normal Readers

The present study investigated the hypothesis that nonstrategic verbal encoding abilities are deficient in learning disabled readers. Normal, deaf, and learning disabled children matched on chronological age, IQ, and sex were randomly assigned to named and unnamed stimulus pretraining conditions and compared on subsequent performance on a probe-type serial memory task. Although overt rehearsal was inhibited, strong primacy effects were found for both the named and the unnamed condition. The named condition was superior to the unnamed condition for both normal and deaf but not for learning disabled children. Results were interpreted to indicate a deficient verbal-visual integrative process in disabled children occurring prior to the application of mnemonic strategies.