Within and between modality memory functions in good and poor readers

Abstract

Average and retarded readers were compared on their abilities to store and transfer information within and between auditory and visual channels. A two stage transfer paradigm was utilized in which initially stored information was retested in an opposite channel. Retarded readers were inferior to average readers in auditory memory but performed at the same level under visual conditions. Retarded readers transferred from auditory to visual channels with equal facility as average readers thereby demonstrating no faulty cross modal transference. Retarded readers, however, did not demonstrate such transfer success from visual to auditory and although average readers were superior under such conditions they also revealed similar transfer problems. These findings tended to confirm theories of auditory and visual memory deficiencies and at the same time undercut theories proposing faulty intermodal mechanisms in retarded readers.