Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:41:51.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - Working Memory in Word Reading

from Part IV - First Language Processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2022

By
Sun-A Kim
Edited by
John W. Schwieter  and
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
John W. Schwieter
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Get access

Summary

Literature has documented that working memory (WM) is one of the best predictors of literacy and word reading by children and adults. This chapter summarizes some of previous studies on word reading from the perspective of two distinctive modalities in the Baddeley’s multicomponent WM model (i.e., phonological and visuospatial aspects), reviews recent studies on WM in Chinese word reading, and suggests issues that can be further explored in WM and word reading

Keywords

working memoryverbal working memoryvisuospatial working memoryword readingChinese characters
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language , pp. 421 - 434
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alloway, T. P., & Alloway, R. G. (2010). Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 106(1), 20–29.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(11), 417–423.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2012). Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A., Gathercole, S., & Papagno, C. (1998). The phonological loop as a language learning device. Psychological Review, 105(1), 158.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2017). The many faces of working memory and short-term storage. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 24(4), 1158–1170.Google Scholar
Chung, K. K. H., Lam, C. B., & Cheung, K. C. (2018). Visuomotor integration and executive functioning are uniquely linked to Chinese word reading and writing in kindergarten children. Reading and Writing, 31(1), 155–171.Google Scholar
Chung, K. K., & McBride‐Chang, C. (2011). Executive functioning skills uniquely predict Chinese word reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(4), 909–921.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450–466.Google Scholar
de Jong, P. F. (1998). Working memory deficits of reading disabled children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 70(2), 75–96.Google Scholar
Demetriou, A., Kui, Z. X., Spanoudis, G., Christou, C., Kyriakides, L., & Platsidou, M. (2005). The architecture, dynamics, and development of mental processing: Greek, Chinese, or Universal? Intelligence, 33(2), 109–141.Google Scholar
Demoulin, C., & Kolinsky, R. (2016). Does learning to read shape verbal working memory? Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 23(3), 703–722.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Kane, M. J., & Tuholski, S. W. (1999). Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence, and functions of the prefrontal cortex. In Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 102–134). Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engle, R. W., Tuholski, S. W., Laughlin, J. E., & Conway, A. R. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent-variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128(3), 309.Google Scholar
Ho, C. S. H. (1997). The importance of phonological awareness and verbal short-term memory to children’s success in learning to read Chinese. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 40(4), 211–219.Google Scholar
Huang, H. S., & Hanley, J. R. (1995). Phonological awareness and visual skills in learning to read Chinese and English. Cognition, 54(1), 73–98.Google Scholar
Huang, H. S., & Hanley, J. R. (1997). A longitudinal study of phonological awareness, visual skills, and Chinese reading acquisition among first-graders in Taiwan. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 20(2), 249–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, S. (2010). Developmental stages in reading Chinese as a second language. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).Google Scholar
Kim, S., Christianson, K., & Packard, J. (2015). Working memory in L2 character processing: The case of learning to read Chinese. In Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 85–104). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Leather, C. V., & Henry, L. A. (1994). Working memory span and phonological awareness tasks as predictors of early reading ability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 58(1), 88–111.Google Scholar
McBride, C. (2016). Children’s literacy development: A cross-cultural perspective on learning to read and write (2nd ed). Routledge.Google Scholar
McBride‐Chang, C., & Chang, L. (1995). Memory, print exposure, and metacognition: Components of reading in Chinese children. International Journal of Psychology, 30(5), 607–616.Google Scholar
McBride-Chang, C., & Ho, C. S. H. (2000). Developmental issues in Chinese children’s character acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 50.Google Scholar
McBride-Chang, C., Zhou, Y., Cho, J. R., Aram, D., Levin, I., & Tolchinsky, L. (2011). Visual spatial skill: A consequence of learning to read? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109(2), 256–262.Google Scholar
Miyake, A. (2001). Individual differences in working memory: Introduction to the special section. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(2), 163.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (Eds.). (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, J. (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Opitz, B., Schneiders, J. A., Krick, C. M., & Mecklinger, A. (2014). Selective transfer of visual working memory training on Chinese character learning. Neuropsychologia, 53, 1–11.Google Scholar
Rudner, M., & Rönnberg, J. (2008). The role of the episodic buffer in working memory for language processing. Cognitive Processing, 9(1), 19–28.Google Scholar
Shu, H., Chen, X., Anderson, R. C., Wu, N., & Xuan, Y. (2003). Properties of school Chinese: Implications for learning to read. Child Development, 74(1), 27–47.Google Scholar
Siok, W. T., & Fletcher, P. (2001). The role of phonological awareness and visual-orthographic skills in Chinese reading acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 37(6), 886.Google Scholar
So, D., & Siegel, L. S. (1997). Learning to read Chinese: Semantic, syntactic, phonological and working memory skills in normally achieving and poor Chinese readers. Reading and Writing, 9(1), 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tan, L. H., Spinks, J. A., Eden, G. F., Perfetti, C. A., & Siok, W. T. (2005). Reading depends on writing, in Chinese. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(24), 8781–8785.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., Rashotte, C. A., Hecht, S. A., Barker, T. A., Burgess, S. R., … & Garon, T. (1997). Changing relations between phonological processing abilities and word-level reading as children develop from beginning to skilled readers: A 5-year longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 33(3), 468.Google Scholar
Wang, S., Allen, R. J., Fang, S. Y., & Li, P. (2017). Cross-modal working memory binding and L1–L2 word learning. Memory and Cognition, 45(8), 1371–1383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, S., & Gathercole, S. E. (2013). Working memory deficits in children with reading difficulties: Memory span and dual task coordination. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115(1), 188–197.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., & McBride, C. (2017). Beyond copying: A comparison of multi-component interventions on Chinese early literacy skills. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41(3), 380–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wen, Z. E. (2016). Working memory and second language learning: Towards an integrated approach. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Xu, Z., Wang, L. C., Liu, D., Chen, Y., & Tao, L. (2020). The moderation effect of processing efficiency on the relationship between visual working memory and Chinese character recognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. (Article 1899).Google Scholar
Yang, L. Y., Guo, J. P., Richman, L. C., Schmidt, F. L., Gerken, K. C., & Ding, Y. (2013). Visual skills and Chinese reading acquisition: A meta-analysis of correlation evidence. Educational Psychology Review, 25(1), 115–143.Google Scholar
Yang, X., Peng, P., & Meng, X. (2019). How do metalinguistic awareness, working memory, reasoning, and inhibition contribute to Chinese character reading of kindergarten children? Infant and Child Development, 28(3), e2122.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×