INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN CHILDRENS WRITING - A FUNCTION OF WORKING-MEMORY OR READING OR BOTH PROCESSES

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a general or spec ific working memory (WM) system is related to writing and whether indi vidual differences in reading and/or processing efficiency underlie th e correlations between WM and writing. Two studies correlated WM with writing (Test of Written Language-TOWL) and reading measures. In Study 1, WM was correlated significantly with a number of writing measures, particularly to those measures related to text generation. Working-me mory also contributed unique variance to writing, beyond what is predi cted by reading comprehension. Study 2 compared the correlations of ve rbal and visual-spatial WM measures with the TOWL under initial and en hanced memory processing (dynamic assessment) conditions. The coeffici ents were statistically comparable between initial and enhanced proces sing conditions, suggesting that individual differences in processing efficiency do nor account for the correlations between WM and writing. Overall, the results indicated that (a) WM measures contribute unique variance to writing, especially text generation, and (b) working memo ry performance improves under gain conditions, but this enhanced proce ssing efficiency did not appear to mediate the links between WM and wr iting. Taken together, the two studies support a general capacity expl anation for the relationship between working memory and text generatio n.