LEARNING-DISABLED AND AVERAGE READERS WORKING-MEMORY AND COMPREHENSION - DOES METACOGNITION PLAY A ROLE

The present study investigates (a) whether learning disabled readers' working memory deficits that underlie poor reading comprehension are r elated to a general system, and (b) whether metacognition contributes to comprehension beyond what is predicted by working memory and word k nowledge. To this end, performance between learning and disabled (N=60 ) and average readers (N=60) was compared on the reading comprehension , reading rate, and vocabulary subtests of the Nelson Skills Reading T est, Sentence Span test composed of high and low imagery words, acid a Metacognitive Questionnaire. As expected, differences between groups in working memory, vocabulary, and reading measures emerged, whereas a bility groups were statistically comparable on the Metacognitive Quest ionnaire. A within-group analysis indicated that the correlation patte rns between working memory, vocabulary, metacognition, and reading com prehension were not the same between ability groups. For predicting re ading comprehension, the metacognitive questionnaire best predicted le arning disabled readers' performance, whereas the working memory span measure that included low-imagery words best predicted average achievi ng readers' comprehension. Overall, the results suggest that the relat ionship between learning disabled readers' generalised working memory deficits and poor reading comprehension may be mediated by metacogniti on.