SHORT-TERM-MEMORY AND WORKING-MEMORY - DO BOTH CONTRIBUTE TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS WITH LEARNING-DISABILITIES

Seventy-five children and adults with learning disabilities (age range = 5.0 to 42.10 yrs.) and 86 normally achieving children and adults (a ge range = 5.11 to 58.0 yrs.) were compared on short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) tasks to assess the relationship between STM and WM, and to test whether these measures independently relate to ach ievement. For both ability groups, the factor analyses indicated that STM and WM loaded on different factors, and the regressions and partia l correlations showed that these different factors accounted for separ ate variance in reading comprehension and mathematics. Both STM and WM are important in understanding reading comprehension and mathematics performance in children and adults with learning disabilities; however , WM is more important for children and adults without learning disabi lities. In contrast to WM; STM contributed minimal variance to word re cognition in both ability groups. Overall, it was concluded that STM a nd WM do reflect different processes, both of which seem to separate t he two ability groups. However, models of memory that view STM and WM as interchangeable, or STM in isolation, do not provide an adequate fr amework for capturing academic performance in children and adults with learning disabilities.