Are working memory deficits in readers with learning disabilities hard to change?

This study investigated whether changes in the working memory (WM) performa nce of readers with learning disabilities (LD) is related to a general or d omain-specific system. The study compared readers with LD, chronologically age-matched (CA-M), and reading level-matched (RL-M) children's WM performa nce for phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic information under initia l (no probes or cues), gain (cues that bring performance to an asymptotic l evel), and maintenance (asymptotic conditions without cues) conditions. The main findings indicated that (a) CA-M children were superior in performanc e to readers with LD across initial, gain, and maintenance conditions, (b) readers with LD showed less change (as reflected in effect size scores, slo pes for the quadratic curve) on both visual-spatial and verbal (phonologica l and semantic) WM tasks across gain and maintenance conditions than the CA -matched children, and (c) the performance of readers with LD was superior to the RL-M children's performance on initial conditions, but inferior on g ain and maintenance conditions. Taken together, the results suggest that a general system moderated the changes in retrieval of phonological, visual-s patial, and semantic information in readers with LD.