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Visuospatial immediate memory in specific language impairment.

Archibald LM, Gathercole SE

Department of Psychology, Science Laboratories, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom. l.m.archibald@durham.ac.uk

PURPOSE: Investigations of the cognitive processes underlying specific language impairment (SLI) have implicated deficits in verbal short-term and working memory and in particular the storage and processing of phonological information. This study investigated short-term and working memory for visuospatial material for a group of children with SLI, to test whether the verbal memory impairments already established extend to the visuospatial domain. METHOD: Fifteen children with SLI and control groups of children matched on chronological age and language age completed tests of visuospatial short-term and working memory. RESULTS: The SLI group performed comparably with age-matched control children on all measures and at a higher level than the language-age control group on several measures. CONCLUSIONS: The visuospatial short-term and working memory abilities were at age-appropriate levels in this SLI group. This contrasts markedly with their impairments on tests of verbal short-term and working memory.

Published 4 May 2006 in J Speech Lang Hear Res, 49(2): 265-77.
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