A Randomized Control Trial of Working Memory Training With and Without Strategy Instruction: Effects on Young Children’s Working Memory and Comprehension
Open accessAbstract
Researchers are increasingly interested in working memory (WM) training. However, it is unclear whether it strengthens comprehension in young children who are at risk for learning difficulties. We conducted a modest study of whether the training of verbal WM would improve verbal WM and passage listening comprehension and whether training effects differed between two approaches: training with and without strategy instruction. A total of 58 first-grade children were randomly assigned to three groups: WM training with a rehearsal strategy, WM training without strategy instruction, and controls. Each member of the two training groups received a one-to-one, 35-min session of verbal WM training on each of 10 consecutive school days, totaling 5.8 hr. Both training groups improved on trained verbal WM tasks, with the rehearsal group making greater gains. Without correction for multiple group comparisons, the rehearsal group made reliable improvements over controls on an untrained verbal WM task and on passage listening comprehension and listening retell measures. The no-strategy-instruction group outperformed controls on passage listening comprehension. When corrected for multiple contrasts, these group differences disappeared but were associated with moderate to large effect sizes. Findings suggest—however tentatively—that brief but intensive verbal WM training may strengthen the verbal WM and comprehension performance of young children at risk. Necessary caveats and possible implications for theory and future research are discussed.
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The description of rehearsal or chunking does not capture the unique structure of working memory tasks, which are designed to require online manipulations that cannot be organized into fixed chunks, or at least not in any straightforward manner.
“The description of rehearsal or chunking (McNamara & Scott, 2001; Peng & Fuchs, 2017; Turley-Ames & Whitfield, 2003) does not capture the unique structure of WM tasks, which are designed to require online manipulations that cannot be organized into fixed chunks, or at least not in any straightforward manner.”
From Training-induced improvement in working memory tasks results from switching to efficient strategies (2021) · cites this paper as Peng & Fuchs, 2017
This training study provides further support for the strategy mediation theory of working memory improvement compared with the capacity theory.
“This training study provides further support for the strategy mediation theory of WM improvement (Dunning & Holmes, 2014; Peng & Fuchs, 2017), compared with the capacity theory (Engle & Kane, 2003).”
From Training-induced improvement in working memory tasks results from switching to efficient strategies (2021) · cites this paper as Peng & Fuchs, 2017
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- Authors
- Peng, P., & Fuchs, D.
- Affiliations
- George Washington University (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Peng, Peng
- Venue
- Journal of Learning Disabilities
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-08-03
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 62-80
- ISSN
- 0022-2194 (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4780
- PMC
- PMC4706496
- OpenAlex
- W751774294
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 9.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Learning Disabilities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Education
- National Institutes of Health
- Institute of Education Sciences
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P30HD015052, U54HD083211, R01HD056109)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Keywords
- working memory training, verbal working memory, rehearsal strategies, strategy instruction, listening comprehension, passage comprehension, first grade students, learning difficulties, transfer of training, multiple testing correction
- MeSH terms
- Cognitive Remediation, Child, Female, Humans, Learning Disabilities, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Verbal Learning, Comprehension
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