A comparison of modality effect performance in children: how reading achievement performance is influenced by echoic memory

This study investigates if less skilled readers suffer from deficits in echoic memory, which may be responsible for limiting the progress of reading acquisition. Serial recall performance in auditory, visual, and noisy conditions was used to assess echoic memory differences between skilled and less skilled readers. Both groups showed the typical modality effect, demonstrating that each had a functioning echoic memory. Less skilled readers performed more weakly than skilled readers on noisy serial recall, suggesting that the recall of less skilled readers is more vulnerable to interference than the recall of skilled readers. Nonword repetition performance indicated that all participants had reduced recall as a function of word complexity and word length. No difference between reading groups was found on this task; however, as nonword repetition and size of modality effect did not correlate, this task may not be a measure of echoic memory.

The 1993 BFA Graduating Class Department of Visual Arts

The Graduate students in the Visual Arts program have selected for inclusion in this cataloguepieces that symbolize the Acomplishments of the years of study and application. The images are the summary of a complex of learning experiences, both theoretical and applied. They reflect the critical processes of the studio, the Library, the environment and the traditional classroom; they are the results of dynamic and rigorous interaction between teachers and colleagues, peers and mentors, throughout this undergraduate experience.