Verbal Learning and Memory Functions in Adolescents With Reading Disabilities

The authors of this current study compared the memory performance of adolescent students with specific reading disabilities (RD) with that of typical adolescent readers on a newly developed verbal learning test, the Bergen-Tucson Verbal Learning Test (BTVLT). This multiple trial test was designed to measure memory acquisition, retention, retrieval, and forgetting rates, as well as the ability to organize and retrieve the information from memory according to the phonological (surface) and semantic (lexical) features of words. A total of 20 participants with RD and 20 control participants (mean age = 15.2 years) were matched for age, gender, and ethnicity. Results indicated that the RD group learned significantly fewer list items and did so at a slower rate than the control group. Although the participants with RD were equally able to retain information once learned, they did demonstrate inefficient elaborative rehearsal strategies. They also recalled fewer words in both the semantic and phonetic cued-recall conditions, but the effect size was significantly greater in the latter. Taken together, the data suggest that students with RD have less efficient rehearsal and encoding mechanisms but typical retention. Retrieval also appears typical except under conditions that require information to be recalled based on phonetic codes.