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Short‐term memory difficulties and Down's syndrome
Author(s) -
MARCELL M. M.,
WEEKS S. L.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.1988.tb01400.x
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , audiology , modality (human–computer interaction) , nonverbal communication , short term memory , mentally retarded , modality effect , echoic memory , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , verbal memory , cognition , working memory , neuroscience , medicine , human–computer interaction , computer science
. Nonretarded (NR) individuals typically show better short‐term memory for brief sequences of auditory than visual information (the modality effect). The present study attempted to determine whether the failure of Down's syndrome (DS) individuals to show the modality effect is due to the verbal‐expressive demands of oral responding in memory tasks. DS, NR and MR (non‐DS mentally retarded) subjects listened to or looked at increasingly long sequences of digits and attempted to recall them either orally or manually (through placement of items). Analyses suggested the following: (1) manual responding failed to enhance auditory recall in either DS or any other subjects; and (2) difficulty in recalling auditory stimuli was greatest for DS mentally retarded subjects. An additional assessment of DS, MR and NR subjects on a standardized auditory short‐term memory test requiring a nonverbal pointing response replicated the above findings.