Working memory structure in 10- and 15-year old children with mild to borderline intellectual, disabilities.
The usual short-term vs working-memory split does not hold for kids with mild-borderline ID—test and teach what you actually observe.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested Baddeley’s working-memory model in students with mild to borderline intellectual disability.
They gave memory tasks to 10- and 15-year-olds and checked if the data still split into short-term and working-memory parts.
What they found
The classic two-box picture did not fit.
Memory looked more general and tied to each sense than the model predicts.
How this fits with other research
McGonigle et al. (2014) later tracked the same kids and showed verbal short-term memory stops growing after age 10.
That finding lines up with the 2010 misfit: if the verbal store is weak, the tidy model breaks.
O'Hearn et al. (2011) also saw a phonological storage dip in mild ID, giving a smaller-scale match.
Why it matters
When you test memory, skip the old short-term vs working-memory labels.
Use sense-specific tasks and watch for a verbal plateau around age 10.
Plan shorter instructions, visual aids, and extra rehearsal time based on what you see, not what the model promises.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The validity of Baddeley's working memory model within the typically developing population, was tested. However, it is not clear if this model also holds in children and adolescents with mild to, borderline intellectual disabilities (ID; IQ score 55-85). The main purpose of this study was therefore, to explore the model's validity in this population. Several verbal and visuo-spatial STM and WM tasks, were administered to 115 children with mild to borderline ID (mean age 10 years) and to 98, adolescents with mild to borderline ID (mean age 15). Structural equation modeling (LISREL) shows, that Baddeley's working memory model does not fit the data of the 10-year and 15-year old, participants. Principal components analyses on the other hand show a hazy pattern with on the one, side an indication for a 'general' component with loadings of visuo-spatial short-term memory and, working memory tasks and a separate verbal short-term memory component. On the other hand there, is also an indication of a modality specific memory structure; a visuo-spatial- versus a verbal, component. A straight-forward dichotomy between STM and WM indicates apparently an, oversimplification, at least it is for children and adolescents with mild to borderline ID.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.07.019