Phonological Analysis Skills, Verbal Working Memory, and Reading Ability in Second-Grade Children

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that phonological analysis skills make a unique contribution to reading ability against the hypothesis that one latent phonological factor underlies the assocations among analysis skills, verbal working memory skills, and reading achievement. Hierachical multiple regression analyses examined the unique contributions of phonological analysis and verbal working memory measures to the prediction of 3 measures of concurrent reading ability in 68 second‐grade children (mean age 7 years 4 months). Phonological analysis and verbal working memory measures each accounted for unique variation in each of the 3 reading measures. In addition, phonological analysis measures, but not verbal working memory measures, were particularly strong predictors of pseudoword reading skills. These results suggest that, although phonological analysis and verbal working memory skills share a substantial amount of common variance, phonological analysis and verbal working memory tasks do tap somewhat different reading‐related skills. Copyright