Proofreading by students: implications of executive and non-executive components of working memory in the detection of phonological, orthographical, and grammatical errors

Abstract

The present research studied the role of the nonexecutive and executive components of working memory in the detection of typographical, lexical, and grammatical errors. Before performing the error detection tasks, undergraduate participants completed a battery of tasks that evaluated nonexecutive functions (verbal and visuospatial storage) and executive functions (coordination of verbal and visuospatial storage and processing, strategic retrieval from long-term memory, effortful shifting) as support working memory. The analyses found that typographical errors were better detected than grammatical errors, followed by lexical errors. Visuospatial storage and coordination of verbal storage and processing were significant predictors of detection of typographical and lexical errors. Effortful shifting was a significant predictor only of detection of lexical errors, while strategic retrieval in long-term memory was the only predictor of detection of grammatical errors. Globally, in the verbal domain, the executive component of working memory appeared more involved than the nonexecutive component whereas, in the visuospatial domain, the nonexecutive component seems more involved than the executive component.