The Effect of Forced Mediation Upon Short-Term Memory of Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This study focused upon the effect of instructions (forced rehearsal, voluntary rehearsal, and attention) upon the learning of 15 words presented either visually by slides or aurally by tape to learning disabled and normal children. Results were that the performance of learning disabled children was significantly poorer under the auditory and visual presentations irrespective of instructions. The auditory presentation was more difficult for both groups than the visual presentation. An unobtrusive measure of self-esteem did not discriminate the two groups of children. Results are discussed in terms of the development of learning strategies and the problem of measurement of self-esteem in learning disabled children.