Raine A, Hulme C, Chadderton H, Bailey P
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089-1061.
Child Dev. 1991 Apr;62(2):415-23.
One influential explanation of the development of verbal short-term memory in children argues that short-term memory capacity is a direct function of speech rate. This theory predicts that children with pathologically slow speech will show reduced verbal short-term memory capacity and will show less evidence of speech-base coding on verbal memory tasks. To test this prediction, verbal short-term memory span was assessed using a task that did not require a verbal response in 37 speech-disordered children and 37 age- and sex-matched controls (age range 4-15 years). The speech-disordered group had a significantly lower short-term memory capacity, a smaller word length effect, and reduced speech-motor activity during rehearsal periods. Covariance analyses revealed that these differences were not a function of general intellectual or motor speed differences between the groups, and that speech rate as a covariate abolished group differences in short-term memory. These results suggest that speech rate may be a causal determinant of verbal short-term memory capacity.
一种关于儿童言语短期记忆发展的有影响力的解释认为，短期记忆容量是语速的直接函数。该理论预测，言语病理性缓慢的儿童将表现出言语短期记忆容量降低，并且在言语记忆任务中基于言语的编码证据也会更少。为了验证这一预测，使用一项不需要言语反应的任务，对37名言语障碍儿童和37名年龄及性别匹配的对照组儿童（年龄范围4至15岁）的言语短期记忆广度进行了评估。言语障碍组的短期记忆容量显著更低，词长效应更小，并且在复述期间言语运动活动减少。协方差分析显示，这些差异并非两组之间一般智力或运动速度差异的函数，并且将语速作为协变量消除了两组在短期记忆方面的差异。这些结果表明，语速可能是言语短期记忆容量的一个因果决定因素。
