The Role of Attention and Working Memory in Reading in Young Adults With a History of Reading Difficulties: Mechanisms and Treatment

Abstract

University students with a history of reading difficulties (HRD) have ongoing reading and academic challenges. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these students’ reading difficulties and identifying ways to improve their reading performance is critical given the importance of reading to academic achievement. Given the empirical evidence and conceptual rationale for the role of attention and working memory (WM) in reading, in Study 1 I investigated these abilities and their relationships with reading in 51 HRD students in comparison to 51 university students without a history of reading difficulties (NRD). Relative to their NRD peers, HRD students demonstrated weaknesses on measures of decoding, reading comprehension, vigilance decision speed, orienting attention, and response inhibition, as well as on verbal and visuospatial WM measures that involve attentional control (i.e., WM executive tasks). Verbal WM was significantly related to reading performance in NRD students, consistent with previous research in normal adult readers. In contrast, both verbal and visuospatial WM were related to reading in the HRD group. These findings indicated that an intervention aimed at improving WM may be one avenue for improving HRD students’ reading skills. Based on the findings from Study 1 and given the empirical evidence and theoretical rationale for training WM to improve reading performance, in Study 2 I evaluated the effectiveness of 10 sessions of training on an adaptive dual n-back task versus training on an active control task at improving their WM and reading performance. HRD participants made smaller gains on the adaptive WM training task than expected, with no evidence of transfer to untrained WM and reading measures. The findings of this dissertation demonstrate that HRD students have weaknesses in attention and WM relative to NRD students, that may be similar to those previously identified in adults with dyslexia and that may contribute to their reading difficulties. The findings also suggest that training HRD students on an adaptive dual n-back training task may not improve their WM and reading functions. Ways in which training gains and transfer could have been influenced by intervention-specific features, individual characteristics, and theorized mechanisms of transfer are discussed.