Psychological Development and Education ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (1): 61-69.

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The Effects of the Processing and the Storage in English and Chinese Working Memory on English Reading Comprehension among Chinese Middle School Students

SUN Cong-ying1, PENG Peng2, CHEN Hai-xian3, TAO Sha1   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
    2. Department of Special Education at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN 37203, U. S. A.;
    3. Mental Health Education and Counseling Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
  • Online:2012-01-15 Published:2012-01-15

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Abstract: We examined the effects of the processing and the storage in English and Chinese working memory on English reading comprehension among Chinese middle school students.Ninety-eight students in Grade 8 completed tasks of general cognitive ability,English reading comprehension,Chinese working memory,and English working memory.Using an interference paradigm to cross the processing and storage demands of span tasks,we separated the processing and storage components in working memory.Results showed both the processing and the storage in English working memory significantly accounted for unique variances in English reading comprehension.The processing in English working memory partially mediated the effect of the storage in English working memory and completely mediated the effect of the processing in Chinese working memory on English reading comprehension. The storage in Chinese working memory didn't have significant effects on English reading comprehension.This study supported the multi-component structure of verbal working memory,and the processing is cross-linguistic,whereas the storage is language specific.

Key words: Chinese, English, working memory, processing, storage, reading comprehension

CLC Number: 

  • G442
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