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Working Memory, Text Comprehension, and Propositional Reasoning: A New Semantic Anaphora WM Test

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Nuria Carriedo ,
M. Rosa Elosúa  and
Juan A. García-Madruga
Nuria Carriedo
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
M. Rosa Elosúa
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
Juan A. García-Madruga*
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Juan A. García-Madruga. Dpto. Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación. U.N.E.D. C/ Juan del Rosal, 10. 28040. Madrid. (Spain). Pone: +34-913986244. Fax.: +34-913987951. E-mail: jmadruga@psi.uned.es
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to present a new working memory test following the line of work started by García-Madruga et al. (2007) and to examine its relation to reading comprehension and propositional reasoning measures. In that study we designed a new working memory span test –based on Daneman & Carpenter's (1980) Reading Span Test (RST)– in which the processing task called for an inferential decision –to resolve a pronominal anaphora based on Morpho-Syntactic cues– and had people recall the result of this inference. In the current study, besides the RST and the Morpho-Syntactic Anaphora test, we presented a new Semantic Anaphora measure. In order to check the validity of this new Working Memory (WM) task, we used the same reasoning task used in the previous study as well as a new reading comprehension test. The results show the tight relationship amongst working memory, reading comprehension and reasoning, and confirm the validity of the new WM measure.

El propósito de este trabajo es presentar una nueva prueba de memoria operativa y examinar su relación con la comprensión lectora y el razonamiento, en la línea comenzada por el estudio de García-Madruga et al. (2007). En ese estudio se diseñó una nueva medida de amplitud de memoria operativa –basada en Reading Span Test (RST) de Daneman & Carpenter (1980)– en la que la tarea de procesamiento exigía la realización de una inferencia –resolver una anáfora pronominal a partir de los rasgos Morfosintácticos– y los participantes debían recordar el resultado de esta inferencia. Además del RST y la prueba de Anáforas Morfosintácticas, en el presente estudio presentamos una nueva medida de Anáforas Semánticas. Para comprobar la validez de esta nueva tarea de Memoria Operativa (MO) hemos utilizado la misma tarea de razonamiento que en el estudio anterior, así como una nueva tarea de comprensión lectora. Los resultados muestran la estrecha relación entre memoria operativa, comprensión lectora y razonamiento, y confirman la validez de la nueva medida de MO.

Keywords

working memoryreading comprehensionreasoningmemoria operativacomprensión lectorarazonamiento
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , May 2011 , pp. 37 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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