The relationship between inhibition and working memory in predicting children’s reading difficulties

The study evaluated the role of working memory and inhibition in predicting children's word reading difficulties. Twenty-one participants with word reading difficulties were individually matched to two other participants to form the chronological-age-matched and the reading-level-matched group. All participants were administered measures of performance IQ, inhibition and working memory. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that tasks of working memory and a composite measure of inhibition discriminated between the groups above the impact of performance IQ when the working memory task was verbally based, but only inhibition discriminated when a nonverbal working memory task was used. This suggests domain-specific deficits on tasks of working memory, independent of the influence of inhibition on reading difficulties. The implications for theory and assessment practice are discussed.