An Epidemiological Study of Learning Disabled Adolescents in Secondary Schools: Performance on a Serial Recall Task and the Role of Executive Control

Abstract

Success on tasks requiring deliberate memorization depends, in part, on a student's ability to exert appropriate executive control during the learning session. Executive processes are invoked whenever an individual is required to match a specific mnemonic strategy to the requirements of a given task. Deficiencies in executive control are increasingly being implicated in mildly handicapped students' failure to transfer and generalize what they have learned. Very little data exist which describe the executive functioning of adolescents. The present study investigated the executive performance of learning disabled (LD) adolescents using a self-paced, serial recall task. LD adolescents' performance was compared to that of a group of low-achieving and a group of high-achieving adolescents. Both in terms of accuracy of recall and use of an appropriate memorization strategy, the high-achieving group outperformed a combined group of low achievers and LD students. With one exception, the performance of low-achieving and LD students did not differ when achievement was statistically controlled. For all three groups, accuracy of recall was significantly correlated with degree of use of an optimal mnemonic strategy. Finally, a large proportion of the LD adolescents were found to employ an appropriate executive strategy and, thus, could not be characterized as demonstrating deficient executive functioning.