One Modality-Specific Word Memory is Sufficient - Word Memory Modality in Reading Beginners and Neural Networks

Word structure effects denote that familiar letter sequences are easier to remember and to read than unfamiliar, or new letter sequences of less frequently occurring words. Thus, it is plausible that a quantitative increase of novel word structure would predict reading difficulty. E. g., number words would be easier to read than rhymed words with a new word onset, which in turn would be easier than non-words with a new letter sequence. However, German reading beginners did not show this word structure effect which can be observed so often (Lange-Kuttner, 2005). Would this be the case due to a prevalence of their auditory memory (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1993)? Hence, the contingency of reading and the word structure effect in visual and auditory memory was analyzed in English-speaking and German children. While in visual memory the word structure effect was present in all children, in auditory memory it appeared only in early-schooled British children. Reading was correlated with visual word memory in English-speaking children, but with auditory word memory in German children. Also neural networks needed only one working memory system. The possible effects of working memory selectivity on reading, and consequences of unimodal vs. bimodal word representation on children and neural networks are discussed.