Key question

• Dyslexia is a specific learning

  difficulty that causes problems with reading, writing and spelling, however it

  does not affect a person’s intelligence. It affects approximately 1 in 10 people in

  the UK, the causes of dyslexia are unknown, but it could be genetic as it tends to

  run in families. It is not a disease that needs treating, but symptoms are

  experienced for life and include slow reading and writing, poor spelling and

  problems with planning/organisation. However, educational support can be

  provided, and technology used (such as apps e.g. n-back) to help with improving

  speed of reading and writing, understanding of phonics and processing ability.
• These processing problems mean that learning and memory could be affected

  as they would find it hard to carry out more than one task at a time, meaning

  they have difficulty with the temporary memory stores involved in working

  memory which makes learning challenging. Specifically phonological loop

  deficits have been identified as dyslexic pupils have problems breaking words up

  into sounds.

  Therefore, it is important to the individual as extra support can help to improve

  academic progress and eventually quality of life for people with dyslexia, such as

  reading and writing in their daily lives. In addition, it is important to society as

  well because, if 1 in 10 people cannot achieve their best in academic

  qualifications, this will impact on their earning capacity which will reduce tax

  revenues for the whole of society, and using knowledge to help people with

  dyslexia is a key question for society.
• Knowledge of working memory can be used to help students with dyslexia do well in their education. The working memory model is an explanation of the short-term memory which can be impaired in people with Dyslexia. The central executive drives the whole system: it directs attention, monitors incoming information and allocates the two slave-systems to tasks. The first slave-system is the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) and deals with visual and spatial information.
• The second slave-system is the phonological loop (PL) and deals with spoken and written material and has a limited capacity of 3-4 objects. The PL is made up of two sub-systems, the articulatory process, which is responsible for maintenance rehearsal, preserves the order of information and converts written material into spoken code, and the phonological store, which temporarily holds the words you hear. Working memory processes and stores information during complex cognitive tasks that students are expected to routinely complete in the classroom, e.g. reading and comprehension activities. 
• Dyslexic students have impaired working memory, specifically the PL as shown by their difficulty breaking words into sounds, struggling to process the letters that make up a word and they also can’t hold them in mind to make sense of the whole sentence. This makes it very difficult for them to read out loud and they may struggle to understand large bodies of text.
• Therefore Cognitive psychology does provide knowledge about memory which can be used to help those with dyslexia. It can be shown that the Working Memory model is a useful explanation which enables us to have knowledge about how to support them classroom interventions are implemented such as not asking those students to read out loud and breaking down large bodies of text and reading it to the student. This has important implications for the individual as it will improve their reading and writing in the classroom and increase their chances of academic success, which will ultimately improve their overall quality of life. Furthermore, there are important implications for society as a whole as educational providers can be informed

  how to best support their students with dyslexia in order to achieve the best outcomes.
• Knowledge of short term memory can be used to help students with dyslexia do well in their education. The multi-store model is an explanation for short term memory which can be impaired in people with dyslexia.Short term memory, referred to as working memory, is the mental space that is active when we temporarily store and manipulate information simultaneously e.g. when following complex instructions in the classroom. The MSM is made up of the sensory memory, the STM, which has a capacity of 5 – 9 chunks of information on average, and the long-term memory (LTM). Information will decay from the STM unless it is maintained through rehearsal or elaborated and transferred to the LTM. People with dyslexia have a lower capacity in their STM then apply to Dyslexia
• How can we use this knowledge to help children with dyslexia do better?

  Make this explicit

  N-back For example, students will find it hard to follow multi-step instructions because they do not have enough space in their STM to hold the later instructions whilst they complete the first one. This causes the student to struggle as the load exceeds their capabilities. Computerised training such as the N-back programme asks the ‘player’ to perform a calculation, hold the answer, work out a second calculation and provide the answer from the first calculation. This can lead to increasing capacity as the N- back programme aims to improve capacity of STM as when playing the app, with each increment more information has to be held,
• Therefore, knowledge of the working memory and advances in technology may provide those with dyslexia with an opportunity to improve their verbal working memory. This has important implications for the individual as they are able to improve their STM capacity which will help them to carry out every-day multi-step tasks more easily. It is also important knowledge from the MSM can therefore be effective in improving educational outcomes for individuals, so they will be more successful in their work and likely to be in better paid jobs if they can complete tasks more effectively after training. This shows how knowledge of the MSM in cognitive psychology can be applied to benefit individuals and society.