Trait-Task InL.eaction in Matching Visual and Auditory Stimuli

ABSTRACT This study was designed to examine the effects of auditory memory, visual memory, and vocabulary knowledge on intramodal and intermodal delayed matching-to-sample tasks. A secondary objective was to assess the value of task performance and trait measures in predicting reading achievement. A total of 52 first graders were randomly selected as participants and their cognitive traits were measured individually with the visual-sequential memory subtest from the ITPA, the digit span subtest from the WISC-R, the picture vocabulary from the Stanford-Binet, and the vocabulary subtest of the WISC-R. Each child then participated in four delayed matching-to-sample tasks: (1) matching a visual stimulus with a previously seen visual stimulus, (2) matching ail auditory stimulus with a previously heard auditory stimulus; (3) matching an auditory stimulus with a previously seen visual stimulus and (4). matching a visual stimulus with a previously heard auditory stimulus. The stimuli were ten pronounceable nonsense trigrams and response choices were formed from systematic alterations of these trigrams. A few weeks after the trait measures and matching-task data were collected, all first graders took the SRA as part of the district testing program. The data were analyzed with a series of multiple regressions and the results are presented and discussed in detail. (JMB)