Search

Introduction A review of researches shows the problems of active memory and processing of students with learning disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation therapy intervention on working memory and processing speed of students with special learning disabilities. Material and Method The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population included male and female elementary school students with learning disabilities in Tonekabon city who referred to the health learning disability center of that city in the 99-98 academic year. Sampling method of this study was available that after selecting 30 people were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Data collection tools were clinical interview and Wechsler 4 (2003) IQ scale. Univariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. Results The results showed that cognitive rehabilitation therapy had a positive and significant effect on working memory and processing speed of students with special learning disabilities (p≤0/01). Conclusion To improve working memory and processing speed of students with special learning disorder, it is suggested to use cognitive rehabilitation therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program on processing speed and attention of children with autism spectrum disorder. This research was semi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, control group and follow-up design. The statistical population included all autistic students in the academic year 2022-2023 in Tehran. A sample of 20 students were selected by purposive sampling and randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group received 20 sessions of 30 mins cognitive rehabilitation intervention, twice per week while the control group did not receive any intervention. Integrated Visual and Auditory Continues Performance was used to collect data in three stages (before, after and two months later after the implementation of the cognitive rehabilitation program). The data analyses were done by repeated measurement test. The result showed that the cognitive rehabilitation program had effect on the processing speed and attention of students with autism spectrum disorder. Based on this finding, it is suggested that this program can be used to strengthen and improve executive functions of children with autism spectrum.

Relative construction is one of the complex syntactic constructions involving various structures depending on the different language typologies. Studies in several languages have shown that subject relative clauses (SRCs) are easier and faster to process than object relative clauses (ORCs). Some studies have proposed the topichood hypothsis to account for the ease and faster processing of the subject relative clause. However, based on this hypothesis, when the embedded noun phrase in a relative clause is a pronoun, the difficulty in the processing of object relative clauses is reduced. In the present study, the speed of the processing Persian subject and object relative clauses with full NP and pronoun were investigated on fourtu 20–30-year-old monolingual normal subjects using self-paced reading (SPR) experiment, one of the online experiments in psycholinguistic studies. The experiment was presented in a linear, noncumulative (i.e., moving window) SPR procedure with region-by-region segmentation. Each of the 16 sentential stimuli had 4 syntactic forms and collectively, 640 reading time data from the subjects were recorded. The findings indicated that the processing speed of the regions within relative clauses, i.e., the regions containing relative clause noun phrase and relative clause verb, were faster in pronominal ORCs, pronominal SRCs, full NP SRCs and full NP ORCs, respectively. However, the processing speed of the main clause verb region was a bit different in the various sentences containing relative clauses. The conclusions, in line with the results of a number of research in other languages, confirmed the topichood hypothesis with respect to the processing of Persian relative clauses.

Aim and Background: Processing speed plays an important role in specific learning disorder. Therefore, the aim of present study was to investigate the mediating role of processing speed in the relationship between working memory and phonological awareness with reading in students with reading disorder. Methods and Materials: The present study is a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population of this study included all students with specific learning disorder-reading from the end of the first grade to the fifth grade of elementary school in the seven districts of Mashhad and referring to special centers for learning disabilities in Mashhad in the academic year 2019-2020. The sample consisted of 150 students with specific learning disorder- reading who were selected by convenience sampling. To collect the data, reading and dyslexia test (NEMA), phonological awareness test (PAT) and The Wechsler intelligence scale for children, fourth edition (WISC-IV) were used. Research data were analyzed using PLS and SPSS statistical software as well as structural equation modeling. Findings: The findings showed that there is a relationship between working memory, phonological awareness, processing speed and reading of students with reading disorder. Processing speed mediated the relationship between working memory and reading of students with reading disorder. Also, processing speed mediated the relationship between phonological awareness and reading of students. Conclusions: The results showed that processing speed is mediated the relationship between working memory and phonological awareness with reading of students with reading disorders. Paying attention to these processes and the interventions related with them can help improve students' reading disorder.

The purpose of this study was to promote working memory and processing speed in children and adolescents surviving from acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a history of chemotherapy, utilizing a cognitive rehabilitation training. The population of this research, which is an applied and quasi-experimental study, included 60 adolescents survived from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (32 female and 28 male) with a history of chemotherapy who attended Imam Reza Outpatient Oncology Clinic (Shiraz, Iran) during last year[AJ1] (1397- 1398). The participants were assigned using target-based sampling and random assignment methods to two groups of intervention and waiting list (control group) (n=30 per group, 16 female & 14 male). The subjects in the experimental group were provided with 12 forty-five -minute sessions of cognitive rehabilitation training, using the software “CogMed”. The data was obtained using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-4) in three stages of pretest, post-test, and follow-up (2 months after post-test). Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance). Results showed significant improvements in the scores of working memory and processing speed in the intervention group (p < 0.01, working memory mean in pretest in experimental and control group respectively: 12.4 and 11.60 & in post-test: 17.25 and 11.50; and processing speed mean in pretest in experimental and control group respectively: 51.45 & 51.70 and in post-test: 59.95 & 51.70). Thus, cognitive rehabilitation appears to be useful for adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Abstract: Working memory is the most important predictor of fluid reasoning. Working memory and fluid reasoning as two complicated cognitive functions have a significant correlation. A large number of studies have confirmed the strong association between working memory and fluid reasoning; however, the hidden variables between them are still unknown. The aim of the present study was to identify the mediating role of processing speed in the relationship between fluid reasoning and working memory among children with dyslexia. This research was a descript4e-correlational study. The statistical population included all students with dyslexia in Mashhad schools, of whom 205 students were selected using convenience sampling method. For collecting data, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children–Fourth Edition and the Tehran- Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale were administered. The results of the study showed that: (1) working memory has a significant association with fluid reasoning (P=0/04), (2) only 26/2% of changes in fluid reasoning were influenced by processing speed and working memory, (3) only 11.8% of changes in verbal fluid reasoning were influenced by processing speed and verbal and non-verbal working memory, (4) only 18.2% of changes in non-verbal fluid reasoning were influenced by processing speed and verbal and non-verbal working memory. The present study suggested a significant association between working memory and fluid reasoning but the mediating role of processing speed in the relationship between fluid reasoning and working memory among children with dyslexia hadn’t been confirmed.

This study endeavored to predict phonological awareness based on processing speed (Reaction Time and Rapid Automatized Naming) in students with reading learning disabilities. As a descriptive-correlational study with the sample size of 56 students referred to learning disability centers in the academic year of 2019-20 who were selected by available sampling method based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. To gathering the data, the binary form of information and picture completion of Wechsler (Shahim, 1995), reading and dyslexia test (NEMA) of Karami Nouri and Moradi (2006), Wilson et al. (2015) reaction time task and Wolf and Dunkla (2005) rapid automatized naming task were used. The results showed that reaction time (p < 0.01) and rapid automatized naming (p < 0.05) can predict phonological awareness. So that the reaction time and the rapid automatized naming predict 11.5% and 5.3% of the variance of phonological awareness, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the role of processing speed in examining the phonological awareness of children with reading learning disabilities.

Background and Purpose: Specific learning disabilities are one of the most common childhood problems. There are much evidence showing the role of the cognitive factors in the etiology and treatment of learning disorders. The aim of current study was to predict math learning disability based on cognitive factors of attention, processing speed and working memory in primary school children. Method: The research method was descriptive and based on correlation-prediction models. The statistical population included all primary school children aged 7 to 11 in Zabol in the academic year of 1998-99. The statistical sample consisted of 50 students who were selected by convenience sampling method. Wechsler test for children, attention performance test and Iranian key math test were used to collect data. Findings: The results of the present study showed that there is a significant relationship between processing speed, working memory and attention performance with performance in the key math test (P