Purpose Verbal working memory in children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing was examined. Participants Ninety-three fourth graders (47 with normal hearing, 46 with cochlear implants) participated, all of whom were in a longitudinal study and had working memory assessed 2 years earlier. Method A dual-component model of working memory was adopted, and a serial recall task measured storage and processing. Potential predictor variables were phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, nonverbal IQ, and several treatment variables. Potential dependent functions were literacy, expressive language, and speech-in-noise recognition. Results Children with cochlear implants showed deficits in storage and processing, similar in size to those at second grade. Predictors of verbal working memory differed across groups: Phonological awareness explained the most variance in children with normal hearing; vocabulary explained the most variance in children with cochlear implants. Treatment variables explained little of the variance. Where potentially dependent functions were concerned, verbal working memory accounted for little variance once the variance explained by other predictors was removed. Conclusions The verbal working memory deficits of children with cochlear implants arise due to signal degradation, which limits their abilities to acquire phonological awareness. That hinders their abilities to store items using a phonological code.

中文翻译：

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人工耳蜗儿童的口头工作记忆。

目的检查了人工耳蜗儿童和听力正常儿童的言语工作记忆。参加研究的有93名四年级学生（47名听力正常，46名人工耳蜗），他们都进行了纵向研究，并于2年前评估了工作记忆。方法采用工作记忆双组分模型，通过串行召回任务对存储和处理进行测量。潜在的预测变量是语音意识，词汇知识，非语言智商和一些治疗变量。潜在的依赖功能是读写能力，表达性语言和言语识别。结果带有人工耳蜗的儿童显示出储存和加工方面的缺陷，大小与二年级时相似。口头工作记忆的预测因组而异：语音意识解释了听力正常儿童的最大差异。词汇解释了植入人工耳蜗的儿童的最大差异。治疗变量解释的差异很小。在涉及潜在依赖功能的地方，一旦消除了其他预测变量所解释的方差，言语工作记忆就几乎不会产生方差。结论人工耳蜗植入儿童的言语工作记忆缺陷是由于信号退化引起的，这限制了他们获得语音意识的能力。这阻碍了他们使用语音代码存储项目的能力。在涉及潜在依赖功能的地方，一旦消除了其他预测变量所解释的方差，言语工作记忆就几乎不会产生方差。结论人工耳蜗植入儿童的言语工作记忆缺陷是由于信号退化引起的，这限制了他们获得语音意识的能力。这阻碍了他们使用语音代码存储项目的能力。在涉及潜在依赖功能的地方，一旦消除了其他预测变量所解释的方差，言语工作记忆就几乎不会产生方差。结论人工耳蜗植入儿童的言语工作记忆缺陷是由于信号退化引起的，这限制了他们获得语音意识的能力。这阻碍了他们使用语音代码存储项目的能力。