The Impact of Working Memory on Chinese Word Reading: The Respective Roles of Quality and Quantity

Purpose: While working memory (WM) span (the quantity of WM storage) is a well- established predictor of reading (Peng et al., 2018), the role of WM precision (the quality of WM representations) has been largely neglected. This study examined the distinct and interactive effects of WM span and precision on Chinese word reading, and how these effects are modulated by phonetic regularity and character frequency. Method: A group of 264 third graders (Mage = 9-year-old, 53.79% male) in China completed measures of WM span, WM precision, single- and two-character word reading, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, and visual perception. Results: For single-character word reading, an interaction effect between WM precision, WM span, and phonetic regularity showed that WM precision was positively associated with irregular characters reading regardless of children’s WM span. However, for regular characters, this positive association was only found in children with low WM span. For two- character words, we found a main effect of WM precision and an interaction effect between WM span and phonetic regularity, whereby WM span was only positively correlated with irregular characters reading. Character frequency did not interact with WM span or precision in either word type.