Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Working memory discrepancy

Does anyone have any ideas as to why there would be extreme variation among certain working memory scores?? A WISC V Digit Span at the 50th percentile and Letter Number Sequencing at the 99th percentile?? They both seem to be measuring non contextual working memory. Anyone had this result with scores???

I have certainly had clients with a comparably notable range between DS and LNS. How was Picture Span? Were the three components of Digit Span the same (forward, backward, sequencing)?

Picture Span was consistent with LNS. Digits forward was good (8 digits) digits backward was the weaknesses was able to get 2 digits backward, stopped at 3 digits, sequencing was also fine.

In practice working memory seems to be fine, rote memorization of things like math facts seems to be very good. The scores are very inconsistent though?

Yes, the scores are very inconsistent. So it sounds like both verbatim memory tasks were very strong (DSF, PS), as were both sequencing memory tasks, where cognition is in the mix (DSS, LNS). It's just DSB. Some individuals use visual memory to do digits backward; I sometimes find lower DSB accompanying visual relative weaknesses. This would not necessarily show up on picture span, as they are concrete-familiar objects, which one can convert to words, and then use verbal memory to store.

Any indication perceptual skills are affected?

Another possibility, especially with young children, is that he or she just did not grasp the task. It's not uncommon for kids to process "backwards" as say the last digit, then say all the remaining digits in presentation order. (So, given 1234, repeat them as 4123, instead of 4321. You can see how this works on the teaching items, which have only two digits, and on the early 2-digit sets, but not the minute you hit three digits.)

If you and the psych have reason to believe DS is not an accurate reflection of your child's true skills (say because of something like my example above), you can always ask to calculate the primary index scores and FSIQ using LNS instead of DS.

Thanks! I think that it is an accurate reflection of what it is measuring, WJ COG was given to confirm that the child does not do well on that particular task. However, I am not sure if it is important or if compensatory skills are strong enough that it will not make a difference.

How are visual-spatial skills?

Discerning whether current compensatory skills are enough may depend a little on the age of the child and the cognitive/academic demands at the moment. An early/middle adolescent who hasn't had any obvious functional effects from it up until now is probably not going to have major future difficulties. A primary-age child may have challenges yet to be experienced. I wouldn't worry about it, nor would I ignore it. Just be aware of this focal deficit and keep an eye out for frustrations or unexpectedly slow progress in any area.

sallymom-- my DS8 had something similar on the WISC V- digit span forward was 91st percentile, picture span 98th and digit span sequencing 98th percentile. Digit span backward was 50th percentile.

A few years ago DS took the WISC IV and letter/number sequencing was 99.6 percentile and digit span was 84th percentile. The tester didn't break it down to forward and backward but the narrative section said that DS didn't perform nearly as well on the backward section.

The WISC IV tester said essentially that digit span backward is the ability to hold information in one's head, manipulate it and provide the transformed result.

We didn't know it during the WISC IV, but my son has ADHD- his neuropsych described his learning style as passive unless he's highly engaged and in planning mode. I once watched him multiply 6 to the 6th power in his head while he was still in kindergarten.

Spatial reasoning is very good but there are visual processing issues. Surgery is a possibility although currently things are being managed with corrective lenses and VT. An eye patch was worn as a toddler etc. We did have a discussion about memory and it is something that has been remarked on by teachers etc... her memory is extremely strong. However, she remembers things by making everything contextual. Even things like a phone number. She immediately makes up a story for the numbers and that is how she encodes it. She did switch the first number and repeated the rest of them in order. I wonder if she really did not understand what she was supposed to be doing??

sallymom-- I will tell you that DS scored much lower on two IQ tests for digit span backward (50th percentile).

I have noticed that if he's not carefully reading/listening, he can completely miss the point on some school work that should be easy. We did a section on math inequalities today- easy peasy, but DS did not attend to the directions and visuals and did very poorly on the quiz. When we review it this afternoon, I expect, true to form, that he will get 100%. There is definitely something where he just misses the boat on some simple tasks.